Summer time 2022. No blues 1 : Getting there

Last year I wrote about the horrendous travelling by airplane and going through Chicago O Hare airport.  In retrospect now, by comparison I can say that is one of if not THE worst airport experience I have ever had.  I still want but realize I wont be compensated by O Hare airport or the airline or my booker for the hotel we had to stay in for missing our flight.  

By Comparison we went through Detroit this year. And you know those surveys they send you and ask you to comment in after the flight? I got one and was asked how much I would be likely to recommend my flight company, and I said "very much".  And I here I go. 

Folks, I am not getting paid in any goods or money whatsoever for these comments. They are strictly my own and my own feelings.  You may have others. That is fine. But going on KLM/Delta through Amsterdam and Detroit is simply much much better than anything else I have ever done. I have done many airports in Europe and several in the US.  Heathrow is THE worst in Europe. I will never go through that one again unless I go just to London.  And Chicago O Hare is DISGUSTING, HORRENDOUS piece of junk which should be shut down or warned about.  C¨mon, three hours in customs line, more than three.  No special treatment for families with kids.  Not enough sense to open up more customs lines (and this was before inflation and nobody working) and just BAD BAD BAD.  If you can avoid O Hare, do so at any costs.  I took O Hare because I would have had a five hour layover in Detroit. In retrospect, I would have taken Detroit if I had known how crappy Chicago O Hare is.  

By comparison in Detroit this year, the customs line was so very little and they had several customs officers working it and one directing you to a line and courteous customs people.  I dont know if they had a special line for families with kids, I didnt see, but you can try.  But it went quickly enough without it.  

Then finding your baggage and checking it through again.  In all the media and even on the airport websites there were warnings that there may be holdups due to lack of workers or expert workers at the airports.  They even said on one to get to the airport over 3 hours before your travel.  I did from my beginning site and it was a waste. It would have been a waste in Detroit too.  We found and checked our bag through to our next destination without ANY worries or troubles. In fact the whole customs, finding your baggage and rechecking thing took about 40 minutes.  Compare this with about 5 hours in Chicago, missing our next connection, and paying an exhorbitant amount to stay 6 hours in a hotel.  It makes me sick to think about it.  

Needless to say we made our connection flight and luckily through a pickup of friends we were at our destination before sundown.  This is a transatlantic flight taking like 19 hours.  Our flight in the morning left at 8.50am. We got there at 6am which was overkill.  The only problem was it was a Saturday so our car rental was closed by the evening so we had to come there on Sunday to pick up our car. This will have to be looked into next year for a better situation, going to the car rental that stays open.  

What does this all have to do with being a father with kids?   

Well it has to do with the overall travelling with kids. When I book, especially overseas flights, I know I need more time. If I was by myself I know I could get a layover of less than two hours with customs.  And one hour with no customs. But with kids you need more time.  I am a bit worried if I have less than two hours.  

You dont want strange things to happen and you want to be seated together.  In general you want to stay together at all times.  If they are going to wander off for food or bathroom you have to make sure there is enough time before boarding.  And you have to make sure you have enough time going from one end of the airport to the other for your connection.  I guess it is mostly a time thing.

O Hare Chicago came up ZERO.  0 per cent I give  them.  Well maybe 5 per cent. I have nothing good to say about O Hare at all especially travelling with kids.  Unless you totally totally have to go through O Hare, even by yourself, but especially with kids for a connecting flight..... book through another airport, even another airline.  I would say even if it costs more.  

Chicago O Hare airport -------------- ZERO.  

Detroit I give in the 90s.  Even though  I cant think of anything that went wrong, I can never give 100 per cent.  But definitely in the 90s.  I dont care much about architecture, but even for Detroit, I like their glowing passage way (which unfortunately wasnt working when I passed through it this time, though my daughter did it twice and said it was working the second time).  

And in Europe, I have been through many airports, but by far not all (I would like to try the Helsinki airport sometime), but of about 10 I have been in, I would say Amsterdam KLM is the best. Even though they did pull me aside for special security check this time, I have very little against that, except that it did stress me out, but I understand their reasoning.   It did in general make me feel stronger that they have a good security check system there.  So I also give KLM Amsterdam airport in the high 80s rating.  I have been through them several times and mostly as far as I recall without incident.  The only problem I believe I might choose differently is the price and timing.  Otherwise, all things being equal I would always choose Amsterdam to go to.  

With kids a smooth airport experience just dispels your flying travelling stress.  And travelling with kids overseas IS stressful.  

Again, I disclose that I have received absolutely nothing for this post. Neither monetary compsensation or gifts or presents, nothing for my words and recommendations.  Strictly my own.   

I didnt listen to any music while writing this post.  I did hear a lot of boats on the lake going by.   

Five variations of doing nothing. Summertime Blues

Things started going bad during the covid.  My daughter paid less attention in class during those stupid on line sessions.  The kids can turn off the camera and no one is the wiser.  Sometimes the sound too.  

Then she took to taking long naps in the afternoon.  Now she still does.  This last year she claimed she had her homework done in school and she was always tired when she got home. She might take a two or three hour nap in the afternoon.  No she is not on drugs (she is 13) and she is doing fine in school, only math a bit of a problem and dont get me wrong, sleeping is not bad.  A teenage brain needs more sleep.  So, I let her sleep in the afternoon.  As long as it doesnt keep her up later at night, which surprisingly it didnt.  

The actions that get me really crazy is the inactions.  AND, unfortunately, she is also very good at doing nothing.  So good that I started taking notes on her various ways of doing nothing.  So I come to this post, inspired by my daughter, variations on doing nothing.  

1.  Writing people on message services.  I cant stand it.  I start nagging that she has watched enough tv for the day and get off the device.  She yells back that she is texting her friend from school.  Grrr.  It is a form of doing nothing.  You know, you write something stupid or what you are doing now, or that your father is yelling at you , or what happened after school etc and then you wait for an answer.  Its a back and forth of nothing.  Remember when kids used to telephone their good friends just after they left them from walking home from school?  This is the updated version.  Same old, same old doing nothing.  If she has to give me a good excuse, she says she is waiting for her friend to give her the homework or notes or something from school.  Just doing nothing.  

2.  Lying on the floor and doing nothing.  This might be combined with another form of doing nothing, like texting, or watching a stupid application.  But quite often it is just lying on the rug, doing nothing.  Now, you might not be doing nothing. You might be thinking big thoughts, doing math problems in your head, meditating, or working on a novel or a thesis in your head, but this is quite often not the case.  She is just doing nothing.   

3.  Looking at useless applications.  Yes, tik tok is really that stupid.  Yes people really are that stupid.  And yet, who is stupider, the maker or the viewer?  Lying there on the rug scrolling through short videos of people cooking or doing inane things.  The epitomy of a world doing nothing. Looking at instagram?  Again, the epitomy of valueless action, looking at peoples pictures? Sometimes you dont even know them, you just look at their picture.  Another wonderful activitiy supported by those wonderful people (sarcasm) at the truly ethicless FaceBook, now meta. (an aside, I should be impressed that Sheryl Sandberg broke some sort of glass ceiling by being an important woman at a valueless company that has two billion people around the world doing nothing for some portion of the day? O...K. Clap..... Clap) Snapchat design filter.  "Look dad, I can make myself look like a dog." Oh. My.Dog.  

4.  Playing useless shoot em up or jump higher video games.  This is what finally made us put limits on their gadget use, that and serial tv watching.  It just got to be habit forming and playing for hours on end, and we had to say, enough.  You are addicted and we have to put limits on this.  Just like any bad food, you cant only eat candy and cookies all day.  The way they keep you playing hour after hour is getting you interested in reaching a higher level.  It really is like drugs, and useless.  Everybody says that physical games are dead, that everybody just plays online, but I have yet to see an involved game on line like world at war or minecraft.  The big space big mmorph games are still on disc and are too big to download.  Most of the stuff people play online on their phones is just mindless crap.  Jumping over the train or Brawl shooting people behind hedges.  It is another version of doing nothing.  You ever watch people on public transportation playing these shoot jump games?  it is just to pass the time while riding on the public t from point a to pont b.  it has no value whatsoever except to kill your time while you are doing nothing.  But you are still doing nothing.  Might as well look at the outside scenery, or the people around you, you are doing nothing.  

5.  Useless sleeping.  As I said at the beginning, I dont mind sleeping. It is good for teenagers and helps the brain.  All for it.... except when it is used as an excuse to not do something and wanting to do nothing and as a result doing nothing.  I yell at my daughter cmon now you have watched your allotment of TV for the day, time to practice now or do some house or homework.  "But dad," comes the reply? " I am so tired now, I am going to take a nap". She knows I dont mind her sleeping.  But this sleep is useless sleep to get out of doing something.  And it is nothing.  I get angry.  She is still doing nothing.  This is no value sleeping

I listened to two Bob Dylan albums while writing this post and I think I will get Saved.  To cap off this post. You cant imagine how much Bob Dylan has done in his life.  And you know what?  His worst project, his worst album is heads taller and better than anything Facebook, instagram has EVER done.  I hope one day Facebook will be swept into the gutter garbage of useless cultural items discarded as "what the hell were we thinking".