I can’t remember a New Year that so many seemed so ready for — 2011 was challenging, it seems, for lots of folks. But 2012 dawned fresh and clear, with a balmy winter day that drew thousands to the beaches, where I got my feet wet while a friend plunged clear in — good for her! The ocean was icy, but the day was warm enough to walk barefoot in the sand. That sure felt good for a January day, and a good start to the New Year.
So, this month, I’m working on a story for Rhode Island Monthly, but it won’t run till Spring, so will have to wait until then to say more about it. It’s an interesting topic, though, with a lot of different angles about how we humans interact with our natural environment.
In December, after finishing up with school, I wrote up a grant proposal to the R.I. Foundation, something I’m not very good at, but they offered a kind of local “genius grant” for three years, and required just a one-page letter of interest. I wasn’t the only one intrigued — they got over 400 applications! — so I’m not expecting to win the award. But it was a good exercise in thinking about some of the projects I’d like to take on if I could, so maybe I will look for other ways to move forward on some of these community initiatives.
I also got in a couple of interesting interviews for AVweb last month. One was with Richard Bach, the author of Jonathan Livingston Seagull. If you’re old enough, you might remember that book — it was a sensation in the 1970s. It was a special book to me and my friends, since it celebrated the free thinker who didn’t fit in with the crowd — that was us! So it was a treat to talk with him. Richard is also a pilot, and wrote a few books about flying. Our chat went on for well beyond the 10 minutes that I had to edit it down to for the website. The other interesting interview was with an actor who plays one of the Tuskegee Airmen in Red Tails, a George Lucas film coming out in a few weeks. Click here to listen to either of the podcasts.
Holiday events and a Christmas trip to Pennsylvania took up the rest of the schedule last month. And one Friday, a phone call from my pal Noah asking, “What are you doing tomorrow?” — I knew the answer: “I’m going flying!” Noah just finished building his RV-7, a little two-place airplane, after several years of hard work, and has been eagerly piling up the hours. We didn’t go far, just a hop over to a couple of nearby Massachusetts airports to have breakfast and visit some of Noah’s pilot friends. But it was great to be in the air over the Bay, sailing along at 1,200 feet above the ground, the most spectacular way to see our planet. I should have taken more pix, but I brought my big Olympus camera, which I don’t use much anymore, and it was acting up. I like this pik, though, because the little airplane looks so happy, and eager to go!
So, onward to 2012! January offers some time to sink into that RIM feature story, which I’m looking forward to! And of course there will be aviation news and podcasts for AVweb every week. And hopefully, lots more warm sunny days!
Mary Grady 