Blogging and Back to Commuting

If you've noticed already, I'm blogging a little less because I'm finding most of my time is being spend researching articles and learning how to write correctly.  In other words, I'm learning how to be a little more professional in my news reporting. (www.phonenews.com)  I've written quite a few articles in the last few days but they aren't ones that have gone without editing from the Admin.  =( I'm still having trouble here and there especially because of the fact that I'm so used to writing the way I speak which isn't that proper anyways. 

I'm back to commuting once again.  After this four day trip, I'll be heading back to San Diego on Thursday to hang out with the parents and continue my journey into cleaning and organizing what I can in the house.  It was nice to actually have some time in the Farmhouse and get organized a little bit, but I still have a lot to do there.  More specifically, all the clothes that I brought up from Palm Coast, I probably don't need anymore and other various things I just need to get rid of and throw them in a large giveaway box.  I also have a lot of papers to file as well as play catch up on 7 months worth of logbook entries.  I'm all electronic right now, but I still like to somewhat maintain a paper copy just in case.  That's going to a large undertaking.  Well, onto Atlanta, Georgia followed by a one way to Charlottesville, Virginia for an overnight.  You see, these first two days out of four only have 3 legs total, but the next two combine for an very very busy 11 legs!  It's going to a doosie!

Snowing in Atlanta!!!

After a really long day of flying and losing $200 on craps last night in Harrahs' Omaha, I came back to the crashpad and it started snowing!!!  Check out the pix.  All this snow fell within 1 hour of each other.

Okay, so it might not have been that much snow but it's the most that I have seen ever falling at once. It was so nice and calming. I just wish that my girlfriend was here to enjoy the moment with me. 

I also ended up heading out to a local bar called Bonz in off of Fairburn Road.  They had an awesome Triple Play Hamburger which was basically three different kinds of melted cheeses.  It was tremendous.  I'm probably staying here in Atlanta this weekend to rest and clean up all the stuff that I moved back from Daytona. 

Justin just told me about the Sundance Film Festival this weekend in Salt Lake so I might just hit that up.  Sounds like fun!

Mexico...(part 2)

I woke up early around 6:00AM Saturday Morning still in a daze from moving / driving the entire night before from Daytona to Atlanta.  I pushed the snooze button just once because I knew that I had to get going in order to get ready for a day's excursion to Cuernavaca.  Little did I know what I was about to go through.

Some people that I met in the terminal were quite nice and some advised me to drive, some to not drive and some just thought of how cool it was to be traveling the way I was doing it.  My day's itinerary went like this: Fly to Mexico City (9:45 Eastern - 12:45PM Local --> 4 hour flight), land and find the rental car place which I booked through Expedia, drive from the City to Cuernavaca without a map, somehow find my girlfriend, hang out till 3:00 in the morning, drive back to the City, catch a flight to Orlando and ten connect to Atlanta, take the shuttle back to my car, change into my uniform, head back to the terminal and operate my ship to that night's overnight. 

I got first class which was great but instead of sleeping, I messed around on my computer and read a book.  I should have slept especially with a long road ahead of me. 

Everything went as planned, but there were bumps in the road which included driving 24 kilometers in about 1.5 hours just to get out of the City, driving 1 hour to Cuernavaca, getting lost for about 30 minutes in the city of Cuernavaca and asking a police officer to draw me a map which he did so willingly.  I arrived around  hang out with Adelle and her friends, have dinner, go out Salsa dancing till 1:00AM and then get about 1.5 hours of sleep!  It was all worth it in the end!!!  Adelle's friend were so inviting and awesome to hang out with.  Driving around Mexico in and of itself was an adventure.  I did think though that I had it in me as long as I could be aggressive enough.  I drive a little 5 speed Chevy something that isn't offered in the US because i don't think that it'll pass crash tests it's so small. 

Here's a picture of Adelle and I about 1 hour later in front of a library of sorts in the Zocalo of Cuernavaca. 

He's is one of the few signs along the road of welcoming me back into the city after a 1 hour mountainous drive from Cuernavaca at 4:00 in the morning.  It was nice not having to deal with traffic but filling up the rental car was a hassle let alone trying to find the place that I had to drop it off of.    

I got onto the flight without any problems, first class, ended up in Orlando and saw that an AirTran flight was leaving almost immediately, so I was able to catch a ride on them also in 1st class but the savings in time was spent on the taxiway due to delays for weather.  I still arrived at the time previously planned for, shuttled, changed and headed right back out.  I also got to catch the last 5 minutes of the Chargers game in the rampers' lounge and what an ending!!!  GO CHARGERS!!!  Final Score:

Do you guys like these long blog entries or would you prefer shorter ones?

Here are some pictures of Adelle making it to the top of the mountain / pyramid.  Yeah for buddy!!!  Oh yeah, for those who don't know, Adelle is on volunteer mission where she helps out in an orphanage and also gets to tour around Mexico at the same time.  She's been there for two weeks now so communication has been sparse.  Can't wait till you get back babe!

Moving, Mexico, 4-day (part 1)

Well, I decided to go on an excursion this past weekend all beginning with a notion that I wanted to surprised my lovely sweetheart in the city of Cuernavaca in the state of Merelos just one and half hours south of Meixco City.  The whole notion was originated by spontaneity like most of my "less than 24-hour excursions." (refer back to London) 

Of course, I had to do this all in the middle of a full four day trip followed by two days off then back to work for another four day trip.  In between this all is where I was to take a flight to Daytona Beach, move out, drive back to Atlanta, take an early flight to Mexico City, somehow get to Cuernavaca, drive back up to Mexico City at 3:45 in the morning, make a flight back to Atlanta which connects in Orlando, take the shuttle back to my car, get dressed then head back out for work. 

It all began like this...

"Hey dood, I'm going back to Daytona to vacate the master suite so that I could rent the entire house to students." -me

"I could help you out..." -Kurt

"Sure..." me

Well that's when we made the plans to fly down, rent a one way SUV pack all my stuff in and drive back to Atlanta.  Kurt and I could moved an array of affections that I've collected since I first moved there in 2005, loaded up the 2008 Ford Explorer from Avis Rental Car then headed out.  We stopped by our old flight school, CAPT, and caught up with some instructors and students and also found one of our favorite ground / flight instructors, Cary Green,  at his own facility called Avia Aero Services.  It was great reminiscing about all the times that we had and learning about a few of our other colleagues and just getting reacquainted.  I do miss the kind of educational, promoting, environment that we had at CAPT. 

We drove back making minimal amount of stops which included eating at Woody's BBQ, getting Starbucks' Java Chip Fraps with Red Velvet Cake and fueling up.  We made it back to Atlanta around 12:00AM, upacked and drove back to the airport to drop off our rental.  I got home around 3:00AM due to van time confusion which forced us to wait 30 minutes but needless to say, I was tired when I got home...wake up time for Mexico, 6:00AM.  Thanks for coming along Kurt and helping out.

Updates....

Well, if you have been crawling all over the site lately, you'll see that I have just included all the previous posts from the last 3 years here and imported them all.  All the pictures and whatever all have backlinks all over the place and I want to simply tidy things up a bit.  It's going to be a long work in progress as some of my overnight don't have adequate Internet connection.  Luckily, Newport News is an exception. 

Today included an eleven hour duty day with about seven hours of flying block time.  It was rather on of the longer days but I got a lot of reading done, ate some Quiznos during a 1 hour break which is almost never had, and basically just tried to fly a lit.  My landings were quite as good but it was also one of those days that I had a chance to sit back and be thankful that I'm a freaking pilot!  I'm flying people around!!!  It's still a great feeling and I wish that everyone could have a chance and fly in the flightdeck with me. 

The latest excursion that I have is the the final move from Palm Coast to Atlanta.  I have a couple of items that I need to bring up so that the master bedroom could start being rented out.  It's going to stink to say goodbye, but hey, its only temporary and the fact of the matter is, I need to break even already!  It's costing me too much!

I have to wake up at 4:00AM, so CYA!

BOSTON!!!

Boston, MA [13 October 2007 after landing...]
I took a cab from Boston Logan to the corner of Massachusetts Avenue and Boylston where my friend, Joe - the dentist met me. We then went to his apartment to drop off my belongings and headed straight to a bar where I drank a good amount of Kettle One and Tonic with Joe an some of his friends from school. I ended up meeting Devin, Deon, Yuen, Lynn and Tiger. We had shots and then headed out at closing to get some drunk Chinese food in China Town at Peach Farm. That was awesome dinner. I haven't had that much fun in a while. What a way to start out a spontaneous trip to Boston! I was loving every minute of it.

Boston, MA [14 October 2007 walking...]
We woke up early the next morning, went to Starbucks, then walked all over the city starting out first with Newbury, then to Parish Cafe where I ate an awesome sandwich but the name of it escapes me right now, walked around more, went to Quincy Market by way of the Financial District, straight to the Wharf, past some really nice houses to Little Italy where we stopped my Mike's Pastry (www.mikespastry.com) where I had a Florentine Ricotta Cannoli and a cappuccino, and took the train back to the apartment where we streamed the Raiders at the Chargers' game which we blasted!!! We hung out there for quite a bit until it was time for dinner where we went to a Japanese Hot Pot Restaurant (one of Joe's favorite called Shabu Zen) Walking home, we passed by JP Licks, tried some Pad Thai Ice Cream was a definitely the weirdest, I never wanted to vomit it out so bad ice cream, but I swallowed it with a bitter smile. I went for the Coffee Oreo with Cookie Dough topping instead and that was great. We called it a night.

Boston, MA [15 October 2007 BU and the Triforce of Evil!]
Sitting in the cafeteria of Joe's School typing away and reading, I came up this part of the book I'm currently reading and wanted to write it here.

Excerpt from "The Holographic Universe" Sometimes the relationship between the image and the illness is so striking it is difficult to understand why it is not apparent to the individual involved, as in the case of a psychotherapist who had emergency surgery to remove several feet of dead intestine and then told Siegel, "I'm glad you're my surgeon. I've been undergoing teaching analysis. I couldn't handle all the shit that was coming up, or digest the crap in my life." --> ...nearly all diseases originate at least to some degree in the mind...

In case you don't know why I wanted to put that text there, its in response to the fact that our minds can do anything and manipulate the way that we feel. There is a lot in the book that helps you understand a bigger picture of life and how you can control the way that you feel. It's good stuff. I've definitely come a long way, and this book just helps me out a little bit more! Pick it up! Also pick up "I Am America and So Can You!" by Stephen Colbert. It's just funny and entertaining.

After a quick session on dental x-rays, we sat down at a breakfast place known for its Turkey Hash and eggs named Charlies. It won a multitude of awards and I definitely enjoyed the food. I haven't eaten so many varieties of food in such a short length of time for a while. We went home, changed a bit and then headed back out. I got to see Fenway Park, walked around some more, this is where I took a picture with the famous Citgo Triforce of Evil, (I mean, being that it's a monument of sorts for an original American company, it is no longer tied in with supporting democracy but rather the likes of Hugo Chavez...) crossed over the Charles River into MIT and then to Harvard Yard and through the campus where there was this statue and some about gaining 10 IQ points by touching john Harvard's Shoe.... :-) All this was fun...it was a lot of walking for sure. I enjoyed a Malted Shake at some place (the name escapes me at the moment) but it also won awards. I don't think that Joe and I ever went to a place that didn't have their window plastered with awards and plaques. I guess that's what you get in the food capital of the US. We also had some Mexican food which was good. Took the shuttle home and relaxed...no more walking! =)

Boston, MA [16 October 2007 35 mins...]
I was able to get up early tidy things up a bit in the apartment that Joe and Ha so willing let me stay at, gathered my things and began my journey through the Boston Subway System. It was too easy to find my way around. I timed the whole things from 5:50AM, I arrived on the other side of security awaiting my aircraft at 6:32AM. That included the train ride from Hynes Convention Center to a switch to Government Center, then to the airport shuttle stop where I hopped on a bus for Terminal A, up the stairs, through security and then followed by a long walk to the gate. It was good stuff! Got back to ATL, ate, move my belongings into the Loft from the Master Bedroom (now I'm solo but with only 2 walls...anyone know where to get one of those Chinese privacy screens?) and then got ready to do a four day trip which has been shortened to only 2 days. McAllen, Texas isn't that bad of an overnight. Long flight, but worth it!

October Schedule...

I finally finalized my schedule for October. Hope that it wasn't too late, but if you notice I have a big gap in the latter part of the month. I'm trying to get peeps to go to Costa Rica or something! Anyone want in?

Commuting...

So, as I might have blogged a while ago (August 15th), I'm once again on AirTran Business class instead of riding Delta. This is only because I called AirTran and found out that most of the cabin was completely wide open. It's shameful that I am going to be forced to get use to flying on AirTran and rely on their aircraft and crew because Delta and SkyWest/ASA just signed some "awesome" agreement that is going to force Non-Revs (non revenue passengers) to pay for $5.00 per leg and .01 cents a mile. That means, that if I want my seniority to mean anything on the Non-Rev list, it will end up costing me $40.00 each way. Jump seating is still a viable option, but it'll mean that every buddy pass and everyone else junior to my employee date of hire will be able to get on the plane ahead of mean lessening my chances of getting a "comfortable" seat in the back. I really don't mind riding up in front, but it's just going to be that much more uncomfortable. Thanks guys for looking out for the commuters.

After going to Canada for a quick and awesome weekend trip, I got to see how Salt Lake is with SkyWest and that operation seems a lot more fluid in terms of happiness, on time, and just overall pilot moral. It's nothing like what I go through in Atlanta. I'm still contemplating going there, but there is just so much that I've been thinking of doing in terms of furthering y career. I don't know whether or not to go for the Air Force right away, or to just apply overseas to Cathay or Emirates. It's just all up in the air right now. I just need a sign of some sorts to finally just be able to sit down and make a decision. I'm going to be upgrading in about 1.5 years or so here and I'll be able to build my time rather easily with the flying that they are giving me here so it's really not that bad of a gig. I just wished that we got the LAX flying. Maybe we'll get something soon with all the contract negotiations coming / going. I really hope that something happens soon.

Edmonton, Alberta, Canada was awesome! I hung out with some of the cousins that I haven't seen in about 13 years and just had a good time walking around the city. I didn't get to do too much when I was there last, but I definitely have to make my way up there again. It was good to see my aunt doing well with her bouts of Cancer and just to see everyone all grown up and doing well for themselves. I wish that I could have been up there more often. Here's a small pic of the extended family. We missed a couple of people in there so email me the photos ASAP!

airTran Business!

I'm currently riding on AirTran Business Class this afternoon on my way back to Atlanta. It ended up working out where Delta Flight 1460 was full, an S2 wouldn't work and the jumpseat was occupied by a fellow pilot whom I could have kicked off, but I wouldn't want that to happen to me. So, once again, on this roundtrip, I have done my part in the continuing effort to help out people. It's a good deal. I of course ended up riding on AirTran. I'm almost willing to continue doing it this way because the business seat is that much better. I'm loving it. There isn't a movie or TV's, but the friendliness of the Flight Crew, XM and variety of whatever really is just a good change.

I enjoyed hanging out with the parents and the cousins once again. It tried to upgrade my mother's computer but the RAM that her computer uses isn't available anymore even at Fry's! It sucks! Now, I have to order it from newegg and somehow then pick it up etc. It's just a little bit of trouble, but should work out. I also ended up fixing up my cousins computer and ordered up the internet for them. I have to fixed it up for them next Tuesday and take my mom and sister to LAX to fly to the Philippines. I wish that I could have gone, but oh well. My job is just too demanding.

I'm getting really close to my 2nd year mark where I'll actually be able to afford a somewhat minor upgrade in lifestyle. It's getting a little harder here and there especially now that I have a day line. I notice that I am actually spending a lot more on food these days as I've neglected to pack a lunch. It's become a little cumbersome, but I might do something about it this time around. The peanut butter and jelly sandwiches are an awesome snack to have and I might end up bringing some slimfasts with me as well and just throw them in the ice drawer. Tomorrow is setup to be a really long day blocked to a long 7 hours and 52 minutes! That means that I'm basically maxed out according to the FARs. The overnight in Greensboro though isn't bad as I remembered that there is a rib dinner special available. I'm definitely going to try to hook that up!

Quote...

"Education is the ability to listen to almost anything without losing your temper or your self-confidence." -Robert Frost

I just felt like I wanted to start this entry off his way...here's the entry that should have been placed here yesterday afternoon or something.

August 8th, 2007
Today was definitely a good day to wake up to. Besides the small note of being pretty burned from hanging out at the beach all day yesterday with the cousins, it was good. I felt like I had yet another good time in San Diego relaxing after a gruesome 4 day trip. I was also still in San Diego just feeling good to be home in a city that I love and where I am surrounded by so many friends and family.

I'm actually starting to feel like I need a place of my own. It would be nice to be able to come "home" to something each time I'm done with a flight and just relax. I dislike imposing on my girlfriend and her roommates and I definitely don't necessarily feel like the Farm House (a.k.a. Loxford Lounge Crashpad) is like my own place at all. The house in Palm Coast, Florida was the last place where I felt like home. I plan on going back ASAP to take care of the grass and various home owner things that I need to look over, but I guess I really wouldn't mind "living" there. The last time I was there in December, I really felt like I could find peace there. Besides the heat and humidity, I was getting use to it. Next to the house that I grew up in, it was the 2nd longest place that I lived at. We'll see how things go in the next few weeks. See how the commute is and stuff after my next visit there. I don't have a car there tough so renting would just be more of a hassle and yet another expense to my already so little regional pilot wage. I'm also thinking of driving back down there on a Sunday only to drive back on Wednesday so at least I could "move" more stuff out of there. To where, I haven't a clue. I don't even remember what I have left there. Maybe I'll see how much it costs to rent a car and move it from Daytona to Atlanta. I have no idea on how to ship things back home or of course to where the heck home would be. I just have a lot of books and clutter really. I also thought that leaving some clothes there would be beneficial if I needed them in some distant future. One thing is for sure that I need to get my motorcycle gear back to ATL or SAN so that I could get back into it. I don't have a bike or anything, but I just want to be prepared.

I'm gearing up for another 4 day trip. Make sure to click on my calendar above. If you'll take notice, I'm going to have some early duty-ins again such as 5:30AM, 6:30AM...I can't hardly wait again. I like getting in early to the hotel so that I could rest but I definitely don't want a repeat of my 3 hours afternoon nap. That messed me up so bad to where I wasn't able to get back to bed till around 3:00AM with a duty in of 5:30AM. Oh well...here goes to my overnight in Greensboro, Alexandria, and Montreal for the upcoming week. Of course, I rinse and repeat the following week. =)

August Schedule

Back by popular demand, I just posted my new final schedule for August. I hope that if any of you guys / gals find yourself in the town that I will be overnighting in, don't hesitate to give me a call. I'm usually down to hang out and do stuff. As before in July, I will be off Mondays through Wednesdays. I'm starting to really feel the fatigue of a month's schedule of flying a lot, but I have to say that I'm excited for the per diem in my check this upcoming 15th of August. It's definitely going to help offset a little of my unnecessary expenditures. Adelle was in town this past three days that I had off and the following week (July 30 - August 1st) I will be visiting my cousins in Edmonton, Canada. That should be fun! I can't hardly wait for that trip. When Adelle was here, we got to spend some time doing the things that one must do while in Atlanta...go to the Delta Museum, and check out the world's largest granite rock, Stone Mountain. It was definitely an awesome hike up the mountain and I'm really glad that I got to do it with Adelle. It was a lot of fun and I really think that I will be undertaking a lot more trails of such in the south here. I have to admit that it was really hot, but it was definitely a great workout! Here's a picture of us at the top!

Anyways, my flight tonight into Fort Wayne was a little exciting with a traffic resolution where I had to pull up quite a bit in order to avoid a collision and the fact that we ended up a little high on the approach into runway 5. It was, of course, of no incident, but it was definitely something that is constantly reminding us of why there are still two human bodies at the controls of an aircraft to where they can make the right (well most of the time) assumption about the current situation and how to handle the aircraft. I have a great Captain once again on this trip and its just awesome how I keep on getting the good ones. I haven't had one incident yet, but lets not jinx this.

As a side note, I'm not sure if you guys have noticed but right next to the title of my blog appears little entries from Twitter that is more up to date and current than these long entries. It's been hard to update once again because like I have mentioned before, I've been getting exhausted on these trips. Oh yeah, the National Mediation Board also just announced that they want the ASA ALPA Committee to meet again with the ASA Management in order to come to an agreement! It's just preposterous how long we have been at it and that these people think that we will come to a resolution soon. We need to take action and really just start to do something about it. Oh well, the life that I chose to live...go figure. I wanted a challenge and I got one!

security nightmare w/ awesome dinner!

Today started out a little hectic trying to get on my flight back to ATL today with the fact that the line for security in Terminal 2 was being held up for 1.5 hours due to a security breach. This in turn caused the captain to time out and us to end up flying to Salt Lake for a new crew then on to ATL. Oh joy… now instead of getting into town around 5:00 PM local, I’ll be there around 11:00 PM. Should make out to be a quick nap at Loxford Lounge then onto my awesome four day trip. I spend the last three days just hanging out in San Diego and got to see the Padres vs. the Mets. Adelle and I took the trolley to downtown which was really easy and cheap and we ate some garlic fries and hot dogs. This is the definitely of a good night at the ballpark.

My line in August that I was awarded consists of 350 hours away from base so that should provide for another $500 of per diem. Now as long as I don’t’ spend it on food while away, I’ll be good. I also might be able to pick up some open time in August for some time and a half to help out with things. The biggest deal will be swapping out my car in Atlanta for the one in Wildomar. I’ll be driving the 1985 Mercedes Benz 300D Turbo Diesel and it doesn’t have any air conditioning. That’s going to be fun in Atlanta. If anyone has any ways to create a new cooling system in a car, please tell me. It might be a little rough, but we’ll see how that goes. Wish me luck!

I had dinner with an old friend tonight and it was fun just hanging out. I'm glad that she's doing well and I do hope that we get to talk a little more often. We ate at a place called Joe's right near the airport and I have to say that they made me a really awesome hamburger. Now I'm fat again.

Still haven't found my headset (QC2s) or my video iPod. I'm very disappointed with Delta Lost and Found! =(

hanging out in San Diego

Loving the clear skies down here. The weather is perfect but I forgot to bring my swim trunks for some beach action today. I might do it tomorrow but we'll see. I bought tickets to the Padres vs Mets game here at Petco Park and I'm going to try the Trolley from Fashion Valley. Should be different and this time I don't have to worry about any traffix driving down to the stadium or parking for that matter. The round trip is only $4.50!

Anyways, I'm going to try to get rid of my old car back here in San Diego so that I don't feel the burden anymore of having to have my mom take care of it. It definitely was a cool idea, but there's no need for anything like that anymore especially once I got over (temporarily due to cash flow restraints) the nice car gig. My car back in Atlanta has definitely humbled me more on the idea of, "a car's a car just to get your around," kind of deal. I'm going to try to bring over the old 1985 300D Turbo Diesel Mercedes to Atlanta and use that as my airport car. We'll see how long that lasts, but I have faith in it! Wish me luck guys!

Flying has been fun and still yet, I'm blessed with the company of good captains and a great flight attendant. I got my new tentative schedule for August and I'll post that once I find out that its set in stone. I got the first line that I bid for, but of course, it was just some random one that I really didn't look at. I do have a Flint, MI overnight and I hope that my friend is in town. That would be fun. Either than that, I don't think that I have anything else going for me in August. We've been offered 1.5 pay for any open time that we pick up which is cool, but ASA likes to block us so high that we can't pick anything up! It's ridiculous! Oh well, I'm just trying to get the hours anyways.

Yeah for San Diego!