I woke up semi-refreshed at 5:00 am on Sunday morning. After a shave and shower I put my uniform on. I realized it would be a long day when I discovered what I forgot the night before … My shoes. I would have to fly in a nice looking pilot uniform with my Nike Pegasus trail-runners on. Brilliant.
My flight attendants immediately burst out laughing when I saw them in the lobby. “This is going to be a really long day…”
We got into our beautiful/ugly ATR-72 (it’s french …) and headed off to Atlanta.
The flight back to Atlanta was uneventful as usual. We didn’t have to swap planes, so I gave my First Officer some $$ and he brought some breakfast to me on the plane. Then we flew down to Eglin AFB in Valpariso, FL, AKA Ft. Walton Beach. Another easy, albeit bumpy flight.
We got to watch some cool planes takeoff and land up close.
On the way back to ATL, I was thinking that as long as Scheduling didn’t try to get ahold of me and make me work later into the afternoon, I would be fine. Unfortunately, as we were getting ready to park in Atlanta, our company called us on the radio. “Captain Call Scheduling!” Great. Now I’m going to have to embarrass myself by flying with another crew. I couldn’t even think of any good stories about why I had sneakers instead of black pilot shoes. (I got mugged in Macon? Terrorists wanted to stop the flight so they stole my shoes?)
I’ve been studying the classical spiritual disciplines for the last several months after my Dad gave me Dallas Willard’s The Spirit of the Disciplines. One of the classical disciplines is submission. I’ve been realizing that an aspect of submission is to submit to the circumstances that God allows in my life. Normally, when I get the dreaded “Call Scheduling” instructions on the radio, I get frustrated (ok, ANGRY) since I know they’re going to make me work when I was expecting to be home. This is even more true when I’m really tired. But I felt like the Lord provided for me to practice submission. A Presbyterian should be really good at this … basically I had to remind my rising emotions that the Lord is still good, that he loves me and that he is in control of my circumstances. While I might have been dumb in forgetting my shoes, he would still take care of me. I could even embarrass myself with another crew and He would still be God.
The amazing thing is that my emotions listened and calmed down. After I cooled off a little bit by actually believing God is who he says he is, I started trying to call scheduling. My cell phone battery was dying and they kept putting me on hold. We had arrived 25 minutes early into ATL, and I began to discover a solution for my shoes problem.
The company “officially recognizes” our need for nutrition, so I decided to go home and back (about a 45 minute round trip if you count the bus to and from the parking lot), grab my shoes, and get a really quick drive-through. After all, they must not need me that bad if they keep putting me on hold! Thank God for another great solution for my tired brain and silly looking body!
When I was on the interstate headed home, I finally got through to scheduling. They needed me because they “lost” a captain. I guess he went for a lunch break and nobody could find him. He turned up just before I called, so I was off the hook! Amazing!
I arrived to a lovely house…
and a tired wife.
It’s been a long weekend with many trips to the airport between performances.
Elizabeth had to go get ready to perform, so I left the back door open. Apparrently, Lucy the cat decided to go for an “adventure” out on the deck. The dogs found her. Normally they get along better than dogs and cats usually do, but when Lucy got cornered, they couldn’t resist barking at her.
It was funny. Sam got her nose caught in the spokes of the bike and even bled a bit before I rescued Lucy. (No, Mark, I didn’t feed her to the dogs!)
I finally got to go to the Nerve Series performance. A lot of good friends were there.
Rebecca (below) grew up in the Orthodox Presbyterian Church. You don’t meet many of those around…!
We all went out to Carol Street Cafe for a great dinner. When we came home, Sam didn’t greet us like she normally does. In fact, she acted like we were totally yelling at her.
That was for a good reason.
Sam had gotten two poopy diapers out of the upstairs bathroom trashcan and shredded them on the carpet in the hall. BAD SAM! BAD!!!!
We both finally were able to collapse after a long … and nervous weekend!
