My original plan for CFP had me returning home on Saturday morning, but when they shortened the last day of the conference, I decided I could make the 7:10pm flight from Kennedy without missing too much. So I left during the last part of the Q&A following Larry Lessig’s speech; I’d let the hotel book me a car service rather than relying on being able to get a medallion cab at 4:30pm on a rainy Friday evening. So the car was waiting for me as soon as I’d reclaimed my luggage, and we took off for the Midtown Tunnel and then JFK. Traffic wasn’t too heavy (except around the Grand Central Parkway), and I reached JFK about 5:20, giving me a little while to make one last check of e-mail before taking my flight home.
As I was walking to the gate, I paused to look at the AltiTunes shop in case they had a movie I’d want to bring home (as if I need any more movies to watch “one of these days”). They didn’t, but while I was looking at the shop, someone strode up to me and got awfully close — I was trying to figure out what was going on, and then I recognized my friend Sam; he’d been in Manhattan for a few days and was flying home on the same flight as I was. He’s not a Friend of American Airlines, and so he had to fly in coach — but he was in the front of coach, and he had more legroom than I did in First! And no seatmate, either. Oh, well….
I’m glad I changed my plans to come home on Friday night; I talked to another friend who was supposed to have flown home via Chicago on Friday — she had to spend Friday night in New York, then had to change her flight on Saturday to go via Dallas because O’Hare was still closed. She wasn’t too happy about it, either.
But here in Los Gatos, the weekend was quiet; I installed my TiVo upgrade (it was easy — it would have been easier if I had known a little less about PCs, or if I’d actually read the instructions carefully before starting to take apart the TiVo) and watched some of the shows that were already on the TiVo waiting for me.
It was back to work today; I expect to spend the next few weeks here, and expect to work from my office a lot of the time.
Right now, I’m sitting at home watching CNN showing a live firefight from Baghdad, listening to the CNN translator translating Abu Dhabi TV’s audio. I wonder if the camera is remotely-controlled or if someone is actually there.