I set a goal for this year of at least two blog posts per month and I was doing pretty well… but then life events forced me to put writing on hold for a while. You see, my mother passed away somewhat unexpectedly at the end of May. Those of you who know me or who have followed this blog for a few years will remember that my father passed away back in 2016. Losing my mom means that both my parents are gone now, which means my brother and I face the added stress of dealing with my mom’s estate. Definitely not fun.
Everyone copes with grief in their own way. For some people the idea of returning to work after a loss might be unbearable. For me, however, going back to work was a lifeline. It allowed me to get back into a routine, but more importantly, it provided me with a much-needed daily dose of aviation therapy. And oh my goodness what excellent therapy it has been!
When I pulled into the parking lot on my first day back I noticed there was a large airplane sitting across the airfield, but I was too distracted to give it a lot of thought. However, when I got to my department I could clearly see an Atlas 747 sitting on the south ramp. Atlas always flies into the cargo airport – why was it at the passenger airport? Actually, who the heck cares! I’m just so glad I got to see it. (For those who are wondering, it was a military charter flight.)
Photo by Andrew Stricker
That was just the start of several days of really great plane spotting. Some of the planes I got to see included:
A whole bunch of bizjets from Target Inc. (Target has great taste in airplanes!)
A KC-135 practicing touch-and-goes.
A beautiful Cessna 195:
Three big beauties headed to the cargo airport:
A sweet little Skylane:
A Hondajet:
A National Air 757:
And perhaps best of all, two A-10s! Sadly I couldn’t get a good picture of them because of how they were parked. But that’s OK. Getting to see them at all was a huge treat that really lifted my spirits.
However, the ultimate in aviation therapy is just a month away – Airventure Oshkosh. Once again I plan to be there all week. As always, I’ll be handing out bacon jerky at Oshbash so if you’ll be at Airventure on Tuesday, July 23, please join us. No, not even 10,000 airplanes can make up for the loss of my mom. But I can’t think of a better place to find my smile again. Hope to see you there!
Tales from the Terminal 
Deepest condolences on the loss of your Mom.
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Thanks, Tim!
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Hi Jenn:
Also sorry to hear about your mom. My parents have been gone for years and now it’s my wife’s family who is trudging through the loss process. I second your comments about estate issues.
On the brighter side, you do see to shoot a heck of a lot of pictures. Nice.
What kind of camera and lens do you use to record your adventures?
Rob
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Thanks, Rob! Sorry to hear your wife’s family is dealing with similar issues. My camera is a Canon PowerShot SX60HS – a fairly straight-forward point-and-shoot type of camera with a 65X Optical zoom. Nothing too fancy but it gets the job done quite nicely!
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Sorry for your loss.
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Thanks so much!
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So sorry you have to endure the loss. Between all the hugs flying to you, and some solid aviation therapy, I know you got this! Really looking forward to meeting you at #OSH19.
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Thanks so much! And likewise! So ready for Osh!
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Great photos as always. I am sure we will try our best to find your smile again at Oshkosh. I am so looking forward to you again.
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Thanks, Glen! Can’t wait to see you!
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I’m sorry to hear about your mom — that’s never easy, no matter what age or stage of life you’re in.
But it’s great that you have a job you look forward to and hobbies that bring you so much enjoyment. Can’t image your mom wouldn’t be happy about that!
The PowerShot line is excellent. I used them for many years until the quality of smartphone cameras and their constant presence in my pocket made them, finally, a go-to choice. I won a photography contest with one of those pictures, and used to buy a Canon SLR. Sad to say, I rarely carry it. When I think about getting advanced lenses and other accoutrements, it’s usually for the iPhone (ie. Moment lenses) rather than the SLR.
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Thanks, Ron! The camera takes much better pics than my phone and it isn’t too much of a hassle to carry around so for now I’m going to stick with it.
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This is incredibly therapeutic. Thanks so much for sharing!
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Thanks for reading, David!
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