Live today as though it is your last day!
Live today as though it is your last day!
I wanted to face the big five 0 feeling as though I had accomplished things that had feared. One of them was to work though my fears of flying so that I could fly with Roy. This has taken time and I am getting better every time I fly in his Cessna. Another fear was learning to ride a motorcycle and get my license so I too could ride the Black Hills of South Dakota in August.
I had inherited a really nice Harley Sportster 1200 a year ago when my younger sister had passed away and her husband no longer had the desire for the bike. It made me think that I could get past my fear of motorcycles, especially, if I were the one navigating. I would be in control of what may or may not happen on the road.
Life’s lesson number one is to understand that we don’t really have control, and we must learn to let go of the real fears that keep us from finding joy in today and in what tomorrow might bring.
All this being said, I had gotten my permit a year ago, but not without having to endure what I thought was the most traumatic experience in motorcycle school. which is another story!
Time flew by and the year was up last Tuesday. This meant I either needed to come to terms with the fact that I wasn’t going to achieve this license (goal) as believed by the motorcycle instructor who told me, or I needed to do it today. Although I had my permit now a year, time hasn’t allowed me the opportunity to practice as I should over the past several month and in fact, I have dropped this bike more times than I care to share with you and I had only gotten the bike off our runway once.
The true test of love was seeing Roy who is 6’6 and much too tall for a 1200 motorcycle, take a day off from the office, (which is not an easy sacrifice for Roy) and ride it to Phoenix on a busy freeway, where I needed to take the driving part of the test . (he didn’t want me ridding it on the highway in busy traffic and as you finish reading this, you will understand why).
Once we got to the testing site, there were 5 young men with crotch rockets ready to take the test, I had asked the evaluator to take the boys first. Afterwards, I asked him if I could practice first. He did agree and I did practice, and also burned out the clutch, and dropped the bike at least once! Thank goodness the instructor wasn’t there and all I hurt was my pride. Roy had to pick the bike up and in spite my being embarrassment and wanting to quit, he said “you’re doing fine and this is not easy, get back on and practice it one more time” not sure what was fine about it, however, I did and needless to say, I listen to the inside voice that we all have and knew that I was not ready for the road test. We ended up spending the rest of the day having to call Roy’s good friend Mike, who had to leave his work, get his trailer and come take the bike to his place where he could fix it again for me, .
To my surprise, the evaluator gave me an extension of 6 months on my permit. Not sure if that is what they do or if he felt my frustrations. At any rate, I want going to ask, but rather, spend more time practicing and retake the road test in the spring. This will be a good excuse to get Roy out and away from the office to enjoy the fresh air and ride the hills of Sedona. I am now even more determined to face 50 this year, achieving this goal and many others that I feared for years and perhaps kept me from enjoying the true pleasures of life.
If you can dream it, you can achieve it!
Margie…
Erin’s Wedding
On Saturday my little “Moose” got married, here is a video of their wedding:
And here is my speech that I wrote:
Good evening everyone, I hope you are all enjoying yourselves. I’d like to think that I can always be relied on for two things. One is I love a good party, so you’re all under orders from me to have a good time this evening. And the second is I don’t normally like paying for it, so make the most of this rare occasion
Standing here in front of all of you today, I feel incredibly old. To me, it was only yesterday that Erin was born. I remember holding her in my arms seconds after entering the world, blonde hair, blue eyes, 22 inches long with 12 inches being her long and lanky legs. It was then I nicknamed her Moose.
I never thought that I’d ever be as happy as I was then, but I was wrong. Seeing my Moose look as radiant as she does on her wedding day makes me happier than I ever thought possible. I am so proud of everything that she has become.
Marriage, they say, is made in heaven. Well I’m afraid I have to disagree. This marriage was not made in heaven, it was made online on the Internet, while Erin was sitting next to me building our first online empire in the fall of 2006, Radarbusters.
Erin and Thomas had their first face to face meeting in Phoenix which quickly escalated to 400 mile round way trips up to Flagstaff each weekend.
In January of 2007 is when Erin broke this shocking news to me “Dad, I’m in love with Thomas and I’m moving to Flagstaff, I’m going to marry him”
Now being an ex cop and a suspicious father and not knowing anything about you Thomas, I made several enquiries about you at the Flagstaff Police Department and the Coconino Sheriff’s Office as I thought that would be a good place to start digging for dirt about my future son-in-law. But they had nothing to say … except that you were the perfect guest whenever you stayed over.
Having been in the wedded state the last twenty eight years of my life, I am in a position to offer our newlyweds some timely advice: give and take. That’s the secret of a happy marriage, I have found. Give and take. They’re the key words. The wife gives the orders and Thomas, that’s right … you take them. In conclusion, I would like you both to say just one short phrase each that you can remember all your married lives, which should help remind you both of your obligations and the roles you will play in the coming years. Thomas, will you repeat after me, ‘I’m sorry dear, I screwed up’. And Erin, will you repeat after me, ‘Don’t worry dear, just don’t do it again’.
Ladies and gentlemen …
Here’s to the husband
And here’s to the wife.
May they be as one – The rest of their life.
to Thomas and My Moose!
Margie’s First Cross Country Flight
Yesterday Margie and I made our first trip in our C182 to Las Vegas for the SEMA show.
After checking the latest weather briefings online and filing our VFR flight plan, we walked out to our hanger fifty feet outside our front door, did a preflight inspection and taxied onto our runway for departure.
After departure we climbed and leveled out at 8500 feet for the one and a half hour flight.
My iPhone seldom works from the air, but Margie’s Blackberry maintained a solid connection throughout the flight as she was sending text messages to our daughter, her friends and my flight instructor keeping them all updated on her first cross country in N918RR.
After landing at KHND Margie gave me a high five for a perfect landing
We grabbed a rental car, checked into our hotel and she then dropped me off at the Las Vegas Convention Center for the SEMA show.
I taped several interviews with my pals at Escort Radar and Leon from Blinder (see www.RadarRoy.com)
I then caught a cab back to our Hotel and Margie and I met up with Caleb Jennings at the Rio Seafood Buffet for dinner.
Caleb is one of the brightest and committed Internet Marketers that I’ve ever met and works directly for the legionary Joe Sugarman.
After diner Margie and I headed to the Palazzo to see Jersey Boys.
Growing up in Belleville NJ and having a neighbor that was “connected” I met Frankie Valli several times when he came back to the neighborhood for his Sunday family dinners, so I was able to relate to many of the situations and characters that were portrayed during the show.
After the show Margie and I both agreed that we would be making another trip to Vegas to see another showing, we enjoyed it so much.
This morning we both got up early and drove to the Wedding Chapel that our daughter Erin will be getting married at in February. As it was early in the morning, the chapel was not yet open, but we both commented on how attractive the grounds were and how they had all the amenities all in one location.
We then headed back to KHND (Henderson Executive Airport), returned the rental car and loaded up our suitcase into N918RR for departure.
While flying over Kingman I checked our weather reporting station at our home base and found out that the winds we blowing at 15 knots, gusting to 25 from the southeast. As this is the standard approach for our airpark I diverted to E25 (Wickenburg Airport).
A friend of ours met us at the Airport and drove us back home and I returned a few hours later when the winds became more manageable to land at our home.
I caught Margie several times covering her eyes when she began questioning my flying abilities or getting rocked around when we hit turbulence south of Kingman, but all in all she was a great champ on her first cross country trip in N918RR
My Father’s Day Gift
I figured that my father’s day was going to be pretty uneventful as my daughter Erin and her boyfriend Thomas were in Chicago for a week long business trip and vacation.
Well halfway through my special day I got an email from Thomas with a link to the following YouTube video, my little girl became engaged!
This was one great fathers day gift as Thomas will make a great SON IN LAW!!
Congrats to the both of you guys!!!
Weekend Flight to Monument Valley
Earlier this week I outfitted the C182T with a dual digital video recording system from DataToys.com and I was looking forward to put it through its paces.
So yesterday morning Jim Ferman , a pilot for Continental airlines and a long time friend jumped aboard 918RR with me for a flight up to Monument Valley.
The DataToys dual system allowed me to mount one camera just about the wing strut and one camera in the cabin and interfacing my headset into the DVR which was secured under the rear seat of the plane.
Prior to departure we aligned the cameras and tested the system. However we mistakenly plugged the audio cable into the wing camera, so the audio did not sync up correctly with the cabin camera.
We took off from out strip and the footage during takeoff into the sunrise was awesome!
As we both wanted to save room on the sixteen gig data card for our flight over Monument Valley, we powered the camera off and headed toward Page to grab some lunch.
As this was my first time ever being in Page, we started our recording about ten miles south of the airport and entered into the airport pattern above the lake.
After fueling up or belies and the plane and taking care of some minor maintenance we jumped back aboard and rearranged the luggage on the back seat prior to departure.
It was at this point of moving stuff around that I suspect that the power cable from the external battery pack came unconnected from the main DVR unit.
During takeoff I flipped on the power switch to the DVR and flew the lake route east into Utah then south over Mexican Hat and into Monument Valley.
After an hour buzzing all the tourists in their motor homes on the ground and excited about the great video we thought we were recording, we headed off for the airstrip at Gouldings Lodge for dinner.
After returning to the plane at sunset we found that the battery pack had come disconnected and realized that we didn’t record any video over the valley, but our still photos we took with our digital cameras saved the day.
This coming week I’ll correct my installation errors and will secure the power cable to prevent it from becoming disconnected and plug the audio cable into the correct port so the audio is better synced with the cabin camera.
But overall I’m very impressed with the video and sound quality of this camera system and I’m looking forward in using it in future flights!
Stay Out of the Dog House on Your Anniversary
Tomorrow is our twenty eight wedding anniversary, the year of the orchard.
I remember the first couple years of being married, just could never get this gift thing down just right.
As an example, here is a list of gifts that I actually bought for my wife that got me into the dog house.
First Christmas – One of the gift’s I bought Margie our first Christmas was a pink fluffy robe. I thought it was kind of cool looking and it would keep her warm those nights I wasn’t at home working the graveyard shift as a cop. WRONG, was thrown into the dog house…
Second Christmas – Well I was a cop, you want to make sure that your wife is safe at home while you’re working, so I bought her a shinny chrome .38 revolver. You guessed it, dog house…
Then it was birthdays one year I bought her a sewing machine, dog house. Think I’d learn the next time around? Hell no, I buy a damn vacuum cleaner!
Well finally after all these years I finally figured it all out (I hope) and I bought her a gift card from her FAVORITE STORE, Home Depot.
HOLLY CRAP! HEY WHERE IS THIS PLACE?????
I’m back in the Dog House…..
Love you Margie, it’s been a great 28 years, can you please bring me back in now 
My First SEO Class
This week I’m hosting my very first SEO training workshop here in Phoenix. I have five students in my two day basic class and two student’s in my three day advanced class.
During day two, I gave my class their first assignment, develop an Internet marketing strategy for a company that makes “doggy” water bottles.
This seven minute video follows the students during their mind mapping of this project.