11:25 PM --- So I says to the AK air agent, "Hi. I'm this one guy.
My kid and wife are flying in from Portland and I am to receive
the kid on a stretcher. What is the procedure for that?"
(See, I wanted to be prepared - realizing I could've asked a
few (way) more questions previous to pickup.)
Her -- "Oh, so an ambulance will take her to the hospital, right?"
Me -- "No. I believe firefighters are to escort her to my vehicle.
Where should the car be at the proper time?"
Her -- "The computer says they are on the flight, and should
be arriving at 12:28 AM. Do they have any baggage?"
Me -- "Yes. two bags."
Her -- "Yep. It says two bags! So is she going straight to the hospital?"
Me -- "Um, no. She's going home. How do we go about the pickup?"
Her -- "It doesn't say here."
"You mean this is out of the ordinary?"
"No. We do this a LOT!"
"So, what do we do? What is the plan?
"I don't have any of that info, and your name isn't on here so
I'm not allowed to give you any of the info I already did, and
should not answer any more questions."
...cricket..."ok...thank you?.."
My kid and wife are flying in from Portland and I am to receive
the kid on a stretcher. What is the procedure for that?"
(See, I wanted to be prepared - realizing I could've asked a
few (way) more questions previous to pickup.)
Her -- "Oh, so an ambulance will take her to the hospital, right?"
Me -- "No. I believe firefighters are to escort her to my vehicle.
Where should the car be at the proper time?"
Her -- "The computer says they are on the flight, and should
be arriving at 12:28 AM. Do they have any baggage?"
Me -- "Yes. two bags."
Her -- "Yep. It says two bags! So is she going straight to the hospital?"
Me -- "Um, no. She's going home. How do we go about the pickup?"
Her -- "It doesn't say here."
"You mean this is out of the ordinary?"
"No. We do this a LOT!"
"So, what do we do? What is the plan?
"I don't have any of that info, and your name isn't on here so
I'm not allowed to give you any of the info I already did, and
should not answer any more questions."
...cricket..."ok...thank you?.."
DON'T PANIC!
Saw an airport police officer (also involved with airport fire) who appeared to want to be riddled about procedures of unloading a patient from flight for 5 minutes.
"So, she's going to the hospital in an ambulance?", said he.
"Um - no. blah, blah, same story from me - the car/going home ..."
"I am not aware of this unloading. I'm sure AK Air has it under control, and set up."
Realizing I had wasted a precious ten minutes, now, I needed to make phone calls:
Donald, at my house, for a number
and Shriners in Portland.
"I'm sure AK air has it planned out.", she says (at Shriners).
"um..ok.....cricket..thank you."
Ate some fries at the "gut-bomb cafe" and decided to ask baggage dept.
"So she's going to the hospital via ambulance, right?"
"Um, no...same 4-time repeated story of mine.
So you guys do this quite often, you say?"
ten minutes later, 12:30, now - "No one knows what's going on, or will call back with info. Let's go meet them at the plane."
"YAY!", I thought. "Progress!"
We (the agent and I) went through security to the gate,
down the ramp to the plane. Then I get a call from Heidi.
"Where are you parked?", she said.
"2nd floor garage, but I'm just outside the plane."
At that point, I had 1 police officer, 1 firefighter, 3 Ak Air agents,
and 1 security guard for company - who were planning action, finally, and
decided I needed to bring the van to the departure ramp.
"Get the van to the upper ramp right away. Where ARE you?!", Heidi says.
"Speaking with all this attention, just outside the plane", says I.
"Why are you here? Go get the van!"
"um...ok..." back through the gate, across terminal, out to garage (10 more minutes)
4 baggage handlers (nice guys) ended up carrying her from the plane,
across the terminal, and to the curb for loading.
Long story (only seemingly made short compared to 2 hours prying
info from airport personnel) came to a rest at around 1:40 AM.
Tay is in bed - at our house! And, with Harrington/McLay attitude to spare.
Heidi, also, is in bed (her own). Tay woke at 6:30 AM for meds.
My beautiful, tired wife may need a wake-up call come Thursday, or so.
What a tough woman. No wonder Tay could eat nails and spit barbed wire!
They have endured way more than I the last week. My Mom-in-law has been a HUGE help, and I would like to thank Stan for letting her come up.
I just hope he's not smoking in bed while she was gone - for his sake.
Stan's new "smoking room"
He can have her back when she is ready to go. It DOES look like bad weather for traveling, though...
Thanx for everyone's thoughts and prayers through this. The first "leg" of the race is complete, and breaths will be taken for the next leg.
Saw an airport police officer (also involved with airport fire) who appeared to want to be riddled about procedures of unloading a patient from flight for 5 minutes.
"So, she's going to the hospital in an ambulance?", said he.
"Um - no. blah, blah, same story from me - the car/going home ..."
"I am not aware of this unloading. I'm sure AK Air has it under control, and set up."
Realizing I had wasted a precious ten minutes, now, I needed to make phone calls:
Donald, at my house, for a number
and Shriners in Portland.
"I'm sure AK air has it planned out.", she says (at Shriners).
"um..ok.....cricket..thank you."
Ate some fries at the "gut-bomb cafe" and decided to ask baggage dept.
"So she's going to the hospital via ambulance, right?"
"Um, no...same 4-time repeated story of mine.
So you guys do this quite often, you say?"
ten minutes later, 12:30, now - "No one knows what's going on, or will call back with info. Let's go meet them at the plane."
"YAY!", I thought. "Progress!"
We (the agent and I) went through security to the gate,
down the ramp to the plane. Then I get a call from Heidi.
"Where are you parked?", she said.
"2nd floor garage, but I'm just outside the plane."
At that point, I had 1 police officer, 1 firefighter, 3 Ak Air agents,
and 1 security guard for company - who were planning action, finally, and
decided I needed to bring the van to the departure ramp.
"Get the van to the upper ramp right away. Where ARE you?!", Heidi says.
"Speaking with all this attention, just outside the plane", says I.
"Why are you here? Go get the van!"
"um...ok..." back through the gate, across terminal, out to garage (10 more minutes)
4 baggage handlers (nice guys) ended up carrying her from the plane,
across the terminal, and to the curb for loading.
Long story (only seemingly made short compared to 2 hours prying
info from airport personnel) came to a rest at around 1:40 AM.
Tay is in bed - at our house! And, with Harrington/McLay attitude to spare.
Heidi, also, is in bed (her own). Tay woke at 6:30 AM for meds.
My beautiful, tired wife may need a wake-up call come Thursday, or so.
What a tough woman. No wonder Tay could eat nails and spit barbed wire!
They have endured way more than I the last week. My Mom-in-law has been a HUGE help, and I would like to thank Stan for letting her come up.
I just hope he's not smoking in bed while she was gone - for his sake.
Stan's new "smoking room"He can have her back when she is ready to go. It DOES look like bad weather for traveling, though...
Thanx for everyone's thoughts and prayers through this. The first "leg" of the race is complete, and breaths will be taken for the next leg.
4 opinionated prattle:
Oh I'm so glad they made it home. Sounds like the airport fiasco was really fun too.
Sooo.... party at your place tonight?
You really know how to stir things up - not to worry, I did not let her ready your blog when she got home so she will never know how the house was mistr5eated. Right now we have a "striker force" camped out in the living room. they are finding tyhat the salmon are more elusive than the insurgents in Iraq.
What a trip at the airport it must have been some fun for you and and what an ordeal at that, keep your sanity and miss you all, glad Tay is doing well
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