If you had asked me last year at this time if I were capable of falling in love with a car, I would have laughed in your face.  Cars?  Me?  Hardly something I was aware that someone could love!  For me, airplanes were far superior in many ways and their ground-bound, four-wheeled cousins were hardly a match on so many levels.

Perhaps my sour opinion on cars were due to the fact I was driving a Dodge Stratus at the time — hardly a car one could ‘love’ per se.

However, over the past year, my contempt for the auto slowly turned to care as something slowly brought me around.  Perhaps it was the day I caught a segment on England’s Top Gear by mistake and actually started enjoying the petrolhead banter of those smarmy Brits — so much so that I started watching it religiously.  Perhaps it was the day I spent wading through Wikipedia reading up on the most basic of information on the art of motoring — allowing me to understand what a differential is, or what understeer and oversteer are, and of course, all the stuff that I could have understood about care and feeding of my car years ago if only I had paid attention to my brother.

Regardless, as the Dodge started to gasp it’s last breaths in the Fall, I started looking for it’s replacement.  And dammit, I wasn’t going to get a loveless car again.

I wanted a fun car… something to take advantage of the nice weather in Arizona.  I didn’t care much for practicality as Lil has the Jeep Liberty and that has enough practicality for our small family.  I wanted something speedy, yet not a gas-hog… so a two-seater would be fine.

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For those of you who know me, I do like animals and have always enjoyed pets.  Lil and I have our little Cockapoo Wolfie who just turned 15 this year and both Lil and I have had other pets throughout the years.

Since we moved to Arizona, I have been wanting to get a cat to live with us.  Lil and I both looked at the adoption organizations and fell in love with all sorts of cats, but never had the ability to get one as we always made excuses — wait until we had a bit more money, a bit more time, a bit cleaner house, etc.  I knew we wanted a cat, but the excuses seemed neverending.

Until Wednesday night.

On Wednesday night, my carpooling coworker Tom dropped me off in front of the clubhouse at our community, and immediately I heard a pleasant chirping meow greeting me as I got out of the car.  Looking over to a boulder in the landscaped garden area, I saw a skinny, but adult calico shorthair cat looking right at me — as if she was talking right to me.  Being a sucker for petting cats, I went right over and started petting and scratching her.

Then the purring started — which absolutely melted my heart.

I picked her up and noticed she had no ID or anything.  She was clearly thin and was certainly dirty — so I knew she had been outside for a while.  Unlike many of the strays around the area, she was so friendly and had no aversion to being picked up or anything.  I thought “hey, if Lil approves, maybe this little one can be ours!”

So the cat and I scooted to our home… or I should say, she followed me!  She came inside without hesitation and Lil fell in love with her as well!  We fed our little girl and then promptly got into the Jeep and headed to the pet store to pick up a litter box, cat food, a scratching post (or should I say, cat condo) and other essentials including a grooming brush.

On the way home, Lil and I thought about what to name our new little princess — and in honor of Thanksgiving and her autumn colored coat, we decided on “Pumpkin”.

We got home to find her exploring the house and “feeling out” Wolfie.  Though Wolfie is extremely docile, the cat’s instincts were still kicking and so she growled and hissed a bit.

She immediately knew how to use the litter box and that took a load off.  Though Wolfie is housetrained, her age betrays her and she has been spotting a bit more than usual.  If Pumpkin were to take the same habit, it might have been a disaster.

Pumpkin slept through the night well and has been a delight to have around!  She has a bit of a curious nature and has been jumping up on everything — counters, bureaus, furniture… you name it.  Other than that, she’s been great!

We took her to Dr. Benesh yesterday and he gave her a clean bill of health.  He estimates she’s about six months old and has no signs of FIV or Leukemia — what a relief!  Now, he wasn’t sure if she was carrying some little surprises of her own — but we’ll just need to cross that bridge when we get there.

I’m quite happy that Pumpkin “chose us” last week!  Her arrival into our house is much like many of the events that have happened to us over the last few years — serendipity in the purest form!

When a person turns thirty-years-old, the idea of being a “young person” has pretty much gone away.  You’ve passed the milestones of adulthood: you are old enough to drive, old enough to drink, old enough to get drafted (if that ever came about), and old enough to rent a car — which has become something of a 21st century right of passage at the age of 25.

But once you are 30; you’re an adult and there isn’t much left that’s off limits to you — except maybe an AARP membership — and that’s nothing I’ll look forward to. By this time, it’s assumed that you’ve got your life together and are past the entry-level jobs, have some sort of meaningful relationship, and are well on your way to personal success and happiness.

For me, I’ll remember my 30th year on planet Earth to be something of an interesting and strange year — one that became a perfect example of serendipity in motion.

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I asked this on Twitter today, but thought it might be a nice question for the folks that read Arizona Keough too!

“What is your favorite airplane to fly or fly in… and what event did it for you?”

So now is your time to tell US a story by posting a comment here!  Just click on the comments link and tell us a story!

I find that this simple question draws so many different responses… and in many cases people sit back and think of a truly memorable experience and are reminded of the excitement and passion that brought us to flying in the first place.  In an era of hearing so much bad involving flying, (airline troubles, gas prices, ATC understaffing, etc.) I think it’s important we look back at the grassroots of our love for the community and the industry and remember why we love the allure of the sky like we do.

OK, so here is mine…

Picture this… Geneseo, NY… July 2005.  It was the conclusion of the Saturday show on the “Greatest Show On Turf” at Geneseo Airport and I was searching for a friend to take me up… in anything!  Along comes Quentin Marty (photo at left of Quentin via Eric Dumigan, www.airic.ca), the owner and pilot of a beautiful PT-13 Stearman from Van Sant Airport, and he was looking for a bit of “weight” for the front cockpit for a dusk flight!  The Lycoming barked to life with a slightly different sound than the Continental 220 normally found on the front of a Stearman… but the sound was still the reassuring growl of a round motor, so I was fine!

We took off from the grass runway and headed due east for the best spot to mess around a little in low light of the day… Conesius Lake.  The smallest of the Finger Lakes, Conesius is only about 10 miles long, but a mile wide.  As we came over it, the radiant heat from the ground subsided to a cool, moist breeze.

Quentin crackled over the intercom, “are you up for some acro?” and of course I said yes!  We got some altitude and began a slow dive with a pull-up to a nice, big, lazy loop.  The wires hummed as we recovered and he took it into a barrel roll… lazy yet again.  We went through a series of nice maneuvers that made the Stearman perform like the perfect lady she is.  People below stopped their boats and took some time to enjoy the classic impromptu show over their heads.

Finally it was time we headed back… though I could have stayed out there forever.  Quentin kept the Stearman low on the flight back so we could wave at people on the ground.  More than a few times we did a 360 turn for appreciate kids on the ground waving at us!  With a waggle of the wings, we were off to return to the field… a steak dinner was awaiting us at the crew tent!

That event did it for me… I was infatuated with the Stearman and continue to be to this very day!  It was my favorite flying moment aboard my favorite plane!

Many of my favorite flying moments took place aboard Stearman products… including the photo above when I flew with Addison Pemberton (of Spokane, WA) in his Stearman 4DM Speedmail Senior… with Tom Lowe in his Stearman C3R and Ben Scott in his Stearman Speedmail Junior off our wings.  A flight of early square-tail Stearmans over Galesburg, IL — home of the National Stearman Fly-In!

So that’s my story!  Add yours below by clicking on the comment link!