The sun is shining and I’m at St. Louis airport waiting on a plane. If you do any flying today you know how unpleasant it’s becoming.

For example, I fly out of this airport pretty often. Today security took 25 minutes and I was about 10th in line, meaning that there was almost no line compared to normal. When my bags went through the machine they had to be checked. I sort of expect it but they’ve never been checked here, just breezed on through. Both the x-ray machine dude and the lady who wound up doing the check have passed me through so often I recognize them. Not today. She had to take every single item out of my camera bag and wipe it, analyze it (each wipe in the machine) and then re-run them in multiple plastic bins. When I questioned why she was taking everything out (very unnecessary) she got very huffy and then proceeded to slow down even more. I’d estimate that about 40 people went through in the time it took her to do this. That’s ridiculous.

But so it goes. There’s no way I’m going to check my camera gear which includes audio recorder, computer, etc. I think a visual check, couple of quick wipes ought to be sufficient.

Whatever, so now I’m waiting on my regional jet which doesn’t have sufficient overhead space to put my rolling brief case so that has to be gate checked. Of course that means taking the breakables out of it. Don’t ever watch them take your carry on and load it, it will make you angry since they throw these bags even though you would think they know they often contain sensitive items, which is why we’re trying to carry them on!

See you from Washington, DC.