WHAT COULD BE BETTER THAN A SNOW DAY!

Yesterday was a snow day here on the East Coast. The temperature began to plummet during the early morning hours and just after sunrise the snow began to fall. Only a few fluffy flakes at first sparsely coating the tree branches. Hardcore joggers were out barely clothed for the temperature, newspapers were being delivered from a van slipping and sliding up the street and I was bundling up to go out and shovel my sidewalk before the children began to arrive
at the school adjacent to our house. It was 7:00 in the morning. By 8:00 the day was in full blast as was the predicted blizzard dropping the most thickly packed snow flakes I had ever seen.  I had shoveled and salted our sidewalk four times within the hour.

I was in Snow Day Heaven!

Even though I've been retired for 15 years now I still completely appreciate days like these when I don't have to worry  that I might get that dreaded phone call from Crew Scheduling asking/telling me to rearrange my life to help fix the flight cancellations going on around the nation due to weather. When the weather is acting up a pilot, no matter how senior, no matter prior plans, is on standby status. A pilot's life is not their own and that actually should be OK because it is what we signed up for the day we were hired into our dream job. In reality however you hope that phone never rings - but go figure, it always does -
 "Captain how long will it take you to get to JFK? We need you to ferry a plane to wherever!"

A snowcovered airplane parked at the gate
Photo downloaded from the internet

Christmas, New Years, Easter, hurricanes, kids birthdays, champion lacrosse games - no exceptions! If Crew Schedule needs you, you go.

A Boeing 767 being shoveled out and de-iced
Photo downloaded from the internet

I must say once you drag yourself to the airport you shift into high gear, it's exhilarating - a team of people, your colleagues - the crew, the dispatchers, crew scheduling, the mechanics, the ticket agents, the cabin cleaners - are all working together to put the puzzle back together and begin the process of getting your airline back to normal and flying again.
After all the complaining the reality is you live for these moments. A life separate from your family life but a really good life all the same.

I love this photo - only the props are visible above the snow

Photo downloaded from the internet

For me it is all about my family now and that is certainly why yesterday was a such a  great day! 

After shoveling and salting for the eight time I met my son Tony for lunch :o)

Welcome to the New Year!

I hope the remaining 345 days in 2014 will be happy, healthy, safe and jolly. 

So far my New Year has be terrific. Not for any big, particular reason other than my           husband and I went to our place on the East Coast of South Florida for a week. 

For me Florida is a magical place. It is another planet - worlds away from the hustle bustle of New York City - but  definitely an energy all its own energy.

We woke each morning before sunrise and went down to the seawall with a freshly brewed cup of coffee and sat where the beach meets the ocean.   


The anticipation of the sun peeking up over the horizon starts minutes before it actually makes its debut but the sky begins to give pastel glues long before the suns arrival. 

The dark sky begins to lighten and the stars fade away opening up the horizon to an incredibly pale blue - almost white - sky. The stratus clouds turn light pink and then transition into orange. 
The mini-size cumluous clouds have deep gray bottoms and shimmering white tops - sometimes lined with a few golden sunbeams highlighting their shapes. 
You understand that the day is not quite ready to begin - not yet. The air is still regardless if the sea is silky smooth or angry. It's peaceful all the same - just waiting, anticipating something wonderful.
When daytime finally arrives the sky turns its predictable shades of blue, the clouds a variety of white and gray and the ocean turns from charcoal to a number of different hues of green and blue. 

Good Morning to the New Day!

Personal moments with nature like these describes my life as a pilot. I often said the part of flying I will miss the most are the skyscapes - and I do. They can be unpredictable at times but skyscapes are always fascinatingly beautiful. Looking out from 33,000 feet the sunrises, sunsets and moonrises are like skyscapes on steroids - a kaleidoscope of colors wrapped 270 degrees around the plane.

While I was still flying I often wished I could have asked each and every passenger to come up to the cockpit and see what what I was experiencing - 

 The view of a lifetime!