Text 8251, 76 rader
Skriven 2013-12-26 12:06:00 av MICHAEL LOO (1:123/140)
Ärende: trip 646
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Some time later, when the immediate need for sleep had
been assuaged, I was wakened by an odor that indicated
that this bed had been previously occupied by some guy
who used lots of cologne, and the sheets had not been
changed. I don't know if I'd have been quite so grossed
out if it had been lady cologne, but anyhow I woke up,
washed off, and switched to the other bed. It has been
suggested elsewhere that I might have gotten my money
back, as Hampton has a satisfaction guarantee, but in
fact I did get sufficient sleep and probably did not
contract any horrible disease.

A slightly more serious problem was that the alarm
clock was unsettable, and the alarm didn't work anyway.
I did manage to get myself up in time to enjoy the
Hampton breakfast before the flight.

The hot part of this consisted of turkey sausage, rather
tasteless but not so bad as airline turkey sausage, and
"western-style omelets," egg substance with confetti
peppers mixed in and folded around some kind of process
cheese. After sampling these, I switched to oatmeal.

Many Hamptons have orange segments out of a can, which
I slurp down gratefully, especially on the rare occasions
that they are not orange but grapefruit. This one offered
whole navels. No bananas.

I was the only shuttle passenger, a surprise, as there
were plenty of people in the hotel lobby. I opted to be
dropped at the famously underutilized D terminal security
rather than the famously chaotic B/C one. Here, in fact,
negotiating the TSA was like cutting butter.

I passed up the club for the one close to the gate just
in case.

US4118 PHL IPT 1120 1212 DH8 2A

Turned out the flight was uneventful if a little bumpy.
The guy next to me seemed fascinated by my adeptness
with crossword puzzles - I did both plus the brain teaser
in about 10 minutes. We chatted a bit: he was blowing
into town to consult for one of the gas companies; I
offered advice on restaurants but couldn't offer much
guidance on hotels. I highly recommended the Herdic House
- there's no better way of getting me to tout a place
than to make me the guest chef in the fall, which I was
last, no, still this year.

Annie was there to greet me. I was almost expecting some
of the Mikes and/or the Dans to be there, as the airport
restaurant, Cloud Nine, is one of their favorite places
to eat. Instead, Annie took me straight home, where she
had roasted a rack of beef ribs, which I ate with a nice
pungent piri-piri sauce.

I slid into and out of consciousness until dinnertime,
which was a pair of celebratory 1 1/4 lb lobsters. I
didn't spoil Annie's fun by pointing out that I would
have liked a 1 1/4 lb steak twice as much for just a bit
more than half the price; all right, a lobster is a nice
change of pace.

Crisis: the In-Sink-Erator quit and just made this odd
humming noise. I suggested it was just clogged, but Annie
put in a call to Jim the handyman who said buy a new one
and he'd install it. I said nonsense, just get the
wrenches out. Two wrenches of not the right size. Finally
we found the appropriate one (1/4"), and a little elbow
grease unstopped the thing, and that was a hundred bucks
saved.

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