It isn’t one of the new electronic passports. It has the same design as my old one and not the new design. It doesn’t have the logo which indicates an RFID chip containing identifying information. I am sort of relieved that I can go another ten years before I get a privacy violating one.

The only potential problem is my passport. I let it expire a year ago. The passport office is swamped by applications from the new requirements for passports when returning from North America. I sent my renewal off yesterday paying for expedited processing and overnight delivery. The expedited processing is supposed to be up to 3 weeks. Luckily, they just started a waiver program where the receipt of a passport application and photo ID is sufficient to get back.

I also had dinner with some friends, Doug and Liza, while I was there. I drove out to their house in Benicia and got to see their baby daughter Morgan.

The Waterloo airport is a small regional one: two gates, one small baggage claim, one airline, one floor, and one check-in counter. Not only was there no line to check-in, the attendant only showed up to take my bag. This was the return flight for the flight down from Friday. Just after everybody got off, they opened the security check point and took everybody through. There was barely a line. And then immediately boarded the flight. I think the ticket agent was the same women who checked IDs at the security checkpoint.

The plane was a Saab turboprop. The plane had three seats across, one and two, and 12 rows. They had us all sit in the back for balance reasons. The copilot was also the cabin attendant and gave the safety briefing. He even read off the individual connecting flights; he had everybody’s names and itinerary. I think we took off early since all five passengers were on-board. The flight was only 40 minutes long.

Connectivity is a public good and free connectivity is even better. But there will always be locations where there isn’t connectivity. Currently, this includes flying. Online applications will always have problems with areas of poor connectivity. Instead of always-on web applications, a better model is email where it is possible to download messages and work offline. It is better to be online to have immediate communication and to be able to access email from anywhere.

For my fifth reunion, I still lived in the place I lived as a grad student. It was close enough to walk or ride to campus. I was also unemployed at the time which wasn’t impressive.

The best part was seeing my niece Rose for the first time. She was three and a half months at the time. She was very cute and lovable. I loved watching her wiggle her arms.

One cool thing is Neil and Lara’s friends the Olsens visited. Both the Olsen children were old friends; they brought their significant others and their mom came out to spend Thanksgiving with her family.

For Thanksgiving itself, we went to my Uncle Tim and Aunt Judy’s place in Raleigh. There were 14 people at dinner.