Meet Me

I spent 42 years working as an Aerospace Engineer, a career choice I made because of loving math and learning to fly. 2020 brought Covid-19 with a lot of working from home and employment uncertainty. When my employer offered a voluntary layoff, I took them up on it. August 13 (a Thursday) was my last day of work. I am now retired.

I have had a hankering for quite some time to get an RV and travel around. That hankering is in spite of never having owned an RV or spent much time in one. On September 2, 2020, I took delivery of a 40-foot 2005 Newmar Mountain Aire (nicknamed Queen Bee after the nickname the caregivers gave my Mom and because it sounds better than “Beast”). Between September 2 (when I put exactly 0 miles on Queen Bee) and November 17, Queen Bee has gained 5,000 miles on the odometer.

I am single. I have one sister Val who is married to Mike. They have a cat Baby – she is a 19-year old Maine Coon. I have a cat named BC (for Blessed Cat because he came from a Blessing of the Pets service at church but the initials also work for Big Cat, Bad Cat, Blasted Cat, etc.). BC is seven now and is really good at RVing. He is not so wild about riding around in the RV.

Val and I became parental care experts starting 11 years ago. Mike learned with us and was extremely helpful. Val and I had wonderful parents who snowbirded in Arizona after they retired and then moved to Arizona full time. We moved them to Wichita when Mom couldn’t take time for an aorta valve replacement because Dad needed care due to vascular dementia. Mom’s surgery worked out great. Then Dad went downhill. They both wound up living with me with Dad on hospice. We ran 24×7 caregivers and lots of doctors appointments.

After Dad passed, we moved Mom back to Arizona until her memory became fuzzy and she couldn’t be on her own. Another move back to Wichita, this time to an apartment near me. More caregivers and care giving. Cancer and hospice and a funeral. No more care givers.

I have started this blog to talk about three different things: 1) RVing (the name Flying-Low-and-Slow originating from having my pilots license, having flown Cessna 172s, and now herding around a big vehicle that doesn’t go very fast); 2) careers in engineering (my choice provided both mental and financial reward); and 3) parental care (Val and I learned a lot that I’d like to share).

Stay tuned for more!