Despite careful planning and the best of intentions, yesterday’s travels turned into a comedy of errors. Flav and I planned our flights so we’d arrive fairly close together. From there, we’d pick up the rental car reserved by work and make our way to the hotel.

I woke up at 5:30 and jumped in the shower. By the time I made it downstairs, I had three messages on my cell phone, all from American Airlines. My flight was canceled. They rebooked me on a new flight that left an hour later but had a layover in Dallas. The extra hour gave us time to stop for breakfast on the way to the airport.

At the airport, check-in goes smooth. I get to the gate with plenty of time. I sit and write. The plane at the gate, going to Boston, hasn’t moved. They announce maintenance is looking at the brakes. Then they announce the plane is grounded, and my flight is now changing gates. Run across the terminal to find new gate.

Flight to Dallas is smooth. I have five minutes to run across the terminal to find my connecting flight and get a seat assignment. The only food vendors nearby are Starbucks and Dunkin Donuts. I pass.

The trip from Dallas to Orange County goes smooth. I break down and spend $5 on a “turkey wrap” in-flight.

All told, I added a new scene to “Wholesale Goods” and read about half of Nebula Awards Showcase 2007. Lots of good short stories in there.

In Orange County, Flav finds me and we head to pick up the rental car. We go to the pickup area and are sent back to the airport to the service desk to “check in”. Back in the airport, we find out that the person who made the reservation made it for a day earlier, so the reservation is automatically canceled. After a half-hour I finally wade through the red tape and have a car.

By the time we get to the hotel, it’s 5PM local time, 7PM for my body and with the exception of what passes for an airline snack, more than twelve hours since I had any food of substance. We checked in, freshened up and grabbed dinner.

We get back and plan to meet, to prepare for the meetings today. I’m checking my email, news, etc., when I find the news about Robert Jordan. That puts a damper on what’s left of my mood.

Here’s to a better day.