Global Services
I finally seem to have made it to the highest known rung of UAL’s frequent flier program – the semi-secret Global Services rung. It is so semi-secret that I have no idea what it really means as of yet except that I should get first crack at upgrades and am allowed to board the plane while the cleaning crews are still on if I’d like. So far it also seems to come with first dibs on extra nuts and dinner choices.
Unfortunately UAL isn’t flying much of anywhere out of OAK any more – they just cancelled the OAK-ORD flights as well as the OAK-IAD flights leaving only OAK-DEN and OAK-LAX. That bites. OAK is infinitely easier than SFO.
Blacksmith
Over the holidays I visited the blacksmith I was apprenticed to as a child (roughly 1978-1986, though we couldn’t quite figure out the exact years). This is the welder I learned to TIG weld on and the smaller anvil was what I learned to forge steel against.
Greg Leavitt was a great inspiration to me and set me on the path of making things from an early age. It was also a great lesson in the value of hard work swinging a hammer all day in front of a coal forge. In August. In Philadelphia. 100% humidity, 95 degrees outside, 120-140 in front of the forge. Black boogers.
I have my own anvil and TIG now. Just because you can’t ever really get the coal dust out of your nose.
