[PilotMan]

The company dropped the 2nd displacement bid on us today. The last one affected close to 5000 guys, and handed me a future 35k pay cut. This one downgrades another 1500+ captains and wide body FO's (the union stated that they convinced the company to basically half this bid in the last few hours, so it could've been much bigger), either as a pay cut to a smaller plane, or a cut to the right seat from the left. That will, in turn, push the people, already at the bottom of now fattened categories, even further down, and set up a 3rd round of bidding at the end of the month.

That 3rd round will ultimately decide the fates of a 2-3k pilots, who will hit the streets, for estimates of 12-24 months.

I've been in a better place, as it looked like things might be favorable for me making it, but the fact that I'm still in the thick of this, that nobody below a certain seniority (above me) has been trained as a result of the last bid, and that they simply aren't being very transparent with us on what the plan is for us. I think that part of it is that we're in contract negotiations, and they would love for us to take a concessionary contract, when just a few months ago, everyone had been working toward a longer term deal. I just don't see how the union is going to willingly give away anything when it takes about 10 years to get any of it back.

As Petty said, "the waiting is the hardest part." Trying to enjoy my time as we count down to the middle on heading off to college, and along with his life, and the breakdown of our amazing 5-member family that I hold near and dear to my heart. I realized it a couple days ago. It's over. For years, I've said, "slow down" and "don't grow up so fast" and "don't take them away from me so soon" and "eat up every moment" and "don't blink". Well, now...it's past us. We won't ever get those times back, and all we have is the path in front where we watch them navigate adulthood, and we hope they get to come home to visit and have dinner, and sit and talk with us. Gone are the days of every day, where we talked and strategized and played games together. It's like that for one this year, and this time next year it'll be like that again, and my heart will have been ripped from my chest. Where now as I reflect on all that, tears fill my eyes, and I can't hope but to yearn for those younger innocent days where all I did was live in fear of the reality that I now find myself in.