The Newsletter
Spare Part and Leftover Screws

Yes, it is really here. A new post. Looking back at my posts I realized that the last time I posted anything was when the world was supposedly mad at the French. It's been a LONG time. It's been a long time since I've sat down at this computer. I can't say that I missed it much. So much has happened. It is hard to believe that school ended about a month ago.

Since my last post:

I finished up finals. The more semesters I take the less relevant they become. Finals fell so low on my priority list it is a wonder I was able to get decent grades at all.

I said goodbye to a bunch of people. It happens every semester. I guess each time there are more and more. That is what I get for going through school so slowly. Everyone beats me out. So long Cowboy. Glad you are doing what you want to do. See you Steve. It's been fun jamming, sitting through classes, and talking about airplanes, the future, and how they are going to fit together. To the girls in the Yellow Ghetto House - it's been great being neighbors. Sorry my home improvements caused such a headache.

I made the trip home in record time - for the longest trip ever. After being delayed two days waiting for my commercial certificate paperwork to go though I left in the mid afternoon to get stuck in a traffic jam caused by a combination of Friday night rush hour, a bridge, constuction on the bridge, and and accident on the bridge involving at least 6 cars. Fun stuff. Then I stopped at a hotel for the night and overslept. Then I got diverted 100 miles out of my way due to an accident closing my road and missing the exit back on the right one. Then I stopped to help someone who blew a transmision. (I let them use my phone to call a tow truck - something blew a hole in the bell casing in its hurry to exit the gearbox.) Then as I was pulling back onto the highway I heard a load bang, followed by the loudest 1.9 cylinder engine I have ever heard in my life. I limped off at the exit a mile down the road and discovered that the down pipe on my exhaust had completely separated from my exhaust manifold. In addition the hot gases had burnt through the vacuum line for my power assist brakes. (It was a bit of a surprise to realize I had to jump on the brakes to stop as I exited I-81) I needed to clamp the exhaust system back together, but there was no VW dealer even remotely close by, so some chick offered to call her dad to see if he could help. I asked him to bring a vise grips and a carpenters C-clamp. He arrived a bit later slightly drunk and very confused, but with the clamp in hand. I managed to get it clamped back together with the additional help of some baling twine and went on my way. I splice the vacuum line back together with a random bit of tubing I bought at the only open parts store in town and limped back into my driveway well into sunday morning. Pretty exciting stuff really.

I started work. It's always a change to switch hats between school and work, moving from shooting approaches to pulling wires, from airplanes to houses. It's great. Almost therapeutic. I was getting burned out with airplanes to the point where I didn't want to set foot in another one for a very long time. Now it is great to got to work and come home at the end of the day with nothing else to think about until the next morning.

I am preparing for my trip to Africa. The latest development there is that we have to find a new way to get there. Last week British Airlines received terrorist threats against flights into Naroibi Kenya. They stopped their flights and my ticket became a bookmark. They are working on other possibilities. I'll keep you posted.

That's been my life the last month. Hope yours has been as good.