The week was not going well. My landlord had accidentally cut down my flowering plum tree. Huge roadblocks had sprung up in three separate work projects. I’d had to shell out $550 to get my car fixed. And I’d been inundated by a swarm of termites coming through my bathroom walls. So it was with a sense of weariness, edged with a touch of dread, that I got my morning coffee and sat down at my computer to see what new disasters or character-building challenges had arrived in my inbox overnight.
But shockingly enough, no disasters awaited me. There was only a short message from one of the pilots I’d met at the Ranchaero, California, airport, almost exactly a year ago. “Remember the Stearman Gary was building last year? Well, he flew it on its maiden flight yesterday!” the message announced gleefully. “AWESOME!”
