What a Day!

Time:  2327

Date:  06/06/2016

Place:  Somewhere in the Mediterranean

Since Maria is snoring and I can’t sleep yet, this is just to clear my mind.  We talked about it for years but Maria and I finally get to cruise the Med.  The dream was just the two of us.  Oh well, we will make do with the other 18 friends and family.  Our first day aboard ship was a day at sea and today we went to Rome.  What a day it was! 

After going ashore and taking pictures, we took a bus to a bus stop where we took another bus to the train station.  I still don’t get why we couldn’t just take one bus.  It is about an hour train ride to Rome.  Wes went off someplace by himself on the train and napped.  Melissa sat across from me and napped.  We arrived at the main station and took a line to the Coliseum.  The Coliseum was right across the street from the station.  It is just huge.  It is much more than I expected.  As soon as we crossed the street, people started asking us if we wanted tours. 

Maria got in line for a Coliseum tour.  A guy came up and offered me a good deal.  I told him I had to find my wife.  Once I did and told her the price, Maria told me to ask if he could do better.  He couldn’t.  Maria spoke to a guy from Colombia and she took the deal he was offering.  The tour would be in in Spanish.  I know she was thinking of Miriam and family since they didn’t speak English.  Maria said she would translate for those of us who didn’t speak Spanish.  She didn’t. 

This tour kept stalling and more people joined.  Then I realized that must have been part of the plan for them to make money.  Have a bunch of people with one tour guide to minimize their expense and maximize their income.  I didn’t mind too much but not everyone in our group speaks Spanish and I had trouble understanding them.  We eventually split from this group after about an hour and went to The Forum on our own.  Since Brittany and Wesley took 4 years of Latin, they know a lot of Roman history and were able to give us some good facts.  The Forum very much impressed me.  This place must have been amazing to see in all its glory. 

After going through The Forum, we walked back to the Coliseum.  Our tickets didn’t require us to wait in the long line.  The guy who sold us the tour was sitting near the entrance and Maria spoke with him about our tour experience.  He apologized and took us to the shortest line into the Coliseum.  It was nice to be in the shade for a while.  The Coliseum is an amazing place.  I tried to fathom all the people that had been there.  It is mind boggling.  What history!

Lauren wanted to see the Trevi Fountain.  I didn’t care one way or another about going to see a fountain but went with the crowd.  A tour guide from the US was outside when we exited the Coliseum and he showed us on a map how to get there.  It was a mile or so away.  By now it was very hot and the sun was strong.  There was no shade most of the time as we walked.  We went up a side street and split up since Maria, Miriam and family wanted to eat something.  It was nice to be in the shade for a while.  The kids and I continued on up side streets.  Suddenly, there it was! 

The Trevi Fountain awed me.  I am so happy I saw it.  There is a magnitude and beauty I can’t quantify.  It is simply beautiful.  Pictures do not capture what I experienced while there.  I didn’t throw a coin into it for luck like everyone else.  At the time I didn’t think I had any.  Later I remembered I had a bunch in the small pocket on my backpack.  Oh well.  Guess I’ll have to return, won’t I?  

Maria and the others arrived as we started shopping up the street.  I bought three magnets to give away to family back home.  Melissa and Joe bought some things too.  Then we went across the street (it was more like an alley) and bought gelato.  Once everyone else got gelato we started back to the shop where Maria, Miriam and family got something to eat before.  When we got there, someone suggested we connect to Wi-Fi.  Based on the time, I wanted to return to the subway so we could get on the 1:54 train back to the port.  I wanted the extra time to get back.  So began our odyssey. 

First, we got on the right train but went the wrong direction.  (Does that make it the wrong train?)  Still we had a slim chance to catch the 1:54 to Civitavecchia.  We finally got to the train station but couldn’t find the track to Civitavecchia on any of the monitors.  Also, where I thought we needed to go had no access.  This puzzled me since I remember exiting that area when we arrived.  We asked around and got bad directions from some people.  At this point I knew we missed the train but we still needed to find the next one.  We were told to go different places by people who worked at the stations.  It was very confusing and nerve wracking.  

Finally, we got to a section of the station where we were told to go and there were monitors noting the track to use.  There was a lady who spoke some English that took pity on the confused and exasperated Americans.  She explained there had been an accident between Rome and Civitavecchia.  We were to take this train to a stop and get on busses to another place.  Then we would get to the port on yet another train.  When it was time for the train to leave, the lady got on board and so did we.  I had Joe, Brittany, Lauren, and Melissa with me.  We never saw the lady again.  That made us a little nervous.  Did she purposely give us bad advice?  

I know I speak for the kids when I say it was a scary.  We weren’t sure if we would get to the ship on time.  The ship may leave us.  Worst of all, we were split up.  After a few stops on this train we saw Cam and his mother waiting on the platform.  We knew them from the comedy club last night aboard ship.  We went down to speak with them.  They said they were told to wait about 20 minutes for a train that would go directly to the port.  We decided to get off and wait with them.

After 45 minutes, more and more people were showing up and the platform was getting very crowded.  Then police arrived.  I presume to maintain order in case people got rowdy.  Brittany complained of being thirsty.  At this point, I was out of water and I think everyone else was too.  Then the monitor changed and showed the train wasn’t leaving for 2 hours.  Now we knew it would be very close to get to the ship in time.  Brittany decided to go buy water from the shop on the other side of the tracks. 

It wasn’t 2 minutes later and the departure time changed to leaving in 10 minutes.  I got really scared they would miss the train so I quickly ran to get them.  Fortunately, they were close.  They were down the stairs from the platform but hadn’t crossed tracks yet.  That shows how crowded it was.  We did finally leave about 15-20 minutes later.  It was a full train and we were all split up once on board.  I tried to keep all of them in sight since I didn’t want to lose anyone. 

The train breezed through a few stops and I looked at the sites going by, hoping to recognize anything.  I didn’t.  My terrible dread was we weren’t going to Civitavecchia.  For all I knew, we were headed for Milan or Moscow.  At one stop, an oriental family boarded.  The mother sat across from the man next to me.  The kids, who were in their 20s, stood next to me, talking.  I heard part of their conversation and it was in English.  They didn’t speak English when they boarded.  If they weren’t from our ship, I knew they were going to the port.  I asked if they were on the Vista.  They were. 

From what they said, they were also on the train when we got off to wait with Cam and his mom.  They said it was chaos trying to get on busses to the next (this) train.  It was like the Titanic, women and children first.  Of course, people didn’t’ want to split up and it was a disaster.  Fortunately, we all arrived in Civitavecchia.  We never considered waiting for a bus to take us to the bus stop so we could take a bus to the ship.  We followed other people ahead of us and just started walking. 

The walk was further than I expected and we were already tired.  Lauren was walking fast and I pushed to catch up with her.  When I did, we talked about the day and what happened at the end.  When we got closer to the ship, I said to her, “If mom gets to the ship before us, I’m going to be pissed.”  Not that I’d be mad she made it in time.  With all we went through and knowing they left after us, it wouldn’t make me happy.  Guess who was standing on the other side of security when we boarded the ship? 

Dan and Wes were there too.  Then I learned we were split in three different groups.  The boys just missed the train we boarded from the Coliseum.  Did they go the wrong way too?  They were told someone died on the tracks and it was closed pending police investigations.  Meanwhile, Maria, Miriam and her family all went to the Vatican.  They missed most of the headaches we endured.  They took a cab from the port train station to the ship.  They picked up boys on the way but there was no room for us. 

We were the first to return and the last to arrive.  At least we will have a good story to tell the grandkids someday. 

Recent Days

It is hard to believe how things have changed in the last month. February 14th came and we received a record payout for profit sharing. No one seemed to noticed the storm on the horizon. Now, about a week away from April, I wonder if I will have a job beyond April 30th. 

The coronavirus continues to spread and the world have freaked out. When it first was announced things were bad and international flights were being cancelled to/from certain countries; I was working the international fleets at the airline where I work. One day I saw planes busy with flights, the next, they were sitting on the ground more. More and more planes were flying less and less. Some planes were simply parked.  

I started the following week on a domestic fleet and it wasn’t affected by flight reductions. Midweek I was moved back to international. The reduced schedule was noticeable. Some of the 767s with crew rest facilities; they mostly flew to Asia, were doing some domestic flights. Between news items comments from company leadership, every day seemed like things were much worse than I thought and I didn’t think it could get worse. It continually did. 

Last week I worked Airbus 319/320s. This desk can be difficult on any regular day. This week was hell and each day got worse. It culminated on my Friday. We expected to see a lot of canceled flights. Yes, there were some but not as many as we expected. We also had less crew problems than expected. We were told cancellations were coming. It was like waiting for the enemy to attack a position we defended. 

At some point of day the chief pilot on duty, a female that day, was talking to a coworker next to me about a pilot who was supposed to fly one of my flights. The pilot was being a jerk. She had tears as she spoke. I’ve heard this lady speak with pilots in the past and she is always very professional. I’ve never seen her rattled before. I respect her very much. Anyway, she was fighting the tears and I was fighting the urge to get up and hug her. Finally, I got up and stood next to her and said, “Do you want social distancing or could you use a hug?” She leaned her head on my shoulder and said thank you.  

The cancellations finally were dropped on us around 1 PM. There were so many our system crashed. About 30 minutes it was running again. The preferred way to cancel flights is to cancel like this: cancel a flight from point A to B and back. Our cancellations were a hodgepodge. I heard the cancelled flights we the ones that had no pilots. Consequently, there were many planes that were, as we call it, out of balance. I’m not lying or exaggerating when you hear whet I’m about to say. I had one plane in Los Angeles and the next flight was due out of Raleigh, North Carolina. Another was in San Diego and owed out of Boston. We had to cancel many more flights in order to balance planes. Several hours later we were done. 

In order to minimize exposure to the coronavirus, our night shift people work at out backup office. The phone rang and I hoped it was my relief calling from the other office. I literally said, “Please be Jon Davenport. Please be Jon Davenport.”  Thank God it was.  

Since then my sister in law and daughter in law have lost jobs as well as some nieces. Also, I have been exposed to someone who traveled with someone who tested positive for the virus last week. However they last were together 3 weeks ago so we feel things are ok.

Free Fall

I heard the rumors
The fall would come
I heard the wind
Whistle passed my ears

Hushed whispers screamed
The end is near
Over and over bottom hit
But the dive hastened

Plunging further
When will it end?
Always drilling more
Sprouting despair

©️March 2020
DWP

Coronavirus Venting

Talk about falling off a cliff.  It is amazing how everything has been doom and gloom lately.  I continue to be totally surprised and appalled at the level of insanity to which the world has succumbed. 

Industries and world markets are falling in unfathomable ways.  Yes, I am completely shocked.  I spend my work days weaving through cancellations and doing my best to clean up the aftermath.  I do what I can to communicate timely information in this ever shifting landscape. 

In the midst of more bad news from the company CEO and another round of cancellations, Salt Lake City has an earthquake.  It just happens my fleets this week have a lot of exposure there.  At the time of the quake, I have 2 planes on the ground in Salt Lake City and one about to land.  Thankfully, things begin to work out for the better.

I continue to pray for health and safety of those I love.  Just know you are loved.  Let us all band our hearts together since we are told we cannot be physically close. 

May we trust God has plans for us that are for our welfare and not our calamity.  May we realize governments are not our salvation.  People in power tend to increase and hold onto it.  Meanwhile, I pray for our leaders that they will govern with wisdom for the welfare of the whole nation and not for the gain or advantage of a few. 

Thank you for reading.  While you are stuck in isolation, you should read a great book.  Mine!

Coronavirus vs Airline

I work for a major US airline in the operations centers.  With all of the craziness of the coronavirus spreading, travel has dropped off a lot.  Now with governmental travel bans from Europe, more flights are being cancelled. 

The news media fills every moment with stories of the stock market losing money, sporting events being delayed or cancelled, and what you should do to be safe.  In an effort to just share some information; here is what has been happening in my office.

Since the airline doesn’t operate without this office where I work, we have another facility in the event this office somehow becomes unusable.  For instance, last year we worked at the backup site while renovations were done in the primary office. 

Since the virus is mostly spread due to close contact, a major concern is if one of us get it, many of us will shortly thereafter.  The decision was made to split the workforce and have some work in each facility.  However, it was a few days before a plan was finalized.  In this case, day shift employees will work in the primary site and other shifts at the backup site.  Each office is to be fumigated after the shifts are finished.  We have sanitary wipes and hand sanitizer so I’m not too concerned. 

We have to cancel flights.  To date, many routes have been cancelled.  Most of them are international destinations.  Consequently, we have extra wide body planes sitting idle.  Some smaller planes that were slated for retirement later this year are being retired earlier.  This in itself isn’t difficult but then you must consider the flight crews. 

Flight attendants work every fleet type but most pilots cannot.  Therefore, if you retire smaller planes, some of the pilots will not work as much.  Pilots of bigger planes will also have less scheduled work but can get some back if flights are substituted with the bigger planes. I have limited knowledge of crew work rules but there are restrictions that affect what is done and how.

Since bookings are down, airlines need to cut costs.  Therefore, flights, domestic and international, are being cancelled here and there.  Some regularly scheduled heavy maintenance may be delayed.  Cabin modifications might be delayed.   

There is also an issue of the cancellations themselves.  Not every flight goes from point A to point B and back to A again.  In those cases, you would simply cancel the round trip and you are done.  What if you have to cancel that goes from A to B to C to D?  Somehow, you have to get the plane from A to D and that probably means flying the plane there without passengers. 

Probably the biggest issue is what to do with planes that will not fly.  If only one airline is grounding planes, there are still plenty of places to park them.  However, all airlines are cutting back.  Therefore, finding concrete to park them is at a premium. 

I hope this bit of information is enlightening.  Stay safe.

Empath

My ears continually ring

With voices of pain

A torrent of tears

Flooding my soul

With no transfer of title

Their agony becomes mine

And my unheard cries

Harmonize with yours

To pull from your load

Subtracts my burdens

In my mind but

Morning reveals truth

With this heart of empathy

Your trials permeate mine

I recognize what others cannot

Pressing upon me always

Sometimes I shut down

Overwhelmed by need

Indelibly I feel your soul

My life as an empath

© March 2020 DWP

Live to Love

In this vast world, we are made to commune with each other. Whether it is love, joy, beauty, empathy, apathy, anger, or hate, we are connected. For all the technology and wonderful things made to enhance our lives, not one of them will affect you the way another human will.
Let us live to love




#livetolove