I’m glad to finally see the snow gone. Not because I hate winter, but because I hate being stuck in airports. Something that’s been happening to me all too much this year.
Of course I’m partly to blame because I choose to live in the Chicago area. But it seems like the rest of the country is always affected by the traffic at Ohare airport. I recently missed a flight from LA to Seattle. Because the plane I was supposed to be on could not get out of Chicago due to snow. That same plane was supposed to drop in at LAX and then head to Seattle.
That one was partially my own fault. You see I have an unwritten rule about traveling. Never book yourself on the last flight out of town. Why? Because if they cancel that one, you cannot hop on the next one or transfer to another airline going to the same place. And if you’re late or simply cannot find a place to park, you’re screwed.
But not only are you screwed, your crew is as well. They may have a bunch of questions they need answers to at the morning load in. And if you are not there to provide answers, they will do their best. But of course the crew cannot read my mind and I cannot answer their calls while on the next morning’s plane.
Last February I had a tour starting up in Washington. 4 out of the 5 crew members were stuck in a blizzard in Chicago. Fortunately the crew chief was from another state and was able to make it to the gig. So I thought ahead and called some friends at Christie Lights and asked if I could hire an electrician to help with load in until the crew could get there. No problem, they found me a qualified guy.
So I get to the gig and the rig is flown and I’m actually quite thrilled. The guy I hired had figured out the motor system and run all the cables on the trusses. But nothing is plugged in or fired up yet. Being curious I asked the electrician who was bailing me out why he didn’t plug the cables in. He pointed over at the dimmers and said quite frankly, “Because nothing is labeled”. But that’s another story.
