Happy New Year!

A new year, a new home, a new employer and new goals. That sizes up in 2009 in a nutshell.

Weather wise, 2009 got off to a great start. The first five days of the year (days I just happened to be home) started off to be just beautiful, sunny skies and above normal temperatures (see picture). All of my Michigan friends I'm sure are tired of my Polly Anna weather forecasts, and although it's not Florida in the wintertime here.... it beats the heck out of Michigan.

The upcoming week will be a busy one for me, I'm moving again. Not far though, just to the other side of the building and from the 1st floor to the 3rd. I'm leaving my parking lot view to a pool/tennis court view and views of the surrounding countryside. A much nicer apartment. Along with moving, I'll have to stay focused on my training.... as in less than two weeks, I'm doing some insane 50 mile Cyclo-Cross race in the mountains of Georgia. I've never raced that kind of distance in January, so it'll be interesting to see how I do.

As most of you know, Delta Airlines merged with Northwest Airlines this past year. The full integration begins in 2009, with training on each others aircraft and learning new service standards. I know a lot of people at NWA are a bit nervous about the transition, but I for one am looking forward to it. For the last 10 years or so, NWA has been an absolutely horrible company to work for. NWA used bankruptcy (no government bailouts for our industry by the way) as a tool to slash our pay and benefits to a tune of over a 40% reduction in compensation, I am one that's happy to see them gone.... good riddance NWA. The employees over at Delta seem to be pretty happy, they've been without unions their entire existence.... so that says a lot. Anyway, I'm looking forward to working for Delta and what it'll bring in the next year.

And what would it be for me to not mention Leadville, of course I'm going back (pending acceptance of my application). This year will be number 8, and my first and foremost goal is to be better than I was last year. I'd still of course like to break that 8 hour mark, and throughout my training this year that will be my focus.... but if I'm faster than 8:58:58, that will make me happy as well.

That's it for today. Happy Trails and Happy New Year.