Some goodbyes are harder than others

A was here and gone again for the weekend. Flew in friday night, late, and left sunday morning. I have to say, it seemed like this weekends leaving was harder on me than they have been lately. I think it was because I was being left at home for a full day of moping (not like Kidzilla allowed much of that, but the potential was there) vs. heading to work where I am kept busy with mind numbing tasks. It felt more like *him leaving us* than the "see ya next time" feeling we usually have when Kidzilla and I head out the door in the morning leaving him at home to depart after we have left. We kept busy with a few rounds of miniature golf, some roller coaster and a dip in the pool when we got home.

We finally got the schedule issue worked out for next month. It's not as bad as I feared it would be. This month, he got a line that is built of fill in trips dropped by other lineholders. It's a line that is created by crew scheduling and you don't get to see it ahead of time. But in return for the favor of letting CS ride you like a pony, you get a bonus 2 days off for the month. Thanks! So we have a short week off at the beginning of the month, 3 weeks of barely seeing each other, then 8 full, consecutive, days off. Now far be it from me to complain about extended time off, but perhaps they could have balanced the days off a little better? I guess the good thing about monthly bidding is that once the month's schedule sets in and really wears on you, it's already time to bid for the next month's so you have some hope that things will get better soon. It's that eternal hopefulness that leads me on.

We're planning to take some time in that 8 days off to go visit the IAH area and get a better feel for if we really want to take the leap and relocate. The thought of moving near family and having some built in babysitters is really tempting. Oh, and so is the potential to cut down on commuting time and all that other stuff. We'll see what comes up.

Poor A got stuck on a full flight for one leg of his commute today. So for 3.5 hours he has to "straddle the saddle" and ride in the RJ cockpit jumpseat. It's like a fold down bench directly behind the crew seats and he has to straddle the center console the whole way. Oh the things we do for love. And, let's be honest here, the prospect of getting some from the wife you haven't seen in a week...