An "almost" perfect flight.
I got off the plane in San Fransisco and proceeded to look for the gate for my next flight to New Jersey. I expected to hoof it clear across the airport. Luckily, the my next gate was only about 100 yards away. And extra luckily, a few feet to the right was the Peets Coffee. I sat down with my coffee right next to an available 110 outlet and stave off my email for a while. This might be a good trip.
On board the plane, sitting in my window seat, I have a routine. I look at all the people boarding and try to pick out the person I'm going to be unlucky enough to sit beside. The last guy on is about 6.5 and the "sales" type. He's a talker. He's coming down the aisle our way. Sure enough he stops and proceeds to put his carry-on in the overhead. Then, he starts back up to the front of the plane. Turns out he was just looking for somewhere to stow his luggage. Nobody ever boards destined for the middle seat. Life is good.
Then, believe it or not, the printer jams.
Turns out they are required by law to have a hardcopy of some maintenance paperwork on the plane, but the printer jammed while it was printing in the cockpit. We find this out while we're sitting in the taxiway getting ready to take off. I'm listening to the ground controllers talking about how they "can't see" the propane truck that some pilot says just went in front of his airplane. Then they come on and say that they need to return to the gate to get a hardcopy of the paperwork. I'm imagining a a runway incursion that results in my fiery death. But I live after all. Forty-five minutes later we're taking off.
It's an uneventful ride to lovely New Jersey. We'll see how things go on the way back.
