Fresh on Fridays: Snow!
National Native American Heritage Month – Kus-de-cha, Pilot — Transportation History
Mary Riddle won widespread acclaim as one of the first Native American women to earn an airplane pilot’s license. She was born in the community of Bruceport in Washington in 1902. A lifelong resident of the Pacific Northwest, Riddle was a member of both the Quinault Indian Nation in Washington and the Clatsop Tribe in […]
via National Native American Heritage Month – Kus-de-cha, Pilot — Transportation History
Words on Wednesdays: For the Love of Amelia
November is NaNoWriMo
“I hear, you have a new Certified Flight Instructor.” said the sweetest, gentlest voice, I ever heard. “I’ve heard great things. I hear he is a great instructor, not like …” the voices faded,
“Yes, what of it, Amelia Mary Earhart? Are you ready to commit to lessons?” taunted Chung, loudly.
“You know it is not Earhart, but Aaronhart. Is he in?” persisted the sweet, gentle voice.
“Maybe,” replied Chung, irritatingly.
“Come on Chung, I want to talk to him, please,” begged the sweet, soft voice.
“For you anything, sweet Amelia Mary Earhart. Anything!” responded Chung.
After, what seemed ages, “John Francisco Adams!” barked Chung. “There’s someone here for you.”
“Hello.” I said as I turned around the corner as swiftly as I could. Being unemployed and in search of any student, I was desperate to get up in the air.
“I’m John. Are you looking for an instructor?”
“Hi, I am Amelia,” said the most beautiful, absolutely, breathtaking person I had ever come across in my entire life. I gazed unabashedly, awestruck by what I saw. It felt surreal. This can’t be real?
“I am looking to get my private pilot license,” she said. “I work at AvTech, on the field” she pointing over her shoulder to a large hanger across from the flight school.
“When would you like to start? Have you ever flown in a small aircraft before?” I asked.
That was how I met the love of my life. Although, it would take me almost two more years to get the courage to ask and commit.
Over the next few months, I taught Amelia to fly. It was almost towards the end of her flight instruction before her check ride, that I managed to find the courage to ask her out to coffee. We spent two hours laughing and talking, and then walked over to the diner for a burger and a pint.
Over the next few weeks, I trained Amelia and helped her obtain her private pilot certificate. Six months later, we were living together. Amelia was like a sunshine in my life, and I could not imagine my life without her. It happened so fast, that sometimes I wondered, if it was too good to be true.
Amelia worked at AvTech LLC. She had recently graduated with a degree in Aerospace Engineering from University of California in Los Angeles. AvTech was a unique organization. Since 2001 when the in aftermath of 911, the aviation industry had suffered immensely and airlines have gone out of business or retired their fleet, the graveyard came into being. AvTech had one of the biggest graveyards of all in the Mohave Desert.
For me, I couldn’t imagine my life without Amelia.
Monday Morning Inspiration: Volante Vision
Fresh on Fridays: Idyllic
Words on Wednesdays: Chung
November is NaNoWriMo
“It’s time”
I revolted. “Now, ” I asked.
It can’t be. I thought desperately. How can it be now. It was still premature. I hadn’t seen anything or suspected anything to make me think a change was needed.
“He is highly erratic and uncontrollable. He has been saying things. Once he had a drink, he is beyond control.”
“It’s Nathan! Dammit! We were in Nam together…”, my voice petered out.
“Are you telling me you wont do it? Is this the time you are telling me that you are not capable of doing the things you promised?”
I had gotten myself into things far beyond me. I couldn’t do this to Nathan. All the visions we had as teenagers, about country, about the world, about freedom, and all the good we could do.
Nathan, who had saved my life. Who was going to save him now?
Monday Morning Inspiration: BlackFly
Fresh on Fridays: Fall
Money is the root of all evil
“So you think that money is the root of all evil?” said Francisco d’Anconia. “Have you ever asked what is the root of money? Money is a tool of exchange, which can’t exist unless there are goods produced and men able to produce them. Money is the material shape of the principle that men who wish to deal with one another must deal by trade and give value for value. Money is not the tool of the moochers, who claim your product by tears, or of the looters, who take it from you by force. Money is made possible only by the men who produce. Is this what you consider evil?
“When you accept money in payment for your effort, you do so only on the conviction that you will exchange it for the product of the effort of others. It is not the moochers or the looters who give value to money. Not an ocean of tears nor all the guns in the world can transform those pieces of paper in your wallet into the bread you will need to survive tomorrow. Those pieces of paper, which should have been gold, are a token of honor – your claim upon the energy of the men who produce. Your wallet is your statement of hope that somewhere in the world around you there are men who will not default on that moral principle which is the root of money. Is this what you consider evil?
“Have you ever looked for the root of production? Take a look at an electric generator and dare tell yourself that it was created by the muscular effort of unthinking brutes. Try to grow a seed of wheat without the knowledge left to you by men who had to discover it for the first time. Try to obtain your food by means of nothing but physical motions – and you’ll learn that man’s mind is the root of all the goods produced and of all the wealth that has ever existed on earth.
–Francisco d’Anconia from the Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
Continue to read the full speech here.
