Landing at home

A had to make a sick call and it’s landed him home for a stretch of 16 days. That’s even longer than the block of time he gets off for his scheduled vacation at the end of September! He’s had time to work through his gout flare up, get it under control and start some new meds, and get some specialist appointments scheduled. It’s also allowed him to be home for school and daycare pick up and stop off, grocery shopping, and three rounds of sick kids. First Baby Girl was sick with a fever. She came home early from day care twice, stayed home altogether once and had a doctor visit. We no sooner got her well than youngest threw up at school and needed to come home. We get him well and then older boy is up in the middle of the night throwing up. And through it all he’s been able to deal with it all while I go to work as usual. It’s quite liberating to have a stay at home parent. We are all well now and plan to enjoy the long weekend at the Zoo and beach.

A’s airline is in the midst of contract negotiations. It’s intetesting to be on this side of it this time. As a union rep he’s party to hours of conference calls ( literally 5+ hours one day) and the back and forth of negotiations on top of the random pilots calling him trying to get insider information or make their personal contract desires known. Some evenings it seems like we barely see him without his earpiece on to listen in quietly. The absurdity of what some crews do on the job never fails to astound me, as does his ability to represent them to management with a straight face.

A is still torn about online college to finish his BS degree. He wants it but the financial stress and the time stress seems so much. I can’t handle eating a degree on his behalf. But completing it would make such a difference in his ability to move airlines. Even though there is rumor of his airline being acquired by a motor a year later no further details have come out. And I say that confidently because he would be one of the first to know. I keep hoping an obvious, easy answer will present itself but it hasn’t yet. I’ll keep hoping though.