Say What?

33 years ago today I began my career with the FAA. I don't know what 33 years is supposed to feel like but certainly not this. Back when I was beginning my career that would've seemed like a very long time to be a controller but that's not my perspective today. Of the 500 or so people I sat with in the auditorium that morning as we filled out the many forms, I have to wonder how many (if any) are still working traffic? Could I possibly be the last man standing out of all of us? It's entirely possible. I spent too much time this past week trying to upgrade Tammy's phone after she'd dropped hers in the toilet. It still functioned but would occasionally go dark. She was a few months past due for an upgrade but that's not what our account's records with Verizon showed. I tried to get a resolution to the problem both in-store and over the phone but with no luck whatsoever. Each time I was assured that someone would get back to me but they never did. In my f

Tammy and I celebrated the 16th anniversary of our first date last Thursday night. We considered going to Sawatdee restaurant in Minneapolis (where it all began for us) but opted for something different instead. We drove south to Northfield and with the help of Yelp we chose The Tavern for dinner. We enjoyed ourselves while reminiscing about those earlier years and looking ahead to the changes we'll be seeing in our near future. I was in the middle of taking a selfie to upload to Facebook when the couple across from us offered to help out. That was sweet of them. We walked in the cold night air to our car and talked of coming back to Northfield to check out the many shops one day soon. It's a beautiful older city and one we seldom visit. I'm all caught up on my TV watching after having viewed the final season of Breaking Bad and the last episode of the most recent House of Cards series. I was a little late to Breaking Bad and got mired down in the 3rd season when it b

Finally! I was able to return to work today and resume my duties as an air traffic controller after nearly 2 months away on medical leave. It feels nice. Not that I didn't appreciate my job before being sidelined as I was but I appreciate it even more now. I showed up at work this morning to report to the Quality Control office for some 'other duties', running short on sick-leave and intending to either get my clearance to work traffic again within the next few days or reluctantly submit my paperwork and retire at the end of the month. Fortunately for me, I received a call mid-morning telling me that I was being reinstated and that I was free to resume my work as a controller. I quickly stepped outside to text Tammy and tell her the good news but decided to call her instead. This was something we both really wanted and a text message just wouldn't do it justice. She was very happy too! I'm not ready yet. I'm just not. The widget on my phone says 291 days unt

I'm still in a holding pattern with respect to my career as an air traffic controller. The regional Flight Surgeon who determines the fate of my medical status to perform my duties is waiting on two last reports before making his decision to reinstate me or not. I met with Dr. Foley on Thursday morning for a follow-up and to go over the results of the event monitor I wore for 30 days for my heart. The results came back as clean as could be. He said he usually has a few pages of data to go through when analyzing 30 days of readings but in my case, there was absolutely nothing to see. He said he had to make a phone call to make sure he was looking at the full analysis. So, based on the findings of the monitor, my clots aren't forming as a result of atrial fibrillation which leaves Dr. Foley "99.9% sure they're developing in my common iliac arteries". He told me how he's very much a binary person who's usually decisive in his decision making but in this c

I made it out for another Fat Tuesday ride down along the river. So much fun are these rides. The trails are lacking for snow but that may soon be fixed as there's a storm heading this way. I forgot how much the blood-thinner Coumadin leaves me chilled. I typically notice it just sitting around the house but yesterday afternoon on a ride I was having a hard time staying warm in temps (18ºf / -8ºc) that aren't usually a problem for me. I didn't do any outdoor riding when I was on the drug 3 years ago so I'm not sure if this is just an occasional thing. I seemed to do fine on other rides in the weeks since I've been back on it. Being on coumadin means I can no longer use my go-to remedy for knee pain: NSAIDs—or nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drugs. Having them in my system can exacerbate a bleed and that wouldn't be good. I checked with my doctor and he was adamant that I avoid them. I'd typically take a couple of Advil at night and my knees would feel fai