Melissa and I returned Monday from an excellent Bradford family reunion in Hood River, Oregon, which is about sixty miles east of Portland. We saw a lot of really interesting and fascinating sights in the area and, more importantly, spent a lot of quality time with my extended family. But unfortunately, that meant I had to fly.
I managed to avoid the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) nude photos and feel-ups, but only by sheer luck. Agents at Dulles International Airport were subjecting almost all travelers to these Fourth Amendment violations, but I was randomly pulled-out of the line and sent through a regular metal detector. At Portland International Airport, only about half of the travelers were being violated while the other half went through normal metal detectors; I happened to be in the lucky half. Yes, it’s a brave new world here in America.
Anyway, somebody must have been carrying a virus on one of our two flights back . . . which United Airlines kindly recirculated over-and-over through the cabin. Half of our travel party was ill within a few days, myself included. From mid-day Wednesday through to today I’ve been spending most of my time resting and drinking fluids, although I’m finally starting to feel a bit better today.
I did accomplish one thing though: I built out most of my election night live coverage site, complete with an electoral map and liveblog. It’s going to be much easier for me to update in real-time than the setups I’ve used in the past, so you’ll get your live results faster and with fewer errors than before. You can get a look by going to http://election.scottbradford.us/.