Well, not really. But I am in New York. Unfortunately it is a short trip. Very short trip. I’ll be back home tomorrow night.

But (drum roll please), I did get to fly Delta today, and that included a nonstop on a Shuttle America Embraer 170 from MSY to LGA.

Comments? I like the way Delta is using a lot of pre-recorded professionally done audios for various functions — both in the gate area and on the aircraft. Even though I was on a Delta Connection flight, the professional audio for the safety run-through sounded like the same voice to me.

One thing about the flight attendants on the flight. Very professional. Very accommodating. No giggles. Just a good job.

However, there were no markings of any kind on the Delta gates in N.O. – which meant folks kept going up and asking anyone they could find if they were at the right gate. The big LCD screens were still behind the gate stations — but none of them were working.

The flight was maybe 2/3rds full, if that. Because of that I had two seats to myself. No complaints.

We did have turbulence most all flight — we were really rockin’ and rollin’ there for a while — but we all know that is out of the hands of any of us.

Interesting mix of birds at LGA, as there always is. I also finally got to see one of the somewhat iridescent Air Canada light blue/green liveries. Everyone who has seen it is right. It does look great in person — but it just doesn’t translate well in photos.

Also saw a couple of old dirty ratty looking Northwest red tails. And one Delta wavy tail that looked like it needed a new paint job …..like yesterday.

Funny thing happened after an otherwise great flight. They could not get the jet way to work right. Or at least they couldn’t get it to get where it needed to be on the side of our aircraft. After about a 20 minute wait, we were finally told we were going to deplane by airstairs.

It was 1953 all over again.

Those getting on the plane had already been herded downstairs as well, and there must have been at least 10 or 12 security types milling around making sure one of the sheep did not get away from its respective flock.

Of course, the good thing about that whole little snafu is that our luggage was out and circling way before we even got down to baggage claim.

It was a beautiful day in New York. It’s nice to be back. If only for a short trip.