In late January the aviation community lost a great man. To me he was a mentor, an online-friend, and someone who always had an encouraging word. To many others he was so much more. My only regret is that I never got to meet him in person and we lived so close. RIP Ken Calman...
Thank goodness there was an extra day in the already short month of February! I was preparing for Ragnar Del Sol at the end of the month and knew that I would solo soon.
On morning, shortly after hearing news of Ken's passing I headed to South Mountain Park to get in a good quality trail training run. As I was pulling into the parking area my phone rang. It was two ladies from AOPA calling about a scholarship application I had submitted. They said they had a few more questions for me and asked if it was a good time to chat. Of course it was a good time! We talked for a few minutes and then they said thank you. I was expecting, "thank you, we will get back to you." Instead it was, "thank you, we have made our decision and would like to award the scholarship to you."
I was dumbfounded for a moment and said, "thank you," and then it started to sink in. We chatted a few more minutes and they said they would follow up with an email. We hung up the phone, I got out of my van, and proceeded to jump up and down saying, "YES! YES! YES!" I'm sure the golfers nearby thought I was a crazy woman.
The very next thing I did was call my hubby and a very close friend of Ken's and my friend Bonnie. I knew she would appreciate the good news and she has been so supportive of me. Next I called my friend Ginger who kept sending me links to scholarships and encouraging me to get my apps in. After the phone calls I had the best 6 mile trail run I'd had in a long time. I was running on air!
February 6, 2012 I soloed, that was most exciting! I continued to fly and had a couple more solo flights. Then I got sick. There was definitely something going around. I recovered but hadn't done much running and Ragnar was a week away! I flew on the Wednesday before Ragnar and ended up sick again. Thursday I was really sick and slept all day. Friday was go day for Ragnar. I will do a separate Ragnar post but that was an up and down weekend in itself.
In the middle of all of this my wonderful husband and I celebrated our 21st wedding anniversary (the photo is from our 20th). Celebrated is a bit of an exaggeration, with busy kids, work, flying, and just life, our anniversary was more of an acknowledgement of our love and an evening at home.
All in all February was a good month and a reminder to not take people for granted. Drive across town if you have to, don't be too tired or whatever to take the time to spend with the people you love.
~Blue skies and tailwinds
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