I know I’ve only been posting link articles on Fridays – I said I was going to be doing that and didn’t want to go back on my word. I’m in the middle of my second 12-day Europe trip in 30 days and it is really kicking my butt. I guess my body is too used to going to Asia.

I normally sleep well on my Asia trips and feel coherent enough to post once in a while. Most of my nights in Europe, though, have been spent tossing and turning. The majority of my productive sleep has come during the day – when I would normally be asleep at home. When I get a layover back in the U.S. I have been going out to get something to eat and then sleeping for 10-11 hours, waking up and repacking to go to the airport.

Right now my body thinks it is about 3 am and I’m really dragging, but it’s noon here in Milan and I just finished a 9-hour flight from JFK that ended with a Cat III ILS . Temperature inversion fog was blanketing the whole area. It was clear and 59 F (15 C) at 1500’ AGL when we went into the clouds and at ground level it was 32 F (0 C) with no wind and 500’ (150 m) visibility.

Yep, this is really living the exotic life of an international airline pilot. I’m going to bed in hopes that I’ll get enough sleep to be able to go out to dinner and not pass out into my pasta.

Four more days and three more crossings of the Atlantic on this trip and then I’ll get some time off.

Bear with me, I’ll get back to a regular writing schedule soon.