Snarky Tom's Rants, Raves and Ruminations

I'm not going to rehash yesterday's events as much as fill-in some details. The 2.5 hours delay was due to mechanical problems on the Airbus A330 in Philadelphia. The passengers (us) waiting in Cancun had it considerably better than the poor saps in Philadelphia wishing to get to Cancun to start their vacations. First, the air conditioning was not working on the plane where the temperatures reached nearly 90 degrees. The passengers were all de-boarded. I refuse to use the phrase "deplaned". If you board a plane, you de-board, un-board, dis-board or just plain get off the plane. There really isn't a term for getting off a plane. Deplane was something Hervé Villechaize said at the beginning of Fantasy Island . Okay. He actually says Da Plane. I'm taking literary license here. There's a term for boats, embark and disembark. The captain on a ship does not say, "You may deboat the ship now." Or, "Please deship the QEII at this time." But...

Yes, it is Day 5. The last day of my 2014 Mexican (Cancun/Playa Del Carmen) vacation. Of course, the weather is beautiful exactly the opposite of the rest of the week. For the most part the sky is beautiful azure and not a threat of rain. But what is a needle in the eye is that we are in a delay. The US Airways flight at the time of check-in (Noon-ish) had not left Philadelphia airport yet. That's a 3 hour flight. The earliest the airship of fools can arrive will be about 4:30 p.m. The earliest we can get back to the states is 7:30 - 8 p.m. And, above it all, I think I'm coming down with a head cold. Why me? Why not, right? Next time I will have to do more research. Don't go south during hurricane season. Most of the rain we received this week stemmed from a hurricane-like storm in the Gulf on the west side of the Yucatán Peninsula. However, I am really thankful that we didn't travel to Bermuda last week or this week. I'm sure that vacation would have been immed...

Day 4: The penultimate vacation day for 2014, until Christmas. The day started like all the others. I got to sleep in while the rest of you slugs went to work. We ate breakfast and lunch at one of the 5 all you can eat places. We went to the shops again. We went to the pool again. We had an interesting turn of events at the pool. More to follow. We dined at the Brazilian themed, El Rodizio. We were sandwiched between two tables of Frenchmen. To my left, two young snooty arrogant attractive young ladies who just didn't get the idea behind Brazilian restaurant buffet. To my right, a family of five. Dad, Mom, two over 18 daughters and the elder daughter's paramour. They were late for the seating because they got lost because they were coming from a sister Iberostar property. They were the lesser of the snooties, but arrogant all the same. I don't hate the French, just everything about them. After another stellar meal, I paid to get Wi-Fi access in the room. If I knew this two ...

Day 3: Not as eventful or interesting as the prior two days We walked a lot. We had the same breakfast as the day before. After breakfast we walked to the Market Plaza...like the day before. We walked around twice maybe three times. It's a small ass Market Plaza. We people watched. And what you see when you don't have your shooting irons. We got back to the room...like the day before. We went to the pool...like the day before. And it started to rain...like the day before. We ate lunch at the same place..like the day before. Isn't vacationing fun? I feel like I'm in a bad version of Groundhog Day. However, a rainy paid vacation day off in Mexico beats the hell out of a dry, warm, nice sunny day at work in Bristol. The pool was enjoyable. Not too crowded. Not too drunk. Just the right amount of eye candy (I'm speaking solely of myself and TC.) You should see the livestock swimming and drinking in the pools. After we went back to the room for some wild lovemaking. ...

I think that's a Cowsills song or album title, but a very fitting title to Day 2 of my 2014 Autumn Mexican vacation. I'm writing this in the market plaza where the only Wi-Fi exists for miles. I'm smelling tobacco smoke blowing in from somewhere in this plaza where they allow people to smoke. No one has told the Mexicans or the Euro trash that smoking is a disgusting, smelly and unhealthy filthy habit or it's possible that they just...don't...care. Bastardos! After a nearly 24-30 hours of straight downpour, the rain finally let up enough to allow us (TC and I) to walk the beach and swim in the gigantic pool. We breakfasted as we will all week at one of the two all you can gorge yourself buffets, La Plaza o El Mercado, at the hotel. This hotel is partnered with a sister hotel, Paraiso Beach. Half the restaurants are on the one property and the other half on ours, but we share. How nice? I'm not sure I like that. I never got high marks for playing well or sharin...

I'm on vacation. This means I should be relaxed and enjoying myself. That hasn't started yet. Considering this day started at what we used to refer to as Oh Dark 30 or Zero Dark Thirty. Because of the recent film titled that that revels about the capture and subsequent justified execution of Osama Bin Laden, we now need to describe this ungodly hour as ACD, that is, Ass-Crack of Dawn. Today the ACD started at 2:30 a.m. I was in and out of the shower by 3 a.m. and on the road by 3:45 a.m. to the airport off-site parking. The second hand smoked scented shuttle dropped us at Terminal A by 4:15 a.m. 2 hours and 15 minutes before our flight only to find that we have a 45 minute wait for the USAir staff to arrive to work. Why do we need to be at the airport 2 hours before our flight when the baggage check-in people don't start work until 5 a.m? WTF? Being first in line we zipped through baggage check-in and headed to the anal probing station. At least that's what I was a...

Generally, I don't post Television program reviews, but I thought I'd give it a try. The first one is a current era whodunit. The second is an early twentieth century period piece. Gracepoint is the American version of the British TV whodunit, Broadchurch , that aired last year on BBC America. I watched the first episode of the mini-series. I was not disappointed. It appears the Fox mini-series is following the British series' script. The location has changed. Instead of a Welsh seaside town, it is set in northern Californian. The victim is a murdered preteen boy.  Gracepoint is a ten-episode series whereas Broadchurch was eight-episodes. The reason for the extra two episodes is because Broadchurch was originally created to be ten episodes long. However the British network ITV would only commission eight episodes, forcing the creators to cut two episodes. Fox allowed the creators free choice over how many episodes Gracepoint would be, so they chose to restore the miss...