So... how was your Sunday afternoon?

Just checking-in. Our flight out of San Diego was cancelled due to mechanical problems but the good folks at United had us on another flight just an hour later. Good news-bad news. Didn't really matter though, as our two-hour layover in Chicago turned into 5 as weather delayed all flights going into Logan. 10 people were injured, 4 critically, by lightning strikes on Sunday afternoon in what the locals are saying has been the most intense thunder and lightning storms here in quite some time.

And we want to take this opportunity to say a few words about some of the more maligned people in the nation's service industry. Its become commonplace to squawk about the airlines and the Transportation Security Administration and what we see as the unreasonable search parameters under which TSA operates. Fair enough. Traveling these days does seem to be quite the pain in the rear but we also want to recognize that the "boots-on-the-ground" for both United and particularly the TSA, Sunday, were top-notch. The rules under which they are forced to operate aside, with one, brief, fleeting exception, the TSA personnel at every airport we've been to have been exceedingly polite, helpful and courteous... pretty much the antithesis of expected behavior for a bureaucracy that is in no way incentivized to attract business as the customers are forced to give them their business.

There. We feel so much better now. We'll be checking-in later with some interesting information from our course and with an unexpected twist at our hotel from a long-standing hotel tradition.