Kingsquared » work

A new year

John — Sun, 01 Jan 2012 04:53:31 +0000

So, we’ve finished all of our work, save for loading our bags and we’re simply waiting to go. The New Year celebrations weren’t too shabby. They had a local band play (and they did a damn good job) followed up by the DJ. We played some cards, drank our customary two beers, and laughed throughout the night. I was pleasantly surprised. I was kinda expecting – yep, it’s a new year and I’m going to bed.

Well, just a few more days and I’ll be back home with Jessica and the monster. I can’t wait.

It’s definitely not the same

John — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 09:49:49 +0000

I know that Christmas is right around the corner but it sure doesn’t feel like it. Here’s why

1. You can’t see my building from space (it isn’t properly decorated)
2. I haven’t eaten 26,000 extra calories worth of sweets this month
3. Jessica and I aren’t working as a dynamic duo in the kitchen trying to get everything ready
4. I’m not hiding in the kitchen away from the insanity that is the extended family annual white elephant exchange/pig out fest and I’m not avoiding a certain in-laws cheesecake
5. I don’t get to hang out with my son and my wife
6. They only have one type of turkey and it pales in comparison to the one Jessica prepares
7. My dorm room doesn’t smell like Christmas is here – and thank god for air fresheners or it would smell like me
8. There is no fireplace here (or that damned yule log on Comcast that everyone insists on watching) we’ve got a real fireplace this year bitches
9. I don’t get to stare at the aftermath with Jessica, shrug my shoulders, and say “we’ll take care of it tomorrow”
10. I haven’t made the 14th trip to the grocery store to get that last last last ingredient

Luckily, we’re ignoring the calendar this year – we’re going to celebrate in our own special way when I get home. It can’t come soon enough.

Hacking the mission

John — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 11:03:11 +0000

When I was in my first class on my way to becoming a loadmaster my instructor talked about hacking the mission. I’ve been doing that lately – quite a bit of that lately. I’m over 100 flying hours since I arrived here and I’ve moved over a million pounds of cargo. I’m not at the top of the list for the deployment but I’m near the top. Sometimes we fly to a location and we don’t have anything to load. Other times, we’re filled to maximum capacity. It’s all luck of the draw.

We’ve got a few weeks until we get home – I’ll be flying until that happens. I have a week off when I get home and then a little more time scheduled later in January. I’ll be glad to get the free time – I’ve got a wife and monster that I want to spend time with – I love ending sentences in prepositions.

A holiday away from home

John — Wed, 23 Nov 2011 23:18:05 +0000

Well, it’s been quite a while since I’ve been away from home during a holiday. In fact, I’ve never been away from Jessica during Thanksgiving or Christmas. I’m sure that if I was home, I’d already be home from work trying to prep everything for the feast. Jessica and I would be working in tandem in a dance around the kitchen. We seem to do best under pressure, with no time, with lots of distractions, and with little working room. Each year we’ve managed to get everything ready on time and somehow not blow our tempers (at each other at least). This year I’m going to miss that part of the tradition. This year, of course, I miss out on spending the holiday with my son. He doesn’t know what’s going on yet and we haven’t got him eating solid food yet so he isn’t missing out on much. Next year, of course, I’m prepared for a little boy covered in gravy, turkey, mashed potatoes, and cranberries. Hopefully somebody gets me the pressure washer that I want.

I never thought that I would miss preparing the food with my wife – it’s something we do every year. This year is the first time that I’ll be away from it.

This isn’t the first time that I’ve been away from my family while on a holiday. The first few years in the military I didn’t come home and I spent it with coworkers or in a deployed setting. Having a holiday in a deployed setting is by far the strangest part. Everyone is trying to enjoy the day as best as they are able while our minds wander to what our families are doing at home. We group together fairly well and make it through the day. I think we all have come to a universal consensus that no matter how special they try to make the day, it isn’t as good as being home. Since I’ve been around for a while I need to spend special attention to my newest airmen. Most have never been away from their families like this and they have probably never missed a holiday in their life. If nothing else, I’m just going to make sure that I put a smile on my face and involve them in they day – whatever that may hold.

So – I’ve got to run to the gym and start my day. To everyone that reads this – Happy Thanksgiving.

Rolling with the punches

John — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 07:39:16 +0000

This job is a constant uphill battle. Each day we show up and try to do something that 110 years ago seemed like a pipe dream. I enjoy the fight.

The major difference between this job and my last is that we often succeed when everything goes wrong. I haven’t had a mission canceled (yet) due to something wrong with the jet, the weather, air traffic control, or the cargo load. A few days ago we were 15 minutes from being cancelled. We were on the ground for hours trying to get out of there but it seemed that there was an obstacle at every turn. We still got the job done.

I like my job. Who else gets to say that?

I’ve been busy

John — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 09:04:19 +0000

I don’t know exactly how long I’ve been gone but it feels like it’s been a while. Sure, I could look at the calendar in the bottom left corner of my screen and do some simple math (my peripheral vision has betrayed me and it’s two weeks) but it makes the first two lines of this post moot. Ok, so it’s moot. I don’t care.

Work has been interesting. I fly around and move people from spot to spot. For the most part, nothing interesting happens. Once in a while we’ll have something break on the jet that slows down our day and causes us frustration. Occasionally weather will play a factor into what is going on. This job is so much different from my last job. Every flight matters. Every person or thing I transport needs to be at a set location and time.

I’ve been flying a shuttle mission lately – it’s a real killer because of how the crew rest breaks down. You wake up at alert and then have a 15 hour work day. When you land you’re set to fly again in 22 hours. You’ve been awake for 18 hrs and now you have a choice to make. It’s 22 hours of time to kill. Do I just go to sleep now? Will I be able to sleep later? When I wake up I’m going to have a 15 hour day. If I fall asleep for the first part of the day I’m going to have at least a 29 hour day. My choice has been to sleep now and then sleep a little later. You live in a state of sleep deprivation. I did two of these back to back. I got back last night from the second trip and fell asleep for 12 hours. I work up, ate, and did some work stuff and then fell asleep again for another 5 hours. I guess I was a little tired.

I really like my job.

Don’t you love how vague I have to make these blog posts? I can’t share what I’m moving, when I’m moving, or where it is being transported. I guess you’ll just have to use your imagination.

I really miss being home with Jessica and Sawyer. She sends me videos and pictures almost every day. I’m missing out on quite a bit of him growing up. He just had his two month checkup along with his shots. He’s up to 12lb 7oz and he’s doing quite well. He didn’t like the shots… he cried for almost two days straight. Jessica had to deal with him, by herself, for two days straight (over the weekend). She was quite worn out from the whole deal. She told me that I had to be around for the second round of shots. She doesn’t want to do it by herself and I can’t blame her. It’s gotta be rough – I want to be there for the both of them.

Let it snow?

John — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 07:51:37 +0000

It’s late October and the snow has started to fall. Luckily, the ground isn’t cold enough for any significant accumulation. The forecast could turn for the worst at any time. It’s expected to snow for the next week but there is a significant amount of rain mixed into the forecast. When it does start to really come down (and it will) it could get interesting around here. I know that there will actually be a building shoveling schedule that will come out at some point – I actually prefer this to all other types of exercise. Sure, there are probably more shoveling related heart attacks than any other winter outdoor chore but I’m not worried. My joints are slowly falling apart but my ticker is doing fine so I’ve got no worries.

In other news work should be strange – fly every couple of days and then sit and wait to fly. I should get ample time in at the gym and ample time studying. I’ll also spend ample time goofing with the blog as I do every other deployment.

Here we go again

John — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 10:09:38 +0000

I’m off on the other side of the planet for the next few months. I’ll be gone just long enough to miss all of the major holidays. It’s a downfall of my occupation. It could be much much worse (army, marines, navy). If you visit often, you can expect an influx of new material. Lots of new material. I’m going to have too much free time on my hands.

If only I got frequent flyer miles

John — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 06:51:59 +0000

I’ve been working quite a bit and by work I mean flying people and cargo all across the planet. I haven’t made it to across the Pacific ocean yet but I’ve crossed the Atlantic quite a few times in the past few weeks. Since I started this job and really started flying (about 2 months) I’ve racked up something like 45,000 miles. I’m using Google Latitude to help track where I’ve been and I can’t always update my location but it helps to provide a rough guess.

Long legs (such as ocean crossings) can be quite boring. I have plenty of time to read and study but you’re often so tired that you really can’t get into anything and hope to remember it. I’m sure that I’ll figure out a way to manage my sleep schedule better as I get some more experience. Without a doubt, this is the most rewarding job that I’ve ever had. Everyday I work, I know I’m doing something that matters. I’m really glad I made the switch.

I’m in Germany right now on yet another trip but I expect this one to be the last for about a month while we wait for the boy to arrive. I’m sure he will take his sweet time but I know that it will give Jessica piece of mind to have me around while we wait for him to show up. I can’t wait for the pregnancy to be over – I’m sure Jessica would agree.

Unfortunately, I’ll only have about 2 weeks after the boy is born to be around and then I’ll be hot to get back on the road. Adding insult to injury is a 60 day deployment (the shortest deployment I’ve ever had) that will make me miss all of the major holidays. There are quite a few firsts that I’m going to miss – at least I’m not in the Army. I’ve got friends that will miss most of the first year of their kid’s lives. That simply sucks. I’ll be glad when these wars are over.

On the road

John — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 06:00:52 +0000

Weather can ruin hours of careful preparation. We were scheduled to stop in Kansas and pick up some stuff and then fly direct to Germany. We landed, loaded, and fueled only to find that it was too hot to takeoff. We were simply too heavy and the air wasn’t dense enough at that temperature to get the lift we needed (it was 107 degrees). So, we sat around and waited for the sun to go down and the temps to drop. The sun did go down but the midwest is known for rapidly changing weather and we got thunderstorms. Nobody wants to fly in a thunderstorm because planes don’t react well to lightning and extreme turbulence. We sat on the ground too long to takeoff so we stayed in Kansas overnight.

The next day we de-fueled (because it was too damn hot again) and changed our plan to make a fuel stop in Newfoundland. We stopped for an hour or two to fuel and pushed on to Germany. We had a mechanical malfunction and were delayed for a while in Germany but we eventually made it to England. The trip was planned so close that anything could have put us off the plan. We had excessive heat and thunderstorms to blame.

I haven’t been here for a few years and not much has changed save for a few new buildings. It’s bizarre to be back here. Never did I think that I would be back on this base. We’re headed back home today via a stop on the east coast but I have a 21 hour day ahead of me.

More than anything else, the military has taught me to roll with the punches. If you don’t, you’re going to hate life.