a sick pilot's wife....

No one wants to be sick, it's a pain in the ass. Either your at work and feel awful, or sitting at home and feeling awful. But what's worse is being sick when your hubby's gone, though I hate to be sick when he's home!

If you hadn't guessed by now, I had strep throat this past week, which I get anywhere from 2-5 times a year. Apparently it has to do with the fact (the reason I get it so often)is that I still have my tonsils? though no one has offered to take them out yet.

What stinks though is that I can't just lay on couch and say "poor me." If John's not home it's just me. Me to clean up and feed the horses every day. Me to change Molly (aka Hookers) bandage twice a day...and on and on.....It's one of the times I really wished John was home, so I could just lay on the couch and watch movies, and not have to worry about doing everything else myself.

Then what's worse is having to clean before the pilot comes home....because god forbid the pilot become sick! Beside him having to take sick time and the worry of blowing an ear drum, I've learned that sick pilots (and guys in general) are just kind of cry babies. No doubt John, even if he is a little sick, act's like his life is coming to an end. This means that I try to super clean so he doesn't get sick...remember how much I *like* cleaning? http://reallifeofapilotswife.blogspot.com/2011/08/cleaing-fairy-comes-once-weekto-bad-its.html So I wander aimlessly with a can of Lysol blasting the entire house with it, counters, bedroom, bathroom, kitchen anything that he might touch!

You know what I hate more than Cleaning? Cleaning when I'm sick!!

A Wounded Hooker

So if you remember from my previous post Hooker
isn't always the nicest horse (certainly not the nicest one we have). So it goes to figure when I go to Disney for 3 days at some point she cuts her leg. I didn't hardly notice it at first, as her knee's and hocks are almost black. But after looking closer I noticed it was cut...ok not too bad....then I cleaned it out...and found it was pretty deep. Of course, because she HATES the hose! Which is awesome because it gets hydro'd at least once a day, which is fun. She usually starts by running in circles around me and trying to run away from the hose (though she is getting better) once she realizes it isn't going to eat her she stands still, as long as she can eat. Then as long as she eats she stands there while I wrap it...not the easiest as it's right on her knee so I did a version of a standing wrap which at the top holds the actual gauze in place. Also no stall so that doesn't help it stay on, I could put her in the round pen in the barn but she would probably go ape not being able to see the other horses and screw herself up more!

The key to treating a wounded Hooker is food. I am quite sure I could cut her leg off and if she was eating she would be fine. This also works well when I have to give her the banamine shot, she has to wait at the gate while I give it (and she is VERY good) once I am done she gets to go eat!

While Hooker may not be my *favorite* horse she certainly has shown she has some good traits. If Neeko (the TB) had sliced his knee as bad he would have thought he was dying and would hobbling around on 3 legs. Hooker, she doesn't seem to care at all!

9/11...from a pilot's wife perspective...

To fly west, my friend, is a flight we all must take for a final check
Author unknown

So I realize this is a little late but we were out of town read: not near my computer. As the wife of a commercial airline pilot maybe I have a different view on this than others. But let me go back a little.

At the time 9/11 happened I was a senior in college, didn't know John, didn't know much about aviation. At the time it was tragic but truly didn't effect me much.

Interesting how something at the time didn't effect me but does now 10 years later.

I truly don't have a problem with John flying on 9/11 I figure the odds of anything happening again on that day are pretty slim, after all the news media won't leave it alone. Not (in any way to say) that we shouldn't ALWAYS remember but I really wonder if the "right way" to remember is to stare drooling at the tv all day watching the same footage over and over again. I don't think it's constructive as a country or for individuals. I believe (right or wrong) there should be 1 maybe 2 well done documentaries (let the history channel do them) on 9/11, much like there are on Pearl Harbor and D-Day. The news media beating it into the ground I don't believe does anyone, any good.

I have learned that the aviation industry is a small, small, world. I have since met a good friend who is a FA for AA, who knew some of the crew members who died. Which is why when I was catching up on my reading this article ticked me off. I have been reading all the newspapers and magazines that piled up while we were gone and in the Christian Science Monitor there is an article about a woman who's husband died on one of the AA flights. She had/has 5 kids (two she adopted after 9/11) she turned down 2 million from a 9/11 fund, and instead sued AA for untold (but more than 2 million) amounts of money. And in reading the article she still (apparently) gets upset when AA is mentioned. Having never lost a spouse in a tragedy like this I am unsure what I would do. However (as a pilot's wife) this made me livid. She wasn't the only one who lost her husband that day, what about the wives/families of the guys (and crews) flying the planes? Really she is going/went after AA? Under what grounds besides it was their plane? The FAA has specific training in case of terrorism on airplanes and what protocall pilots are supposed to follow. They followed those FAA rules, they have since been changed because of 9/11 much like everything else to do with aviation. How were the pilots to know this would be different from the hijackings in the 70's and 80's? More over (again) how is this AA fault? I am sorry and this may be horrible and mean but if I was married to one of the guys flying that plane, I would go to this lady's house and burn it down; well maybe not literally but you get the point. I take it (even though it wasn't my husband flying) as more of an insult to the pilot's (and crews) that they "didn't do their jobs." Maybe I'm just hypersensitive about it being married to a pilot, but it annoys the crap out of me that she turned down 2 million (which would have been more than enough to live on comfortable) just to sue AA to get MORE money.

As I mentioned earlier I don't have a problem with John flying on 9/11 it doesn't bother me anymore than him flying to Mexico! Actually it probably bothers me less, Mexico has some sketchy ATC, and of course everyone being killed. As a side note when John still worked at XJT they sent out an email saying that in order to not be robbed (in Mexico) they should wear black plastic watches....awesome!

Back to 9/11 I really hope no one was offended by anything I said, and in no way am I saying it shouldn't be remembered, it truly was a tragedy. I am saying however that maybe we (as a country, and individuals) didn't learn much from it. Maybe ask the Russians how well it worked for them when they invaded Afghanistan? They were really trying too, not saying our military isn't doing a superb job because they are (and my hats off to military families/spouses they are incredible people!). However, when the Russians went in they just tried to kill anything that moved, we do try to avoid killing innocent people, but how can we be successful if they weren't?

A country without a memory is a country of madmen.
George Santayana

History teaches everything including the future.
Lamartine

If history repeats itself, and the unexpected always happens, how incapable must Man be of learning from experience.
George Bernard Shaw

Older than I thought I was......

This is my favorite picture of the fireworks at Disney.

So we had a great time visiting Disney and City Walk! John's friend Steve joined us for some of the trip and it was a blast! I had heard that hanging out with younger people is supposed to make you "stay young" well it really just made me feel old! Allow me to recap.....

So John is 6 yearsish older than me and his buddy Steve is 7 yearsish younger than me...I know this sounds like one of those awful story problems from math in 6th grade but I will give you the answer. This means that Steve is 13 years (ish) younger than John. He's one of John's buddies from XJT and really is a blast to hang out with, however a few times I realized I had gotten old when I wasn't looking.....

We all meet up at the airport in MCO, Steve got there first, then me, then John. So Steve and I go to get the rental car while we wait for John's flight....when I realized I had become my parents....I am trolling around the rental car looking for anything wrong (scratch, ding whatever) because no way in hel* I want to have to pay because somebody else hit something...Steve's looking at me like I'm crazy...and I realized...this is what my parents would do, I used to hop in the rental car and not care! Strike 1 for being old.....

So that night we go to City Walk at Universal, hang out at Margaritaville, a cigar bar, then onto the clubs. Which I was super excited about...the last few times I've been in LAS I've wanted to go into a club or two but just haven't made it. We go inside grab a beer, and they are playing something like Michael Jacksons "Billie Jean" but it's not...though the tv screens are showing the video the music was entirely....for lack of better word....BAD....and loud. This, this was the defining moment when I knew I had crossed over to OLD. So we hung around with Steve for a while and once he met a girl (who was super nice) I couldn't run out the door fast enough...you guessed it....back to Margaritaville. Strike 2

The next morning John and I get up up about 9:30ish..Steve is still passed out cold. John, walk to McDonald's get a 2 cheeseburger meal and split it...it's cheaper, I am clinging to the fact this is because he is on first year pay, and not another sign of being old!

Manage to check out and make our way to Disney World. Have a great day at the park courtesy of the girl Steve had met the nigt before who turned out to be super fun to hang out with! We decide when we get back to go swimming. But first Steve is starving, so we find vending machines, Disney is not Vegas at 1am nothing is open! As we are wandering around I am thinking....if I eat this late I feel like crap in the morning...Pretty sure this is another bad sign of being old...Strike 3.

We head to the pool, Steve happily toting his iPad. He insists the sounds coming out of it are Top 40......and I wonder who's Top 40? Certainly not mine; it sounds like the crap from the club the other night...I am absolutely sure this makes me horrifically dinosaur age now. Strike 4.

So overall it was a blast (we love you Steve!) But it got me thinking about age. I'm not "old" by any means...I reserve that for my parents :) But I am certainly not as young as I thought I was either...

Magic Mouse Land....

Of course I mean Disney!! So we are about to leave for Disney World. John is leaving from LAS and I am leaving from ABQ. As for my part it's pretty easy (relatively) take the dogs to the kennel, set the cats up for the few days we are gone, stuff like that, we already arranged for one of our good friends to watch the horses. The biggest plus I have going for me is I have a SEAT!! Now this may sound strange to some of you... of course you would have a seat if your flying there.....not so true when you non-rev. Which is why I try my hardest NEVER to non-rev, especially to Orlando. The Magic Mouse Land Planes are ALWAYS full and have hordes of non-revs waiting in the wings, this time I used points to get there!

John however is not fairing quite as well, though he does have the added bonus of being able to jumpseat. However I doubt even that will save him! The flight he is trying to get on is already oversold, and has 23 non-revs listed! As a side note, Johns new company has a base there and we were tossing around the idea of him trading down there and going for the winter, but the non-rev/flt loads are enough to assure us this isn't the best place to commute to and from!

The flight loads for John instill instant fear in my heart, (well this time it doesn't b/c I have a seat:). But I am not a good non-rever, I hate the fact that your always the last one on the plane, every one's glaring at you (it's not my fault I wasn't *that* person running up at the last second), only middle seats left, and there's no where to put your bag and as a non-rev I NEVER check a bag (ok did it once but that was on the way home), who knows if you'll actually get where you want to go......I just don't have the personality for it, I like to know if I'll get on, and where I'll sit.

John however (god bless him) is fantastic at this, probably a good thing he does it all the time. And he doesn't understand at all my panic about non-reving. I contend bars in airports are for non-revs!

Anyways back to Disney! We won't be there for very long. We are staying at the Port Orleans Resort which I am super excited about, as I have NEVER stayed on property before! We are only going to the park for 1 day the other 2 we are just going to hang out and do some much needed relaxing! We also plan on hitting up Disney's Boardwalk which has (my favorite thing) a dueling piano bar!!!

The first night we are there one of our good friends is going to fly down and meet us, and we are going to City Walk at Universal. If you remember how much I like the Hemisphere Dancer
we are all going to go and pay homage to her lets face it John and his buddy are pilots, and it is a plane! We scored a hotel within walking distance, so we will probably have a few Margarita's, since of course we'll be at Margaritaville!

Missing My Pilot.

So I am not normally a boo-hoo I miss my pilot type of person. For those of you who know me I'm not a sappy type of person at all! My personality really fits in well with the pilot wife lifestyle, I am pretty independent and don't mind doing things on my own. This is a good thing because I figure this year John will only be home for approximately 1/3 of the year. My math goes something like this:

30 days in a month - 10 days John is off = 20 days he isn't home!

Now hopefully this will get better over time, but really I don't mind. I'm not being heartless when I say I don't normally miss him. I do miss him. But it's kind of in a way like "Crap I missed my favorite tv show, oh well I'll see it next week." Now for those of you who's husbands aren't pilots this may sound mean, but with him gone so much it's just a fact of life for us.

This week I miss John a little more than normal, mostly because I was sick most the time he was home. He was home for *longer* (longer being a relative term by about 7 hours) than normal. However, since I felt like crap and didn't move off the couch most the time, combined with going to bed at 10pm, the time seemed to fly by and I feel like I barely saw him at all! So I'll end with a quote from one of my favorite authors Richard Bach. Some of his stuff is a little out there, and some a little technical, overall though I like him, and he flies airplanes!

Can miles truly separate you from friends.....If you want to be with someone you love, aren't you already there?
-Richard Bach

Good food for you, and good for the wallet!

Pierogi's 1lb $2.99, blackcurrant jam $3.99, Ground Cinnamon 7 for $3.89, Kagor Wine $8.99
Smoke Riga Sprats $1.99 and Mackerel Fillets in oil 2 for $1.99

So I am not the type of person who really cares what I eat. Pez for breakfast? Sure why not...also adding to my long list of breakfast items; pop rocks, oreo's, cold pizza, the list goes on and on. Clearly I am not the type of person who shops (often) at say, Trader Joe's or Wholefoods. Also let's face it I'm a pilot's wife and those places are pretty pricey, and in case you hadn't heard they sometimes make less than window washers

However I have become a HUGE fan of ethnic grocery stores (by ethnic I don't mean Hispanic~sorry, don't like the food to start with, and prices aren't that great). What I do mean however is Russian, Polish, and Ukrainian stores. Arabic stores are also a great deal, if you can find them, and like Middle Eastern food. These stores are undiscovered gems in my opinion. I first discovered one when we were living in Houston, there is a pretty good sized Russian store on the south side somewhere. The first time I went in I was like a kid in a candy store! Why yes, I would like a monster bottle of blackcurrent for $3.99, there is also the best chicken seasoning in the world (which I didn't put in the pic) that is great for throwing in the crock pot! And John would be very sad if I didn't mention this, they usually have Turkish coffee, and of course it's cheap...$4.99 a bag, I can't find it for that price anywhere else, even on Amazon!!

If you are one of those people who isn't comfortable in foreign countries where you can't understand/read anything these stores are really not for you. They tend to be pretty crowded, everything and usually everyone is speaking in a different language, but if you can get past that they are phenomenal stores.

Also as an added bonus to being mostly (super) cheap the food is actually better for you than your average chain grocery store Kroger/Smiths/Jewel etc. Take for instance those pierogi's there are 6 ingredients in them, and I can pronounce/know all of them. This HAS to be healthier for you than the ones you snag out of the freezer at Walmart with 20 different things I can't pronounce, not to mention the price, $2.99 for a 1lb bag!! Hard to see but one of the tins on the counter is Mackerel Fillets in Oil. First off John loves this stuff and it travels exceedingly well, second it was 2 for $1.99 and third, there are 3 ingredients in it again all things I can pronounce.

Now as for the wine/beer/liquor they sell. First off let me say I am not a California wine person, sure they make a few good ones, but a blind squirrel finds a nut once and a while right? I also am not a red fan, but I have yet to get a bad one at these stores. It's hard to describe the taste, it's just so very different, same with the beer, it has a VERY different taste. And for those die hard alcoholics it has WAY more alcohol per bottle than the stuff made here, the bottle in the picture is %16.

Now my favorite store is a Polish store in Chicago (go figure right?). The trickiest part of any of these stores is usually the deli (aside from actually finding the store itself). We got exceptionally lucky in Houston and the guy was very nice and liked the fact that I at least knew how to say "please" and "thank you" in Russian, so he gave us a crash course on the types of sausages and cheese's most store's like this carry. If you haven't had this benefit, it's more like blindly shooting at the squirrel I mentioned earlier :). Basically you get to the deli and point, you can try and butcher whatever word is in front of what you want, but your better off pointing unless it's going horrible wrong, then hope you like what you get. Same with the liquor selection at the store in Chicago, it's all BEHIND the cash registers, so you have NO way of knowing much of anything. I try (unless I am looking for something in particular) to look at see which one has the fewest bottles, I like to think this means that it's popular=good, not just out of stock.

All in all I would highly recommend you find a store like this and check it out of course unless you live in ABQ because there are none. Also please don't think the people are being rude because they aren't talking to you, chances are they don't know English that well, and a smile and nod will go along way!