A skeleton walks into a bar...

...And says "I'll have a beer, and a mop".

I have just witnessed the most amazing rain in DC. The kind of
stuff I haven't seen since the tropics. Big honking buckets that chose to
wait until I had started walking from my hotel to the bar before dumping
all over me and my silk shirts.

Fortunately the waitress took pity on my wet dog look and has been
supplying me with free margaritas and a towel to dry off. That, or she
just appreciated the big tip I left at lunch.

So, soaked to the bone and slowly getting hammered, I do my best to
recover from another abortive effort of flying through Chicago. This time
my airline cursed me by offering the most insane promotion of the summer :

"If your flight is delayed leaving Chicago, we'll give you 500 miles"

So, naturally, I was well and truly delayed. Not only do I feel I know
the layout of what is normally a transit point far too well, but this is
getting boring to the point that I'm having trouble finding the humour
anymore.

Not only was the plane delayed getting into San Jose (as usual), but we
were again delayed getting out of SJC (as usual). The Pilot was kind
enough to let us know that we were on a ground hold because of (no points
for guessing) storms in Chicago. Now, although we were assured that this
would mean that all the other flights out of Chicago would also be
delayed, they neglected, as usual, to mention that a large number of
planes would never make it to the airport at all. So it was just one big
timetable crap shoot.

Making up a surprising amount of time, We landed in time to discover that
my connection was delayed indefinitely - Mechanical issues it seems.

As the weather cleared and everyone else took off, we stood around
for two hours waiting for our drop dead time. Eventually they gave up
screwing around with duct tape and found us another plane.

But by this time we were so hopelessly late that I arrived in DC
at 2 am with no rental car and no taxis. I had to go back the next
morning and get my ride.

Then, well, it was just work, rain and margaritas.

At some point I'm going to have to seriously wake up and consider using a
different airport that gets me direct flights. The trouble is that I'm
never given enough notice the plan my flights so I can never get seats on
a direct.

Ironically, on this particular return journey I actually HAD to stay in
Chicago for a few days. Coming through security there I was relieved to
hear that there would be major disruptions because of storms.