More pictures are up from March. Look at them. They are cool. Yeah.

An iron with a retractable cord. How cool is that?

I watched an episode of Conviction on NBC last night. Marginal show, but nothing else was on. I know, I know, sitting at home on a Friday night watching TV. I’ve officially become my old roomate (sorry, Zac). Anyhow, as I was watching it I was tracking the songs used in the episode. I’ve found that for the most part the music NBC uses is pretty good and for the most part newer. It’s a good way to get new artists to listen to. There were three or four actual songs used during the show (not counting thematic music) and I was very surprised to find I already had all the songs on my computer. I guess for once I am ahead of the game.

I picked up a 2 day out of open time. It was a deadhead from CLT to Gainesville, FL and then overnight there. That was nice. Warm. Warm is good. The next morning we did GNV-CLT-Hunstsville-CLT-CAK-CLT and then I non reved back to Dayton where there was about 3 inches of snow on the ground. Grrr. Anyhow, I had to reserve the jumpseat to get back to Dayton as the flight was full (even on the 70 seater). Fortunatly (or maybe unfortuantly) there were a few no shows and I got a seat in the back. The reason I say unfortunately is that there was as school group of 28 kids and a few teachers where were from some private school near Dayton who had been down to some historical sites in VA and NC and were flying home. Did I mention they were 4th graders? Ugh. Actually, they were pretty well behaved for 4th graders but they were still bouncing all over the place the whole flight. Kudos to the FAs (there was three as there as a deadheader who “worked” the flight as well) for doing a nice job keeping them all in their seats and happy. As I said, it could have been a lot worse but I was happy to get off the plane either way.

Pictures from March are up in the photo gallery. I may add some more if I take more this month, but it’s a start.

I keep seeing/hearing/reading things that would make the basis for a great post, but by the time I get around to posting I forget what they are. Grrr. It’s been a slow last few days. I didn’t fly any of the 4 days I was on reserve and then I had 2 off and now I am not flying on the first day back on. It’s like a week vacation, but I didn’t go anywhere. I was able to swing some open time for tomorrow and the next day. It actually worked out pretty well. Tomorrow I am non reving down to Charlotte to pick up the trip. All I do is deadhead to Gainesville, FL and overnight there. The next day is back to CLT and then a Hunstville and Akron turn followed by non reving back to Dayton. The down side of the whole thing is that I only have 1 day off for the rest of the month. Oh well. Bid awards come out in a few days and yet again, I am bubble for a build up line. (It must be NCAA season… I used the term bubble.)

Paul has a friend in visiting and we went over to Yellow Springs today. Sort of a hippie town in OH. In other words, not really that hippie-ish. Either way, there was a used book store which was good. I was getting tired of spending $10 on the latest New York Times Bestseller at the airport book stores. I pick up a copy of Lost Horizon, which I read for a 6th grade book report years ago. I still remember trying to write the report. I don’t remember the book though so I guess that is good.

Chris sent over a few pics from Jackson that were on his camera. Actually, I think they were on Mags’ camera. Either way.
Pic 1
Pic 2

My 5:58 of sleep turned into about 3 hours as I couldn’t fall asleep until 12:30. Dunno why, but that’s the way it happened. So far I’ve managed to stay awake by browsing for needless but cool webpages while sitting reserve. Unfortunately I am running out of things to look at. Only another 2 1/2 hours and I can think about getting out of here.

One neat thing I found was a new use for Google Maps.

It is now 10:08pm. Which means if I was to fall asleep RIGHT NOW I would get 5:52 of sleep before having to get up at 4am to get to the airport for 5am hot reserve. Somebody remind me again why I like this job?

So the Miami jaunt didn’t happen. I got through yesterday ok. A quick hope from Akron to CLT with a gate return after we got an APU Fault message became a Block +25 flight. A crew swap in CLT and we were heading to Birmingham. The weather in BHM was ok, but there was a line of thunderstorms to the west and we were in a hurry to get in and out. It was the captains leg and she did a really nice job of getting it down in wind that was 90 degrees off the runway and gusting to 27knts. My leg back to PHL for the 2:08 trip. Went pretty well with some nasty bumps in the climb out. I managed my nicest landing in a while on 27L and then sat around for 3 hours waiting for the deadhead home. Got home at 11:30 and walked to the car in a rather cold rain.

I set my alarm for 7:45 this morning so I could get up, do laundry and then catch a flight south. The only problem with my plan I discovered when I started to check loads this morning. Friday + Florida + Spring Break = No Non Rev For Me! Grr. EVERYTHING was full. Airways was oversold by 9 or 10 per flight with multiple non revs listed. American had no space. Airtran was sold out on everything heading into Florida as was Delta. So, I gave up. I’ll just have to head south another time.

-Catch a van to the airport from the hotel at 11am
-Fly to Charlotte from Akron
-Switch captains (captain I am flying with is done for the day)
-Fly to Birmingham, AL (dodge thunderstorms the whole way)
-Fly to Philly
-Sit for 3 hours (dinner maybe?)
-Deadhead to Dayton
-Drive home (get home around 11:30pm *IF* everything goes well today)
-Unpack
-Go to sleep
-Wake up
-Breakfast
-Laundry
-Get Sunscreen from the store
-Pack
-Drive to the airport
-Catch an Airtran flight to Miami

Ah yes, getting in late and going on vacation the next day. Got to love it.