We flew back from Bahamas on Friday night, which was largely uneventful, with the exception of picking our way through some impressive thunderstorms just off the coast of South Carolina. I took a few little videos and a lot of pics, but I left them on my home pc so I won't be uploading them for a week or so.

On Saturday morning I went on vacation, flying to visit my mom for Thanksgiving. I met up with a fellow blogger along the way and that was a lot of fun. It's a topic for a post and I'll make it soon, but not just now.

I took WestJet, one of their fancy new 737's. Nobody was in my entire row, so I stretched out across the 3 seats and had a good snooze, then watched some "Dog The Bounty Hunter" on the seatback televisions they have. It was perfection - no howling babies, no people with breathing problems or loud coughs, no having to sit next to an obese person who 'flowed' over their armrest into my personal space, just a nice quiet flight.

Mom and I hung out yesterday and caught up, then went for a stroll around town, then ate and caught up some more. It was truly fine.

This morning started off on a slightly unnerving note, as I got a phone call from a fellow employee pilot. "Get up! The shit's hit the fan!" On a sidenote, I should market an alarm clock whose alarm is a variation on that phrase, as it certainly awakens you quickly. He was calling because it appeared that US Customs had snatched one of our pilots who was travelling on a commercial airline to the States to pick up one of our planes for a return flight. I had actually made backup plans for just such an occasion, but in the middle of our contingency plan, our missing pilot called and said he was just fine. He had been pulled out of line and questioned for only a few minutes, then had boarded another flight 5 minutes later and was safe and sound at his destination, ready to fly one of our aircraft back to Toronto later today. I guess they were curious as to why he had a one-way ticket from Toronto southbound, but quickly realized that he was no threat.

After that little adrenaline rush, I relaxed with mom over breakfast and we planned out our day.

Today mom and I are celebrating Thanksgiving, and we just finished preparing our feast and throwing it in the oven so it'll be ready for supper. We have turkey stuffed with garlic, fresh baked bread and herbs from the garden. Representing our vegan kinfolk, we have squash with butter and brown sugar, cranberry sauce made with fresh cranberries, orange juice and Cointreau, steamed carrots, broccoli and brussels sprouts. Lots of white wine, of course, and for dessert, we are gonna split a humungous fudge brownie we got from the local bakery.

I really have a lot to be thankful for.

- I'm healthy, as are my parents and relatives
- I'm loved, and I love
- I am in a good place as far as my career goes
- My living situation in Toronto is easy and stable
- Battlestar Galactica started Season 3 last Friday on the Sci Fi channel
- My car is entirely trouble-free
- My feedback rating on ebay is 100% positive
- I recently bought new shoes and they are really comfortable
- For the last year, my bank account has had a positive balance each and every day, even the Thursdays just before payday Friday.
- I have made new friends and kept old ones
- I beat Call of Duty 2 on 'hard' difficulty on my Xbox 360
- My sense of smell has returned after a 6-month hiatus following some antibiotics I took last Spring
- My current fav band, Tool, released a new CD recently
- I am really enjoying the mental exercise that this blog brings, and the fine people that I have met through it



I wish you all health and prosperity, and I hope that every day you find yourself in situations where you say "Wow, I am so lucky!"