thirteen ways

I am the usual grumpy Joe who posts to complain about the state of air travel in the US. Today something so off-putting happened during my TSA screening process I think I may have shed a tear of joy, though it was hard to tell through my haze of bewilderment.

To set the scene, I was on my way to the gate for my flight home to Chicago from Richmond. The line at screening was unexpectedly long for a Sunday afternoon in Richmond, but I had plenty of time so I wasn’t too panicked. When I got to the agent at the scanning machine and laid out all my stuff (properly separated, no liquid, shoes directly on the belt, laptop in its own bin) Michael (the agent) inquired:

“How are you today?”

“Doing well thanks, going home for a few days.”

“Do you have any liquids in your carry-ons?”

“No Sir.”

“What is in this case?” he asked, pointing to my Wiseman triple case.

“Musical instruments.”

“Okay, I’m going to hold this back until the machine is clear and send it through by itself so it doesn’t crash into anything on the other side.”

“Uhh…Thanks!” (as if a small moon had fallen on my head)

On the other side, a different agent took my case out by hand so it wouldn’t shoot down the ejection ramp and gingerly carried it to a table at the exit.

Perhaps this is new policy for TSA or maybe it was an isolated incident by a few gentle souls. My theory is that I likely overdid it with the Axe body spray this morning.