The most engaging life I've ever had

So I am not engaged anymore

2011-03-10T13:43:00.003-05:00

And I thought after a few months of silence I would put up a link to the blog that my wife and I have started together. Visit http://stayingbright.blogspot.com/ to see what is going on at random moments in our life. I expect you'll hear more from her than me, but that's ok because she's the exciting one anyway.

Monthly post for July:

2010-07-20T11:49:00.002-04:00

I'm getting married in ten days! :D

Flint

2010-06-05T22:57:00.002-04:00

Do you think Flint was named for the kind of rocks in the area? I always dreamed about having my own flint and steel as a kid.... all those pyromaniac urges welling up in me... Maybe I can find some steel and go out and get me a piece of Flint tonight. :D

I was closer to a current president

2010-05-31T20:13:00.002-04:00

Than ever before today.

I saw his jet taxiing at the same airport.

We all had to sit there and let the airline economy/jobs stagnate while he did his thing.

Annnnnd

2010-05-31T00:46:00.003-04:00

I can't go to sleep again. I'm supposed to be tired now. I guess I'll have to use the old caffeine-in-a-cup trick to stay awake tomorrow.

2010-05-27T18:17:00.000-04:00

Hope thou in God: for I shall yet praise him for the help of his countenance.

Where is the off switch?

2010-05-26T13:14:00.002-04:00

I just want to sleep, but sleep will not come. So I'm awake mindlessly roaming about, waiting, waiting to be tired. Yet though mindless, it is my very mind that is preventing my rest.
Ah, the ironies of life.

There's nothing like being trounced

2010-04-29T15:31:00.001-04:00

By your little sister

In boxing

Twice.

Yay!

2010-03-31T19:19:00.002-04:00

I just spent an engaging couple of days in Lafayette. I was looking around at apartments where I could theoretically be living by the end of the summer. On one of my enjoyable stays at the hospitality of the Wegener and other dudes house I took a moment to adjust some of my layout from my Uintas trip.

The reason I have not been posting recently

2010-03-20T14:14:00.002-04:00

I GOT ENGAGED ON THURSDAY!!!!!!!
and now I can blatantly and publicly announce that I Love Candace Jones!

Life

2010-03-02T19:41:00.001-05:00

Yesterday I went skiing with my girlfriend.
Today I flew jets.
Tomorrow who knows?
Life is good.
:D

this is a post

2010-02-28T22:58:00.004-05:00

that I have posted

Apparently

2010-02-10T17:08:00.003-05:00

A bunch of people have been reading my blog recently. They didn't leave any comments and I haven't posted for like two and a half months so I see no reason why I had such a flurry of activity. Anyway, to those of you who do still read, here is my life: December~ got based in Indy, moved to my parent's basement, flew a lot, and visited a girl whenever I could. January~ had a birthday (the big quarter-of-a-century one), flew a lot, and visited a girl whenever I could. February~ Flew less often, went to and passed recurrent training, visited a girl whenever I could.

Now that we are all caught up, here is what I think about Google. They just started this buzz thing. I am annoyed. It looks like Twitter. I loathe twitter. I also noticed that I have 5 followers. Does that make me a type of 1st century Jewish rabbis? (Is that the plural of rabbi?) Getting followers and sharing information with them and all that. If so, is it bad that I follow most of the people who are following me? Just seems like walking in circles. That whole idea just struck me like five minutes ago so it's probably wrong and you should not consider it. But then again, maybe I should be more wary.

in one hour

2009-11-24T15:14:00.001-05:00

I will leave for Columbus. It will be my last trip into Columbus as my base because....

I'm Moving To Indy!

Tomorrow!!!

Happiness is:

2009-11-23T23:04:00.000-05:00

Wearing a Purdue sweatshirt in Michigan and Ohio!
Seeing a TRIPLE full circle rainbow in the clouds
Flying my first go-around at Chautauqua. (Traffic on the runway took too long, so it wasn't my fault that we had to do it)
Getting a really nice looking piece for my uniform and having my uniform allowance pay for it all.
Taking off with the sun at just the right angle to make the perfect green grass have a great contrast with the white stripes, black rubber and the pavement of a great runway. (Oh man, I wish I had a video of that one.)
Seeing a beautiful night where the moon is sooo bright, and the clouds and stars look like a picture from a storybook.
Talking to Candace on the phone.

Happiness is not: having my bags fall over and breaking the handle of my favorite one :(

Of course all that good stuff waaay outweighs my bag, so it was a great day overall.

I said goodbye

2009-11-23T00:15:00.002-05:00

to a lot of my friends today. It was kinda sad, but also really nice. I would have been exceedingly sad not to ave been able to see everyone one last time. And now I am on my very last trip from Columbus!

One day

2009-11-15T22:50:00.002-05:00

One day, can you believe it, there will be an end to ALL sin! The last sin ever will have been committed, and it will all be done and over. Lord haste that day! I so can't wait.

I really and truly am

2009-11-13T12:02:00.000-05:00

getting moved to Indy!

Today

2009-11-04T00:40:00.003-05:00

I got a call from an Indy FO (first officer) and we both emailed crew planning to trade bases.

Go Purdue!

2009-10-24T20:24:00.002-04:00

We finally started winning again! I guess losing all the time just got old or something, but we've finally won back-to-back games for the first time since the first game of the 2008 season, and back-to-back games in one season since almost exactly 2 years ago! Way to go guys! Keep it up and maybe we can go to a bowl game next year, yes?

Pictures

2009-10-23T07:27:00.006-04:00

When I said pictures were coming soon, by soon I meant before the end of the month. ;P
But here they are:

Moose in a lake

Clouds over Kings~ we were glad we didn't retry it after we saw these.

Squirty cheese on a cracker!

Squirty cheese on a beef nugget!!

Stacey! Guess what kind of bushes grow naturally out there.
No wonder we didn't run into any bad guys!

Moose (s?) in the woods

Breathing mountain air sure does amazing things to one's height.
Or maybe it's the lack of gravity.

Fish!

Chigger!

Fishing!

Hiking out

Leaving the basin

Crossing streams

Dave

Me

Do they dare cross the rickety old bridge?

Stream down in the valley

Great stream!

Big clouds again

Back at the trailhead

Driving out, we saw a picture of the ultimate lifestyle

Squirty cheese explosion

Before shaving

After shaving

Mountains we passed on the way from Wyoming to Salt Lake City.

That's all folks!

Day 5

2009-10-05T14:34:00.002-04:00

We decided not to re-attempt King's peak today cause we were both pretty bushed, so we went fishing instead.

(And that is all my writing)

On our fishing day we got to see a bunch of moose. It was pretty sweet. That night a group of fellows moved in like right next to our camp. >:(
We almost moved to a different site even though it was 7pm and getting dark already.
But we decided to stay put and head out the next morning.

Day 6
We got up early, packed up, and took a different route out of the basin, stopping to get lots of pics along the way. Made it all the way back to the car by mid-afternoon and drove to a Hotel in WY for the night. Stopped at Pizza Hut for dinner. We soaked in the hot tub after taking the first shower in 7 days. Was really nice. Rest of the pics to come soon.

Day 4

2009-09-26T13:07:00.006-04:00

Got up at 4am and after a quick brekky and cleanup we struck out for the highest point in Utah, known as King's Peak. After a half-hour detour due to some shepherds making their own stinking trail next to the real one, we went the right direction through Gunsight Pass and into a bowl between King and Dome peaks.
(at the top of Gunsight pass)
(next to a cairn just getting into the bowl)
(South King's Peak)
(King's Peak)
(and the trail to Anderson's Pass with Fortress Peak straight ahead and Dome Peak on the right)

It was a pretty steep boulder climb from the pass up to the bowl. I saw my first marmot on the way up. Also saw a couple pikas. The trek across the bowl was pretty tough. Even though it was level it was entirely large boulders with great ankle-twisting gaps between them. We made it alright across that, and reached Anderson's Pass in pretty good time.
(The top of Andersen's Pass~Pretty similar downward view from the top of the Cliffs of Insanity)
(Me)
(Pretty steep mountains huh?)
We took a wary look at some clouds that had been building up and readied for the final 800' elevation gain. (We started at 10,800' and were climbing up to 13,528') We made it up to a false summit about a quarter of a mile and 400'short of the real summit about 45 minutes of boulder climbing later. (It turned out to be closer to 300' short from my guess of where we were on my updated map.)
(Is that the real summit?)
We were the ridge of the mountain for that whole stretch, and when we could finally see west again, we found that the clouds had developed quite ominously. Since it looked like it was going to take another 45 minutes to reach the summit and then an hour and a half longer (at least) to just get back to Anderson's Pass again, we decided to bolt like a pair of scairt bunnies right then and there.
("Bad clouds! No! Bad!")
(overlooking our campsite)
Back in the bowl (which offered no protection whatsoever) it looked like we might have a little time, so we went over and looked at a chute that was offered to us as a shortcut (both up and down) by quite a few sources. We opted to take the long way up, but looking down from the top Dave declared it to be safe, so I followed him into what I will hereafter call "The Cliffs of Insanity." From the top we could see down about 100' and then there was a big gap of nothing all the way to the valley floor some 1000' below.
(Looking up the Cliffs)
(Looking down the Cliffs)
(Views on the way down)

Dave was walking down it like a true mountaineer, but I was doing a cliff-hugging Gollum climb as a regular noob. One of us knocked loose a good sized rock (12"-15'' d) and it bounced all the way to the bottom, and taking some other rocks with it. Even though they were making enough noise on their own, Dave yelled "ROCK!" and we both hoped that there was no one to hear. After it all quieted down again Dave looked up at me and said "Well that was sobering, wasn't it?" And I started planning what I would yell when I followed the rock. Depending on the amount of time I maintained the ability to yell, I decided it would go something like this: "Thanks Dave, it was a great trip, tell everyone I love them, HUUUUUUMAAAAANNNNN!" And though I was fully prepared to use it, and at several times was spreading my body weight across four boulders, all of which were moving, God was good to me and decided to let me make it all the way down without bouncing off the cliff or having the cliff bounce off me!

Just as we got to the first bluff at the bottom of the cliff it really started to lightning and sprinkle, which soon turned into a regular downpour. (Boy were we glad we turned around when we did!) We were running across some boulders and down some giant washes to get to a stand of trees before we got fried. Made it to the trees just as it started to hail, but we couldn't take shelter from it without worrying about getting fried. Fortunately the hail was really small so we just sat with our backs to it, listening to it patter off of our plastic rain jackets until the worst of the storm blew over. After the lightning stopped we went under the trees and ate some lunch. Yay for Applets and Cotlets!
(Hail on the cliffs)
The sun mostly came out while we were eating, so we trekked back to our camp and crawled into our tent like a pair of soaked...nevermind. After a refreshing nap we came back into the world and discovered that we had a neighbor. Some forest service guy named Deems Burton from CA was on his 13th day out with his little Jack-Russel Terrier. Deems came over and visited with us for a while. Sounded like he hadn't had a decent conversation in a while. He thought my (well Dad's) backpack was a pretty amazing relic and took a couple pictures of it. He came back later that evening and offered us a lemon drink/rum concoction of his own invention. Went to bed early and slept really well.

Day 3

2009-09-24T16:58:00.004-04:00

Back to the Uintas!

Got up early and tried fishing again. Didn't get a single bite. Didn't lose any flies though! Huzzah for small victories.

After a great brekky of pancakes (hotcakes) and fish we had a short devotional time and wandered about the basin to try fishing some different lakes.

I got a bite (but no fish) before lunch and then a few more bites after lunch. And THEN, you'll never believe it, but I actually caught a fish! It was a very large Eastern Brook Trout. We were letting all our catches go (Dave had already gotten quite a few by then), and as I was taking mine off the hook he broke the line and got off with my best fly! AARG! Oh well, it was worth the 87 cents just to reel in one.

Broke the hook on another fly after getting a bite on it and then we headed back to camp.

Got some more spectacular views on the way back. I think we decided not to go up towards Anderson's pass tomorrow, but to take the long way around. Yay for staying alive! We might use it to come down, but we'll look at it from the top and decide then. Went to bed early.

P.S. Saw an owl tonight as we were hanging our food. Dave said it was the closest he's ever been to one in the wild! It was so cool and quiet. If I hadn't been looking up at the right time I never would have seen it. You couldn't hear it land or take off or anything. It stared down at us for a while with its gigantic eyes, then flew off to new intrests. I love owls.

Well guys...

2009-09-22T17:28:00.001-04:00

I was going to do the next installment of my trip today, but I went and left my written story at home so I have nothing to copy.

Since it still fits with my unchanged username.....AwKwaRD!

WOW

2009-09-18T15:37:00.003-04:00

Just wow.

God's timing and sovereignty in my life is AWESOME!

I'm learning more about it every day.

I'll get back to my backpacking trip soon, so to keep you interested, here is a map of our hike:
here

Skillet Conversations

2009-09-17T15:38:00.001-04:00

"Hello beautiful. I just wanted you to know that you made some delicious eggs this morning."

Yep. You know you need roommates or more friends or SOMETHING when you start addressing your skillet. Out loud.

On the good side of my brain, (I hope) I was pondering on my drive from Columbus to Indianapolis how great it is that we live in such a peaceful society that our city boundaries are determined by highway loops and not fortress walls.

Rejoice!

This post was written in a Purdue computer lab! It's pretty great to be back here for a couple days. Especially considering the company available. :)

Day 2

2009-09-15T19:46:00.004-04:00

Got up at dawn.

Tore down camp and ate oatmeal for brekky. Went about 5mi to Henry Forks Lake with a nice stop at Dollar lake for some cheese'n'crackers for lunch. Pretty worn out by the end of this trail. hope I can make it all the way up King's.

We are right in one of the major basins of the Uintas Mountains now. Truly breathtaking scenercy! Or maybe that's the altitude...IDK.

The ascent up to Anderson's pass looks pretty treacherous. I hope my fear of heights doesn't come back to haunt me. Oh yeah! We think we might have seen signs of bear on the way in. Might spot a couple out here. (If they don't eat me first.)

Tried fly fishing this evening. Lost three flies on my back cast. Dave caught his limit in less than an hour. Mostly got the hang of casting by the end of the day.

We sat out on a 15' cliff over the lake for a long time after dark to watch the stars come out. Didn't see a whole lot because the moon was bright enough to cast some pretty sharp shadows.

Day 1

2009-09-14T14:34:00.004-04:00

Rose about 7 (9 my time!) and had a time of worship complete with a live deaconal Psalm explanation and a sermon from Ted Donnely!

Drove to the trailhead, worried about bridge, and started out after a spot of lunch.

2.5 miles today to Alligator Lake.

Set up camp, started a nice fire and ate Mac&Cheese with bacon pieces for dinner.

Yay lighter pack! Slept well.

>>>After the fact:
On the drive in we were worried about not being able to do our trip at all because there were a lot of signs warning of bridge removal and road closure that was to take place right in the middle of our week. Fortunately we did not cross any bridges and saw the one that was doomed right by our trailhead.

The drive in was really pretty, with lots of pine and aspen trees all around. I was very striking to see all the Lodge Pole Pine being killed by it's beetle. About 40-60% of the forests all around were dead.

Our camp was really nice, and we had a cool anti-bear-getting-in-the-food-system.

Day 0

2009-09-13T20:05:00.002-04:00

Here is the transposition +spelling corrections of what I wrote on my trip. It is mostly unedited from what I wrote at 10,000' after long days. We'll see if that did anything good to my brain. (Cause we all know it can't get much worse) Anyway, here we go:

Got up freakishly early and flew to Salt Lake City. The United guys in Columbus were great! Saved me $20 on my connection to Denver. It was really great flying in over the mountains, hadn't done that in a long time.

As opposed to the Columbus guys (or anybody else for that matter) the United people in Denver were 1st class jerks (as usual). I really don't knowwhat's up with them over there. I guess they never got the memo that they were out West and were suppoed to be laid back. Oh well.

GORGEOUS (no pun intended) ride down to Salt Lake City. I stared out my window the whole time. (Partly to spot good zombie fortresses) Saw a ginormous strip mine just outside of SLC and saw the great salt lake fir the first time.

Dave picked me up, and after changing out of my uniform and a quick bite to eat, we started out.
Went to REI's and bought a shirt. Then we went down to Cabella's for flies and a fishing license. On the way we hit a traffic jam of rubberneckers because a semi had flipped on the opposite side of the highway and blocked all it's lanes.

Made it up to Wyoming to sleep in a KOA mini barn (NOT Tool Shed) We distributed all the food and got our packs pretty evenly weighted tonight. After Dave picked me up I called him "Mr. Neel." He told me to stop because it made him feel old. I will probably take that as a cue to start calling people at church by their first names, even though I grew up calling them their proper name. If you don't like it blame Dave. :)

>>>After the fact:
The mini barn that we stayed in had a cool old-school latch, so we had to pull the string on the outside to open the door!

results

2009-09-11T22:58:00.002-04:00

It turns out that the crazy man WASN'T Josh, and that he (CM) did alter Josh's papers a bit. So Josh will be putting up his real story as soon as he finishes composing it and catches up on a few more important things in life.

Maybe he will even put something out tomorrow. Maybe he will quit talking about himself in the third person then too.

This is the record of the Journal of J Bright

2009-09-07T20:41:00.003-04:00

found in the Uintas (pronounced U-in-tas) Mountains in Utah, right about here.

August 30, 2009
Today we entered the Uintas Mountains. It was a very nice day. Saw a wild man running about with most of his hair torn out. He ran up to us and all he could say was "Must get away, Get Away, GET AWAY!" Then he moaned and slobbered a bit and ran off into the woods. What a poor man. He must have stared at the moon too much.

August 31, 2009
Slept well at Alligator Lake until the middle of the night. Then I felt odd, like some pressure growing on me. Could not sleep afterward. Hiked to Henry Forks Lake. I could feel it growing in intensity. Will try to sleep it off tonight.

September 1, 2009
Could not sleep at all.... what is going on??? There are odd sounds in the forest, like none I've ever heard before.... Ohhh the pressure. Tis almost unbearable.

September 2, 2009
AAAGGGGG! I can't stand it anymore! I must go and find the cause of this, and defeat it!

September 3, 2009
It is over. I am captive, I fear that I do not have much longer. Oh! that I had heeded my warning.

Selpembre 34m,. 20909
GERt AEWERWTY!@
akjghs seiouseihjklsd qewhypoiju ;j aer,nmbvadsv akjhvmzcx/.fd[0u
a kdr 'lhnrs sdtlhjfdshkljpo[re;pl,,.nzd

,.bf,m.sdfpots.jm

Thus ends the journal. It was found in the possesion of a wild man who looked to have run about in a circle in the woods for quite some time before dying of unknown causes. The identity of the wild man has yet to be ascertained.

A camera was found a half mile away with the following pictures:

Delta now serves:

2009-08-28T13:49:00.002-04:00

Honey Roasted Peanuts!

on their flights, or at least on the plane I flew today.

Did I die and go to heaven?

Note to my company: Yes, I do wait until I am sure that the passengers have been served and have enough before I eat any, thanks for checking.

The Lord liveth

2009-08-22T23:24:00.002-04:00

and blessed be my Rock.

Worst. Landing. Ever.

2009-08-03T23:47:00.002-04:00

So Josh had his worst landing ever today. He flew into Washington Regan and was doing a great visual slam dunk into runway 1 when tower switched him over to a circle 33 clearance. Would have worked out great if he hadn't turned to wide and overshot the centerline. But he ran a big awkward s turn and slammed it on like no aircraft carrier has ever seen before. Bounced pretty badly and even the tower guys could tell how bad it was by the way they were guffawing when the gave the taxi instructions. Good thing it was a mostly empty LR2 with reinforced gear~ didn't even bottom out the shocks. But it was bad enough to make even an Awkward turtle feel smooth for a change. Ahh... sweetness, going to bed happy for a change.

out of communication

2009-08-01T18:30:00.001-04:00

guess who's in Canada and thus has his phone off, and also forgot to pack a power cord for his laptop.

oops

travelling about

2009-07-17T21:17:00.003-04:00

So, to where have I gone this fortnight past? Many lands indeed. St. Louis (which was very much nicer than usual), Cleveland, JFK, LaGuardia, Houston (a lot) (fabulously), Philadelphia, Indianapolis, Kokomo :), Walton, Binghamton, and probably some other place too.
I was much to busy waddling about, putting people in awkward straights to take a lot of pictures, so here's some real (inawkward) turtles in St.Louis!:

It was great fun watching them paddle about, and I so enjoyed watching them slide off of their logs and rocks into the water, that I decided I should practice too!

It did turn out rather worse than I expected though, cause I knocked some of Josh's freshly washed dishes onto his floor. ooops. AwKwarD

Happy Independence Day!

2009-07-04T20:53:00.003-04:00

Independence is a big deal. Especially for awkward turtles. Have you ever been stuck on your back depending on some kind soul to come along and flip you over? Not a lot of fun. Today however, was a lot of fun! I got to go to JFK again and to Portland Maine for the first time! Right now I'm spending the night in Raleigh NC. Here I am waiting for the fireworks to start:

It was kind of awkward standing on leg like that but it was a good view.

Hello East Coast!

2009-07-03T14:21:00.002-04:00

I got to see the entire state of New York yesterday! Flew (see told ya I can fly) to JFK and then went out to Buffalo. I need to learn some geography though. Or maybe just travel more... As we were getting close to Buffalo I saw a bunch of water running off a cliff on the horizon. I was like "O O let me guess, is that the edge of the world?" and somebody else was all "No stupid those are the Niagara Falls." Awkward. Went back to JFK and had to stay there due to some 16 hour duty day limit of my pilot. The flight today was mostly not awkward because I was hiding in my shell the whole time. (Well aside from the part where the flight attendant tripped on my shell and spilled a whole tray of drinks on somebody.) oops

Who says turtles can't fly?

2009-07-01T18:38:00.003-04:00

I can. and I do. A whole lot (when I'm not out surfin' with the dudes anyway). Oops, that was awkward, allow me to introduce myself real quick here. My name's Awkward, and I'm a turtle. A lot of people make fun of my name until I cry, then they get all like awkward turtle, and that only makes it worse. Anyway, that's not the point. The point is that I can fly, and this is a blog about my adventures traveling around the country.
Here's a picture of me in Houston:

I'm in the Holiday Inn as you can see. It's a great life for turtles in Houston. Lots of open space to wander around in. And the bed in the Inn has long enough sheets that I can slide right to the floor without worrying about falling on my back and getting stuck until the room service lady comes in to rescue me. Talk about AwKwarD.

This is just an introductory post, (did I forget to mention that I'm taking over Josh's blog-changed the settings and everything) but you'll hear more from me later. Bye now.

In Houston

2009-06-27T21:50:00.002-04:00

I did a JFK turn this morning, and when I was finished I got reassigned to do an overnight to Houston! It was 105 when we got here, but it rained really hard for about half an hour and brought it down to 85.

I am thinking about changing my whole writing style around for a bit. This might be the last pseudonormal post you see from me in a while.

They both said "I do"

2009-06-20T19:49:00.002-04:00

So they are married.

2009-06-18T18:31:00.002-04:00

Soon.

The Brightish are coming!

2009-06-18T16:32:00.002-04:00

Three lamps will be in the window of the church tonight! Because I am going to Boston, not by land or by sea, but by air! I'm just posting it here first so that Paul can out ride my plane and rouse the citizenry to arms in time. Hopefully though, the arms that greet me won't be carrying guns, pitchforks, and torches, but we shall see.

Many things

2009-06-17T00:17:00.002-04:00

Quickly:
I went to the grocery. It was having a sale on vegetables. The only ones left were okra and cauliflower. I left them too.

I was able to go to the grocery because God provides in amazing ways! I had to buy wedding presents this month, and I got carried away and spent all my food money for the month, but then I was provided with a small job that nearly perfectly paid for my entire round of shopping!

I am reading a book about skillful driving. It taught me how to make the best boiled eggs ever! Seriously, these things are amazing.

And finally:
the worst mistake I have made more than once in the last month (that I care to admit at least): tearing up red chillies and then touching my eyes. =0 don't try it

a kiss to whoever finds the common thread first.

Happy Birthday Dad!

2009-06-03T13:21:00.002-04:00

I was reading this morning about the year of jubilee in Israel. That would be pretty cool if we could get a system like that going in America. I would totally throw credit companies for a loop to have to cancel all debts every fifty years. They'd probably be a lot more careful about allowing people buy way more than they can afford on a wanton and rampant basis. We then wouldn't have hyper-inflation in things like housing and college tuition, which means that they wouldn't have to collapse, and that they wouldn't take the rest of the economy with them!

Just decided to jump seat home to say happy birthday to Dad in person so I gotta get ready to fly now.

muy cansado

2009-06-02T17:50:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got up at 4am (after going to bed too late) and flew to LGA and back. This morning I did it again! I didn't get much sleep last night cause I let myself nap for an hour or so yesterday, and because of a thunderstorm, and my body's clock not being set to sleep at 8 and all that. So I was really looking forward to a good nap when I got home at 11ish.
Well, it turns out, I didn't get home at 11ish. I got assigned to do a test flight on a plane we were selling to Air Mexico. AM had a rep on board and he had a big list of tests to take it through which were pretty extensive. So extensive in fact that we actually refused to do one of them (slow the plane all the way to stick pusher)! That flight lasted for about three hours and I was REALLY looking forward to getting home after that.
Well, it turns out, I didn't get home after that. I got assigned to repo a plane to Celveland and deadhead back. But the deadhead would put me 40 minutes past my drop-dead 16 hour duty limit of 9:15pm, so now I get to stay in the Sheraton hotel and fly home tomorrow at 4 something pm.
Cleveland probably has a lot more to do around the hotel than St. Louis, but I doubt I'll be exploring too much. I think I'll sleep until it's time to go back to the airport. Maybe I'll eat something too. Goodnight!

June

2009-06-01T12:41:00.002-04:00

I can't believe it's already June. May went by so fast (Except for a four day stretch last week, but we can repress that memory). This morning I had to get up at 4am to go fly to LGA and back. I do it again tomorrow too. I pinned a couple blankets to the molding above my window so I could go to sleep at 8-9ish. They make great blackout curtains!

O Happy Day!

2009-05-29T07:16:00.004-04:00

I'm getting used! I fly to a plane and forsake this city for the sweet streets of Columbus!

Edit:
Busted!

This jailbird couldn't get past the chicken fence. They've delayed my trip to 2:30 and say it might not even go at all :(

Oh well, the van ride out to the airport and back was a little bit of excitement, well worth the buck I tipped the driver.

Edit2:

"Dear Diary... today I was crazy and my brother was arrogant...

we got captured by hill folk who tried to kill us

it was the best day ever!"

AHH St. Louis

2009-05-28T09:43:00.002-04:00

I hope Louis was saintly, cause that would be about the only redeeming quality of this missouri(able) city. I wore out everything within walking distance when I was stuck here for three months (and then it was nice cause the only thing left to do was study) and now it's raining so that doesn't increase my options very much. Yesterday turned out better than I expected cause I have a friend who is based out here and he dropped in for a bit, so that was cool. One down three to go.

Not to be all miserable about everything. There are a few nice things to being stuck in a hotel for four days (besides the free greasy brekky) For instance: I have a continuous internet connection out here, so I can respond to emails within five minutes of getting them!

A light to the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.

2009-05-23T13:26:00.002-04:00

I was reading Luke this morning, and it struck me that Jesus grew in stature and favor with God and man. How does God grow in favor of Himself? Can God like Himself better? Does that mean that He previously liked Himself less? I might know some of the answers, but I think I should like to study this some more.

Test flying went well and without incident. (Well aside from our one hour sit in STL getting extended to 5+ hours, and getting to watch the NatGuard F-15s have fun while there.) Hooray for getting home after midnight after jacking oneself up on Dr. Pepper!

I'm all set for summer now. Reduced my blanket count down to one this morning.

Hello blog!

2009-05-21T15:17:00.002-04:00

I haven't visited in a while. Mostly because I've been running around having a non-internet filled blast! Got to visit my dear sister and brother-in-law, watch my brother graduate, see Star Trek, go knife-throwing and gun shopping, and watch some astronomical collisions!

Yesterday I flew into LaGuardia and discovered that fleet week was going on. Apparently navies from around the globe sail in and float around together in the Hudson Bay. The fire boat was shooting water streams in a cool pattern all around it as we flew over. I wished I brought my camera. The only downer was that I was flying with a captain who has yet to not insult something about me as soon as he sees me. (Tip for creating a friendly flight environment: degrade your co-worker as much as possible) Anyway I stopped caring about his opinion the second time he did it, and now it only causes momentary annoyance.

Tomorrow I get to be a test pilot. Chuck Yeager watch out! If I die you can blame in on the mechanics.

I heard something like this on the radio on the way into the airport yesterday:
"The space shuttle crew is taking a rest after a series of five grueling spacewalks over the past few days."
Oh poor babies. Are you kidding me? I know a number of people who would DIE to get the chance to take a "grueling" spacewalk. No offence to the astronauts or anything, just the media. Be offended media.

I went shopping today! Amazing, I know. Bought a lug nut wrench and some food. Now I'm ready to handle my ox's mishaps on my own.

Jumpseatin!

2009-05-12T10:31:00.002-04:00

Due to my ox being lame from falling into a well, I decided to use my travel benefits for the first time since the middle of last year, and ride a terradactyl out to visit Stacey & Joel. We toured a mall in Des Moines and drove through a dutch village yesterday. (even the wal-mart had dutch architecture!) Joel and I had a great conversation on the way back, and I have finally firmly decided that I do not want to be a liberaterian. I was wavering around that idea for a while, but have examined the course of such a government and decided that it dosen't look so hot.

I'm probably going to regret just saying that, because I'm sure it will incite somebody to tell me something that I hadn't considered yet, and cause me to consider such a position once again, but whatever.

Hope y'all are having as much fun as me!

Jesus said

2009-05-11T05:46:00.002-04:00

"Which one of you will have a son or an ox fall into a well, and will not immediately pull him out on a Sabbath day?"
And now, 2000 years later, I am very grateful to my father for rescuing his son and his son's ox (which fell into a well while his son was riding it home) from the well.

I am currently bummed. I am bummed that my ox is now lame and that I have a huge wrench in all my plans, I am bummed that Caleb can't go to Iowa, and I am bummed that my whole "ox falling into the well" episode delayed Mother's appreciation lunch by three hours. (And I'm also sorta bummed that my body won't let me sleep past five a.m.; but it is helping me get a lot of stuff done, that otherwise would have been left undone.)

I noticed a curiosity at my apartment the other day. I have had bugs start trying to take up residence with me, without even offering to help with the rent! Can you believe it? The audacity! Anyway, the weird part is that they only started coming in after it got warm outside. I thought bugs tried to escape the cold?!? I've got a couple spiders in there now, and I think I better take a sword with me when I go back, because I left it dark and slightly damp (my sink never got fixed) which would be the perfect conditions for the offspring of Shelob to take up residence.

Flying Bites

2009-05-08T15:23:00.003-04:00

Here were some clouds we passed this morning:

The waves there help one to visualize what happened to our attempt at flying straight and level.
I have found that once one is used to it, most turbulence is quite relaxing~ kinda halfway between a gently rocking boat and a massage chair.

Dad decided to take a break while I was in Indy, so I have to wait another couple days to talk to him. (I'm going to hunt him down in person this time, so I can figure out if he's avoiding me on purpose.)

I think I'm flying a bite around. I noticed a sore spot on my leg a couple days ago, and now I have a medium-sized circle of odd colored skin (another bruise?!?) with a red dot in the middle of it all. :(
Could it be the swine flu??? I've been as hungry as a pig recently.

Switching

2009-05-07T19:00:00.002-04:00

From an afternoon-to-midnight schedule to a 4am-to-afternoon schedule is hard. I was doing pretty well until my third leg of the morning (ATL-CLE). Had to work pretty hard to stay alert on that one (especially since we sat in line on the ground for an hour with nothing to do). Leg #4 into Philly got delayed by two hours so I got a chance to walk around a bit between flights and wake up for it. (Plus the weather that delayed us was exciting enough to keep my attention.) Tomorrow I should be good to go with the new rhythm, or at least I hope so since I'll be on it for three more days.

I get to talk to dad tomorrow! (At least as long as he works his normal schedule and we don't have anything weird happen)

Have you read Udolpho?

Apparently

2009-05-05T12:26:00.002-04:00

I am very forgetful. I had three fun topics to blog about when I woke up this morning and all I can come up with now is this:

I have a bruise. This is odd because I haven't had one since I broke my leg. I have no idea how long bruises are supposed to last. Does it depend on size or location? It's only a centimeter in diameter at the most, right on top of my bicep, but it's been hanging around for about two weeks now. What causes them anyway? Blood vessels bursting or something?

Apparently

2009-05-04T09:53:00.002-04:00

Three red chilies are too much for one bowl of ramen noodles. Although it is a fun experiment. I got to sit on the floor and cry while I tried to eat as much as I could. 1.5 liters of water didn't help too much, but after I was forced to find myself a bowl of peaches, it turned out to be quite enjoyable.

My trip to JFK yesterday was late in the afternoon so I actually got to go to a morning service at Grace! I had to look up what time it started since I haven't been able to go for two months. I saw the A380 when I got to JFK... What a MASSIVE plane!

Day off today, I'll make like a pirate and hang with friends.

Heading to Boston!

2009-05-01T15:08:00.002-04:00

Of course I only get to stay there for 37 minutes, so I won't get to see anybody, but I'll wave as I go over.

I haven't slept well for the past three nights... I don't know what's wrong with me (maybe the swine flu??)
I need to chop down a tree and wear myself out or something. Maybe my body just isn't used to sleeping at temperatures above 55 degrees. Or maybe I should stop taking naps to get the rest I missed the night before. IDK hopefully tomorrow will go better.

Everybody in the whole world

2009-04-30T20:45:00.003-04:00

Except for pilots will lose five pounds automatically at midnight.

This information was brought to you by extensive research from the FAA and your friendly neighborhood blogger.

WoW!

2009-04-28T14:33:00.002-04:00

It's an April shower! Haven't seen to many of those this month. It's the warm dizzily kind of rain that makes one want to do odd things, like run about outside and get wet. Or play soccer.

Yesterday was quite fun, however I did discover that this will probably be a bad spring for my allergies :P

Sleeping

2009-04-27T10:07:00.002-04:00

with the windows open is so great! I've gotten to do that the last two nights. Today is my day off, which scheduling apparently didn't realize when they called me at four am to try to get me to work. ("Uhh guys, working seven days in a row is Illegal... Uh yeah... especially when working it would send me into a thirteen day stretch") Thank goodness for FARs. SO now I get a completely free day that I get to use to it's fullest due to getting out of bed six hours before I was planning to :) I get to have lunch with a pastor and do my laundry today, so I'll sign off now, and wish you all the beauty of the weather that I am getting out here.
tata

Three days

2009-04-25T12:19:00.004-04:00

Of flying out of Cincinnati has occurred. Here are some of the results:
Some really nice sunsets. I love the clouds to the left of the Sun there.

We got to see two sunsets and two sunrises. I only captured the sets.

And a cool town on the edge of a windy river.

The evenings were just perfect. I seriously considered sleeping on the wing of my plane instead of riding all the way back to some lousy hotel.

This was the weather yesterday

2009-04-22T11:20:00.002-04:00

click on it so you can see the large version.
Had our first encounter with thunderstorms and lightning this year. Included for free was some moderate turbulence (yee-Haw!). After passing over one of the best views of NYC yet (The Empire State building was the only thing rising above the clouds) We shot an approach down to absolute minimums and proceeded to get stuck on the ground for an hour behind a line of traffic that was waiting for the T-storms to get clear of the departure area. After a VEEERRRYYY LLOOONNNNGGGGG flight back I grabbed a couple cokes and an OJ and ran to my next plane to do a Repo to Saint Louis. It would have been a mountain dew/vault flight, but they don't give those out on airplanes (I wonder why) so I was glad that I typically have a very low caffiene intake. (And I was also glad that I practiced staying up till 3, cause that's apout the time we ended up at the hotel this morning.)

I get to stay here till five and then drag myself home. It will be slightly unpleasant for me, and worse for whoever has to sit beside me because scheduling wouldn't let me get a change of clothes from my car between flights. ugg.

In more pleasant news, I hear that Columbus is suposed to get up to 80 today!

Ahh Life.

2009-04-21T18:05:00.002-04:00

SO. Big things are rolling the the Josh world. I just got back from a fabulous five days of break this afternoon. In those five days many things were accomplished, including going to a sweet concert with the bro, Oystering with a super bunch of oysters (minus Jurries and and couple other notable folks), telling folks about my real home, and ice skating with a meteor and the sibs!

Today I was supposed to fly to La Guardia at 2, so I showed up at 1:15 to find it delayed to 3:30. Hung out in the crew room for a while, and then went back to the plane to find our delay increased to 4:10, which ended up cancelling the flight due to the Captain and Flight Attendant not being allowed to work more than 14 hours in a day. So I got put on Hot reserve (where I stay at the airport and wait. And get paid :) a lot. ) After waiting a while I got assigned to try to fly to La Guardia again at 6, so I went to the plane at the proper time to find us delayed to 7:30! Just recently got an update that pushes us back to 8 something, and better not go much farther because I'll either get in trouble with the 14 hour rule or the "you have to get at least eight hours of rest between work periods" rule. (Rest by the way, includes driving to and from work, and a bunch of other non-rest stuff, so here's to six hours of sleep tonight!) (Good thing I slept in a little this morning)

Another big deal rolling along is that the national HQ for our union (teamsters) went and changed the locks of the doors to our chapter's offices. Really! Apparently the fellow in charge has had some shady goings-on, and three of the four airlines it represented filing the paperwork to switch to a new union helped to alert the nationals that everything wasn't kosher. I for one am really happy, and from the general impression that eminnates from the fellows I work with, I think that most of them will be really happy too. Reasons why etc. are private, so ask if you want to know and think I trust you enough to tell you.

My schedule is really stacked up for the next three weeks (woo-hoo!) so that is a really good sign for things to come. If I can make it to November I'll have held down a steady job for an entire year! Of course Novermber is a long way off, so I better not speak too soon.

OK time to find something else to do for and hour and a half. Who wants me to comment on their post?

Life is good

2009-04-17T00:40:00.000-04:00

Especially that part of it lived in Indiana.

Another day in Buffalo

2009-04-14T23:25:00.001-04:00

I got here Monday at 11pm. Went to the mall today. It was a pretty nice mall. My feet got tired of walking in flip flops so I carried them for a bit. People stared. I get to go home tomorrow.

My body reacted to the spring

2009-04-10T13:09:00.002-04:00

and switched to the "it should be warm by now" mode, so when a cold front came back through I was freeeeezing. Like wearing my super-parka or two shirts+two sweaters in the house cold. But another warm front came up last night so I should be back to normal for a couple days. I'm going to plead and beg for the days in May that I want to be free, so if you want a reservation on my schedule just shoot me an email. I will be going to Indy early in the month because I need to get my medical renewed.

A while back I was at Kroger and they had a bag of sliced french bread on the clearance rack so I got it. I experimented with it to see if I could make garlic toast. I tried a couple different methods and one of them worked really well! Bring on the vampires.

words that compose a title here

2009-04-06T17:39:00.002-04:00

Last week was a lot of fun. I had four days off so I went back to Indy and spent my time tromping about and enjoying every moment to it's fullest. I got to see Nicole do marvelously in her play (for which Caleb did a super-sweet job moving scenery around). And that is all I am saying for now, because I currently have more important stuff to do.
Goodbye!

Green Living

2009-03-31T16:30:00.002-04:00

I looked out my window yesterday morning and found that the rains had unlocked the buds on my bushes and unleashed a sea of green upon the world. OK, so maybe it's not a sea yet, but here's my first exciting sign of spring:

In Cincinnati yesterday I was hungry so I went Panda hunting. After a successful capture and meal I found this in my fortune cookie:

Aaand this is what was next to me:

my captain and I decided that happiness was the bag with the receipt in it.

I'm in Indy for four days so hooray for that!

I'm flying to Dulles

2009-03-28T13:07:00.002-04:00

in an hour. Not to be confused with Dallas, Dulles is even farther into Virginia than the other airport that pretends to be in the District of Columbia. After I get there I get to do a round trip through Indy (Hi Dad!) and end up in Greensboro at midnight. I sit there all day doing nothing and get back to Colum at 8pm tomorrow.

Happy Birthday Stacey!!!

2009-03-27T15:24:00.002-04:00

She is three cubed today! And it's especially cool since it's on the month to its own power day, which equals her age! (this is properly known as the square birthday, and is often confused with turning fifty which is one's golden birthday) (These will never coincide because it is impossible to have one's 50th birthday on the 50th day of the month)

Anyway, enough with the technicalities, Happy double three cubed square birthday Stacey!!!
And now an embarrassing story about my lovely sister to commemorate the event:

oop... It looks like you arrived too late to read the story! Try again next year. :-)

mmmmmm

2009-03-26T18:42:00.002-04:00

After a great three days off, I'm back at work. Went to LaGuardia and back this morning. It was raining there, and apparently I brought the rain back with me. Yesterday was really nice. A refreshing drizzle coming down all day, that (appropriately) turned to a downpour about 7pm. I'm on for five more days, and then I'm scheduled to make one of my random rare appearances in Indy. If you are there, you might catch a glimpse of the elusive Josh.

Excitement in the kitchen

2009-03-21T13:52:00.002-04:00

Made some great taco toppings that fed me for three days!
Before

After

The after picture is one day leftover from my original meal, so that's why it looks old.
I didn't have any tacos, so the first round was put on tortillas, and the next two were over a layer of corn chips. So good. I'm making either chicken stir fry, or chicken with pasta and alfredo sauce next. Or a stew if unknown names.

I decided to fix my stove the other day. Either my floor is sloped or the stove coils don't seat very well, with the end result of any liquid/sauce/etc all flowing to one side of my skillet when I try to cook something. So I got some heavy cardboard and slid it under one side of the stove and then put a measuring cup + water level on top until it was pretty close to level. I also put my microwave under my counter in the space left by my former refrigerator, so now I have a much more usable work space topside.

Woo Hoo for warmth!

2009-03-20T14:22:00.003-04:00

It's so great that it's getting warm! My heater is only kicking on in the nights now. My electric bill has dropped from $100 to $36, and that was only with a few warm days. Before long I hope to be at -$25 so I can have all my electric paying for itself.

It was snowing in LaGuardia this morning. I'm hoping it was the last time we had to deice before November.

I just found some cool stuff that goggle is putting out. They are making a delayed sending program for email so you can cancel if you send a message too early and decide that it needs more editing. They already have something where it will require you to answer some math problems before you send your message so you will be less enabled to send junk if you are temporarily thinking impaired. Bunch of cool junk~ check out the labs tab under settings.

Dear readers

2009-03-19T17:47:00.002-04:00

I feel I must apologize for my post of yesterday. It was entirely of bad taste to splay my personal gripes about before the world. I have been properly notified of that, and do submit to you for your forgiveness.

I got informed by my wonderful sisters yesterday that Redbox was giving away free one night movie rentals, so I went a and got The Dark Night and Prince Caspian. The first was better than I expected (although the ending was kind of a downer) and the second was worse than I expected, although I should have been ready for a repeat performance of The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe. I keep expecting them to be as thrillingly close the the books as the LOTR movies were. Oh well, sometimes thousands of words are better than as many pictures. I need to go return them all now before I get charged for a second day.

I also need to start a business were I make money off of people forgetting stuff. :P

I <3 NY

2009-03-18T16:03:00.003-04:00

I got to fly a beautiful trip into LaGuardia today. Can't beat a 4000 ft overview of NYC.

Another day another dollar

2009-03-14T15:05:00.002-04:00

Went to Cleveland and back in empty planes this morning. I got dropped into Columbus pretty fast so that was fun. I fly to W.D.C. tomorrow morning. Hopefully there won't be any delays so I can make it to the evening service.

My freezer quit

2009-03-12T13:08:00.002-04:00

freezing again today. I only had one pound of beef in there, so I can eat that for dinner, but now I'm worried because I just got back from Aldi when I found out. And at Aldi I loaded up on frozen food because I was finally starting to trust my freezer to keep working. Ugg. Hopefully I won't get sent out on any long trips so I can keep a close watch on the temperature.

I left my windows open last night

2009-03-10T13:17:00.002-04:00

And I didn't freeze! neither did my pipes. I got to wake up to the sound of birds chirping and the great feel of fresh spring air nipping at my toes.

Trianing is over

2009-03-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

passing has occurred.
Time to sleep past 4!!!

got my hair cut

2009-03-07T16:57:00.002-05:00

by a barber. for $20. it looks ok; I guess. he made it so short I may as well have done it myself, but whatever. I'm trying to stay awake for another three hours, but it's difficult because I've gotten up at four the last three days, and my body still doesn't like to go to sleep at eight. (Crashing for a couple hours in the afternoon in NY yesterday didn't help that at all)

Positive me to return on Monday. (or a VERY negative me, depending on how my sim session goes)

Happy weekend y'all!

Haircut on the horizon

2009-03-05T11:15:00.002-05:00

Well, my hair is getting to the point where it REALLY needs to be cut. Or at least trimmed up so as not to look like a shaggy dog. And I thought that since the only reason (that I can understand) why people would cut their hair is to please the general public (or at least that part of it with which the have the most contact), I would open a question to you, my general public.

I can cut my own hair for free (.5 cents of electricity) or have a barber do it for 15-20 dollars. Either way it won't turn out how I want it because I'm growing tired of a buzz, and barbers only have one haircut (they just go for the placebo effect when they ask you how you want it). I've been growing it out so it could be transformed into a complementary style (there's a heap of vanity for ya') at the scissors of a good stylist, but the only one I know of was living in the Bahamas the last I heard, and is therefore inaccessible.

I guess my question would be: Do I chop all my hair off and start growing it out all over again, or blow my cash on a barber who will give my something that looks nice until the first time I wash it? I really can't decide. Is there any other alternative?

While we are on tough questions, How does one stir something occasionally in the space of five minutes? Would that be once in the middle? once at each end of the five? every minute? When I cook something for thirty minutes stirring frequently happens about every five, so I don't know how occasionally could take place sooner. Maybe I'm confusing the whole sense of the word since it was put in the directions where it normally says to stir occasionally or frequently. Maybe the author of these directions meant that I should make an occasion of stirring. It would have been better worded "Put on your best clothes and stir thoroughly with grace, majesty, and fervor."

Now, read the sentence: The nation was full of tough women.
Then tell me the more popular spelling for this word: ghoti
Prize to the winner.

Rubia

2009-03-04T12:23:00.002-05:00

Who are you and why can't I see your blog?

Just curious.

I got to vacuum my apartment yesterday. That was quite a bit of fun. Went over everything at least three times. Now I won't have any more salt or light bulb fragments hanging out and making trouble at the most inopportune times.

Flew into Buffalo

2009-03-03T11:52:00.002-05:00

A couple days ago. Had a lady wait in the terminal until she could talk to the captain personally about whether or not she would arrive in Buffalo safely. She even had a rental car reserved. Apparently she trusted us though, because she got on board and we got here there. De-boarding comment "Thanks guys, I'd fly with you anytime."

It made me think though, those Colgan pilots probably weren't bad pilots, and they definitely weren't planning on crashing. So who on earth is to say that I won't make the same series of mistakes and kill a load of people who were counting on me to bring them to their destination safely? My experience and training? My dedication to flying safely? I can't say that I possess any of those factors more than aforementioned Colgan crew, and I probably have less experience.

Fortunately I do not rely on anyone or anything on earth for my strength and protection. Praise be to God who has brought me safe thus far, and who will bring me safely home!

It's funny how many ideas I have

2009-02-27T11:47:00.002-05:00

That I think I ought to post on here which seem to get checked at the door to the library. I've started driving my car in semi-manual mode. I can run the shifter through 1st-3rd gears and then click the o/d on when I hit the top of 3. It seems to be a lot more smooth than letting my car figure out what gear she should be in on her own.

I think I ought to post some pictures and have a naming contest soon.

I need to put some ultra-dense material around my apartment so that it will be zero-g inside. It's just the right size for that, because you'll always be near enough to a wall to push yourself off toward where you want to go.

Was it a dream?

2009-02-25T12:56:00.003-05:00

Back in Columbus after a week and a half break from reality. Going home is so nice, but it goes by entirely too fast. I suppose working is a good thing though, so I ought to be happy about being here. I just wish they would let me work during the week and rest on Sundays ya know? Anyway, got to be around some big goings-on in Indy while I was there, so that was fun. I only have one slim chance of making it back during all of March so I guess everyone out here is stuck with me for a while. If you hear about any crazies running around Columbus don't believe a word of it. I'm perfectly fine thank you very much. (the aliens are much worse than the crazies anyway)

The night is far spent

2009-02-23T08:25:00.002-05:00

The day at hand. Therefore let us cast off the works of darkness and put on the armor of light.

All Hail To Our Old Gold And Black!

2009-02-21T12:06:00.003-05:00

Heading up to my beloved Alma Mater this afternoon. It'll be fun to stomp around my stomping grounds and remember all the goings on that went on back in my younger days.
...except for the goings on that involved the police and food poisoning :P

Have you ever

2009-02-19T21:17:00.002-05:00

eaten chips and salsa in an elevator? I have. Just this evening in fact.

I also got to see the tower again, so that was a lot more cool than eating chips and salsa in an elevator.

My final test is tomorrow and then it's back home for a couple days and off to Columbus.

I had the most fun

2009-02-16T14:28:00.002-05:00

I've ever had on facebook a couple nights ago. :-)

I've also been debating about the definitions of pirated music. I got some CDs from the library, and when I played them they automatically copied into my music library. So I'm wondering whether or not to delete them. I'm not stealing from the artist or the production company, since they don't get paid for library music, and by keeping it on my computer, I'm making the library's resources more available to the public (since I don't have to check out the actual disc every time I want to hear it).
I don't know, what do y'all think?

Had a weird dream last night

2009-02-13T10:28:00.002-05:00

The odd thing is that I still remember it. I don't usually remember dreams. My lovely neighbors decided run run back and forth in front of my apartment yelling obscenities at each other at 3 this morning. I don't know if it was an outlet for their anger with each other, or if someone noticed my Choose Life plate cover, or what, but I found the words that whomever was trying to teach to all the kids in my complex carved into the frost on my trunk. Maybe they thought all the kids should know how to spell them too.

On a lighter note, my electric bill is down 30% this month. I don't know how I accomplished that. Also, my toilet is sweating. I don't know why, nothing in my apartment should be sweating at the current temperature. Maybe it has a fever or something. I'll have to dump some Tylenol down it's throat.

Drivin' to Indy tonight!

Had a cool storm last night

2009-02-12T13:05:00.001-05:00

Rain so thick I could barely see the building fifteen feet away from my window.

I was thinking of someting clever

2009-02-11T15:35:00.002-05:00

as I walked into the library, but someone else had it on hold and I had to return it before I could write it on here. Give me a few weeks to find it again. (I don't even remember the title so it might be hard)

My check engine light is out. However, since it has been on since I bought the car and I haven't done anything differently, I think there was a change in the status of my light bulb and not my engine. Just a hunch. It'll be nice not having that thing shine in my eyes when I drive at night.

I start my recurrent ground training on Monday, and could potentially be learning a new airplane on the 2nd of March. It would be kind of cool to get three type ratings in three years, but I'm sure I won't be saying that two months into the training if I do have to go.

That's all for now.

Still Fighting

2009-02-10T17:52:00.002-05:00

I think part of my problem is due to breathing stale air. Every time I go outside and run around a little (what's this thing I keep hearing about? walking?) I start to feel better, but when I go back in I get worse. Since it's a balmy 40 outside, I'm thinking about opening my windows and cycling all the air in my house. Speaking of the warmth, I'm so happy to have a car with a sun roof! It's a lot of fun to tilt it open, turn up the radio and cruise the curves of 315 around all the drivers who insist on going 5 under in the middle lane. I finish my laundry in the next five-ten minutes and then it's off to Bible study!

Sitting in Cleveland

2009-02-09T11:51:00.003-05:00

With a cold. Crew scheduling decided not to let me go to church yesterday, and sent me to Cleveland instead. It probably ended up better that way, because I would have given whatever bug I've got to everyone there. Could it be salmonella from my peanut butter crackers? Possibly, but I doubt it. It feels more like a cold+chills on steroids. Somebody ought to ban diseases from being on steroids. I drank thirty+ oz of OJ and ate an orange in the past 24 hours, but it didn't seem to help much. (Maybe OJ is what's killing me)

I'm going to stop here and make a plea that you freshen up before you get on an airplane. Please, for the sake of all that is good and right in the world. I was riding up here and a fellow sat behind me on a nearly empty plane. Normally that would not be a problem, but this fellow was exceptional. I don't know if it was his breath, or just some odor surrounding him, but I had to breathe through a napkin for the whole flight to avoid adding my own unpleasant odor to the mix. I almost asked the people in front of me if they had some gum that I could offer to the guy. I think the last time I've gotten a whiff of something that bad was when Stacey found some green meat in the fridge at church. So, even if you are certain that you aren't that bad, please have a breath freshener anyway and help save the world.

I've got a new pet now. His name is Dracula. I found him in my bed and tied him up in a plastic bag. Then I put all of my stuff on a table and went through all my bags and turned my clothes inside out to make sure none of his friends would be coming home with me. The third-to-last thing I need is to have a colony of those little suckers starting up in my apartment.

In case you were wondering, the second-to-last thing I need is to be tied up and stretched out by my digits, while having my skin removed by a vegetable peeler, alternating with Chinese water torture, solitary confinement, and being beaten raw with spiked bamboo poles. I'm not telling the last thing I need.

Reshuffle

2009-02-05T08:45:00.003-05:00

I got called at 3am, arrived at the airport at 6:30 for a flight and five schedule changes later, I'm still here. My latest flight is supposed to leave in an hour, so we'll see if that one sticks. I was going to get to go to Houston (woo hoo!), but now I'm going to Cincinnati, with a possible overnight in St. Louis (boo) (the places we stay there have a way of putting the misery in Missouri) But maybe this time will be better.

Edit. Haha, did I say St. Louis? Now I'm staying in Buffalo NY. I really think I'm staying here, because I'm at the hotel. It's a far cry from sunny and warm Texas, but seeing the mist of the Niagara Falls and an entire great lake frozen over on the way in helped to compensate for the high of 3 degrees. And the hotel is way better than St. Louis' so hooray for that!

Took a break from blogging

2009-02-03T13:14:00.002-05:00

For more important things. One of them being work. I've been thinking that this economy, while bad for a lot of people, has actually helped me out a little. It's bringing all the rich people down to my level of uber-broke, so now I get to start my life on a level plane instead of way behind everybody. I sure hope we don't stay this way though. It would really stink to go back to being a second or third-world nation.

1 year!

2009-01-31T10:32:00.002-05:00

Yesterday was my one year anniversary at Chautauqua! Crew scheduling decided to celebrate by changing my schedule five times. Apparently they are still trying to get all their pilots and planes back in the right spots after the big ice storm. So I'm not in Richmond like I thought I'd be. I'm also not going home tonight (teach me to leave my razor, phone charger, and extra clothes at home). I woke up this morning in New York to the chanting and ravings of a group of malcontents on strike below my window. Personally, with as many people as we have looking for jobs, I don't really think this is the right time to go on strike, but what do I know? They've been hollering for a good two and a half hours now. Hopefully they will go horse or get what they want pretty soon because I'm here till noon.

Here I am last year:

ICE COLD

2009-01-29T17:33:00.002-05:00

So that ice storm turned out to be more than Columbus could handle. We were put under snow emergency (unnecessary traffic highly discouraged) and the library was closed so I couldn't get my fix of access to the world or post yesterday's bit of fun until today. I reached epic proportions of cabin fever (ended up running out and defeating an ice cyclops to vent it). It seems that Indianapolis is much more adequately equipped to handle snow than Columbus. They can't even keep the highways clear out here.

Anyway, I got called out on a trip this morning and dead-headed to Cincinnati to start it off. Saw a giant fleet of DHL planes (may they rust in peace). My captain and I were talking about how very nice it is to have a job where we can see the sun in the winter. It really is great. LaGuardians didn't even need to fly to see the sun though, they had clear skies all day.

My stomach is telling me that it's time to go home and eat now, so I'll catch y'all tomorrow in Richmond.