I usually cherish the weekends but not this one. At least it ended up on a positive note.
It began with dreary, rainy Friday afternoon. So rainy that I checked weather and determined that I was not going to be flying afternoon traffic due to low ceilings as we cannot legally fly if the 'ceiling' or lowest cloud cover is below 1500'. Our ceiling on Friday was 600', a no-brainer 'no-go day'. I called my usual pilot for Fridays but got voicemail, not five minutes later another pilot called me to say he was covering the shift for the usual Friday pilot but that we weren't going anyway due to weather. So I went into day-off mode and caught up on various projects around the house and returned some calls. While I was on my cell, my Caller ID indicated that my usual Friday pilot was calling, only it wasn't him, it was his son-in-law. The son-in-law was calling to let me know that his father-in-law had died the night before in a plane crash while flying a charter flight to Arbor Vitae, Wisconsin. I was numb. I had to call one of the other pilots to make sure what I heard was true, alas, it was. This was a guy I flew with three days a week almost three hours a day for the last six months. You really get to know someone one-on-one in a plane. He was a great pilot and had become a friend. It's weird, in the ten+ years I've been flying, I've flown with literally hundreds of pilots but never thought any of them would die on the job. When you fly every day like I do five days a week, you don't think of dying or other people dying in plane crashes, it's just not healthy.
We had made plans earlier in the week to have dinner with an old friend Friday night and Carla asked if I wanted to cancel due to the news. I thought about it and figured that sitting at home on a ugly, dreary night feeling bad about my friend and colleague and his family wouldn't be very productive. It would be good to get out of the house and get my mind off things for awhile. It was a good decision. We had a wonderful meal, enjoyed a nice visit with a friend who'd recently gone through a rough patch but came out better on the other side and it was nice to catch up. We made it a relatively early night as we had the exciting plans of painting the walls of our basement early Saturday morning.
With Carla being pregnant, I wasn't going to let her paint the basement with all the fumes, so I was reticent about doing the project myself. So, imagine my delight when she woke me up Saturday morning and told me I wasn't going to be painting after all. I thought for a moment that a painter who offered to do it had called back and was ready to work. No, the basement walls we wet from the 4"-5" inches of water that had seeped into our basement over the past 48 hours. Oh joy, shades of our old Forest Park place all over again. We reasoned that it wasn't going to help to start bailing on Saturday, we'd have to wait until the rain stopped falling. The plan seemed to work as I checked the water level late Saturday night when the storm ebbed a bit and saw the water had drained a bit. I foolishly hoped that maybe it would continue to drain overnight and we'd be left with just a puddle or two in the morning. Nope, the level actually went UP. Even the 16 gallon shop-vac wasn't going to cut it. Luckily, Jeff W. had a spare sump pump and after 5 hours of continuous pumping, the water was all gone. Just some cleanup and tossing of damaged items remains. Luckily we didn't lose anything we're going to miss, just a bunch of crap we probably should've tossed a while ago. It was a forced purge.
After an emotionally draining and tension-filled weekend, Sunday night I was just content to shower, relax and watch the Cubs game, which due to Hurricane Ike had been relocated from Houston north to Milwaukee's Miller Park, aka "Wrigley North". It was to be Carlos Zambrano's first start in nearly two weeks as he had been put on the shelf due to some rotator cuff issues. Seems Carlos' rotator cuff was just fine as he tossed the first Cubs 'No-Hitter" since Milt Pappas did it back in 1972. I started watching the game in the third inning, after the Cubs had done all their scoring. It wasn't until the sixth inning that I realized what was afoot. Usually baseball announcers (who are sometimes as superstitious as the players) don't make overt mention of in-progress no-hitters or perfect games, they instead direct viewers or listeners to note the amount of hits (or lack thereof) the opposing team has (or doesn't have). To his credit, Len Kasper did mention what was happening during the seventh inning, risking a jinx on the potential no-no. During the eighth inning, I got a text from a buddy who started following the game on the radio and knowing what could happen, he decided not to turn on the television for fear of jinxing anything. Now, I've watched a few no-no's on TV and a few near no-no's but this one seemed totally in hand from the seventh inning on. I barely had any doubt I was about to witness Cubs history. And I did. It was precisely what I needed, a happy ending.
I sure hope you're weekend wasn't as draining as mine. Did you get any flooding by you? Did you watch the Cubs game?
Sorry to hear baout your friend, and your basement. I too was having a crap-ass weekend. Friday I was on the blue line when someone jumped in front of my train. Freaky and sad. I spent Saturday at the hospital with a relative having cancer surgery. And Sunday the Bears blew a 14 pt lead. Bad weekend. But God bless Carlos Zambrano and the Cubs. He really did change my attitude with the no-hitter. GO CUBS!
Posted by: drcastrato | Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 11:20 AM
Yeah, sorry to hear about your co-worker - that's tough news to take on.
Our weekend was nice except for the wedding e attended which was conducted entirely in Chinese. I'm pretty sure that gets a mention in the Geneva Convention somewhere.
A humorous aside - did you use the word 'draining' at the end of your post on purpose ;-)
Posted by: Jeff | Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 09:54 PM
not to worry facebook has not stolen all of your fans. i still read just more of the silent type these days. that is one sucky weekend. i wasn't aware of the other parts just the swimming pool in your basement. my weekend was....wet! but lucky that my basement is not flooded like the rest of my family, so i am thankful for that but know how much cleanup sucks (i remember the smell of wet carpet and mold from when i had probably the only documented sixth floor condo flood on record a few years ago).
Posted by: kate | Tuesday, September 16, 2008 at 10:04 PM
Ken, first of all, I am sorry about your friend.
Our weekend was the best part of the week. It started with a car issue on the 4th, then our washer broke on the 5th. I took the car in on the 6th and they kept it until Tuesday the 9th. Sears came out on the 9th, at 1:30 after giving me a window of 8 - 12:00, and told us the washer was done and we needed a new one. So, we got to lug a few loads of dirty clothes to a neighbors. My wife picked up the car on the 9th, came home to tell me that the car wasn't fixed. So, back it went on the 10th. During the day on the 10th, I got a call from my son's school asking me to pick him up as he had a temp of over 100. Also, during that day, we bought a new washer and it was installed on the 11th. It was during one of those nights when I sat down to relax and watch the Sox play. The one thing that could take my mind off of an expensive week was the Sox and their attempt to get to the playoffs. Of course, that was the night when Paulie Konerko sprained his knee and the Sox chances took a blow. Friday came, and our company picnic was cancelled due to the weather. Saturday, we had our block party, despite the weather, and Sunday, a golf outing was cancelled due to the weather. Thankfully, our pump handled the 10 inches of water, but it was running so often that it woke my 3 year old son up Friday and Saturday night at about 2:00. Daddy didn't get much sleep either night. September hasn't been much fun so far for a lot of people. Hopefully the Sox, the Hawkeyes, some good music, friends, the Cubs, and the Bears will help take our minds off of the rough start of the month we have had for the next couple of weeks.
Posted by: Brian | Wednesday, September 17, 2008 at 10:07 AM