Good Deal

I decided to go home for 24 hours after Winnipeg rather than getting a hotel in Memphis, so I passed the day in a sleep-deficit fog. Had to get up very early Friday morning for the two leg jumpseat back to Memphis for my early afternoon showtime.
As the week progressed, I had been keeping an eye on the weather for Friday (yesterday) in Great Falls, Montana. There was a blizzard predicted, and it did arrive. The morning 757 couldn't get in and ended up back in Casper for the day.  An hour prior to showtime in Memphis, I noted that the aircraft they had assigned to our trip did not have a functional weather radar. When the release came out with this same tail number still assigned, I immediately called the dispatcher and asked if he really planned to send me into a snowstorm with no radar. He quickly apologized and within five minutes we had a tail swap to a  full up airplane. We headed out to do the preflight, and were just about closed up and ready to go to Wichita, and then on to Great Falls, when my cellphone rang. It was scheduling: they had decided to turn our 3 day layover into an out and back! Yipee! It would be a very long night, but we would only be in Great Falls for a couple of hours, then back to Memphis, and I would get to go home with full pay for the trip. My vacation started three days early. Talk to you in December.

Winnipeg

Finished the first of two weeks on the road with 36 hours in "Winterpeg," arriving with my first snow of the season yesterday morning. Nice steak at The Keg, and back to spend a few hours glued to the TV for election results. Strange to be out of the country on this day. I'll have a day in Memphis for laundry, and then a long weekend in Great Falls, Montana, Where they are predicting sub-zero lows and up to a foot of snow. Oh joy.

Seventeen Years

I just finished my 17th year at Fedex. Doesn't seem possible. Thanks again to my sponsor KB for talking me into making the leap all those years ago.