I am trying to log into my frequent flyer account with SAS. I cannot recall what my username is. I use two for the most part; usually one or the other will work. But sometimes they are already taken or for some inane, pathetically stupid reason the site requires numbers, characters, etc. in the username. Freaks.
So... I cannot recall my username. Password will also be iffy, but hey, I can always click the "forgot password" button and get the password. But no. SAS in their wisdom requires your username, first name, last name, and birth date to get your password. And there is no link to recover the username.
So... I need to call customer service. I know, how about I just take my business elsewhere? Or try this... what about using my email address as my username? Several other sites do this and it (gasp) seems to work just fine. For the most part we all pretty much stick to a single personal email address. Oh sure, I need @gmail.com and @hotmail.com and @yahoo.com for all of this stuff which bugs me (kudos by the way to MSN for letting me do @bricin.net for Passport, minor demerit for crippling many of the most useful features when running like this*). But most sites that aren't trying to rule the world let me use @bricin.net and just move on.
* disclosure: I worked on technology related to Passport at one point. I'm no expert here and I know this is a tricky situation and yes I know Open ID is out there and accepted by at least 2 web sites but c'mon, this shouldn't be this difficult and I am not even asking for a universal ID, just universally allowing me to use something that I have a prayer of remembering to log in and give people money.
Sept 28: hoist on my own petard. Both wordpress and my custom bricin.net stuff uses usernames. Argh. So I am rewriting the code for my custom site but it will take a while.
Lovely woman driving home on the lake road today. She tailgated me the whole way down the road. At one point she went to pass. Of course this is a double-yellow, no-passing zone. I waved an arm out the window and continued with a one-finger salutation. She then sped up and neared my bumper at which point I started slowing down. I eventually made my turn and drove off.
What was she thinking? She's in a mini van for goodness sake. Not a sports car. She is in an area with kids and runners and cyclists all over. If ever there was a need for a cop in a speed trap today was it.
Anyway hopefully someone will read this at some point and point out to their mother/wife/whatever that she needs some serious lessons in driving.
Loads to get catch up on. First, exercise: pretty poor week but I expected that. I will basically do last week's workouts this week although I have already missed Monday due to jet lag.
Second, let me say that I have a deep and abiding hatred for a Swiss Air counter person, last name something like Dorchmuller, who absolutely screwed me yesterday. I asked for an exit row seat. She assured me I had one. When I finally boarded the plane not only was it not an exit row... it was a middle... with a bulkhead behind me... on a crowded flight. Lovely, just lovely. I don't know why this ticket counter person hated me so much, but some day I vow revenge. I will find her and force her to spend 10 hours painfully cramped, looking forward to the rare respite of using the bathroom to get some space. I spent 2-3 hours standing in the back of the plane just to avoid that seat. I will find her, I will. Some day, somehow. Interesting fun fact about the Zurich airport by the way: the only counters there are all run by Swiss Air. So you go to check in for an SAS flight and logically enough you need to magically make the connection that SAS=Swiss Air. Long after I wandered around and finally found someone to ask I saw a tiny little sign with about 20 airline logos on it noting that essentially All Airlines = Swiss Air. So the next time some conspiracy nut rants about an evil pentavirate ruling the world, just note that it's really The Queen, The Vatican, The Rothchilds, The Colonel (before his business went tits-up), and Swiss Air. Something to think about.
Third, I hate SAS. I wanted to upgrade seats. I was willing to spend money to do so. But... you cannot apparently purchase ticket upgrades at the SAS counter in Zurich because, well, um... that is only handled at the gate in Copenhagen. Well that makes no sense and took me 30 minutes of going out through passport control in Zurich, hiking through baggage claim, and then finding this out. Well hell. So in Copenhagen I approach the transfer desk, because I was transferring, they had computers, and appeared to be a likely place to give them money. No, ha ha ha, my naivete! They don't do that there. I would need to go to the boarding gate to get an upgrade. Sure, why not. So to the boarding gate... where I am told that I could, if I had miles, upgrade. But pay money? No, no, stupid passenger... tickets can only be purchased at the ticket counters, I should have done that in Zurich. Only the deep need to get the fuck out of Denmark allowed me the restraint not to simply go berserk at that point. Hell, given that berserk is a Scandinavian word maybe it would have been culturally called for and would have won me deep and lasting respect from those "people". But no... I was beaten and I knew it. Thankfully the nice woman next to me was cool with me getting up and down throughout the flight. She probably preferred that to my bouts of thrashing around uncomfortably and muttering "I will get her" under my breath. Did I mention I love flying?"
One last note for now about Switzerland and the Swiss. Other than the evil Dorchmuller (who in fact seemed pleasant) everyone was polite, kind, and very helpful. People were willing to tolerate my attempts to slaughter their language and then would kindly chat in English. Nice people as far as I could tell in my short stay. Pretty city. Nice place to visit. If only Swiss Air would do something about SAS.
3:00 a.m., why am I awake? I was tired when I went to bed. Somehow I just never quite got into the nice, deep sleep that I'd had for the past two days. K has been sick for two days and he was scared of something tonight so he crawled into bed with us.
Loads of job thoughts rolling through my brain at the moment. That is certainly part of it.
Could it be dinner? I ate plenty of food for dinner since I plan on doing a long run this morning. I didn't over-eat, just two chicken breasts and a bunch of broccoli. The only thing I can think of is that I didn't have milk with dinner like I did for the past two nights, I had a glass of red wine. I'll watch that over the next few days and see if nights I drink milk with dinner if things go better.
