Hello friends and Hivers. Today I'm going to tell you about two things I did this last weekend. I worked another passenger airlift mission Saturday night and Sunday I spent much of my time out of town at a basketball all Star game my son played in. I wish I could have done more but I'm still in this funk where I feel my energy is just being sucked away from me. I'm not sick but rather going through somethings with the medication I'm on. My doctor's not open today but I will be calling tomorrow.
Saturday evening I had to work a Boeing 747 aircraft bringing passengers in. We came in at 6:30 p.m. an hour prior to it's scheduled arrival. The aircraft ended up arriving just before 8:00 p.m. So we had that twirling our thumbs time awaiting on it.
Once it arrived you can surely see it's size just by seeing all the windows. Not just one compartment for passengers but two as there is an upper level on this aircraft. It was pretty close to being fully utilized as their were 200+ through load (in transit) passengers and about 70 passengers terminating at our station.
In my last article we offloaded baggage from a Boeing 777 and I mentioned how it's nice it is not to see baggage bins. Fate must have read that article because this aircraft had bins 😂 So let me tell you why having bins makes things more difficult.
First off, there are nets and tarps on both sides of bin. You have to disconnect an assortment of clips, fasteners and straps. Once that is done you have to try to stuff the nets and tarp above the bin. Unfortunately you can only do this on bins that don't have bins in front of it. The others you have to figure out a way to get the nets and tarp to hang some how inside the container. This causes not much light inside these containers, the picture above had the most light of all the bins we offloaded bags from.
Second off, your confined to a small space. Usually only two people are in a bin throwing bags back to others. Often your doing this task on your knees but you do need to bend and walk to get to other bags. Not always but this time I racked my melon on the ceiling of one of the bins. Lighting is dark inside them as well making it difficult at times locating handles on some baggage. I'll just say an open baggage pit is much easier and preferred!
Other than having those darn bins the rest of the process went pretty smooth. It's almost always less time consuming receiving than sending out missions. All that is required is getting the passengers off, offloading the baggage and the passengers leaving with those bags once back at the terminal. My evening at work was right at 3 hours.
Most of my Sunday included spending time watching my son participate in a basketball all-star game. We left the house at about 10:00 a.m. and arrived at gym where the activity took place at about 11:30 a.m. The first thing that took place was the girls game at 12:00.
After that game they had a three point contest. My son was the first to shoot and he ended up making 12 shots in one minute. He really didn't get into much of rhythm. He didn't qualify for the next round. Going first is hard because you have to set the bar and don't have a target to shoot for. I talked to him the day before and told him don't be surprised if one of the girls wins this. The girls had a small advantage by already being warm since they just got done playing. The last round it was a boy versus girl and the girl won.
Well shortly after the 3 point contest the boys game began. Everyone that participated in the game were seniors. I will guess there are about 50+ teams in area and only 22 boys and 23 girls were invited. So these really are the best of the senior class in the area selected. One thing that is cool is each player wears there high school uniform. One team wears there home jerseys which is almost always white, the other team wore there away uniform which is colored.
The game was definitely played in a have fun mode more than a competitive one. At the beginning players were seeing how far beyond the three point line they could shoot it from. There were even a couple of half court shots taken in the middle of quarters 😂 There was little defense played, almost like the NBA all star game. There was also a handful of dunks because no one really challenged anybody when they went up for it.
The last four minutes of the game my son's team played defense for a chance to win the game. At that point in the game they set a target score to reach, 112 points. The score was 104-94 at that time. Most of the game they were behind sometimes as many as 20 points. They brought it as close to 5 points but in the end they lost 114-104. The game ended with the other team hitting a half court heave. My son had the game high with 25 points but the MVP went to a kid from the other team who had 23 points.
It was a game that brought lots of laughter and wows. My son has got one more all star game on 24 March. This one comes with a competitive atmosphere though. They actually will have two practices before the game. A much larger pool area was considered for this one. It will be another senior class all star game and will contain 4 boys team. Just to give you an idea only a few players were invited that played in this one yesterday.
After the game my son's team posed for pictures. As you can tell all the players wore there home (white) uniforms. Some players on his team were opponents of his during the regular season. He has also played with some of them on his past AAU teams. I enjoyed myself watching the game and my son enjoyed being part of it. Another proud moment for me 😊
That's all I have for you this time. Thanks for stopping by. Take care, stay safe and enjoy the rest of the week.