Into a holding pattern
The diagnosis came in today
A has an agressive thyroid cancer. It will require an complicated surgery to remove and will then be followed up with chemotherapy. From what we were told, he can’t return to a part 121 airline until 1 year after completing chemo. And he’s 5 weeks from being at the company 1 year, which would afford us some better protection and benefits.
My head is spinning
Things I wish I had figured out earlier
I don’t have time to worry about a lot of things; I have too much else on my plate. So I’m releasing my worries about these small things and becoming zen about them. I’m letting them go b/c there is nothing I can do about them.
When A has to leave to catch a commute flight to work, he is incapable of leaving our place on time. It doesn’t matter if the flight is at 6am or 6pm, he won’t get out of our house on time. It’s just him, there is nothing I can do about it. He’s yet to miss a flight though and thankfully it doesn’t carry over to his show times.
A needs 2 full sets of travel clothing- one to take and one for the wash. Several times we’ve been stuck late the night before a trip doing laundry for something (socks, undershirts, his favorite off duty T-shirt…) he needs to take on his trip the next morning. Since his time at home doesn’t always coincide with my laundry schedule, it’s easier to just always have one clean set waiting for him. Sometimes he’s going to have to be happy with wearing his second most favorite off duty T shirt.
Pilots are gossips. I don’t know why I thought that the pilot profession would be immune to it, but it isn’t. Every time A gets into the cockpit, there’s a discussion about “what have you heard/read/picked up through osmosis?” I know there is occasionally some down time in the cockpit and it’s an easy subject to talk about, but it seems like some people spend an inordinate amount of time worrying about the future. As a pilot, you aren’t likely to influence management decisions so why obsess over it?
A has a flight attendant groupie. She picks up trips specifically b/c he’s on them. Or at least that’s what she told him. She’s young (under 21), somewhat lacking in social skills (due to a strict fundamentalist, home-schooled exist prior to getting on with the airline), and 10 minutes into their first trip announced to both A and the CA that she “didn’t sleep with married men” (after asking whether they were married at minute 9…). A telling her that married or not, he wasn’t interested in her seems to have set her world off kilter b/c she spent the rest of the trip trying to find out why. I think it made him appreciate a secure woman such as myself even more.
And now my worries are free like butterflies to propagate the world over.
She’ll probably write about you in her blog tomorrow…
It’s my favorite time of year- when the newspaper prints all of the random overheard love quotes collected by readers. Enjoy!
part 1- here
part 2- here
part 3- here
Real life is boring
I try to keep this blog about the aviation related parts of my life, but lately there hasn’t been much to write about. I guess that’s good. There’s little things here and there, but nothing lately that’s been worthy of its own post. A comes, A goes, life goes on.
While A was here recently, I got to listen in on the pilot conference call with the CEO of the company. It was really interesting to listen to and hear some truth behind the rumors. Basically, pilots can call in from where-ever and listen in on a giant conference call. After an update by the CEO, people are free to ask questions of him and he will answer them to the best of his ability. Of course, the CEO painted a rosy picture of the future of the airline while rumors run rampant about base closures, investors pulling out and a million other things. But I think it was great that the pilots got a chance to candidly ask the CEO questions.
We also hosted A’s friend on Superbowl Sunday while he was here on a layover. It was interesting to talk to someone from a different base and hear his take on all the news and rumors.
We hear there’s going to be a 20% reduction in lines in the next few months, which may or may not put A back on reserve (we’re hoping not). Already there have been reductions in the lines from our local airport as they concentrate the flying in another part of the US. He’s had to turn to other airlines to commute out to his base, whereas he used to be able to do it solely on his own. But whatever works.
I watched both the American and British versions of Airline. It was interesting to see the difference in the two. I had first thought that the British staff were mean compared to the Americans. But then, at the same time, there were some instances where they went out of their way to do things I don’t think the Americans ever would have done. So I guess it could go either way.
I saw that UAL was going to start charging for people who checked more than one bag (link here). I’m not sure that I agree with the way that they are implementing the rule, but there is no doubt that it will generate some revenue. The comments were the most interesting part of the article.
Maybe A will have a good flying story when he gets home in a few days…