Christmas 2008

Another year has gone by, another Christmas now in the past. For the second time in as many years no cards are leaving our mailbox; personal letters are in the works and will go out soon. Thanks for all the beautiful cards and letters you've sent us; we always hang them on the kitchen cabinets each year, and the photos and words all remind us just how blessed we are with friends and family.

There is much to write about the year, but the words are hard to come by, so take a look at our photos link and my earlier posts about the blessings, sorrows, events and people who have touched our lives over the past twelve months. We wish you all the happiness and joy in the world, and pray God's blessings to you and your families now and always.

Jack, Wanda, Laurel and Madison

Baptism

Madison was baptized in the warm waters of Ham Lake this evening, under the gorgeous golden glow of a setting Minnesota sun. Pastor Tim Walker did the deed and it was wonderful.

Anyone who doubts the Gospel is for children need only to talk with Madison for a while. She "gets it" - maybe not every nook and cranny of God's grace, but certainly enough to know how much we owe Christ for our lives and salvation. And thanks to a strong church and rigorous Bible training at school, she's understood for a while. But for a time she wondered if she wanted baptism only to get the crackers and grape juice at communion. That was solved by our offering crackers and grape juice at home anytime she wanted it - and her realizing they weren't all that big of a deal apart from the meaning attached as a sacrament. In fact, they don't even taste that good.

I have no doubt of her sincerity and her place in God's kingdom, and now she's shown the world the same.

Bon voyage, my friend

This is much delayed, but it has taken me this long to simply sit down, brace up, and write what I need to say.

On March 4, Tim Hartman and Rick Sandoval were the pilots in N113SH, a Cessna Citation business jet, on a flight from Oklahoma City's Wiley Post Airport to Mankato, Minnesota. When he picked up the flight as copilot the day before, Rick asked if I could meet them there, only 20 minutes' air time from Anoka, and we made plans for that. They never got out of Oklahoma City, crashing near 10th and Council Road shortly after takeoff. Rick, Tim, and three businessmen in the back all died in the crash.

What happened that day, and the very long night, days and weeks that followed, I'll leave to write another time, here or somewhere else. It has been very tough to lose someone who treated me like a brother for 27 years, who talked with me several times a week and e-mailed back and forth with me constantly at work and home, whose passion for aviation I shared fully, whose home and family we knew well and were always welcomed warmly in, and who mentored me in Christian faith in so many ways. I can't count the times I've picked up the phone to call him about something - new thing with the girls, new engine, new experience - only to realize I can't. So my focus has been squarely on helping his family as much and in as many ways as possible. We'll hopefully be back in Weatherford this month to see them.

While I'd never met Tim, I knew of him through Rick as a good man and pilot. Ironically, he had history in our 182 as well: Sometime in the late 1980s he planted the plane on a section line road in western Oklahoma with a seized engine and windshield covered with oil. The passenger that night spoke of it at his memorial service. So Tim's memory is with us too, every time we get in 55R.

Knowing Rick's faith in Christ, we all know where he is, and in that is happiness found. We will see him again. Until then please keep Monika, Hannah, Luke, Julia, his parents Richard and Karla, and his sisters Tamra and Krista frequently in your prayers. The same goes for Tim's family, a wonderful group of people, and the families of the businessmen, Frank Pool, Lloyd Austin and Garth Bates.

Although preliminary findings seem to show they hit a pelican, the final NTSB report won't be out for some time, so I'll save that discussion too.

I've started a separate folder in my "Photos" link which has all the digital shots I've taken of, or involving, Rick and his family. They're pitifully few for such a long friendship. More will come as I scan the older negatives.

Thank you.

Brrrr

I'm on call this weekend, and because of where slides for the weekend's cases are and where the surgeons are operating I'm spending the morning northside at Unity and Mercy. It meant an early start, leaving before a gorgeous sunrise. A couple of bright planets were in the sky too.

It was minus 17 degrees this morning at 6:45. Fahrenheit. Ugh. After two hours at Unity the truck started right up, but the steering fluid was almost frozen solid. That made an interesting drive the first couple of miles towards Mercy. Now, at noon, it's about minus ten and sunny.

We go through a couple days of this every year, and this is our time. Last year it was in early February and I went flying in 55R to see what happened. Jet-like climb rates happened (dense air gives more engine power and better wing lift) but it was uncomfortable. The year before that we hibernated like the unacclimatized fools we were.

But I remember a trip here, almost exactly 20 years ago to the day, when I vowed I'd never move here. I interviewed at Mayo Clinic for medical school in early 1988, taking a Northwest 727 from Oklahoma City through Minneapolis to Rochester. The base temperature that day was about the same as today; the wind was howling, and the wind chill calculations they used back then gave a ridiculous -50 F number at MSP and a scary -80 F at RST. The door wouldn't open at Minneapolis, trapping us in the plane for a while. And in Rochester the gangway froze in place, the fuel truck in front of the right wing stalled, and the fueler, truck driver and truck disappeared in a cloud of snow as the plane went into reverse thrust to go to another gate. I can visualize that like it was last week. Miserable.

On the way home, stuck in Memphis for a snowstorm, I told Dad I was NOT coming here, whether I got accepted or not. That made him less than happy. I made alternate at Mayo, not bad with only 40 per class, but having acceptances elsewhere I didn't wait out the list, so the theory that I'd turn down Mayo was never tested.

I'll never live there....

So, here we are. It'll be 25 degrees warmer by Tuesday, a balmy 10 degrees. By next month it'll be in the twenties, perfect for skiing and tubing. Bring on the jokes. I'll likely be laughing at you come summertime.

Christmas 2007

Merry Christmas family and friends!

I let time get away from me this year, and a scant two days before Christmas I haven't gotten our Christmas letter put together yet, much less get all the cards in the mail. So, my apologies for that - but watch for a letter in your mailbox around the beginning of the new year. It'll read something like what I've written below.

As I type this the snow is falling softly, adding to the several inches already on the ground and highlighting the trees in a beautiful way. Barring any "global warming" catastrophe we're definitely having a white Christmas this year. What a wonderful way to end a year.

Here are some highlights from 2007 for the Minnesota Sheltons:

January - we create a new flying club, the North Star Flyers, at Anoka County Airport. Who would have known we'd grow from the initial six to a total of 16 members by midyear? The Beech Sundowner is a hit.

February - we sample skiing at Wild Mountain in Wisconsin, a scant hour away. It ain't Colorado but it is a fun little mountain with some challenging runs. Madison learns the value of speed control; Laurel learns to wipe out gracefully. Both take on blue slopes with Daddy with ease. Wanda gets better with some lessons, but admits skiing isn't her thing.

March - we get an amazing dump of snow during a weekend we're gone; the mailbox gets buried. I do formation training with some Cessna owner brethren in Kansas, anticipating flying to Oshkosh in July.

April - spring break gets complicated as a nasty weather system shuts down our ability to fly to west Texas, our thaw-out spot for the year. We drive instead, making a brief weekend stop in Oklahoma before continuing to Fort Davis, a 22-hour trek. We spend a few days at Prude Ranch horseback riding, mountain climbing, watching for Marfa lights (none seen!), and visiting MacDonald Observatory and other places. We celebrate Easter with the Kirns in San Antonio, worshipping in the church we enjoyed while living there and renewing ties with many friends. The drive home is painful and dark, reminding me why I like to fly.... Speaking of which, I fulfill a near-lifetime goal by passing my Airline Transport Pilot checkride. If this whole pathology thing doesn't work out, I am now hireable.

May - warm weather arrives with a bang. I spend a few days around Memorial Day celebrating Dad's 80th birthday in Maryland; 55R and I share a nice trip to and from the festivities.

June - the boat goes in the water and we start fishing and tubing with gusto. We fly to Weatherford for a weekend with the Sandovals. I take over as medical director of the cytology laboratory at Abbott Northwestern. Work, and life, is good.

July - we camp with a gaggle of church friends at Two Rivers State Park near St. Cloud, sampling the upper Mississippi and Platte rivers for a great fourth of July holiday. We're nearly the only ones in a tent - so the questions about when we can buy a camper begin. Soon afterwards we're enroute to Colorado for a conference in Vail, followed by sightseeing in Colorado Springs and Alamosa. Horseback riding hiking in Vail, driving to the top of Pike's Peak, wandering around the Garden of the Gods, and eating a chuckwagon dinner at the Flying W Ranch really make for a fun vacation. The Kirns meet us for rafting the Colorado and we spend time together at Royal Gorge. We sample mountain flying in 55R and with Rob Kolter, 55R's prior owner, in his 206 at Alamosa. Mesa Verde is awesome. We miss Oshkosh again this year, but for a better reason than falling down the stairs like last year: I take an extra weekend of call for one of my partners at work who needs the weekend.

August - church camp for the girls arrives, always a great week for them at Trout Lake. A massive thunderstorm tries to wipe our house off the map, trashing our roof and covering the yard with two inches of golfball-sized hail. I learn the value of reading the fine print on the homeowner's insurance policy. We visit Ludlow's on Lake Vermilion again for a few days, this time dragging the boat with us. We're less than successful with the fishing but very successful with the relaxing

September - back to school! We finally buy the hangar at Anoka we've been working on for a while; 55R has a permanent home now, and I have another excuse to spend time at the airport. Speaking of aviation, we fly to Columbus, Ohio, for the Gathering of Mustangs and Legends Airshow - 90-odd P-51 Mustangs and a host of other amazing airplanes make the best airshow we've been to in a loooong time.

October - fall break has us in Georgia again, but not before a weekend in Lexington, Kentucky, visiting what must be heaven to Madison, our resident horse fan. What a gorgeous part of the country. We almost decide to buy a horse....

November - Thanksgiving in Maryland is a real treat. Nothing better than Poppa and Nanny's hospitality and cooking!

December - The snow begins; Christmas is my on-call holiday this year, so we stay home.

We've already begun planning 2008 and it's going to be even better: Las Vegas, the Grand Canyon and Monument Valley for spring break; New England for summer vacation; Ludlow's again in August; buffalo roundup in South Dakota in September; a cruise for fall break; a conference at Disney World in November; and some trips back east to visit family and friends for long weekends and Christmas in Maryland. 55R gets a new, more powerful engine in time for Sun 'n Fun fly-in (Florida) in April. I doubt we make Oshkosh again but that's OK. And of course, there'll be fishing, camping, skiing, tubing, and just simple day-to-day pleasures.

Merry Christmas!

Jack, Wanda, Laurel and Madison

Yes, I did forget about this for a while...

Well, so much for frequent posts to this! True to form I forgot all about it for a while as other projects took my attention. Those are done, or at least well on their way, and a couple of e-mails from friends brought this back to mind.

To restart, I'm uploading a bunch of new pictures to our Photos page. I'll come back and write here and in Logbooks afterwards. Promise!

Jack

The Birds

Okay, by popular demand, some pictures of the recent additions to our menagerie. Ladies and gentlemen, DQ and London:

I never thought I'd like having birds but these little parakeets are very funny. We haven't had any mishaps with the cats in the house yet, although they're pretty fascinated by the whole thing.