New Life
Today is the first day of yet another new life. With the airlines cutting flights across the board, this means that the passengers’ options become very limited, and the airfare for the flights that are left will skyrocket. To the employees, this means less commuting options, a much worse quality of life, and yes, several thousand of us will be furloughed (a nice way of saying “laid off” because a furlough implies that you will actually return one day).
So my new life for the immediate future means that my schedule gets reduced to what is called “Short Call Reserve”. Now I have to go to my base and sit there for five days waiting to see if I get called out to go fly anywhere. I must be able to get to the airport within a two hour call-out. Seeing as I live in California and my base is in Phoenix, this is quite a considerable pain in the butt! (Could be worse, could be commuting to the East Coast!)
I am very fortunate, and have wonderful friends here in Phoenix who have set me up with a room and an old beater airport car I have named “La Bamba” (so much fun to drive it around and get funny looks!) . All this for a fraction of what any other crash pad situation would cost me.
So here I sit in Phoenix, reading and writing just waiting for the call. My new life until the next new life!