What's this? Top noch customer service? In 2006?

Well my plane is finally fixed and flying again. I flew it for the first time this week since August (!!!!) and everything is working fine. Thanks to the patience of Ames, I was able to fly it two days this week before Christmas sets in, and while the weather was good.

My GPS has had a couple issues. First, the very first time I removed the power cord from the unit, the tip stayed in and the wires came out. Luckily, it came with two cords (one for the car) and I've been using the second. However, it's starting to come apart as well.

Secondly, and more concerning, the battery pack has stopped charging. This means that as soon as power is disconnected, the unit goes dead. One of the real benefits of this unit (in my opinion) is that in the event of an electrical failure, you still have navigation thanks to the battery. In fact, it even has a simulated instrument panel so you still have some instrumentation if you have an electrical and/or vacuum failure.

Anyway, all that is for naught if the battery doens't work. This morning I called Garmin, and after puching "5" for aviation equipment, someone answered the phone in one ring. I told them that I bought the unit about a year ago (I got it last December), and described the battery and cable issues. Lo and behold, they guy took my address and is shipping me a new battery and cable, no questions asked. He asked what version of the software I had on the unit, but since I left the unit in the plane, I don't even know.

So how about that. In an age where you can't even return Christmas presents to Target and get your money back, Garmin is shipping me replacement parts for a year-old unit without so much as a proof of purchase, and I was on and off the phone in 5 minutes. Amazing! Go Garmin!

Stuck at the airport

Apparently it takes a three-and-a-half-hour flight delay to give me time and motivation to post to my blog. At least I got an update posted before an entire month had past. I'm on my way to California for a 2 day work trip, which has now quickly become a one-and-a-half day work trip. The good news is that I got bumped up to first class. The bad news is that Indy doesn't have a NWA Club room, and so I don't get the comfy chairs and free internet while I'm waiting here. Oh well...

Amy again has posted plenty of family updates, including some really cute pictures, so in the very unlikely event that you are reading this without first reading her blog, you might want to check that out.

My exercise regime has gone to heck the last couple weeks, with a combination of travel and holidays getting in the way. This is my last trip to California this year, but of course there's Christmas travel now as well. Hopefully I can at least get a little bit of exercise during the coming weeks.

Nevertheless, soccer continues. We're now 2-5 this session. Due to a scheduling foobar, I was the only one on our team that showed up two weeks ago at the right time. The team I assembled at the last minute won that game, but it counts as a forfeit for us anyway. I suppose that makes me 3-4 as the goalkeeper even though we've lost one more than that.

And, we should have won our game this week. It was probably as good a team effort as we've put together this year. We played the best team in the league, in my opinion, even though it's the team we beat the first week and nearly beat again. Ah well... no one got hurt and it was a fun game to play, so that's good. We finally seem to have people showing up every week to play (the aforementioned schedule issue notwithstanding) which helps quite a bit. We still need some extra girls to play, but Stacey from the Indiana Venture Center tells me that she's going to sign up next session which will be a big help, assuming everyone else comes back as well.

Speaking of the IVC, I gave them official notice that I wouldn't be able to help them out much anymore given my increasing commitments with my other business projects. I haven't been able to go in nearly as much as they've asked me to anyway the last couple months, so this isn't really a change so much as it is me tell them "I've enjoyed helping out, but I'm too busy now - good luck to you." Haha. I'm sure I'll still go in once in a while when they have a company they'd like me to help out, but it's going to be really limited from now on.

Well, I guess I'll go stare out the window some more. They said the plane is down for maintenance, but it's just sitting here at the gate which leads me to believe that it's broken *and* no one is fixing it. That's not a good sign.