Day 93: The return

So when I booked my flight to Phoenix, it was routed through Houston. Then, when I realized that Hurricane Ike would hit Houston, I changed my outbound flights to go through Atlanta instead. OK. The agent on the phone -- after I had had many contradictory conversations between Delta and Continental -- offered to change my return flights too, to go through Cincinnati instead of Cleveland. "Why bother?" I said.

Oops.

It seems that Cleveland, as one of Continental's hubs, is also messed up today, even though it's not as badly off as Houston. So my Phoenix-Cleveland flight was delayed, which meant I'd've missed my connection to Boston. Bad. But Continental rebooked me on a nonstop US Airways flight. Good. But it'll get me in two hours later. Bad. But at least I won't have to make a connection. Good. But I'll have to sit in a middle seat. Bad. But I was cheerfully given an $8 meal voucher. Good. But now I've been at the airport all day here in Phoenix. Not too bad -- with my broadband modem and BlackBerry, I've actually been pretty productive. And if all goes well, this flight -- "purchased" using frequent-flyer miles -- will actually count as a paid segment on US Airways, inching me ever closer to elite status (which I nearly achieved in 2006 and last year).

We'll see if I'm on time.

Meanwhile, greetings from the grandly named Sky Harbor International Airport, where I spent many a glorious hour as a youngster, playing the Discs of Tron video game they used to have in the arcade here. I'm sure they have neither Discs of Tron nor an arcade anymore -- that, in fact, is the biggest shame of the day.