Today is starting to look more like winter. The sky is grey and overcast and there is a distinctive chill in the air this morning. The last few days here have been clear, with temperatures hovering in the 70s. I suppose it was too good to last.

One of the co-workers who was to arrive this morning sent me an email last night indicating she had misconnected on her flight in Atlanta due to thunderstorms and that tonight’s flight was booked full. We had a full agenda scheduled, so I’m not sure how this is going to shake out, but it definitely throws a wrench into our plans here.

The other co-worker is arriving this morning as well — on his first trip to Brazil. He was to meet up with the first person and together, come in a pre-arranged car to the hotel. I hope he is able to figure out how to get from Guarulhos Airport to the other side of the city, where we are staying. I don’t envy his position right now. He served a mission in western Canada and I’m pretty sure that didn’t include language skills (“Eh?”).

This photo was taken when I first moved to Washington DC in early 1983 as part of the BYU “semester abroad” program. I started out as a legislative intern in the office of Wyoming Senator Alan K. Simpson.

Back to work today after a 16-day hiatus. Not exactly looking forward to today, but not necessarily dreading it either.

I suspect this year will bring a lot of changes to my job and responsibilities and I welcome them for the most part.

Sometimes it’s best to not know what they are all at once — and to take them on gradually; like bit-by-bit filling the saddlebags on a camel so he has time to get used to each pound before another is added.

We’ve got snow forecasted for today and tomorrow, so there will be some anomalies to deal with on the commute.

On January 3, 1984, I started a new job as a Customer Service Manager for People Express Airlines based out of Newark, New Jersey.

Here is my ID badge with the 1987 revalidation stamp — the year we were bought and merged into Continental Airlines:

As a former employee of Continental Airlines (I would have celebrated 25 years on January 3, 2009), I was saddened to hear of the aborted takeoff and subsequent low-level crash landing in Denver late last week.

Whilst perusing the London Times, I found three illustrative photos of the ‘totalled’ 737-500 aircraft: