I have arrived safe and sound in California. My flight landed generally on time, at around 8:30 pm, and all went well with luggage, and customs, and immigration. My mother was waiting for me when I came out of the airport, and all seemed great.

     We had to rush back to the high desert because we needed to pick up my father from the Palmdale regional airport at around 10:20. Although we knew we would be late, we still made good time on the freeway, but at around 10:30 we got a voice message on my mom's cell phone. As it turned out, my father's flight to San Francisco had been delayed by several hours because of fires in the region and had caused him to miss his connecting flight to Palmdale. Instead he would be arriving at LAX at around a quarter to 2. Since we were already 3 quarters of the way home we decided to return to Lancaster, where I rested for about half an hour. After that I drove alone back to LAX, making excellent time, and arrived at around 1:15 am. But, again I was in for a surprise; my father had taken an earlier flight. But his luggage was still on the flight that was supposed to arrive at a quarter to 2. Also, he wasn't entirely certain that his luggage got transfered from the Palmdale flight to the LAX one. We waited, and 2 am rolled on by, but no flight, and no luggage. 3 am came and went and still no luggage. We waited until they closed down the luggage carousel, and all the employees had gone home. There were no United personal at the airport to ask about his missing luggage. So we came home, arriving around 4.30 am. Tired, I went to sleep, but only slept about 4 hours.

     This morning I was still very tired, my soul still lagging somewhere over the pacific (souls not being able to keep up with Boeing 777s, according to  William Gibson), and so really didn't do anything. My father attempted to find his lost luggage, but the best he could do was leave a voice message on the lost luggage hot line. Chances are it will stay there unnoticed until way after the presidential elections, but who knows. 

     I finally fell into a deep sleep around 6 pm, and slept soundly until 9. Now I am wide awake at 2.10 am writing this blog. Tomorrow I hope to rejoin the world, and maybe get something to eat. 

Mark

Edit (March 26, 2013): My dad never did get his luggage.