2 Jul 08 JFK-DEN

Riding JetBlue back to New York. The realities of the yoyoing are starting to settle in, and I’m wondering what sort of toll it will take on my life in the long term. Assuming I’m able to do it for the long term.

I left the apartment well before 8am this morning and ate breakfast with Jonah at Chic-Fil-A before we both headed to work. I decided to save the $6 on the tollway and risk I-225 at 9am. Jonah was sure it would be fine, I was convinced there were enough straggling commuters to make it congested. Turned out to not be too bad; I had to stop for a few minutes, but eventually traffic got moving again. All things considered, Denver traffic is really pretty good.

An American Airlines flight attendant started up a discussion about the state of our industry. Grim, that is. American hasn’t yet announced how many pilots and flight attendants will be out of work in the fall, but it’s going to be a lot. United’s already announced that they’re furloughing 950 pilots; I don’t know how many flight attendants. Not to mention all the folks with jobs on the ground.

I needed to renew my parking permit for the month of July, and wandered around a bit trying to remember where the little parking permit window was. Finally realized it’s on the west, not east side. I optimistically purchased two months worth of parking and headed through security. TSA was rude as ever, and completely unapologetic about a line that didn’t move at all for 5 minutes, with no apparent cause. When I asked what was going on, the agent replied, “We are in the screening process.” I refrained from even responding to the statement which being so inane, useless, and even contrary to fact, bordered on blatantly offensive.

JetBlue was friendly as ever and gave me an exit row seat on a mostly empty seat. I was amused by the fact that they have exit row police to make sure that no one is sitting in an exit row without having paid the extra fee for the extra legroom. While on the ground, the TV screens say, “Thank you for not flying JetBlue,” which I’m not sure I understand.

I hope that all is as advertised and I won’t be on reserve past the end of the month. I called crew tracking to make sure I understood correctly that I was assigned regular, not ready reserve. Which means I can sit at “home” assuming that I’m able to report to the airport within 1.5 hours. In my case, “home” means Sydney’s Brooklyn flat, which is likely to be intolerably hot this time of year. At least until I assist her with the acquisition and installation of an air conditioner.

I also asked if they had any trips for me yet. He said he didn’t, but there was a bunch of open time, so he’d likely “talk to me soon.” From what I’ve heard, they’re so short on pilots, I shouldn’t be spending much time with Sydney, but we’ll see.

I’m meeting her in Manhattan for dinner tonight, theoretically.

I’m still not entirely comfortable with the job itself. It’s still a constant challenge for me, and I find myself often getting several steps behind the situation, which results in an higher-than-normal workload for the guy on my left, whether I’m flying or non-flying pilot that leg. In fact, it’s probably harder to be the non-flying pilot as there’s so much to accomplish.

It’s still amazing to me, even with all I have to put up with, that someone’s paying me to fly a jet. With any luck I’ll get comfortable enough in the future to take pictures of the cool stuff I get to look out. The summer offers some pretty spectacular views of thunderstorms, particularly when they’re building below, which is a perspective that’s entirely new to me.

So I spent $72 on parking today. I’ll also need to spend another $40 on a 30 day AirTrain pass, plus $2/trip on the subway. The 75 mile trip to Denver isn’t cheap with current gasoline prices, either. Up until now, I’ve been fairly isolated from the realities of living in New York, but that all changes now. I’d had a free air conditioned hotel room a short, free van ride away from the airport whenever I needed it, and my schedule had worked out so I’d only needed it twice. We’ll see how rough living with Sydney is. At least I’m her only roommate until the end of the month.
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[Later, from Sydney’s apartment.] Ack. So her roommate is gone for the summer. Sydney’s been wanting a new roommate because the old one is not clean. I inspected the roommate’s bed carefully before making it, because New York City is currently infested with bed bugs. The whole bloody city. It turns out her roommate’s bed is no exception, so I’m sleeping in the living room. This is likely very, very bad. The bugs I found were well-fed, but Sydney has no bites, and I couldn’t find any in or around her bed. Presumably they’ve been eating her cat. The exterminator is coming tomorrow, but apparently nothing gets rid of these things. If I inadvertently take them home with me, I’m going to be really, really annoyed. Poor Sydney, I sense this is not going to be fun for her.

Looks like a dead head on my schedule to Chicago tomorrow, with a one-leg flight back to JFK, then back to Sydney’s for the night.