Good Times, Bad Times, you know I had my share ...

First the good ...
I had some fun at the parking garage & ticket counter at the airport tonight. At the garage, I got out of my car & flung a large Nike duffle bag at the shuttle driver. She looked really concerned then started cracking up. The bag had nothing in it other than bubble wrap, so it was as light as a feather. Since I got such a good response, I decided to try the same at the ticket counter. I threw it right at the woman at the counter & the startled look turned into the biggest smile I've ever seen. I have never heard such laughter. The two agents were throwing it back & forth pretending it was really heavy & they were really strong. Then she decided to put a "LIGHT" tag on it so the baggage handler wouldn't get hurt thinking it was heavy. I told her in all my years of travelling, I've NEVER had a "LIGHT" tag ... plenty of "HEAVYs" but NEVER a "LIGHT"! When it was time for me to go to the gate, they thanked me for making their night.

Now the bad ...
I went thru x-ray & TSA decided they wanted to swab my Think Tank Airport Security bag. I said no problem (because it usually isn't). Well this TSA agent had his own interpretation of what constituted a swab. I've been swabbed plenty of times before, but never like this. First I had to wait 20 minutes since they were short staffed. Then the TSA guy removed EVERYTHING from the case. The first lens he took out was a 70-200 & he layed it on it's side instead of standing it on end. As I saw it rolling to the edge of the table I gasped to get his attention & asked him to stand it up. Whew, disaster overted. Then he took every lens cap & rear cap off and took everything out of it's individual case (like extenders, hard drives, etc). I was getting a little ticked off but didn't show it except that I looked at my watch a bunch. He did about 15 individual swabs. It was a little absurd ... overkill, since I have press credentials & hardly fit the terrorist profile. Then he tried, unsuccessfully, to put the stuff back in the case. I told him that I wanted to do it. He said I had to step away from the table until he moved it to a table where I could touch it. Needless to say I wasn't happy since besides being an @$$, this guy was a klutz. What a jerk! I almost missed my flight.