…since 1994, I’ve had to come up with a new 400 to 500-word column about the New Year – or the Old Year.
I was thinking about telling you of the new countries I visited in 2023. Because of the appalling travel insurance rates once I turned 84, since then I’ve never crossed over Canada’s border on foot, by canoe, by car or by plane.
Would you like to hear tales about some of the flights in the types of aircraft new to me that that brought my life total above the 360 it was at on January 1, 2023? I’d like to tell you about the one in the Dash-7, the only De Havilland Canada type I hadn’t flown in before. The flight in a Canadair CL-215 water bomber would also be interesting. How about flying in the back seat of an aerobatic Blue Angels’ F/A Hornet? A trip in a Boeing 787 Dreamliner wouldn’t involve barrel rolls or flying inverted, but my account of that flight sure would be different than your first airliner flight, probably in a DC-3.
Sorry! No flights in any types new to me in 2023 (or 2022)! Most of my aviation contacts have taken their last-ever climb into the blue.
Sharing my New Year’s resolutions with you might give you some food for thought. In years past, I’ve accumulated a list as lengthy as ‘The Donald’s’ shady business ventures. My list of New Year’s resolutions this year adds up to a total of nada, niente, nil, null, zero, zilch, zip, …
Would you like to hear about my new love affair? Just like plonk wine, as it ages, it’s not even good enough for cooking – or removing paint. Fine wine improves with age. I’m in an old wine relationship.
Aha! I should tell you about my book launch. Juliet (my old love affair) convinced me to write a book about my sea-to-sea hitchbiking adventure with Keesha. (‘hitchbiking’ is the fine art of long-distance travel using pedaling and thumbing.) This book contains dozens of photos and scores of serendipitous adventures, spread across Canada, from Vancouver Island to St. John’s, from May to October of 2005.
My resolution for 2024 is to start writing that book – and the ‘other one’. In the meantime, have a Happy New Year!
