Yesterday was G-Day: Shelby and Scout's goodbye-to-Europe day. On Sunday afternoon, we all drove to Amsterdam so that they could catch a direct flight from Schiphol Airport to Los Angeles the next morning. Shelby's dad e-mailed to let me know that everyone's arrived in good order; Scout spent ten minutes telling him how abused she's been, but she settled down after a good sniff and now everything's all right.
I'm surprised that it only took Scout ten minutes to relate her litany of horrors; she was already working up a good head of steam at Schiphol. KLM is unfortunately another one of those airlines that's chosen to "better serve" its customers by installing check-in machines in place of actual, helpful, check-in staff. Unfortunately, people with excess baggage can't use the check-in machines -- so Shelby, flying with the dog, and seemingly half of the other people flying internationally, had to use the old-fashioned check-in counters. There must have been a hundred of us in a line served by three check-in agents, each agent slowly working their way through each customer's special situation. Poor Scout had to sit in her flight crate the entire time, tilted at an angle because the luggage carts don't have a flat loading bed.
But both Shelby and Scout made it over okay. (Maybe they showed a good in-flight movie to the dogs down in cargo to take Scout's edge off -- Night of the Running Squirrels 2?) Lots for me to do before I join them on Friday -- work (of course), packing, errands to run, presents to buy, and a cursory apartment-cleaning before the professional cleaning ladies come in to do their job.
Posted by Kevin at July 27, 2004 08:17 AM