Life Is Such A Sweet Insanity.

While going through a few general aviation related forums this morning I came across some sad news. A pilot associated with ATP (a flight school) in Addison, Texas, took a brand new Cessna 172, told Air Traffic Control that he was intending to take off, go up through the clouds and “look at everything”, and that he would not follow ATC instructions and was pulling the circuit breakers on the comms equipment. He took off, flew east to a fairly rural area of Texas. The last recorded flight track showed him descending at a very high rate of feet per minute and he subsequently crashed. I believe his name was Logan and he was in his early 20s.

This prompted discussions about suicide and things that lead to this in today’s modern society. The conversation on the forums swung to discussions about bullying in general. When us middle aged pilots were kids, we might have been bullied at school but that generally fell away when we went home. In today’s always connected society obsessed with social media, youngsters don’t get that reprieve. Instead of being bullied just at school (which is horrible in itself), kids continuing the bullying online using all the available social media outlets, and an incident that may have been forgotten in a few days at a school is now recorded, shared, and endures in perpetuity.

Kids have it very rough these days.

I don’t know what led Logan to take his life in a brand new Cessna 172 last night. I just know that it’s heartbreaking when any person finds no answer or no hope anywhere and decides to take their life.

And this happens way too often.

This alarm clock has been a staple on my nightstand for over 30 years. Every time I wake up in the middle of the night, and that happens quite a bit, I glance at the clock to see what time it is. I then do math to figure out how much more sleep I can get. And the result often causes a bit of midnight anxiety.

I don’t need anxiety in my life.

The truth of the matter is that if it’s dark and my alarm hasn’t gone off yet, do I really care what time it is? The facts (darkness, no alarm) point to my eligibility for sleep and who really cares how much of that sleep remains? Sleep is sleep so get some sleep.

So I have stored this old faithful alarm clock in my drawer for a few nights to see if it helps reduce my anxiety when I wake up in the middle of the night and decide I must know what time it is. A few more steps to controlling the chaos.

Joyce Randolph, most famous for her role as Trixie in “The Honeymooners”, passed away earlier this month. She was 99 years old.

Joyce was not the first actress to play the role of Trixie; the role was originated by Elaine Stritch. Joyce took over the role after Elaine’s first and only outing as Trixie, and in the process the character was toned down a bit with a bit more wholesome image.

Here’s a shot of Joyce as Trixie in one of the early episodes on the DuMont Network, featuring Pert Kelton as Alice.

While reviewing my goals and associated personal accomplishments in 2023 I decided that last year was pretty much too “scattered” in my ways. It was a decent year and I feel like I generally moved forward in my humanness, but I didn’t immerse myself in activities that I thoroughly enjoy. I did some great things and I was able to “escape” into my hobbies on several occasions; I just didn’t feel enveloped in the joy I usually feel when pursuing my hobbies.

So, in 2024, I have decided to focus on my top three pastimes: aviation, weather and space, and retro computing. Things I’m not nearly as focused on this year include the other tech pursuits, including everything going on at Apple, or the latest in the world of Linux. These latter two subjects are covered sufficiently in my professional life and I don’t need to try to have fun messing around with Linux or buy the latest Apple gadget to escape into my hobbies.

I’ve had storm chasing on the mind a lot, and I’m anxious to see what El Niño brings to Mother Nature’s mood in the upcoming storm chasing season. While I had some great flights in 2023, I did not fly nearly enough, and that can be rectified fairly easily now that I’m a member of a local flying club. As far as retro computing goes, I don’t think my husband will let me purchasing an early 1980s NCR minicomputer with four attached cash registers to the system, but I do enjoy reading about these things and how they worked through various reference sources online.

Quality over quantity is the name of the game as I try to have a more focused, intentional life here in 2024.