[BLU/Officers] Webcam for peering into things

[Kurt Keville]

Unbelievable. I am so sorry for you. I will ask a guy I know about these
rebreather masks that he bought for air travel. Much more comfortable but I
am not sure the airlines recognize them.

We'll make 22 a good start for you, Shankar. Brian, want to start a
computer company? Get Bill Buck involved? We would have to move to Texas
but I want to do that anyhow. :)  Be close to AMD...

On Sun, Dec 26, 2021 at 11:55 AM Shankar Viswanathan <
shankar.viswan at gmail.com> wrote:

> On 12/14/21 17:01, Bill Ricker wrote:
>
> Safe Travels, Shankar!
>
>
> Thanks everyone! It was a really hectic trip, but everything worked out
> well. I was able to spend time with family that I've only seen on video for
> the past 2.5 years.
>
> The travel though was really brutal. My itinerary was non-optimal due to
> the last minute nature of my flight booking. This caused a lot of headaches
> due to various COVID requirements of every transit airport along the way.
> On the way back, the US changed the requirements of a negative test from
> within 72 hours before departure to 24 hours before departure - later
> amended to day before departure (to account for flights that may be leaving
> late evening). But my flight was at 2:30am and nobody could tell me if a
> sample from day X-2 would be acceptable where X was the actual date on my
> ticket (nobody would guarantee results under 24 hours). It was also not
> clear if a rapid test would be sufficient since my first layover point
> (Dubai) required results from a full RT-PCR test. They also required
> testing from one of the approved labs - which I can understand as there
> could be rampant cheating otherwise. But the nearest approved facility was
> 75 miles from where I was - and it was an absolute nightmare to get to in
> torrential monsoon rains and flooded streets.
>
> In addition, since I had a 10+ hour layover at Dubai, they would not
> consider me a "transit" passenger - which meant I had to also meet the
> requirements of the UAE government as someone "entering" the UAE. This
> required getting another test at the airport 6 hours before departure -
> they won't even let you into the terminal building till you show a negative
> result from that test. So I had to get to the airport 6+ hours before my
> flight and wait outside in the parking lot till they emailed me the results
> 2.5 hours before departure (going back home after submitting the sample
> wasn't an option since home is 2 hours from the airport).
>
> The worst part is that interpreting the various rules is left to the
> person at the airline checkin counter - my situation required speaking to
> their supervisor's supervisor and begging them to let me on the flight as
> there was no way I could satisfy all the rules given my long layover. In
> addition, the could not verify the result from the QR code on my result -
> the URL in the QR code did not work because the website appeared to be down
> for maintenance at that early hour. I was allowed to board only after I
> agreed to taking another rapid COVID test at the next hop - for which I had
> to pay the equivalent of $50 (they didn't issue me the boarding pass for my
> final leg till I got that result and I just barely made the flight).
>
> The second worst part was wearing KN95 masks for 42 hours straight - I
> used a fresh one approx. every 8 hours. Only break was while
> eating/drinking at the airports or the flight. Except one leg, the flights
> were relatively empty so I didn't have to worry too much about someone on
> the next seat being unmasked at the same time I was eating. I breathed
> properly only once I got home - and it was a big sigh of relief after the
> COVID test I took 3 days after my return came out negative (I had to wait
> an hour in freezing cold in Cambridge to get the test).
>
> So, I highly recommend avoiding international flights unless absolutely
> essential. Also, try to get the most direct flight possible - fewer (and
> shorter) layovers the better.
>
> -Shankar
>
>
>
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://lists.blu.org/pipermail/officers/attachments/20211226/27cc7622/attachment.html>