Air Flight

We are at the concourse almost 2 hours ahead of time. It gives us plenty of time for a leisurely lunch. We got to the airport so early because of the snow we got yesterday and the nightmare the airport was last year. Last year we gave ourselves almost 3 hours to get through check-in and security and we needed almost every minute. Plus we were rushing so hard that we lost Tyler's carry-on bag.

This year we could have taken one hour to check in, one hour for security and one hour to get to our gate. Checking in took less than 10 minutes. Security took 25 minutes. And so we are sitting at McDonalds with plenty of time to spare.

It is so much nicer to not have to rush, but it sure would be nice if there was a way to know exactly how long things would take. There is a hotline you can call to get security wait times, but I discovered last year that the posted time is not necessarily accurate. Last year it was probably 45 minutes off. This year it was closer, but still underestimated the wait by 5 minutes. You can check to see if your flight is on time, but they never admit to being late until they actually are late, so that information is pretty much worthless. So between not being able to trust the published information and not knowing how traffic will be (traffic reports seem to be about half an hour later than ever does you any good.), and the x-factor of traveling with young kids, your only real option is to build in a ridiculous safety buffer between.

So this sort of begs the question: if the published information is wrong, isn't it better to not publish it at all? Ironically, it is probably fine 90% of the time... When everything is going smoothly, but it is the 10% of the time when things are not going normally that you most need the information and it seems that is when it is most off. Maybe whoever is in charge of collecting information is too busy trying to correct problems to get timely info on the website or recorded message or radio or whatever. But what good is a security wait time that is off by 45 minutes?

Anyway, I am now in Wisconsin. We had an uneventful flight. I am actually typing this while on an exercise bike close to Milwaukee. My goal today is to burn 2000 cardio calories before heading back to Tracy's brothers house. So far I am at 1632, but I am slowing down. I also lifted today so I am probably over 1800, but lifting does not count because the weights do not keep track like cardio machines do.

Speaking of inaccurate information, the scale in the mens locker room is obviously off because when I put the big weight on 250 and the little weight on 0, the scale says I am well below 250. When I put the big on 200 and the little on 50, it tells me I am over 250. I hate it when fitness club scales are not properly calibrated, but I have never seen a scale do this before. It does not matter that much, we will call it 250, but it certainly is something to be miffed about as I peddle and type.

1720 calories.

Someone who exercises as much as I do should not be 50 lbs overweight. I usually lose a good 10 or 15 pounds almost immediately after the holidays. This year I hope to make it more like 25. My biggest problem I think is the beer. I would probably be skinny without beer. And pizza. And lattes.

I published photos of the kids on http://kids.ericshepard.com This is the first addition to the website in over a year and a half. You might ask: why even have a website if you are not going to keep it up to date?

To that I answer: Shut up.

1810 calories. 90 minutes of cardio. I am getting exhausted.

This blog is already too long and boring. I am going to send it up.