Lines and Letters

This morning I entered my temp and got my ovulation lines! It's a very sad life when one does a happy dance over something so simple. But I really needed that vindication.

Today we went to a balloon rally out our local airport. A little disappointing because it was far too windy for any balloons to actually be on display. We might try our luck again tonight assuming the winds die down.

Okay, I don't often write about my husband's job other than the crazy days he keeps. But I have to vent about something that happened today. Excuse my spellings: I don't want any of his coworkers to find their way here!

For starters, the p1lot group is currently in c0ntract neg0t1at10ns with hubby's company (let's call it Fly-By-Night). The c0ntract expired over a year ago and they started neg0t1at1ng months before that. So there's been plenty of time for lots of tactics to be used on both sides. Before Fly-By-Night, neither J nor I had had any experience with un10ns or 0rganized lab0r. It's been quite an eye-opening experience to say the least. So, recently the un10n dissemenated some information that Fly-By-Night thought to be in violation of the neg0t1at1ng agreement. What did they do? Get this: they type up a nice little letter about how unreasonable the un10n is being. Then they send it out overnight, Saturday delivery via F3d-ex. With over a thousand p1l0ts in the company, how much do you reckon that cost them? The best irony in the letter was that they pointed out that they are asking for absolutely no wage reduct10ns. And that is supposed to be a favor to us. Even though a starting p1l0t at this company qualifies for public assistance in most states well into their second year when employeed by Fly-By-Night. But they are being fair enough to not reduce the salar1es even more. How generous of them. But what I find myself least able to believe is that they don't expect us to count up the cost of this mass-letter and wonder where that money comes from. You might be saying: it's not that much really. Maybe not once. But consider if this is about the third or fourth time they've done this.

So, I am very not happy with Fly-By-Night right now and neither is J. When he first started there 5 years ago it was the opportunity of a lifetime: at his age to get hired and go directly to flying jets is just unheard of. Plus he was able to upgrade to capta1n by the end of his second year there which is phenomenal in this industry. But more and more I can see that the whole situation is just really weighing on him. Given his age, though, it's really unlikely he would be able to find another job as a pil0t. But he doesn't know what else he wants to do. Me, I'm just hoping the company can hold on another year or two until I get down with the RE. And maybe have a baby. It would be nice to have some insurance for that option.

At any rate, life is never dull here!