Biggest new so far is that I found out *UNOFFICIALLY* that I've been selected to attend the UAV pilot training that I wrote about earlier. I emailed the guy that contacted me in the first place about what was going on and he wrote back that he's still putting together the official email to send out shortly, but that I'm currently scheduled to start training in January of 2011. That's all the details I know right now. I don't know if that means I'll be moving from Omaha at that time, where I'll be going first for training, or anything else except that my first training class date is January 11th. If I had to guess, I would say that my first stop will be Pueblo, Colorado for Initial Flight Screening, or IFS for short. I'll have to wait for the official email to be sent out. Crazy times ahead, though!
In order to thoroughly enjoy my time off from work, I have procrastinated in my usual fashion with unpacking all of my stuff. Good news is that it's all here, but I just don't feel like going through all of it when there's valuable sleep time to be had, or other more enjoyable things going on. It'll get done eventually. Although I am fairly limited in my wardrobe choices until I decide to unpack all of my clothes. And speaking of clothes, it seems like everything cool that I decide to buy is back-ordered by an average of a month or so.
New washer and dryer? Oh, we're sorry, but the factory is backed up and delayed by 3 weeks...
New cell phone? Oh, we're sorry, but the cell phone you want is experiencing a shortage and is delayed by a full month...
New awesome running shoes (Vibram Bikila, a specific type that I want)? Oh, we're sorry, but we're sold out and not expecting any new shipments until August, at the earliest...
You want to know why nobody is spending money and boosting the economy? BECAUSE THERE'S NOTHING TO BUY!! It's all back-ordered!
I did get a sweet new bike though. And I got it off of craigslist, so no backorder crap to deal with (I checked at the store and the new ones of this style won't be available until August...what a surprise!)
Other things I'm keeping busy with:
- not shaving
- went to a couple of College World Series games, the last time they'll be played in the historic Rosenblatt Stadium
- 4th of July festivities
- buying lots of random stuff, like a bike...and groceries...and a washer and dryer that I apparently won't be seeing until the end of July...
- going out downtown and meeting new people!
- sleeping in
- World Cup soccer
Layover in Germany on the way home
New apartment living room/kitchen
...But...tomorrow it's back to work. Not 100% sure how it's going to go, but I think I'm going to be in a new job that's a little more away from the flight line and more involved with some of the behind the scenes support operations of maintenance, like the Analysis section, Plans & Scheduling and some others. A LOT more boring work, but significantly less stressful and more predictable hours. I can use a break from the day-to-day flight line grind. I also have 45-ish days of leave saved up and a separate vacation fund set up, so I need to get planning!
