As I mentioned before, flying has a powerful soothing and healing effect for us. Any mood before takeoff magically transforms into a calm, happy, relaxed and generally blissed out state after we land. So we were scared a week ago. That’s when Tripp went in for her thorough annual checkup. It can be very expensive to ensure she remains safe and sound, especially when we add all the upgrades on our wish list. But the big scary issue is that it can keep us grounded for a long time while she’s all opened up. Last year: two months! So in the days before, we took several short flights to store up our bliss.
0898 Bliss Accumulation
The pic above is UCSB’s Campus Point from our last flight before work started, using the excuse of warming up the engine for one of the tests. I mean, why sit on the tarmac with engine roaring and brakes set when you can be flying instead, right? Well, I’m very happy to report that Tripp sailed thru her checkup with flying colors and we took some short flights to celebrate. 🙂
0922 UCSB Greeting
As if to bracket our fear of grounding, UCSB both comforted our last takeoff before work started and our first takeoff after it was completed. So now we’re confident Tripp’s tip top for another year, and her excellent report card saved us enough money to fly more. Today we flew again, tomorrow looks good, we’re looking for a Tuesday excuse, and we might fly past the July 4th fireworks Wednesday. Lifting off today before we turned toward the East I snapped this familiar view of Goleta Beach, opposite the view of Campus Point a week ago.
1039 Tripp’s New Year
John & Anne Wiley 
You must be logged in to post a comment.