Coda

As I write this, Fritz is enthusiastically groping my wrist, indicating to me in no uncertain terms that I should not be allowed to leave him ever again.

I didn’t plan to do another post, but today (yesterday) bears comment.

So, it turns out that our flight from Paris to Calgary was moved up three hours.

I’ll let that one sink in…

There we are, about to check in our bags, and we’re told that our plane is literally taking off right now. Notable absences on this plane include… US. Both Char and I just about drop to the ground right there, but since we’re persons of resource and grace, we instead make our way to the airline ticket counter, in the hopes of rearranging our travel. Did you know that Air Transat only makes one flight per week to Calgary from Paris? You do now!

We are informed that, if we pay a 40 euro fee each, we might be fortunate enough to catch their 15:10 flight to Toronto, but other than that we’re on our own, so long, see ya, read the fine print next time… So, we do this, ending up as standby passengers numbers three and four on the flight. And now, two hours of nerve-wracking waiting, hoping that the flight doesn’t fill up. Char, in the interim, checks up on the cost of the next Air Canada or Air France flights, and determines that — if we don’t make this standby flight — we will be on the hook for $4100 to get home. When she tells me this (about 40 minutes before the standby cutoff) I actually felt faint. I don’t generally do that.

Long story short(er), with 5 slots left on the flight, and 5 minutes til cutoff, a lady and her daughter come up to the checkin and get on our plane. At this point, I have given up on getting home, having decided to send Char if there’s only one seat. Our fellow sufferers, two franco-edmontonians with whom we got along famously, are checked in as standbys one and two… and then Char and I are called up to check in. At which point I concealed tears of relief behind my otherwise unnecessary sunglasses… and we ran to the plane.

The rest of the trip was routine, other than spending two extra hours on a plane, two extra hours in an airport, and arriving home about an hour and a half ago, hoping to pass right out… and failing. So, this coda is brought to you by my insomnia.