Yet Another ASARCO

ASARCO usually means astrofish.net/travel and El Paso, TX.

ASARCO.

I think they’re going to tear it down.

Future-proof:
Reminded me of the good old days.

I was not flying SouthWest, so I had the best of the worst seats, the first seat in the tourist-class, against the over-wing “bulkhead,” which was probably nothing more than a plastic wall between the high-priced passengers and those of us on a budget.

Would of been around the “fin-de-siecle,” as I can recall which laptop I was working on. This was long enough ago, that the question of playing a whole movie was out. The flight from the Left Coast (SFA be my guess, or OAK) to Austin would’ve been three hours, plus or minus.

The laptop had a vivid color screen, but the battery lasted much longer in B&W mode. I loaded up a mailing list bounce e-mail, it was still called “e-mail,” and proceeded to cut and paste my way through an hour’s worth of work, my feet propped against the bulkhead, running on battery juice and watching it slowly dwindle. I was savvy enough at the time to understand I could write an email reply, and just wait until I plugged the laptop into a phone line to send the email again (my Austin trailer had DSL).

I think, for the last decade or so, I’ve only flown SouthWest. For the uninitiated, the entire buying and boarding process is bewildering, but for the travel savvy, it’s a breeze. Finest cattle-car in the business. Have some peanuts.

I tend to shut my phone and whatever else I’ve got, turn it all “off” from boarding through landing. Except, now, in San Antonio, the airport’s layout is weird and the plane spends an inordinate amount of time taxiing around, when I can be grabbing whatever mail I’ve missed for the last hour. Still, an hour out of touch isn’t such a bad deal — almost a relief. Like that one place I stay at the coast, “Look, no cell service here….”

Airports, here’s another oldie but goody, there was a time when the magnets that drove the security checkpoint scanners, those belt-drivers would erase electronic data, be it camera, or computer. Then, too, at one point, the X-Ray used was strong enough to erase film.

The good, old days.

I have no idea what might interfere with what, electronically, on the plane. However, I’m all in favor of turning it all off. Bring a book. I have one book in mind, makes delightful reading, especially for the flight to El Paso.

(Kindle Version)
Title: Two-Meat Tuesday