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November 22, 2021 – On the Road Again

November 22, 2021 /

This is new. It has been a long time since we have lived significantly apart from close relatives. We are on a big family road-trip from Oregon to Texas so that we can spend Thanksgiving with my wife’s mother. Our family has done some long trips, but we rented a van and we are also going with my sister-in-law’s family.

When you start to look at the economics of the situation, nine tickets costs roughly $3600. We plan on spending half by hot switching drivers and bee lining to Texas. Granted, we will lose time but this is an adventure. We may never do this again but it is something to try.

There are definitely risks. Weather and crossing the Rockies leave uncertainty in the trip. Looking at the weather mid-last week, it was looking clear for the shortest direction, due southeast. The actual decision for the travel route was decided right before we left.  We travelled the Southwest route which was nice because I had never been on that particular freeway.

Being new at my job, I barely have any time off. So, I plan to working a couple of days as well. It kind of sucks, but the real point of the trip is to provide the family with an adventure. I have stubbed out a couple articles for the week, so we will see if I can keep it up this week.

This is the culmination of a difficult fall. My in-laws originally went to Texas in the early summer to seek treatment for my mother-in-law. Between my father-in-law dying and my wife trying to maintain a job and manage treatment at the same time, hopefully this is a celebration of a new season. Because her prognosis is not positive, this may be our last Thanksgiving and so we are pulling out the stops to make it happen.

I am going to write more about this evolving situation, but not now. It is real, it is raw and it is personal. While everyone has the right to manage their own affairs and control information as they see fit, it doesn’t mean that those decisions don’t have a billiard ball effect. One person may be at peace with the situation while others may have different feelings. It may ultimately be your decision and your outcome but those decisions have consequences. We all have a responsibility to handle them in an appropriate fashion even if we perceive them as ‘not what we would do’ particularly when we are observers. That is so difficult.

Most of the post was written before the trip.  I am in Houston now and I will summarize some lessons learned next week.  I already have all of the posts for this week planned out since it was a holiday week and we were on the road I wanted to get a jumpstart on everything.

End Your Programming Routine: The kids are out of school all week, it is a holiday week so why not? Even though we have done similar things, my sister-in-laws family has not.  

After arriving last night at 1 AM, there are definitely things I learned about our choices that I will share.    For now, going to enjoy a little warmer weather and hopefully get a chance to see some new sights and enjoy some family time this week.

November 19, 2021 – Extra Virginity: The Sublime and Scandalous World of Olive Oil

November 19, 2021 /

I have been taking my time with this one. It was the September 2021 selection for the Left Coast Culinary Book Club. As part of our gettogether, we did olive oil tasting and made dishes where olive oil was the main or standout component. In contrast to the August selection, I was fascinated with this one. I had some high level knowledge of the problems with the industry but this book really gets into the ring with them.

The book starts out with the historical references to olive oil in lore such as in Homer’s Odyssey, to the growth of culture via the Mediterranean people, it’s historical uses and importance to society. Then it travels into the scandalous world and wanders around into the new world and the push for a cleaner industry.

I have to say, this is definitely a fascinating book. Apparently, the Romans developed a welfare system whereby olive oil was distributed to the population. As a result, one entire hill in Rome is the remnants of the clay vessels that were cast aside when empty. In another fact, oil was stored in basements under buildings and when the cities were invaded and burned, so did the oil. Apparently, that act is what preserved writing on clay tablets by making them hard.

I never realized that there was a distinction in culture between the olive eating culture and the animal fat culture. That line was precisely where olive trees stopped growing. This section gets into the politics of propaganda and the regional developed tastes by proximity to the raw ingredients.

The book talks about how olive oil is made, all grades. It talks about the economics of olive growing and the distribution industry. It talks about the chemistry of olive oil, why it is good and what is wrong with the industry. It is something that I never thought I was that interested in and makes me want to consider doing something in that field.

If you are to believe the book, and I do then I think it is a forgone conclusion that nearly all oil that the non-Mediterranean person can obtain is poor quality at least and likely adulterated with other oils. That in of itself is not the end of the world, but it does mean that there are less associated benefits to that type of oil. What makes it special are the anti-oxidants present in the oil which rapidly degrade and make it equivalent to all the other oils out there.

On that note, the more flavors present the more likely it is fresh. So, if you taste the oil and it has some life in it, then it is more likely it is a good one. According to the book, over fifty percent of the oil in this country is not pure extra virgin and that was ten years ago. In contrast, over 90% of the European oils are not pure. It was also noted that nearly every oil at the supermarket this was the case as well as being rancid.

I am not sure what to do at this point. For sure, I am not going to dump what I already have. According to figures in the book, it costs 9 euros per liter to produce. With mark-up (and conversion), I would expect $20/quart is a bare minimum number to be looking for the real stuff. I will be keeping an eye out for a better solution and product. Most likely, the best way to get fresh and quality is to buy direct from the source. Look for single source producers in the US or Australia. There are additional resources in the book.

End Your Programming Routine: Hopefully my exuberance came through, I thoroughly enjoyed the book. The characters are complicated: rich one day and convicts the next. Government comes off as impartial yet graft runs amok. Everyone knows a little to a lot but no one is willing to speak on total authority as it is always the other guy. If you are interested in food, history, true crime or just something different, I would recommend this book.

November 18, 2021 – ‘Tacticool’ Thursday

November 18, 2021 /

I have had a red-dot sight ready to mount on a shotgun for almost a year now. Part of what was holding me back is that I already had an existing red dot sight mounted and sited in so I wasn’t going to replace it until I got to a point were sighting in was next on my agenda. Otherwise I would end up with a non-functional firearm.

Times and plans have changed. I started writing this over two weeks ago with plans to go to the range on the weekend. I got busy, plans changed and I went ahead and swapped the sight out with the intention to sight it in. This post is not about my failures, but more to learn something.

I actually learned something. When I bought the sight, it is setup (height wise) to be used on an AR. Something I don’t really understand is why those sights stand so high, 1 1/2″ above the barrel. The best bore line from a physics point of view is as close as you can get to the barrel. At an exorbitant cost of $90, I got what is called a low-mount base.

When I finally decided to mount the sight, the existing sight I had on was called a Weaver mount (left below). It is a series of slots on an aluminum plate that a screw sits in the slot and clamps two dovetail ends over the rail. It is a pretty simple and strong connection compared to other existing solutions.

But the new sight has what is called a picatinny connection (right below). This is very similar to a Weaver only larger slots. It is used in mil-spec or tactical applications. That means, I needed to also replace the plate to mount the sight.

If you are like me and never paid much attention to the jargon, Weaver bases can be mounted on picatinny rails but not vice versa because of the size of the mounting screw and the slot. I suppose if you do a lot of swapping, then you probably know all of this. But hopefully is is helpful for people like me.

A couple of other notes here. First, sights are not allowed in clay sports such as trap and sporting clays. That is largely because they are not allowing in bird hunting, with the exception of turkeys. I think sights are encouraged in other shooting sports like three gun and it is a really good idea if you are hunting with slugs. Finally, sights are also encouraged in self defense setups. So, know what you are aiming for, it can help with the decision to use or not use sights. Remember too that you should check your sights each time you remove them as the point of impact may have shifted. So, don’t plan on willy-nilly changing with repeatable results. I haven’t had any problems but I also don’t do it a lot and I check them.

This is less about attachment types and more about sights themselves. Red dots tend to specify 2-5 Minutes of Accuracy (MOA). The more inexpensive, the greater the MOA rating. Taking a 5 MOA sight, that means that at 100 yards, you should expect a group of 5 inches. The closer you are, the smaller your expected groups, in general. For precision shooting, use a rifle (preferred) or traditional glass scope (better). But slugs should be limited in range because of low velocity and high mass causes large drop over long distances.

End Your Programming Routine: It seems like people generally fall into two camps. There are the hunter and the tactical leaning types. Weaver bases are more prevalent on the hunting side and picatinny more on the tactical side. I personally think Weaver sights are more petit and make a firearm look better, not that it really matters. But, picatinny are more universal and for that reason more practical.

November 17, 2021 – What Does Two is One Mean?

November 17, 2021 /

There is a saying in preparedness that is turned into of a nursery rhyme. It ultimately starts to get ridiculous but I think I can build a reasonable use case today. It goes like this “Two is one and one is none, three is for me…” Apparently, it is a saying from the Navy Seals.

As promptly as I noticed my desktop working last Saturday, it stopped working again. I was able to post on Monday and I was back to the laptop yesterday. There was an update Monday night that I purposefully ran and then things stopped working. That of course re-ignited my quest to resolve the problem for a number of reasons. The first was that carrying two laptops was heavy. The second is that we are off to to Texas on Friday and I am going to be working several days while there, so that means two laptops again.

The truth is, I could probably get by using my issued computer, but I don’t really want to do that. All of my linking to One Drive and other services I use to make this work would mess with my business configuration. I still suspect that this problem is something to do with WordPress for reasons I will outline below.

So what does two is one, one is none mean in this scenario?

DeviceOSBuild
DesktopWindows 10 Home21H1Not Working
LaptopWindows 10 Home20H2Working
iPhoneIOS14.8.1 Not Working
iPadIOS15.1 Not Working

The reason I am thinking the problem is with WordPress is the apparent ‘random’ behavior of it working. Doing nothing over the course of a week and it works, after not working for two weeks prior. Then running an update and it stops working.

The real reason however is that it works on one device and not three others. Device problems should manifest as working on three out of four devices or working on one operating system and not the other or working with one browser but not another. There are of course other variables that I have also tried

  • WAN connection type
  • Browser
  • Hardware configuration
  • Other installed applications

Looking at my list of variables, I do have some things that I haven’t tried. For instance, I have tried wired and wi-fi but I haven’t tried cellular. Although, for my one device that is working is on wireless. Low and behold, when I switched off of wi-fi to cellular only, I can login to the post editor on my phone.

That potentially rules out operating system. It also narrows down my focus to something to do with the internet. I have already rebooted my equipment, refreshed my DNS setting and cleared my browser cache, but I will keep looking in this area for the answer.

End Your Programming Routine: I am sure the Navy Seals meant that if you didn’t have an extra magazine and the one you have is broken, you are ‘f’-d. In this case, I am trying to convey that without extra devices and connections, I would never be able to troubleshoot, let alone continue to post. Maybe, I would put more urgency if I only had one device but I have tried pretty hard already. I do think I am getting close.

November 16, 2021 – I Have the Need to be Doing Something

November 16, 2021 /

My wife says that I can never be in the moment. I think that is largely true although never is a strong statement. I would say that it is probably more like 90% of the time. Next week, I will take Thanksgiving Day and have zero expectations. The other days will be fair game to either doing something productive or most likely wishing I was.

Throughout my school years, I read a lot. I really do mean a lot. During that time, I probably averaged a book a week. There were some times where I would read two or three books a week and I have written about what the library means to me. But, over time something has changed in me.

It is the same reason that I barely watch TV, or even stream shows at my convenience. I won’t sit down and watch football unless I can fold laundry or shell walnuts or some other task. I definitely know it has driven my interest in podcasts and radio because I prefer to listen to a game rather than watch it.

I am pretty sure that my problem is that I don’t consider family time or relationship time as important as well as TV time. Before I am harshly judged, hear me out. I don’t think it has been a conscious decision but something that is uniquely me. To describe it, I would say that once I make a value judgement, I stop looking for supporting or contrary information i.e. my relationship.

This of course has consequences. Descriptors such as cold or aloof have sometimes been used. It also means that I have to try harder at not being some of those things which I largely fail, but I keep trying. For instance, I have a daily reminder to ‘say something nice’ or give a compliment. That causes me to stop and try to plan a moment to be complimentary.

Now that I have bared my soul a bit, the rest might make more sense. My long term goal is to reorganize the basement. I am probably over the half way point but I have hit a stall. While messing around with the turntable and stereo system, I set it up on a desk that I would like to get rid of. To get rid of it, I want to build a table for my office so the stereo system has a more permanent home.

Last week I was gone, next week I am going to be gone and now Christmas is coming and that is a manic time. I feel like I don’t have time to start a new project until the new year. This leaves me feeling restless and that kind of work is my therapy.

While travelling home last Friday, I finished my book with about half of the flight remaining. I watched most of Roadrunner: A film about Anthony Bourdain. One of his friends analysis was that when on the road, all he wanted to do was get home and when home, he wanted to get back on the road. He was restless because of the guilt of being gone and when home he had the wiring to do something else. Watching the documentary, I had no idea that we shared so many personality traits (besides those mentioned previously).

To make matters slightly worse, my idea of priority and my wife’s are different. She sees building a sofa table as something I want to do because I want it. Which I do not deny that I do, but I see it as a part of a much larger picture. She wants me to build a rack for the garage to more efficiently store kayaks. That I might point out is also another goal but in mind, that one will cost more money to do.

So, you can see my dilemma, between conflicting priorities and choppy schedules and my personality, I am pacing around with the free time I do have. I will do both and they will get done, I just need to get through this time. Part of what I have unsuccessfully tried to do while I am travelling is to plan for when I get back. I just haven’t been able to really effectively do that on business trips.

End Your Programming Routine: If it is not this project or this trip or this circumstance it is another. I need to continually balance my personality with the rest of life’s priorities and that is not easy. The best way that I have found to do it is to block small hours daily so I feel like I make progress on my projects while leaving time to cultivate relationships. I am going to try.

November 15, 2021 – What Does Free America Look Like?

November 15, 2021 /

After spending a week in the Midwest, I can say that there is a stark contrast between the nanny states and free America. My tour was fairly limited to Minnesota and Iowa, but it was at least a sampling of somewhere else.

The biggest difference I would attribute to attitude.

  • Fear of Covid-19
  • Fear of the unvaccinated
  • Fear of government
  • Fear of what others thought
  • Fear of the unknown

I spent a night in Minneapolis waiting for my flight back home. Everyone that I spoke with said that I should walk the ‘Mall of America’ because I was only one mile away from my hotel. So, I did. And the first thing I observed was that 75% of the people were in the mall without a mask on.

I spent the majority of the week in Iowa and I would say that the status quo dissatisfaction quotient is higher there than in Minnesota. The official state policy is that masks are not required for the vaccinated. I would estimate that it was more of a 90% unmasked interaction.

My personal view is that I support right to choose. I also support the businesses right to go above and beyond and require masks. Masked were required by my employer, so I wore one even in the car for five hours with my co-worker. While in Iowa the policy changed and so did I (as well as all of the other employees).

You may live in free America… I don’t. I know that the official policy mandated by the state is mask required. I was at Costco last night and we were the other direction; 95% of the people were wearing masks. As to the others? I am not sure if they were disregarding the rules or they were taking them off after entry.

This should be the great benefit of a republic. We should have the freedom to live in idiotic states and be happy. If we are not happy, then we have the freedom to go somewhere else. Oregon has been my home most of my life but I have lived elsewhere and I am getting to the point that I would rather be somewhere else.

If we really believed in the Constitution, then the ninth and tenth amendments would be strong rather than non-existent. Specifically stating (9th) that powers not specifically mentioned in the constitution belong to the people and that (10th) the federal government only has powers mentioned in the Constitution. The ninth amendment gives the power to the state of Oregon to create mask mandates. The tenth amendment forbids 1) the existence of the FAA and 2) the FAA to require all airlines enforce mask use.

We the people have the right to create a near totalitarian hell if we so choose. We have the right to permit homeless camps to block access to municipal pumps so our houses and neighborhoods flood. We have the right to mandate business with the state require unproven vaccines that also don’t hep vulnerable people and who knows what future consequences will be. We have the right to create recycling programs that we pay for and cannot use. Because our first amendment and the freedom to assemble, we have the right to have months of daily riots and destruction without consequences. I will talk about the difference between enumerated rights some other day, but that is the premise.

End Your Programming Routine: Friday we are leaving for more of free America. We will be spending the holiday week in Texas. I am sure that there will be more on this topic later in the month. There is no surprise to me that population demographics are rapidly shifting. Oregon has grown dynamically in the last ten years because it is a cheaper California. Idaho, Montana and Utah have grown tremendously over the last couple years because they are are better and cheaper than Oregon.

November 13, 2021 – Back From the Midwest

November 13, 2021 /

Funny, all of the sudden WordPress started working on my desktop again while I was gone. So, this is really a test post.

I am clearing out my in-boxes and get my expenses lined up, syncing my podcasts from the last week. I have been in the habit of checking my desktop every couple of days just on the off-chance it is working again. Low and behold, it is working again with no input for me.

This kind of frustrates me as you know I was blamed for the problem with my support case. I decided to lug a second computer with me on the trip so I could keep this up for a couple of days last week. I even took action to reconfigure my computer setup in my office to prepare for the inevitable. Now, it seems like I don’t need to do all of that.

End Your Programming Routine: I guess I should be grateful that this is the case. Quite frankly, it is better to not have the problem. However from a support standpoint, this kind unknown (to me) resolution is a risk. There is always an answer, I guess that I am not entitled to know what it is.

November 10, 2021 – The Glamorous Travel Life

November 10, 2021 /

Some of you have travelled for your career and I hope this resonates. Most others that I know haven’t and have their own impressions of travelling. I wrote about it a little on Monday but since I am living it now, I will write about it some more.

The impression that the non-frequent business traveler has is that this life is somehow glamorous. I get it, my expenses are paid and I get to pick where I eat for the most part. But, I think that is where the joy ends. Let me describe some of my day.

The only way to get hotel/airline status is to travel a lot. For instance it takes 30 segments or 30,000 miles a year to advance a rank on Delta. What does Silver get you? No checked bag fees and early boarding, whoop tee do. Using segments, that is a minimum of fifteen trips. If you don’t do that, then you get knocked down two status levels at the end of the year. I say that because that is over one trip a month in a year.

I got my airline status travelling to China frequently. I paid dearly for that at 7,000 miles and 16 hours of flight time for one way. To top it off, I was gone for six months out of a year on these jaunts. I got Hilton Diamond by spending 90+ nights a year at a Hilton. That is a whole quarter of a year people! The owners of the hotel franchise sent me a Christmas card one year. By the way, that does not count the nights I spent on non-Hilton hotels (this was not my China year).

The topic today is more about the hassles of travel. Here are some examples. I am in Cedar Rapids, a small city. I am staying downtown where I have to pay to park in a parking garage overnight. At least I do not have to valet… but when I put in my ticket to leave, it was rejected as ‘damaged’ and I had to pay the maximum daily rate outside the fact that I already paid for parking. I brought the issue to the front desk return my money for the day. We will see if it happens again.

When I got into my room, I really had to pee. When I stepped in the bathroom, I stepped in a puddle of water. No idea where it came from or why… but then I had to deal with maintenance thinking I overflowed the toilet, cleaning up the mess, etc. This is the glamor of travel. I have to be a steward of my companies’ and my clients money by being somewhere I don’t want to be doing something I don’t want to do. When my expenses are paid, it is fine but I am personally on the hook for non-approved expenses.

It’s the little things that you have to enjoy. When I was in middle school through college I had a subscription to National Geographic. I loved the articles about ‘Americana’ (ultimately, I cancelled my subscription because of social justice, even in the 1990’s). I get to see Americana. The burrito place in Lemoore, CA or the pizza place in Cedar Rapids, IA are benefits. These are places that are not are not easy to get to – meaning far off the freeway, but real interesting and good places.

To be 100% honest, I would rather spend one night in Fremont, MI than seven nights in Shanghai China. Having eaten at five star restaurants and all of the swanky places, my preferences is value. I am talking about value over glamor. I do sometimes imagine what it would be like to live somewhere. I do like going to the grocery store, walking in neighborhoods and seeing a small glimpse of life

Fortunately yesterday was a beautiful introduction for my first time in Iowa. It was 66 degrees and sunny.

End Your Programming Routine: I wont say that it is all one hundred percent bad. I feel sorry for people that travel as I once did. It is no kind of life, I would rather be home right now.

November 9, 2021 – Troubleshooting a Failing Bath Fan

November 9, 2021 /

We have lived in this house over sixteen years. Since the week we first moved in, I thought that a bearing was bad in the fan unit since it made a vibrating sound. I was even going to replace it one time about three or four years ago but the shelving stock was out. I looked for several months thereafter but then forgot about it.

Instead of just being noisy, it started getting to the point of not actually working. You could hear the power applied but the fan wasn’t moving always. Sometimes, flipping the switch a couple of times would get the fan going, sometimes not. I decided that now was the time to finally do this.

I checked the availability at the box store and it was in-stock. My experience over the years has taught me to visually inspect the unit before doing anything. I wanted to make sure that I was replacing the unit as quickly and painlessly as possible. You could say a like for like swap is what I was looking for.

Much to my surprise, the fan was not a 50 CFM unit but a 70 CFM unit even though the bathroom is only 3×5′. So I started looking a little closer at my ordering options because I was not going to be able to go to the store for several days. When I looked on Amazon, I realized that I would not have to tear the entire housing out like I had done with the two others I replaced but I could swap the motor/fan assembly out only saving tons of effort.

Then, I went to the local hardware store and bought a replacement motor/fan unit. When I took the unit apart to replace the motor, I think I identified multiple issues.

If you see how dusty the outside is, you can imagine that there is 30 years of dust caked on the motor and fan. I suspect that the dust on the outside of the motor housing was causing the motor to overheat. I didn’t bother cleaning it and putting it back since I thought there was also a worn bearing causing noise.

My wife really wanted a new fan since the outside bezel was yellowed from age but I convinced her that I could just spray paint the old one and it would look much better. Before I started painting, I stuck the screw back in the housing so it wouldn’t get lost in the process. The screw was not what originally was part of the unit and when I turned on the fan, it was vibrating and making a ruckus while it was not holding the bezel tight. In the end, I decided that the noise I heard all those years was the screw vibrating and not a bad bearing.

When I put it back together, I put several wraps of teflon pipe tape to give some extra dimension to the screw and hopefully act as some padding. The fan is still loud because it is oversized for the room but works like a champ. I cannot say how much less effort the replacement motor is over a whole new unit. However, it is more expensive – imagine that but the cost was worth it.

Over time, these units do suck up dust and it ends up coating the electrical components. The one in the master bath I have cleaned several times because I can see dust on the outside, but never this one. Periodic maintenance would be recommended for long life.

End Your Programming Routine: The lesson that I would like to push today is look and understand the failure. It is highly possible that there was nothing wrong to begin with other than the dust needed clearing. This is at least the fifth fan that I have replaced but I never knew that a replacement unit could slip into the existing housing. So, I suppose $40 was a good investment in education.

November 8, 2021 – Even Seasoned Travelers Make Mistakes

November 8, 2021 /

Here I am six hours early or is it two hours late? Well, to be honest it is the latter. I am dealing with old ideas and paradigms in a new world I guess. I used to be Delta Platinum when it was the highest tier and a Hilton Diamond member. That meant I spent a lot of time on the road.

I am travelling for the first time in three years for business or pleasure for that matter. My flight was at 6:15AM so I planned to be at the kiosk for check-in one hour early. It takes an hour and fifteen minutes to get from my house to the airport with no traffic. There is no traffic at the four AM hour.

What I didn’t count on was the check-in kiosk was broken. So, I tried four times before I switched to another kiosk. By that time ten more people got in line before me and I only packed to check my luggage. By the time I got to the counter, I was too late to check my bag on the flight because there is a forty-five minute cut-off (which is new) and they would not send my bag on another flight (which was also new).

Fortunately, I am flying to a hub airport and there are additional flights throughout the day. With my new job, I have to book through a travel portal and I didn’t see later flights as an option otherwise I would have forgone waking up at three in the morning. So that is something else new I learned on this trip.

Sometimes with flights this early, I would choose to stay at a hotel where the cost of and overnight stay was equal to the cost of parking for the week. That way I was only a fifteen minute ride to the airport. I completely forgot about that option and I am kind of weirded out by how constrictive the rules and travel policies are so I am trying to be conservative in my spending. Plus, I would have had to book it on the front end.

I have slept through a flight before but I have never been at the airport not quite on time. This formula for leaving and time is the same one that I have always used but I didn’t count on the environmental changes. Probably, I am out of practice as well and a few minutes here or there was just unforgiveable.

Today is a travel day anyway. It kind of screwed up my afternoon plans to meet my boss face to face for the first time but I have no other commitments. I will cross security at some point in the next hour to hopefully find some breakfast and then wait five more hours. I have always said that I am willing to be late leaving, coming home is another story.

I suppose I didn’t need to check my bag on this trip. It is only four days. My standing rule of thumb is I only carry on if I am travelling first class or with a group of people that are also only carrying on. Why? I think it is a huge hassle at security and I am not really time constrained waiting for baggage. I find trying to get overhead space a pain and my company is paying the baggage fee anyway. Plus, I can bring items on checked bags that I can’t carry on and that is the real reason.

End Your Programming Routine: What did I learn? I need to add another half an hour to check my bag. It probably wouldn’t hurt to check-in online ahead of time so I can skip that step and go directly to the drop-off. I also need to seriously consider going carry-on only. These are all reasons I dread air travel. It has no magic for me and I am proud to say that I have no status with any airline, hotel or rental company anymore. Those perks are nice when you live a miserable life on the road, I am happy here. I just need to realize that things change.