Posts by Berck

I’m not sure what to do with this space. Everytime I think about posting something interesting, I find myself worrying that someone might be offended. I think I’m going to stop worrying. This probably doesn’t mean that anything interesting will appear, so don’t get too excited. It was easier when I had fun flying things to talk about.

It was good to be in the mountains. I spent a long time on Sunday doing nothing outside, enjoying the mountain air, blue hills off on the horizon.

I’m frustrated at my current flight instructor. The fact that I simply don’t like him doesn’t help. He seemed surprised to hear from me today, and said he’d get me in the schedule for tomorrow. Called me back later to say he couldn’t get me on tomorrow, but he’d schedule me twice on Thursday. At 8 and 10 am. I don’t like flying early in the morning, yet he schedules me for nothing but morning flights, in spite of numerous complaints. I’ll fly in the morning if it’s all that’s available, but it seems like I should have a choice. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky this afternoon, and there’s no clouds tomorrow. And I’m not on the schedule. I haven’t flown since November 9.

I took Arthur to the post office this morning. His battery cables were quite corroded, and he didn’t want to start. Replacing them took care of that problem.

Joanna called me on her break this afternoon. I’m not sure why, she’s never done that before. Last night we talked about the fact that she couldn’t find her phone, so I was surprised that she was even able to call me. Then I was immediately suspicious that something was very wrong. It wasn’t, she just wanted to say hi, and ask me to buy beer.

I went to Sooner West, the closest bestest liquor store. They have quite a beer selection, though I’ve learned not to get attached to anything because their inventory seems to fluctuate wildly. I spent a long time browsing and selected three promising-looking German beers that I’d never tried before. I used to think that I really didn’t like German beer, but I’ve found that the darker ones are often quite good. I selected a Franziskaner (Franciscan) Dunkel Hefe-Weisse. Monks make good beer. This one turned out to be quite nice. Dark, unfiltered, a little sweet, no trace of bitter, and good flavor. Brewed by Spaten in Munchen. I’m not, in general, a fan of Paulaner, but I picked out something they brew called “Salvator Double Bock” which had great flavor but was almost unbearably sweet. It’s one of the more intriguing beers I’ve tasted recently. Lastly, I got some Kostritzer Schwarzbier. Pretty much anything that calls itself “Schwarzbier” is loved by Joanna. This was no exception, a black “lager” with hints of chocolate a bit malty. Just sweet enough to meld with the bitterness. Also good.

I chatted with the tall, non-American looking girl who was working. There are three girls, an older woman who seems to own the place, but isn’t very talkative. A younger sorority-type girl with much makeup, big breasts, and no knowledge of beer. And lastly this girl– tall, dark skinned, polite, and actually has some appreciation for beer. She said she really liked the Salvator, but hadn’t tried the Kostritzer, and asked if I’d tell her if I liked it next time I came in. I suppose I’m something of a regular.

Joanna did indeed like the schwarzbier.

Yesterday, we went by the new Sam’s in Norman. It’s still not open, and there’s not much inside, so it looks like it’s going to be a bit longer. So, we went to Albertson’s. Joanna really hates grocery shopping. I suppose I should stop dragging her along, but I like it much better when she’s there. I bought stuff for “taco salad” which isn’t really. While browsing the old, soon-to-be-thrown-away section of the meats, I found some veal chops seriously marked down. $7 off, total. Not able to pass it up, I bought it. I pan-fried then sauteed them this evening with onions in white wine. Roasted some potatoes, and the schwarzbier made for a yummy meal. I think it’s the best I’ve ever managed with veal.

I’m pretty happy, overall. I’ve got a Jonah, a nice little apartment, and I get to fly airplanes sometimes. I simply feel a bit anxious, like everything is teetering on the edge of some abyss for some reason. If one of the two of us gets a decent job in the next few months, I think that will go away. I’ll feel much better after I get this upcoming 250NM cross-country out of the way.

I’ve always regarded Southwest Airlines as being something of a joke when it comes to airlines. This is without ever having actually flown with them. The flight crews look like they’re all going to go golfing rather than operate an airplane, and fighting for your seat just doesn’t seem right.

But they’ve been right up there with Jet Blue in airline ratings lately. Highest on-time percentage, highest customer satisfaction, etc, etc. (I’ll take a moment to point out that my old friends at ASA ranked absolute bottom of the list in 2003 in every category, except number of customer complaints.)

So Dad’s flying to Delaware to see Kelsey in a play up there, and he offered to buy me a plane ticket to go along with him. He was flying from Nashville, through Midway to Philadelphia on Southwest. We decided I’d get a Southwest ticket through Midway as well, and we’d be on the same flight to PHL.

I went to the Southwest website, selected the two $99 fares (which don’t come to a total of $198 as advertised, but rather to a total of $240 once taxes are added) and entered my credit card information. A few seconds later I got a confirmation email which listed me as being Berck Nachzeng. I clearly entered my name incorrectly, and only quickly glanced over the “Is this right?” page. So now I was going to have to call them.

I knew I was in for some unpleasantness because Joanna recently went through a similar ordeal. When her Dad got us plane tickets to go to Virginia, he’d gotten a ticket for “Joanna Nachzen”. This would have been fine, except that Joanna had not (and still has not) legally changed her name. (Maybe she’s waiting to see if it sticks?) Knowing that it would be nearly impossible for her travel without a photo-ID that matched her ticket, she set about trying to change it. Everyone she talked to at Delta insisted that would cost $75. Eventually Robert, who can apparently convince anyone of anything just by being nice, called and convinced them to change it without charging the $75.

So, I clicked on the “Contact Southwest Airlines” button on their webpage and dialed the number for reservations, which indicated it was available 24 hours a day.

The line rang, and then the strangest thing happened: someone answered. In all my dealings with airlines, I’ve never managed to speak to anyone without first going through much wait and hassle. Shocked and stunned, I explained the situation to the guy at the other end.

“Oh boy.. You’re out of luck. I don’t think you’ll be able to fly anywhere!”

Surprised, but knowing that Southwest encourages humor on the part of its employees, I played along.

“Oh, dear…”

“Just kidding, give me your confirmation number and I’ll fix it.”

With less than a 90 second telephone call, the problem was solved, and I got a new confirmation email within the next 90 seconds, displaying my correct name.

So far I’m impressed with Southwest.

I’m amazed at how well the E-bay stuff is doing. Looks like we’ve already cleared $320 and there’s still stuff left to go. I got to thinking that it was a sizeable amount of money, and maybe I should buy a used laptop with it. But after thinking about it, I decided that I really didn’t want another old laptop, as I really need something modern enough to handle the GPS and display maps without being horribly sluggish. $300 won’t buy a nice laptop, and I’d just as soon wait until I could afford one. Besides, we’re not traveling much these days.

But Nathan got me thinking about how if I had a digital camera how nice that would be to take pictures while flying. I never really wanted a digital camera because, to take even halfway decent pictures, they tend to be bulky, annoying, and temperamental. I’d really rather have my 35mm.

But I’ve always wanted a camera that I could take with me and not notice it, yet still took decent pictures. Minox is always an option, but it’s nearly impossible to print Minox film yourself, and the film costs a fortune to buy and print.

Which brings us to the latest Canon Digital Elph. It’s small enough to fit in a pocket without really noticing it, yet still takes fairly decent pictures. Now that there’s a 5 megapixel version out, lots of folks are selling their 4-megapixel S400 Elphs on E-bay. For about $250.

So, it just seemed to me that I could convert old broken stuff into new toys. But Joanna pointed out that we’re still going farther into debt every month, and we don’t in any way need a digital camera. I agreed. I’m really not sure what this is about exhausting her with requests…

Joanna bought some absolutely horrifyingly ugly shoes today. They’re pink.