UA2357 SFO ANC 1723 2111 738 21F

My upgrade didn't clear again. It looked like a GS
family butted me out - there was a list of 4 people
with the same last name ahead of me. No worries - I got my
exit row window, not as great as on the 757 but good
enough with Wilt Chamberlain legroom, and nobody next to
me. The guy at the aisle was such that it was doubtful
he could perform "exit row responsibilities." Speaking of
which, there was a severely elderly couple assigned to
the previous exit row aisle seats - in case of emergency
it was a certaintly that more people would die because of
the laziness of the gate agents. Worse, our aisle guy was
deaf as a post and didn't have headphones, so he spent
the first part of the flight watching Chinese movies on his
mobile device with the sound cranked way up. Eventually a
flight attendant told him to put a sock in it.

For those of us without appropriate mobile devices, DirecTV
was something like $6.99, with no service over Canada and
the ocean, which is over half the flight. I passed.

I'd set my sights on a pizza, but they didn't have any.
So a burger, meatloafy and mediocre at best ("Smoked
Gouda cheeseburger - all-beef patty and smoked Gouda
cheese on a BROOKLYN BRED[r] bistro bun") with a
Lagunitas Sumpin' Easy ale that was way too hoppy in
the Lagunitas way but with citrusy and pissy American
hops, so sort of a perverted APA, which entire genre is
a perversion of IPA. Ah, well, the price can't be beat,
though I had to remind the flight attendant of my exalted
status, after which she wanted to also comp the meal of
the guy on the aisle, if he was with me, and sort of
rankling because of the noise he'd created, I told the
truth and said I'd never seen him before.

My seatback monitor wouldn't turn off, a major annoyance.
I ended up scrunching up a magazine so it would stay up
there obscuring the screen.

Cheerful FAs again, which was good.

We got in 10 early but sat around for a while as usual
before they got a gate and let us off.

The elderly guy in 20D could barely walk out of the plane.

Swisher was waiting for me and asked if I needed food (I
didn't but probably should have cast about for something
to sustain me through the night); on hearing what was
apparently the right answer he took me back to the condo
for a Milwaukee's Best, which tasted good in comparison
to the Lagunitas thing.

In the middle of the night, i.e., getting up time on the
east coast (if I'm not staying with the Shipps), my tum
started rumbling, big time, and as Bill had warned me,
there was not much in the larder, so I fished around for
emergency provisions and found one of those tiny lunchbox
size boxes of raisines (Boghosian brand, which claim to be
"the raisins that climbed Mt. Everest" - pretty decent) and
the last of my survival chocolate stash - I was down to
a Lindt white chocolate coconut bar, which actually is not
too bad for white chocolate.
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