SGU by Helo and AT-SAT Test

What a week.

Yesterday, I took the AT-SAT exam in Salt Lake City. Basically, it's the FAA's Air Traffic Controller entry test. Long story short, it was tough and I'm beating myself up over it at the moment. Oh well, if it's meant to be, it's meant to be. It's not like I'm living or dying by this.

Before I left for SLC, Linds called me prior to getting to the St. George airport to ask if I wanted to go on a helicopter ride. After I realized she wasn't kidding, I hauled tail to her school's soccer field. It's Drug-Free week and a local helo pilot was shuttling the St. George Police's canine unit around the local elementary and middle schools as part of the Red Ribbon Week assemblies.

Since Lindsey's school was last on the list for the day, the pilot asked if some of the teachers wanted to go on a quick sight-seeing tour of St. G. I've gotta admit, I think I appreciate the beauty of what we have in our backyard alot more now that I've seen it from a low-altitude hover. I also have to admit that earning a helicopter pilot's license would make me immensely happy man. I've got it all planned out in my head. I get a commercial helo license, Lindsey ta kes a teaching job in Costa Rica, and I fly tours and shuttle passengers to San Jose and Liberia. It's quite the spectacular pipe dream...but, hey...a guy can dream, right?

Click on the pic above for my Flickr photoset... Linds has one or two on her blog.

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Current Music: None
Current Location: Hurricane, UT

Feels So Good To Be Feelin' Good Again

Robert Earl Keen once wrote and recorded a song called "Feelin' Good Again"...a song that, in many ways and many times over, has always inspired a hope in me.

The tune essentially follows a man who has felt lost in life and finds his soul refilled by good times with old friends, a few lucky coincidences, and, in the end, being able to share those soul refilling moments with the woman he loves. While, at the moment, I don't exactly have to "woman I love" to share with, I've had plenty of friends and great times to fill that void this week.

Life has been pretty nutty lately and, for the sake of my sanity, I really needed these last three days to be good to me...and these last three days have really delivered. Since I got back from Costa Rica, I've really been trying to make some life changes. In a lot of ways, I'm doing really well at them...I've lost weight, cut back on many of my vices, and been doing much more physical activity than the norm in recent months...others have been a bit discouraging.

Working on pay proposal presentations and policy revisions for the folks I represent at work has been messy and dividing. In the last three weeks, I've been accused of being "self-serving", of "not being realistic" (when, in actuality, I feel I understand the pitfalls and possibilities better than most), and of "being worse than Hitler". I'm especially proud of that last one. Between the work stuff, not being happy with my current living arrangement, and trying to repair a few past mistakes in order to move forward with my life...I was in dire need of a soul refill. Costa Rica did it for me, but the craziness I've been dealing with zapped that pretty quickly.

It all started with my little brother and his wife having my first real nephew this week (I have a step-neice and two step-nephews, all three of whom I love dearly, as well...but it just feels different when it's your bloodline who is doing the reproducing...haha!). I was planning on going to Shreveport to see the new mom, dad, and kiddo...but my mom made it pretty clear that my presence would be more of a pain in the ass than anything. I know she doesn't do it intentionally, but she does it so well, regardless. So, with three days off and nothing to do...I just started flying. Would you expect anything less?

I headed up to Salt Lake with the intention of catching my friend Kaycee's SLC-Denver flight, then catching lunch with her and Brian at DIA. I ran into Kaycee between flights at SLC and she had just been called up to fly another quick turn out to Cedar Rapids, Iowa...so lunch was off. At random, I remembered that the Colorado Rockies were playing Tampa Bay that night at home...so we decided we'd all go to the game that night.

By 6pm, we (Me, Kaycee, Brian, Chuck, Mo, and Mo's friend Sarah) were at Coors Field. We scored to pretty spectacular seats on the third base line thanks to Chuck and had a great time despite the Rockies having their 11-game winning streak snapped. Plenty of beer, laughs, and fun times all-around. By the end of the night, I was so tired that I passed out on Brian & Chuck's couch within 30 seconds of laying down on it. That's a good day, right there.

I had talked to some other friends in Texas earlier that day that were going to the Rangers/Astros games at The Temple...so I set up to hop a flight home to DFW the morning after the Rockies game and go to one of the Silver Boot Series games. Again, great times with friends, old and new...this time with an extra innings Ranger win to take the Silver Boot from the 'stros!

Amidst all of this, I realized something. Nothing fills my soul like being alone in airports and hanging out in ballparks with great people.

As I type this, I'm on my 4th leg of this completely unplanned journey...headed to Vegas from Dallas. I'm headed there to hang out with Jennifer (and her family), starting an annual tradition of sorts. We did this last year on her yearly family trip to LAS. We'll grab some dinner and do a little some small-time gambling (I AM hoping to recoup my expenses from this trip at the blackjack table. Something tells me I won't, though...probably the fact that I'm a piss-poor blackjack player.). From there, I just shuttle back to SGU.

All in all, a pretty solid three days off....and it really does feel so good to be feelin' good again.

Sent via iPhone

Spectacular Days Off in Texas

I somehow managed to pull off weekends off for the month of April (OK, so it wasn't that mysterious...for training purposes, scheduling needed to give my Coordinator line to someone else and I was given a dispatch line that was vacated by someone who is filling in on overnights...I'm not complaining). I decided to take advantage of this and head back to Texas. For the first time in a looong time, people I wanted to hang out with didn't have to work.

I flew out of SGU on the early AM flt. to SLC and connected to the first SLC-DFW flt. While waiting to board, I got chat briefly my "sister" TMiller, who just happened to be flying that morning. How I miss her sometimes. She's almost as twisted as I am. ;).

Anyhow, I texted Lacey before I left SGU...telling her to leave work early, pick me up from DFW, and go to the Rangers' afternoon game that was scheduled to start about an hour after my arrival at DFW. I fully expected her to have to work and not be able to go...I just sent them mostly to tease...but, it just happened that she was off. She was at E14 baggage claim for me when I got to Dallas and away we went to Rangers Ballpark.

It was such a beautiful day for a ballgame. The beer was cold, the dogs were fresh, and the right field home run porch was a perfect place to be. The Rangers took the early lead and never let up...the won a solid game. A perfect spring day at the ballpark...

In the 5th or so, the ballpark got hazy and it smelled a bit like firewood. When we left, you could tell that there were wildfires to the west...turns out, these fires were deadly and destructive.

After the game, I had Lace drop me off at a MickeyD's off Cooper and I-20 to meet up with Dearing. She complained about it the entire way... ;). I said adios to Lacey, tossed my stuff in Dearing's Jeep, grabbed a Big Mac to go, And we were off...headed out out to his parents' lakehouse at Lake Granbury to fish.

I was beyond beat down, so I slipped in and out of conciousness between Arlington and the Lake. The smoke and haze seemed to get worse before getting better...but it DID clear up back to beautiful blue skies.

We stopped at a little roadside bait shop on the way out to the lake...a place called Alice's. We walked in to find a...ahem...heavy-set woman with a glorious mullet and moustache that made me envious willing to sell us minnows. We ordered up three dozen (Alice threw in a crawdad for free...what a steal!) paid up and got the he'll outta there before it became a re-enactment of the movie "Deliverence". Between my earring and Dearing's mohawk (he lost an academic-related bet with his students), they were starting to look at us all kinds of funny.

We made it out to the lakehouse and it could not have been anymore perfect. Nice, quiet, comfortable, that musty scent of lake...and a fishing platform/dock right there in the backyard. We set up the iPod speakers outside, plugged on the iPhone connected to Pandora (playing Texas country, of course), poured a couple Jack & Cokes, baited...a few hooks that is...and waited for the fish to bite.

After about an hour, we decided the fish weren't biting...and it was in that moment that I got my first bite. I fought with him; I just knew this was that bass I saw jump only a few minutes earlier. Having not fished in years, I was ready to brag about this one. When I pulled this monster outta the water, my allusions of a trophy piece were shot out of the water...it was a 4-inch perch. I guess my line was a little snagged on the reel-in, so it felt bigger than it was. I took a picture of him anyway. I can't believe he swallowed that humongous minnow whole.

The rest of the evening was much of the same...small fish, good music, good conversation with a bro i don't get to see often, and calmness. Something I've needed for a long while. About nine o'clock or so, the dull headache started to come back. I've been having these headaches and fatigue, off and on, for weeks. They suck...and zap my energy. Also, I barely sleep a full night these days.

With all that, I decided to lie down on the couch for a bit. At two in the morning, Dearing woke me to tell me I could use the bed in the extra bedroom. Glory hallelujah...Mama Dearing has created the most amazing bed...ever. I have not slept so comfortably in God knows when. Despite how restful it was, I still slept for another seven hours...and it was good.

I got up...fished a little more and we packed up. We stopped at Babe's Chicken Dinner house in Granbury on the way out. If you've never been to a Babe's...GO! That was the closest thing to home-cookin' I've had in a while.

Dearing took me to get my rental car and we headed to Three Justins HQ. JB and I rocked out to Guitar Hero: Metallica for a while, got dinner, and I was off to Gainesville.

I pulled in at Shaun's place pretty late thanks to a wrong turn near Fort Worth...and, yes, I did refuse to consult Google maps on the iPhone. I just forged ahead 'til I found my way.

Shaun and I caught up for a bit and then decided to knock out the one thing we had planned on doing while I was in town: checking my credit reports.

I was an irresponsible teenager with a credit card at the beginning of this decade...and, as a result, my credit has sucked for years. With the the help of Shaun's amazing knowledge and experience in these types of financial matters, I've been able to claw my way back up to a pretty decent credit situation. The last time we checked, we were seeing the first real signs of significant improvement...this time, I was hoping to see an even greater amount of improvement. Without sharing too many details of my current credit report, I can say that Shaun's methods and recommendations have worked 100%. My level of improvement in the last 3-6 months has been incredible...and my financial goals are within reach. It's a pretty amazing feeling after the feelings of hopelessness over the years.

I got up Saturday morning and headed over to my parents' house. There were a million cars parked out front and...not having seen my little brother's truck there...I feared someone had died and mom forgot to tell me (I have jokingly stated many times since my move to Utah that mom would do just that if a close relative ever should , God forbid, pass away unexpectedly). When I walked in, the place was filled with women and I realized that it was a baby shower for my sister-in-law. Upon realizing this, I td mom I would come back later and made a b-line to get the hell outta there.

I headed down to Denton for the day...got Rudy's BBQ with Lorenzo, got fitted for the tux I'll be wearing in Sammy's wedding, hung out with Cody for a little bit, and hung out with old tailgating buddies at the 6th(?) Annual GoMeanGreen.com Bowl. It was especially great to see Stebo and meet his Emily...it had been too long.

Got back to Gainesville and hung with my grandparents. Papa and I talked baseball for a while...I fixed a few things on Nanny's computer...and we caught up on things. My Nanny & Papa are great to spend time with...I'm so glad to have such a close relationship with them. I think sometimes I take that for granted...:-/

From there, I went back to Mom and Dad's for a historic evening. We hung out, all evening, all together...and, for the first time in our family's history, we didn't get into any kind of argument. You may laugh, but this is huge progress for my family. Of course, all of us had a beer or two in our systems, but that's neither here nor there. To top it off, a pretty awesome storm rolled in during all of this. I needed that to refuel my gypsy soul...LOL!

I nightcapped the evening by stopping in at Chad's birthday shindig at his amazing apartment above the old KXGM-FM studios on the courthouse square. It was an interesting hodgepodge of folks I haven't seen in years. From there, Shaun and I grabbed late-night Whataburger to complete the "Texas Food Odyssey"...which is, in no particular order:

1.) a Shiner Bock beer
2.) Rudy's or Deiter Bros.' BBQ
3.) Blue Bell Ice Cream
4.) Whataburger

This morning...I got dressed in some business casual, loaded up my "dorky, pilot rollaboard" (as Brandon Murray calls it) into my rented Dodge Charger, and went to Easter lunch with the family. I love our semi-redneck family meals at my aunt & uncle's place. The food rocks: my Uncle Jeff's kickass cheeseburgers and deer chili, Mom's baked beans, Nanny's potato salad...I want a second helping just thinking about it. We don't do "traditional" and I love it.

I said my goodbyes after lunch, headed to DFW, and here I am...typing this blog entry on my phone from the Hell Seat on a DFW-SLC flight. Yes, the Hell Seat on a SkyWest CRJ-900...20D. No window, no recline, right next to the crapper, and a CF34 engine screaming on the other side of the wall. To top it off, the aisle seat is occupied by a very fidgety four year old. But, hey, it's a ride. It just irks me that (after a party of five split their reservation and took that almost guaranteed first class seat), with my seniority on a SkyWest operated flight, I get this seat...but the commuting mainline Delta pilot well below me on the standby list gets the best coach seat in the house...5A. Explain that...oh, I know, it's a mainline station.

All in all, though, it's a small price to pay considering it was one of the best weekends home I've ever had.

A Quick Question About Flying

Is it ok to booze it up at 0830 when you're flying in first class? I
say, "Yes!".

Sent via iPhone

My Friends Are Ridiculous...or perhaps...Ludacris...

So, my buddy Keith tells me all the time that I should write a book with all of the stories that, according to him, are tales of "things that only happen to Dub". The following is one of those stories.

I've been in LAX since last night in preparation for a work meeting today. The meeting was quick and productive, however, it left me with 6 hours to kill before my flight back to SGU.

Seeing the opportunity to complete my required yearly Brasilia jumpseat observation time, I decided to pick a quick roundtrip that would get me there and back with enough time to eat when I got back to LAX. I chose Oxnard, California because it was a really quick trip and because I had never been there before. The gate agents in LAX were excellent and let me go down early to meet with the crew & get my things situated prior to boarding.

When I went down to the ramp, I found a weasily, "shirt & tie" type of man milling around and, without looking at his ID's, knew he was a Fed. I wasn't wrong...and he immediately notified me that I was being bumped from the observer seat. Lovely.

The gate agents caught this and came to the plane to suggest that I do a quick roundtrip to Palm Springs roundtrip. Her exact words were "it comes right back, too!". Lo and behold...it didn't. Well, to be fair...it did come back...2 hours later. Of course, I didn't know this until the First Officer pointed that out as we set the brakes at the gate in PSP.

So, here I was, spending the next 2 hours on my phone while sitting around in the Palm Springs airport.

I boarded the return flight to LAX with at least a small amount of hope that we would make it in early and the SGU flight would be late. Lo and behold, it wasn't. Again, to be fair, the same gate agent set me up on the next flight to Salt Lake City (which was leaving in less than 5 minutes at that point) and called the agent at that gate to make sure to get me on.

So here I sit...in seat 6C on a SkyWest CRJ-700 to SLC...where I will sleep in the crew lounge...and hope to get to work at a somewhat decent hour tomorrow.

Only me...only me.

Down the road....
Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T