Finally Back In Knoxtown

Up To My Eyeballs In Things Needing Done...

Well, I finally made it back to the Turbo Pup Compound on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River about 10:30 last night...and hour and one half later than scheduled.

I have to confess that if I hadn't REALLY needed to get my butt home in order to maximize today's efforts I would possibly have asked to step off of that particular airliner when the pilot told all of us sitting in the back what was going on.

It seems that APU (auxiliary power unit...basically a little jet engine hooked to a generator located in the tail of the fuselage which they use on the ground for basic electrical power) was not working after they landed LATE and as a result they had to keep one of the main engines running to supply electricity on the ground.

So then when they refueled the planes tanks for our flight they failed to consider the jet fuel quantity needed to idle the one main engine on the ground for thirty or forty five minutes while we boarded and fumbled around getting into our seats.

(The airlines have stopped flying around with full fuel tanks in order to save money in fuel economy hauling around unnecessary weight...they calculate the actual fuel required and a reasonable reserve quantity and that's all they load on board.)

So THEN guess what?

They had to call the fuel truck back (apparently from the other side of the Tulsa metropolitan area) to "top off the tanks" after we had boarded the hot airplane (because the Air Conditioner also didn't work without the APU.)

Then the comedy continued.

You see, in the refueling process they had to shut down the one running main engine as a safety precaution, and then because of the dead APU they also had to call over a "compressor cart" which is basically a truck with a giant air compressor and a tank which they use to spin up the gas turbine engines to starting speed in absence of electricity on board...again the aforementioned APU being the culprit.

That exercise caused another ten or fifteen minute delay in our departure.

After an hour and fifteen minute delay, you can understand my trepidation over continuing my journey on a multi-million dollar device designed to fly through the air at 400 miles per hour, 25,000 feet above the surface of our planet, when it was having so much trouble just doing it's job SITTING AT ZERO MILES PER HOUR ON THE GROUND.

But I stayed on board, managed to avoid the wrath of the TSA officials and getting my picture on TV and published on the Drudge Report, and here I sit this morning in the disarray of my partially packed office in my home of which the contents are supposed to be residing in Tulsa, Oklahoma next week.

Time to update my "to do" list and get busy back in the Wee Pub.

Y'all have a LOVELY day...if you will.

(I just want to get through the next seven days without losing my mind...)