It’s hard for me to believe that I’m turning thirty one today. Sure, I’m certainly grateful to continue to enjoy birthdays, but if I thought that thirty seemed old, thirty one seems even older, as I am no longer on the cusp of the thirties, but now firmly entrenched in them.

We’re over the North Pacific, at 11,600 meters, roughly 38,000 feet (we’re in Russian airspace, and they like meters instead of feet). I feel pretty blessed to be spending my birthday aboard a Cathay Pacific 747 that we are piloting from Anchorage to Hong Kong. There are three pilots, and we each get about a three hour break on this 12 hour flight. I’m still not used to being paid to take a break while flying.

Yes, I’d like to be home with Laura, but it’s still pretty cool to be at work. I look at it like an opportunity to be in the cockpit of a 747 for a birthday “free ride” gift. If someone had told me twenty years ago that I’d be flying a 747 for my birthday at thirty one, I would have jumped for joy. I’m still excited, but it is a job, after all.

I get home in a few days, and then I’ll celebrate surviving thirty one years here on Earth with Laura and her family. I hope to get home to Texas to see my family sometime in March, as it’s almost been a year since I’ve been down to the great red dirt state of Texas. My schedule needs to cooperate to make that happen. As I take stock of my life so far, I can see nothing but the gracious blessing of God’s hand, undeservedly so, everywhere I’ve gone. He protected my family growing up in Indonesia, gave me the opportunity to learn to fly and go to school in Indiana, protected my jobs with the airlines, given me a great wife, a house, and family.

With the current economic troubles the globe is having and God’s promise to end this world someday, I have no idea what my future holds, and what will happen in my next thirty one years. But I know, just as I look out the windows and see the sun rising above the clouds, that His hand is protecting me on this airplane, that His hand is also guiding me along life’s turbulent waters, and that He will be blessing me all along the way. Why? It’s simple: He promises too.

There are birthday pics if you click on my photo above.

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Laura and I braved the -2 degree (F) temps last night to head up to J Gilbert’s for her birthday. J Gilbert’s is a great steak place on the north side of Columbus, and they had sent us a $25 dollar off coupon for her birthday. Saving $25 dollars was a good start 😉

We had a great time as the steaks and food are always amazing. You can smell the hickory wood smoke from their wood fired grill steaming off your steak, and that makes all your food taste even better.

I don’t know much about global warming, but we woke up to -13 degrees (F) here in Ohio! That’s a full 30 degrees colder than it was in Anchorage, Alaska, when I was there last week. Sweet Pea does not like cold weather, but unfortunately, that’s what was called up for her birthday.

Happy Birthday Sweet Pea!

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While in training at Cathay Pacific, I am staying in their own hotel, the Headland. The Headland Hotel is nice, but is sure isn’t home. They have just put out a lot of Christmas decorations in the lobbies to help those of us who celebrate the holidays feel a little bit better. There is actually a lot of the Christmas spirit and decorations around Hong Kong. Even though Buddhism remains the major religion of China, there seems to be no problem celebrating Christmas here. However, I’ve been told that Hong Kong won’t pass up any chance to celebrate a holiday or cash in on the secular side of the Christmas spirit.  After all, Hong Kong is the beacon of capitalism here just south of Beijing.

It is nice to see that the hotel has put up Christmas trees with Angels on the tops of them. I have become so used to the ridiculous American culture that is full of political correctness and that is constantly afraid of offending someone, that I was startled to see Angels in this somewhat public place. There are many things the U.S. could learn from the Chinese and one thing is remembering that Christmas is a Christian holiday. Americans can’t even put up a tree in a mall for fear of offending some religious group, but over here, it seems like the Angels are no big deal. And why wouldn’t they be? At least the Headland hotel has the sense that too many of us Americans don’t have: it’s a Christian holiday, put up Christian decorations.

I desperately want to spend Christmas at home with Laura there in Groveport, Ohio. I currently have a week off around Christmas, but that will be subject to how well training goes. I have a performance check on the 19th and 20th (keep those days in prayer?) and if I pass them, then I get to go home. If I don’t do as well as they want me to, then I get to stay here and do a few more trips until I am up to speed. Every trainee gets a minimum of 25 flights in training and some need more and some need less. I’ve had a long, stressful time trying to learn this 747 and the way Cathay wants it to be flown. My flying background is a 50 seat regional jet and transitioning to this large plane that carries 400 people across the Pacific Ocean has been a challenge, to say the least. Currently, there is about a 40% failure rate on the progress checks. But, as my sister pointed out, that’s a 60% pass rate!

So, we’ll see. I want to do well, but I need to not get too down on myself if I need more training. I would guess that some of that is a small ego-pride thing, but really, I just want to be finished with training and get home to my wife for Christmas. That is the end goal, and after nearly six months in training, the Lord knows I’m ready to be home. Here is the tree that Laura put up in our living room back home. I want to be with her in front of that tree so bad that it hurts. We’ll have to see how everything goes.

Hey, Christmas in Hong Kong can’t be too bad, right . . . ?

Click the picture at the top for more pictures of the Headland.

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I’ve been in Hong Kong for quite a while now. It is a great city and I enjoy being here. However, the stress of learning a new company and airplane has certainly taken its toll on me. Training will end up being around five months, and I feel it has aged me a lot. I certainly see the affects of being gone and in the training environment for so long when I look in the mirror. I’m a family guy, and am wired to be sentimental — and one who misses home a lot. The world may call me a sissy-pants for that, but that’s okay, because that’s who I am.

More and more often while here in Hong Kong, my mind drifts back to a small town in Ohio, to a special someone who quietly awaits my return from all this training taking place half a world away. She lives in a cute little house on a cute little street in a quiet little town. We both enjoy being together and don’t like separation. This special someone could easily fall into the temptation of complaining to me to come home and forget this mess of taking a job where separation will be inevitable for the coming months.

She could ask me to come home and find a different job — one that would keep me home all the time, and if I knew she meant it, I would come home running. But see, God has genuinely blessed me “beyond all measure” and probably given me the best wife one could possibly ask for. Of all the women between Hong Kong and the U.S. (half the world) I know she would come out on top. She misses me but doesn’t complain. She wants me home, but takes care of the house by her self anyway. She feels safe at home alone, but has a shotgun under the bed anyway! She has the maturity to see that someday, the pain of being away from one another will be eased. She knows that sometimes the hard times have to be seen through to get to the better times on the other side. I love her for her courage and her willingness to hang in there through the tough times and to see them through to the end.

While I sit in my hotel room and study endless numbers, policies, procedures, and aspects of a 747 that only a pilot would care about, I close my eyes. I close them to be taken away to a place where my Sweet Pea is with me in the coolness of a fall day in Ohio. I can hear her voice and it brings comfort to my weary soul. The fall leaves twirl down over her soft curly hair and earthy sweater from B. Moss, and we can be together, alone on a walk together. There is such peace when we are together. The world can be falling apart, but when I am at home with Laura, it’s as if everything is right as rain.

With my closed eyes, I can see her, and I finally begin to appreciate the times I’ve had with her since we’ve been married. There is no joy like the joy of hearing her open the back door as she comes home from work and we can be together again for the evening. Being separated has done wonders for me to appreciate the small things in life — and the relationships — that make life what it is. The small things of simply being together, are now as precious as all the world’s riches; even life itself. To have a wife like Laura is an amazing gift from God. I don’t have a lot of money, but I am a very rich man! People don’t need money or toys or fancy cars and houses to be happy, they just need each other. One of my favorite Proverbs is 15:17 where it says, “A bowl of vegetables with someone you love is better than a steak with someone you hate.” I simply long to be able to hold her in my arms on the couch. If we were penniless and without a single possession, at least we would have each other.

As I open my eyes again, I am instantly brought back to the real world of being alone in Hong Kong. If I want to look toward home, I have to look at my feet, because this world is so huge and I’m so far away, she is actually down, not out over the horizon. This isn’t what I signed up for, is it? I close my eyes again . . .

It’s an overcast day in Ohio, as it often is in the autumn. A chill in the air says that winter and the holidays are just around the corner. Fall has to be my favorite time of year. The leaves are changing, college football, family come together for Thanksgiving and Christmas, the air is cold and crisp, the colors are amazing and bold, and Laura and I were engaged under the fall leaves in a park just a few miles from where we live — all a part of autumn. As the changing leaves sway overhead, Laura’s grandparents walk up to the front door of our house. They aren’t frequent visitors to our house, and they ring the doorbell several times because Laura isn’t expecting their visit.

I can imagine that she is in the house, thinking, “Who is ringing the front doorbell like that?” It’s a Friday night and she’s going to head out to dinner with some friends from work — uh oh, how long will her grandparents stay? Her startled voice rings out at the front door, “Hey guys, I wasn’t expecting to see you here!” Her grandpa just chuckles and says that they haven’t been up in a while and wanted to stop by. “Well I’m certainly glad to see you, come on in!” and her grandparents step inside.

Hearing her voice almost brings a tear to my eye. The air has an electric excitement about it. The cloudy sky makes the leaves in the yard look even more bold and a quick breeze rustles the leaves up to the front door. I can hardly stand it. As I hear her, I want to to run up to her and grab her into my arms and squeeze as tight as I can, not letting go. Do I dare let this moment end? Can I hold onto this excitement for ever? Do I open my eyes and make it all go away?

That same breeze blowing in the yard hits me in the face. It’s time, I tell myself. I open my eyes. I head for the front door and see her standing there in the entryway giving hugs to her grandparents. As I walk up the walkway, she catches a glimpse of me. I hear her let an “aww” escape her mouth and with tears in our eyes, we embrace. It was a hug that would last forever, and it still wasn’t long enough. The pain of being separated for so long melted away in each other’s arms. The smell of her hair, the softness of her skin, and the quiver in her voice, the sight of the living room, seeing her grandparents smiling, made it all so special to me.

You see, I was able to sneak home from Hong Kong for a few days. Some of my flying had been cancelled and Cathay offered me a chance to go home. Since it was last minute, I decided not to tell Laura and just sneak home. Her grandparents were good enough to pick me up at the airport and take me home for the surprise. I do love surprises and this was a great chance to just show up on the front steps, after traveling half way around the globe. No longer did I have to close my eyes to see my beautiful wife, at least, not this week.

What a wonderful week it was while at home . . .
I can hear her voice and it brings comfort to my weary soul. The fall leaves twirl down over her soft curly hair and earthy sweater from B. Moss, and we can be together, alone on a walk together. There is such peace when we are together. The world can be falling apart, but when I am at home with Laura, it’s as if everything is right as rain.

There is no joy like the joy of hearing her open the back door as she comes home from work and we can be together again for the evening. To have a wife like Laura is an amazing gift from God. I don’t have a lot of money, but I am a very rich man!
What a wonderful week it was while at home . . .

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As everyone knows, saying goodbye is always hard. Since we’ve been married, Laura and I haven’t been away from each other for more than two weeks. I know that sounds like no big deal, but married couples need incremental steps of getting used to being away from each other. Our first long time apart was a week, then two weeks while I was alone in Hong Kong, and now it will be over a month apart, as I continue my training.

My training simulator partner, Chris, is a former 20 year Navy pilot who estimates that he has spent cumulatively over five years deployed at sea. That is a long time to be away! Nevertheless, I will miss my baby, and being so far away makes it seem worse.

Because I am leaving, Laura was gracious enough to take the day off from work and we spent the whole day being together. It was really great, and it meant even more under the circumstances. Hopefully, this is a taste of retired life! Click on Laura’s picture at the top of this blog entry to see more photos from our day together.

We started off with some important sleeping in, then drove over to Slate Run park to walk in the cool of the day under the trees. I love to just walk and talk, with no particular purpose or subject. When you know someone as well as a spouse, it’s easy and relaxing. It had been years since either of us had been there so we enjoyed the “new” sights.

After lunch, we headed to Magic Mountain to do some serious golfing! There are two courses there and we played 17 holes on the first one and 18 holes on the second one (that way, we didn’t lose our ball for the second course). It wasn’t too hot and we spent as much time laughing as we did hitting the ball. We each got a hole in one — those are always exciting.

We then headed to the bowling alley and played for an hour. We wanted to play three games, but the clerk told us it was cheaper to buy an hour’s worth of play. When we finished the third game, we had three minutes left! How about that for working out just right? Bowling is fun, especially if you don’t take it too seriously. We just had fun and didn’t worry about the score. I was terrible for a long time and then hit my stride with three strikes in a row!

Finally, we headed to O’Charlie’s for some dinner. We were tired but it capped off a really nice time together. Sweet Pea is the sweetest Pea in the whole world and I’m really going to miss her. I’m actually typing this at 39,000 feet over Wuhan, China on my way back to Hong Kong. We’ve been flying for 13 hours, and I miss her already. It’s sad knowing that every turn of the turbine inside the engine is taking me farther away from her. It’s going to be a tough, long time apart, but like I’ve said before, it makes the return even sweeter.

If you think about it, be praying for me as my toughest training challenges still lay ahead of me. If this whole Cathay adventure doesn’t work out, then so be it, but I really want it to and can’t wait to get this training behind me.

I had a great break in Ohio and it was wonderful to see my family and Laura, but now it’s back to the grindstone!

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Click on Laura’s photo by the VW for more pictures from the car show. The show was just down the street from our house and takes place every year around the third week in September. The air was cool, the weather was beautiful, and since it was my parents last day in Ohio, we decided to take a stroll through the car show.

It was neat to see all the old cars, and the VW convertible and Microbus van were my favorites. They reminded me of my first car, a ’74 Super Beetle that was bright yellow and had a sunroof. I loved that car and miss it today.

For small little Groveport, the car show is a good time and a lot of cars show up each year, with more each time than the last. Mostly for me, it was just something fun to do with dad and mom before I had to tell them goodbye.

After the show, we got some blizzards down at the DQ and then it was off to the airport to drop them off. I was really sad to see them go because I hadn’t seen them in a long time. Also, I know I won’t get to see them for a long time, and I know that I have a lot more stressful testing with Cathay to get behind me before we can once again relax together and enjoy one another’s company.

It was so good to reminisce, enjoy meals together, forget about the world’s problems, and just have fun together. Being so far apart is actually getting harder on me as I get older. When I was younger, my thought process was different toward my parents. I never thought about how they are getting older, I’m getting older, time is slipping by, memories need to be made today because we aren’t guaranteed that tomorrow will come. When I was younger, I always thought that there would be time for visits and memories, and time to soak them up as much as possible. As I age, I realize that I don’t want to spend more time away from them by pushing our meetings further and further back. I want to see them as much as I can.

Time sure flies when we get older. It’s this knowledge that made it hard to get any words out at all as I hugged them on the curb at the airport. Words wouldn’t come, only tears. As that familiar pain in the back of my throat came on strong as I fought back my emotions, I tried to keep things together so everyone else on the curb wouldn’t think I was a complete wreck.

It’s so easy and typical for us as people to not appreciate what we have until it is gone. Living away from my parents has helped me to truly love them and appreciate every moment that I have with them. As I’ll soon be over 8,000 miles from them, and Laura too, it makes the training and time in Hong Kong even more bittersweet. But, it sure makes the return even sweeter. I suppose sweeter homecomings and reunions are nice and almost necessary to remind us how much we should truly love one another. I just wish, in my frailty, that I could be with them all the time, but also love and appreciate them like I haven’t seen them in years. I guess I’ll have to wait for Heaven to be able to do that . . .

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