I bought it because of my father.
Dad worked very hard from the time he was nine years old.[1] He had ideas and plans about what he wanted to do after he retired. But when he finally retired, a lot of those ideas were out of the question for medical reasons.
I had wanted my own airplane for a very long time. So, channeling a little bit of Travis McGee, when I could swing buying it, I did.
Was it a good move on a financial basis? Hell, no. Do I regret it? Not for a picosecond.
If you don't know the fun in being able to look outside at a nice day and decide to go for a flight, then I sort of pity you. There is a near absolute freedom in being able to fly.[2] By diving and then pulling up in a climb, I've made the Sun appear to set and then rise in the West. I've seen fireworks burst below my wings like colorful AAA fire. I've flown down over highways in the evening rush hour and seen the white headlights and red taillights turn the roads into rivers of light. I've seen Christmas light displays on houses that I've seen from ten miles off. I've circled a formation of Navy YP boats doing maneuvering exercises in Cape Cod Bay. I've flown in and out of airports with significant jet airline traffic and short grass strips, sometimes on the same day. I've gone on cross-country flights lasting from a couple of hours to ten days or more.
All are easy to do, but only if you have an airplane at your beck and call.
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[1] He grew up in the Depression. The stories usually began with: "You damn kids don't know how good you have it. Why, when I was your age..."
[2] Or there was until those 9-11 assholes ruined everything.
2 comments:
Stephanie,
Wow! I hear Roy Batty telling us about attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion and c-beams glittering in the dark near the Tanhauser Gate.
Nicely, nicely written. Yes, our magic carpets can and do take us to those kinds of places.
Thanks for the lovely words,
Frank
It's the time machine. Not one that gets you to the future but maybe a little into the past.
It the machine that makes the office
just like those ants, small and mostly insignificant. yet your not dreaming as your in the moment feeling the air and its undulations,
ripples and waves.
Those and many fun things like the $100 hamburger or flour bombing the designated tractor at a fun fly in.
Our favorite was one day doing a loop just burning gas trying to visit as many states and airports between sun up and enjoying sundown on the way home. Or the reflection on the evening ocean of the moon.
The things you can see from the air
take on a different dimension they become nearer and at the same time you can see the whole valley. Far
away is only time.
Yes, if you haven't, you don't know.
Eck!
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