Thursday, June 28, 2007

The Saga, Part 2: The Layover in Sydney That Resulted In An Obsession With A Small Metal Office Supply


Here is a picture taken out the window of Door 2R of a 747-400 by flight attendant Robert Gallant of beautiful Sydney, one of the world's grand cities.

About a year and a half ago, I was in a hotel room in Sydney. It was early morning and I turned on the television and was watching the Australian version of the Today show. Kyle MacDonald was being interviewed and spoke of his intention to trade a red paperclip for bigger and better things until he eventually traded up to a house. His first trade was for a fish pen and at the time of the interview, he was up to a snowmobile. It occured to me that I could fulfill his dream. I started following his blog, oneredpaperclip.com and became hooked by the sheer fun of the crazy idea. There were lots of skeptics about Kyle's ability to accomplish the task. I was never one of them and was poised to offer up my Ebay house in Hobbs, NM if the right trade was offered. When I heard about a movie role, paid and credited complete with a SAG card; I knew it was something worth consideration. In spite of using a movie star alias, I personally do not aspire to such fame. My daughter has more talent and ambition in that area but when I presented the idea to her, she thought it might be percieved as paying for a role and she was skeptical. When we had a conversation with Kyle, she had a change of heart. He told us he wanted to make sure whoever got the role had a sincere interest. He announced that he wanted to complete the trade within one year. So 2 weeks before that year was up, I made the following offer which you can read in the next post.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

The Saga, Part 1: "How Did You End Up In Hobbs?"


This is the question I am asked everytime I meet someone new. The answer is that I bought a house on Ebay that was located here. A listing was posted by a bailbondsman from Carlsbad and having never heard of an entire house for sale for $27,500, it seemed like a bargain. I searched on the internet and found that there were plans for a casino and racetrack and I decided to go for it and put in my bid. It was 2 years ago when I first drove to Hobbs to inspect my purchase. A tiny bit of buyer's remorse sat in as I stepped through a missing window and first toured the home. That remorse faded away and I've met the most welcoming group of people that live in this town. Even so, at one point, I thought I may have gotten in over my head since there are a lot of needed repairs and not as much available time as I would like to devote to the project. A opportunity nearly changed all that...

Monday, June 04, 2007

Airplane Flashbacks: DO YOU HAVE A FORBES MAGAZINE?





Flying out of Chicago (ORD) as a reserve, sometime in the early 80's, I was on a 727 working a Coach aisle position to Omaha, Nebraska. We served meals on domestic flights in those days and the service was finished. I was securing the galley in preparation for landing. A call light illuminates and I make my way to seat 15D where a gentleman asks me "Do you have a Forbes magazine?" (Before it was determined that a lot of jet fuel could be saved by removing them due to the weight, we used to have a selection of magazines.) I grabbed a Forbes and returned to the passenger. He said "Look at the cover". I asked "What about the cover?" Pictured was Bill Gates. "Look at Mr. 15C". In 15C, was a sleeping Bill Gates with his mouth wide open and body sprawled, contorted in the space. I could not contain myself and broke into a gut wrenching laugh along with everyone around. Mr. Gates slept soundly through the commotion. Mr. 15C said "Just wanted to see the look on your face!". I asked him why they were flying Coach and he told me it was the company policy and they always flew coach.