A day in the life of our Friend...

As posted in Anthony's blog...

http://aprenta.blogspot.com/

....which is linked from his website...

http://www.atkielski.com/default.html

Thursday, November 23, 2006
This was a bit of a bad day.

I couldn't sleep in the wee hours, as usual, so I fired up the Baron and
went for a trip. Tonight (virtual time) it was from Chandler Municipal (my
home airport) to Las Vegas . McCarren International Airport. I took the east
VFR transition through the Phoenix Class B, then out towards Blythe and up
the Colorado to Boulder, then into KLAS. I usually avoid Class B airports
when flying my little plane, but this was late and it was quiet, so I could
sneak in to a Big Airport without too much problem. I did misunderstand ATC
a bit and got confused, and ended up on final for the wrong runway, but when
I heard him expressing his reservations to another pilot, I realized my
error and swerved around back towards my assigned runway. No harm done,
fortunately. Once I landed, I couldn't figure out where the GA ramp
was-turns out that KLAS has very little GA parking. I thought about looking
for the Janet terminal, but eventually just parked in a quiet spot, with a
great view of the Strip.

That was the highlight of the day.

Finally it came time to go to school. By now I was finally starting to feel
tired, but it was too late to go to sleep. I walked to a distant Métro
station because mine is closed for renovation. As I descended onto the
platform, I heard announcements of "incidents" and saw tons of people
waiting, and realized that Line 13 was again screwed up. So I left and
started walking to school. I wanted to call to say I'd be late, but I had no
more credit on my cellphone, and only 4 euro in my pocket. And my land line
is disconnected because I haven't paid my telephone bill. So I showed up
half an hour late, losing my first class, which would have paid me all of 4
euro. It rained a bit as I walked to school. I don't have an umbrella.

After that, I went to the bank, as I had seen a bit of money on my account
and I wanted to withdraw it for groceries. I had to argue with the bank for
half an hour before they would let me withdraw any cash from my own account.
Seems there had been an "incident" (more incidents!) in the previous
month-meaning that a creditor had tried to seize money-and the bank felt
that I couldn't be trusted to withdraw cash from my own account. Maybe HSBC
has cash-flow problems or something. The teller found me a supervisor who
said this was "policy" and couldn't be changed. I asked for his name, and he
refused to give it-this told me that he really didn't know if it was policy
or not, and was afraid of getting in trouble if he were wrong. So I
persisted, and insisted on seeing the bank manager (and getting the
manager's name, if he wasn't too cowardly to give it). The bank then
relented and gave me my money. HSBC used to be CCF, which used to be
something else. Every few years, my bank is swallowed by a larger bank, and
service deteriorates. If you are poor, they aren' t even willing to give you
your own money; if you are rich, they invite you to lunch.

When I got back from the bank, I discovered that I had a student waiting for
me. Seems that a class had been added to my schedule a few days before. It
wasn't on the original schedule, and although I got a call about it, I
became distracted after the call and forgot to add it to my PDA. So I didn't
know about it, and missed most of it. Not paid for that.

I was prepared for my third class, but the student cancelled at the last
minute.

My fourth class went so-so. The student appeared, but was upset that he was
being billed for classes that he had had on vacation because the school had
forgot to deschedule them. Of course, I'll probably be the one who doesn't
get paid.

Then I had a meeting for four hours in the evening, and I forgot to prepare
for classes the next day.

I had some money so I bought McDonald's on the way home. It occurred to me
that today was Thanksgiving. I'm glad it isn't celebrated in France. Today
also marks the anniversary of my arrival in France, years ago. That was a
Thanksgiving day, too. Of course, back then I had lots of money, with
accountants and lawyers on retainers, and the bank would call to ask me out
to lunch. Now I have nothing, and the bank won't even give me money out of
my own account.
posted by Aprenta at 10:52 PM