Big Blow Comin'

I imagined that I had a bronzed face, weathered and full of fissures from working outside in every kind of weather for decades. I crinkled up my eyes as though looking out to sea, judging the wind on my leathery cheek.

"Pretty big blow comin'," I said, trying to sound like my inner grizzled, wise, veteran of Gulf weather. Someone who'd seen it all. 

The Quad Queen rolled her eyes. "It's fairly obvious, Mr. Key Largo."

Hurricane Ian was devastating to large parts of Florida. Hour by hour we watched on TV, flicking channel to channel, seeing the same looping satellite view over and over and over.

Our home down south took a direct hit from the eyewall of hurricane Irma in 2017 but came through fine, with only some minor damage. We don't know the details as it was before we bought it, but the insurance agent let it slip that there was a prior claim.

As Ian developed, it looked bad for a while, and we fretted as each new track came out. Half a day before landfall, it looked like a shift in the track might happen, sparing us the worst.

Fortunately, everything worked out for us, and the next door neighbor at the Greacey Palms Senior Putt Putt Trailer Park let us know a couple of days later that one of the gnomes from the miniature golf course was half-buried head first in our front yard, but there was no damage to the trailer manufactured home at all.

As far as the coming Las Vegas trip goes, I cancelled my two solo flights, booked on points on American. For some reason, the points aren't automatically returned to my account. I waited for two months and finally got on the phone to request re-instatement. 

It was fairly straightforward once I got to speak to a person, but I did end up screaming at the AI voice recognition bot.

Basically, I gave three or four reasonable responses and got into a part of the system dealing with miles.

"Please listen carefully to the next 19 menu options before responding."

I listened to it all and then said calmly, "re-instate miles".

"OK. I understand you have questions about transferring miles..." and then the voice went on to detail a bunch of crap while I screamed, "NONONONO" and then it would say "I didn't get that" and I'd be like "FUCK. OFF." and it would be like "Returning you to the menu."

And then "Please listen carefully to the next 19 menu options before responding."

And I'd have to listen to it all and say "RE. INSTATE. MILES".

"OK..."

Whew.

"...I understand you have questions about transferring miles."

I screamed at the phone, I pounded zero about 96 times, one for every tear I was gonna cry, cry cry cry.

I've had run-ins with phone service before. Actually, every single time I call in for anything, it's a disaster.

For reference, see the high-larious post No Bills No Contracts No Evil -or- May I Call You Royal? 

Anyway, I got my points back, ready for some future deployment.

And, I booked flights for the two of us to head to Vegas.

Fortunately, my existing reservations are to Mrs. Flusher's liking, so nothing has to change there. I've booked a car, and everything is ready to roll.

But first... we have to roll to Florida via car and train?!