Anniversary

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In 31 years of marriage, which I celebrate today, there are many lessons to be learned.  In addition to the core curriculum of “love” and “respect”, I would add “listening 101” to the required courses for happiness in marriage.  Having flunked the course many times over the years, I’m technically on academic probation, but by the grace of my life instructor I see hope for a passing grade sometime before our golden anniversary.

When I announced to my wife that I was starting a blog, her aversion to “life in a fishbowl” became very evident.  She made it clear that didn’t want her name or picture on the Internet, perhaps because of watching one too many “Dateline” specials on cyber stalkers or identity theft.

Since I started my own blog on my own self-named website, we obviously don’t see eye-to-eye on this subject.  Viewing this as another quiz in “listening 101” I asked how I should refer to her, other than to say “my wife.”  With a perfectly straight face, she said I could call her “Pinky.”  Since my place is not to question why, I officially introduce you to Pinky, my wife of 31 years today.

A picture is worth a thousand words, so consider this one slightly discounted to roughly 925 due to the privacy bar I have inserted.  Here I am with Pinky on a trip to Solvang and Santa Barbara a few years ago.  Doesn’t she have a great smile?

We are blessed to have two great kids, Red and Pinky II (otherwise known as Ryan and Andrea, seen below).  Apparently they don’t share their mother’s grave concerns over the dangers of Internet exposure as both have My Space and Facebook sites, and Ryan is now responsible for developing Web 2.0 strategies for an international relief agency. 

 Seriously, I want to say that I’ve been blessed to have someone as caring and capable as Pinky in my life since our marriage in Gilbert, AZ on June 29, 1977 and I hope to be able to find new ways of showing her the love and respect she richly deserves, even if I am a bit of a late bloomer. 

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Today I’m writing about the first significant anniversary to be celebrated this week.  On June 27, 2006 I was in Louisville, KY for the North American Christian Convention which was to begin the next day.  Taking advantage of my proximity (all things are relative) to Mexico, MO I drove nearly 6 hours each way to visit the Zenith Aircraft factory where I took my very first demo flight in the Zenith Zodiac 601XL. 

This was the culmination of decades of dreaming and months of comparing various homebuilt aircraft, and I left that day with plan set #6493, a metric tape measure and a smile.  Now, two years later, I have wings and all control surfaces in the hangar, my engine is  a few months from completion, and I’m starting to tie together the bottom half of the fuselage.  In retrospect, I feel quite good about my progress, notwithstanding a couple of unplanned delays (for parts and recuperation from a sore back).  Based on my rate of progress and level of determination, I predict that N601VP should be ready for an FAA inspection by this time next year.  This is the view I’m most anxious to have some time in 2009. 

Three years to scratch build an airplane seems downright respectable when I hear sad tales of full kits just collecting dust…sometimes for decades.  For the record, I wouldn’t pick a different course, even if I had it to do all over again.  The amount of learning and satisfaction I have gained from scratchbuilding has been well worth the extra work and increased time to fabricate parts.  Above all, I’ve enjoyed joining the community of airplane builders from around the world.  What could be better than broadening your circle of friends while doing something you love?  I’m hooked.

If you’d like to track my building progress toward the plane you see below, jump on over to my weblog anytime at www.mykitlog.com/lwinger.

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