It lives...

OK work first I guess. As mentioned earlier in the blog October and November were insane for audits. It seemed just as soon as I had one dealt with, there was something else waiting in the wings to pounce on me. Nevertheless, I seemed to master the fine and ancient art of Cat Herding and we not only survived the audits of 2 separate industry ranking firms and the FAA, but I was able to earn us top rankings, something the company had not had for 4 years. If it hadn't been for the hard work and expertise of our new maintenance Chief Inspector, I seriously doubt that we would have been able to pull it off. I knew we had problems, but jeez, we were hosed up.

Fortunately, management gave me a free hand in running things and making the needed changes. Now we are looking more like the industry leader we should have been all along. There are still some things I would like to see in place, but as the saying goes, Rome wasn't built in a day. Guess that means I have job security. *sigh*

The audits ended by the end of November and off to training I went for a week. Who would have thought that I would consider a couple days in class and a couple in the sim a vacation. Well, upon my return to LA, my body decided to tell me that the several days I had off were going to be spent mainly flat on my back. I felt like one of those Capital One commercials with the attacking hordes where I had spent all my energy and then some and they were coming to collect...and boy did they. I haven't been that sick in a while.

When I could fly, I mainly spent time flying some owners around doing the usual Holiday runs to ski areas and places where rich people like to go that time of year. The rest of the time was spent teaching or fine tuning our operations section.

One of the biggest challenges I still face there is getting a full blown Safety Management System in place at work. The reason we got such good rankings from the audits was that we were in the process of getting the system written and in place. As one of my coworkers said to me after I announced our success, "You got us there, now we have to keep it". Truer words were never spoken.

In the midst of all the insanity, we held a Yule party that was off the scale fun. We started at 5pm and the last person didn't leave until 2am. Mission Accomplished. We had an awesome time with Kevin's Quadrped Chile, and Thom's Fish Stew. No one went home hungry and many toasts with fine spirits were had. It was great to have so many people over and for those that missed it... boy you missed it. :) Don't worry though. To quote one of my favorite all time movie lines from 13th Warrior, "Don't worry Little Brother, there are more!" (Herger the Joyous, my favorite...) Now to plot the next few parties...

Now that its a new year, all sorts of challenges await. Among them is one that starts this coming Monday where we get - wait for it... - another audit! I'm so thrilled I could just... yeah.

So, apparently our local FAA office got checked up on by the Regional FAA office. I guess the Regional guys found some problems with the local guys stuff. No surprise there. Unfortunately for us (me), this means that we get to get inspected by not only the local guys, but the regional people will be there too. Four Days, 8 FAA Inspectors. So instead of this being the general "turn your head and cough" routine, we got to collectively hear that tell tail "snap" of the rubber glove from somewhere behind us. The motto of "We're not happy until you're not happy" comes to mind. *sigh* I'm gonna need a lot more Single Malt after all this. Fortunately we got the checklist of what they want to see and since we just finished a bunch of audits, we are in pretty good shape, but there is still the last minute panic and run around to make sure that all our bases are covered. Just means a lot more office time for me and well, I won't argue with the money.

Once February gets here though, I'm outta here. Me and the G-III are on the road for 12 days. 5 in Miami and the rest in New Orleans and Chicago. Time to see some old friends, not to mention take pictures of me and my Shinkendo stuff different places.

Speaking of Shinkendo, my training progresses with another test coming on the horizon some time in March. I had a bit of a break with being out of town and then ill. Boy could I feel it. Firstly, I really was bummed about missing training. It's silly, but I look forward to that more than a lot of other things these days. The break really took a toll on me though. I've been pretty discouraged at seemingly loosing ground in my performance and retention. I made the comment in class one night to Sensei Lynch that I felt like I had a "rented brain" when stuff I was performing really well was being performed...not so well.

Unfortunately, loosing ground in my training wasn't the only thing I lost ground on. My battle with weight continues and over the holidays I lost some gained ground. Oh well, just means I'll have to focus on it even more now that they are over. I'm really tired of the extra weight and the glaring reality is, I'll be 39 in July and if I don't get it done over the next year, I could be in trouble later on as its harder to come off and my natural abilities at speed healing and having a resilient system will start diminishing.

Fortunately for me I'm stubborn, not to mention completely dedicated to my Shinkendo studies. It is difficult to adequately explain to someone how I feel if I should happen to miss a session. I completely understand and empathize with Sensei about the value of time at the dojo. Considering all that I have going on in my life, I never fail to find happiness, clarity and peace while I'm there. For me its equal to and many times far superior to the time I spend at the airport or around planes. For those that have known me for a long time, try not to fall out of your chair, but its true. For that, I am grateful beyond words for the opportunity to train and learn.

Every once in a while I have to remind myself (or be gently reminded by Sensei), that "life happens" and it isn't a race to learn and test. It's ok to miss a night now and then. What is important, is to learn, and learn correctly.

Milestones will come whether we run or walk, as long as we are on the journey. Life is a journey. Jensei Shinkendo (Shinkendo is Life). Ergo Shinkendo is a life's journey.