By Dan Irvin

Well, my friends, 2015 went out like a lion, did it not?

I’m among the unfortunate few who were trying to fly out of Chicago last Monday. I’m assured the scene was the same at Midway airport, but it was O’Hare that was our vantage point for what at times felt like the set of a J. J. Abrams film about some apocalypse.

Process engineers need to rethink the United Airlines system of baggage handling that incorporates the determination that the best way to handle checked luggage on a cancelled flight is to send them on to their respective destinations as soon as possible. So literally hundreds of thousands of bags travelled unaccompanied by passengers on Tuesday to points around the world, where they went unclaimed, then returned to their originating airports.

I’m not making this up.

I will give credit where it’s due. After our suitcase arrived back at O’Hare on Wednesday morning, they put it on an American flight to Bloomington so we saved a drive to Chicago.

And I’ll also say we ended up lucky that we didn’t get to spend the week as planned celebrating the holidays with my in-laws. Yes, lucky I say.

This way we discovered five days sooner that our basement had flooded. It probably saved our dry wall.

So count the Irvin’s among the storm victims.

It’s so sad to see the foliage devastation on the curbs waiting for retrieval.

All of this said, we count our blessings that we have possessions to be destroyed in the first place. We who have lost something should keep a kind thought for those here and around the globe who have nothing.

Bring on the New Year.