My Personal Cell Phone Lot

Friday, January 07, 2005, at 10:58AM

By Eric Richardson

LAX recently opened a cell phone lot, where you can wait for free until the passenger you're picking up gives you a call and tells you they're ready. It's a great idea, but I prefer something a little friendly. So that's why I'm sitting at Panera Bread right now, waiting for Kathy's flight to come into LAX. Her plane has started its initial descent; the tracker says it's at 28,000ft and 20 minutes out.

Driving past the airport on the way here it appeared that planes were taking off and landing in opposite the normal direction. Since the prevailing wind in LA comes off the ocean, typically planes both take off and land facing the sea. Our abnormal weather right now must have brought atypical air flows.