Goose Eggs

Not the kind ya might have for breakfast. (?) The kind ya get on your noggin and the kind ya have when ya get skunked in sports. (I am not the jock in the family. That would be "The Preacher".)

I woke up with a 'prop knot' on my head. Maybe that was a wake up call. There have been lots of those coming around lately.

I've been chasing airplanes around the world for most of my adult life. Other things have come and gone but airplanes have been a relative constant.

It may finally be time for a change.

I started my life as an A&P quite by accident. Never aspired to be one. I was working in a dry cleaners in Dallas. Floundering around. (Of course, there's a story for another time as to how I wound up there.) At 24 I was beginning to realize that I was going nowhere. I kept hearing radio ad's for an A&P school. I went to have a look. Took the tour, talked with the Rep (SALESMAN). Investigated tuition and financing. I qualified for ZERO financial aid because at $6 and hour in 1985 in Dallas, TX (Addison! For aficionados) I made toooooo much money! They required $XYZB.00 down payment and $XYZ.00 a month for the fourteen months. "Have a nice life. See ya later." I said.

XMAS was big that year. I got a letter from the school saying Ronald Reagan had signed legislation that allowed me to qualify for student loans.

So it began. The school was a sham. Oh, they were legal. I got what I needed to earn my "License to Learn" as they euphemistically called it. (I better learn it somewhere because you clowns aren't teaching me squat."

There are other ways to earn A&P licenses but the school route, boiled down, requires 1900 some-odd hours of instruction (Documented. We had a time clock.) Then when you pass all of those tests and graduate with the requisite hours you qualify to take the Federal Exams. Thirteen months of full time 'training', 7.5 hours a day, five days a week. Then one month of learning the tests.

My tattered ol' ticket, " License to Learn", says 07/07/88.

It's been a good ride. Great at times. But, sooner or later ya get back to the platform and the guy hits the lever, lifts the bar and it's time to get off of the roller coaster.

Thinking about starting on ongoing post titled, "DO NOT TRY THIS AT HOME!".

I'll keep ya posted.

Mo Nada