Hi all!! Been a while. I have been checking in just not participating much. Life does that.
As the title above suggests I have kind of lost my way as far as diving goes. I will get interested again, look for a trip then kind of not pull the trigger. In analyzing why I looked at the usual suspects. Interests changing? Nah, I still love diving and seeing far away places. Money? Maybe a little but no so much as to totally take me out of the game. Lack of a SO with the same interest. Maybe, a little of that too. But isn't that what this group is about?
The real answer is that the cost benefit of air travel has me disillusioned. The Truk/Palau trip 2 years ago was a complete disaster and I have not left the country since. Outbound flight, screwed up. Return flight worse. Travel insurance drama. Just all in all a big mess. Not really anyone's fault just a calamity of errors. Even the domestic flights I have taken recently have all been delayed, mechanical trouble, weather, blah blah blah. And the way airlines treat us these days! Just a number/cargo. I think they would all be happier if they could just knock us out for the duration, like in the move The Fifth Element. If I treated my customers like that I would have been flipping burgers 15 years ago!
I know what most people will say, "That's the way it is now." Or, "just stay flexible." Or, "Move" And yeah you are right and I get it, but there comes a point where you look at a trip and just know it will be nothing but a nightmare to get there and back. No one airline is the problem. They all suck! Flying makes me anxious enough without having to sleep on an inspection table in an airport next to the homeless! Airlines take no responsibility for your care. You are 10's of thousands of miles from home with no resources and they just look at you across the counter and say, "Our schedule is not guaranteed." " It's the weather/a broken johnson rod/ air traffic control/ insert your favorite excuse here." "I can route you through Hoboken. I live in Colorado and this is Honolulu. Sorry that is all I have" All this runs through my mind. So I just end up closing the browser window without hitting the go button.
It's sad really that it is so bad as to be the first thing I now think about. Diving has always been a huge part of my life but it just doesn't seem worth it these days. Every person has their own cost/benefit scale and mine seems to have shifted very subtly. We have traded too much of our service requirements away for low cost and let the airlines absolve themselves of a lot of responsibilities for taking care of us as customers. How does everyone else feel? Probably not going to get much of a response because if someone is disillusioned they will be less likely to check in but might turn into an interesting conversation anyway.