homepage Forums Air Combat & Civil Aviation Battle of Britain + Battle of Britain II Here's what happened (Continued)

Folks,

Wonderful day here.....that is, if you love low lying mist, dark clouds, wind and below average temperatures. No ice today. Some up around the VA. border and West of us.

OG:

I'd say you posted good news, depending on how you look at it. You'll have a gorgeous plane again soon, the opportunity to spiff up the hanger is hard work but a good thing. Thank Providence, your buddy is still very much alive, though suffering from such serious injuries. I wish him well and a speedy recovery. One day soon, he'll once again, be floating care and pain free in blue skies above the billowing, white clouds of Florida.

I worry about my son riding his relatively still new Indian. He sold his 2 big Harleys. It is a beautiful ride. He loves it, yet I know of no one who has ridden a motorcycle for a long time who has not been seriously injured one way or another. Of course I don't know a large number of motorcycle riders.

The accidents were not their bike's fault, or theirs either. They were due to careless automobile drivers. Who, as you imply, are the big threat to all bikers everywhere. I've said it before. You may be a very safe driver, yet you are only as safe as the worst driver you encounter on the highway. Sadly, intelligence is still not a criterion for getting a driver's license in any state that I know of.

I am certainly sorry your pal may lose his leg. My high school girlfriend lost her right leg to bone cancer in her senior year. She did well for 13 years considering. She graduated UNCG and taught in elementary school. She married well and had two sons. Then the cancer came back with a vengeance. She tragically died at just 31 years of age in 1976. I didn't know it then but her's was a particularly hideous brand of bone cancer that after initial remission or amputation has a nasty habit of aggressively returning within 15 years.

My girlfriend was fitted with the best prothysus money could buy and her recovery was coming along well both physically and mentally. One day, I saw that her younger sister was feeling kinda low and sorry for herself and her sister. I told her to cheer up and how lucky we really were. Visabally hurt, he looked at me as if I were an uncompassionate bastid. Then I explained what I meant.

It was bad, I agreed. Really bad. But thank God, her sister had two legs and, by removing just one, the surgeon was able to save her from a blindingly painful certain death. Clearly, I had been too blunt but then she said she understood. I was not being dispassionate, the girl still lived and was nearly recovered, that was what meant so very much to me.

It is not only those sick or in pain who suffer. So do their friends and family suffer. I wish you all a swift recovery and the happy release from worry that will surely bring.