Planes, Trains, and........

Well, maybe not the trains, but we got the planes and automobiles down. MFO is trekking in the Momster across the bottom of the country, and today expects to RON in Palm Desert, CA. If I get it together sufficiently, I’ll pack tonight and ride the great silver bird tomorrow and we will converge on a Marriott near the airport in San Francisco tomorrow night. At least one of us will breathe a great sigh of relief.

Hopefully, once we’re a pair again we’ll have time to stroll down to San Diego to see our best friends there, and have some good home cooked (she’s a wonderful cook) and restaurant food. I suspect there are wineries along the way in a place called Santa Barbara.

Between the winter weather here, and then what descended upon her in Abilene, it seems the winter of 2010 continues to make us at least stressed, if not uncomfortable. It has been an interesting time, the times that try men’s (mine) souls. You know in your heart that everything will be fine, but I always descend into “what if” or, “what’s going on”…. Cell phones are a wonderful invention. Just think, you can dial a number and call somebody who is actually driving along a road.

On a happier note, I am watching the Pro-Am at Pebble Beach on the golf channel, and due to the outing with FOJTE last year, I can say: “Hey! I’ve been there!; I parred that hole!: I put it in the ocean there (No. 7)!; I picked up at about that point”. What a great experience. And what remains one of those memories you always take with you was the “girls” cheering and meeting us on 18, that classic golf hole, and then adjourning to the deck of the Inn at Pebble Beach and enjoying a perfectly made dry Manhattan, on the rocks, with a twist with family and friends..life can be good.. or, as that FOJTE is fond of quoting: “living well is the best revenge”.

Lastly, I was saddened today to learn of the death of Henry Katz, a special friend and mentor during my matriculation as a flutter engineer. It was his tuteledge (with help from others) which eventually led to my (dubious) status as “Flutter One” on the F-18 E/F test program. Henry was a unique person, from his stories of being an alternate on the “Sviss Ski Team”; the weirdest golf swing I’ve ever seen, our races to Edwards Air Force Base from Lancaster, his favorite Swiss Doicha saying which starts out with (something like) “weira sevichta……”. Henry had been in this country for a long time, but you still had to say “what?” sometimes to wade through his accent. Life is occasionally blessed by special people and Henry was one of them. He will be remembered by the McDonnell Douglas flutter family…I hope he meets up with Frank Foppe…

Okay, suitcases and Dopp Kits beckon. Next publication will be from the road somehow, on the trail of great food and wine..and I have packed enough clothes to always be

DFD

what a long strange trip... it will be...