I've Had a good bit going on in my life lately, good & bad, starting late Janurary. But I'll go backwards starting w/the most recent, & least inconvinent (& the event I had fun at), last week (March 18-23, though this is mostly about the 22nd-23rd).

The Good

I recently attended an event on the west coast. It was fun. (It was also Very hot; near & over 100F..suffice it to say we did a lot of our playing indoors). First, here's a few pics I took of the area around the resort (Click/tap for larger view; again to return. Should work on PC's & mobile devices too. Thanks for the help w/scripts & CSS ChatGPT.):

And here's a few more pics of sunset while we're at dinner:

All in all, I had a really good 5 day event. The gut problems I've had since late Janurary, though scary at first subsided over the course of the trip for the most part. Diverticulitis is no joke. But perhaps getting back to normal, knock on wood.

The Bad

But on Sunday morning, my last day there, I'm cuddling w/my favorite person who's still asleep, & I notice I have a message. American Airlines. My flight PSP-->DAL has been pushed back an hour. So now my 2pm something leaves after 3pm. And the connecting fligtht in Dallas, which was around 1.5hr from landing to depart, is now less than a half hour. Even as I contemplate that, I get a new message saying it's been delayed even more. Now it lands about 5 minutes before the connecting flight takes off.
After some searching, I find there's no later flight for DAL-->TYS; that was the last for the day. Crap.

They offer rebooking the flight ("for free" lol, like having to reschedule is a convienence) so I do. New flight leaves next day instead(Monday); boards at 5:25am. Son says PSP is a small airport, so it shouldn't take too long to get through TSA/Security. Still I've been hearing stories about lines caused by the latest govt shutdown, so I decide to leave a good cushion (Fortunately). Unfortunately it means I'll have to spend another night. The resort is happy to take more money (still $$$ even though they gave me the event discount rate; saved ~$80, still +$265.77).
I did get to spend another couple hours w/son, which was great. Saying goodbye not so much. 😢

Went back in & it's a different place completely. Strange & eerie; w/little activity, just a few locals, & NO one I know. Already missing my son badly. Decide to get a bite. Not a meal, just a bit of comfort food to take the edge off my PED. Son ordered some Firehouse subs couple days ago, included some chips & now I have a chedar chip craving lol. Easier said than done, but I remember seeing a local market in the distance out the back side/gate.
Here's a couple pics; market in the distance. Out the back gate. The Open & Unlocked back gate.

Local market. And I kid you not, it's actual title is "Local Market." LOL. Even appeared that way on my CC.
I go & return w/munchies.

I have the front desk give me a wake up call at 3:50am. I figure I can get dressed, do the last bit of packing & use the Lyft app to get a ride to the airport.

The Bad & Ugly

3:50AM
I wake up (got a fair amount of sleep, surprisngly). Front desk calls. I get dressed & get my stuff together. Use the app to request a ride. It's taking a while to get a car. I finish, check out & I'm waiting in front & still don't have a car. Its after 4am now & starting to get worried. But then I get a car; on the way about 6 minutes.
Then a new problem. The way this hotel is arranged, their parking lot basically takes up & IS the road. And the Lyft driver is being directed to the back of the parking lot, where the gate is now Locked. Not one I can get through either. It's a pretty long walk around the block to get to the other side & she's only 6 minutes away. I tell the app to alter the pickup location to the street at the *Front* entrance, which seems to work. And she cancels the ride. Well damn.

I request a new ride; it's taking some time. I keep getting a message that "wait time for a car is longer than usual...". It's 4:15am & I'm starting to worry.
I'm sitting on a street corner, laptop & heavy bag over my shoulder trying to get a ride to the airport & Lyft isn't cooperating. I remember I do have the Uber app on my phone also. I sit on the street corner & pull it up. Of course it's not available; needs to be re-downloaded. It won't install; not enough memory. Damn. I hurredly delete & wipe stuff to free up space. Try again. Doesn't work for a bit, then starts installing. Good. I finally open it. It's been too long & it wants my payment information DAMN.
It's past 4:20am & I don't have time for this. But I pull out my card & patitently enter it. 2nd try & it works. Small victories.
I'm able to run through the app & request a car. This time I avoid the previous problem by requesting the actual cross screet by name.
Got a driver in app; about 6 minutes out. White Volkswagen.
He pulls up. He turns around in the intersection & for a second I'm afraid he's going to drive off. Rolls down back window & asks "Are you Mike?" For the briefest of moments I consider a sarcastic reply... "Really? I'm standing on this street corner to where I requested your car. It's 4:30am, I got 2 bags... & you expect someone else?" But I thought better of it. Anyway I yell "Yeah", open the back door, throw in my bags & get in. He says "I can put your bags in the trunk if you want". "No, No time..get me out of here." 😎
Small talk along the way & he's driving pretty fast. I ain't complaining.

Made good time to the airport. Fortunately, didn't really have further problems.

Amusing, I went into the Clear line, then backed out & went around the corner to look at the Precheck line, then went back to Clear. The guy noticed & asked why I changed my mind. I said "Just seeing which line was shorter." 🙂
Clear didn't recognize my face at first, but on 3rd attempt & after I took off my glasses, it went through.

No problems elsewhere & I sent a message to my son at 4:56am "Through security & at my gate. ... still about 30 minutes till boarding."

Finally

New connecting flight was ORD (Chicago). The ORD-->TYS plane was Much smaller.
They were taking people's carry-on's & making them check them. But when I asked she said my bag & laptop should be OK.
My bag *Barely* fit in the small overhead...scary.
'Course the whole thing is scary to me anyway.
But it was great getting to spend the time w/my son.
Seeing some of the others was fun too (if perhaps painful for some of them lol). (I know this is long.)

Finally got to my car at TYS around 5:00pm.

On the way home, I decided more comfort food was in order & stopped at Austins Steakhouse/Buffet. Quite good.

Note to self: For next trip--Pack more antiacid. 🙂