Settling in

A made it through his first week out in ONT and his first trip home. He was able to get released early ( barely, too many other people were asking as well) and caught a flight home Monday night instead of Tuesday morning. It worked well, so for this month, that's going to be our plan. I dropped him off at the airport (3 hrs early) on my way to work this morning. Sad at first, although not nearly as sad as the first time he left, but with some creative counting I have myself convinced that it's only 4 days until I see him again. And that's barely even worth whining about.

We did some more talking and reflecting as we were enjoying our time together. We decided that in this circumstance, I'm the big picture thinker and he's the detail oriented one. It came about as we were discussing bidding and wider company policy. He's been so busy focusing on getting through training and IOE, basically focusing on learning to fly the plane, it's just now that he has an opportunity to sit back and expand his scope. Whereas I have always been able to see all the other details but have been (deliberately, I'm not interested) left out of learning about the small details. I know the contract specifics, ALPA goals and where the pilots hang out in IAH, but not how to turn on the XM radio. Now we just have to work on merging our strengths.

Still considering a move to TX. IAH seems the natural choice, although with the amount of pilots there, reserve is LONG (8+ months). SAT is senior and no one was able to transfer in with the last bid. And there is always Austin, which is near enough to commute, but more pricey and isolated. Thanks to some upward movement at ONT, A is a lot closer to holding a line than he was 2 weeks ago. With any luck, he'll be able to hold a good reserve line for Sept. Having a work-able schedule (he bid for anything with Jax overnights and/or 3 day blocks off) helps reduce our immediate need for more family time, but still doesn't alleviate the commuting issue. But it doesn't seem so pressing to get it all worked out NOW.

Kidzilla will be home in about 1.5 weeks. I'm looking forward to having him home again, but at the same time, it's going to be hard to give up my freedom. Grandpa is flying him out to IAH and I'm going to pick him up there and fly him back here. It will be fun to play jetsetter for a day again.