On a time schedule. When I went in for the maintenance window last night, I asked the powers that be, what I was scheduled for today. He told me to get some sleep and call him when I wake up. That’s code for, “I don’t know. Take your time and we’ll figure somewhere to put you.” So, this morning I get up about noon (after getting to sleep around 5am) and find out that I am scheduled to go back to NAS Pensacola and test the circuit that failed last night.
Of course, only on a day when I’m pressed for time. If I weren’t in a hurry, I would have been out of here fifteen minutes ago. I was stupid enough to stop at a fast food place for lunch. I was on my way out and decided to stop on the way for lunch. After I got in the line, I got the phone call about getting in and out of Pensacola quickly so that I can get to Orlando tonight for another maintenance window. There are only two people they trust on this window and Heffner is in North/South Carolina so it has to be me. I’m now in a big hurry and of course now I’m stuck. I finally get to the order screen and she says the computers are down and I’ll have to order at the window. No wonder it is taking so long. There are three cars in front of me and every one of them is ordering at the window. This is going to take forever but I can’t go any where. I’m trapped! I can’t back up and there’s no lane to pull around. All I want to do is leave. No food, no waiting, I just want to be out of there and I can’t. I guess that is what I get for being STUPID enough to eat fast food. The food is lousy to begin with but now I’m forced to sit and wait for it.
I just finish here at Pensacola when I hear the roar of the jets flying by. As I leave, the guy at the front desk tells me what I can already hear. The Blues are flying again, no one is permitted on the access roads until 15:00 (CST). Yeah, I know. Another free show. He tells me that they’ve been practicing a lot because they had to bring in a new guy on the team after the crash. I didn’t have my camera with me yesterday when I watched the show from the tower but it doesn’t matter. I’m out here on the open field and I’m barely getting any good shots. I’m snapping all kinds of pictures like a freaking tourist but I’m missing all of the really good, close up shots. They kind of sneak up on you at one billion miles and hour. They actually scared me a little this time. You couldn’t see the jet but it sounded like an incoming bomb from a movie. Suddenly, the #3 jet shows up directly above me from out of nowhere like he’s a fucking de-cloaking Romulan and then dives for the parking lot. And in a split second, he’s turned 180 degrees and is climbing straight up again! The sound of the roar was incredible. Absolutely incredible. I could watch them do this all day but if I get on the road right at 4pm, I’ll make it to Orlando just barely in time for the maintenance window so I want to get moving.
I make it to Orlando at 11:15. I sit and wait for the maintenance window that I am now just finding out is at 1am, not midnight. I wouldn’t have worried so much had I known that. I get in there, draw up my power diagrams and finally get out of there close to 5am. Somehow between power naps at rest stops I make it home at 8am. I have driven just over 1000 miles in the past three days and I feel like crap. The weekend ahead is a full schedule and so are the next 4 or 5 weekends. I’m not even in my own head anymore.
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