Well, I've been completely fucked over this week by the bureaucratic nightmare known as the DoD. First, I was originally scheduled to be out of the office for two weeks for a conference in San Antonio, TX then take off directly to Wichita, KS for a business meeting. Next, I get a call the day before I'm supposed to take off for Wichita telling me that I have to go observe troubleshooting on a problem plane at Laughlin AFB near Del Rio, TX. The "only" way for a government employee such as myself to get to Del Rio is to fly to San Antonio, TX and drive 2.5 hours West to Laughlin. Here's the kicker:
I'm already in San Antonio for a conference, but my bosses call me the think it's better to fly back to Dayton and re-book travel on the following Monday. Ok, a gigantic pain in the ass, but no big deal. I arrive to work on Monday thinking I can book travel and get to Laughlin on Tuesday. Except the Defense Travel System (DTS) is down...and turns out to stay down through Tuesday. FUCK DTS. Write your congressman because someone at the DoD (that fucker Rumsfeld, I bet) wasted $500M on this shit-tastic system. So I manage to do this big workaround Tuesday morning...but the only flight to San Antonio leaves Dayton at 7 pm and arrives at 11 pm. Remember that 2.5 hour drive? Yea, I did it Tuesday night/Wed morning arriving on base at 2 am. The next couple of days proceed without incident, but the last big hurdle is the only decent flight back to Dayton from San Antonio leaves at 6:30 am on Friday. Ok, another big pain in the ass, but it's do-able. My grand plan was to drive directly from base after working on the plane, eat dinner in San Antonio and then sleep at the airport until my plane leaves. Yes, I know I'm on the government's dime, but I still have a conscious and don't want to waste money. Well, I get to the airport and waste 30 minutes trying to return my rental car because some genius decided to locate all the car rental agencies in some unmarked location off airport property. After finally getting my car returned, I arrive at the airport to find that the United ticket counter is closed and won't re-open until 4:15 am. So I manage to check myself in online at the local USO and proceed to the security check to find it...wait for it...FUCKING CLOSED! This fucking airport's security checkpoints close! OH MY FUCKING NON-EXISTENT GOD! I don't know how this city can bill itself as anywhere close to "major" when their fucking airport closes. After spending a week in the city taking in the sights after the conference day, I actually started to like this goddamned city. Too bad the airport has officially killed it for me. | 
