Murphy has a Field Day

This is the day we all separated, and I wish that simply being alone in this Philadelphia hotel room were the worst thing that happened today.

We got up and packed, and that started the trouble. We had not only packed light, but every cubic inch of space was needed in our luggage. But we had had to switch a bunch of things around because Marjorie was going to take all the dirty clothes to wash in Mary's washing machine, while I was taking a bunch of things we had bought in Baltimore. The upshot was that in trying to close one of the outside compartments of my valpack, it ripped, right on the other side of the zipper, making that compartment completely useless, and losing us a significant part of our luggage capacity.

Feeling sick about that, we checked out of the hotel and went over to see Mary and Barbara, who had spent the night in Baltimore. After breakfast, Marjorie and I unpacked the stuff from the PT Cruiser and put it in Mary's car, and then returned the PT Cruiser to Avis.

Then we drove up to Towsontown Mall and bought a replacement Valpack. That worked out quite well, as Macy's gave us two discounts for the one we bought, and it is well designed, if an ugly color. At least, as Barbara suggested, we'll never have anyone else making off with it from a luggage carousel. The best description of it is electric sky blue.

At about 3:30, Phil asked a question: had we remembered to take his laptop out of the PT Cruiser. The devastating answer was: no. It was in a black computer case on the floor and neither of us had remembered that he had had more than one piece of luggage.

Luckily, he kept his thesis on a thumb drive he had in his pocket.

Avis was already closed for the day. There was really nothing to do right then, and we had to make the train.

As we drove to the train, Phil's phone rang. It was his lovely aunt, who had called Avis at BWI, from which we learned that someone had found a bag at the Downtown Baltimore office. The office doesn't open until 7am tomorrow, but we're optimistic. Marjorie left a note at the office as well.

At the train station, Phil told me that he had in fact not brought anything to read, as he was planning to work on his computer the whole ride back to Boston. So I lent him a book. I asked him if he was enjoying the book and he gave me a "beggars can't be choosers" look. And off he went.

My train ride to Philadelphia was uneventful, and indeed I don't plan to blog til we leave for Rome. Basically, I'm here to work. You don't want to have me blog about work. I don't want to, either.

See you on the other side.