Welp, it’s 8pm Xmas Eve and we’re still in Louisville. I have a serious bone to pick with Southwest Air. Our Plan B C D E flight leaves at 8am tomorrow on another airline. At least that’s the plan. Ho f’ing ho.

***

Update, Xmas morning, 530am. In theory we leave on Spirit Airlines at 8am today. After some consideration, I think Spirit may be the new Southwest, with a few twists. At least they seem to have good service to and from Louisville, which SW no longer does. In the spirit of this being a travel blog, I’ll post more detailed results once we experience Spirit’s service.

***

Update, still Xmas morning. Our 8am flight hasn’t boarded or left as of 10am – apparently, they’re one flight attendant short. Someone probably couldn’t get permission for the holiday off and just called in sick. So 135 of us are hanging out in the Louisville airport terminal, waiting for the latest lie about leaving. There’s not a lot of holiday cheer in the waiting area. I’m just tired of the multi-day shitshow of scheduling, cancellations and futile waiting. And just tired, period.

***

Final update on this little tragedy. Spirit cancelled our flight at 1030am, leaving a planeful of people upset. I immediately got online and rebooked us for the same itinerary two days from now. There’s no guarantee that we won’t Groundhog Day again on Tuesday, but…gotta try. Eventually, we’ll get somewhere. Meantime, I have an unhappy fellow traveler trying to accept the inevitable. Sometimes that’s tough.

Aaaand it’s Xmas Eve, the day after Festivus. Five hours to flight time and it still looks like we’ll leave Louisville today. Our aircraft is in flight, on its way from LA to Chicago. From Chicago it comes to Louisville, and then heads back west to Phoenix. With us aboard. The transition in Chicago is the most likely point of failure, so we’ll see. It’ll be fine either way.

Meanwhile it’s time to clean up, do laundry, get rid of perishables in the fridge, repack, set the thermostats appropriately, fuel up the car and ourselves, and take one last drive in the crunchy snow. I’ve gotten to be an expert in the “buttoning up the house” checklist. Maybe I should do a TED talk on that.

Back in Socal I plan on playing a lot of golf. Now that I’m getting in better shape, I’ll walk the courses whenever possible. Cardio plus fun, that’s the ticket.

It’s too early for the usual list of New Year’s resolutions and subsequent failures, but I have started thinking about it. How can you not think about it when you’re aware that you don’t have that much time left, big picture. Every day I read about some 60 year old celebrity who ran out of runway, died “way too soon”. It’s depressing and energizing at the same time. A bit like playing golf.