16 (+1) Things We Should Have Never Stopped Doing

Hi!

I'm a pretty big fan of Mark Sisson and his website. Today's post was about the 16 TWSHNSD (see my post title.)

I'm all over this one!

Climb - anything.

I still love to climb trees. When I am running through neighborhoods at night on training runs, I always look for library stairs, etc, up and down, just for kicks. Trees are the best, though. One of our former FAs, Holly, climbed a moose with me on an overnight in Providence, RI. If you can climb it, you should. Climbing is fun.

Jump in puddles (or snow mounds.)

I remember coming back from dropping off a fuel slip on a DC-10 that I had just fueled, and I hopped from puddle to puddle in the rainstorm that was abusing us at ORD. Both feet at a time, like I was a ten-year-old (I had to be at least 28.) It felt great (still does!) On an overnight in Cincy, we were walking back from dinner in a snowstorm, and my friend Newton, one of our FOs, was in only the 2nd snowstorm of his life (He grew up in Jamaica.) So, I jumped into a snowbank and showed him how to make a snow angel. He said "If you think I am going to lay down in this white sh*t and flail my arms around like a madman, you are out of your mind!" I said "oh, legs, too!" Snow is wonderful. When is the last time you just ran around in the rain or looked up catching snowflakes on your tongue?

Play in the sand, dirt, mud, creek, lake...

Let yourself get messy! We used to be in nonstop contact with the earth, and we were probably better off for it. Jump in a lake, play in the mud, get dirty, the works. When my son wants to play in the sand, in I go! It's sand!!

Eat food right off the plant, out of the dirt.

Thomas walks up to our small forest of kale plants and just grabs a leaf and starts munching. We pick the white raspberries right off the plant and eat them standing in our backyard. I remember when we used to spend summers in Kentucky, the neighbors across the street had this great blackberry bramble; we would just cross the street and help ourselves. Don't be afraid of dirt, don't be afraid of getting a little on your food. (yes, yes, yes, wash for pesticides, but if you are using them in your backyard, then shame on you anyways.)

Tell the Truth.

Of course, sometimes we should sugar coat it. Kids just blurt out the truth, because they have not learned that sometimes you can hurt someone's feeling (Does this make my ass look big? No bigger than it already looks, honey!) Obviously, you don't want to offend anyone just for the sake of offending them (in this context... YES, offend whom you want to offend. Mixed signals? Sure, but life is funny that way.)

Let go of grudges.

Yes, some things are unforgivable (deliberately hurting a child, etc...) but really, we get so wrapped up over small things, we forget we only have limited time. Bury the hatchet, relax, find a way to laugh together... but for cryin' out loud, let it go eventually!

Test Limits.

Have you ever tested your own limits? Do you even know where they are? Go for a run... and when you run, take a quick sprint to see how fast you can go. Afraid of the water? Take a swimming lesson, maybe. You don't have to go hog wild, but every now and then push a boundary back... do something different, even if it won't mean anything to anyone. Other than you.

Daydream.

Stare at the clouds, watch them make shapes. This is a great thing to do WITH kids, because at the right age, they are all over it. Plus, bonus, if they are doing it with you, then they see that it is ok to daydream as an adult. Who would want to lose that? Stare at the wall. Have you ever actually watched paint dry? IT kinds of dries in weird patches, and spreads unevenly... give it a go!

Move Spontaneously.

Dance, leap, boogie down. Take dance lessons. DON'T take dance lessons! Thomas like having our 'kitchen dance party.' We play a fun song (Milow, Little In The Middle, is great,) Then we just hop and dance around in the kitchen. Be silly. Always dance with kids, they are great! Even try verbally. A good friend of mine and I were talking about our theater experiences whilst we were flying together, and we did the rest of our checklists singing melodramatically (aviation is serious stuff, so it was like flying as Faust.) (low baritone voice-- Descent checklist, pleeeaasseeeeeeee. Yes, we're dorks...lol.)

Go to bed early.

Your body starts the recovery process while you are asleep. Lack of sleep is well known for pushing ghrelin levels slightly higher. Ghrelin promotes the retention of fat. Sleep more, lose weight (isn't that great?!?!) Sleep also lets you de-stress. Mucho Importante.

Laugh Early and Often throughout the day.

Giggle, be silly, find humor in many things. Like Mark says, spend a day around kids, and the "chicken butt" joke will make them laugh... and laugh.. and laugh. Laughter suppresses cortisol (stress hormone,) epinephrine, dopamine... it enhances the effectiveness of T cells (strengthening the immune system.) Why be sour? Find a joke... Some study said kids laugh upwards of 400 times a day, adults, more like 15 (and probably more chuckle chuckle, then all out belly laughing.) Read DamnYouAutoCorrect and laugh till you want to pee your pants.

[o.k... that just distracted me for... oh.. 15 minutes... and I laughed a LOT.]

Read.

Read anything. It doesn't have to be soul searching for answers every time you pick up a book (or magazine, or newspaper, or whatever.) Read fiction. try some hard fiction, or try some non-fiction. I read bits of everything. Reading helps activate those synapses that keep the brain functioning properly. Interesting, in that we didn't have a proper written language until very late in evolution, and yet it makes such wonderful changes to the brain.

Play Games.

I think this is part and parcel to getting dirty. Run around a bit. Kick a ball. Throw a frisbee. Go ice skating. Play Monopoly, and make up your own rules (make it a drinking game!) Don't be afraid to lose, lose gracefully, and win gracefully, too. Be a good example. Go to little league games, they're great.

Create.

Thomas loves stacking things up. He likes to draw. He likes to "play 'tar." Nurture their creative side, and have fun with it. Do the same for yourself. Bored? Grab your child's play dough and see what you can form out of it (I make great perfectly round spheres... like meatballs.) Sit down at a friend's piano and just kind of plink along... notice the relationships of the keys (symmetrical 'forms' when you depress the keys (not octaves) produce minor chords. There, bet you didn't know that!)

Skip meals. (When there is something more exciting going on outside.)

We survived famines, we survived millions of years of evolution not knowing where our next meal was coming from. We foraged, we hunted, we ate. Sometimes... we didn't eat. There are interesting studies about intermittent fasting... after all, when you wake up, you just went 8-10 hours without eating, right? You're not dying, right? As long as you are otherwise healthy, (and even, for the most part, if you are not,) skipping a meal because you are watching the little league team play is not such a terrible thing. Skiing? Keep on going!!

Stay outside until the last possible minute.

For us, growing up, this was when the streetlights came on. Then again, as long as we were safe, that was not enforced that much (1970s/80s Chicago, on the far SW side.) But we stayed outside, playing, and having fun. Go for a walk at night, enjoy the smell of the air. Get the heck out of your house (or out of your hotel, for my airline friends. Yes, some areas are unsafe... there is only so much we can do, but if you have local knowledge, take a hike.)

I will add one more that is close to my heart....

Hug your friends.

Yes, really, give them a big hug when you can. Compliment them (they are your friends for a reason... you should be able to compliment them regularly, and not falsely.) When you miss them, tell them you miss them. Take time to visit. You will hate yourself if you ever have that point where you could have, but cannot any longer.

Smile.

Simplissimo.

Cheers!

Scott


 

Debt made simple

So I saw Rick Santelli on CNBC, and he took his 'easy method' of understanding the US debt by looking at it as a household budget. Yes, the Fed Gov't is not a household (it can do things like print $$ and void debt, but both of those would devalue our currency, and we'd be most likely in a worse spot of bother.)

So, here are the numbers as of Jan 7th, 2013--(in all their trillionny glory)

US Tax Revenue--       2,459,000,000,000
US Fed Budget--         3,540,000,000,000
New Debt this year--   1,081,000,000,000
Planned cuts (annual)--    38,500,000,000

So, let's just do as Rick did, and simply chop off the last 8 zeroes, and we'll have a variation on that we can use as a 'household' budget.

Net Income (Post-taxes, etc...) --   24,590
Annual spending/Budget--             35,400
New Debt this Year--                     10,810
Credit Card Debt (carried over)-- 164,330
2013 'cuts'* --                                       385

Does anyone see what the problem with this house is? Is it just me?
btw, the * in 'cuts' is because most of those cuts never seem to happen. They are actually
reductions in rates of increase. For instance, instead of the Department of Energy getting a 4% budget increase, they get a 3.5% budget increase. This is from Baseline Budgeting 101.

According to the latest tax data, all income from taxpayers making more than about $66,000 adjusted gross income came to $5,100,000,000,000. In the above household scenario, that would be 'boosting' our wage earner's income to $51,000. Ok, we could beat our budget and put almost $15K against our credit card debt. Excellent.

And, we can add all corporate income in the US. That came to $1,600,000,000,000, or another $16,000 in household budget. So we could put nearly $30K against the credit card debt.

That would mean... I cannot stress this enough... the Fed Gov't would have to confiscate [strong language alert] Every fucking dollar made by everyone making $66K or more, plus every single penny of corporate income.

...and... we're not even close to 'paying off' our credit card debt. So after completely destroying the economy in this example, by confiscating every penny anyone made over $66K, plus all corporate income (not profits, income,) we would still be broker than broke.

Here is the elephant (actually, it is a whale, and a big one at that) in the room that seems to be left behind whilst our Congresscritters fiddle away and Rome burns--

Unfunded liabilities (Medicare, SocSec) total 81,300,000,000,000. That means we for all practical purposes in our homeowner example, we owe the mob $813,000.

Those unfunded liabilities are not in the Federal Budget because it would put the GLOBE into bankruptcy. We have more unfunded liabilities in Medicare ($42.8T and climbing) than money has ever existed in the history of the world in all of time all put together. Social Security ($20.5T) is just half that. Piece of cake!

No wonder China is drawing down buying our debt, we're a BAD DEBT RISK. (We were downgraded based on our projected abilities to pay our debts.)

If we had a proper S&P credit rating (like your FICO,) it would be NEGATIVE.

Just a little news to lighten everyone's day.

Cheers!!

Scott

Discharged!

Did my past day of Physical Therapy today.

Since I started doing Triathlons 2 years ago, I have run into (ha ha) a problem running.

That is the runner's knee pain that I have written about before. It was explained to me as being from my hips, and an assessment of my body proved that to be true.

So, I went to my appointments (with Maria at Accelerated... good friend, too.) and did my homework pretty regularly. I also did some of the additional exercises, and tried to focus in running style, going for smooth, good cadence, and slowly increasing distance.

So I was in PT a little longer than planned, but with a pilot's schedule, that is no surprise at all when I could not make 3 appointments a week... are you kidding, we're lucky if we can make 1!

But I have been good about exercise, and at my appointment today, we did an assessment, and I have a great deal more strength in my hips than previously. Excellent movement all around, so with a quick once over I was done. Shazaam. Free to run!

I am still mostly doing sprint workouts, but tomorrow on my overnight I have a good 5 mile or so run planned (and the weather will be perfect!)(Last time I ran in ROC I missed the turn I was looking for and accidentally made my 5 mile run a 6.5 mile run. All good.)

Sweet!

Scott

The Flu Shot, why I don't take it, and why I don't think anyone else should.

I've never gotten a flu shot.

It just seems contra-indicated that for something so basic, as long as you are a healthy individual, there really is no reason to get one. This includes the "Great Pandemic" year caused by H1N1, or the Swine Flu. HERE is the data list from the CDC "Estimates of Deaths Associated with Seasonal Influenza - 1976-2007"

Full disclosure-- I am not a medical specialist, this is not medical advice. I am very much for vaccinations.

First, to knock the "Pandemic" year off of its perch--

According to the data linked to above, here are the major numbers with regards to total deaths attributed to flu across all age groups [USA totals]--

Average -       6903
Minimum -       961
Maximum - 14,715

In the year of the Swine Flu Pandemic, there were 3,433 (Not included in the above study, but the data is from here, which has a nice summary state by state.)

3,433

That's it. That's not even pushing the average.

So those are confirmed cases. Even going hog wild and saying they are off by a factor of 2, that puts us right at the average. Doubling that doesn't even get us to the Maximum number year in the study period (2003-2004 season, which is associated primarily with the H3N2 strain. Actually, taking a fast mental snapshot of the data, that strain is generally associated with the highest total deaths per year. Hm.)

So, call me a pessimist.

I am a regular reader of Chris Kresser's blog www.Chriskresser.com. It used to be titled "The Healthy Skeptic," so you can see I would fit right in.

Here is his transcript from his podcast on the flu shot. I'll break down the interesting parts here.

The money paragraph is his adding up all the pieces towards the end--- I'll just quote him.

"So, let’s summarize everything that we’ve covered so far.  Number one, in general, flu vaccines are not effective for adults.  You have to treat between 33 people when the vaccine and infecting strain are well matched, which is rare, and 100 people when they’re not well matched, which is much more common, to prevent a single case of flu.  Nor have vaccines been shown to prevent complications or transmissions.  Vaccines have not been shown to be more effective than placebo in kids under 2 years old and may have significant risks that are not yet well understood.  As for the elderly, the most recent Cochrane review suggested that there’s no evidence vaccines are effective, and randomized clinical trials are needed to clarify the issue.  So, almost all of the evidence in the case of the elderly is epidemiological in nature, which as we know, is not sufficient to prove the safety or efficacy of a drug.  The FDA could never come out in public and say — You know, imagine for a drug like an antidepressant or something for heart disease that they would just take two groups of people and give one group the drug — or just let the drug out in the general population and then 10 years later do a study and see, did the people who took the drugs fare any better than the people that didn’t?  That’s not how drug approval works.  That would be a disaster for all the reasons that we already said.  And yet that’s exactly what’s happening in the case of flu vaccine and the elderly."

Here we have an nice study published in 2012 on Vaccines for Preventing Influenza in Healthy Children. I've read through the study, and if you want a real 'barn burner' of a study (Guaranteed to Put you to Sleep in 15 minutes of Your Money Back!!)

They included data from 75 studies covering about 300,000 observations. They included studies funded by industry (They have drug company $$ pushing the results,) and independent studies also. Here is some of what they find (My running commentary is in brackets such as this - [comment,] and the things I consider important are in bold. )---

"Evidence from RCTs shows that six children under the age of six need to be vaccinated with live attenuated vaccine to prevent one case of influenza (infection and symptoms).

We could find no usable data for those aged two years or younger. [This was in the drug company controlled studies.]

Inactivated vaccines in children aged two years or younger are not significantly more efficacious than placebo. [Doctors, Pediatricians, are pushing for vaccinations for children under 2 and as low as 6 months... but there is zero evidence that it has any effectiveness. WTF, docs?!?!?]

Twenty-eight children over the age of six need to be vaccinated to prevent one case of influenza (infection and symptoms). [28 need to be vaccinated to prevent a single case. This is when the vaccine matches up perfectly with the virus, which is exceptionally rare. Statistically speaking, it is closer to 100 need to be vaccinated to prevent a single case. Remember, these studies (showing 28-1) are on a specific known virus... after all, they are injecting the virus into the test subjects to begin with.]

Eight need to be vaccinated to prevent one case of influenza-like-illness (ILI).

We could find no evidence of effect on secondary cases, lower respiratory tract disease, drug prescriptions, otitis media [Ear aches/infection]and its consequences and socioeconomic impact.

Extensive evidence of reporting bias of safety outcomes from trials of live attenuated influenza vaccines (LAIVs) impeded meaningful analysis. [The people/groups/financiers running the studies monkeyed around with the results.] One specific brand of monovalent pandemic vaccine is associated with cataplexy and narcolepsy in children and there is sparse evidence of serious harms (such as febrile convulsions) in specific situations. [In addition to no serious benefit over placebo, they can hurt your kids. Awesome.]"

 Here is a bit from the conclusion--

"If immunization in children is to be recommended as a public health policy, large-scale studies assessing important outcomes, and directly comparing vaccine types are urgently required."

Basically, if we are going to recommend immunization in children in general, more large-scale studies are needed to see if it is worth the outcome, given the cost and possible side effects.

But they are already recommending immunization for everyone over the age of 6 months. Yet, there is little (seriously little) to no evidence that immunization will prevent the flu in anyone.

I heard a Pediatrician from University of Chicago recommending (AM Radio, on my drive to work,) that all children 6 months or over through all adults thru all elderly should get vaccinated.

Show me a non-industry funded study that recommends that, honestly.

What is amazing, is those above results include studies funded by industry... and... even though they tended to have by far the most reporting bias, those were the studies most cited in the public realm.

No, I do not think it is an attempt by the Star Chamber to take over our lives. I know that 99% of the docs out there, especially the pediatricians, are doing their best, and using their best talent, to help our children stay healthy, and heal them when they are not.

But they don't have time to actually read all of the studies that are out there. I flew with a youngish FO who had been a pharmaceutical sales rep. He had told me that when they went into the doctor's offices, or from office to office, they had the studies proving what they were trying to push the doctors on ready to go. He had no idea what was even really in the studies, just that they backed up whatever it was he was supposed to convince the doctors to use. All those studies, of course, are generally funded and run by the pharmaceutical company, and in a number of cases (like in the study I cited above,) they are known to monkey (fuck around with) the results. It is hardly the doctors fault that they are pressed for time in the office... they have patients to see, paperwork to fill out, everything that is involved in their doctoring.

We need to be able to make informed decisions about the health of our children as well as ourselves.
I am a big believer in simply asking a doctor (or anyone else, for that matter,) for proof.

What studies are cited that show this is an effective course of action in this case? What are the complications, and what circumstances appear to drive those complications? Are there alternative courses of treatment available that have proven to work with fewer complications? 

I'll leave with this quote from Chris--

"As always, you have to make your choice.  But it’s important that you have the right evidence before you do make a choice.  And unfortunately, I just don’t think that that’s happening.  I think a lot of the people have the wrong impression about what the evidence actually says about the efficacy of the flu shot."

Stay healthy, my friends....

Scott

I had so many great posts!

It's funny how everything works sometimes;

I have a bunch... dozens, of great ideas to post about.

Some I am avoiding because I don't want to let this turn into an explicitly political blog. I am sure to post a few of them, but I don't know how hard I want to head off into that direction.

Even though... well, it is my blog.... I can do what I want... lol.

I was moved from my walk through Arlington National for quite some time afterwords. It is just shocking to walk through fields of graves of soldiers. It makes you think. What do we value?

I went out in DC with Kim and Jamie, two of the sisters I wrote about in my blog post from Christmas day. We had a fantastic time at dinner. Jamie's oldest is a big airplane/airline fan, and we had some great exchanges about flying. He's a big fan of LiveATC.net, and I told him our flight number and times in Zulu from earlier if he wanted to hear me on the radio. Ended the evening with Kim and some of her peeps at a bar in DC watching the Vikings lose to the Packers.

It was a sad way to meet my new friends, but what sweet friends to make, and how much fun. So glad to get the chance to know them.

Funny how life works.

More to come....

I hope we are worthy enough...

So, continuing a not-quite-lighthearted series of posts...

Our hotel in Washington, DC, is right next to Arlington National Cemetery, the Pentagon, and the Air Force Memorial.


Since I had a bit of time on the overnight, I went out a-walking... This is a picture from Arlington National Cemetery. The rows of graves just go on... and on... and on. The cemetery itself is quite massive. It has a beautiful layout, it really is a beautiful place.

There are 400,000+ graves here.

I did not have a lot of time, since I would be meeting friends for dinner a little bit later, and it took me quite a while to walk around the cemetery to the entrance. I read a lot of names on tombstones.

Each of those names is linked to someone who had a family, was a son, was a daughter, a father, a mother. They had dreams.

Our country called them up to serve, and they went. They paid the ultimate sacrifice. They gave everything so that we can remain free men and women.

I hope that we will be worthy of the honor of their sacrifice.

back to working out

Yesterday, I did my first 3000 yard swim.

That is quite a distance. Took about 90 minutes, so that is not bad at all. Casual-like, in the pool, not pulling too hard.

It felt so good, that when I went home, I spent 2 hours chopping wood with my new 5 lb maul.

It is not big as far as mauls go. Mauls get quite heavy. And axe is good for chopping down trees, or chopping trunks into managable segments, but to split wood you really need a maul. It has a wider bevel on the blade, and when you chop downgrain, sometimes the wood just explodes apart (Thomas was very impressed by that !)

So, axe for chopping, maul for splitting.

Well, swinging this thing properly overhead has made me work some muscles I had forgotten I even had (even with working out regularly again.) And that was after my 3000 yard swim.

<owie> -- says the back.

So, rest tonight, and then meeting up with new friends (who are more like old friends) in Washington DC tomorrow. Looking forward to it!

Scott

Why I fly on Christmas

I was lucky this year to have Christmas Eve off, and Christmas morning off.

Christmas Eve is the night normally celebrated by the Germans, so Thomas got a full dose of that with the Christkind arriving and giving gifts while we were playing upstairs. Funny, Nicole was downstairs, you would think she would have seen something, but she says she did not.

So we had a nice dinner, and then Christmas morning we woke up as a family and I made my patented omelet with peppers and cheese, and we had bacon with it (of course) and milk and.... well... it was a good breakfast.

All I had to do on Christmas Day was fly the 1450 flight to Baltimore and back.

We were an hour and a half late getting into Baltimore. I went upstairs to use the bathroom and find out if we had any delays going back to ORD. When I was standing at the podium, a woman came up to me and we had this exchange--

"Excuse me, are you the pilot flying us to Chicago?"

"Why, yes I am."

"I need you to fly carefully."

"Ma'am, I am flying this flight home to my 3 and 1/2 year old son and my wife, I will be flying carefully."

"My sisters and I are flying to Chicago where our brother is on life support, They are keeping him there until we can get there to say goodbye."

<longish silence... slow intake of breath>

--in a much lower tone of voice----
"Well, Merry Christmas. There is nothing that I can say that will make the next few days any better for you, but believe me, I will get you safely to Chicago."

How often do we go about on our days and have no clue what the people around us are going through?

When I broke my collarbone skiing (way back when,) and could not fly for 2 months, I took a job in customer service at FTD.com. Basically we took orders, but we also did some troubleshooting, etc, when people invariably screwed something up with the online order system.

The coworker who was sitting next to me had just had some terrible news about her brother, and that he might not make it through the night. I was still fielding calls (I was Easter and Mother's Day help,) on the service exchange, when I had a caller (who, btw, had ordered everything online, so the only way to screw this up was if he did it himself) who said that the flowers he sent to his mother did not make it there on Mother's Day, and it was a tragedy for his mother.

I told him "No, sir, a tragedy is my coworker, whose brother is possibly dying right now, and will probably not make it through the night. What you are going through, is just a Bad Day."

And then I hung up on him.

But really, what if Mother's Day had a special meaning to them? What if his mother had escaped death on Mother's Day, and this was how they celebrated every anniversary?

How often do we see people who are short-tempered and we think the worst, when the reality is that they are having a horrible run of luck, or just lost their job, or received bad news and are not acting normal because they head isn't quite screwed on straight at the moment? It happens to all of us.

Or, on the flip side, what if they are just... well.. assholes?

Scott

p.s... I managed to be at the airport when 2 of the 3 sisters were leaving to go back to Washington, so I saw them off at their flight. They really are lovely people. We had a great chat, and are keeping in touch. Such is the way that lives get woven together....

Musings on New Year's Resolutions

How long do you keep a New Year's Resolution?

There are a couple of layers of thought here. Personally, myself, I made a N.Y.R. to stop making N.Y.R.s about 10 years ago. I've done really good at this one! Congrats me!

But I was thinking more about this after reading a blog post from a new dad. He had been writing about 2 friends of his that had real tragedy happen to them, and how it hit home with him.

Of course, now, I can't find the blog to link to it....

But it kind of goes like this--

One close friend had dropped her 3 year old son off at the father's house, and the child was battered to death.

The second was a friend since grade school, who had been diagnosed with cancer. They had promised to get to a Lakers game together for years, but time got away from them, even with the cancer warning, and the game never happened.

How many of us make these promises to ourselves? Not just New Year's Resolutions, but promise /I'll start working out; I'll eat less; I'll love my spouse more; I'll finally manage to take my father golfing/ Whatever it is. We all have promises that we make that for some reason we just cannot follow through with.

As I pondered, this kind of grew. How intensely do we live life? Are we living in the moment as those moments go by? I read a very interesting article about awareness (not online as far as I can see,) and basically we only have a 3 second existence. We have full awareness of the moment we are living in, We have about 1.5 seconds stretching into the past, and we have around .5 seconds we can barely see into the future.

How intensely in the moment are you? Are you living right now, or are you thinking about the future? Are you stuck in the past?

Maybe your resolution is to have a little boredom in your life. Can you be in the moment? Really, intensely bored? (I guess...)

So Sal Khan, of Khan Academy fame, Gave a commencement address at his alma mater, MIT. It really is a great talk. Give it a watch. Here is my rewrite of the end---

So imagine we are in the future, 40 years from now. We are all retired, President Kardashian is speaking to us from the Hologram Tube, and we are reflecting on our lives. Looking back, none of us say 'Oh, if only I could have one more board meeting, shareholder vote, or hour in front of the TV!' Of course not. Looking back, the things we might regret would be 'Ah, I wish I could tell my mom and dad how much I appreciate how hard they worked for me, I wish I could see that one good friend one more time, hug them a little bit harder, just because I never got to hug them again. Hear that stupid old joke from another friend, because even though we were all tired of it, it was his favorite, and I'm the one who got to say it at his wake.'

We would want the experiences with our friends, with our loved ones. We would want that quiet moment on the hillside at sunset, or just to cuddle with your child as a baby again, to hear your son or daughter say "I love you," even though they don't know the full extent of what it means to you.

And then... *poof!* a genie appears.

That genie says to you "You know, I've been listening in on your thoughts, and I agree. Wouldn't it be great to be able to live your life, exactly as you have, but to cherish those moments just a little bit more? To live in the moment just a little bit more? Well, as it happens, I am a genie, and I can make that happen for you. You can have everything in your life that you had before, only this second time around, you can really live in the moment. Live in the moments. Hug that person, say thanks, express love. Hell, even have a board meeting!"

Of course, you say "Sure, let's do it!"

*poof*

You already have that second chance. You are already living that second chance. Next time you talk to your friends, tell them what they mean to you. Yes, I know, more than enough people are just not that interested in getting all mushy. That's ok. You can still tell them. Why not?

A little quote?

You will never regret more the things you did, than the things you could have done, but did not.

Well, that took no time at all!

Sigh... lots of time between posts!

Welcome to 2013!

Goals for this year--- Post more than once a fortnight.

A great deal more to come here. I have had a couple dozen blog posts rattling around in my head, and for some reason, I just have not been inspired to let them out. Go figure... normally you can't get me to stop talking, and here, I can't get myself to start. Sheesh.

A great deal more to come for sure. However, I manged to sneak this one in before midnight, so there is that!

Back to work

Ok, back we go.

So I basically took a month off of blogging, etc, trying to get my head back in the game. So much going on with the Election, yadda yadda yadda, I kind of shut down this part (blogging) of my life because I don't want that to be what my blog is about.

So...

I'm in physical therapy because of my knee. Patellofemoral Pain. AKA Runner's Knee. Repetitive motion injuries.... yay.

But, thankfully, I am interested in triathlons, and even though you have to run to finish, there is still the swim and the bike to challenge me. I can still swim, and I can still bike, so I am still doing that.

So I will be keeping my regular training log on here again, just as a training diary, workout diary, whatever you want to think of it.

Wednesday
7 Nov 2012.

800y swim (17 minutes,)  PT Homework, upper body workout.

Felt good to swim. Always feels good to swim. I am doing some minor interval training in my swim, with the first 50 yards at a slightly slower than race pace, then the 3rd leg at high pace, and then 4th leg back at my slower than race pace... all followed by about 20 seconds floating at the end of the pool.

Felt great lifting again. I have kind of neglected the weight work since I started PT, but I am back into the swim of things.

I am a big fan of Mike at Sixpackshortcuts. I don't think i will ever have six pack abs (although I do have some pony keg going on,) but they are great HIIT workouts for overnights. Simple when you can't get to the gym, and Interval Training is the way to go.

Friday
9 Nov 2012.

Did an hour on the exercise bike today, alternating 2 minute intervals at 80 RPM and 100 RPM (after a 5 minute warm up, and always stretch first.)At minute 50 I switched to 110 RPM for 5 minutes, and then back to 80 for the last 5 minutes as a cooldown. The computer said I did 14.2 miles, and burned 449 calories. Not too shabby.

Then I did my PT homework for my knee, and did some upper body work (dumbbell workout, mostly.) Always feels good to have a good day working out, especially when I am on a trip, and it is not me losing time with Thomas and Nicole. Even though I want to do distance work, I would like to do more triathlons, I want to take as little time as I have to from my home life.

I am going to keep a running total of distance and time in a widget on the sidebar... might be interesting to see just how far I go before next year's Chicago Triathlon.

That's all for now!

Scott

Exercising THE Civic Duty

Hi all (well, both of you who read this, to be honest...)

Anyways,

So in my running around today, I voted early.

I am really of two minds about this (alert... political talk of a sort.)

I love the convenience of early voting, especially with my job. I always hated filling out the absentee ballot, because I know it will not be counted in Illinois unless X% + something ballots are cast, and an election covered by those ballots is decided by a number related to that.

So knowing when you cast your ballot that it will probably not be counted really sucks.

Laws differ from state to state, but that was the law last time I voted absentee. As a pilot, particularly with Eagle coming out with schedules when they do, I just don't know far enough ahead of time if I will be around to vote in person.

So, I can vote early... I will be at home SOMEtime in the week window that I can vote inside. Sweet.

The problem with it was well described in a National Review article a few days ago, though (I cannot find the link): I am not necessarily voting for the same 4 candidates (presidential ticket, including Libertarian and Green) that the people on Election Day will.

Information could come out between when I cast my REAL vote when when the election comes around, that would make me change my mind about someone (Like Romney did something I found non-vote worthy, or something secret that Obama has done in office to undermine the USA, or whatever...)

Some people have early voting that started a month ago. (Same article, wish I could find it.) Before a single debate happened! Why would you want to cast a vote before the candidates had at least come face-to-face with each other, instead of their talking heads speaking for them, and actually... well... SPOKE.

Anyways, I am of two minds about early voting. I think it is great, but I pay a great deal of attention to politics, know the candidates and most of the issues, read what I can, and make an informed decision.

So Thomas thought voting was cool (he liked the touch screen.)

He asked what we were doing there ("What are we doing here, Papa?"

I said

Thomas, this is where we go to exercise one of the single most important rights we have as Americans. What we should try to do, is become familiar with the candidates, know their agenda, and understand what they are trying to do. Then, we think about what we really want, what is best for us and for our country, and then we decide our vote based upon that. That is what I do, and that is what all these people do, too (I voiced under my breath..'I hope.')

So Thomas got to see daddy vote, just like my mom took me when I was knee high to a tadpole (I remember the voting machines; big metal enclosures with a curtain across the front, all these knobs and levers to flip, literally. Then, when you were done, this large metal rod that you slammed to the side to tally your vote and clear the levers for the next voter.)

So... even for y'all who do not vote-- you make a choice. I hope everyone makes the choice seriously and takes that charge that so many people, brave men and women,

We Mutually Pledge to Each Other Our Lives, Our Fortunes and Our Sacred Honor

 died to give us. When people die for something, to give you something, we better honor that. I honor it by voting in every election since I was 18.

Cheers!

Scott

Frank Lloyd Wright 5K and a Personal Best Run Time!

Hi all!

Well, Today was 5K #2 out of 2 this weekend.

The 36th (wow!) Annual  Frank Lloyd Wright 5K/10K was my run today, and it was excellent.

So I am trying to run more, since that is by far my weakest event segment. Remember, eyes on the goal-- "Go Long," see how far I can actually get.

So I am looking for more events to run. This was a double weekend. We had the Run the Runway yesterday, and today I was going for best time.

Conveniently, they had a timer at Mile #1, so when I went zipping (for me) past at 8:04, I knew I was running way faster than I have yet.

I walked through my water station, and then started up again. I could feel my thighs from running yesterday, so I think that may have slowed me down a little bit at this point. I do know at mile #2 I was starting to feel a little muscle soreness, and at mile #3 (just shy of the finish,) I was starting to feel my knee. Not a terrible sign, that is why I am in PT, after all, but still, I was hoping that I would not feel it on this run at all.

I could see the timer from the turn to final, and it was at 27:00... Not only did I know I was going ot have my personal best time, but I knew my goal of breaking :30 was going to be breaking :29, at the least... and is it turned out, 28:07. Just slightly faster than the 10:00 pace I try to keep in general when I run/jog. If I can maintain, that that will be best for me.

So, how did I do?

I placed 21 out of 50 in my age division.
283 out of 835 overall.

I've never placed OUT of the bottom 10%, and here I am top half of my age group, and (benefit of the doubt,) leaving off... let's say... the bottom 200 as walkers, top 50% overall. I've never done that well in a race.

So I feel really good about that....

I would like to add a 10K to the list, now I have to find one I can do. Ideally, I would also like to add a few trail runs to my practice, since they are easier on the old knees and heels, less jolting because I would NOT be landing on concrete all the time.

So more to come, in the meantime, I did my best today, and it felt great.

Cheers!

Scott

Back on Track

Aaahhh.... just what the doctor ordered.... vacation.

Took a little extra time away from the blog, too, but now we're back on track, and ready to roll.

Did a 5K run today; The Run the Runway at O'Hare, benefiting the Wounded Warrior Project, one of my favorite charities. The last 5K I did was the run the runway at O'Hare.... 5 years ago. lol. So, I was not nearly trying for a personal best; someone I had seen in the registration line waved me over and asked me to take a picture of her in front of the United 747 parked there... We had probably spent all of 3 minutes waiting to come out of the chute and start, so what can you do about time, ya know?

So, I finished in 33:31, which put me 68 out of 87 in my age group, and 996 (I think) out of 2500 or whatever the number was. Not too shabby for barely trying.

Tomorrow, on the other hand, I am running in the Frank Lloyd Wright 5K in Oak Park, near my home. My goal for this is to run fast; preferably a personal best time.

The reasoning behind this, is my PT and I want to load up my knee and see how the therapy is working so far. If I can get through 2 5Ks in a row, and then add some distance, I should be coming along well in the healing process.

That is how the story goes, at least.

I am planning on running quite a bit more; it is certainly the area I need to most work on.

Although I did a 500yard swim today, after 3 weeks of no swimming laps, and I could really feel how slow I was. It felt like I was dragging severely! Gotta stay in the water longer, certainly swim more frequently, even in the off season.

Lots more to come, just glad to be back on track, getting back in the groove...

Had a checkride last week, and it kind of threw everything off for me. All is well, now.

Back on track.

Scott

Anatomy of a Delay

Anatomy of a Delay

So, there we were, enjoying our 3 hour sit at New York's JFK. We had just flown in from Raleigh-Durham (RDU) and were waiting to leave for Baltimore (BWI) and then on home to Chicago (ORD.)

When we landed, we saw that our plane was already on the gate, but we knew with a 3 hour sit, there was a good chance they could steal our airplane for a different flight, so better to keep our bags with us or drop them in the crew lounge than go set up house in an airplane only to have it taken away.

About 40 minutes before departure time, paperwork in hand, we head down to start setting up the airplane and get ready for our flight.

We get to the bottom of the jetbridge, and we notice that the airplane has been left on (most likely the entire time.) Great... everything will be warmed up.

Warm indeed. We unlock the cockpit door, and get hit with a Mid-August Texas style wave of heat. It is at least 110F in there. Oh, and one of our computer screens is out.

Specifically, the center one, the EICAS (Engine Info, Crew Alert). Great. So my FO starts doing a little diagnostics on the screen while I call maintenance out. We power down, power back up, still nothing. Then we use a 'reversionary' mode to have the computer 'print' the screen's information on a multi-function display on the FOs side. Works fine.

So we most likely (95%) have a dead tube.

Maintenance appears about departure time (we held off boarding... nothing like having mechanics haul important electronic bits back and forth in front of the pax.. kind of unnerving.)

Our mechanic does a quick check "Yup... got a problem with the screen." (btw, not a Texas drawl... this was JFK, after all... hear Brooklyn when you hear those words in your head.)

So, I go up to the gate to tell the agents we're going to be a little bit.

Here are the possibilities in order of ease to difficult to repair.

Screen is 'confused,' so swapping the screen out with the one next to it could work.

Tube is blown... Easy to fix, unless you don't have a tube. We have a fix we could do with that, though... we could swap it out and the FO would fly looking at my instruments, basically.

"Monster under the hood." There is something wrong with the line between the computer generator and the screen. This could take all night to fix.

Mechanic says "Give me 10 minutes, you'll be all set to go."

10 minutes turns into 20... then into 45... It's not the screen; they swap the screens out, and it works just fine. So, it is the Monster Under The Hood. Great. They're going to have to chase sparks down wires to fix the problem.

Now realize, the gate agents don't know what is going on, and the passengers want as much information as possible. "When are we going to board?" "When maintenance has the airplane fixed" "How long will that take?" "They don't know." "Why not?" "Because it is a mechanical problem, they have to diagnose the problem, correct the problem, and then see if their correction actually fixed the problem." "So when will we arrive in Baltimore?" "About an hour and 15 minutes after you leave here.""So why don't they know how long it will take to fix?""Because Nostradamus neglected to add aircraft delays to his book of prognostications.""So why haven't we boarded yet?" <bang> (Gate agent shoots herself.)

For my non-airline friends------

Please realize.... There is only so much information that anyone has at any given time. The mechanics are busy repairing the aircraft, if we keep bugging them "Are you done yet?" It will take longer. IF we have no other information to give... well.. you can ask us 100 times, but if the answer is still "We don't know" and you have not seen anyone come up and say "Here is how long it takes" nor have you seen a phone ring and the agent say "Ah, ok, so it will be done in 10 minutes and we can board," Then the odds are there is no new information to give anyone. Round about your 15,000 passenger asking you roughly the same question rephrased over and over, you've had enough. Most agents get to deal with a half dozen (sometimes more, sometimes less) flights in an 8 hour shift, many times alone, many times boarding 120+ passengers (mainline flying here) for each one, with special needs, wheelchairs, missed connections, medical issues, screaming kids... yadda... yadda... yadda... If you want to know why the agent seems like he or she is looking right through you, the answer is because most likely, they ARE.

I call our routing department (part of the Systems Operation Command/Control) to see if there is an unattached airplane coming in to land at JFK that we can steal while they are working on ours. Here is what I find out.

We have no spares in the Northeast (not a surprise, spare airplanes have gone the way of the Dodo bird and Carrier Pigeon.) but they do have an aircraft that is overnighting at LGA. If they don't have an airport ready (standby) crew, they can cab us down from JFK to LGA )at 9pm,) we can fly the airplane that is just landing at LGA up to JFK, and then we can continue to BWI and ORD.

Holy crap, that sounds like fun! (sarcasm, a literary technique I was told of once.)

So we hang up, and I look at my FO, and he tells me that going to LGA might be an adventure... "think of the stories!" I say; however, things never work out that way.

It would take 3 minutes to fly between the two airports as the crow flies, but with the runway arrival and departure configuration they were using, we would probably have to fly out over the Hamptons to get back in... and they were running pretty good delays in and out of LGA... sssooo... it would be easily an hour, hour+30 flight. Then we would be looking at going illegal in BWI. All we wanted to do was get home, really (The pax can come for the ride. When I hear passengers talk about the 'crazy chances' pilots take, I usually fire back with "You know, I'm a father, and I just want to get home to my wife and son. If I land safe, you land safe.")

Finally, they find us an airplane that happened to be landing at JFK. It was planned to go to Toronto, but the Toronto crew was going to have to wait for the ready crew at LGA to fly an airplane up for them (yup.. they did it.)

We left a good 90 minutes late.

Funny moment right towards the end-- We were loading our gear on board, and a mechanic came to me and said he wanted to take the dimmer panel off of my plane to use it to test the one on the broken plane. I told him to get off my plane and find another one... you're NOT taking apart my perfectly good plane when we are about to board an hour and a half late, even if it is for only "10 minutes and I'll be right back, honest."

Been a while since I did a proper aviation post... there ya go.

Cheers!

Scott

1/2 Ironman

This is my goal for 2013.

There, I said it.

So far, my knee has been holding up well. I have not been able to go to PT this past week, since I was on vacation, but I have been doing my homework, strengthening my hips, and I have been biking and running consistently every day. So far a little soreness, but none of the sharp pains that I used to get when running. Also, I have been doing a bunch of exercise bike work to load up my knee, and then doing 5k+ runs; same result... no pain, a little soreness, but no real pain.

I ran today in Raleigh, was looking for a trailhead that would let me get some trail running in, but no dice... bummerz! Running on concrete hurts for other reasons... lol.

So, the Half.

A 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13 mile run.

I have already pretty much done the swim. I know I can do the bike, but the run will be the challenge. I am doing Don Fink's method of running 5 minutes, fast walking 1 minute, and doing that continuously. I am pretty sure I am ready for 6/1 times, but I forget my little workout timer today. so I kind of had to abandon that idea... I just ran, and did a little walking at various points.

Why go long? I don't know... maybe it is because I am finally in the best health of my life, maybe it is because I had done my bloodwork, and found I am pre-diabetic, so I need to exercise anyways to give my body something to do with my elevated resting blood sugar.

Either way, it will be an interesting ride.

Cheers!

Scott

why triathlon?

So why triathlon?

That can be a very hard question to answer, especially since I used to be known for my dislike of running, and let's face it; you can't finish a Tri without some kind of run.

As I wrote in a previous post, after reading "Born to Run," I actually enjoy running. Not treadmill running, but running outside, fresh air, cool breeze (even hot breeze!) sunshine, etc... although I enjoy the treadmill.. barefoot...

Maybe because it is multi-disciplinary; swim, bike, run. You can be a strong swimmer (I used to think I was, but I am seriously humbled by the times some of these athletes put up,) and lose your shirt in the bike or run. The majority of your time ends up being spent on the bike (on average,) so if you are a strong biker, you can improve a lot there. Then, strong runners can have an advantage, because by the time you get to the run, you are getting fatigued, and being a good runner really comes into play here.

So it is a host of things. It is an incredible feeling coming down the chute for the finish. 

Sprint Triathlon... 

Distances-- 

750 meter (0.47 mi) swim 

20 kilometer (12 mi) bike 

5 kilometer (3.1 mi) run

Let's face it, you can do this with a minimum of training. People run 5K races all the time; you just need to tack a swim and bike on to the front.

The swim is what gets most people. It is close to a half mile, true. Water is not that familiar a medium to large amounts of the population, and if you were never a swimmer when you were younger, it is intimidating to think of when you get older. I have coached a few of my friends to better swimming, and just generally being more comfortable in the water. 

Intermediate/Standard/Olympic distance--

1.5 kilometer (0.93 mi) swim

40 kilometer (25 mi) bike

10 kilometer (6.2 mi) run

Now we are starting to put up some real numbers. You are basically swimming a mile, a 25 mile bike most people could complete fairly easily, although it would take some time (most people seem to cruise about 10 mph, which would mean 2.5+ hours on the bike course...) and a 10K run is just two 5K runs back to back. Still, going to take some energy, and you'd best be training.

Long Course (1/2 Ironman)

1.2 mile (1.9 km) swim

56 mile (90 km) bike

13.1 mile (21.1 km) run

This is a serious length. Now you need to start planning for your nutrition needs as well. If you are not taking a little bit of salt, getting some energy, and drinking enough, you will have health problems. On average, as an amateur, you will be 'putting out' for a good 7+ hours. 

Ironman Length

2.4 mile (3.9 km) swim

112 miles(180 km) bike

and a full marathon: 26.2 miles (42.2 km) run

The Ironman is a specific race, copyrighted by the organizing body. Non-'branded' events are "Ironman Length" races.

This is a lu-lu. A 2 and 1/2 mile swim, a Century +, and a full marathon. For some people, just running a marathon is the goal that they have. Imagine running a marathon after an up to 2.4 hour swim and biking for 8 hours. Craziness... it's called "Going Long."

Back to our regularly scheduled programming

2 really cool 5K runs coming up. (I am going to do more 5K type stuff... running is my weakest sport (well, ok, I cannot slam dunk, so my basketball skill suck, but...) of the three in the Tri, so I will be doing a lot more running now that I can.

Run the Runway at Chicago O'Hare!

Dig it! Here it is... sign up! --- Run The Runway. (There is also a kids run; Thomas is doing the "Under 4 run... 50 yards. He is already practicing.)-- proceeds benefit the Wounded Warrior Project (great charity.)

The Frank Lloyd Wright 5K/10K Run/Walk. This run takes us past the historic houses in Oak Park (no stopping, though... lol.)

Did my first 3 miles on the treadmill now that I am half-way through my PT.

I've always gotten bored pretty fast on treadmills, and this is no exception. However, I knew I wanted to stick it out... I love running outside (considering I always hated running, that alone is a big deal to me.) So I love running outside, but for my knee I wanted to get things worked out on the treadmill.

My excellent PT, Maria, told me that she wants me to put some miles on my knee so we can assess how my therapy is coming along. She has been loading me up and making things harder, and so far no complaints from the knee.

So I did a little 3.1 mile kick on the treadmill (or... 5K, which is why I went that distance,) and had nary a complaint from my right knee, thank goodness.

So, getting whole again... years of not paying attention to it (because I am not a runner, so I never really felt the pain in my knee, it's a repeatative motion kind of dealio,) and I am back on track.

I have been cleared to do a few 5K races, and if my knees are happy, when she signs me off from therapy I can do a Sprint Tri to see how it works when I am fatigued.

More running in the future for me for sure.... :)

Cheers!

Scott

Follower of the Son of Hitler

So......

I'm riding my bike home from physical therapy, and I stop at the local branch of the library, because they were kind enough to send me an email that the books I requested came in ("The Complete Idiot's Guide To Urban Homesteading," and "Meat Eater, Adventures From The Life of an American Hunter.")

While I am checking out my books, there is an older (mid to late 50s) (older than me, anyways) lady talking with the librarian about unions, and how it all began with Reagan, and yadda yadda yadda.

O.k... I am a very political person, but I keep my thoughts (in general) to myself. I am finding more and more that "Liberal' and "Conservative" have ceased to have any proper meaning, except for calling each other names. Basically, I avoid the topic, especially in public, or where people might get their feelings hurt.

(Just so ya know, my political beliefs are quite well thought out, I've thought on them long and hard, they have stood the test of time... so far... ask me in another 20 years.)

And then we get this---

"Anyone who would vote for that Son of Hitler cannot be an American."

And then she turns to me, and smiles, because we all agree with her, right?

Now, I am in the conversation. Thanks for pulling me in. Surprise!

"Ma'am, I was born in Seattle, and raised in Chicago. I worked for the Democratic Party when I was younger, but I have voted for whomever I thought fit the bill when elections came around every time since I turned 18. I've voted for Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, and 1 (one) member of the Green Party (I was quite 'put out' with both parties. I even voted straight Libertarian one year.) So, I am not an American?"

"You are going to vote for that Son of Hitler? Then no, you are not an American."

Really? REALLY? You don't even know me!

This is what drives me bonkers about both political stripes, but particularly about Liberals. People who call themselves Liberal have open minds, are willing to accept those who do not talk or act like themselves, people who eat different foods, worship under different belief systems.

At least, that is the way it is 'supposed' to work.

I've found over many many years, and many conversations, that there are monsterously large numbers of 'liberals' who say that that is the case, right up until someone thinks differently than they do. Heaven Forbid!

So I said....

"So, because I believe that our current President does not have the correct answers for what is wrong with our economy, nor does he have even an infant's concept of what needs to be done in the Mid East, and I am in a position to vote for someone whom I think is the lesser of two evils, that I am a follower of the Son of Hitler?"

"Well, if you are voting for him then yes."

"I am merely choosing the lesser of two evils, I don't think either one is great, for that matter."

"You just don't want to vote for the Black Man."

REALLY?!?!?!  Are you fucking kidding me??
me--

"So if it was Clarence Thomas running for president, you would vote for him because he is black?" 

"No, he is just an Uncle Tom."

Ah, I see it now....
me--

"Actually, I will vote against President Obama because I don't like what is in his mind, not the color of his skin. I don't really care what color someone's skin is."

"You just don't want to vote for a Black Man." 

I also didn't vote for him for Senate; I guess I am a racist. Oh, wait.. he was running against a black man. How do we square that circle!!
me--

"So, let me get this straight; I voted against Gore, I voted against Kerry, but now because there is a black man running for President, on the same ticket, with basically the same platform, if I vote against him I am racist?"

"You are a follower of that Son of Hitler, yes."

Hope you are all (all 4 of you, I guess) having a lovely day, I think it is time for me to go find my Klan Kostume and get my lilly white ass down to the boat; Maybe I can find a rally and we can burn some crosses!!

What a tiny little mind, and what a horrible world she must live in.

Be of good cheer,

Scott

PT

Physical Therapist

Primordeal Torture

Whatever you want to call it, I am in the middle of it.

Knee rehab; my prescription calls for 3 sessions a week of Physical Therapy. So far so good, and the best part, is my PT has narrowed the problem down to my right hip more than anything. I guess I am slightly weaker on that side, and that is causing (eventually) my patella to retract incorrectly.

So I get 60 minutes of pure pleasure. Dynamic stretching, and then.... more work on my legs/knees/hips than I think I would normally get in a week's worth of working out.

The good news there, is that my PT (who is awesome, btw,) has a few former patients who did the IMoo this year... that's the Ironman Madison, and she is pretty sure I will be 100% coming out of therapy.

So... more triathlons in my future, good workouts, and a whole body. Gotta love it.

More to come, of course...

Cheers!

Scott

Update on the company, etc...

On a lighter note....

So, the Corporation (AMR) announced that it was closing our LAX crew domicile, and 'farming out' our flying there to SkyWest, and also it had put some flying up for bid out of DFW, and ExpressJet was awarded that.

We've known for some time that the company plan was to do this, it comes as no surprise. I guess what got us off-guard as a work group, is that we thought we would have heard something about it through company sources, or the union, such as 'Our flying in LAX is up for bid, how can we find a way to keep it.'

No, we find out from a quick eye on the news (The Dallas Morning News broke the story,) that one of our senior, and I means senior, domiciles is going to disappear.

Basically, it works like this; The company says they want the existing flying diversified, we compete on the market for that flying, instead of being normally awarded the flying.

I guess they decided it was cheaper to shut down an entire crew base (where we just updated the terminals, etc,) and move the planes to MIA and DFW (so far. They had a vacancy/displacement posted, and we are actually gaining 6 Captain positions, systemwide, although we are losing ALL the position in LAX, obviously.)

If you want to know more about vacancy/displacement, see here.

What frosts me, I guess more than anything, is they are going to be flown under the name "American Eagle."

In the 1990s, American Eagle was a consortium of carriers, kind of like what United has right now in ORD with Shuttle, ExpressJet, SkyWest, and GoJet. You book your fare for your trip, and then you fly whatever airline has those aircraft allocated to them. It is horribly inefficient, in that a SkyWest crew can be sitting on reserve, and a GoJet aircraft could be parked, needing a crew, but the flight cannot go out because you are only 'allowed' (legally and contractually,) to fly for one airline at a time. We all have different Op Specs, rules, contractual obligations and restrictions, so it is quite possible.

Also, you get 'whipsawing.' United can pit SkyWest against GoJet, and say GoJet says they can do the flights for $1.11/seat mile, if you can't match their cost we'll move some airplanes over to them... resulting in playing one airline off against another, work group against work group... a.k.a. 'Whipsawing.'

So they joined all the carriers together (Flagship, Simmons, Executive, and Wing's West,) who had been flying under the American Eagle name, and made them a wholly owned subsidiary of American Airlines, under the parent company, AMR.

Once they were entirely integrated, a 'Flagship' crew could be sent out on a 'Wings West' aircraft, on a route flown by 'Simmons,' and they were all one seniority, one level of training and maintenance, the works. You can talk to some of the more senior crewmembers, and they can tell you what it was like before integration. In fact, when I was hired (way back in 2000,) at the time you could tell who had hired some of the older guys (and gals!) by where they sat in the old crew lounge at A9 (DFW.) Beach Bums over here, Flagship over there, Metro (talk about old) guys over there, etc... But it had gotten a lot better, and the different employee #s from when they were hired became the only way to tell, and that is not guaranteed. (our Employee #s are 6 digits, mine starts with a "1," (I was hired as a fueler by AA in 1989,) so my FOs who do not know me get to the airplane thinking they are flying with some old bastard.... well, they got half of that right!!

As I said, what frosts me, is that after 20 years of building up the Eagle 'brand,' the other carriers flying contracts for AA will be doing it under the "American Eagle" name. "Our" name. So Chatauqua Airlines, SkyWest, etc, when they fly for us, will be doing it under our logo and name. I know it seems like a little thing, but it is not. We were, and are for now, the last of the wholly owned subsidiaries. United had United Feeder Service, which was closed in 1999 (They flew the APTs, which was quite a monster turboprop,) and Delta had ComAir, who will fly their last flight Sep 29th of this year. Think of that... at one time, they were our ONLY true rivals on the National/Regional Airline playing field, and they are ceasing operations.... Sober thoughts there...

My airline will get a new name, we'll be 'spun off' from the mothership, and we will compete for contracts with everyone else to do the flying that we are doing right now. BUT, we will be able to compete for flying with United and Delta, or Southwest, or Virgin, or Bob's flying service... or we will be free to go it on our own, too.

But we know how well that worked for Independence Air, don't we?

There are lots of arguments for and against, and it will take years to ascertain whether it was a good, or even a brilliant decision... but if it was disaster, we will find out all too soon.

Time will tell.....

Scott

getting (or not) political

So, I promised myself I would try to blog more... because you all just are dying to hear what I am thinking, right? All 4 of you, right?

September 11, 2012 has come and gone; I wrote my post on my memories of the original 9/11, so to speak, and while that was happening, our Embassy in Libya was attacked, and our Ambassador killed.

I have refrained from making this into just another political blog; which is funny, because I am a very political animal. I read a number of political websites, of both stripes (or more than both,) although I tend to flow along a fairly similar thought stream with only one side of the spectrum. So I have left a bunch of topics untouched, topics that I find timely to address to myself now and then....

Free Speech

The Role Government Plays

The Constitution

Politics in General

I've focused mostly on my non-family passions... flying, certainly as #1; ancestral (paleo-like) health, and now that I am a lost soul, triathlons and training.

Given what this past week has been like, it is hard to hold back, though. I do have a post coming up (I know, I keep saying that) about free speech and what it all means, but I don't want to drag myself that way in this forum. We shall see....

But I will blog more.

Cheers,

Scott

 

 

 

Tuesday, September 11th.

My phone rang early (for me; I was a new line holder, so I finally had a regular schedule. Based in Chicago at ORD, back home, life was good,) and it was my mom.

"A plane just flew into the World Trade Center."

I told my mom she must be watching a preview of a new Jerry Bruckheimer movie, and tried to go back to sleep. I had been up late the night before, I had the day off, and I wanted to sleep in for the first time in ages.

My phone rang again about 10 minutes later.

"Scott, it's Kathy. A plane just flew into the World Trade Center."

"A Cessna, or something? Is there a lost Learjet?"

"I'm looking at the fire on the news, it must have been something bigger."

"Wow, crazy. You would think in this day and age with GPS and LORAN and everything, that wouldn't happen."

We talked for a bit, and she said it looked like someone had caught the crash on camera, they were replaying a plane hitting it.

Then she started screaming into the phone, because it was not a replay, she was watching the second tower get hit.

I scrambled out of my apartment (I had gotten separated from my first wife a few months prior, didn't have a TV, and for the first time in a long time I wished I had a TV.) and ran up the stairs to my neighbor's apartment. I knocked on her door, and she said that she was listening to CDs.

We watched the news together on her TV for a bit, and then she had to run to work; she left me her key, and let me stay in her apartment to watch. Thanks to cell phones, I knew I could get ahold of my friends on the East Coast.

There were reports that the flight that crashed into the Pentagon was an Eagle flight. I called numerous friends to see who knew what. My friend OJ Saxby had just landed at Islip (ISP) NY. They were turning to final, and his FO said

"Wow, OJ, you should see the fire in Manhattan."

When they parked the plane, ATC came on and asked them if they were headed back to Boston. They said yes, and then home. The controller said

"You need to call me on the phone. You're going to be here a while."

A fellow pilot who lives in Memphis was flying a trip from DFW to DAY (I think.) He heard over the radio words that were spoken by ATC the only time since the building of the modern ATC system. Words that were a relic of the Cold War, words that pilots never thought they would hear once the cold war ended...

"SCATANA...SCATANA...SCATANA. All aircraft on my frequency, I will be issuing orders for diversions. If you do not have an airport when I call your flight number, you will be given an airport to divert to. There are no exceptions. This is a National Emergency. SCATANA...SCATANA....SCATANA."

He was about 60 miles or so southwest of Memphis, and was the 2nd flight called by ATC. He said they were diverting to Memphis, and he managed to be home for the next few days.

I know dozens personally, and I am sure I have flown with hundreds, who ended up spending the days after 9/11 away from home. I happened to be off that day. I had OT for Thursday, and then Friday I was flying to Austria for a friend's wedding. In the jumpseat. I did not make it to Vienna, obviously.

That same friend called me about an hour after 9/11 happened. He asked me what should he do? His fiancee had flown to Austria the day before, and he was trapped in Chicago! He made it out on Friday, they drove him straight to the Church, and he made it in time for his wedding.

My friend Kathy who called me that morning was schedule to go down for her physical to be a pilot at American Eagle. She never made it down there, got hired by Chicago Express, made Captain, they closed, got hired by SkyWest, made Captain, and is still there. (Yes, she made Captain at 2 airlines before I upgraded at AE. Funny...)

I called our scheduling people, and told them that I had planned on taking my vacation, but there was no way to get to where I was going. I was available when they needed me. Corey said he would call me when he knew more.

A friend of mine flew the CARE Team from ORD to BOS. She said she had never had an emotional flight like that. They gave them Position and Hold on the runway, and an amended clearance (we usually fly 'canned' routes, planned routes that thread us through and around other flights.)

"American Airlines, you are cleared Direct Boston Logan, climb and maintain FL 350, you take our prayers with you, cleared for takeoff, and Godspeed."

(... at least, that is what I remember her telling me later that day... )

I got called on Thursday afternoon, they had gotten permission to fly limited flights, and if I was available, they could use me.

I flew to Peoria and back, and Charlotte and back, landing back in Chicago about 11pm. We were the 4th or 5th flight by Eagle out of ORD, I think. We had zero passengers to PIA, 1 coming back, zero passengers (but about 10 employees) to CLT, and 3 pax back.

There are as many stories of 9/11 as there are people who were alive that day. Stories of heroism, stories of panic, terror, heartache. Friends and loved one were lost, dreams were shattered, our world changed forever.

I will never forget.....

I want to lose weight... (Part 1)

"So, I want to lose weight..."

My first, instinctive, sarcastic response to this is "Well, ok, we could saw off an arm..."

Let's face it, then you would weigh less, right?

So, weight is not usually the issue. I am sure if we magically transformed 20 lbs of fat into 20 lbs of muscle tissue on the average person, they would be happy with it, even though they do not 'weigh less.'

So we need to get the words correct. Words do have meaning, after all.

You want to lose fat.

Specifically, you want to lose excess white adipose tissue. And why would you want to do that?

There are numerous studies that show that increased weight (beyond a certain point) is an indicator of decreased health, and shorter and less healthy life spans. (see here, here, here, and here.) (That last one is a lu-lu. Framingham... so much data!!)

Most people who have fought the battle with increased weight tell all too familiar stories.

"I get winded just going up a flight of stairs."

"I have problems sleeping."

"My knees hurt; I can barely walk to the end of the block sometimes."

"I run out of energy so fast. I try to stop eating, but then I am lethargic, and angry." (I would be too, if I had to eat less!)

There are so many questions involved, so much information, and so much mis- or even mal-guidance; some people come and go off of diets and end up in tears.

We want to be healthy.
We want to live long lives, and disease free.
We want to enjoy life, our families, our children, our friends.

So, I am going to try to do some 'splainin' (Hey, Luuuuucy!)
All (or nearly so) of this will be from an evolutionary/ancestral point of view. I want to cover a number of topics;

What exactly is fat? (There has to be a reason we have it in the first place, right?)
Why do we get fat? (How does it get stored, what is the physical processes, etc...)
What are some myths about fat?
How can we 'lose' fat? (We get it, people lose it, how does that work?)
What is good health, and how can I be healthy?

 

 I think that last one is the most important. Generally, if you ask your doctor to get blood work done, you are looking for a 'baseline,' In other words, what are the normal scales for individuals, and where do I fall on those scales? For instance, I am 5'8" tall, and yesterday at the gym I weighed 166 lbs, giving me a BMI of about 25.2%. Am I healthy? Am I overweight? 25.2% (according to that nifty calculator provided by the US Department of Health and Human Services,) means I am overweight. O.k., all 3 of you who read my posting know me fairly well, and I am not overweight. There must be more to that story!

So you can see, just like "I want to lose weight," there is more information needed. Simply taking height and weight does not give you nearly enough information about health. (Which is a serious bone I have to pick with Michelle Obama. The original interview on Yahoo is gone, but there are references to it all over the place (like here) where she encourages BMI screening for kids.) BMI is a number, it does not tell you jack shit about health.
All it will do is make you fear the scale. Specifically, BMI is calculated this way, using the equation at the right. Honestly, does it tell you anything??? (other than a mathematical ratio, that is.)

So you ask your doctor for a blood screening, and you find all your numbers are in the 'green,' but you still have a high BMI. What to do.. what to do.

What can we do about our own health? I cross-posted on Facebook a picture with a quote superimposed upon it "People are fed by the FOOD Industry, which pays no attention to health... and are treated by the HEALTH industry, which pays no attention to food."

Are there people who do not get sick? There is a good question. Are there people who do not get cavities? Who do not get overweight? Who do not suffer from hypertension, gout, diabetes, cancer? Who live long lives?

My dad died when he was 54 years old. Cancer got him. He lived his life like he was trying to end it. Alcoholic. 2 to 3 pack a day smoker. I guess we were lucky he made it to 54.

Who are the people who do not get sick? Better yet, what do they eat? How do they live? What do they do, what don't they do?

Because, you know, we are the most 'overexercised' people on the planet. We have more health clubs, more gym memberships, more people running, than any other country in the world. People were sweating to the oldies for years, and yet....

We're still dying off.

We have obese children (Really, that is sad... except for the obvious genetic mutations that cause it, where can that problem originate?)

What on earth are we doing wrong?

Anyway, I hope to shed a little light with what I have learned along my own journey. In February of 2008, all they wanted to do was keep me alive. Today? I've completed my first triathlon, and I am looking for more. I want long life and good health, and I want you to have it, too.

This might be a strange journey... but why should this be any different?

Cheers!

Scott

The Knee

Well, those of you who remember my story from last year, knee problems stopped me from finishing my first triathlon, so I had to try again this year.

Only, now, I love it. The prep work, the working out, the biking, swimming... all of it.

This year again, knee problems bothered me, but I forged on through and finished.

The problem, is that if my knees keep having problems, I won't be able to do more triathlons. Mostly, it is as the knee loads up; It does not happen while I bike, but it happens on the run. I don't have any pain when I am not running, and have no problems going up and down stairs, although if it is tender, I am cautious going down stairs.

A good friend of mine who is doing his clinicals to become an MD checked out my knee, and told me of a common overtraining type of injury where the thigh normally kind of helps the patella (kneecap) retract straight back so that the knee can bend, instead let's it move at a very slight angle. Considering that my knees stay slightly bent on the bike, that would explain how it doesn't hurt normally biking, but it starts to hurt on the run. It is a fairly easy fix, but to still go see a specialist.

So I went to see Dr. Daley, at Hinsdale Orthopedics. He is a long long time family friend, but he is most famous for being the doctor who replaced Bo Jackson's hip when he (Bo) played for the Chicago White Sox.

Some x-rays, some manipulation, and the good Doctor said "If this is any indication of the kind of doctor your friend will be, then he will be very good indeed; he described exactly what is going on in your knee."

He showed my on the x-rays how the kneecap was very slightly off when my knee was flexed, and then described how we take care of the problem.

Good physical therapy, maybe modify the way you run a little bit, and a brace for support for your kneecap when you are exercising. Simple, or as I heard a second person say in 2 days, "Easy Peasey."

So, here is my leg in its brace... kind of bionic man-looking, but the advantage is that for the most part, I can continue exercising, although long distances are out for a little bit. Plus, I don't need surgery as of yet...  (and should not...) that is always a big plus!!!

So far so good!!!!

Cheers!

Scott

Bike mods

Hey there!

So, did a little bit of work on the bike; I added a set of Profile Design GT Aerobars. Thanks to a coupon for participating in the Chicago Triathlon, I picked them up at a deeeep discount from an online site. Basically Amazon has them for around $79, I got them for about $39. Gotta love combining clearance and discounts and coupons.

So the idea behind using Aerobars (they came out in the 1986 Tour De France, and are pretty much de rigueur in triathlons now,) is that instead of keeping your hands up 'on the horns,' (the black 'horn looking' part of the handlebars,) or staying low 'in the drop' (the downward curved part on road bikes,) you can rest your upper body weight on the elbow pads, grip the forward part of the bars, and accomplish 2 things: Rest your body, and achieve a more aerodynamic position.

Now, on a road bike, this gets a little dicey. The seat post is slightly aft of where you would want to sit to get proper leverage in the forward 'aero' position, and your body would still be elevated, as opposed to the slightly head down profile you get on a dedicated tri bike.

You can reduce this a bit by removing a spacer or two from the gooseneck of the road bike, and on the Trek 1.2, the seat post is designed to be reversed 180 degrees, allowing you to have that more forward, aggressive, tri-bike type of position on the aerobars.

So after installing the aerobars, I reversed the seat post, rebalanced the seat, and started doing quick bikes to adjust the aerobars to my body size.

I found a pretty comfortable position, but there will be lots of small adjustments. The idea is that you spend the majority of your time once you are in the aerobar position, so that you can rest your body and have a less dragg-y position.

More to come on this as I experiment with it....

Cheers!

Scott

A swim and some sailing

Racing the Tri-State this weekend. This is my favorite race of the season (yes, even the Mac falls short for me.)

Tonight it looks good, albiet slow, crossing the lake. Should be in the 70s, we have a great crew, so all is well.

I am heading down to the boat early to scrub the bottom and get some work done on the boat (rig tuning, etc...) but if I get it all done fast, I can go for a little run... gotta keep trying the knee.

Maybe I can squeeze in a harbor swim... a quick 500 yards or so just for fun.

A bad day on the water beats a great day just about anyplace else...

Off to the races!

Scott