Month: July 2024

When you’re in the hospital, a lot of the time is just hoping to wait out the pain. I’ve probably read every piece of writing in the room 50 times. I was noting to my son that they should have two TV’s. One that is vertical and you can have it display a page of a book of your choice every five -10 minutes. I often sink into a pit where I don’t want to watch anything and just lay moaning silently. My eyes search the room. If a page just stayed up for 5-10 min, would I read it? Probably.

I made a mistake and coughed today. That hurt and still hurts.

there were two surgeons that worked on me. Total operation time was around 8 hours, mostly have to deal with scar tissue from the previous operation. Anyway, as we were talking I noted his badge mentioned flight crew and we started talking about a pilot’s license. Last time I went through this ordeal, I had no concept of time or IF I would ever recover. It was miserable. I had lost so much, still had all the cancer and didn’t feel I had any reasons to keep going apart from my daughter. Part of me making my way out was setting my own goals. Some were silly. Like if I make it out of the ICU, I’m going to try mochi balls! I’d seen them and wondered what they tasted like, but kept put off trying them. The mochi balls were only so so. I also decided to finally landscape the backyard. I had made excuses because of other “future” projects which was just dumb. That goal is still a bit of a work in progress, but largely completed. Another goal I set was to finally learn to fly planes.

i think it would be super handy to fly planes, especially since my work takes me to Wyoming a bunch. So while laying agony I started watching all sorts of videos on getting a private license, doing fly alongs, the getting a flight sim setup and what I’d need. Unfortunately, the flight sim was where it broke down for me. With things like that I’ll often start researching and then notice upgrades. I’ll think, well I need that upgrade. Then it’s the next upgrade, then another, then another. Than I just get frustrated and bag the whole thing. I’ve also gone down a similar rabbit hole with stargazing and telescopes. That was a doozy. It started with a simple 8″, then 10″. Then star tracking astral photography, then getting bigger, then bigger still, eventually I was looking at observatory photos and Hubble and simply was like, I could never compete.

Talking to the doc this time was getting me excited again, he gave me what he would do now for a license. It was practical and not ridiculously expensive. Essentially, study and take the written exam through an online course called King, then be sure to do all your aviation hours as consecutively as possible since the biggest hurdle at the beginning is retention. So instead of doing 2 hours a weekend, make it the full-time job and just blaze through it.

then he talked with me about plane ownership and how that too can be relatively inexpensive.

it’s enough to get me excited again. Something I can grasp to when I’m struggling minute by minute. Something I can think about as I shuffle about during physical therapy.

he talked lovingly of the two planes he has. One is a back-country plane that can takeoff and land with 30 feet and has 6 feet tall tires. The other is his speedster.

last time I kind of became enamored with a 6 seat Cherokee. But he opened my eyes to other options out there.

I made it up the Y for the first time in 3 years. Between work, work, chemo, surgery, more chemo, more chemo, work. It’s been tough, not for lack of trying. I just haven’t had close to the stamina. It’s kind of difficult to care about being fit when thinking you’re probably going to die. But I needed to break this melancholy and push through. And I did it and it was tough and rewarding.