Category Archives: CARES

This and That

Posted on by

We’ve been busy lately, so sorry for the lack of updates. Work has been busy the last three nights with thunderstorms, late flights, and helping balance the workload for us midnight guys. As you might already know, the Dispatch office divides up the work by desk, with each desk responsible for specific city-pairs (ex. all flights from Dallas to Houston or Orlando to Baltimore). The midnight guys take over all flights for 2-4 different desks in the evening, monitoring them until they land, and planning all departures for 2-4 different desks the following morning through a given time, such as 830c. To accommodate growth, we add one or two desks to the office each year. To balance out the workload when we add a new desk, we shift city-pairs among the regular desks and change which desks the midnight guys relieve in the evening and release in the morning. In designing a midnight “desk”, my colleagues and I consider many factors, including the relative difficulty of each geographical area (west coast flights are generally easier due to better weather), the number of different airports we have to track, the number of flights to plan, and how many flights depart before the midnight guy leaves in the morning. There’s no perfectly even way to divide up the work, but I think we’ve come up with a decent solution. We’ll see how it works starting in February. I keep volunteering to help with these changes because I like puzzles, although it’s a bit daunting to know that people are unhappy if you provide the wrong answer. =)

Jenny and I had a very nice getaway to the Gaylord last weekend, complete with two delicious meals at the Riverwalk Cafe, a very cold but very beautiful trip through ICE (sorry I don’t have any pics – I was afraid the camera would break at 5 degrees!), a beautiful and comfortable room, nice staff, and plenty to see. I’m on a 12-day stretch at work after picking up a few shifts for a friend of mine whose stepdad is having surgery. We took Christmas down, and now we’re trying to clean out our rented garage so we can quit renting it. Anyone looking for a large legal-size filing cabinet, or have a good place to store a nice gas grill for a while?

Last night we had our second CARES pizza party and game night, which was a lot of fun. No one really played any board games, but we had a decent crowd, and many people stuck around to hang out for a bit. Pizza Hut accidentally shorted us a couple of pizzas, but it turned out that our advertising signs had blown over, and attendance was lower than expected. It’s always cool to see how God can work things out.

I’m going to beat Hubby to this one

Posted on by

So, officially, we had our first event last night – which was staying late at the apartment clubhouse to let people come by and pick up packages after they got off work. We had a few people come through, and we met a few in the fitness center, so it was pretty slow most of the time.

Andy and I decided to play pool while we were waiting – hoping that people would think that they could stay and have fun. We found out that we are the WORST pool players in the history of the sport. Actually, I’m the worst pool player – Andy could do ok, but neither one of us is going to be on ESPN any time soon. However, we should get lots of practice since we’re going to be in there every Tuesday night! If you’re in the area, come visit us!

Up and Running, and Running, and Running…

Posted on by

We are moved in! We love our new place, and most of the rooms are somewhat presentable. We moved much of the stuff into the Pit of Despair, aka the guest bedroom, so that the rest could look nice. Holly and Jedda have both moved in. Our Internet and cable TV are connected. We’ve met most of the staff and our next-door neighbor. Our bodies have mostly recovered from the move, and we might even visit the gym this week! The November events calendar went out to the residents on Friday. Our first real event is Movie Night in the clubhouse on Wednesday night. Although we still have much to do, it’s starting to feel like home. It will probably seem more real once we start meeting more residents this week. There are lots of dogs, so we’ll definitely try to have some dog events in future months. I’m also back at work after a 2-week absence, trying to remember what exactly I do. I’m temporarily training a new dispatcher over the weekend, which is a first for me, so I hope I teach her good things and don’t lead her astray. Many thanks once again to the wonderful friends who helped us move!

Our New Home

Posted on by

We are excited to report that we passed our interview with the apartment manager! We will be serving at The Landings at La Villita, a gorgeous new community in Las Colinas off Riverside Drive. Our manager is extremely nice and helpful and a big supporter of the CARES concept. We chose our apartment, which is a beautiful 2-bedroom 2-bath with a sunroom on the third floor, and toured the property. We plan to move Oct 29, right after we return from Disney World. Fortunately I’m off all that week, so I should be able to get our home in decent shape before I have to return to work. We’ve tentatively planned a few events for November, including a pancake breakfast, pizza party, and Cowboys watching party. Many residents own dogs and like to walk them along the canal after work, so we’ll likely spend lots of time outside with Holly making friends. Thanks to all of you who supported and prayed for us during this process. God seems to have worked it all out in His perfect way.