Even more uncertainty

We just found out yesterday that the airline my husband works for (now owned by Delta) will be losing 10 airplanes. Delta just decided within the past week that these 10 aircraft would be sent back to their manufacturer in Sweden, two per month starting in September. No one really knows the reasoning behind this, especially since Delta was keeping the airline 100 pilots fat (yet again, for no apparent reason). With the aircraft loss, the airline is going to be an additional 100 fat. That means 200 pilots’ jobs could possibly be at stake. I just don’t understand why they willingly kept the airline overstaffed and then took away planes. Keeping the airline fat seemed to point towards possibly getting more airplanes, not the opposite. So who really knows what’s going on right now. All we know is that, even though his job is not at stake, he surely won’t be sitting at the top of his list anymore since everyone senior to him will be shuffled around.

This is going to hurt us in terms of pay. Long gone will be the months of flying 85-90 hours. He’ll be back to his base pay of 75 hours, which is going to hurt significantly, especially since I just saw my hours halved and right now was when we’d planned to save up some money for the arrival of the little one in December. It just sucks because we’re not even sure about our living situation anymore. We just got all moved and settled in and now it hurts to know this might not last past the summer months. There’s no way we can afford this place if his hours get cut, too. And that more than likely means moving in with family in Boston until we can save up some money to get back on our feet. It’s a lot to think about right now and it’s even difficult to think about since there are so many uncertainties.

These past few days have been like one kick in the stomach after another. Its sickening to see all we’ve worked for this past year being taken away. And here we both thought we’d made it. But I guess you never really “make it” in the airlines until you’ve retired at 65 or were lucky enough to find a way out and into a more stable industry. That is - if the stress doesn’t give you a heart attack first.

On top of a complicated pregnancy, finding out my hours were cut and now this, I’m surprised I haven’t gone insane. How much bad news can a couple hear in two short days? What next? I’m just so fed up with everything and now I need to go into my place of work and talk to my boss about needing one of the measly three days I work next week off because of this doctor’s appointment coming up on Monday. I know they’re not going to be happy about it and I half expect them to give me a hard time, but I honestly don’t care anymore. When I’m barely even making enough money a month to pay for my car, I really don’t care to lose a few more days for doctor’s appointments. Right now these appointments are the only things I can look forward to (aside from my husband coming home from a trip), even though they’re also usually filled with not-so-happy news. But at least there’s potential to hear something good and at least I’ll have some answers on Monday concerning this pregnancy. Some answers regarding all of this other stuff that’s up in the air would be nice, too, though.