We took Interstate 110W to 105W to the airport. On 105W, I was crossing from one of the left lanes over to one of the right ones, and all of a sudden this loud noise and shaking of the windshield happened, with a huge crack in the glass following. Steve and I were both stunned.
It really was much more of an impact than either of us imagined would happen with a rock bouncing into the windshield. We didn’t see anything. The crack was circular and about the size of a large cantaloupe. Small slivers of glass were on the windshield, and one piece even landed down in the gearshift area on the floor between the seats. Shortly thereafter a crack extended from the circle straight up in a line to the top of the windshield. Bizarre.
We reached the Sheraton Four Points at LAX without further incident. Steve cleared out the car while I checked in. “Mr. Martin, we’re out of the room you reserved, one room with two queen-size beds. Since you’re a Preferred Starwood member, we’ve upgraded you to an executive suite. In fact, it’s a double upgrade. You’ll find a basket of fruit in the room. All that’s complimentary.”
We got the luggage from the car, went up to room 733, and found a room with two queen-size beds, and no bigger than any other room. The “fruit basket” turned out to be a little wicker basket the size you get your sandwich in at a fast-food place, and it contained a strawberry fruit bar (was that the fruit?), a bag of Planter’s peanuts, a bag of Lay’s potato chips, and a package of six Oreos.
The room did have a broadband Internet connection in it, though, so I immediately hopped on that. I called the front desk first to find out if it was free. (You would think it would be in my big, bad double upgrade room!) They said it was. Connecting, it asked me to enter my Starwood Points account number and password. I tried what I know it is (I verified in my Palm Pilot), and it didn’t work. I called the front desk and asked if all I was supposed to do was enter that information. He said, “Yes. It’s activated.” I tried again and it failed again. There was a drop-down menu, which I clicked on, and the option other than “Starwood Registration” said “Charge to the Room.” I selected that entry, and it let me on. The connection was half as fast (if that) as the 49KB connection I get at the hotel back in Irvine dialing in.
In the morning, under the door, was a bill for $9.95 for “Internet Usage.” I had to go into “Mary mode” in the morning at the front desk. Ah, technology!