We Can't Stop Here! This is Bat Country!

This is a post about animals. We will start with dogs, proceed with bats, and conclude with weasels.

1) Dogs.

I have never been keen on the canine. To be clear, I don't hate them, but I am not infatuated with them like the rest of society. I was routinely harassed by the neighbor's dalmatian in my youth and my 65 lb frame was easily tackled when visiting friends or family who seemingly all had dogs. "Oh she's just excited to see you!" That may be, but I really don't like being clawed while lying on the floor paralyzed in fear. They followed me for over a mile when hiking in Greece, making me very uncomfortable. They ruined my beach time on the Cook Islands and tried to sneak into our hut. I admit it. I'm scared of dogs. Irrational? Maybe, but one of my biggest pet peeves in life are dog owners who operate under the assumption that everyone loves dogs. I think folks like me are the silent majority because American society harshly judges those who don't swoon and yell, "Awwwww" over a shaking chihuahua. Before reporting for my flight last night, I wanted to go for a relaxing walk around the neighborhood. When I got to a small park on the bluffs, there was a man walking with an empty leash in his hand. I found the dog soon enough, as it had charged me full speed from across the park, stood on its hind legs and started grabbing at me. The owner regained control and apologized. I lied and said it was ok. 10 seconds later, the dog escaped the owner's grasp and charged again, this time clawing away my headphones and knocking away my phone before being pulled away again. The owner apologized again, and once more I lied and said it was alright.

Why am I telling you all this? Well, later that night I would also have to return to the gate after a man and his massive comfort dog were becoming belligerent and swearing at the flight attendants. Well, I think to be fair it was mostly the man. I can't speak for the dog. As a result of all this, we and the remaining passengers were delayed over an hour for our red-eye flight to Austin.

2) Bats.

There are supposed to be a large number of bats hanging out under the Congress Street Bridge at dusk. I think it was too cold the last few nights and the bats have migrated south for the winter, or whatever it is that bats do. In any event, I saw no bats, just a lot of eager tourists hoping to catch a glimpse of this batty display. And that brings us to our final creature.

3) Weasels.

A few years ago, a very talented filmmaker, who I happen to acquaint myself with, created a parody trailer of the Wolf of Wall Street. The idea was simple: swap every male character with a female one. It was featured in Huffington Post, Slate, UpWorthy, Jezebel, news stations, and various international publications. So naturally everyone hated it. The comments section featured such eloquently worded statements such as, "Who was in the kitchen when this was being made?," "I'd fap to that," and "These women and their balding jew boyfriends need to stop trying." Look, I realize my forehead is large-ish, but I still have most of my hair. Hmph.

Anyway, point being, it's very difficult for a woman to say or do anything that makes a statement without intense backlash. I think it was after Nicole's video that I became very aware of how awful our society is and how demeaning it is to women in all industries. In the post-Weinstein era, perhaps people are slowly becoming more aware of the issue, albeit slowly.

With many of my friends and colleagues posting #metoo stories on facebook, it got me contemplating my role in all this. Surely there must be more that I can do beyond simply not being a dick. And I have some ideas. Within my own industry, I don't share the "office" with many women other than the flight attendants. Most of the people I fly with are respectful and professional, and I am proud of that. However...every once in a while I encounter a specimen that we shall call the weasel.

The weasel might brag of their many alleged conquests or how they are convinced a passenger was flirting with them. The weasel is arrogant, and says offensive things about the female flight attendants physical appearance or intelligence. The weasel in many respects...is really just an asshole. Now the tricky part for me in working with weasels is that I don't know how to respond. More often than not, I force a fake laugh to their absurd comments. After all, I don't want to offend the person I have to share a small closed-in space with for the next few days. And that's the root problem. The weasel doesn't really understand that they're a weasel. The weasel thinks that as long as a woman doesn't hear what they say, all is ok. And I'm allowing this "locker room talk" to occur when really what I should be doing is calling people out on their nonsense. Something as simple as, "That's not cool," may do the trick.

I don't pretend to understand what women go through on a regular basis, but if we rewind to my issues with dogs, maybe it gives me an idea. It's really not a lot of fun to be out for a walk and minding your own business only to be harassed by someone off their leash who thinks they can just follow you and start touching without permission. "But he likes you!" No. He's a weasel. And no, it's not ok.

Update on Austin: Still Weird

After receiving a call on short notice, I was assigned a flight back to Austin, Texas. We arrived around 1pm, so I had the rest of the afternoon. This time I had my running shoes, so I went for a run along the trails next to the Colorado River. Despite some rather strong winds, it was a very enjoyable excursion, but naturally I did not have my camera. I did learn something from that van ride in, however. The Frost Building pictured here is modeled like an owl. Don't see it? I didn't either at first. But if you imagine that the two circles toward the top of the building are eyes and the corner is the beak, you can sort of  . . . see it . . . if you try real hard. And now you know. For dinner, I went to Gus's Fried Chicken, the same chain I visited in Little Rock. The atmosphere of the one in Little Rock was superior, as was the quality of the chicken. Austin overcooked theirs a bit. I should have known. This is beef country. Whereas I had an easy day in Austin that entailed a mere 26 minute flight from Houston, the following day would be a bit more challenging starting with my alarm going off at 3:50am.

After flying the return leg to Houston, I took us down to Mexico City, which is historically one of the most challenging airports for any number of reasons. This time, the GPS did not lose signal and the controllers didn't throw any abnormal procedures at us at last minute. In fact, it was a fairly pleasant experience. The weather was uncharacteristically clear and smog-free. I could actually see the airport as I banked away from the mountains and lined up with the runway from 7 miles away.

As we departed, we were afforded clear vistas of the nearby mountains and volcanoes. The captain expressed that it was the easiest experience he ever had going in and out of Mexico City. I guess this is a good thing? Adios for now.

Keeping Austin Relatively Normal

 Flying just one leg from Guadalajara back to Houston, it was a relatively easy day. All we had to do was proceed through customs and then deadhead over to Austin where we would be for the rest of the day. I had eaten my "breakfast" of cookies around 4am, so my body was ready for lunch at 9. By the time we got to Austin just after 11, I was starving. I had a hankering for bbq, so I did some searching around the area. I didn't want to eat at a sit-down kind of place, so that limited my options. I was hoping to find a hole-in-the wall or a food truck type place. The problem with that was locating where the food truck might be. After walking for what seemed like miles, I was too hungry to be choosey and decided to eat at a kebab food truck. And thus, my trend toward eating atypical local cuisine continued. I had a spicy lamb/beef kebab with baklava on the side. It was very tasty. Not brisket, per se, but tasty. Shortly thereafter, I met up with a friend from graduate school. We chatted for a while, attempting to fill each other in on the events of the last few years. She now works in the big pointy scary building in downtown Austin.

 The last time I saw her, I was just a wee pilot with maybe some 100 hours under my belt. Back then I was flying around in airplanes with mere lawn mower engines. Now I fly around in planes with really powerful lawn mower engines. In the grand scheme of things, it hasn't really been all that long to get to where I'm at. Meanwhile in Austin, my friend has been embarking on all sorts of adventures of her own -- book publishing, coaching, hotel-ing, foundation-ing, and other sorts of business/leadership types of things that I cannot begin to understand.
"So it's a 501(c)(3) . . ."
"The plane goes zoom!"

But, it is always a delight with this job to pop in to all sorts of cities, call someone up and catch up on life. It also cuts into some of the solitude that comes with my profession. So often when arriving at the hotel, the rest of the crew gets to their rooms, the door clicks, and that's it.

After our meet-up, I continued walking around the area. I took a stroll along a path by the Colorado River and crossed a bridge to reverse down the other side. Austin is a very active city and I saw hundreds of people running or cycling down the path. It was a gorgeous March day with temperatures in the high 70s. All in all, I have been pretty lucky this trip. I can walk outside in a t-shirt. Other than the early wake up times, it has been a good trip. I have had lots of time to unwind and relax in the cities we have visited. And on that note, I should probably get ready for bed. I have to set my alarm for . . .3:50am. º_º

Exploring the world . . . one airport terminal at a time.

For starters, I did not take this picture, I do not know what it is, nor have I seen it in person. I googled Guadalajara and this came up. You see, I did actually fly last week . . . once. It was a quick turn to Guadalajara, Mexico. I didn't have time to do anything, so there are no pictures and no unique stories to tell other than the randomness of it all. I got a phone call that morning, went to the airport, flew to Mexico and back, and was back at my sister's before she got out of work. While this sounds very exotic and exciting, I experienced nothing in Guadalajara other than a struggle to understand English in Mexican accents while using the radio.

My previous posts about flying out of Minneapolis may have already shed some luster from being a professional airline pilot, but even when the destinations aren't Grand Forks or Iron Mountain, there are about four ways I can fly somewhere and never really "see" it.

1) A quick turn (We land, deplane, board immediately, and jet out to some other destination)
2) A long sit (We are limited to waiting in an airport terminal while we await our next flight)
3) An overnight by the airport (Though in this scenario we leave the airport, we don't get far due to transportation limitations when the airport is very far from the city it serves *cough* Denver.
4) A short overnight (Arrive late at night, leave early morning)




This week I received a three-day assignment that will experience all four of these obstacles. I have just completed the first leg and am now in the middle of a long 3.5 hour sit in the Austin Bergstrom airport. I have been to Austin before, fortunately, so I have at least experienced what the city has to offer. I tried to make good use of my time and had some Texas bbq at a place called Salt Lick, located in the middle of the terminal. It is a well-known bbq place in Austin, but the ambience of an airport food court is not quite the same. Now, I have just one more flight and will be spending the night in "Denver," or more accurately within about 15 minutes of Denver International Airport and an hour from Denver itself.