Like I just told Ted, the transportation industry is giving me the finger. But I thought it deserved a slightly wider audience.

The transportation industry is giving me the finger. It started yesterday morning when I tried to take MARTA to the airport. I succeeded, but only after MARTA tried to thwart me. I was taking the train south, and 2 stops before the airport, aka East Point, the driver made an announcement that everyone was going to have to get off because there was a "medical emergency" at East Point. Not that they had any plan for getting people from East Point to the airport or College Park.

Actually, this started earlier than East Point. It started at North Avenue with the announcements that both lines were delayed by "weather." Apparently MARTA trains are maid out of solid sodium and explode when precipitated upon.

So after 10 minutes of standing in < 32 degree Farenheit weather for 10 minutes, the driver announced that they were going to continue to the airport station. So everybody got back on. We took the north rail south, and encountered a stopped train on the southbound rail. No blood and guts, no flashy lights. No medical emergency on that train. So we got to the station, where there was another train on the southbound rail. There were also EMS personnel going from car to car asking if anyone needed an ambulance. So apparently the medical emergency was on our train.

Not that anyone found the medical emergency. It was just part of the industry's conspiracy to give me the finger. We continued to the airport. I was taking American, which uses the T gates, and whose check in counters are at the opposite end of the airport from MARTA. There was a long-ass line (organized by American employees, obviously) but not for the self service kiosk. Which isnt to say that half the people in the line didnt think that the line was for the self service kiosk. So after I waded through morons, I got in the shortest line. Then I found out why. Apparently this line was for idiots. I mean, if I had taken a survey, I probably would have found less than 2% of all shoes were on the correct feet in this line. I had to help the guy in front of me check his baggage.

So what was the long-ass line for (besides giving me the finger?) I thought it was for turning your luggage over to the TSA for screening. So I decided not to check my bag, which meant I couldnt take my screwdrivers I'd packed. So I decided fuck it and I'd buy more screwdrivers. At this point I was cutting it very close.

I turned over my screwdrivers to the guy who looks at your drivers license. Meanwhile I noticed that the long-ass line was not in fact for turning over luggage to the TSA. The solitary reason was to give me the finger. I got to the gate to find that the flight was delayed by 2 hours.

So now I was going to miss my connecting flight in Dallas. Which meant I would get to where I was going much later. Which meant I would not have as much time as I thought. Which meant I was getting the finger from the transportation industry.

I got to Dallas when my flight to Lubbock was landing in Lubbock. I couldnt get on the next flight to Lubbock, that one was already full. I had to get on the second flight to Lubbock, which put me there after 5pm.

And then I drove another hour.

Then I worked until 11:30.

And then I worked from 8am - 4pm. And missed my 5:30 flight to Dallas.

So I went to the self service kiosk to find out what I already knew. My flight had left. But do American's kiosks let you get on a later flight? No. You have to talk to the idiot behind the counter. But he's guarded by a dragon and a line of fellow idiots. The dragon was easily dealt with, but not a single idiot was actually checking in for a flight. But I made it in time.

Maybe I'll finish this later. If I'm lucky I will get in at midnight.

The way I'm dealing with this is $4.19 coors lights on my company card.