Gorgeous

This morning, discovered a gorgeous girl works at the FBO we're flying out of. So I told her she's gorgeous. So she told me she has a boyfriend.

Well, not like I was expecting anything, I'm only here a couple weeks anyways, I just felt like telling her so.

Portland

Moved to portland today. Was supposed to move yesterday, but the plane had a hydraulic blow-out or something. At least it hardly effected the radar so I could work on other stuff in the quiet hotel.

So happy to be in Portland! I'm not even sure why, but just being here makes me happier. Just a general feeling, immediately upon arriving before I'd even seen anything. I think it's because there's so much more greenery. Also, closer to the pacific. And it's a larger city. And although I haven't interacted with people much here, I bet there are more SE asians, and less people with southern US accents, which will definitely feel better.

Of course, I have been to portland once before, just over 4 years ago, so there are some other memories/emotions.

I switched to the morning flight. Used to leave about 6:30 pm, get back around 1:30 am. Now, will leave here at 4:30 am, back around 11:30 am. Think this may suit me a bit better. At least I will get some views... on the way here got some awesome mountain views. At the end of the week I'll probably switch back to evenings.

Went for a little drive. Must have taken a wrong turn, I was heading out into the middle of nowhere (industrial land) on a highway with no other cars. Could have been fun exploring and getting lost if a friend had been here, but alas. Headed back to civilization. In some "supercentre" shopping area, there were a few carnival rides so I thought I'd take a look. Went into one building, turned out it was a haunted house type of thing. But before I got in, I got called over by a security guy sitting there. Honestly, he was so incredibly obese, I didn't realise it was a real person, thought it was part of the 'show'. Sooo bad.

I also got happier arriving at this hotel, it's much nicer than the last. It's a "residence inn" so it's like a res room, got a little kitchenette and the bedroom's separate from the living room, and it's only a couple years old so it's very nice. I was out shopping for a few groceries since I can make some food here. Someone asked if I was finding everything okay, without thinking I said I was just looking for a 2L of milk. She looked soo confused! Eventually said "umm, there's gallon jugs over here" and I remembered I'm in the states. But it was funny, it was like she'd never heard of litres before!

Other intermap thoughts

Looking at the city lights from above at night is pretty nice actually. Too bad I can't get a good picture as it requires long exposure and the pilots won't stop the plane for me. But flying near Denver, I kindof wish I could see it during the day. Back on internship this area was the main chunk of data we were playing with, and it's appeared on lots of brochures and backgrounds since then. Would be neat to see it in person. Jayanti and I used to joke about checking it out someday since we'd spent so much time with it on the computer.

That brings up another interesting thought... During internship, Jayanti and I both were pretty bored and didn't really like it a whole lot. Who'd have thought that it'd end up having such a huge impact on our lives?! Jayanti ended up doing masters in radar related stuff, worked a little back at intermap, then off to Germany for a PhD in radar stuff. Meanwhile I've ended up working Intermap though in a pretty different role. Without that internship which we didn't think that highly of, both our lives would have gone in completely different directions.

Day trips

One day didn't have much to do, ended up another really lousy day. Went to Royal Gorge. It was pretty impressive, apparently the deepest gorge in the world. Can't capture the feeling with photos. Though taking the gondola or bridge across it didn't feel like I was crazy high up. But spitting over the edge took over 15 seconds before losing visual. I wanted to throw a paper plane off, but of course that would be littering, and everyone would be doing it turning the place into a dump. So, I need to invent a completely environmentally friendly paper plane and sell it there. Anyways, the bad part... on the way back, got pulled over by an undercover highway patrolman. My first speeding ticket ever! I was going 76 in a 65 zone apparently. That was one reason to pull me over. The second is that I was cruising along in the left hand lane, and apparently that's illegal, can only enter that lane to pass someone. He was not happy that I didn't have my passport handy, apparently you're supposed to have that on you at all times in the US. He took my license and the rental car registration and was on the radio a long time before coming back and telling me Alberta says I don't have a license there. Also wanted to see my car rental agreement, but I didn't have it. Thought I stole the car or something. Said contacting the rental company wouldn't work cause they don't track things based on the license plate or registration. I told him they usually check the key tag, and gave that to him. Well I guess this time he was able to find out I didn't steal it, and he accepted that I was who I said I was. Apparently he was being thorough because I was "on my way back from the #1 likely terrorist target in southern colorado" or something. Anyways, was a stressful experience and put me in an unhappy mood. At least $77 isn't too terrible a fine. Because of the delay, I got back a little later than planned, early enough to quickly grab food before going to fly, but too late to go to dinner with Paul for the last time before he headed back to Calgary. I dunno, after hanging out with someone continuously for 3 weeks, a little sad to see him go, especially since I got along well with him but not really as much with the other people (and people have diferrent schedules so you're not going out together). Of course it was super late by the time I got back, and then I stayed asleep till 9:30 for once and he was gone. Oh well. I also wanted to send some stuff back to calgary with him. I packed more than I needed for this trip, and got more stuff from intermap along the way, it's really tight to try to shove it all in my suitcase and backpack. I'll know better for future trips.

Yesterday I was to have no evening flight, so I took the opportunity to get out of town again. Was late leaving cause I waited for someone who ended up not coming. Wanted to go up pikes peak (wanted to do this (in our rental hyundai, unlikely) (skip the first minute of the video... minute 3 is good)), but they close the entrance road at 3 pm... guess they want to make sure noones up there at night. But I did find a really cute town called Manitou Springs. It was like a quainter, olde-fashioned version of Banff. And was embedded essentialy in a gorge, everything off the main strip was 30 degree incline roads (felt like more). Was quite nice to walk around a bit, but pretty cold that evening. Also went into Colorado springs for a drive around, it seemed really nice, though I was probably driving through the rich neighbourhood. The college seemed nice too, old buildings with large trees and green spaces. Reminded me of the place in FF8 a bit actually. Though I guess the people wouldn't have been as cool/cute. I'd love to be part of a place like that... or at least my ideal vision of a place like that. So I just hung around there a while till it was dark and I was still quite tired and had to head home to Pueblo.

Pueblo

Fri Oct 19 relocated to Pueblo CO. Went with the plane, though it would have been a cool drive through the mountains. And actually there was enough stuff piled up in the jet, any other pilot would have said screw it and had us drive, but this guy's old school and packed us tight in there.

In pueblo, even though it was the end of the long days, I wasn't happy. Partly cause of the change in location, partly cause of the new people. Started having doubts about how I'd get along with them. First evening, the main topics of conversation were getting totally drunk, and whores in indonesia. One guy has "I dunno, about seven" fatherless children scattered around the country/world. What an asshole. If you wanna go screw around, fine, but fathering children everywhere is beyond my tolerance.

Anyways, the other stories weren't too bad at the time, but in the morning I felt really ill about them. I had a miss-saigon-esque dream. It was an american military kind of environment, and there was a big brothel. Japanese prostitues actually. And I cared a lot about one in particular. Wanted to 'rescue' her out of that kind of life. Meanwhile, another guy really wanted to use her as a prostitue, in an angry sort of way. Hard to describe. I don't remember a clear flow like in other dreams. I remember certain images in my mind, like rushing through the stairwell searching different floors/rooms for her. I remember asking the #2 prostitute if she'd seen her. Some other stuff was odd, like I was locked up awaiting a military trial of some kind. Some battling between troops (of various countries), I escaped, search for her, and for a couple precious objects (don't remember what, maybe a hair ribbon or something). Later, I'm the only one around, place is kindof a wasteland. But then I discovered a few people making a home of a wreckaged aircraft, including my family, and was happy to see them.

Like I said, was feeling pretty bad about things after waking up. Think I was worn out from too many long work days. But things got better again. The one guy I still don't think I'll like, but most other people are good, especially most of the pilots.

Still had some regular work to do during the days to wrap up the maintenance, and address other minor issues. Was also to go on flights as a radar operator (RO). But the first couple nights the weather was really turbulent so all flights were cancelled and I didn't have to go. It was crazy windy one night, could hear it through the closed windows, and look outside to see most of the deck chairs blown into the swimming pool.

Finally the weather was good and we flew again. Paul came to "train" me on the first one, but really there's not much to know. It's pretty simple. In the beginning it's kindof neat, but it gets boring pretty quick. I ended up with the 8pm-1am shift. The best shift is the 8am-1pm, the worst is the 2am-7am. I would've taken the best one, but there was some pilot training going on in that shift so not enough seats for paul to train me also.

So I'm back to returning to the hotel after 1am. But at least I can sleep in. Theoretically. A couple days I was able to relax during the day, but other days when there's been a problem it's been busy agian. Went to bed about 2:30am, got up by 9:00, worked on the problem all day and then go on my evening flight. It's like having two full-time jobs. But at least the flying job is slack. If you hadn't guessed, I'm writing most of these long blog posts while at work. Not like there's much other stuff to do up here.

Grand Junction

Now I don't have as big a workload, I've decided to update this blog. Not like I think it matters, but I feel like it anyways.

Well, as mentioned before, I was having some crazy hours. The 8-9AM leave hotel, 12-1AM return to hotel followed by analysis and reporting, continued for 19 days straight, except for canadian thanksgiving where I took it easy (only about 6-8 hrs work). Got pretty used to it, and as I mentioned it wasn't so bad; if I was in the office doing those kind of hours it would totally suck. But out in the hangar it's not so bad, and in the evenings and on weekends when there's hardly anyone around it's kindof relaxing (as long as work is going smoothly of course).

So with those hours, I didn't really do much other than work-eat-sleep, so not many stories. But a few little things.

On the thanksgiving, I drove out to Colorado national monument. A nice drive through interesting rocky scenery, big canyons and rock formations. Would have been fun to hike around more. As it was, I was stopping at most of the lookouts and jumping out of the car and running along the paths like a little kid... partially cause I'd had no physical activity for a week, partially cause I was in a hurry to be back before Paul returned from Calgary. But it was fun. Went along some slightly longer paths too. I think in the evening of that same day, since there wasn't much to do, we cruised around town, saw a soccer game and stopped for it, even though Paul hates soccer. It was a high school game, and ended the moment we showed up. But it would have been fun to hang around. I like the big green field and bright stadium lights.

Other stories... was in the bar/restaurant one night and there was a flames-colorado game on, that would have been funny, us cheering for the flames and the locals cheering for colorado. But of course the locals don't care. One of the aircraft mechanics happened to be there so he cheered colorado just to tease us. It was 3-0 for flames when we entered, 4-0 by the time we sat down, but flames still managed to lose. First three colorado goals were reflections off skates... I don't care much about hockey, but that was just sad to watch.

Between the hotel and the airport there was Fuji "oriental therapy" massage... We were joking, wondering if our company health plan would cover that. I think it's only "licensed massage therapists". This place seemed to always be open, even when we'd be going home after midnight. Actually, one time it was closed around 1:30 am.

Speed limits... It wasn't like I was unaware of their existance, or like I chose to ignore them... It was more like because they were in mph, it was like they were in another language and I had no idea what they meant. Could have been some Thai squiggles for all it meant.

Had one lousy day. When you're reminded that you're pretty unqualified for the job you're doing. Had to cut the power to a set of inverters, and run a wire from a different pin in the plug. First, I cut a 4 to 1 solder. Discovered the one I cut was ground not power. Had to put in a new wire to the ground pin and resolder it all. Next, I cut the AC out instead of the DC in. Some pins were backwards from what I expected. So I had to fix that as well. Finally, I cut the right wire and soldered it to a wire to the right pin. But it made a 20 minute job into a multi-hour job, and felt kindof crappy.

A little extra

Before it sounds too bad... The long hours actually aren't that bad. If I was in the office at that time, it would totally suck and I'd hate it, but here in the hangar it's not actually that bad, I guess cause it feels more like I'm doing stuff. Anyways, it's not always going to be like this, this isn't the daily norm, this is the aircraft maintenance cycle where we try to get done everything that hasn't got done in the past several months. Also, some hangars aren't open 24 hrs so you simply can't do as much (but the one where 90% of the work is done is always open). Though I would like some more time to look around, or half a day to check out things like the mesa (looks awesome from here) or colorado national monument, or get some exercise. Just don't want it to sound like the job sucks already.

Day 3

This time stopped work for dinner at an early 8:30 pm. That way, we could go back after and work till 12:30am. I think I'll go to bed now.

Day 2

Neat working in/around planes eg. was under the plane when landing gear was going up and down. Interiors of planes are crappy when everything's ripped out for maintenance. Lots of bending over and kneeling when under plane and cramped interior, gets tiring. Lots of screwdriver and wrench work. Did a bunch of soldering. Plenty of new experiences. Stopped work for dinner after 10pm.

First day on the road

Woke up at 3:30. Left condo 4:30. Waited at airport a long time for someone to come to check-in counter. Long line up for security clearance. No problem getting Visa though. Not very interesting flights. Not much to do in airport during salt lake city stopover. Arrived grand junction 2:30. Went to hotel, checked in, relaxed till 3:30. Really nice hotel! Went to hangars, met people, looked at planes, was pretty neat. Went for dinner 5:00-6:30? Back to hotel, work on stuff till 10 pm. So I guess it'll be nice facilities but little time to relax or enjoy them.