a break in the continuum

I do not believe in omens.

But I do believe in a good story.

Today was the first leg of my trip to India. And just to confuse matters, the first leg has three steps. I left Manzanillo this afternoon in the not unreasonable expectation that I would fly to Los Angeles, board a plane to Seattle, and then get on a third plane -- a commuter -- to Redmond, Oregon.

In theory, I should be boarding that flight to Seattle right now. Instead, I am sitting in a room at the Embassy Suites at the Los Angeles airport writing to you.

While waiting for my luggage to arrive, I received a message that my flight to Seattle had been canceled -- and I had not yet been booked on another flight. Not that it mattered. The flight I was scheduled to be on was the only one that would get me to Seattle on time for the last flight of the day to Redmond.

So, off I trundled to the Alaska Customer Service desk. Though I know better than to ask the question, I could not help myself. "Why was the flight canceled?" The customer service representative did not know. I did not expect that she would. The reasons for flight cancellations seem to be hidden from the public to avoid scaring the horses in the street.

So, we set off on our mutual problem of "getting-Steve-on-an-airplane." The first two options were either a flight to Portland or Seattle. Both options would mean spending a night before I could fly on to Redmond tomorrow morning. Then, she offered a third option I had forgotten about.

I believe it was at the first of the year that Alaska started flying direct from Redmond to Los Angeles, and a seat was available. I took that option.

Tonight I am staying in a very comfortable Embassy Suites room -- on Alaska's buck. Or, more accurately, on the bucks that all of us pay to Alaska for such contingencies. Milton Friedman would be doing the black box rhumba in his grave if I thought I was actually getting something for free.

Tomorrow morning I will be up at the break of dawn to fly to Redmond to start my 6 days there before I need to make a final decision on whether I will be flying to Dubai.

And that brings me to my last point. Those of you who read my posts on two Mexican Facebook groups will not see me there until I return to Mexico. After all, those sites are Mexico-oriented.

If you want to follow my progress on this trip, I will be posting on Mexpatriate and linking those essays to my Facebook page.

As for this break in travel being an omen: I doubt it. It is just another way of reminding me that my plans, like everyone's plans, are not worth much.

Besides, the Levitical code has some rather nasty things to say about soothsayers.