Chapter Five

 

 

Tuesday June 27,2006

 

"The worst flooding in recent memory." That was the headlines in the paper today. I'm not a stickler for exactitude in my English grammar but I would like a little tighter parameters when it comes to time. For me "recent memory" is last week. What do you think they meant?

 

 

My airplane hiding inside a hangar at Reading Airport.

 

 

Rain. See the video “Rain”. My goodness, I live near Seattle and I thought I knew what rain was. Guess not! I have been in Reading, Pennsylvania for what seems like an eternity, well, maybe half an eternity. The locals pronounce it, "Red-ing". There's got to be something wrong with people that pronounce it that way but I haven't found it yet. I'm looking though. I thought I found it today when I went by River Road and it was actually a river. Tonight on the TV News they said that River Road was closed because the river washed it out. I'll look for something else tomorrow. I know that in New York City, Times Square is actually a triangle. No one seems to mind.

 

I seem to be having low math issues this week. I looked at the cost of flying back to Seattle on a commercial jet for a week to wait out this weather. I did low math for hours, hotel, car, food verses taxi to Philadelphia and round trip airfare to Seattle and then the return. It's a holiday week end, fourth of July, and the air fare was high. The math said it was a break even deal. I decided to ask for a rate reduction on my hotel and rental car...  It took two days of math and begging. My head still hurts but staying in Red-ing turned out to be less money.

 

I'm now five weeks into a three week trip. I think this is a perverted form of low math. I also have two airplanes and one hangar. That math doesn't work out either.

 

 

 

 

I'm not wealthy by any means. I just looked at my age and said, "If not now, when"? I bought an antique biplane right after that. (See chapter one) After the first one didn't work out, five years later I bought a second one. I only look smarter than that. The picture of the two biplanes side by side is of my old, restored from the wreck Bird and my new Bird. The blue one is my new one and the black one is my old one. Look at the upper wings. Kinda look like parasols don’t they? See the videos “1st Bird” and “1st Bird A”.

 

 

 

I like operating a machine that requires lots of old style maintenance, better known as grease from a hand pumped grease gun.  I have to grease the engine every four hours. I can only fly three hours before I have to stop for gas. Another low math trick. You'd think one of those Harvard Nobel Math/Physics Prize winner guys could stop thinking about String Theories for a minute and help us folks down here on Earth work our lives out a little better.

 

 

See the video “Preflight”. This is just one of the steps I do when I look at the plane to see if all the necessary parts are still on the thing.

 

It looks like I'm out of here tomorrow morning, Thursday, June 29th.