hipy papy butuduth buduthudy

This is my Dad.

He is one of my heroes.  He ( and his brothers and sister) has given me a great picture of how to grow at whatever age you are.   He worked most of his career as a petroleum geoligist for a big oil company.  When he was downsized he worked for a power equipment rental company first as a mechanic, and later as a sales rep. He retired at 65, and three weeks later was back in school to become an airplane mechanic.

Airplanes and flying are his great loves, he was free to do what he wanted, and that was it.  

After he graduated, he worked with a friend for a while and then began building a kit plane in his garage.

The plane was named The Horse of Heaven, and flew beautifully.  About eight  flying hours before the plane would have been cleared to take passengers,  the landing gear caught irrigation equipment and flipped the plane.  Dad came out with a scratch on his hand and otherwise was alright.  The Plane was trashed.   Dad waited and thought about what he should do for a month or so, and then started in to rebuild the plane.  

A couple years later The horse of Heaven once again was flying.

Over the years Dad has given me a living example of how to cope with huge freaking disasters.

here is what I learned about how to live from him.

• Know that people are important. If they are OK, then the rest of it can be dealt with.
• Do what needs to be done for the people involved first.
• Blame is useless.  Spend your time finding solutions to the present problems, because the people  who messed up will do a better job of calling themselves down than you ever could.
• The way it looks is secondary to how it works.  
• People are infinitely interesting. Watch them often.
• A Person with an opposing view has something to teach you, listen carefully to what they say.

Yesterday Dad turned 82.
happy birthday Dad, and many more to you.