April 01, 2007
Defending JetBlue
I have an enormous amount of respect for JetBlue. To borrow from their boilerplate, I think they're an innovator in bringing back humanity to air travel. So, I was a bit annoyed when I read She’s seething on a JetBlue plane: Oh baby, she’ll hate to go again. so I wrote the Columnist an email:Hello, I'm not a regular reader of your column, but instead I got to your JetBlue article because of my interest in airlines.
I'm a bit disturbed that your article seems like a unfair pot shot against JetBlue.
I noted a couple of factual inaccuracies:- The flight you were on was originally planned to be flown by a JetBlue E190, a 100-seat semi-express jet, not an A320 jet as you state. (The E190 falls in between mainline and express jets, and at the moment there isn't quite consensus in the airline community which category it best fits into.)
- Its an unsupported conjecture that the E145 that you were flying on had any less capability to circle than the E190 that the flight plan was created for.
- The decision to divert to Warwick, RI. Planes are fueled with enough fuel to get to their destination, circle for a specific period of time, then fly to their alternate destination. Any more fuel would raise costs for the flying public, and at times it may be impossible to load additional fuel onto a jet. Would you have liked the story to have read that a crashed because it ran out of fuel while circling Logan?
- The decision not to fuel the plane while there were lightning strikes at the airport. As I understand it this is to prevent the plane from acting as a lightening rod while its hooked up to the fueling truck and igniting both the plane and the truck into a fireball. Again, would you have liked the story to have read that while diverted at Warwick, RI a Jetblue Flight operated by ExpressJet was struck by lightening and everyone on board burned to death in a fireball?
- The decision not to disembark passengers in Warwick, RI. Given that JetBlue didn't have facilities in Warwick it would have taken a reasonable amount of time to come to an agreement to use another airline's facilities. This is time spent that must be traded off against efforts to get the flight to the intended destination.
- The pilots decision to follow the FAA's instructions. This is really a matter of safety, to the point that the FAA will revoke a pilot's licence for violating a flight controller's instructions. The pilot is at the mercy of the FAA controller, a controller who is again making decisions about the routing of many flights to ensure safe travel.
You were delayed around three hours and forty-five minutes beyond the planned arrival time at Logan. That isn't great, but given the trade offs that must be made its pretty good.
You're also probably wondering by this point why I care so much? No, I don't work for JetBlue. I've never even worked for an airline. I have done some of my Pilot's licence training.
The real reason I'm writing is that I've worked in logistics and I understand that its really easy to say "just do this" but its a whole lot harder to make it happen. Its unreasonable for anyone to expect everything to happen as planned 100% of the time. Problems do happen, but denigrating an airline in your column disrespects the efforts of those who ensure both your safety, and your travel needs.
Respectfully,
Cliff Barnard
April 03, 2007
Roommates Roast
I found a new roommate situation.
I'm probably jinxing it by writing about it at this point, but I've been looking since 2007 was, and I've gotten pretty discouraged by the choices that I had available to me. I got to the point that I seriously, seriously considered sending my two mexican sewer roasts back to live with one of their aunts or uncles, or perhaps even their grandmother or grandfather, because I kept running into great places that wouldn't accept felines.
I've still got to finish out the paperwork and get accepted, but I don't think that is going to be a huge issue.
My new place? Its right near the Amazon.com building, which I think is really cool. The picture doesn't do this buildings iconic position near the I-90/I-5 interchange justice.
Oh and of course I'm thrilled to get away from Barron. Nothing new on that front, but seriously someone needs to teach her how to clean the fuck up after herself.
Oh, you might've asked what are mexican sewer roasts? hehe, one of my boys smelt a bit like French Roast Coffee, so well, every cat in the house got a "coffee name" Their coffee names along with their sewer rat names are The last two cats are anti-Barron's cats. (i.e. the good roommate's cats) :
| Given Name | Sewer Rat Name | Coffee Name |
|---|---|---|
| Shaun | Mexican Sewer Rat | French Roast |
| George | Mexican Sewer Rat | Breakfast Blend |
| Raven | Eastern European Sewer Rat | Italian Roast |
| Krishna | French Sewer Rat | Casi Cielo |
Ah, now I know I've gone nuts.
April 16, 2007
Being the Impetus
Its been a kind of strange week. (not an actual week though, for those of you who remember taking your SATs: (this definition of week):week::Walt Disney World's definition of a year:year) I told my roommates on April 3rd that I'm moving out on/by May 3.
Its been interesting noticing them both making plans and arrangements to move out by the end of May.
Its empowering to make change. Not that I'm really forcing them to change, but I've made the decision to make change for myself and that has ripples.
I just took a look at the calendar, and a look at what I need to get done and it scares the shit out of me. I'm going to need to be very on top of getting things done when they need to be done. That hasn't been my strong point over the past several months, but the Venlafaxine hydrochloride has been helping me with that.
It feels good to be in control of what I want to do, and being able to do it. As much as I don't quite feel in control or happy with work at times, (I'm working on fixing that.) I do more of an overall sense of control with my life.
Productive Gizmo
I've been with these cats for too long. You know they sleep during the day and are all nice and cute, then they turn into vicious mammal eating creatures during the night with all sorts of energy.. Hey that sounds like a movie!
But seriously, I spend all day doing very little and come 9 pm or so I turned into this productive eager beaver. I got my financial records up to date, I cleaned my car and my room, and the back deck (hunting present), and I packed up three boxes, and put a bunch of work into my class, and I overused the word and.
So its been a productive night, and its time to go to sleep.
April 23, 2007
Clean Fit
I went looking for a pair of pants that I could mop the floor in.. (I've had the unfortunate habit of cleaning in some of my better clothes and subsequently ruining them with bleach marks. What can I say? I'm not a very clean cleaner.)
In doing this I was rummaging through my closet and noted an older pair of cargo pants that I hadn't worn in quite some time because well, they didn't fit anymore. Very nicely I put them on and they were a perfect fit. They'll need a little work because the front button is missing, no doubt from a time I squeezed into them, and they didn't take kindly to the assault.
On the other hand I've got pants that don't fit right now because they're too damn big, and my belt needs yet another hole added to it.
Where as all this weight been going? I have to give Barron some credit.. The messy kitchen has encouraged me to avoid it, and thus avoid food... See Cindy, I can attribute positives to her...
April 29, 2007
Overbrewed Morning
I work with an awesome bunch of partners at Starbucks.
Yesterday morning, while I was running the shift at my store, one of my fellow partners collapsed onto the floor. Besides instigating a loud utterance from me of an expletive right in front of customers, this changed my plans for the morning just a little bit.
To the best of my knowledge, the partner who collapsed is fine; she received medical care at a local hospital.Some of the amazing people and their actions which got me through the morning:
- The customer who came to the collapsed partner's aid and graciously became part of our team for a short while. She even more graciously tried to insist to still pay for her drink, even after all of the help she provided. May she never have to receive a free cappuccino for the same reasons again.
- The other two partners on my shift. These rock solid, unflappable ladies kept their wits about them and stayed calm. Their grace and composure was key in allowing me to do what I needed to do to manage the situation.
- My store manager. For being my support from afar, who flew in to help nearin. Her laser sharp focus smoothed a bumpy path, and provided me the reassurance that I handled things well.
- One of the unflappable ladies who provided transportation to the ill partner, handled an ever changing in car situation with expertise, and didn't complain too much about cleaning up puke.
- The other unflappable lady who understood that celebrating the small victories of the day was an important part of getting through it.
- The SSC Partner (headquarters partner), who was in line for her coffee and ended up going store to store to find an additional person to help out with making drinks.
- The Partner from across the plaza, who blazed in rearing and ready to go at a key moment, and didn't complain when I forgot to ask what his name was until five minutes after he had already been making lattes.
- Another partner, the fruits of the SSC partner hunter, who flew in to help and graciously worked an amazingly short shift to get us through the hump. May I one day discover your home store.
- Many others whose amazing actions included doing the ordinary in extraordinary circumstances.
My general lessons from that morning include:
- Paramedics aren't always right.
- Sometimes all you can do is grab the reins, hold on and plan for the next five minutes, because you don't know what will come in the next twenty minutes.
- People who wear green aprons are amazing; those who wear black aprons are amazing too, but they're just green apron wearers who are also coffee geeks.
- When in doubt the F-word should not be used in front of customers, however if I just said the F-word in front of customers something really bad has probably happened.
- Coffee is amazing, but people are more amazing.