Back from California

It was a long day. Tammy had a 7:00 am flight from LA that I dropped her off for at just after 5:00 am and then headed back to the hotel for a few more hours of sleep before my flight later in the afternoon. We'd made the 7 hour drive from San Francisco the night before and got in after midnight and tired. I'd picked her up at LAX on Saturday and we went to SF for the weekend and to watch the Chargers play the Raiders. So I got a couple more hours of sleep and then headed to the airport myself. I dropped off the rental and took the shuttle to the airport, got my boarding pass and baggage tags and went to drop off my luggage. The TSA inspector took a look at my bike case and told my that it wouldn't fit in the scanner and they'd have to open up the case and do a manual inspection. He said that they'd probably have to cut off the rope and straps because they really didn't have the time to undo them. Firstly, LAX doesn't have a scanner large enough for my bike case? Even Buffalo has one that fits it. Secondly, no one is cutting anything off my case. These guys are nothing more than arrogant high school drop outs that think they can bully and scare people. I told the inspector that there was no need to cut anything. I'd remove the rope and straps for them to inspect inside and then tie it all up again. So then he told me I couldn't be around when they inspected it. Right, I was going to let them open the case, move everything around and just let them half assed close it up again and hope nothing would break or fall out once the baggage handlers got their hands on it. I asked for his supervisor and he went and got him. When he got there I explained to him that I had no issues at all with them inspecting inside the case but I wanted to make sure that after they were done that the bike was packed properly and the case tied up securely again. At least the supervisor wasn't a jerk. He said I could undo all the straps but once the case was open I couldn't touch anything. After they were done I could tell them exactly how to pack the bike and wheels and once the case was closed I could strap it up again. So I undid the straps, the supervisor inspected inside and tried to move things around as little as possible and once he was done asked me how I wanted all the pieces positioned and covered by bubble wrap and foam and did it all for me. He closed the case and I then locked it and strapped it up. Thankfully the supervisor wasn't a jerk like the first guy. Going through security was painless, I got to my gate and sat and read a new triathlon magazine, Lava, for a while and when boarding started I waited till everyone had gone through and I joined the end of the line. I see no point in jumping to the front of the line like everyone else wants to only to sit in my cramped seat with no air conditioning while everyone else is boarding. So as I got onto the plane and turned down the aisle I looked up there was Howie Mandel. He had that same big grin just like he does on TV, all the time. The flight was uneventful, we got in a little late, I picked up my bag and bike case and called the handler that was tossing around the oversized baggage an idiot but got no response from him. I was feeling miserable and looking for some confrontation but the gorilla was just interested in how far he could toss strollers, car seats and bike cases. Sleep was non existent Monday night. More sweats so my first order of business was seeing a doctor on Tuesday. With only 18 days to go I really need to get over whatever I was suffering from and get some decent training in and be ready for Miami. I got in to see my doctor and first thing he did was to start listening to my lungs .... for longer than I thought he should be. He asked a few questions and then told me he was sending me for chest x-rays. He said I probably had some bronchial pneumonia and that if I had any intention of racing at the end of the month I needed to shut down my training because that was the only way I'd get over it. Well this totally sucks. My 2 most important weeks of training blown away. I'll be seeing him again next week and with any luck he'll give me the go ahead to start up again. It'll give me about a weeks worth and might be just enough to get me ready.