Odds and Ends

A left yesterday for his third and final retraining event. This time he's gone for 4 full days because he has a union meeting backed up against his simulator sessions. We still don't have a December schedule for him because the company won't build one until he completes retraining. Usually he gets good December schedules and is able to bid a lot of time off around his vacation, but it doesn't seem like that will be the case this year. He will just get what the schedulers decide to throw at him. He will be home for Christmas though as that is his vacation week. At least we have that.

Currently he is the FO rep at his base. The CA rep is also the chairman of the group and is the one responsible for running the group- emails, meetings, conference calls- that sort of thing. There is a new CA rep as the old one moved to a new airline. Now there is a second election to determine who is going to be the new chairman; it doesn't just default to the CA rep like A assumed. Both A and the CA rep voted for each other. A is not the most organized or time aware person and it's going to cut into a lot of his time at home to stay on top of things.

A has brought home two funny stories recently. An old friend of his who left flying and then went back to a cargo airline flew with a "flat- earther". The guy has all kinds of mathematical "proof" that the earth was in fact flat- tricks in compass polarity and all. I wonder if this guy has ever flown a polar route or made an around the world trip and how he would explain it. Seems surprising that a pilot of all people would believe that kind of thing. The second story was another pilot friend who was flying home from a retraining event and was sitting a row behind and opposite a new hire from the same (regional) airline who was coming home from training. While they were waiting for a gate at the end of the flight the guy proceeded to put on his headphones and chat loudly on the phone about how well he did during training, how great he was at Embry-Riddle, and all the girls he had banged during training. He made sure to mention the company name several times.  Way to make a great impression. I guess there will never be an end to the dumb-ass new hires. A's friend did stop the guy in the jetway (without identifying himself) and tell the guy he needed to use a little more discretion because you never know who is listening in. Mr. New Hire is going to feel like an ass for the rest of his career every time he sees the older, wiser pilot, which will be a lot as they are based at the same base.

In other news, Baby Girl is starting to outgrow some of her infant things. I love watching her grow but it's bittersweet knowing that she is our last baby. Passing on the Moses Basket that our babies have slept in and weeding through the clothes that all our babies have worn is really hard. In the past it's been easy because we could just throw it in a bin and know it will get use later. Now, not so much. The fewer kids that have used items, the easier it is, but those things that three or four kids have been through, man that's tough.

Sweet baby girl celebrating Thanksgiving