ummmmm

I have an angry post festering inside of me, but I just haven't had the time to type it.  SOMEDAY it will come out.

Nothing new is going on around here lately... I started PT this week. It's horrible. I'd almost rather continue living in pain than have someone jamming their fingers into my neck and spine 2 times a week.

and this post's WTFLOL comes courtesy of a Mercury pilot. My coworker MS was working clearance delivery.  Mercury had an assigned squawk of 6666, so MS said "Squawk 6666... if you want a new code I can get you one." The pilot came back and said "no, the squawk is fine, but I could use a new goat"
HUH?

Also a few weeks ago some wise guy departed one of the satellite airports and my coworker said "cessna 123, say on course heading". To which he responded "Cessna 123, on course heading!"

Ooooh, pilots. you make the day go by so fast.

little update

I'm home from OKC (hooray!). I made the trip Thursday in a little over 11 hours.  Not too bad. Yesterday was a complete waste, I spent lots of quality time sprawled on my couch napping after not sleeping much for the previous 3 days. 

Today I was in the Indy Labor day parade.  It was kinda cool, but there were only about 50 spectators.  That was weird to me, back home parades were a big deal, the streets would be packed and you'd have to go hours early to stake out a spot.  Here there were entire blocks completely empty.  Oh well.  I did get a tshirt though! I love tshirts!!

I go back to work tomorrow.  I have to be re-certified after being gone for a month.  Actually, I'm not even sure if I have a medical clearance (long, dumb story).  I hope I do or it's gonna be a looooong weekend, and I don't wanna miss out on Sunday AND holiday pay :-p

okay

I haven't posted in a looooong time, and I only feel compelled to post now because I got some comments on my blog and feel guilty that I've been slacking.

But it's not my fault! I have had nothing to blog about...

I have been in Oklahoma City for the past 3 weeks learning to vector aircraft.  I didn't think it looked easy when I walked through the TRACON, and now I think it's even LESS easy.  The faux airport ("Academy") is the like O'Hare busy.  And despite having 3 runways, there's only one ILS and the weather is almost entirely IFR.  So you have C172s and BE35s trying to land in with GLF4, B767, F16s.  Come on. IND is certainly not like that.  Also, despite being solid IFR, there are anywhere from 5-35 VFR popups, which also tends not to happen in real life. At least not where I'm at.  What I don't understand is we have the same (actually slightly better) simulators at IND that they have down here at OKC. I don't know why they are paying us an extra $90+/day per diem when we could just stay home and learn specifically what to do, instead of making us come down here, sweat to death and learn procedures, frequencies and airspace at a fake airport.  Oh well...

I brought Ken and the foster Dylan with me, and it's definitely been an exercise in patience.  It's been 100+ almost every day I've been down here and neither the dogs or I have wanted to walk any more than is required for them to do their business.  Therefore, they're wound up constantly, trying to eat each other's heads, whining, pacing... agh.  Dylan escaped the apartment last Saturday and my coworker friend and I spent the better part of an hour circling the apartment complex (at midnight nonetheless!) looking for him.  He ended up being on my neighbor's back patio eating cat food. Then 2 days later he darted away while I was trying to throw away the dog poo bag and yanked the leash right out of my hand.  Luckily I caught him quickly that time.

I have been in contact with an ATC applicant and he's been asking me a lot of good questions about the hiring process and the job.  I plan on using those questions as blog fodder once I get back to Indy.

video-y goodness.

if air traffic controllers could speak their minds.

Luckily most of the pilots I've worked have had it more together than this!!!

Sorry for the lack of posting lately, I'm in OKC for training, working 3:30-midnight and it's got my sleep schedule all out of whack.

we have a new supervisor at work...

he's rather scary.

llllliar.

apparently WTHR ran a story about yesterday's radar outage.

EDIT 7/4/10:  I removed my post about what a CF the radar outage was after one of my coworkers went on and on in our crew briefing about how the media should not know about what happened because then that information might fall into the hands of terrorists and whatnot.  I felt paranoid that he had gone home and read my blog so I have removed that post. not like anyone ever reads this thing anyway, and not like I had any juicy details, I'm just a nervous nelly.

coasting

Not much new to report at work (or otherwise).  I have just been coasting, waiting to go back to OKC for more training... Some people call it seasoning, I call it a vacation.  Not having to train (aka get yelled at for breathing the wrong way) or any of that crap that made me dread going to work on a daily basis.  Now, I don't mind. I know no matter what, it won't be as bad as what I went through the past 8 months! I also no longer feel like I have been dragged behind a semi for 150 miles when I get home after work.

My mom and brother (N8dog) came out for a few days this week.  It was good to see them! I hadn't seen them since I left home to go to training in OKC at the end of March 09.  They were shocked how much weight I've lost (close to 50#) We had a wicked thunderstorm Monday night, it was very lightning-y (yes, that is a meteorological term, I just coined it right now, haha.)  Here are some pics:

I have been watching a documentary, "When We Left Earth".  It is about the history of the US space program.  I am in love with it.  I've been watching it on Netflix watch instantly, but I may have to go out and buy it!  As a side note: I did not own a TV until this week (happy birthday from my mom! :)) for the whole time I've lived here.  Instead, I would watch anything I could on Netflix, DVD or Hulu, or I'd read, do puzzles, sew things...  It was a rough year, but I made it through.  Now I feel like I have to watch TV nonstop to make up for all the time I missed out! Well, not really, but I do find myself being sucked into the gravitational pull of the TV.