The Return of the Son of Life of a Charter Pilot

It's been a long day.

I hate Air Ambulance trips.

It's been a long day. It started at 5:15 this morning, and ended at 5 this afternoon. A fairly straight forward air ambulance run. Fly to Breda-land, pick up the patient and his daughter. Fly them both to the northern end of AD-land. And then a quick hop back home for beer and bagels. (No, those don't go together. But that's all I have in the fridge.)

The flying itself went off without a hitch, but the patient was intubated, barely conscious, and running more tubes than the London Underground. I hate these trips. I can't look at the patient without twinging with sympathy. You see, when I was a wee lad of all of 5 I slipped crossing the street one winter and ended up with a full body cast, a plate holding my hip together and a nice 10 day stay in an ICU bed. The cast didn't come off for 3 months, I had to make up the school I missed from my bed over the summer and there was a large question if I'd even be ready for school the following autumn. I came out of this a couple of steps slower than I used to be, an 8 inch scar running down my right hip and a very obvious phobia of needles. Seriously, all through grade school it used to take 2 full grown nurses to hold me down when they came to give all us kids our booster shots. I still can't watch myself being stuck with a hypodermic at the doctors even now.

Hey, we all have our hangups. Seen any spiders lately?

On the plus side, I got this neat castoring wheel, like they have on furniture, on the leg of my cast so I could drag myself around my room without scraping all the skin off those toes.

So, for me, I see the patients, strapped to the gurney, plugged full of tubes and leads and wires and I remember that I've been there. I remember what it was like to wake up in the middle of the night with only the eerie beeping of the monitors and dim glow of the red LED's and green monitors. Knowing no matter how hard or fast I press that call button I won't see anybody till long after I've lost myself to the imagined monsters and goblins that inhabit the cold and sterile rooms of the hospital wards.

I can't help but put myself in their place.

Why I carry.

There was a shooting in a Knoxville Mall earlier today. My sympathies go out to the victim, co-workers and families in this.

Again, I'm NOT saying that being armed would have prevented this. I AM saying that just because thinking someplace is safe, doesn't make it so. If wishfull thinking worked, we'd all be living in mansions with Lexusii in the driveways. Violence can and does happen anywhere. All it takes is a sick or twisted individual to make it happen. Leaving your self-defense tools at home because you're "just running down to the store, won't be a minute" makes no more sense than leaving your spare tire and jack home because you're "just driving around".

Like the commercial says, life comes at you fast.

life... or a reasonalbe facimile thereof.

The Gun Nuts: TNG show was a great one again.

The debate is just pissing me off.

That is all.

Sorry.

I'm a bit light on the posting today. I'm trying to get caught up on my tivo from this weekends "vacation". Lots and lots of really good TCM. And no commercials. Movies like The Fountainhead, The Maltese Falcon, Casablanca, A Night at the Opera, Touch of Evil, etc. I'm in black and white heaven. So, obviously, not too much on the news watching front. Other than the Dow dropping another, what, 8 gazillion points today. Gotta love the bail out bill.... or not so much.

Leading man material....

Your result for The Classic Leading Man Test...

Humphrey Bogart

You scored 55% Tough, 10% Roguish, 29% Friendly, and 10% Charming!

You're the original man of honor, rough and tough but willing to stick your neck out when you need to, despite what you might say to the contrary. You're a complex character full of spit and vinegar, but with a soft heart and a tender streak that you try to hide. There's usually a complicated dame in the picture, someone who sees the real you behind all the tough talk and can dish it out as well as you can. You're not easy to get next to, but when you find the right partner, you're caring and loyal to a fault. A big fault. But you take it on the chin and move on, nursing your pain inside and maintaining your armor...until the next dame walks in. Or possibly the same dame, and of all the gin joints in all the world, it had to be yours. Co-stars include Ingrid Bergman and Lauren Bacall, hot chicks with problems.

Find out what kind of classic dame you'd make by taking the
Classic Dames Test.

Take The Classic Leading Man Test at HelloQuizzy

Perimeter is set.

Can't type long.

I've got a few man-traps and a line of claymores set. The perimeter check okay at 2100 hours, but I lost comm with the OP about 15 mikes ago.

Those kids have been probing the wire all day and that 5 year old can move like a demon-spawned panther.

I don't know if I'll get to post again this weekend, they've pushed me back to this point and my final redoubt doesn't have internet.

That's it, the south wire is reporting heavy contact. It's me or those kids.

Edit: May $DIETY have mercy. Those kids are all over the place, I've got no lines left, I'm calling a Broken Arrow down on my head, hunker down boys. It's gonna get ho

{Transmission Broken: 0341Z}

(The Wii Bowling has thrown my shoulder out and all these kids run on is Ramen Noodles(tm)).

Bloggo

I've got nothing today. Sorry.

See y'all tomorrow.

Senate Roll Call Vote

Why am I not surprised....

The 74-25 roll call by which the Senate approved a $700 billion rescue package for Wall Street aimed at preventing a credit crisis.

On this vote, a "yes" vote was a vote to approve the package and a "no" vote was a vote against it.

Voting "yes" were 39 Democrats, 34 Republicans and 1 independent.
Voting "no" were 9 Democrats, 15 Republicans and 1 independent.
Alabama
Sessions (R) No; Shelby (R) No.

Alaska
Murkowski (R) Yes; Stevens (R) Yes.

Arizona
Kyl (R) Yes; McCain (R) Yes.

Arkansas
Lincoln (D) Yes; Pryor (D) Yes.

California
Boxer (D) Yes; Feinstein (D) Yes.

Colorado
Allard (R) No; Salazar (D) Yes.

Connecticut
Dodd (D) Yes; Lieberman (I) Yes.

Delaware
Biden (D) Yes; Carper (D) Yes.

Florida
Martinez (R) Yes; Nelson (D) No.

Georgia
Chambliss (R) Yes; Isakson (R) Yes.

Hawaii
Akaka (D) Yes; Inouye (D) Yes.

Idaho
Craig (R) Yes; Crapo (R) No.

Illinois
Durbin (D) Yes; Obama (D) Yes.

Indiana
Bayh (D) Yes; Lugar (R) Yes.

Iowa
Grassley (R) Yes; Harkin (D) Yes.

Kansas
Brownback (R) No; Roberts (R) No.

Kentucky
Bunning (R) No; McConnell (R) Yes.

Louisiana
Landrieu (D) No; Vitter (R) No.

Maine
Collins (R) Yes; Snowe (R) Yes.

Maryland
Cardin (D) Yes; Mikulski (D) Yes.

Massachusetts
Kennedy (D) Not Voting; Kerry (D) Yes.

Michigan
Levin (D) Yes; Stabenow (D) No.

Minnesota
Coleman (R) Yes; Klobuchar (D) Yes.

Mississippi
Cochran (R) No; Wicker (R) No.

Missouri
Bond (R) Yes; McCaskill (D) Yes.

Montana
Baucus (D) Yes; Tester (D) No.

Nebraska
Hagel (R) Yes; Nelson (D) Yes.

Nevada
Ensign (R) Yes; Reid (D) Yes.

New Hampshire
Gregg (R) Yes; Sununu (R) Yes.

New Jersey
Lautenberg (D) Yes; Menendez (D) Yes.

New Mexico
Bingaman (D) Yes; Domenici (R) Yes.

New York
Clinton (D) Yes; Schumer (D) Yes.

North Carolina
Burr (R) Yes; Dole (R) No.

North Dakota
Conrad (D) Yes; Dorgan (D) No.

Ohio
Brown (D) Yes; Voinovich (R) Yes.

Oklahoma
Coburn (R) Yes; Inhofe (R) No.

Oregon
Smith (R) Yes; Wyden (D) No.

Pennsylvania
Casey (D) Yes; Specter (R) Yes.

Rhode Island
Reed (D) Yes; Whitehouse (D) Yes.

South Carolina
DeMint (R) No; Graham (R) Yes.

South Dakota
Johnson (D) No; Thune (R) Yes.

Tennessee
Alexander (R) Yes; Corker (R) Yes.

Texas
Cornyn (R) Yes; Hutchison (R) Yes.

Utah
Bennett (R) Yes; Hatch (R) Yes.

Vermont
Leahy (D) Yes; Sanders (I) No.

Virginia
Warner (R) Yes; Webb (D) Yes.

Washington
Cantwell (D) No; Murray (D) Yes.

West Virginia
Byrd (D) Yes; Rockefeller (D) Yes.

Wisconsin
Feingold (D) No; Kohl (D) Yes.

Wyoming
Barrasso (R) No; Enzi (R) No.

Just stuff

So, the pic went pain-less-fully.

I'm off to visit friend up in Kansas for the weekend. I leave tomorrow, so I might be out of pocket for blogging for a while.

Not that they don't have internet up in Kansas. They do, or so I'm reliable told.

But they've got 3 boys under the age of 10, so I may be locked in mortal combat for most of the weekend.

Days off

It's my first day off in 3 weeks. I get this week and then because they started floating my week off on me, I won't see another week off for 6 weeks. They did say one week per month.

Anyway, what do I get to do on my first day off? I get to go into work. It's an "optional" thing, but everybody got a call yesterday making sure they were coming in.

I know, I know, whine, whine whine....