Farewell Dear Comfort

ATA Died on the 3rd of April. This has changed me focus and thrown me into a bit of a business slump. Though I knew it was coming, and I prepared for it as much as I thought I could, the hit has continued to sting. So many of my former co-workers are out of work. I guess I'm lucky that I saw the writing on the walls early on. It's been weeks since the demise of my biggest customer. It's been weeks since I felt the comfort that ATA brought me. Though I had worked for them as a vendor for over a year....it was always comforting to know that if I ever fell on my ass, I always had a place to go. The picture is not as clear and I'm not as comfortable. Though I hate the fact that the "air bag" is deflated, the car is still on the road and able to drive. It's life and it moves on. I'm just trying to focus on my situation and look at it from a positive light. Now is the time to learn and grow.

Today, I was working a World MD11 Freighter. This was the first time that I got to work with a Freighter from World and it was a horrible example to start with. The ground handling company, "WFS" were terrible. This was a charter for Lufthansa, and this handler treated us like we were some worthless fly by night carrier and gave us bare minimum staff and a joke for service. We did have to stop loading a few times though....because the cabin kept filling with smoke from burning hydraulic fluid. The crew and maintenance said this was due to over servicing the hydraulic system....though I've never heard of such a thing. I guess the designers of the MD11 found a way to integrate passenger air conditioning with deadly fluid. Smart! The L1011 may be an old bird, but it's design was so much better than the MD products.

I also had an NAO flight that was ferrying out to LSF. While WOA was taking a delay for worthless handling. No problem there at least.

On to an issue that isn't as clean -

Single Ply toilet paper sucks! ASIG's bathroom near the operations trailer now has this single ply ass cleaner that is so thin, it's almost as bad as 1/2 ply paper. The other day, I was wiping my dark star and thought my finger broke through. Upon further inspection of my appendage, I noticed there was no discoloration and the bunched paper hadn't been broken. At first, I thought it was "Shit Luck" pun intended....then I did the sniff test. If you are a man, you know what I'm talking about. Sniff, get a confused look on your face and then sniff again for confirmation. Confirmation is followed by the shocked and disappointed look on your face, and then the ultra careful manner in the things you allow your hand to touch before you can soap it up and wash it off.

The Mrs. and I had some lunch with Rob last week. It was both great to catch up and even more uplifting to discuss some of my goals and challenges. I do love the way he can listen to what I'm saying and break it down into something so easy for me to see and find a way to focus better. Thank you again, Rob....you are a god send.

There is a poster on the wall in the Ops Trailer that says, "In an Emergency, would you know how to exit?" Well....Would you?

I just got the call from Gopie at Ops Control...my flight is 30 mins out. Time to go back to work!