Am I really holding a line?

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Being that today is the second day of my new 96 and some change line, I haven’t had the chance to feel any different in terms of being used up by scheduling to cover flights throughout our system. I ended up dutying in for a trip to Baton Rouge and when we arrived, it was known that we were going to be delayed quite a bit for the oncoming weather. As we were maneuvering for an approach into Runway 31, we were advised that there was a microburst recoreded 1 mile off of the approach end and the winds shifted to favor an approach into 22 R. Of course, the ILS was out of service and the last 1000’ of the runway wasn’t usable either. It was happening a little fast but the Captain made an awesome touchdown and there we were. We were planned to have a 3 hour layover which then turned into a 6 hour layover due to the ground stop in ATL for the thunderstorms and rain showers that they were experiencing. I looked at the weather radar and I have to admit that I haven’t seen it that bad in a long time. It was ridiculous! I’m just glad that we didn’t have to divert like so many other aircraft that was flying into ATL.

Anyways, on our way back to ATL 6 hours later, when I called in that we were in range, they told us that the aircraft that I was on was going to be a spare and that the crew had to call operations when we landed. I was excited a little bit to find out that the Shreveport trip was cancelled so that I could go home to my crashpad, but once I called in the times, I was told that I had a trip that was going to White Plains. I was able to get my bearings a little bit and print out a schedule in the D concourse operations center (the printer sucks there by the way. And it just smudges everything!) I headed to the aircraft that I suppose to be on and met a very cool Captain that I ran into a couple of nights previous. I have never flown with him and he is one of the most senior here at ASA. Well, to make this long entry short, we landed in White Plains, New York around 3:00 in the morning and we didn’t get to the hotel until 4:00am. I woke up around 11:00 because just thinking of waking up early for breakfast didn’t seem doable and then got ready to deadhead back to ATL. Here I am now in the aircraft just waiting to see what I get from scheduling when I land. The website and everything else was down the entire morning and I was able to see my future trips, but I’m running into federal regulation time issues. We’ll see what they decide to do to me!!!

update: Looks like I was released from the airport and from duty but I bet that it was only because I'm going to have greater than 30 hours in 7 days before I get to finish my 4 day trip this week! It's going to be fun!

waiting and waiting...

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I decided that I should finally get my 10K mile service this morning right after the Valdosta Nap that I had. I'm not that tired just yet but I guess that I should be especially after having only 2.5 hours of sleep. I've been slacking when it comes to the daily things such as bills, car washes, you know...the basic stuff. I've been spending a lot of time just traveling and relaxing a little bit. Today marks the last day of my relax schedule as you can see if you click on my July Schedule, I'll be flying around 96 hours and some change. It's going to be a doozy and I guess if you were to take in the time that I am "On Duty," I'll be working more than 40 hours a week when you compare it to the normal worker bee. Make sure that you look at the calendar and see if you are going to be at the cities that I will be having a layover at and if you are, leave a comment...Let's have dinner.

I was driving yesterday to work while the thunderstorms were surrounding Atlanta and of course, we were delayed by a few hours. What do you expect you know? But one the way to the parking lot, I had my windows down and the driver next to me in a Honda Accord coupe looked at me, and rubbed in fingers together in a way while saying, "You making the ends eh?" I was just laughing a little bit, but I have to admit that I'm a little irritated that people or the general public still think that pilots make a lot. It provides for the perception that since we make so much that 1) We don't care about the passengers 2) We are too good to be them 3) We don't deserve the raises that we are fighting for. It makes us look spoiled and in fact, I have to think twice if I can buy a stupid value meal at McDonald's for breakfast which in fact I just did and it was good. We couldn't even get breakfast at the hotel this morning because they don't start the service until 0700! We left at 0545 of course to go get ready. The fact is is that ALPA needs to begin informing the public a little bit better at the airports or something. I mean, it'll definitely be a while if not it'll take me my entire life to achieve the American Dream if I just sit back and hang out at the airports.

I was on top of the iPhone news debut yesterday and am still frantically thinking about getting one. I can't believe it because I can't afford it, but damn...all the videos look sick! I guess I'll do better as long as I don't go to the store and look at one. I heard that once you touch it, you can't let it go. Damn this tech addiction!

Anyways, like I might have mentioned a few days ago, I'm going to try and be better in updating this blog. Please leave you comments and stuff and it'll motivate me even more.

updating + time

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I've been just really up to no good lately. I've gotten lazy and after I get to the hotel at the various places that I go, I'm just tired. I'll try to better again in July and keep it more up to-date. I'm not sure if you have been following along but I'm activated the "twitter" feature and usually you can find the latest short ramblings to the right of the main title of the blog. It's meant to be short and sometimes I'm just that lazy to type anything out so I just use my phone. It's actually really nice.

I've also update my pilotcrossings profile with my full July schedule. (it's easy to look at my schedule as long as you sign up for it. It's free for everyone and its actually really cool. I'm blocked to fly approximately 96.06 hours!!! It's going to be a crazy month but I guess that I should get with the program and accumulate more hours rather than sitting on my ass. I get to fly to Freeport, Bahamas next month but its not an overnight. It should prove though to be a lot of fun. I can't wait. I'm doing the same trip for 3 weeks in July and I'm also planning to go to Anchorage to visit one of my buddies from CAPT. Should be fun and I hope that the loads work out!

My friend Bobby is finishing up his Doctor of Osteopathy degree and studying for his boards on July 22nd. I was able to catch up with him and he even showed me a thing or two. It's awesome how I'm at the age where my friends are now professionals. I still have a way to go till I get upgraded, but maybe once I'm there, I'll feel like I'm somewhat on par.

I haven't gone shopping in a while but there were some awesome sales at Ruehl, Abercrombie and Hollister so I had to buy a few shirts. I've been watching movies like crazy lately with Adelle. We were able to catch up with some of the latest and greatest such as Spiderman 3 on IMAX, Shrek 3, Pirates of the Carribean part 3, Oceans 13 (wow that's a lot of sequels eh?), and Knocked Up. The most fun was probably the last one but they were all somewhat entertaining. The most disappointing of the batch was probably Shrek the Third. They should stop probably with this one.

The iPhone is coming out and I'm not as excited for it as much as I am for the new Sprint Mogul phone. It can do just about everything but just has a smaller screen and runs Windows Mobile 6. There are a lot of limitation with the iPhone but I'm sure that when Apple can release different models on other carriers, I'll start to garner a little more interest on it. I'm probably going to call Sprint though and see what kind of deal I can get by staying with them. If not, then hey, I'll go grab the iPhone!

Padres are doing alright and we were first for a while, but once again, the hard division that we are in is just getting the best of us. I hope that it ends well though which I'm sure it will!

I'm checking out the Otterbox right now and am tempted to grab it for my iPod video. I'm into swimming more so right now as it is less intense than running on my joints. I just feel like doing it with some tunes in my ear. We'll see how the headphone set works with it too! I'll do a review or something of the set once I get them. Alright, that's enough right now. I'll post more later. CYA!

I was home this past weekday to celebrate my mom and girlfriend's birthday. I didn't get to do anything with my mom, but Adelle and I went to Sea World and just hung out. It was good times!

Britains Got Talent - A Star Is Born

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Alright, this might be a little corny but this guy was pretty good and shocking. I thought that is was going to be of an American Idol spoof thing, but it was amazingly done really well! I read also that right after this, he already got approached by three record labels with contracts and instances to actually perform opera! Congrats to the dood. Oh yeah, Amanda Holden is freaking way hotter than Paula too! Look at 1:40 seconds when she just reaches peak! =)