Too Popped To Poop
Aug. 7th, 2017 08:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
howeirdIt's Monday. Somehow. Monday evening, Finland time.
Sunday was last minute shopping. Best Buy had in stock CF memory, I bought two 32GB ones, they gave me an online discount. Next door REI because I figured they would have a better hat and a better compactable rain-resistant jacket. But they were closed. They don't open till 11 on Sundays. The ultimate morning person store. Boo,hiss. I wasted the time at Starbucks.
They have four walls filled with hats. Most are variations of the classic wide brim sun hat. After I'd found one with a soft brim, I saw what I really wanted, a baseball hat with a soft everything. Scrunchable and when I flip the camera from landscape to portrait the bill of the hat just moves with it. They had jackets, for $200+. So for $20 I bought a bottle of rain resist spray.
Home, watered all the things, final packing including formatting the new CF cards and tossing the SD cards into a drawer.
Janice picked me up a little before 4, and reminded me what I forgot to pack - the Euro coins. Not a big deal, there wasn't even a full set.
We got there in plenty of time. It was nice to be in no rush when Finnair informed me that they don't allow TSA Pre. I ended up standing in line with all the unwashed. So many families with small kids.
The last time I went through TSA they held up my carry on because the metal tablet stand bffled them, so this time I took it out and out it in the tray with my shoes, belt, and cell phone.
Went through the body scanner and got a pat down because it thought it saw metal in my pants leg. Nope. Insane.
So this time they held onto that tray for 20 minutes, as I watch the one inspector take apart all 3,248 items in some little girl's rolling carry-on. Insane.
Finally a guy came along with my tray and figured out what that metal thing was. Insane.
It also meant I had to pull my laptop out of the sleeve in the bottom of the bag. In the process of putting it back, it crunched all the address labels, so if you expected a post card, too bad.
Didn't like any of the places to eat, so I bought a coke & trail mix at the news stand.
The plane was 10 minutes late boarding, but they acted like it was on time. I was one of the last on, but there was still a place for my bag. Full flight, but none of these asshats bringing major luggage as carry-on.
After we were underway a stewardess helped me plug my headphones into the seat jack - by the end of the flight it wasn't working, and I was using BT on the tablet. The noise canceling worked amazingly well, my seat was right over the engines, very noisy. Sadly, the only frequency which cut through the noise canceling was children crying, whining or screaming. It was far away, but annoying.
The food was good, but they were on a San Francisco schedule all the way. Breakfast as we were 90 minutes from landing - late afternoon Helsinki time.
I slept for maybe 5 minutes. Why is it I can fall asleep sitting up at work, but not on a plane?
We were late landing, I think close to an hour, but I was on no hurry. Good thing, because they landed us way far from the terminal, we had to walk down stairways and load onto buses. Instead of off-loading us at the international arrivals area, they let us off all the way on the other end of the airport. long long walk. Very short wait to get the passport stamped, the usual 3 questions, and then another long walk to baggage claim. My bag was already on the carousel, not surprise - it got dropped off closer than I had. And no customs inspection or card to fill out.
Having no idea how to get to my hotel, I took a taxi, and I suspect he took a very indirect route. About 9 euros more than expected. Turns out the #9 tram stops in front and the airport flyer bus is two blocks away.
The hotel is nice, check-in was easy. I'm on the 7th (out of 8) floor, with a view of an old brick building which appears to be partially under renovation.
The room is big enough, plenty of outlets, good thing I have plenty of adapters.
Took the short walk to the bus station, were I will need to be tomorrow at 8 am. Took lots of photos after setting the time to local. GPS took a while, which is expected when starting up halfway across the world.
It's 9 pm now, I am going to bed as soon as I finish this and some Facebooking.
Plans for tomorrow:
8 am - all day trip 3.5 hours each way to a nuke power plant,lunch included
Find a place to have dinner near the hotel
Not fiing typos.
Sunday was last minute shopping. Best Buy had in stock CF memory, I bought two 32GB ones, they gave me an online discount. Next door REI because I figured they would have a better hat and a better compactable rain-resistant jacket. But they were closed. They don't open till 11 on Sundays. The ultimate morning person store. Boo,hiss. I wasted the time at Starbucks.
They have four walls filled with hats. Most are variations of the classic wide brim sun hat. After I'd found one with a soft brim, I saw what I really wanted, a baseball hat with a soft everything. Scrunchable and when I flip the camera from landscape to portrait the bill of the hat just moves with it. They had jackets, for $200+. So for $20 I bought a bottle of rain resist spray.
Home, watered all the things, final packing including formatting the new CF cards and tossing the SD cards into a drawer.
Janice picked me up a little before 4, and reminded me what I forgot to pack - the Euro coins. Not a big deal, there wasn't even a full set.
We got there in plenty of time. It was nice to be in no rush when Finnair informed me that they don't allow TSA Pre. I ended up standing in line with all the unwashed. So many families with small kids.
The last time I went through TSA they held up my carry on because the metal tablet stand bffled them, so this time I took it out and out it in the tray with my shoes, belt, and cell phone.
Went through the body scanner and got a pat down because it thought it saw metal in my pants leg. Nope. Insane.
So this time they held onto that tray for 20 minutes, as I watch the one inspector take apart all 3,248 items in some little girl's rolling carry-on. Insane.
Finally a guy came along with my tray and figured out what that metal thing was. Insane.
It also meant I had to pull my laptop out of the sleeve in the bottom of the bag. In the process of putting it back, it crunched all the address labels, so if you expected a post card, too bad.
Didn't like any of the places to eat, so I bought a coke & trail mix at the news stand.
The plane was 10 minutes late boarding, but they acted like it was on time. I was one of the last on, but there was still a place for my bag. Full flight, but none of these asshats bringing major luggage as carry-on.
After we were underway a stewardess helped me plug my headphones into the seat jack - by the end of the flight it wasn't working, and I was using BT on the tablet. The noise canceling worked amazingly well, my seat was right over the engines, very noisy. Sadly, the only frequency which cut through the noise canceling was children crying, whining or screaming. It was far away, but annoying.
The food was good, but they were on a San Francisco schedule all the way. Breakfast as we were 90 minutes from landing - late afternoon Helsinki time.
I slept for maybe 5 minutes. Why is it I can fall asleep sitting up at work, but not on a plane?
We were late landing, I think close to an hour, but I was on no hurry. Good thing, because they landed us way far from the terminal, we had to walk down stairways and load onto buses. Instead of off-loading us at the international arrivals area, they let us off all the way on the other end of the airport. long long walk. Very short wait to get the passport stamped, the usual 3 questions, and then another long walk to baggage claim. My bag was already on the carousel, not surprise - it got dropped off closer than I had. And no customs inspection or card to fill out.
Having no idea how to get to my hotel, I took a taxi, and I suspect he took a very indirect route. About 9 euros more than expected. Turns out the #9 tram stops in front and the airport flyer bus is two blocks away.
The hotel is nice, check-in was easy. I'm on the 7th (out of 8) floor, with a view of an old brick building which appears to be partially under renovation.
The room is big enough, plenty of outlets, good thing I have plenty of adapters.
Took the short walk to the bus station, were I will need to be tomorrow at 8 am. Took lots of photos after setting the time to local. GPS took a while, which is expected when starting up halfway across the world.
It's 9 pm now, I am going to bed as soon as I finish this and some Facebooking.
Plans for tomorrow:
8 am - all day trip 3.5 hours each way to a nuke power plant,lunch included
Find a place to have dinner near the hotel
Not fiing typos.
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no subject
Date: 2017-08-08 04:59 am (UTC)I like to call that the "scenic" route.
Enjoy your trip!
no subject
Date: 2017-08-09 01:26 pm (UTC)