12 January 2011

I just remembered that it was Dave White's birthday yesterday. I need to call him.

We started out in FLL where we had the morning off. I did my devotions and then headed out to the pool to pray and read. Hey, I figure that as long as I'm praying I may as well do it in the sun by the pool for some added vitamin D therapy. It WAS a gorgeous pool with a waterfall. One of my goals for this year is to be more consistent in prayer for the Graham church family. Thanks to Johnny Schlaack I have a nice 2011 Graham church prayer guide that I've been using and so far (less than a week), I've been consistent.

We flew up to JFK, landed there an hour before sunset, hung around for a couple of hours, then flew back down to TPA. One of the things that struck me—and I'm not sure why it struck me yesterday—was that, as we flew back into Florida, I said to myself, "I just left here. Another day is gone. Tempus fugit."

Time flies. It was a day of my life that I will not get back. Kind of a sobering thought. One of the things I need to do is live more purposefully and realize that time is as valuable a commodity as there is. What is behind you isn't coming back. See it as precious.
Treat it as precious. Use it wisely.

Nothing I didn't already know, but a good reminder.

4 January, 2011

A new year, my 51st on this earth, and tempus fugit.

I just finished 5 days of flying (2 different trips, I got to be home for 12 hours in between). I've been on the road all but three days between 24 December and today which is par for the course for me. Such is the life of a junior A320 captain around the holidays.

I did manage to fly a charter. We flew the Philadelphia Flyers from Detroit to Philly after they beat us 3-2, Commies! We then flew an empty plane from Philly to MSP, arriving at 2 am. The plane was empty except for the pilots, 2 flight attendants, and the charter coordinator. Those are fun, relaxing flights and there weren't too many other aircraft in the sky late on a Sunday night. The night was mostly clear (except over Michigan naturally) so, even though we were tired, it was fun to be up flying. We feasted on the charter leftovers all the way to Minneapolis.

I flew a Milwaukee turn out of Minneapolis and then a deadhead leg from MSP to DTW to finish the trip. They replaced the expected aircraft with an A330 so there was a lot of empty seats available. I got to sit in a pair by myself which was nice because we had to deice in MSP and that took an extra 3o or 40 minutes.

Off until Sunday. We have an Elder/Deacon retreat Thurs-Sat and then I'm on call again Sunday, so I have time off....sort of. My gorgeous bride is coming in from DFW today at 1 pm. Matt will stay in Dallas for awhile with Badger and Kristen.