Making headway
A got a call from Crew Services today with his base assignment. And of course, since we live on the east coast, he’s been assigned to a base on the west coast. No word on when his LOFT or IOE are going to be- that’s Crew Scheduling’s responsibility and Crew Services can’t give us that info…
So what’s it mean to us? For now, M and I are going to stay put here in FL. There are rumors swirling about that there will be a new east coast base opening within a year, possibly where we live now. So in order to avoid the major disruption of moving twice, we’re staying put until we find out the validity of said rumor. In the long run, we hope to live in base to avoid commuting hassles. And while it would be nice to move in a westerly direction, back towards friends and family, west coast living just isn’t finanacially feasible and our QOL wouldn’t be nearly so high. So for now, he’ll be commuting and we’ll be “exploring our options”.
A has a friend in So Cal who has offered her couch as a free crashpad through the end of the year. Free is free so I think he’s going to take it. It will give him a place to stay until he gets settled in the area and will free up income for important things like payroll deductions for uniforms and chart bags. He’s known her longer than he’s known me, so if something were going to happen between them, it would have happened already. He knows my thoughts about it and I’m not really concerned.
For now, we are just enjoying our time together. Took a 3 day trip to Atlanta for the long weekend, something we haven’t been able to do since we moved here due to schedule constraints. And now it’s back to real life.
Returning to normal or some semblance thereof…
A did make it home Saturday after all. Even managed to get his ID before he came home so he could use the crew line for security and jump seat on a few flights while he’s waiting for his IOE. No idea yet how long he’ll be home with us or where he’ll be assigned once he officially starts. Right now is the rush to figure out all the new hire stuff, direct deposit, how to avoid the seemingly endless emails from ALPA, how to bid and all the other tasks that come with starting at a new company.
It’s been nice to have him home, but it has taken some getting used to on both our parts. He wakes up at 2:30am and panics because he thinks he’s late for his sim time. All he dreams about is flying RJ’s and emergency procedures. The arms still fly up reaching for controls when I bump into him at night. He’s so unused to having free time and not being directed by scheduling or a syllabus of checklists to cram that he spent an entire day doing nothing b/c he didn’t know what to do first. We realized that now that his friends have also been hired away by airlines that he has few friends left in town to hang out with. An hour after he came home I told him to go back to IAH because I was already tired of him and his opinions. I’m bristling at having to share the absolute power in decision making for the household. We have different ideas of what we want to do on friday night, Memorial Day weekend, after dinner. Sometimes being relieved of childcare duties leaves me feeling left out, instead of freed up.
But it’s also been so sweet to just be able to hang out with him again. Listening to the giggles coming from the bedroom while I’m in the shower, walking hand in hand after dinner down by the river, having him tell me how much he missed sleeping next to me. Being able to have conversations with another adult about things is priceless. So we work through the tough spots and enjoy the tender ones.
Next month we’ll be attempting to non-rev out to a family wedding in the mid-west. With 2.5 months of seniority. I’m doing my best to maximize our chances of actually getting on. I’ve non-reved all my life, but I was born into 12+ years of seniority, so this will be a first for all of us. We’ll see how it goes.
Passed
Woke up to a text message this morning from A saying he had made it through. Sent him a congratulatory text message back and promptly fell back asleep for another two hours. So now he’s done except for the LOFT portion, supposedly to take place Sunday am.
Rumor has it that they are rescheduling LOFT’s for father out, so he MAY be able to come home as early as tonight. Good news except that preping for that means running the wild dogs out of the house and washing some clothes so I can show up at the airport in something a little nicer than a burlap sack. I’ve been a little lazy this week…
I’m working on infusing some Zen into the whole situation. He’ll be home when he gets home and until then I should enjoy every day as it comes. I never know what it will bring.
Delays
First A was supposed to have his LOFT on Sunday morning and come home that evening. Then the sim broke and they got a day behind. And his partner ATR’d which may put him another day behind. And now because of the delays, he’s got a new instructor for his session 7, recommendation ride tomorrow morning (2:30am sharp). He certainly is being put through the paces in handling stress with all this.
He’s tired, he wants to come home, I want him to come home. Every time I start counting down the days, more days get added. It’s frustrating to say the least. I may have to run down to the airport and get a big whiff of av gas to remember what he smells like. At least it would block out the choking smoke blanketing the city due to the rampant fires burning north, east and south of us.