Returning Home

We're back in Milan after a wonderful vacation with family (and no easy Internet access). Since the last post we've enjoyed Florence, Lucca, Verona, and Venice, and tonight's our last night together. Tomorrow we depart for points west, with Kate and I flying into Washington and spending a final night with family before returning to Philadelphia.

It's been a wonderful trip: Hot, warm and cool; astonishing and sublime; invigorating and tiring; above all else, beautiful. I've not written much, but we've taken (literally) thousands of photos, and I'll try to post some while memories are fresh.

As a starter, here are one of Kate and my favorites from each city on the trip:

Milan

A photo from atop the Duomo, which is a city of statues in itself (some 3,400, in fact).

Florence

A crew boat on the Arno, crossing under the Ponte Vecchio at first light. (As an aside, I kept with the marathon training during the trip, and had the wonderful experience of logging some 12 early-morning miles through Florence and her surrounding gardens last Sunday. Truly extraordinary.)

Lucca

St. Michael's basilica by moonlight.

Verona

The ancient Roman amphitheater, still used today (and primarily for opera). In the background they're tearing down the set for Aida.

Venice

The Rialto bridge, complete with requisite gondola.

At The Limits

I sit in Chicago's O'Hare airport. It's not yet June, and if today is any indication, the air traffic control system, and the airways in general, are on the cusp of a summer of delays of unprecedented proportions.

The weather here -- it's 7:40 PM at the moment -- is fine (although there's some rain on the way). Earlier today, it rained. Not much, and not very hard, but on and off for a few hours. Yesterday it rained hard for about 30 minutes. Today those weather systems are East of Chicago in the form of a string of thunderstorms across Ohio and Kentucky. It is not raining in Philly.

Here's the result: Massive cancellations in Chicago, with gate hold and taxi delays averaging 3 hours 45 minutes and increasing. My 6:55 PM flight is scheduled for 10:50 PM, and candidly, it may not go at all.

So here we sit.

Why does this happen? How do mild storms create total havoc at O'Hare, Midway, Detroit, Cleveland, Philadelphia, Newark, LaGuardia ... even Teterboro? Because the ATC system is over-capacity, the planes are full, and the infrastructure archaic. There is no flex in the system. The system is designed around an average capacity last seen 20 years ago, which is a best case scenario -- or a fantasy -- today.

The best case scenario never happens, so the system is designed for continual failure. Somebody sneezes, a butterfly in Beijing flaps its wings, and we have delays affecting half the continental United States.

Lest you think things might get better inside the terminal, try this on for size: Today there are 70,000 fewer airline employees on the payroll than four years ago. This year the remaining employees will serve 100 million more passengers than four years ago.

70,000 fewer employees. 100 million more passengers. Voodoo economics indeed.

Honestly, though, the problem isn't voodoo economics, it's zombie economics. The fact is that the system has been too far and too long removed from the free market forces that regulate supply, demand, and quality. The federal government has kept a host of poor-performing airlines -- US Airways, Delta, Northwest for three -- on life support when the market was trying to put them out of business for good reason: They can't compete. Their fixed costs structures are too high. They're built on economic assumptions that passed into fantasy in 1985. They should not be here.

If the government isn't propping them up, unrealistic fare competition is. What's the only way US Airways can stay in business? By charging the vast majority of its passengers 300 bucks to fly to Las Vegas. Can it make a profit doing so? No. But it must do so to fill seats and create cash flow, so it does. It does so whilst cutting staff. The flights fill to capacity. The departure slots fill. The delays at security increase. The delays in the air increase. Bags get lost. Customers get dissatisfied. And US Airways still loses money on the flight. Repeat the scenario for seven other airlines and you can begin to see the problem. But because the industry is repeatedly propped up by external agents, the weak performers stick around.

There are only three airlines worth flying today: Southwest, JetBlue, and Midwest Express. All cheap, all fun, all generally reliable, all with great service, all profitable. Why are there only three? Because the old carriers they rightly should have replaced are still propped up on regulatory life support. Zombie economics.

The fact is that you can have it cheap, reliable, and with a smile -- but only two out of three, and often, only one, under the economics of most major carriers. The system has opted for cheap. If you want to return to the days of reliable, friendly service, all those families traveling this Memorial Day weekend are going to have to get used to paying $1,200 a seat to go see Grandma -- just like us business travelers. Do that and you'll see a return to balance in the system very quickly.

Fun fact example of a system beyond capacity: The gate agent just came on the PA and forecasted that there isn't an available seat from Chicago to Philly for two days. Miss tonight's flight, and you're here until Saturday.

It's going to be a hell of a summer. My advice: Learn to explore your own home town.

Back In The Flow

KATE AND I are back in the flow after a few wonderful days in London. I was able to wrap up my work by 5 or so on Friday, and we enjoyed the next 48 hours spending time with friends, walking the many neighborhoods of the city, riding the Tube, doing a bit of shopping, and all-in-all simply enjoying the refreshing change of context a shift in culture brings.

And now we're happily back at work. I trained to and from the NYC area today and, with our late arrival last night, mused at how completely natural it can feel to ride both the Tube and Amtrak, to gaze upon Parliament and the Empire State Building, within a 24-hour span.

With all the travel I'm sorely behind on posting, as the large collection of items tagged "post" in my del.icio.us account may attest. I'll certainly be writing more about Mac life -- our friends in London use a Mac at home as do we, he in particular to manage his extraordinary (pushing twenty thousand tracks) music collection. Indeed, on the heels of our visit I spent some time after work picking up a an external hard drive, iLife 6, and two AirPort Express Base Stations for the house. I'll move our digital media to the hard drive, and will use the AirPort Expresses to stream music from our iTunes library on the Mac to stereos in two different parts of the house (and boosting / extending our home wifi network in the process). Cool, and a sliver of what I've always wanted personal computers to be.

One other highlight of the trip: The friend with the massive music collection arranged for he and I to have a by-appointment-only demo session at a high end hi-fi shop near Oxford Road. How high end? Incredibly high-end: We spent over three hours plugging tracks from CDs we'd brought into a Krell KAV-400xi amp, Martin Logan Vantage speakers, and an Audio Research Reference CD7 cd player. The sound these pieces produced was undoubtedly the most incredible reproduction of music I've ever heard. I put on the London Symphony backing up La Boheme and I could hear the stage. Literally: I could hear (more accurately feel) the very deep, low bass resonance of the bass strings through the stage. Amazing.

It was also the most expensive reproduction of music I've ever heard. How high end is high end hi-fi? The four-piece system we heard: amp = $2,500; speakers = $7,000; cd player = $9,000. Add $1,500 for cables (yes, cables) and that's a ... let's see ... $20,000 four-piece stereo. I never knew such equipment existed. Yes, the sound was incredible. And if hi fi floats your boat, this stuff is the finest Pacific cruise you can imagine, presuming you don't mind not sending the kids to college.

Rather than mortgage the house for music, I indulged a much more reasonable splurge on Jermyn Street (check out this cool street-level map of same). Only one purchase there, at Crockett and Jones. A pricey pair of shoes, yes -- but they'll dress my dogs until retirement. As I see it, that, when paired with style, is money well-spent.

I'm lucky enough to be going back to London in March. When people hear about how much I travel, they always ask, "How do you do it." Like anything else, you develop systems and get used to your reality. And while it's not always the easiest life, it is always an interesting one, and a good one. I'm blessed to have it, and to share it with Kate, and this past weekend in London is just the latest blessing.

Greetings From Altitiude

GREETINGS FROM ALTITUDE. 8,750 feet, to be precise. Some 30 years ago my parents had the wise foresight to build a modest A-frame cabin near the top of Big Cottonwood Canyon outside Salt Lake City. 30 years later, their decision leaves the family with a comfortable shelter above 8,000 feet, within three minutes of two ski resorts, 40 minutes from Salt Lake International.

Kate and I traditionally spend the week between Christmas and New Years here. It gives her a chance to enjoy the West and me a chance to reconnect with my alpine sensibilities and Salt Lake City friends. We've been here most of this week, but with dial-up connections being what they are my Internet time has been limited to checking the bowl scores and weather reports. I've also managed to get work done, but with the luxury of this view:

I've changed the header of the blog based on this photo; when we're back on broadband I'll likely upload some other shots to the photoblog. Until then, wish you were here, and best wishes for a safe weekend of holiday revelry.

The Word Is Not Flat

LEE LEFEVER AND SACHI are off on their year-long travel adventure. Follow their journey, and the travels of many other contributors, at The World Is Not Flat.

Quitting work for a year to travel the world. Gutsy. Cool.

Mexico

I DIDN'T POST MUCH last week because I spent Monday through Thursday working with clients in Mexico City. Remarkable place if you've not been there. 23 million people. I spent all four days in the hotel, but did manage to get out for 90 minutes or so over lunch on Wednesday.

I used the time to walk to the Museo Nacional de Antropologia, which is an amazing place. I took some photos along the way with my Treo 650 phone, and here are some of the better snaps (which I've also cross-posted on the photoblog).

Along the street that runs into the park by the hotel, there are many, many painted cows. Apparently Chicago has a similar display.

This is a statue of the revolutionary Tito with a Painted Cow in the foreground.

There are many old things in the park. Those that aren't old are made to appear old.

Now for some objects from the Museo Nacional de Antroplogia. Only $3.80 to get in. Imagine: In Mexico they have the treasures of the ancient world available for less than the cost of a Coca Cola in Manayunk, PA. This tells us not so much about Mexico as it does about Manayunk. There are many amazing things to see at the museo. One is its large collection of artifacts from Mexico's medieval period, like this Catholic fresco.

Another amazing thing at the museo is this giant column water fountain, which holds up a massive, free-standing roof the size of one, if not two, football fields. Note the puny people in the lower right-hand corner of the photo. This is "para la escala" meaning "for scale."

Now for a series of artifacts, most of which are 1,500+ years old. For North America, this is old indeed. This is the head of a Mayan snake god.

This is a Mayan fertility statue. Given the 23 million people in Mexico City, this god is very busy.

These are the ancient Mexican equivalents of basketball hoops. A benefit of today's game: the loser doesn't face sacrifice.

I don't know which god this is, but it's from the Toltec culture. It clearly has something to do with death, and was as creepy in person as in image. Also, given the Toltecian penchant for human sacrifice, I presume there's nothing at all funny about this particular god. You are free, however, to be impressed by my clever use of lighting and contrast.

A monkey god, I presume. Ancient Mexica culture (before the Cortezian conquest).