Impasse

On Sunday, my lady friend Nuria flew into Richmond from Costa Rica. 

Since then, it seems like every day we've needed to buy something from a supermarket. I don't mind the supermarket trip, but I do mind the holiday crowds that have already started appearing in the stores. Today we went to Walmart; Nuria had a 10AM appointment to get a Covid booster, so since we were there, we decided to do some shopping. An hour later, we went to checkout and there were about twenty customers ahead of us in the checkout line. And this was the express line. It had the shortest queue.

Anyone who has booked round-trip flights knows that you can never be sure of your flight dates and times until you actually board the aircraft. Delays happen. Delays can be for minutes, hours, days, or weeks. So Nuria has been having a battle with her travel agency about her return flight. It was supposed to depart Richmond at 11:15AM on January 24. Then they rescheduled it to 6:30AM. That was unacceptable to Nuria. It meant that I had to get her to the airport at 4:30AM, so we had to leave my home at 3:30AM, so she would get no rest that night. She protested, and the travel agency offered her a more reasonable departure flight, which she accepted, and which American Airlines promptly canceled. Then they wanted to know if she could be flexible about the departure date. They could book her on a return flight at a more reasonable hour if she could depart on December 7 instead of January 22. That would have cut six weeks off her visit, including the Christmas and New Year's holidays. So that was a no-go.

Tonight we saw the International Space Station fly over my house. At first it appeared as a bright, moving star. A minute passed until it reached its zenith above my house, at which point it faded out of sight as it entered the earth's shadow. The last time I saw the ISS was more than twenty years ago, and at that time, the Space Shuttle was docking with it. Or undocking, perhaps. So at that time there were two bright, moving stars passing overhead. I watched them until they faded out. (I wrote about that here.) Seeing the Space Station is totally mundane but absolutely cool, at the same time. 

Nuria has been online for half a day with both the travel agency and the airline. The travel agency has told her that they cannot change the return flight without the approval of the airline. The airline says they cannot change Nuria's return flight because the ticket was purchased by the travel agency. Nuria is whistling and singing and in a good mood. Though she's been online for hours, I think she senses victory is near. I have no doubt that Nuria is going to prevail in this standoff. Have you ever tried to take a bone away from a bulldog?