Our Best Weekend Trip Ever

Ever since I first heard about Legoland in Denmark when I was a kid I wanted to go. After all, what toy is cooler than Legos?

Well, a trip to Denmark was pretty much out of the question. And as I grew older the desire waned somewhat, but I always loved Legos.

Then in 1999 the Lego company opened a Legoland in Carlsbad California. Annette and I had no immediate plans to go, but as our family grew, Dinohunter had inherited most of my Legos and everyone loved to play with them. As each year passed we talked more and more seriously about going. Finally, last year we decided to save up to go in 2008. Our original intent was to go during the summer, but Dinohunter’s trip to Palestine along with trips to Florida and Missouri made that complicated. The trip was delayed to the Fall, but October looked promising, since the kids would be out of school on Thursday the 16th and Friday the 17th. I was able to arrange to have those days off and it looked like everything would work out.

Finally the 16th arrived. I had arrived at 1:00AM the night /morning before coming back from work in Atlanta. Our plan was to catch the 8:50AM flight to Los Angeles. It was a good plan. Unfortunately, it seemed that everyone else had the same plan, and since we only fly free if there’s an empty seat, after arriving at the airport it quickly became apparent that air travel was not going to happen. On to Plan B—drive.

The problem with driving is A) our Dodge Caravan only seats seven and, well, we are a family of seven plus one, and B) a twelve-hour drive is a sure-fire way to make sure we become a family of seven, or six even. Originally the Caravan had a built-in VCR, but a couple of years ago it stopped working. If we were going to drive we would need entertainment. We stopped by Wal-Mart and picked up an inexpensive DVD player. Once back home I soon realized that I would need to adapt the player to 12 volt current, but had no adapter. Naturally my Dad saved the day. He had one and so we met up with him and jerry-rigged our new entertainment system. Now we dared make the drive.

The kids were very well behaved. Between DVDs and Nintendo DSs they kept busy. We stopped for dinner in St. George and walked around the temple. Another highlight was driving down the Las Vegas Strip after dark. The kids were blown away with Treasure Island, New York New York, the Venetian, Luxor, and all the rest. Finally at about 2:30 in the morning we pulled into our hotel’s parking lot and checked in.

The next morning we were up by 8:30 and arrived at the park just after it opened at 10:00AM. The park is mostly geared to younger children but has a couple of rides for the older kids. But for those who love Legos, it’s all fun. The only one who was left out at all was Jack-Jack, since he was too short for several of the rides. One that everyone enjoyed is called the Knight’s Tournament. I’ve never seen anything quite like it. Essentially it’s a mechanical arm that turns you upside down and throws you from side to side. It was very intense. I rode with Red Pepper and she asked why I was laughing the whole time. It was fun. Even Mr. Tickle got to ride it with his Mom, since each arm can be programmed to one of five different settings, five being the most intense. Mr. Tickle got a one, but he got to go. And once again, Jack-Jack got to watch.

For me the highlight was Miniland USA, where different parts of the country are modeled in Legos. My favorite was San Francisco, but there was also New York City, New Orleans, Las Vegas, and several other places. The detail was amazing.

The visit concluded with a stop in the Lego Store, where everyone bought something. Annette and I bought the obligatory Christmas tree ornament and refrigerator magnet. Other things purchased included key-chains made with mini-Lego figures, salt and pepper shakers and cake molds, as well as an actual set or two.

After leaving the park we made a beeline for the beach, only a half-mile away. Everyone took their shoes off and discovered that the Pacific Ocean is quite a bit colder than the Gulf of Mexico. Still we had fun as the sun set over the water. Then we stopped for dinner at In-N-Out Burger, a Southern California institution. The shakes were great!

Everyone slept well that night, as you can imagine. The next morning we took our time getting up and checking out. We stopped to visit old friends, the Rowleys, for lunch as we passed through Redlands. Finally we arrived home at 2:30AM and put everyone to bed.

And at 4:00AM I got back up to catch a plane to go back to work. It was a whirlwind, but it was fun!

Friends Forever

Thirty-four years ago I was a kindergartner with the most wonderful teacher in the world (aren’t all kindergarten teachers?), Miss Harps. That year I also made many new friends, some of whom I continued with all the way through our senior year of high school. We weren’t always close, but we always retained that tie of having been in Miss Harps’ class. Last year I attended my twentieth high school reunion and sure enough, those of us who had been in Miss Harps’ class found each other. Even though we hadn’t seen each other in twenty years, I was amazed that what bound us together was not the fact that we graduated together, but that we knew each other in kindergarten.

Small Miracles

Two years ago my parents, convinced that it was time for me to get a new car, arranged for me to acquire a ’96 Cadillac. As a financial planner, they reasoned, I should drive a more upscale car than the ’91 Ford Crown Victoria I had. The terms were excellent, and it was a great car.

Now I all I had to do was to sell the Crown Vic. It had a few issues given that it was fifteen years old, high mileage and the wear and tear that comes with it. I wanted to avoid pouring a lot of money into it. The main thing I wanted to accomplish was to refurbish the vinyl top, which had started to fade and crack. Being the brilliant individual that I am, I decided to use crazy glue to fill the cracks and then paint it over. Unfortunately the crazy glue didn’t fill the crack but just sealed it. Good, but not good enough. Then I had a better idea: Shoe Goo! It did manage to fill in the holes. . . and then some. It was a mess, and now I had to peel it off.

To add to the problems the car no longer ran very well. Whether this was a simple factor of sitting for an extended period or needing fresh gas or something more serious, now I had an additional project. I discovered this when I needed to replace a tire for my Cadillac and so drove my now un-registered and un-licensed Crown Vic to the tire store. Not only did it lurch, but, yes, you guessed it, I got pulled over and ticketed.

As time passed there was less and less of it to spend on fixing the car. First I increased the hours I was giving flight instruction and then last year of course I started working at ASA and was limited to 11 days off a month. The Crown Vic sat in my garage for fear that more exposure would worsen the vinyl while my Cadillac sat in the driveway. I kept meaning to get to it, but other projects kept diverting my attention.

Finally this past week I actually had five consecutive days off. By this time the car wouldn’t even start—the battery had corroded. My goal was now just to get it started and take it to a mechanic to see what needed to be done so I could at least advertise it as running well. I cleaned the battery cable and post and after charging the battery and getting a jump I finally succeeded in starting the car. With my wife following me we first filled the tires and then proceeded to the repair shop.

After explaining my purpose one of the mechanics offered to buy it as is for a fair price. No fuss no muss. No more time and money spent. I may have lost a couple of hundred dollars by not doing it myself, but it was worth it. Or I may have come out just fine. After all, I was nearing the point of taking it to the recycler just to get it out of the garage.

This was a real blessing. Sometimes miracles are small and not so flashy, but important and real just the same.

It Beats Working For a Living

In two more days I will have completed my first year with Atlantic Southeast Airlines. This is an important milestone in at least a couple of regards. First and foremost, during the first year the airline can terminate your employment without cause. Arriving late for an assignment is sufficient cause. So is your shirt coming untucked. Fortunately ASA is not known for its draconian behavior, but there is one area where I feel a bit exposed—commuting. Generally the last day of a reserve assignment I am on call until 9:00PM and the last flight home leaves at 8:55. So I fudge and leave early. Sometimes when feeling brave I have left on the 6:30 flight. It’s a calculated risk given that there is virtually no assignment the airline could give me and get me back in time for my day off, so the chances of it backfiring are slim. Nevertheless, I almost always check my cell phone upon landing with a hint of fear that Scheduling called while enroute. Chances are I would have to meet with a Chief Pilot who would give me a tongue lashing but likely nothing worse. Hopefully. But like I said, if the airline felt so inclined, it would be more than enough to fire me. But once a pilot has completed a year he or she then has union protection and it is much much much harder to fire them. I will still be nervous when commuting home if I leave a little early, but I won’t fear for my job. My stress level will go down a notch.

The second big deal about the year mark is the pay raise. First year first officers don’t make very much. If you are interested in knowing just how much you can click here. Every little bit helps, and it’s nice to have made it through the most difficult stage. Pilot pay raises come according to years of service—each year your pay goes up. The biggest jump is after the first year, then it grows much slower. The next real jump will come when I upgrade to captain. And when will that be? Given how the whole industry has slowed down, probably not for another five years. Sooner would be nice, but it’s not something to expect. The only ways to speed up that process are for the airline to grow or for senior pilots to leave, whether for retirement or to other airlines. Naturally we pilots hang on every rumor of growth, but it doesn’t take long to recognize that the rumors are almost always nothing more than just that.

Overall it has been a good year. The only real negative is that I am still on reserve, meaning I still do not have a regular route and schedule and so fly only when someone else doesn’t show. That’s why I have now sat in my crash pad in Atlanta for the last three days without going anywhere. I still have three more days before I go home again. Usually I’m here for four or five days at a time, but I’m here for six this time around because I was able to more around some off days so that next week I will have five days off in a row. That will be very nice. Again, the process of “holding a line” or regular schedule is a question of movement upward in seniority. Right now it’s pretty slow, but I expect that by late Spring I should finally have a line. That also comes with at least one more day off per month.

On the plus side I fly a jet airplane and they pay me to do it. I have visited Mexico and Canada plus many cities in the eastern U.S., not all particularly glamorous but good people live in them all. As my Dad, a retired United pilot, used to say, “It sure beats working for a living.”