Christmas at Home, Thankful I’m not flying SouthWest

Having just read about Southwest Airline’s cancellation of 5,400 flights in less than 48 hours, I’m doubly thankful for our very chill Christmas celebration this year.

Did Elon Musk buy Southwest Airlines too?
— Esther Ciammachilli (Radio Barbie) (@EstherCinDC) December 27, 2022

“Did Elon buy Southwest Airlines too?”

For the first time in my forty-seven years, my immediate family didn’t leave the house on Christmas, and it was glorious. On Friday night we gathered at my brother’s house for chili with my side of the family. Then we had Christmas Eve brunch with my wife’s parents along with her sister’s and brother’s families. Each destination was around thirty minutes from our house. On Christmas Day, we had no commitments other than opening presents and welcoming my wife’s parents and her sister’s family for breakfast at ten. Our kids spent the rest of the day enjoying their gifts, and I even got in a 5K run.

Now, contrast all of that with anyone who tried to fly anywhere. This thread on Hacker News has firsthand accounts of rental cars being sold out, luggage in one city while its owners are stranded in another for a couple of days, and people being separated from their medicine as well. It’s not the end of the world for them, but it does make it easy for me to count my blessings.