Anniversary letter

Timber,

     Our traditional annual anniversary isn’t for a few more months, so this might seem a little early, but 5,000 days ago today I knelt across the alter and pledged myself to you for time and all eternity.  And it has been the best 5,000 days of my life.  I can’t imagine my life without you.  What would I do without your spirituality lifting me up, without your caring nature, without your rock-like commitment to the Lord, and especially without your love.  We have been together through good times and hard, and we have grown closer no matter the situation.

     You are a phenomenal mother. I don’t mean OK. I mean phenomenal. There is no way in this world I could ask for someone who loves and cares for our children the way you do.  No one could give more of herself for our kids than you do.  Our kids are so incredibly blessed to have you as a mother, and they don’t even realize the lottery they won.  I hope our boys grow up to marry a lady like their mom.

     18 years ago when we worked at Lagoon together who would have thought that you would change my life forever.  You are my strength and my joy.  You give me a purpose, and I love you with everything that I am.  Thank you for your love.  Thank you for being my best friend.  Thank you for being my wife.  I could not think of a better way to spend 5,000 days than with you. 

I love you.

ND

bayonets

Whenever I think about putting up a sword display Feathersky always reminds me about how soon we'll be moving, not to put holes in the wall, and stuff like that. But my dad got me a WWII Japanese bayonet for my birthday, and Timber's not home, is she.

Dreams

I rarely ever remember my dreams, and when I do I only ever have the same dreams that everyone else has. Like the one where your being chased by a dog and can't run, or where you're falling, and wake up just before hitting the sand, or where your riding a unicycle down a huge hill with the rock monster from "The Never Ending Story" on your shoulders trying to dodge boulders and avoiding a spotlight that's trying to find you.
Last night I had one of my favorite recurring dreams. You know the one where I'm herding skinned headless chickens in the mountains, and as I look over the valley I see a nuclear explosion take out the Great Salt Lake. So I jump in my dump truck and rush down the windy dirt road, but every time I hit a bump waves of bright pink pigs slosh over the sides of my truck. So I stop, and try to clean up the pigs, but I don't have enough sponges, so I know I'm going to get in trouble. I always wake up as I'm trying to soak up the pigs with my sponges.
I wonder what Froid would think of that one.

Personality Test

Advanced Global Personality Test Results Extraversion 36% Stability 80% Orderliness 33% Accommodation 83% Interdependence 10% Intellectual 50% Mystical 23% Artistic 23% Religious 90% Hedonism 16% Materialism 83% Narcissism 83% Adventurousness 90% Work ethic 83% Self absorbed 43% Conflict seeking 36% Need to dominate 50% Romantic 30% Avoidant 36% Anti-authority 90% Wealth 43% Dependency 10% Change averse 23% Cautiousness 16% Individuality 36% Sexuality 63% Peter pan complex 23% Physical security 70% Physical Fitness 50% Histrionic 10% Paranoia 90% Vanity 10% Hypersensitivity 10% Male cliche 10%

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

Stability results were high which suggests you are very relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic..
Orderliness results were moderately low which suggests you are, at times, overly flexible, improvised, and fun seeking at the expense of reliability, work ethic, and long term accomplishment.
Extraversion results were moderately low which suggests you are reclusive, quiet, unassertive, and secretive.

trait snapshot:
secretive, reclusive, messy, disorganized, introverted, unassertive, rarely worries, dislikes large parties, does not like to fit in, does not need to control others, solitary, ambivalent about chaos, tough, leisurely, does not respect authority, not aggressive, observer, abstract, impractical, dislikes leadership, daydreamer, bizarre, does not make friends easily, not a perfectionist, suspicious, rarely irritated, strong physical instincts, unsympathetic at times, risk taker, submissive, weird, sarcastic, strange

Co-Pilot

Jaedin had a tuff week a couple of weeks ago. It seemed like every time he would get off time out he would be back on it a couple of minuets later. He was being disobedient and defiant. We figured that he was upset because of all the new things that were going on, and so Timber and I decided to try and work harder at giving him a lot of positive reinforcements. We've been trying to catch him doing good things and reward him for them. We've also given him some "big" rewards at the end of the day if he can be good for the whole day. Some days he's gotten to play baseball with me, or go swimming, or go on a special outing. Well, last week his special reward for being good is that he got to go flying with me. This is the first time he's gotten to go since we moved so he was super excited.

Here he is jumping into the pool at the apartments.

I had him pose in front of the airplane, but I think the sun was in his eyes.

After I would check the oil he would have to get up on the ladder and "check it" too. It's nice to have someone double checking your work to make sure you didn't miss anything.

For some reason his favorite place to sit was on the landing gear.

Here he is doing his glamour shots pose in the cargo area. Before this he was jumping around in there, so his cheeks are a little red.

The tail number of the plane was "Papa Tango" so after I talked to someone Jaedin would repeat in three year old talk, and say "PAPA TANGO PAPA TANGO!!!"

After I would adjust the controls he would reach up and try and adjust them too. I had them too tight so he couldn't move them. The red controls next to his hand are for shutting off the engine.

And at the end of the night he had to help me carry the bags from the plane to the courier's car.

I think the big rewards have worked because this last week has been one of the best he's ever had. Sometimes he still walks around saying "PAPA TANGO PAPA TANGO!!" So I think he had fun. I'm glad we went swimming before it turned ice cold too.

In flight movie

I was flying home from an all day trip to Tri-city yesterday when the sun started setting. It reminded me of when Feathersky and I used to sit and watch the sunset while camping. Just when I was missing her, "our" song started playing on my MP3 player. So I took this picture to remember the moment. I really miss her and the kids when I have to be away like that.

Zen and the art of the serpentine belt

Last week I was trying to change the serpentine belt on our car. I knew how to change it, in that I was pretty sure which belt it was, but the details on how to get it on and off where a bit fuzzy. So I was working on getting it off for about two hours, all the while secretly hoping that I wouldn't get it off, because I wasn't sure I would ever be able to get one back on and at least this way I would be able to drive it to someone who had seen the inside of a car before. I spent about two hours trying to get to a bolt turned that was so inconveniently placed that it had to be part of some conspiracy. Probably wondering if I had heat stroke, Feathersky comes out to check on me, looks at the engine, and says "well why don't you just use this other tool like this?"

Well, ten minuets later I was sitting back inside the air conditioned house wondering if there was anything this woman can't do. Did I get lucky or what?

Awkward Interview Questions

In the last few months I had six or seven interviews with different companies before I finally got this one at Central Air. Over the course of the interviews they asked a lot of awkward questions. Here are a few. How would you answer them? Keep in mind that they question all your answers trying to make you change your mind to see if you're decisive.


-Describe a problem or conflict that you have had with a co-worker.
-When was your last personality conflict with another pilot?
-Tell us about a time when you demonstrated loyalty to your current employer.
-The flight attendant tells the First Officer (you) that she saw the Captain drinking beer at 12am. It's now 7am. What do you do?
-Are there any skeletons in your closet?
-Tell us about a time when a coworker got underneath your skin.
-Tell us about a time when you had a conflict with a boss and how did you handle it.
-Tell us about a time when you were not so honest with a passenger.
-Define integrity and describe it if it’s applicable to you
-Tell us about a time that you worked with a co-worker that didn't have integrity.
-Tell us about a time you made a mistake and how/what did you do to handle it?
-Tell about when someone at work was hard to work with?
-Would it create a hardship for your current employer if you left?
-Give three one word descriptions of a good captain. Which one applies to you?
-What is the difference between a good captain and a great captain?
-Tell us about when you were tempted to break policy or broke a policy.
-If your airplane was 20 lbs over max weight (a miniscule amount), would you still fly?
-Describe one of your weak personality traits.
-Tell us about the time you tried your hardest but failed.

Wiley Post

The route that I flew yesterday took me back to Oklahoma, to an airport just north of the airport that I did all my training in called Wiley Post. For your big final test to get your commercial pilot’s license you need to fly with an FAA examiner. Three years ago when I was ready to take the test the FAA guy lived up by Wiley Post, so that was the airport I flew out of. I hadn't done as well as I had hoped on the test, and I was frustrated at my inability to perform. I remember sitting in the terminal watching all the planes taxi past wondering if I'd ever make it. It's a surreal feeling for me as I sit in my airplane and taxi past the same terminal. I wonder if there is anyone in there looking at me wondering if they will ever make it.

Maybe it's kind of like the way Anakin felt coming back to Tatooine, no longer a slave boy, but now a mighty Jedi. If it follows this trend the next time I go back to Wiley Post I will be the undisputed master of the galaxy.

My own little world

It's funny sometimes to think about the the pilot world. There's something about pilots that makes us part of a club, that non pilots just wouldn't understand. Not only do we connect in a way that someone who hasn't experienced their firs solo, or hasn't seen the fog sticking to the valleys in the calm early mornings just wouldn't understand, but we also have our own language. It's similar to the military language of abbreviations, acronyms, and regulations. Kind of like french is similar to spanish. It helps to learn one if you know the other, but the two can't really communicate. When I talk to another pilot about my new job I tell them that I am doing part 135 cargo. That's all I have to say, and they understand. I told my mother this yesterday, and she had no idea what I was saying. I explained it as best as I could in non-pilot terms. Part 135 is the section of the regulations that govern most non airline commercial pilot jobs. In aviation the FAA rain supreme. They regulate everything from when, what, and how much we fly. For example they tell us that we can't work more that 15 hours in a day, and no more than 7 of those hours can be flying. after a days work we can not return to work without 9 hours of off time, and at least 24 hours of consecutive off time per seven days. They tell us how often we have to inspect our airplanes (every 100 hours of flight time), and even what has to be inspected during those inspections. They regulate our cargo, documents, our plains. They tell us what weather conditions we can fly in, and what conditions we are not allowed to try and make it into an airport. It's true that if the weather conditions are above FAA minimums we fly, and a lot of people won't fly with the weather that low, and we get more flight time than most people, but it's regulated to make it safe, and so an employer can't pressure the pilot into something he's not comfortable with. Or in pilot terms 135 cargo.