It didn't have happen be this way.

If you've read my blog "purpose", you know I write about my life as "glass half full", and my concern with that is that my readers don't mistake me to have a charmed and perfect life. Only Jesus is perfect so I'm pretty sure my life,...isn't. But my vision for my blog was to help myself and others to see life from a "glass half full" perspective, so I do write from that slant. Does it come across as "all rainbows and kittens"? Perhaps. Well, today I'm going do a very rare thing and let it rain cats and dogs in The Midst of This Season. Indulge me just this once. ;) (I promise to lighten it with a few tidbits that might make you laugh too). Okay, here goes...

When a congressman can move you to tears with the words, "It didn't have to happen this way," you know you're going through some "stuff." I'm sure you've all heard the news by now concerning American Airlines (AA) grounding umpteen thousand flights this past week. For those who don't know, dh is employed by AA. It all started on Tuesday. Ironically, dh has Sunday-Monday off and had particularly nice days off this past week. The calm before the storm. How I wish he had been spared two days of this nightmare by virtue of where his days off fell, but alas, 'twas not meant to be.

So for four days now, he (and every other customer service agent at American) has been literally (L.I.T.E.R.A.L.L.Y.) working his tail off, handling endless (literally endless) lines of very (and I mean V.E.R.Y.) unhappy travelers. And we do not blame them for being soooo unhappy. Oh no we do not. American has grounded the flights while it inspects its fleet of MD-80 airplanes to make sure the wiring in the wheel wells is properly protected from chafing. Other carriers were subject to FAA inspections for this issue as well, but unfortunately American has more MD-80's in its fleet and, well, that means about 300 airplanes grounded. SO not good for an already cash strapped airline.

"This massive grounding could have happened in phases," said the congressman (I won't get into who is to blame here, but I will say that two entities are at fault, imho.) It caused me to cry. And I don't cry easy either. I'm a toughie. I'm a "grab the bull by the horns" gal when it comes to walking through valleys (strengthened by the presence of my God and Savior, of course). I cried because this problem was noted back in 2006. And now (now, in the midst of a fuel cost crisis and likely recession) now the FAA inspects airplanes instead of just paperwork and a massive, sudden impact is the result, the financial consequences unthinkable to me. Now please don't mistake that comment to mean a safety disregard on my part. Rather, to borrow the words of a congressman, it didn't have to happen this way (insert major pout and stomped foot here).

I can only imagine what our dear airline friends in the large hubs of Chicago, Dallas, Miami and the like are dealing with. I've worked a in a hub that was closed due to weather. Not pretty. I've worked in a hub that cancelled flights on Black Wednesday (the profoundly busy day before Thanksgiving, ) with no way to reroute passengers. Sooo not pretty. But this. Sigh. Please pray for the passengers and employees who are living out this nightmare, the fallout of which remains to be seen. I'm trying not to dwell on that part, but it's hard and it's what moved me to tears in the midst of feeling very angry. The employees have worked soooo hard, given up so much in the interest of the company and its financial woes, and are working so short handed these days compared with days of the past. And now I sit here and wonder if it won't be families and children that ultimately pay the price for poor corporate and federal handling. Again, I ask you to remember the customers and employees (especially the front line employees) in your prayers at this time. They are all so very exhausted and frustrated.

Okay, so. I promised to take it back to the land of rainbows and kittens. I'll start with the massage dh got during this week's chaos. Yes, the employees were given a professional 20 minute massage. Nice gesture, I'll admit. But the funny thing is, they were all being told to "drink water because toxins have now been released into your system" due to the manipulation of muscle and fat tissue. So they were coming back from the massage ready to take a nap, feeling like they got beat up by back alley Bubba and his posse, or pasty nauseated by the release of toxins. None of these results bode well for overworked employees who had to resume the the ongoing nightmare when they were done (did I mention the mandatory overtime?)

And while I'm telling airline stories, I'll share just a few faves from my own gallery of memories (I worked in the industry for 14 years and 3 airlines).

There was the time we all hopped on the employee bus to head out to the parking lot (airline employees often have to ride a bus, sometimes even an ugly old used school bus, *gasp*, for miles on end just to get into the aiport). Anyway, we all piled into the bus, but the wheels on the bus didn't go 'round and 'round (sorry, I have preschoolers in da house). We waited, and waited and WAITED. After 10 minutes or so (and I can only assume the driver was working the crossword in a stall???) a coworker who shall forever remain nameless (you know who you are!) hijacked the bus.
Yep. He(or she) hopped in the driver's seat and headed out to the parking lot with a bus full of airline employees, parked the bus there and we all headed home. :D

When I got hired at USAir, it was on the ramp (yes, I was a baggage handler for a time). Fresh seafood shipments are common, and unfortunately they have been known to leak (I see a few readers thinking, "So that explains why my garment bag smelled like tuna that one time," but actually the cargo bins have seperate areas for freight and bags.) Anyway, Christmas was nearing and we were outside in near blizzard conditions. Opened the cargo bin and,...Phewwwwww! Eau De Flounder. My friend and I had to crawl in there to unload freight. Yes, crawling through fish juice as we worked. So, it was snowing like all get out and we decided to sing, Joy to the world pretty much at the top of our lungs while we slung boxes, all while smelling like a couple of carp.

And finally, one more. Ironically, this was one of my very first experiences in the airlines. I had just been hired by my first airline and was only on the job about 3 days when it occurred. I was scheduled to work the closing shift, which meant "meeting terminators", airline lingo for parking jetways on the last flights of the night. I didn't know HOW to park one and in fact you can NOT park one until you are checked off by a trainer as there are some very serious safety issues to consider when operating a jetway. Needless to say, I was not checked off on day 3. The guy who was scheduled to work with me was,...how do I say this politely,...a loser (you can't read tone here. I'm smiling. Politely.) Anyway, there was only one terminating flight left, so loser my coworker LEFT ME THERE ALONE, griping, "I have to be back early. Just call a supervisor at American and they'll park the jetway for you." I'll remind you I didn't work for American so it seemed a little odd to me that someone was going to come to my rescue on their dime, but hey, I was new.

I called.

They laughed.

I panicked.

And being 3 days on the job doesn't make for great awareness of where the employee phone numbers are kept, let alone who those people are. So, I scrambled to find the list. In the midst of my mad search and race against time (a common theme in that industry) I got a radio message that nearly paralyzed me. It seems our local station operations got a call from our central operations, advising us we would need to have the police on hand when the flight arrived. Great! Juuust great. I'm 3 days on the job, Loser my coworker left me alone, I'm not jetway qualified, the supervisor at American laughed when I told him I needed him to park the jetway on our inbound flight, I can't find employee phone numbers, the flight would likely be in range soon (meaning due to land), I don't have a clue about reaching the police, dead pirates are coming (little comment that dh and I make during times of stress, lifted from Garfield the Cat) and then there's the reason why we needed the police. Read on.

It seems that all was well during flight up to the point where the one passenger stood up, stripped down right there in the cabin, and refused to put his duds back on. The flight attendants scrambled to deal with him, eventually tossing blankets and pillows over his, um, pieces parts, trying to shield other passengers from the troubling scene. The man never said a word. Wasn't combative. But the flight attendants felt very much threatened by his confident silence. And he was not interested in their desperate attempt to cover him up generous offer of blankets either, what with tossing them off on the floor as quick as they could say, "My, it's cold in here."

To make a long story even longer To wrap it up, all was well that ended well. I did find the employee phone numbers just seconds after the request for police presence. And after cold calling several coworkers at 11pm at night (most whom hadn't even met me yet), I did find a willing soul who lived a few minutes away, who was willing to head right over. And given the distance from the parking lot into the airport, I'm thinking he might have found an unattended employee bus just there for the taking? I'm just sayin'. ;)

Toni