I've dug ditches, framed houses, mowed lawns, shoveled driveways, built stone walls, bussed tables, and bar teneded. All of this while in high school and college to pay for my flying lessons (and my racing dinghys; a 505 and Laser).

In college after my sophmore year, I got a job flying freight at night in a twin engine turbo prop, hauling cancelled checks and overnight film mostly.

On Monday through Thursday nights, we departed Boston at 9pm, to JFK, to Detroit (City airport, on the shore of Lake St. Clair) then back to JFK, back to Boston, arrive at 0600, then drive to an 0800 class at UNH, a good 1 1/2 hour drive north of Logan, if it wasn't snowing. Sit in classes from 0800-1200, go home, go to bed at 1pm, get up at 7pm, eat, drive to Boston and do it all over agian. This was my job through college. I had to take classes all summer to make up for the ones I slept through during fall and spring semesters. <img src="http://www.catsailor.com/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" />

In 1981, after graduation from UNH with a BS in Business Admin. (transfered to Business from Engineering when I got that night freight job) I joined the NH Air Guard to fly KC135's and then in 1985 was hired by Delta Air Lines.

Been flying since I was about 8 only because my dad had a Piper Cub and was an instructor at a little grass strip 1/4 mile from our house in Hampton, NH. So I got a lot of stick time early in life from him, but I also pounded a lot of nails in high school. Those flying lessons didn't come cheap!

Now after 22+ years at Delta, I can just sit up there at 35,000' for 16 hours, picking lint out of my belly button, somewhere over Iran or Afganistan or Pakistan, on my way to Mumbai, wondering if Delta is going to survive $100/bbl oil for the next 15 years so I can retire to a big cat in the Keys...or maybe I'll go back to digging ditches, and retire to "Living in a van, down by the River!"

"The world needs ditch diggers too, Danny."