Monday, July 26, 2010
Life Imitates Art
Several reasons I don’t like to fly and will avoid it at all costs. Mainly I don’t like being cramped up in a small space for hours on end; I get claustrophobia. I also have a hard time trusting every person who works on that plane from the beginning of the build to the maintenance to the pilots. Years ago I was a courier in Seattle and often times I would deliver parts for a certain large company, well known throughout the world. I cannot possibly tell you how many times I would walk in to those facilities and one of the following two things would happen:
a) Most of the people I saw were on break and refused to assist in any way when looking for column D3 because they were too lazy or had absolutely no idea where column D3 was located. And I am not kidding in the slightest when I say that one time, I had a package to be delivered to an individual at column D3, was having a hard time finding it, (and it’s exhausting walking around these huge buildings), I asked for help from someone I saw eating a sandwich, he stated he did not know where column D3 was located, I walked and walked and walked and walked and finally, I found column D3. It was right next to the fricken place sandwich eater was sitting. You’re fucking kidding me, right?
b) I would hand over the part, they would sign for it and throw it on to a conveyor belt. Not place it there, not gently put it down, throw it. In fact, they made jokes about the sound it might make and how it was actually the company’s new name. ("That’s why we call it ‘Boing!’”, they would chortle.) Yah, how nice. I’m delivering a part to put on an aircraft and these twats are throwing them around without a care in the world.
Some years ago there was a plane crash off the coast of California. It was coming back from Mexico, had a stop at LAX and was going to continue on to Seattle. The plane crashed in to the Pacific Ocean-I can’t remember if it was shortly after take off from LAX or before landing at LAX. It was on the news all over in Seattle because there were a number of Seattle residents on that plane. Come to find out that the cause of the crash was a faulty part and that someone who knew about this had tried to warn about this faulty part for quite some time. He was let go, called a “whistle blower” and basically ostracized. They gave this guy a bunch of shit and he was right. But no one wanted to fucking do anything about it until after the plane crashed.
I’m supposed to trust these people with my life?
I’m not really concerned about terrorists, to be honest. Sure, I don’t want any of them on my plane but I think that if I’m going to die anyway, I would do something like those guys on the plane on 9/11. People say, “You don’t know what you would do, you would probably sit there, scared and not do anything.” HA! Have you fucking met me?! The hell I would. I’m not going to sit by and let some sand nit dictate how I’m going to behave before dying. If I’m going to die anyway, I’m going to fuck up their plans. People focus a lot on the firefighters and police and such with 9/11, (yes, they were also heroes, don’t misinterpret what I’m saying), but I think more focus should be put on those who took down the terrorists in that plane. They died anyway but damn, people, they died trying. That’s a hero. Those are the kinds of people little kids should be looking up to when deciding how they are going to act in life, not the over paid sports celebrities who are always getting caught doing something stupid or illegal.
Anyway, the final thing that keeps me from flying is the airlines and TSA themselves. They’ve been coming up with some pretty stupid rules lately, ("your hands must be in view at all times for the last hour of the flight” oh fucking shut up), but what really grinds my pepper is the new charges they keep piling on that never used to be there. We’ve already spent hundreds of dollars on a ticket and any special requests or extra baggage we have; and that’s fine. But no, I’m not paying extra to carry on a knapsack, having a snack, meal or drink, (non alcoholic), or to use a blanket or pillow. That’s total bullshit. They’re looking to make up costs but they’re looking in the wrong places. Find out what is driving people away from flying not charge them up the ass for every last thing.
I used to love flying when I was younger. I thought it was thrilling and I remember on my very first plane trip across country at age 14, I could not wipe the grin off of my face. Now? It’s only if there absolutely, positively is no other possible way to get there that I will fly and even then it’s going to take some serious thinking. The airlines have been trying to make all kinds of money in these ridiculous charges left and right when what they’ve done is completely lost my business. Instead of granting me a fucking carry on, free of charge, they get no money from me at all.
This may be funny right now but these guys have a knack for coming up with things years earlier that comes out to be a little true, later on:
I think I’ll enjoy my car, instead.
