Last updated January 17, 2008
I am a commercial pilot and flight instructor with 1/4 share of a corporation that owns a fun plane, and I give free airplane rides in my spare time. Young Eagle rides (free rides for kids) are a high priority, as is doing and teaching Search and Rescue through Civil Air Patrol. I also combine flight instructing with Search and Rescue through teaching pilots about survival. I've also started hiking more, and in late summer 2003 finally achieved a 17-year goal of climbing Longs Peak. My latest toy is a 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid though for 6 months in 2006 I had a blast flying a Bonanza (Debonair), photos here. Want fast toy :-)
Bob Proulx is my fiancé, best friend, web hoster, Linux guru, sys admin, fellow pilot, helps me do silly things like build snowmen. As a wonderful sys admin we also have a great network of PC's with which to play group computer games.
I snowboard, ski, snowshoe, and love warm beach vacations... especially after going winter camping in Dec 2002 :-)
Some family pictures below at the 2003 and 2001 Wolber family reunion, and here's other Wolber pictures over the years...
Some of the most fun I have is working for Agilent Technologies (a spin-off from Hewlett-Packard) as a software engineer. Here's my previous team and my current team at work.
I am also a ham radio operator (N0MPI), which I originally got to work the Gold Rush Pro Rallyes every October down in Westcliffe, Colorado. The rallyes were a lot of fun to work, but the organizers got burned out and 1995 was the last one :-( I can totally understand after rallye-mastering a few TSD and gimmick rallyes up here! I don't put them on anymore either, but Bob and I still work local sport rallyes for Jay & Cindy, as well as a few OctoberFests's for the BMW Car Club, and now the annual COG Rallye in Steamboat.
Highlights: Pagosa Springs vacation, ...
This year started well with a great (as usual) annual New Years Eve party at Rob's. Then a group of us went to Pagosa Springs for a week. Much fun, snowshoeing, skiing, etc! More info and photos here In good news, I went in for my yearly mammogram and it's normal, hurrah! Pretty cool to see all the metal clips left from surgery, they show up really bright on the xrays :-) I get to do mammograms every 6 months for a couple years since I'm now higher-risk. I also get to do another MRI to get a new baseline post-surgery and radiation. Still zero side effects from the tamoxifen so doing fine.
Highlights: CAP fun, Bob retirement, China trip... Lowlights: breast cancer :-(
This year started pretty quietly with the snow covering the ground still and refusing to melt off, and there were lots of fun events.
But end of January my life turned upside down. I went in for my yearly mammogram (my 3rd one) at the Breast Diagnostic Center in Fort Collins, which I recommend wholeheartedly. They called me back asking that I come in for a follow-up mammogram, of course I asked "is anything wrong??" and I am really grateful that they were non-committal, just a general response of "oh this happens sometimes, one picture comes out fuzzy or something". So I wasn't stressed out worried. Went in and the radiologist was looking at the pictures right away as they were taken, which didn't give me a good feeling (usually it's a couple day wait before the radiologist gets to them). And yup bad news, I had a group of micro-calcifications, which is an indicator of possible cancer, that dreaded c-word.
But again they reassured me that like 80% of calcifications turn out to be nothing, but we should do a core biopsy just to be sure... Again I'm really appreciative that they didn't worry me and get me all stressed. So sure ok, scheduled the biopsy for mid-February, went in for it... and a couple days later got the results phone call, and the lady on the other end sounded sad and serious... oh crap yup it's cancer, DCIS to be specific - ductal carcinoma in situ. Cancer inside the milk ducts, not yet invasive but not something to ignore, recommendation for MRI and then surgery.
It was a heck of a shock I cried for a couple days, on Bob's shoulder and Diane, and of course my sisters Annie and Fran, and Mom. I talked to some folks (thanks Deb Homan, Ken and Kathy McNaught, Bob's mom, George Robberts' mom, and Rob Sims) for advice on everything including a local surgeon and picked Dr Dickinson, who has been wonderful. Went in for an MRI which showed suspicious cells in a decent sized chunk in the left breast, so about 1/4 of the breast would have to go, but the right breast showed clear, hurrah! First surgery mid-March went well (I would recommend PVH) and sentinel node biopsy showed lymph nodes are clear (hurrah no chemo!) but tissue margins came back good on one side but bad on the other side - not enough good tissue to be sure they'd gotten it all. After talking to a radiation oncologist for another opinion on whether I should have another surgery or just go on with radiation, all the opinions pointed to another surgery so in I went in mid-April, this time just in the doctor's office with local anesthesia instead of at PVH under a general. This pathology report came back clear, so hurrah I'm done with surgery! And no invasive cancer showed up anywhere, so no chemo needed. I get to keep my hair :-) DCIS can be mild or can be serious, but it's pretty mild compared to invasive cancer that's spreading (metastasizing). If you're gonna have breast cancer, this is the best kind to have. Officially DCIS is Stage 0 or pre-cancer since it hasn't spread outside the ducts yet, not invasive. They also rate it by 'grade' depending on the forms of the cancer cells, mine was the worst grade (grade 2-3) with cribiform and comedo and all the nasty necrotic cells. My cancer cells are also very estrogen-receptive (grow better in the presence of estrogen) so I get to go see a medical oncologist too for hormone therapy. And I have to stop taking the birth control pill, which contains estrogen. After 21 years of no cramps and knowing to the hour when my period would start, that's been another adjustment.
Next was to heal up for 4-5 weeks, then end of May have a 'baseline' post-surgery, pre-radiation mammogram --- ouch gotta be pretty well healed up for a squish test! At 3 weeks after second surgery I was still very sore and tender and starting to worry about the upcoming mammogram, and then poof dramatic improvements at 3.5 weeks in healing. So I'm really glad the rad-onc folks scheduled me for the mammogram at 5 weeks after surgery, more time to heal is a good thing. I've been trying to hurry the process along, since I can't fly as PIC till this is all over and I'm recovered from radiation, and I really miss flying. But waiting until 5 weeks for the new baseline mammogram was a good thing, 4 weeks would have been ok but 3 would not have been.
Why radiation? Studies have shown that lumpectomy (take a chunk out) + radiation gives about the same recurrence rate of cancer, as mastectomy (remove the whole breast). Yup that's right, even after a double mastectomy you can get breast cancer again! The breast cells reach up to your collarbone, around to your back, and are pretty tight into the ribs & chest muscles, so even a mastectomy won't get all the breast cells removed. Given a choice of mastectomy, versus lumpectomy and radiation, heck I can always get a mastectomy later. I'm only 42, I wanna keep what I can. So back to why radiation - other studies have shown that lumpectomy alone is nowhere near as effective as lumpectomy + radiation, to prevent cancer recurrence. So radiation it is.
While healing up, went to see a medical oncologist (not the same as the radiation oncologist). I'd heard rave reviews of Dr Medgyesy and managed to get an appt with her (and yes she's good). I read up a bit on hormonal therapy and looked up what the FAA would allow me to take, and fortunately it all fell together well - since I'm pre-menopausal there are very few choices and the best one for me is the most common drug, tamoxifen, that's been around since the 1970's and the FAA will let me fly with it (on special issuance medical). So I started taking that mid-May and so far no side effects. I'll be on that for 5 years to prevent recurrence of cancer.
Radiation prep is going well, CT scan is quick painless and easy. I now have 3 tattoos - tiny blue dots and yes they're permanent - so the radiation machine can be calibrated to me and give the same dosage in the same area each time. I start radiation May 31, it'll be 5.5 weeks of full-breast and then finish with 1 week of intense in just the area of the original tumor (pre-tumor for me). Most common side effects are fatigue, and, skin nastiness (red, sore, flaky, itchy, tender, blisters, oozy, etc) -- essentially what you'd get from a nasty sunburn, every day for 6.5 weeks.
Everyone has been wonderfully supportive, family and friends, everyone in CAP, my boss Ken, Lala and Patty and everyone at work. Diane has been incredible, for my first surgery spending the entire day at hospital with Bob, giving me foot rubs and back rubs all day, keeping Bob sane. She also went to the rad-onc with me to take notes and ask great questions... in spite of herself having health issues - she went in for major back surgery right after my second surgery! Bob of course has been a trooper, with all this on top of him suddenly being offered early retirement from HP.. and deciding to take it! Major stress trying to get everything done at work before he's gone.
So that's been my February - May 2007. I've only taken a couple days off work to recover from each of the surgeries, otherwise going right back to work full-time. The hardest parts, aside from telling people about it without breaking down and crying, was being so sore and tender after each surgery for ~ 3 weeks, any kind of jiggling was very very painful even with a tight sports bra on. Just driving to work I was going 'owie owie owie' on every bump in the road. Looking back on it, I should have taken more time off work to recover from surgery before trying to drive. Even walking was painful! That's the one thing I would change if I could do over, would be to take better care of myself and let myself heal better, and worry less about work.
So for radiation, my plan is to only work half-time for ~7 weeks. It may be overkill and I'll end up being fine and going back to 3/4 work or going back full-time early, but, I'd rather that than feeling like crap and pushing myself to work fulltime and getting all stressed.
It's now early June and so far so good on radiation, 7 treatments in and ~25 to go. So far no side effects and it's an incredible stress relief to be working only half-time. With Bob retired, he's spending more time with me, right now he's walking with me to radiation (it's only a mile from my house) so it's a nice walk every day. The side effects should hit within another week or two....
It's now mid-June and yeah right at the expected 2 weeks the side effects started to hit - lots of fatigue, having to take a nap every day or sleep 11 hours a night... or both The skin is starting to turn pink...
Now end of June and at 4 weeks the skin is red and starting to peel in spots, which is really not good during radiation as it won't heal while it's being radiated and can easily get infected. And it's itching something nasty. The folks at Poudre Valley Radiation Oncology are wonderful - Dr Simpson is knowledgeable and makes sure he answers all my questions, and he's just fun too. All the nurses and techs are just wonderful - very cheerful, friendly, welcoming, and caring. The first appt they took a photo of me, and at the next appt and from then on everyone there called me by name - they all memorized my name & face. They do that with all their patients and it's just one of the many ways they care. Anyways, they are also wonderful at ensuring I get all the creams, lotions, everything I need, from wonderful anti-itch cream to antibiotic lotion, regular lotion, vaseline-impregnated gauze pads for the sore tender areas, extra-moisturizing lotion for the dry areas.... all included. I would HIGHLY recommend PVRO!!
It's now mid-July and I'm done with radiation -- hurrah! Fun photos here. Now I have no excuse not to go back to work full-time :-( :-) Looking back on radiation, it was very tiring and the tiredness lasted for 2-3 weeks after the treatments finished. I wish I had stayed on half-time work until the fatigue lifted. The only painful thing about radiation was when the skin peeled and that wasn't particularly painful in most spots.. except the nipple when it peeled... twice :-( That was not fun. The silver lining on the radiation cloud is that both my surgery scars were in the peel area and the peeling made them fade a lot and become a lot less noticeable.
Fun events 2007 - the year started with searching for people stuck in the blizzard down in south-east Colorado. Jer/, DaveZ and BillO found a stranded trucker and got an incredible photo of the SOS he stamped out in the snow, photo and stories here. After a couple days searching for people, CAP was shut down. A day later, everyone realized the people on the roads were rescued, but the folks living down there were still stuck in their homes and tens of thousands of cattle were starving to death, stuck in 5+ feet of snow, unable to move. So a mission was started to "find the cows", I got to participate flying on that one, looking for herds of cows stuck in the snow, photos here. We were spotting and calling in coordinates, the National Guard was dropping hay.
End of January was Keith's annual Burn's Night where the highlight was Heather Cowan showing up after concert with cello and playing everything from "happy birthday" for Bob, to the Jaws theme, to classical selections. Man she's good! The CAP January SAREX at BJC got cancelled for weather and moved to April. Snow cancelled all ROTC flying, even the trip of our top CFI's to pick up the new CAP T182 got postponed to February. Karl Schultz taught some IMU training, I went to IC training, and mid-Feb the brand new T182 arrived for CAP. Much fun learning the G1000, until the cancer news hit and even with it being non-invasive my AME said I should ground myself... so still helping with ground training and learning more of the G1000, and thanks to CFI's Jer/ Eberhard and John Mitchell who have both been flying with me to keep me current.
March had fun working the Colorado Cadet Competition, went to see Stomp at the Lincoln Center with Chalyn and George - a lot like Blue Man Group, very good show. We all went to see Heather in concert in Loveland, good show! I got flowers from both work folks and CAP folks after my first surgery, photos here. April started with Bob finding out he not only qualified for early retirement from HP, but having decided to sign up for it, got it! So his last day at work is May 31, can you say stress trying to finish everything up by then? April continued with Casey Bell going off to the Air Force, a comedy show at the Rialto theatre in Loveland (I'd never known Loveland had a theater), and Vic and Diane came over to see me after my second surgery, photos here, and as a good-bye to Diane who's going to Switzerland for 5 years. Then I worked the re-scheduled January SAREX at BJC in April, photos here. A learning on that sarex was to send the paperwork to wing via non-regular mail, the package got lost at Peterson for 2 weeks and nearly gave us all heart attacks before it was found. We'll have to use certified mail or something after this :-( Scott Gardner came up to Colorado and visited, and gave us a ride in his Columbia 350SL, nice toy!!! photos here.
May started pretty quiet with CAP Nat'l Check Pilot Course, annual inspection on 82H, and renewing my First Aid / CPR with the local Red Cross. Rob Sims' annual birthday party is a lot of fun as always (I have the same birthday so always crash his party :-), then talked Brenda into taking me to the Mountain Flying Clinic in Durango, photos here.. More photos along the way from Brenda show how gorgeous a flight down we had, and the fun she had flying at the clinic. Had a quiet Memorial Day weekend so far, with fun plans for a full-moon hike of Horsetooth Rock, photos here.
June started with a really fun time at Ann's annual Dean Martini party, photos from Keith here. Then a surprise birthday party for MikeB (50th), photos <coming soon>. Slowly hacking on the back yard where the weeds are incredibly overgrown from decades of neglect, weed barrier is trashed, and Bob is motivated to work on it. I'm helping as much as I can.... Also spending a lot of time with CAP doing ground training for the G1000, both for our pilots and now starting to work on getting our Observers trained on the glass for what's needed to help out the pilot for search missions. Tons of fun and there's always something new to learn or re-learn on the G1000.
July just flew by with finishing radiation, and suddenly having to go back to work full-time (blech). Did get some local hikes in, thanks to Erick for organizing. We did Young's Gulch photos here, Aurthur's Rock photos here - no rattlesnake this year :-) I'm slowly getting my energy back.
Early August I got to take a business trip to China which was a lot of fun. Long story and lots of photos here. Also continued the weekly hikes with a trip to Coyote Ridge photos here. Also stopped by George's place after the hike to catch the tail end of him moving his parent's furniture into his house. Man there's a lot of stuff! Photos here. Got a ride in a helicopter, the second in my life, what fun!!! Submitted all the paperwork to ask the FAA for a special issuance medical, pretty please. Hoping to hear back by mid to end September. I miss flying!
Keith held the first annual Summer Barbeque "Mad about Q". Info and photo link here. Much fun and wonderful "Q"!
Mid-September a group of us rented a condo in Frisco for a long weekend, photos here. Much fun hanging out, roller-blading, hanging out, playing fun games (Kill the Bunnies!). Sue hiked Mt Royal alone one morning, then the next day more folks went along for another hike up the same trail. photos here of the nice hike past Mt Royal to Mt Victoria and gorgeous view from the top. Fun ruins along the way made the hike more interesting. Much fun was had that weekend with folks, and Keith's cooking was marvelous!
Then my medical arrived from the FAA, hurrah I'm legal again! The following weekend we drove up to Steamboat to use our ham radios to work the annual Cog Rally, renamed to be Rally Colorado. Photos here. The next week we all snuck out of work early one day and went roller-blading in town, photos here.
October we took a trip to Boise to meet up with my parents and have a mini family reunion and celebrate my dad's 90th birthday. Photos here from me and more photos from mom. I also worked a CAP exercise put on by Boulder but held at Metro :-), good ground team training as the weather grounded most of the flying.
November we flew some ROTC cadets, held a one-day search & rescue exercise at Greeley airport (photos here), and went to Kansas City for Thanksgiving. Weather was marginal so we drove :-( instead of flying.
Early December was busy with bell-ringing for the Salvation Army, watching RonZ play in the Tuba Christmas (in the snow!), more ROTC and CAP cadet Orientation flights, and a great holiday party at Dave & Patty's.
Mid-December now and trying to keep flying but it's been snowing and the airport guys only plowed the runways, not the taxiways between the hangars so the hangars are still snowed in, photos here. Later we called up some local contractors to ask about getting our house's roof and gutters re-done. I was thinking they'd put us on a wait-list for sometime in the spring, but no, they wanted to do it the next week! So we got both the roof and gutters re-done in spite of the snow, photos here.
Had a fun Christmas in Missouri with Bob's mom and sister, a raccoon was having fun up on the roof and in the attic so the maintenance guys put out a (live) trap and caught him (or her), photos here. Later when we got back in town we checked on Gabi's kitties and fishies, the cats were fine but the fish tank had a major algae bloom, photos here. Looking forward to the annual New Years party at Rob's...
Highlights: New Zealand, snow-caving, Bonanza fun 6 months...
Went snowshoeing on Joe Wright trail, and watched Bob and Keith dig snow caves! Tons of fun and very wet work. Photos here. Then we did it again on Jan 8 up Zimmerman Lake trail, with a larger group from Childfree, with me & Bob, Keith & Ann, Laura & Bob, and Patty & Dave. Got 2 caves dug and connected before we had to bug out. Photos here.
February 7-28 we went to New Zealand. Gobs of info and 2000 pictures here. Much fun!
March when we returned, we held a picture party (at Keith's house :-) to show folks our photos, and went to a wonderful French Dinner hosted by Chris and Heather. Three fondues: cheese, oil, and chocolate ah yumm, much wine, french movies, ah what fun. Red wine hangovers are not as much fun though :-) Then we got cultured by going to see a play of Cats. Bob and I had never seen it before, and didn't even know it was a musical - we were expecting plot! It was ok but don't need to see it again - tick.
March 18 we went snow-caving with Keith & Chris. Much fun! Story and pictures here. Later in March we also went skiing and snowboarding (photos here) up at Copper. Didn't quite use up our 4-packs but had fun.
April I hiked a little - Horsetooth with Gabi (my photos here and Gabi's photos here and saw deer on the trail! Otherwise work, snowboarded again, flew a little, and had lots of fun doing Young Eagles at FNL. Photos here.
May went by pretty quick too - finished annual on 82H, walked over to Keith's fun "Pinot Envy" wine & dinner party (Keith's photos here), helped work a CAP mini-exercise (photos here), and had fun hiking Young's Gulch with Bob, Gabi, and Heather (photos here).
June flew with by a trip to Detroit for my mom's 80th birthday party. The entire family gathered - photos here. Then I went to Spokane to a BPPP clinic to learn about Bonanzas before buying into one. Did some local flying, worked a lot, enjoyed learning and flying the Bo, hacked down some bushes around the house to only a couple feet tall, and relaxed a little.
July I went to Boise for my first solo xcountry in the Bo (well really to visit Annie but...:-) Annie's photos here, had fun taking Sarah and Evan up for a ride, and much much fun shopping (thanks Sarah!). Then Bob and I flew the Bo out to spend a week on the beach in North Carolina -- much fun!! Then CAP Colorado hosted the International Air Cadet Exchange (IACE) with cadets and escorts from Japan, Canada, and the Netherlands. Photos here of the glider rides. Then I took Guy and Jenny Niswender flying over their property up by Pingree Park. What a gorgeous area! They got great photos, I got ok ones here.
August started out with a CAP & Larimer County joint exercise at the Downtown Fort Collins airport (3V5) which is closing soon :-(. Fun photos here. The next weekend was the Squadron Bivouac - campout and learning Ground Team techniques for search & rescue. We had a good turnout and lots of good photos. Bob and I also had fun in July-Aug getting more cultured at the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. We picnic'd before the shows - a few photos here. Then renewed my CFI at the last minute, and had a weekend off to do nothing.
Another adventure in August was ferrying Bill Arnold to Chickasha, Oklahoma to pick up Dave Klink's new-to-him 1948 Vagabond. This is a Piper 2-seat side-by-side, kinda like a Pacer or a clip-wing Cub. Fun photos here. Bill had been waiting for 3 days of good weather to finish the ferry home and Tues-Thu looked good so we took off on a Tues morning. Bob went along to catch a ride for Bill's first leg home. 85 mph top speed - headwind took them about 2 hours to make it 120 miles to West Woodward where Bill re-fueled and continued on to Dodge City that evening. Bob and Sue took off for home and even found a slight tailwind going west - 170 knots groundspeed is so fun to see :-) For Bill, a long day Wednesday got him all the way to FNL.
September starts with another trip to Boise for some end-of-summer fun up in McCall. Photos here from Sue and Ann. Worked another CAP exercise at Downtown Fort Collins Airpark, our last one before the airport closes end of October :-(. Starting on a new-to-me project at work, and outside work having much fun doing marathon sessions watching the first and second seasons of Battlestar Galactica in preparation for the third season starting soon. Also marathon sessions catching up on the last half of last season's Dr Who, next season starts soon! We also went to Steamboat for a weekend for the annual COG Rally (american so rally not rallye which is for british rallyes :-). Fun photos of the cars and stuff.
Started October with a trip to Vegas with Keith Schwols, stayed off-strip at the Gold Coast so went over to the Rio a lot to watch their nightly show and get addicted to Nutty Englishmen drinks at the fun Tilted Kilt (great music!). Had a lot of fun, didn't take a single picture. We'd missed the BodyWorks exhibition when it was in Denver so we caught it at the Tropicana. Very worthwhile, tho I got a little grossed out at times. Shark Reef was fun, especially the stingray petting pool :-) Keith met up with Greg & Karen one evening and it was fun to listen to stories of their Costa Rica trip.
Later in October we attended Sue Bodoh's wedding, and Keith's famous annual Halloween party - photos here. My desktop PC with Win2k was crashing and hanging daily, tried playing with Vista RC2 bits and its install crashed and totally trashed my boot sector so I couldn't even boot into my old windows partition. A boot of a Knoppix cd let me backup the files I hadn't yet copied so then I could smash the disk without losing anything. Thank god for linux. A second try at Vista RC2 trashed the boot sector even worse. After much swearing at Microsoft and having to give up and buy a copy of XP I got the machine working again. Vista RC1 did install but it's doggy slow and unimpressive. Oh well, typical for microsoft - failure is not an option, it comes bundled with :-(
November we did some CAP training- flight line training at FNL and a SAREX in Greeley for Groups 1 & 2, went to see the Full Monty with Gabi and friends at the Carousel Dinner Theater, and flew the Bo to Kansas City for Thanksgiving with Bob's family. Didn't know it at the time but it was my last cross-country in the Bo :-(
December I joined in the fun ringing bells for Salvation Army, had a good time at Gabi's birthday party. Found out no more Bo - long story but the owner has good reasons that I have to agree with. Ah well, I learned a ton, got over 80 hours of Bo time, am highly spoiled, and am now looking again for a fun fast toy. At least I do still have the Cessna as a backup.. Had more fun when Patty and Dave put on a great party, went to a SAREX in Boulder where I got to fly instead of work it :-), then the snow hit. Photos digging out of the blizzard, a couple days later when the town had cabin fever, and more fun on the final digging out and Christmas fun. Oh and there's another storm supposed to hit in another day :-) The FNL airport was totally snowed in, and on the evening before we were heading to Kansas, we drove out there to see how much of the general aviation hangars had been cleared (none!). So we drove to Kansas City. Oh well, the 11-12 hour drive makes us appreciate when we can fly. At least by then the highways were mostly clear and dry so we could take the Prius - it's great on ice but can't handle more than a couple inches of snow before high-centering.
Dec 30 since there's so much snow still in Fort Collins, hey we don't have to drive 1.5-2 hours up to Cameron Pass to snow-shoe, we can snowshoe right here in town! So a group of us went to Coyote Ridge to snowshoe, photos here, and the next day took Rich up flying, photos here. Next is Rob's famous New Years party....
Highlights: painting house trim, painting bathroom, 3 new trees, Black Hills, Boise
Wow it's been a busy year so far!
January we... worked, skied a few times, flew a few times, and worked. Snow shoed once (pictures here).
February we visited Annie up in Boise and had the kids ski us into the ground. Lots of fun! Pictures here. When we got back we changed from skiing to snowboarding, and man snowboarding is still addicting! Photos here of us getting back on the boards.
March we... worked, snowboarded a few times, flew a few times, and worked.
April saw a late snowstorm hit Fort Collins. Pictures here. Otherwise, we... worked, snowboarded a few times, flew a few times, and worked. Are we seeing a pattern here? Did have fun on another Vegas trip, sorry no pictures.
May I started burning out at work and started flying a little more. In CAP we borrowed the turbo-retract from Region for 2 weeks and we're flying the wings off it, getting our folks checked out and working on commercial ratings, to get more pilots for the orientation pilot program. Then my project shipped (hurrah!).
Bob and I went down to Jeffco for the airport's open house, and Gilbert Wheeler arranged for us to meet some of the Tuskegee airmen (great photos from Cadet First Class Joseph S.Reynolds-Grant here). We also took some of the graduating Air Force Academy cadets up for a plane ride; more photos here. Fun!
June started rainy and continued rainy, rained through the CAP squadron bivouac (photos here) on the first weekend. June 11th I participated with CAP in a National Disaster Medical System (NDMS) exercise at DIA, having fun riding on a C-130 and playing walking wounded -- photos here. Then on the 16-19th weekend we went to South Dakota to the Black Hills with Keith & Ann. We bicycled the Mickelson trail, hiked in Custer State Park, took a tour of Wind Cave, and drove out to the Badlands for a scorching hot hike. Lots of photos here. The last weekend of June I hiked Mount Margaret with Keith & Ann, which is more of a walk than a hike (very little overall elevation gain, just a little up and down), and not much of a "mountain" :-), but still a pretty hike.
July Bob and I both took the week of the 4th off work, and worked on the house. We put up new wood trim on the porch (Bob dusted off the table saw, I learned how to prime and paint), and took time off on the 4th to bicycle up to Fort Collins City Park for the fireworks (great show!). Then we started on the bathroom by re-caulking the bathtub and that led to noticing just how badly water-damaged the paint around the tub and shower was getting... which led to picking up some white paint and trying to touch it up... but by the time I realized the new bright white didn't match the old off-off-white by a LOT, it was too late. Bob said my patch spots looked like measles! So it was tear apart the bathroom and repaint time. We had a big surprise when we pulled the mirror off -- the wallpaper underneath was beautiful and yet shockingly dark - photos here.
We also hiked a little that week -- I did Killpecker trail with Keith (photos here), and Bob and Ann came along for a hike up Roaring Creek (photos here). Both are gorgeous hikes. Later in July we hiked Arthur's Rock (photos here) in Lory State Park. More photos here from Keith with a close-up of the rattler we encountered!. We also continued on the getting-cultured with the Shakespeare Festival in Boulder, and Chalyn and Gabi joined us for "The Winters Tale". Then we saw Othello, Twelfth Night, and the incredible Unexpected Shakespear improv show.
August we went to Keith's annual Crab Boil party - always lots of fun! Photos here. Then I flew to Boise, along with my parents flying there from Detroit, to meet up with my sisters. A fun time in Boise and McCall was had, with a full day of rafting, fun on the waterski boat, and mountain biking down Brundage ski resort. Great photos here.
August I also attended a really fun class down in Pueblo where we learned about a ton of stuff including booby traps and then spent a couple days flying folks. A few photos here.
September we spent a bunch of time doing more house trim painting, and spent an entire weekend putting in 3 trees. Lesson learned - if the tree is in a pot, it'll be 1-2 hours to dig the hole. If it's in a burlap ball 3 feet across, it'll be more than a day. Photos here of digging the holes and the final pretty trees. The big 20 foot one is a forest gold ash, the 10 foot is a honey locust, and the baby 5 footer is an apple.
We also used our ham radio skills at the COG Road Rallye in Steamboat - tons of fun to work! Great photos here from us working start and finish controls.
At the end of September, we both went down to Durango for a CAP exercise - me to work and Bob to get suckered into helping set up the wireless network :-) Photos here from Friday when things were still calm.
October we went with the Northern Colorado Childfree group to the Fritzler Corn Maze. The Rock-n-Roll maze as a maze wasn't very hard this year, especially compared to last year, which was so hard they had workers in the maze guiding people around -- the flag part last year was just really difficult to get through! Was lots of fun this year especially with a fun crowd of folks.
Also did annual on my plane, took a fun co-worker (Debbie Vischer) flying (big photo here) and went to the usual Halloween party at Keith's - always a blast! Photos here from Rob Sims' most excellent camera and from Keith here.
November was busy with flying more co-workers, a really fun trip to Vegas staying downtown at the Plaza again (photos here), and fun movies at Keith's like Bride and Prejudice. Spent one day at the Boulder SAREX, then off to Kansas for Thanksgiving, flying was fun and being there was more fun.
December was pretty quiet, with another CAP exercise in Greeley (photos here), and helping with bell-ringing for Salvation Army (photos here). Salvation Army is really supporting of Search & Rescue -- whenever we have a mission they will show up to feed us and help us. Went with the Childfree group to see the Blossom of Lights in Denver -- the Botanical Gardens all lit up. Then Christmas in Kansas, which was very relaxing (photos here) and even more geeky than usual - Bob's mom got DSL!
Highlights: Jenny's pilot license, Japan trip, Glenwood, Shakespeare, lotsa CAP
January started with me catching a cold/sore throat, and as soon as I got over it Bob came down with it :-( On the upside, another CFI and I have been sharing a wonderful primary student, Jenny Niswender, who is trying to get up through solo over the holiday break from college... and she's done it! Photos here. We're so proud of her!
February and March are busy with work. No skiing yet (snow depth is pretty marginal) but went snowshoeing again a couple times (photos here). Finally ship product and have a life again! Plane went down for engine rebuild...
April is a bit late for skiing and snow depth is pretty poor, but we went skiing anyways and caught the annual Spring Splash at Winter Park where crazy folks try to ski down the hill through an obstacle course and across a pond of frigid water... and a few really do make it across! Pictures here and it was a good mix of skiers and snowboarders.
April we also did another trip to Las Vegas, stayed downtown for the first time, at the Plaza. Bob and Ann climbed the rock wall this time and both made it all the way up. Pictures here of both climbing the 75 foot rock wall... wow. Also worked a road rallye for Jay and Cindy, their 9th annual Dust to Dusk fun TSD rallye.
May... the plane is still down waiting for parts for the engine.. Seemed like May was pretty busy but I can't remember anything in particular :-)
June I spent two weeks in Japan on a business trip, lots of photos here. Much fun, lots of great sushi and other wonderful Japanese food. They have an incredibly ingenious way to park cars in a tiny space (see the photos -> first link for a video), their train and subway systems are absolutely clean, on time, during the day the trains run every 5 minutes, it's just amazing compared to how most of the US is so dependent on having a car. Japan has mass transport down to an art, and all of the trains and subways run on electric. Huge thanks to GeorgeR for giving me lots of prep work and email consulting during the trip :-) on how to use the train systems, how to get around, etc etc. We only took a taxi once the first day, and the driver got lost and had to call for directions, and it was almost 10x the price of the train. The train system is not obvious, but once you see it, it makes sense and even us knowing no Kanji didn't have much trouble, though having a train station map from George did help quite a few times. Japan is a beautiful country and I would love to go back.
July has been fun with a trip to Glenwood Springs with Keith & Ann. They got there first and said our hotel room was the laundry room (photos here)! Saturday we did the "Wild Cave" tour of Glenwood Caverns, which was a blast, photos from Keith here. Sunday we rented bicycles and cycled 10 miles up the canyon (not much elevation gain really) to Hanging Lake, which is a short but steep hike to a gorgeous pond and an interesting water spout from the rock face, feeding the lake. Pictures from Bob here and from Keith here.
Also being cultured, seeing my first ever Shakespeare plays from the Colorado Shakespeare Festival in Boulder. We saw Anthony & Cleopatra, Romeo & Juliet, and A Comedy of Errors. All three were very well done (from the perspective of an ignorant who's never seen or read the plays before), but the Comedy of Errors certainly stood out as just incredibly hilarious. These are high-quality productions, in an outdoor theatre "Shakespeare under the stars".
August has me finishing up my CFI renewal on the web (from AOPA/Jepp), so far I'm impressed at the quality. Looking forward to a vacation soon, a week on the beach in North Carolina. We had a wonderful time there, escaped Hurricane Charley bearing down on us! Lots of pictures here.
September went by pretty quickly with my airplane finally coming back from engine overhaul and putting on the 20 hours of engine break-in, then doing the same thing for our search & rescue plane. Mid-September Buena Vista hosted a Search & Rescue exercise and Mountain Flying ground school (photos here) and the next weekend Boulder hosted a mini-exercise (photos here).
October had me on a business trip right into the remnants of Hurricane Jeanne in Atlanta and continuing on into recovering Florida. Man some areas got hit hard, and those living on the lakes and rivers were still expecting even more flooding! Back to drought-laden Colorado, then had fun on another short vacation in Las Vegas (photos here)
Nov was busy at work releasing a couple projects, flying with a couple folks prepping them for the CAP C182 checkout, and flying back to Kansas City for Thanksgiving. Weather cut that trip short on both ends with a snowstorm in Kansas City Wed am that we came in after, and a snowstorm hitting Denver Saturday 1pm that we landed here an hour before.
Dec we are doing final preparation for Jenny's private pilot check-ride, just less than a year after she solo'd. Christmas day is Huma's wedding to Jamshid (pictures here) then she moves to Kansas City and leaves Agilent - we're going to miss her! Heading to Kansas City for a late Christmas with Bob's family, driving this time. Jenny received her private pilot certificate, woo-hoo!
Highlights: lotsa CAP, totaled Subaru, parents' 50th anniv, hiking 14ers, new Prius
January was mostly taken up with a huge state-wide CAP exercise that was supposed to be held in Greeley, but they lost their hangar and the exercise had to go somewhere close... so the ball landed in our court. Gobs of work and it turned out ok. Since we did a lot of photo-taking, there's over 150 Meg of photos here.
Winter continued with some skiing, lots of work, lots and lots of flying, everything fun, including a jaunt to Dallas/Austin in late April for Bob to do a gaming weekend with Scott in Austin, and Sue to go to a Cessna Pilots Association Systems & Procedures course in Dallas - highly recommended!
Fun lasted until May. My project at work shipped (hurrah!), then everything went downhill -- my car got totaled and our CAP plane got smushed and Wayne Covington's car got totaled... sigh. At least the "bad things come in 3's" is over.
June saw us winging our way to Detroit for the parent's 50th wedding anniversary! Aunt Bernie, Rhenee, Colleen, Bonnie, Father Frank (soon to be a Bishop!) and Father Wolber all attended, and it was a lot of fun. Bob described Aunt Bernie as "a firecracker" :-)
July I had an incredibly wonderful week off work where we accomplished a lot of unexpected things like spending 2 days cleaning the garage - 12 years since we moved into the house, so this first cleaning saw a lot of cobwebs removed! I spent a bunch of time debating what kind of car I want since mine got smushed and I finally had to give it to the insurance company to collect the payout for comprehensive insurance... Test-drove and looked and debated... and decided on a 2004 Toyota Prius hybrid, which is a hatchback and gets 50 mpg and zero emissions (which in Colorado is a biggie - we have emissions testing here!). The 2004's aren't even order-able yet, but at least now I'm on the list at the dealer's when they can order it later this month. Until it arrives (October?), I'm driving Bob's RX-7 whose turbo acceleration is spoiling me big time :-)
Then I got to hike my first 14er (the relatively easy Grays Peak) ever, what fun! Hoping to work up to Longs Peak later this summer... Did some other shorter hikes along the way too.
End of July through Aug 3 was a huge CAP evaluated exercise - every two years the Air Force evaluates one of our training exercises to ensure we have well-trained quality volunteers doing our jobs safely and well. Since you the taxpayer pays for our actual search missions as well as a state-wide training budget of around $50k per year (for each state), the Air Force monitors us constantly and does a formal evaluation every two years. Note that CAP is funded only for the actual aircraft and vehicle costs, on actual missions and on the 3-4 funded training exercises per year - we volunteer our time, our equipment, hotels, food, uniforms etc.. and aside from those couple of funded training weekends the rest of our training flights (the vast majority) are also self-funded. Anyways, Colorado did well this time with a high Excellent rating, and I received one of only four "Pinnacle Performer" awards for exceptional work :-) Rick Schein did the vast majority of the work, go Rick!
August 5 Tuesday I took the day off work to fly Young Eagles at the Tuskegee Airman 2003 conference in Denver. With only seven planes (including four 2-seaters!) we flew 134 kids from Denver at the Front Range airport. I got to meet a few of the Tuskegee pilots! Lots of fun but a long day -- landed back at FNL around 5pm, way too late to go to work.
Aug 6 Wednesday I was back to work in the morning, then that afternoon we left for a couple hours drive south... Bob and I were privileged to help at the dedication of Columbia Point near Kit Carson Aug 6-9.
Aug 17 we joined a fun group from Denver to climb Mt Bierstadt, long trip report here.
Sept 1-2 I finally achieved a goal I've had since moving to Colorado in 1986 - I climbed Long Peak. Long story here and many thanks to Jenny and Bob for their patience with my slowness and fear of heights.
Mid-Sept I was introduced to Tracking with a Track Aware class (photos here) from the Universal Tracking Service. This was a huge eye-opener (pun intended) in how to track a person's footprints across an open field. Friday am was classroom while the advanced class made tracks for us. Friday afternoon, evening in the dark, all day Sat and Sun am we managed to go about 1/4 mile following those tracks. We spent literally 5-10 minutes on each of the footprints, finding all the tiny details from the obvious bent grass to the flecks of dirt on top of tiny plants, compression marks in the ground, small scuff marks, tiny kinks in the dead grass, cracked deer poo... wow. It was daunting at first to see anything, but after a couple days we improved immensely. Most amazing were the skills of the instructors, and the advanced class who were off in the distance tracking up and down hills. Thanks to the Larimer County Search&Rescue folks who hosted the course and let non-ground SAR folks like me and Bob attend.
October was pretty busy at work, with a mini-SAREX in Greeley (thanks Ed Binkley!), ROTC Orientation flights starting, plus my first trip to Vegas, and another Young Eagles day at FNL. Also Betsy organized a fun sushi dinner party. Best of all, my new car arrived!
November I've been having fun with my new car in spite of the inclement weather, flew to Kansas City to visit Bob's family for Thanksgiving, then went on to Detroit for a few days with my parents and a day of work there.
December is busy with work getting busier, more ROTC flights, and a wonderfully less-stressful holiday season than ever before -- both families have agreed to do away with gift-giving, so no Christmas shopping! Hurrah! Diane put on a great mini-SAREX in spite of Colorado CAP being grounded, we went snowshoeing, had a great time at the Denver Zoo "Wild Lights" exhibit, etc. We had a fun trip to Kansas City to see Bob's family, driving the new toy car of course :-)
Highlights: Commercial and Flight Instructor cerrtificates, winter camping
Too many pictures to upload them all yet. Here's some that Bob's found time to load, of the CAP Maule.
January-April 2002 I don't remember much beyond work, skiing a few times, work, flying ROTC rides, work, working on my commercial with then-new-CFI Sue Bodoh, and more work.
May 2002 I worked a lot, got my Commercial pilots license, worked, and worked for CAP for the first time as an official IC at my first full-size (state-wide) SAREX (Jeffco).
June 2002 I worked, taught at the BPPP course, worked, attended the CAP squadron bivouac, worked, put on (with a LOT of help) an unfunded mini-exercise for CAP, and my project shipped at work and I have a life again! No more 14-hour days 7 days a week! Hurrah!
July 2002 I recovered from work over July 4th, found out what Bob looks like again, realized the house has a back yard and I already missed the tulips and daffodils and irises and there were a few roses left blooming still, and began the enormous task of beginning to start to attempt to try to catch up on life. I took the written tests for Flight Instructor and am enrolled in Colorado Contrail's 14-day CFI course. Flying from the right seat is humbling :-)
August 2002 I got my CFI - Certificated Flight Instructor rating. Hurrah! I would highly recommend Contrail's course. The rest of August I spent a lot of time with some CAP guinea pigs like Ken McNaught and Rick Turley and Patrice Gapen learning how to teach mountain flying. Don't fly in the center of a valley!
October 2002 Bob and I flew to Kansas City for Dan & Jan's wedding celebration. Sue learned that Westport is not in Lawrence (duh!) and the Plaza has great shopping... have to contribute to the economy...
Nov 2002 we went commercial to Boise to see Sue's sisters who live there, and the parents who were visiting. Bob and Manny both took pictures, we think Manny's are better. We got back Monday night and Wednesday morning we flew ourselves (gorgeous weather!) to do Thanksgiving in Kansas with Bob's family.
Dec 2002 Sue planned a mini-exercise for local CAP folks where we practiced Homeland Security type missions with lots of photographs. Then I was insane enough to go winter camping! I actually stayed fairly warm, and we had fun with 25 cadets and 6 adults, though there wasn't enough snow to build snow caves, as originally planned. We got back Sunday night the 22nd, and I unpacked and immediately re-packed for driving to Kansas for Christmas with Bob's family, which is always fun.
In June Bob and I flew to Austin to visit Scott & Linda, and drop off Brittany, the lab/terrier mix we'd been dog sitting since New Years. Poor pooch, going from 6 years in southern California to the depths of snowy winter in Colorado, to over 100 degrees in Austin. She flew great in the airplane!
July 14-21 Bob and I went to the beach in North Carolina with Dan and folks from Kansas City. After a week back at work, we headed back out in Sue's plane to Detroit for the Wolber family reunion. We also did the required day at Cedar Point, the world's best amusement park (Sue is still drooling over the Millenium Force ride). Then we headed home to work for a day before going to John & Kara's wedding in Wichita with our chauffer Dan. Somehow we managed to take no pictures there... 30 hours on the plane and a lot of fun!
In May 2000 we went to Cozumel with Brad, and Jimbo and Shelly. A fun time was had by all and Sue got her first (temporary) tattoo.
Also in 2000 Sue did a lot of traveling for work to train our sales force, and got Premier on United for the first time ever. Boston multiple times, California, two weeks in Europe, and a week in Hong Kong racked up the miles. Would have gone to Japan too, but the worsening economy caused a cutback on travel and training budgets. But by that time, I'd had enough of airports so I didn't mind.
In early October Bob and Sue both flew (in separate planes :-) to Reno. Sue stayed there for week of training for Inland SAR (Air Force Rescue Coordination Center teaches how to manage a search for a lost airplane). Meanwhile Bob flew on to San Jose to stay with Scott and Linda (& Brittany) to work remotely for the week. He came back Friday, Saturday it snowed in Denver so we wandered around Reno for the day and discovered if you're not into gambling, Reno has not much else to do, and locals are NOT very polite. Sunday we finally caravanned back home.
In late October we flew up to West Yellowstone for Reid & Karen's wedding. SueB & Mark flew up also in Sara, they took off well after us and blew by us like we were standing still :-) The four of us snuck off for half a day in Yellowstone Park (in Reid's truck :-) to see the geysers and had a lot of fun!
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