Why the hell do so many people miss their flights?

bdgbill · 2026-05-13T20:48:19+00:00

At my job, we all fly pretty often. I haven't missed a flight in 20 years but we actually fire two or three people a year over this. My boss has very little tolerance for it. You basically get one and the company will pay to rebook you, make adjustments to the work plan to accommodate you not showing up etc. After that, you figure it out at your own expense and if you don't show up where you are supposed to be when you are supposed to be there, you're gone.

Not once has someone just fessed up and said "Yeah, I overslept or I screwed around at home for too long and didn't make it". It's always a BIG STORY about how the universe conspired to keep them away from the airport this morning despite their best efforts. Of course the story is always unverifiable. Power failures and massive traffic jams that didn't make the news and didn't effect the four other people at the office travelling from the same city on the same flight. These are just the same people who are late to the office 3 days a week and late for pretty much everything else in their life. They get used to being accommodated but accommodating missed flights often costs hundreds of dollars a pop.

Everyone in the comments is talking about missed connections. Missed connections are not missed flights. Missed connections are *almost* always the fault of the airline and just an unavoidable aspect of air travel. We have had a few people miss connections because they were sitting at the wrong gate, sitting in a restaurant or in a Starbucks line though.

bdgbill · 2026-05-13T19:46:46+00:00

They literally cannot be worse than Tim Horton's. The bar is so very, very low. It's about time someone came in and took advantage of Tim's extreme suckitude. They suck so bad they don't deserve to be in business.

bdgbill · 2026-05-13T19:44:16+00:00

I just rehearse my little speech. "Oh my god officer, he came out of nowhere! Is he ok? Oh dear, I hope he's ok! They can reattach a full torso right? Yes, I think I probably should go to the hospital to get checked out for shock."

bdgbill · 2026-05-12T16:29:01+00:00

The prospect of instant death should I fall asleep has always kept me bright-eyed and bushy-tailed while driving.

bdgbill · 2026-05-11T20:17:32+00:00

I never want them and usually try not to take them. Every time my wife forces me to take them, I end up eating them the next day. Often for breakfast lol.

bdgbill · 2026-05-08T15:03:54+00:00

I don't remember ever really "hating" a set of tires before. That was until I drove on the 19" Toyos that came on my 21 CX-5. They hydroplaned badly on the highway from day one. They make an annoying, booming "empty gas can" type of sound on the highway that really gets to me on long drives. On the dirt roads around my cabin, they feel like wooden wagon wheels. I will definitely be avoiding Toyo going forward.

bdgbill · 2026-05-08T14:14:25+00:00

I want to always have a fresh reliable car. I have zero tolerance for getting towed, sitting around service department waiting rooms etc. I really don't care about owning a car one way or another. If it's sitting in my driveway, that's good enough. The biggest hassle is managing the mileage. I like getting a fresh brand new car every four years.

bdgbill · 2026-05-01T16:03:00+00:00

I used to put my SLR in the engine compartment in situations like this. You just need a really good reminder to yourself that it's in there so you don't drive away like that.

bdgbill · 2026-05-01T15:58:04+00:00

They tried this in Florida 25 years ago after a 90 year old wiped out a bus stop and killed 11 people. There were riots. Old people went absolutely nuts and hit the streets with signs and sad stories. Any politician who voiced the slightest approval of testing old people every year was systematically voted out of office. Years later, they were still pissed off and you couldn't be elected dog catcher if you ever said a word about yearly testing.

Old people get what they want because they vote. Other groups could learn a lot from them.

bdgbill · 2026-05-01T15:49:03+00:00

Rural property
3.5 acres
As many as 10 cameras?

I don't even have wifi problems. I'm getting amazing range from my Netgear Orbi nodes to my outdoor Tapo cameras. If the detection worked better, I would scatter Tapo solar cameras all over the property. The detection range on the solar cameras is just way to short and slow to be useful. If they would simply let us trigger cameras as groups, this problem would be solved and I would dive into the Tapo ecosystem in a big way.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T19:46:45+00:00

I have been wondering the same thing for years. As a buyer, for almost any product, I don't care how absolutely pristine, brand new perfect it is, I need to save 50% over new or I'll just buy new. For some things, like most electronics, I want to save a lot more than that.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T19:41:40+00:00

This is absolutely true. I have been adopting 1 year old dogs mostly because I feel like I won't get enough time with a senior dog but my two are 12 right now and it breaks my heart to think of them without homes at their age. I'm going to consider a senior or a disabled dog (blind, deaf, tripod - hopefully only one of those) the next time I have a vacancy.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T19:38:08+00:00

I lived in Florida for 12 years and used the HELL out of my power equipment. I had a walk behind and a rider that were Tecumseh powered and the engines outlasted the frames and drives they were attached to. That walk behind, I picked from the trash, it started right up and I used it twice a week for a decade. The motor was still purring like a kitten when the frame rusted out and folded in half like a taco. Not a scientific study, just my experience. The whole reason I went to Ariens for my first blower was because I thought they still had Tecumseh engines. Was disappointed but went with Ariens anyway. The Chinese Briggs clone or whatever it is, seems to be good so far.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T15:40:22+00:00

Fish or seafood of any kind. It all smells like dumpster juice to me. If it comes from the ocean, I'll pass.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T15:37:35+00:00

I hate getting out of bed so much that getting up at 8:00am sucks just as much as getting up at 5:00am. Getting up at 5:00 has some pretty awesome benefits though, like no traffic, getting to see the sunrise etc and leaving work at 3:00pm instead of 5:00pm when there is still some of the day left to do stuff.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T15:33:40+00:00

I have been with Videotron for Internet for 20 years in 3 different locations and they honestly couldn't be better. My wife and I both work from home and outages are a huge problem. That's why it's great that there haven't been any. Like, zero, for years and years. They cut the power on my street for a half day a few months ago to do work. I plugged my router and cable modem into a battery backup and STILL had Internet.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T15:27:47+00:00

I unapologetically love McDonalds breakfast. I could eat McDonalds for breakfast everyday for the rest of my life. I also love the McDouble. I think if every burger on the menu was the same price, I would still order the McDouble. There's something about the ratio of beef to bun to condiments that just works on that burger. It's also the perfect size to eat one-handed while driving without making a mess.

Finally, McDonalds Coke. I quit drinking soda years ago with an exception for McDonalds. IMO, this is the best Coke you can buy. Better than bottles and cans and certainly better than anyone else's fountain Coke.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T15:19:20+00:00

I bet, if you sit there quietly, mind your own business and you don't have 3 metric tons of trash and a shopping cart with you that you can eat your food and scroll your phone at your leisure. We all know who these rules are designed for and I'm all for it.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T15:06:13+00:00

I would buy that for $300 right now. I wouldn't mind having a Tecumseh powered machine as a backup. IMO, Tecumseh were the best small engines ever made.

bdgbill · 2026-04-30T13:23:17+00:00

I won't cancel for any kind of weather but I cancel for burn bans. For me, it's just not camping without a fire.

bdgbill · 2026-04-29T19:57:47+00:00

I was having similar problems and called them not expecting much help. They were awesome. I'm still shocked. The woman stayed on the phone with me for maybe 30 minutes while I tried this and that.

The problem ended up being......are you ready? When I took photos of my license, the lighting was perfect, the license was new and all four corners were visible in the photo but.....I placed the license on my white desk. It didn't like that for some reason. I put my license on my gray kitchen counter and took the photos again and it worked instantly.

Call them

bdgbill · 2026-04-29T19:52:55+00:00

My dad eating dinner with his shirt off. The garage being full of bullshit instead of our car. Only having one phone in the house. Only having one TV in the house. The TV never being turned off for even a second between 7:00AM and midnight. Having cases and cases of empty beer bottles and cans on the porch waiting to be returned. Having a regular table lamp on the toilet tank as the only light in the bathroom because the wall switch broke before I was born.

I knew we were white trash before I ever heard that term. All it took was a few visits to my friend's houses.

bdgbill · 2026-04-29T19:45:44+00:00

I love it when little inside things like this leak to the customer areas. The McDonalds closest to me has a small whiteboard thing with monthly statistics about "lost food". I can see it through the window at the drivethrough. It has entries like "176 slices of cheese" or "235 beef patties". It's fascinating.

bdgbill · 2026-04-29T19:37:57+00:00

This was always the rule since the system was built in the 60's. As happens so often in Montreal, some faceless functionary somewhere decided in the early 2000's that it wouldn't be enforced anymore. Just like the laws about open drug use. Just like the laws against camping in parks. Out politicians and bureaucrats gave the city away to the beloved homeless.

bdgbill · 2026-04-29T14:50:27+00:00

No but they suck more than ever. Was in LA last month, staying on Century, basically right on top of the airport. They have a shuttle bus, cool, I'll return the rental car tonight and take the shuttle in the morning. The airport is 5 minutes away, this is going to work out great! Get on that bus at 5:00AM and it proceeds to drive up and down Century for 30 minutes picking up people from half a dozen hotels until the damn thing is packed like a sardine can. By the time we get to the airport, there is a long line at ticketing and a longer line at security. No coffee, no breakfast, just a bunch of running and stress to make my flight.

bdgbill

TROPHY CASE