Friday the 13th really came through today. It was a shit day from the beginning. Woke up feeling crummy. And a cold rain hovered over Louisville most of the day.
I decided to spend the day driving to Mt Sterling and back, given that the weather didn’t allow any outdoor fun. And I needed to visit my family friend there. Thankfully she’s doing fine.
That part of the day went well enough – a nice visit. Then I saw the news that there was a nationwide ground stop of all US air traffic. WTF? A nationwide ground stop is a huge deal. And air travel gets hopelessly snarled.
Being an experienced traveler, the first thing I did was get online and reserve a hotel room in Houston for K. She’s coming back from her cruise tomorrow, and I figured there’s a good chance her flight to Socal will get cancelled or delayed. So if she’s stuck she has a hotel room.
Shortly after I hit the road and drove west.
I’ll come back to the ground stop in a bit. But the next thing I did was get to the house to see the UK basketball game. That was another disaster. Our team looked terrible, even though we won on a last second three point shot. We were favored by 34 points against a Division 2 Northern AZ team. NAU played hard and really deserved to win. I’ve never been less happy with a KY win. It’s gonna be a long ugly season unless something changes.
About the time the UK game finished, a couple of Trump Cabinet members got on TV and announced that the ground stop was over. And then they made a long speech blaming the grounding on Congress. They demanded $50B to upgrade the air traffic control system, saying it was Congress’ fault that the system was old and broken.
Well…who exactly has been in control of Congress the last 6 years? 100% in control of Congressional budgets and spending – the Rethuglicans.
A part of me wonders if the ground stop isn’t a fake, allowing these asshats to get in front of a camera and demand money. That wouldn’t be the most evil thing the administration has done. In fact, it would be right on brand.
It’s true, and it’s been true for a long time, that the US ATC system needs serious updates. So I’m not against spending the money. But I’m not gonna enjoy being lectured to by a Faux News host (Sean Duffy, Secretary of Transportation) and a barely-able-to-read dumbass from TN (Mark Wayne Mullin, Homeland Security Director) about Congress being to blame. Hell, Mullin was *in* Congress until he got promoted to DHS.
To top it all off, I missed the SpaceX Starship 42 launch because I was on the road. I can catch it on a Youtube replay, but it’s not the same as seeing it live. So yeah, Friday the 13th.