How does that work?

What a wild couple of days! I'm back home—the plane landed very late, and here I am—already up as I have a presentation to do this morning—the final show-and-tell for a class. 

Thankfully, it's just show and tell, and the class is small, so the presentation was easy to put together! 

Well, Dad and I were back at it. This time, we wanted to see what the inside of his printer looked like and how easy it would be to clean the printer heads! 

Working on the printer

We took it apart to see how easy it would be to clean the heads. He's going to need a cleaning kit to force the liquid through the print heads, so I put it back together for him. It's not rocket science, and we found a video that was almost the same model, so it was easy to follow along. 

Then we messed with wireless printing so I could show him how that worked. Finding the Wi-Fi name and password took a bit of investigation, but then we were good to go and tested wireless and hardwire, which, of course, he uses!

I'm not knocking it - if it works, then use it. If it doesn't, then don't touch it. So when I left, it was all working just fine with the printer hardwired to the computer. But he can figure that kind of stuff out, but he's not into Bluetooth. 

I was actually showing him how Bluetooth worked, so he might be able to explain it to his sister. Hmm—I doubt that, but I'm not going there! And for the Apple people among you - it's called AirPrint, but it's just Bluetooth! 

Oh, the shower? I caved and went to the front desk again. She asked me what room I was in, which made me suspect that I was not the first one to ask about this. And you can tell that people have done everything to "force" the shower to work because the entire mechanism is loose in the wall. 

What diverts the water to the shower head? See that ring right at the spout? You have to manipulate that to divert the water. It's the most ridiculous thing I've ever seen. It's not easy to spot or turn, and there were absolutely ZERO instructions in the hotel. 

A ridiculous design

I did have someone send me a message to tell me about this kind. Yes, it was the same mechanism, but they were too late! I had already asked. 

This is a Kohler shower, and I think it's just silly! 

On the way out of town, I had one errand to do for my parents, and then I was on the road. I hit "traffic" in Saskatoon, which was a non-event! But I filled the car with gas, dropped it off and my suitcases, and all was good. I was going to use the kiosk to get my bag tags, but two agents were sitting there doing nothing, so I went up and chatted with them. There was no danger of getting the wrong tag on the wrong bag this time! 

I had time for a nice big salad for dinner, and then it was time to board the plane, which was scheduled to leave at 7:45 PM. 

I booked this ticket earlier this week, and when I chose my seat, there were oodles of empty seats. However, the plane was full. How does that happen? You can't tell me that I'm the only one to book at the last minute. Or perhaps those people had tickets, but with the fare they chose, they could not select their seat when booking. It's probably a bit of both. 

OK—here's something you might be interested in knowing how it works. Air Canada now has a scanning system that allows you to know the status of your checked luggage. Of course, each piece of luggage has a bar code —that is not new. 

If you have the Air Canada app, you will receive a notification about the status of your bag. 

Here's how it works: I happened to be in the absolute right seat on the plane—24F—to see this in action. 

The first notification at 17:32 was when the ticket agent scanned the bar codes on my luggage. Then, they sent the luggage off into the bowels of the airport—perhaps to be seen again, perhaps not! 

Then, somewhere along the line, the luggage gets onto a luggage cart waiting to be put on the plane. I suspect that is the second notification at 17:45. 

The third one was interesting. I glanced out the window and spotted my bags on the luggage cart. The second the bag was put on the belt, I got a notification on my phone that the bag was loaded. That was at 19:26. WAIT???? How did that happen? I mean, it was instantaneous! 

Loading my luggage onto the plane

Did you notice how much time there was between me checking that bag in and it getting on the plane? Oodles of time!!!

So, how did that notification come? I could not see anything scanning the bag tags. When we arrived, I was looking out the window, and one guy threw something with a lit screen at another person. You can see the device in the person's hand—the one on the right-hand side of this picture. 

Scanning the bag tags

Yes - that is a hand scanner and they hand scan every bag that comes off the plane. That was at 1:00 AM. And yes - the notification was instant! 

The bags must have been scanned again when they arrived at the carousel. It took 18 minutes from the time they were hand-scanned to the time they were delivered on the carousel. Now, if my bag was the first bag off the plane, I had to wait for all the other bags to be unloaded, driven to the belt system, and loaded onto the carousel. Considering the size of the airport, the amount of luggage, and what gate we were at, it's not that bad! 

But when those bags arrived at the carousel, it was crazy. They were coming faster than Lucille Ball with the chocolate episode! 

If you haven't seen this, it's hilarious about how different countries handle baggage. 

I like the tracking system which I suspect is Air Canada's way of covering their butt and to prove that wait times are NOT as long as people imagine them to be. 

I love Air Canada, and it's the only airline I fly unless I have no choice in Europe or elsewhere. 

Anyway, I thought you might be interested in seeing how that system worked because I happened to be in the right place at the right time! 

Needless to say, the girls, especially Murphy, were ecstatic to see me last night. They are circling in the office, knowing that they are going for a walk! That is the only thing they care about! 

There'll be no time to declutter today as I have some writing and machine embroidery to finish. And I imagine I'm going to need a nap, as I napped on the plane, but maybe for an hour. 

It's good to be back home again! I had a great visit with my parents, and that's all that counts! But I bet my Dad will be excited to return to the Museum today!

Have a super day!!!

Ciao!!!