Halloween

My intention this year, as in several years past, has been to take Small Son out treak or treating as a Piper, dressed in my kilt and practicing as we went along. It hasn't happened yet.

This year, I was steeling myself for people giving me treats to STOP playing, but HH offered me more to never start.

[sigh]

Small Son went trick or treating with his friend, so I stayed home and answered the door.

Daughter #1 and Daugher #2 did get dressed up for their respective parties. Here they are:

Daughter #1

Daughter #2

Ringtones and Flexibility

LOL. It's amazing how a little thing will make you chuckle all day.

For example, ringtones. I downloaded 2 ringtones for my new cell phone (see previous) yesterday, after much pain and suffering and humiliating myself to call and ask for assistance. One is Henry Mancini's Pink Panther theme, and the other is Gilligan's Island theme. Just remembering the antics of Gilligan and the rest of them makes me chuckle.

In other news, I interviewed for the temporary Crew Support Lead position yesterday. They want me to be flexible, so I was. Two days ago I got an email telling me the interview would be Wednesday (which meant I had to go in to the Center for the 2nd time this week). When I got to the Center yesterday and opened my email, there was aNOTHER email telling me the interview was going to be Friday, which would mean a THIRD day at the center. All this during a week in which HH was in Santa Fe. I accepted that interview time, too, but sent an email asking if this was my second interview already, or a new time. Then I mentally started preparing myself to work from Sandy on Friday. Finally, early yesterday afternoon, I got a 3rd (or perhaps it is a 4th) email telling me the first time was on, 2 people were doing the scheduling. Which meant I didn't have to drive to Sandy on Friday, but also meant I had 2 hours to get my answers ready for the interview.

That's flexible.

I consulted with my supervisor, "Leia", and got something ready, and showed up at the appropriate office. Out comes one of my interviewers, all a-flutter, telling me the other interviewer's father was just involved in a terrible car accident and she would either have to reschedule or get somebody else to assist in the interview.

I went back to work and awaited results.

Half an hour later she approached my desk and said "2:05". So at that time I went back to her office, and did the interview. We established that we had known each other from way back in Southwest Airlines days, and talked about piping, and then jumped right in.

I think I did pretty well on my answers. They wanted to know the 5 most important things a CS Lead does.

CS is the part of the company that
1) assists the agents in the more difficult areas of booking reservations,
2) books non-revenue standby listings,
3) checks people in,
4) calls customers if their flight is significantly delayed or cancelled, or if there has been a time change,
5) calls customers to let them know they booked the same reservation twice, or their card declined, or because of the way they booked, their bags are not going to get to their destination.)
6) communicates to the appropriate entity if something (like the website) breaks down

I named the 5 I could think of.

They wanted to know what did I think was CS's main jobs. I started talking about CS being the heart of the airline, everything has to come through CS to be processed and then recommunicated to the rest of the airline and the customers. It started to sound like blather so I shut up at some point. They wanted to know why I thought I was the 'man' for the job. I rattled--and I mean rattled quickly--off 7 things that are my strong points, including years working in the industry, sense of humor, I like a challenge, I learn quickly, love working with people . . . and some other things which just came out of my mouth and which I can't remember now. They wrote everything down.

It's kind of flattering to say something and then have 2 people scribble away on their papers, like I was a movie queen and had just made some important social announcement and they were reporters. LOL.

I didn't get nervous until the very end. I was shaking when I walked out of there. I should know in a week. Either way, I'll be happy.

In piping news, I've been selected (probably because I was a last resort) to play for a wedding on Saturday afternoon. Other piper playing is Tall Aaron. I think I'll contact him and see what he plans on doing, so I can prepare.

You know how Tuesdays are my days from hell?
Yesterday was no exception. Even losing two items from the agenda.
My one-on-one with my supervisor was rescheduled to Wednesday, and the training never got created due to lack of facilities (I guess). Works for me. Except that here I am at the Center again today, leaving my kids to face the morning alone again.

I can tell you that it would be nice to get the temporary lead position, but it would also be nice to work 3 days from home, instead of driving in every day. Seventeen miles each way is a long way when you are used to walking 10 yards down the hall to work.

Band. Well, I was a little fuzzy. I could get nearly to the end of sentences, but not quite finish them. Thus, my cut-offs were non-existant. Sean was pretty upset about all the cut-offs I was missing, so finally I said I was going to sit out the rest of the practice and I had turned to walk down off the stage, and he got MADDER and said I was not allowed to leave, he knew I could do it. I agreed I had been able to do cut-offs in the past, just not TODAY. I got the next cut-off, but only because I cheated and stopped playing 2 measures before the end (also frowned upon because it's audible to the judges that somebody has stopped).

We stopped practice early.

Sean said Small Son was doing very well in his lessons. I reciprocated by telling Sean that Small Son was very impressed by Sean. Sean thanked me for that info, stating SS never says much of anything, so he had no idea. I think that Sean pretty much tells it like it is, instead of talking through his hat like Ian used to.

Not one of my best days.

I got my own cell phone.

Wow.
What a sense of freedom!

However, nobody has called me on it, yet, so I am alone in my freedom.

I got it because the "family" cell phone is constantly missing because we each assume the other person has it and then when we realize it was us, we can't remember where the last place was we saw it, and a major search is on, involving frayed couch cushions and frayed tempers.

Also, when HH goes on a trip and takes the family cell phone, I don't have a way for the kids to keep in touch with me.

How did we survive before cell phones?

I actually practiced on Saturday and Monday, but Monday was one of those days when I couldn't string two words together to make a sentence, much less a meaure, so it didn't go so well.

Another good thing is that I don't have a training class tonight, so I can go to band practice.

And I have an interview tomorrow at 1330 for a temporary crew support lead position, that is also being sought after by Brenda. She's a pillar of the JB reservations community and has been for a looooooooong time, so the light is growing dimmer in my dreams of leadership.

Oh well. I like to work from home.

ADDENDUM: I finally got a call on my cell phone. I was sitting there at the end of my shift making comments on the reservation of a difficult customer and suddenly this noise sounded. Everybody, including me, looked around and asked what the strange noise was. Dean said, determinedly, "I'll find it." Just as he walked past me, the noise came again. "It's you," he said to me. I pulled out my cell phone and . . . yup, I'd missed a call.

How . . . . . embarassing!

HH leaves for Santa Fe in 2 days.

Daughter#1 got promoted at work to Lead.

Daughter #2 had to go before the judge and either go on probation or take a Defensive Driving course, due to 3 citations this year.

Daughter #3's teeth are hurting her where the spacers are.

Small Son decided not to be a ghost, but instead to be Death, with a scythe, and speak in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, for Halloween.

I am not getting any practicing done. This is not working. What can I cut to give me more time to practice? Cooking dinner? Laundry? Sleep? Work? Scouts? I'm not making any progress.

Quotes from last night's lesson: . . . . . . . oh, who am I kidding? I can't remember 5 minutes ago, much less last night. It was something about taking it slow on Glasgow's gen-dah-yen's, and that runs down were our downfall. I asked why the lessons had to be so late at night when I am so tired. I'd be tired earlier in the day, too, so it doesn't matter.

TGIF.

Drew is flaking out. But then, what do you expect from a high school kid who spends his summers piping for free in Nauvoo, IL, 1500 miles from home? Maybe he just wants to get away from home. He also just got his wisdom teeth out, and the dentist has said 'no piping' until the incisions heal.

He and Lee and Erin are supposed to be doing a trio for the Dave Barclay competition (trio in this instance meaning 2 pipers and a drummer, Erin being the drummer), playing Heights of Dargai/Battle of the Somme/Brogues on the Cobbles. But he hasn't practiced with Lee and Erin yet. At all.

So Lee, panicking, called in a second: me.

After band practice last night we went over it. Definitely stumbling, I would say. Gotta work on that, y'know. But it was better than last week, so progress is being made. When Erin had gone, Lee and I went over his harmony on Battle of the Somme and tweaked it here and there. Sean was sitting over there listening. When we were packing up, he asked us to play that set for the band next time it's played (I read into that: next week). Cool.

I told you that since I'm the piper that has been with the band the longest of the two of us, I get to play PM in this group. So far, I've done OK.

This was a tuning practice. Since Sean has returned from LA, he's spent a lot more time tuning. We tuned for an hour and 20 minutes, then spent 20 minutes more marching in and out of the circle. No breaks. And that was it. We were excused.

Dave and Teagan were there last night. Seems Teagan made the hockey team, so he was exempt from practice last night. It was good to see them.

Daughter #1 has scheduled her final interview with the Stake President for Sunday. We are discussing mission pictures and farewell parties. We are waiting for a location and a date.

I have begun the Total Fatigue portion of my week, Tuesday through Friday. Ugh. I wish they would pay me and not make me work.

Another 3 of Life's Little Victories

Victory #1:
I don't want to be a potty mouth, but this story involves our toilet. It has been leaking for about a week, so a few days ago, HH removed the toilet, replaced the wax ring, and replaced everything. It leaked worse!! How fair is that? I admit to being a lazy piper; HH is a lazy plumber. He does half a job and gives up or says, 'it's good enough'. I could see into the future on this one: the floor would rot from the water constantly on it, and we would end up replacing the whole bathroom. So I went and got another ring and some info from my friendly neighborhood hardware store (I'm a big fan of hardware stores!!). I went home, took the toilet off the hole again, removed the tank, and cleaned the old wax off everything. It appears that HH slapped the wax ring on there, and slid the toilet into place, which displaced at least half the wax, which let water leak out the other half. I put the new wax ring on, also adding some wax on the flange bolts to keep them upright, and gently lowered the bowl onto the bolts, coming directly down from above them and not sliding anything. It took a few tries. I had also asked about getting the tank back on without cracking it. I tightened the bolts with my fingers, and then with a wrench until the tank didn't rock, connected and turned on the water and it leaked. Of course. So Helpful Hardware Guy said take a wrench and tighten the bolts just a little until it stops leaking. Yay! No leaking at all! Not even from the original place! Yay me!!

Victory #2:
The Dishwasher. Father-in-law had installed a new dishwasher several months ago, but the bottom panel had been left of to let the floor dry out. By the time the floor was dry, Father-in-law had gone on to help another child, and neither I nor HH could figure out how the panel went back on. So it has been sitting there on the floor getting in everybody's way. I tried a few times to put it back together. Yesterday I noticed that the pieces had been reassembled, and . . . hey, if I just turned them upside down . . . would that fit in the space? . . . HEY! It does! So it's hanging in place, taking up much less room, but I can't bolt it in cuz the holes are in the wrong places from the old dishwasher. Have to get a drill in there and get it bolted in.

I can't remember specifically what Victory #3 was. Either practicing in the garage yesterday, or taking dinner over to the Nelson's yesterday, or getting D#3 braces on yesterday, no deposit . . . they were all victories of a sort.