As you can see, I have been enjoying my visit to the USA.  It all got delayed just a bit when the visa office in India informed us that we had to leave together since Karen was an accompanying spouse.  She was still having some dental work done so I delayed my departure until she was done.  We left early on Thursday morning, April 4.  This will be our last business class travel deal since my new contract doesn't allow for that. We did enjoy our fully reclining seats and slept most of the way to Los Angeles, via Dubai. Dubai to LAX is 16:20 so that's a long flight.  Once we got to LAX, we split up and Karen went to visit her family in Las Vegas and I continued to Arizona, where I was having a big alumni get-together at my high school.  For me it was 42 years, but another alumnus and I had planned a big, off-campus party at a local hotel that would allow all the alumni to get together, regardless of year, for an off-campus meet and greet.  We had arranged for a block of hotel rooms and also a large hall for the party. Even with a $15 cover charge, we had 140 people show up and it was a wonderful get-together. I saw some people that I hadn't seen since 1970.  It
was a great time.  Even the school principal and some of the teachers showed up at our party, much to my surprise.
Then, I headed for Tennessee, to see my son Brad and his wife, Jessica.  They have a 3 year old Sadie and now have added a two month old, Lucy.  They are such amazing little girls and so much fun to be with.  Sadie is just full of personality and Lucy is so little and it's great to see her start her life's journey. I am always amazed at the small fingers and toes on these babies.  Miraculous.
Following a wonderful week in Tennessee and some golf with my son, I headed up to Chicago and rented a car to drive over to SouthWestern Michigan, where my daughter and son-in-law live now that he is in graduate school.  Shayna has found a nice job with an Optometry office about 45 minutes away.  I went over to her office with her and had my eyes checked and ordered some new lenses.  It was great to see her in her office environment, even though she didn't appreciate it when I told the office staff to take good care of my little girl. LOL.  I have been busy at their home, helping them with the fixer upper project which involved removing the old wallpaper.  If you have ever done this, you have a lot of patience.
Just before I left India I got a call from my old company and they decided since I was an instructor pilot that they wanted me back.  Of course, there was a little money fight involved and this was because I was probably the pilot flying the smallest jet and being paid the most.  Once they got all the other expat pilots hired for less, I was in a position of vulnerability.  Oh well, I have a slightly adjusted contract now, but still way better than I can get just about anywhere else in the world.  I had joined a couple of job sites and sent off some resumes.  Got some calls, but nothing has developed into an actual offer.  Anyways, it would have been hard because of the monetary difference between USA flying and international flying.
Now that I am with the kids here in Michigan, I finally got all the paperwork required from the Indian employer and have sent in the papers to the visa outsourcing agency in New York.  Its a waiting game now. I sent in 21 pages of paper.  They might want 22, as this is the Indian way.  We'll see, but if everything checks out then I will have my visa back by the middle of this week and will be on a non-stop flight from Chicago to New Delhi by the end of the week.  I am actually legal to fly as of today, by Indian rules, I had to wait for 6 weeks after my surgery.  The medical staff at the Air Force Base said I could come back and pick up my medical on April 22.  I will get it as soon as I get back.  There is lots of other paperwork to do so it will probably be a few weeks before I am flying again, but there will be whole staff of people working on getting me back in the air.  My cats will be glad to see me and it will be nice to be home again, if only for a short time.
I have a feeling that we are going to change locations for the airplane because of our parking
issues at Mumbai. I might be based back in Delhi again, who knows.
Take care, my friends, and I will keep you updated.

Dan

Dan big changes

Hello my friends.  It's been forever since I put anything up on this blog page.  Just so much other stuff happening that I haven't gotten around to it.

I had my 60th birthday in February and that meant that I had to go to Delhi for a big Air Force medical exam to check what's going on in the body.  They always require a sonagram and that showed a gall stone.  The doctors here don't like gall stones as they can be debilitating in flight so I had my gall bladder out by laparascopic surgery on the 9th of March.  It's only been two weeks and I feel just fine, able to do anything I want to do.  But, I only found out this week when I went back for a follow up check at the Air Force base that any surgery in India grounds you for 6 weeks time.  That means that I can go back and get my full fitness report and medical on that date.

In the meantime, the company that I have been working for the last two years decided NOT to renew my contract this time so I have been looking for work again.  Now, almost a month after their announcement, I have a verbal offer and should have a signed contract by the end of the day.  It's kind of wild to think about but this job was told to me by a friend and when I called them they basically made the offer over the phone about 6 hours after I knew that Airone wasn't renewing my contract.  So, since airplanes come and go and I have been in this situation about 6 or 7 times in my life, this qualified as the quickest that I had ever received any kind of offer when I needed it.  When you work overseas, they want these signed contracts and it kind of prevents job shopping while you are working for someone.  That means that you are only available when you are not under contract, which isn't very much of the time unless you can convince your current employer that you need out of your contract.

I am writing this on March 24 and I will be heading for the USA in a few days.  While there I have to get my new visa, do my recurrent training program for the Citation that I will be flying and then still visit my kids and NEW granddaughter, Lucy.  Brad and Jessica have wonderfully provided me with my second grandchild, Lucy was born on Feb 18, so missed my birthday by three days.  I was hoping. Brad enjoys his career working with HMO type healthcare organizations, while Jess is working with a Pediatric practice in Cleveland, TN, where our family lived for 28 years.  I will get out to Thunderbird Academy in Arizona for my high school reunion the first weekend of April and then also get up to Michigan to see my daughter and her husband.  Keith continues his studies at the SDA seminary while Shayna is working her profession as an optometrist, enjoying having her chosen career.  Since Keith is planning on doing some extensive studying there, they went ahead and bought a fixer upper house.

Karen is getting some beautiful, new dental work done and also recently had one cataract surgery, to be followed by the other one here this week.  She is thrilled with her new eyesight, now not needing reading glasses and when her dental work is done, she should have a gorgeous smile.  Its great to be able to get this stuff done here without going into huge debt.

Well, I hope you all are doing well.  Karen is going to America a couple of weeks after me since her dental work isn't quite done.  She says she is not coming back to India since I have been flying so much and she basically is home alone most of the time.  The culture shock and no real expat community here for her to socialize with has finally made her choose to be home with family and I cannot blame her one bit.

The company lost it's permission to park at Mumbai airport last July and since that time I haven't been home for more than a couple of days per month, which makes it very tough for all of us.  Well, we look forward to seeing all of you and will keep you informed of our progress, mostly on Facebook but also with my Delhi letters email and here on the blogpage.  Take care, everyone.