I swear, if I ever wonder what brought me to move to a small town, all it takes is one trip back to Hampton Roads. We went down over the weekend for our grand-daughter to be’s baby shower and it reminded me just how much I hate big cities again.

There is something about being crowded on an interstate or for that matter stopped on an interstate and it being the norm vs. the exception.

I think my blood pressure rose 20 points while I was there and I felt physically better as I drove away on Sunday.

All you that still live there… do yourselves a favor, find a small town and I guarantee your lives will benefit from it.

So I was surfing around on Facebook (yes I am on Facebook) and saw one of those “get a free laptop” ads.  I figured what the heck.  So I filled out the form and was going through the two offers that I am supposed to do and my phone rings.  I swear it was a guy calling because I had just filled out the form online.  We are talking less than 30 seconds after clicking submit on the page.

Sometimes things amaze me…

Yes I have finally given in and gotten both a twitter and a facebook account.

My twitter address is http://twitter.com/riverbrewer

and Mike Pensinger on Facebook.

Mike

So I decided that I wanted to come home a little earlier than I expected.  My ticket was for 2:45 pm and there were flights earlier.  I went to the airport where they told me that I could change my ticket to an earlier flight but it would cost me $150. WTF???!!

Oh but if I wait until the day of the flight it will only be $50. WTFx2??!?!

Why it the hell should it cost anything to change and electronic ticket that has not even be printed to another flight that HAS EMPTY SEATS? 

Cap that off with having to pay $15 per bag to check luggage.  Come on.  This makes everyone carry their bags onto the plan where it creates a cluster in the cabin. Do the airlines honestly believe that people take less with them? Why can we not just set a max weight per passenger including baggage.  Say 350 pounds or so.  If you want to carry more stuff with you then lose weight.  I packed for a week and carried more stuff back with me and the bag still weighed under 50 pounds (and it is loaded with beer!) plus my weight and I am well under 350 pounds. If you go over then you can pay and excess fee. Say $1 per pound. I support this and I expect anyone who has been stuck in a seat beside a fat traveler probably supports it too.

Enough to say airlines can cram it up their hind ends.  I think I will start carrying my roll along on board. Wait a minute. They can check it at the plane… wonder how much that costs?