Birthday

For the first time in my life I realized that to most of the world, I was born not on September 15th, but on September 16th.

shark attack!

(Note to self: Fingers have lots of nerves; stabbing yourself with a toothpick is painful both at the time and a day later. It was worth the pain though.)

Jack has problems

So the last time I got my oil changed, the mechanic mentioned that my radiator was cracked and should probably be replaced before it went out completely and messed up the engine. I was initially very cynical and figured they were just searching for problems so they could get my business and money. As it turns out, I should have listened (especially because I've found this particular shop to be honest with me in the past).

In talking to Brian after the oil change, we decided we should get a second opinion/estimate before going ahead and doing the work on the car. Well, time passed and I never made the time in my schedule to take it in to another mechanic.

That brings us to Sunday. Brian and I were driving home from dinner with a family in our ward (that's a story for another post). As we crossed over some railroad tracks, right behind another car, Brian noticed some smoke coming out of my engine. He asked about it, and I swore it must have been from the car in front of us. We kept driving, and he kept noticing little puffs from the engine as we got closer to home. I still wasn't convinced, but as we pulled into our parking lot, the smoke began to billow out from under the hood. We stopped the car, turned it off, and opened the hood, only to find that it wasn't actually smoke, but steam. (In some ways, that was a relief, because I was afraid I was also burning oil. My car, Jack, has had problems with that in the past, and my oil light actually came on recently. When I checked the oil just after I saw the light, there was literally nothing on the dipstick. Needless to say, I quickly added 2 quarts of oil and bought more when I got home.) That mechanic wasn't kidding when he said the radiator was cracked. I don't know what it looked like before, but it certainly wasn't intact when we took a look.

The view under the hood of my car. I honestly couldn't tell you what you're looking at,
except that I'm pretty sure the radiator is at the front.

This is a close-up view of the cracked radiator. I'm not sure what all that
pink goop is, and I don't know if I want to find out.

The radiator spewed steam for several minutes after the car was off. Brian said that as awful as it was, he was sort of mesmerized by how beautiful it looked. If it hadn't been my car, I probably would have seen more beauty in it too. ;)

Obviously, I didn't drive Jack to work today. Brian rode his bike and I took his car. Unfortunately, the shop is completely booked for tomorrow (my day off), so I won't be able to take it in until Wednesday. I guess that's fine because they have to get the part(s?) first, but it would be nice to get it fixed when I don't have anywhere to be. The good thing is that the shop is less than a mile from our house, and I don't work until Wednesday night. I'll drop it off at 8 AM and walk home from there - they said it should be done before I have to leave for work (3 at the latest). Here's hoping it's an "easy" fix and Jack will be back to normal.

it's back!

On Monday, we finally got Brian's luggage back! It was 4 weeks to the day from when we had gotten home from UT (and almost the hour - our flight got in around 10:30 PM and that's about when they delivered the bag). It is an incredible relief to have it back in our possession. Quite honestly, I had given up all hope that it would be returned to us.

Brian got an automated email that day saying they had found it and would drop it off. I was at work but got a phone call/voicemail (an actual person!) saying they had a luggage delivery and wondered if anyone was home. I called the guy back when I got off, and he said they'd send it out on the 6 PM delivery, which meant we'd get it anywhere from 6-10 PM. When another delivery guy called to confirm that, I asked if they had an approximate ETA. He responded that they had until midnight to get it to us. Midnight??? Really?? Anyway, we ended up going to visit one of our neighbors for a while but left the blinds open so we could see cars driving by. When the delivery finally came, we saw a car driving slowly past with the driver using a huge flashlight to see addresses (that was actually sort of amusing to me). Brian ran out to meet him and finally got his bag back.

When we left UT, Brian put his dirty laundry in the bag (some of it had been washed but left overnight and smelled musty, so we knew we needed to wash it again). I was really afraid the bag and its contents were going to be rank by the time we got it back. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. It smelled a little, but it wasn't the knock-you-over smell I was expecting. We'll definitely need to have his suit dry-cleaned. Everything else has been washed now, and he's enjoying wearing some of his favorite clothes again. :)

Brian will have to fill in some more details, but this isn't over yet. I believe he filled out an expenses report the other day for what he had to buy (new underwear, shoes, etc.) since his clothes and stuff were gone. We're hoping to get reimbursed for most of that, as well as requesting 2 ticket vouchers. (They offered $100 toward a ticket, but we thought that was ridiculous considering what we've been through.) We'll see how this goes.

music to my ears

I was looking for some sheet music for solo clarinet and came across these videos. Hehe.

Carrot Clarinet

Broccoli Ocarina

date night

Brian and I went on a date last night. One of his co-workers had recommended Cap City Diner, so we headed down to check it out. It seems to be pretty popular, because we had to wait for a bit (less than 20 minutes, I think). It was absolutely worth the wait! The service was fantastic - I swear they brought our food like 5 minutes after we ordered - and the food was delicious. We even splurged and got some peanut butter pie for dessert. Yum! :)

After dinner, we headed over to campus so Brian could show me some pretty trees. There's an arboretum right on the edge of campus, and we just parked and wandered around for a bit. OSU doesn't seem to have any free places to park, so we ended up paying at a lot right next to the arboretum. Funny story: It was $1.50 to park for an hour (not too bad), and Brian suddenly remembered the song "They Paved Paradise." (It was originally by Joni Mitchell, but he only knows the cover by Counting Crows.)

They took all the trees, and put 'em in a tree museum
And they charged the people a dollar and a half to see them
Don't it always seem to go
That you don't know what you got till it's gone
They paved paradise, and put up a parking lot

OK, I'm not sure why that was so funny to us, but it was.

After we got all hot and sweaty from wandering outside (we live in a sauna!), we climbed back in the air-conditioned car and headed to the Park of Roses. Neither of us had been there before, and I'm not sure why it's taken us this long. It was getting dark, but it was still gorgeous. We'll have to go back in the daytime. I told Brian I like the yellow roses, especially the buds that haven't fully bloomed yet. He may have picked a small one for me (shh! don't tell!). I think I'll have to go back and take some pictures for practice with my camera. :)

Delta Customer Service: nice, but worthless

My professors in college often like to use airline companies as examples of bad business models. (Aeronautical engineering and airline management are totally different things) I remember one statistics professor who performed a little experiment while on a layover during a flight: He stood observing the baggage claim area as one flight came in after another. He counted how many passengers lost their baggage in transit, and found that of the 48 flights that came through, 45 of those flights had lost luggage. A 6.3% success rate is not what I'd consider good business.

I never check bags at the airport unless absolutely necessary, and this is one of my three reasons why:

1. I don't want to pay extra baggage fees
2. Checked bags can make leaving the perfect curbside pickup much more difficult, because you never know how long it could take to get your luggage. It could be waiting for you on the carousel when you get there, or it could be twenty minutes later.
3. I had heard plenty of horror stories about lost luggage, and I didn't want my own.

End introduction, commence story

Amy and I were flying back from our vacation in Utah to Columbus on Monday, June 20, with a layover in Minneapolis. At the gate in SLC, the plane, unsurprisingly, ran out of carry-on space and remaining carry-on luggage would be checked. It's a natural consequence, that if rates are increased for checked baggage, more people will bring carry-on. I had expected this, but I had expected a simple plane-side check, where they would return the luggage at the gate in Minneapolis. Instead, they were doing a full baggage check, marking the bags with tags and their final destination. I was a little nervous about this, because our flight was already delayed and the person writing the tags was:

1. rushed, writing tags for a couple dozen bags with various destinations,
2. didn't initially know the acronym for the Columbus airport,
3. and didn't give me a tag stub for my luggage tag. He admitted he should have given me one, and he gave Amy hers, and told me not to worry about it. What could possibly go wrong?
4. We asked why he wasn't doing a simple plane-side check, to which he responded, "Delta usually does it this way." Well, I've flown carry-on only on dozens of flights over the past few years, and this was a first for me.

As you expected, my carry-on luggage didn't arrive in Columbus.
The fact that I didn't have a tag stub was disappointing, but the baggage claim receptionist was optimistic that the bag simply didn't make the flight out of Minneapolis, that it would be on the next flight early the next morning, arrive in Columbus at 9:00 AM, and be shipped to our doorstep early Tuesday afternoon.

That didn't happen.

I had been given a claim ticket which I could use to track my luggage and receive updates either through an online tracking system or a customer service phone number. Both systems are jokes.

For the online tracking system, this is what I get when I put in my name and claim ticket number

We are unable to locate baggage data based on the information you provided. Please check your entries and try again.

Initially, I thought this meant I had the wrong number or perhaps my name had been misspelled when Delta put it into the system, so I called the customer service line:

beep... beep... beep... A busy signal!

I called repeatedly, and eventually I got through to an automated response. (This was Wednesday afternoon. I had been trying to contact them since early Tuesday)

"We're sorry about the issue with your baggage. Please pick an option that... "

After navigating through a few options and giving my claim reference number I received a

"It seems we have no information about your baggage at this time. Please try again later..."

It continued:

"Usually, our customer service representatives have no additional information, but if you'd like to speak to one of our representatives, say 'representative'"

Me: Representative

Commence elevator music, which continues for about ten seconds, "It seems that all of our customer service representatives are busy at the moment. Instead of waiting on the line, our representative can call you as soon as one becomes available. It is expected that one will be available in...{robotic voice} more... than... three... hours..."

Obviously annoyed, I acquiesced to the conditions. I did receive a call back that night... around midnight! (I think my original call was about four hours earlier) Although I was about to go to sleep, I was relieved to finally speak to somebody... However, when I picked up the phone, and confirming to a robot that I was Brian Casaday, I got this AUTOMATED RESPONSE:

"You will be connected to the next available representative..." Recommence elevator music...

I waited, on the line, on hold, for twenty minutes without a single word! I then hung up and went to sleep angry.


The following day I did get a call from Delta customer service, and I was able to speak to what appeared to be a real person.

Before I asked questions, the guy on the other line asked me to describe the contents of my bag, so I repeated everything I had said on Monday, with some added detail. The conversation proceeded:

Me: So you don't know where my bag is?
Delta rep: No, sir.
Me: Did they find anything in Minneapolis?
Delta rep: I don't know, Mr. Casaday.
Me: Did they look for anything in Minneapolis? or anywhere else?
Delta rep: I don't know, sir.
I confirmed that the spelling of my name on file was, indeed, correct.
Me: Do you know why the online tracking system doesn't even recognize my claim?
Delta rep: I don't know, Mr. Casaday. It should.
Me: What do I do now?
Delta rep: Keep checking for updates online or through our baggage hotline.

Well, that was useless. Maybe it wasn't a real person.

At this point, you may wonder what was even in my bag...
Well, a suit, my dress shoes, about half of my socks and underwear, a few pairs of shorts, some dress shirts, etc. Luckily, I had both my laptop and iPad in my backpack, which stayed with me on the plane. (btw, Delta claims they are not liable for lost or damaged electronics, which passengers should keep with them in their carry-on luggage) However, I also had a number of irreplaceable items. I had run the Ragnar Relay the weekend before, so I had a lot of my running gear, such as four marathon tech shirts, including my Boston Marathon shirt. I also had my recently acquired Ragnar Relay medal.

At this point, I'm trying to figure out what to do, and what I'm entitled to if my luggage is permanently lost. The Delta website says that all reimbursed items require a receipt, which is, frankly, a joke.

Having itemized everything I could remember, and without any updates from my luggage, I drove to the airport on Saturday afternoon. (I still get the busy signal at the customer service phone number over 90% of the time.) I spoke to a man there who, like the representative before, was sincere and profession, but was unable to give me any useful information about anything to do with my bag, other than it's probably been sent to Atlanta with all other lost baggage in the region. He couldn't tell me anything about compensation or reimbursement, other than telling me to fill out a reimbursement form online.

So I came home and did, which asks for details on every item I want reimbursement for, such as description, size, material, purchase date, price, location, and store.

It took me an hour or two to fill out the form as best I could, and upon submitting it (and agreeing that submitting the form does not guarantee reimbursement), I received... nothing. No email confirmation, no notice indicating what to expect and when... just a return to the reimbursement form menu.

So here I am now... having documented my experience... needing to wash my underwear twice as often... and fairly mad.

I'll update as needed. (I understand this is currently a weak conclusion to the blog post, but who knows, maybe something cool will happen, like my bag arrives on my doorstep in the morning, filled with gold bouillon, and Delta decides to give me my own 737 to compensate for the inconvenience.)