Year End Review

Well, 2009 is fast approaching so I figured it was time for a little review. Last year I made some new year's resolutions, something I rarely do. Upon further review, I now know why. Here are my 2008 resolutions and my comments about them.

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#1. This is the year I'll finally ride my motorcycle cross country. Taking a motorcycle trip across the U.S. is something I've wanted to do since I was a teenager. This year is the year!

NOT !! I didn’t even take a long trip on the bike in 2008. Even though I had the vacation time accrued, I wasn’t permitted to take a month off for a cross country trip because of the work schedule.

#2. Play golf. Yes, I know it's been 10 or 15 years since I played but I think it's time to start again. Back when I used to play, the game became a serious addiction that threatened to ruin my life. Now I think I'm old enough to handle it without becoming addicted.

Nope! I never even touched a golf club. They’re still up in the storage area above my shop.

#3. Shoot more. I don't spend nearly enough time at the range. This year I want to compete in some IDPA matches and maybe take up sporting clays.

Don’t I wish!! While I may have actually shot more rounds of ammo than I did in 2007, I never did compete in any IDPA or IPSC matches and haven’t shot a single clay target with my shotgun.

#4. Sell a vehicle. I don't know which one, but we have too much stuff and it's time to start getting rid of some of it. I think probably the camper will go, and maybe the boat.

Now isn’t this one funny. Not only did I not sell a vehicle, I bought a 1972 corvette and a 1961 Metropolitan! I did try to sell the camper and the boat but was unsuccessful.

#5. Finish the interior of the '57 Chevy. I made some real progress in 2007 and 2008 is the year I finally finish it!

OK!!! I may actually be able to claim success on this one. Although the interior still doesn’t have center console, it is effectively “done”. New carpet, new front seats, new upholstery front and rear with matching door panels, new steering wheel & shifter. It’s looking really “done”.

On the plus side, there's really no need to make new resolutions for 2009. I can just recycle the 2008 resolutions and see if I have more luck with them next year.

D.B. Cooper

Today is the anniversary of the hijacking of Northwest Orient flight 305. In 1971 a man called D. B. Cooper claimed he had a bomb and demanded $200,000 and two black parachutes with reserve chutes. He lowered the rear stairway of the 727 and jumped out somewhere over southern Washington and disappeared without a trace. Some of the money turned up in 1980 but the case is still opened and unsolved.

The incident is memorable to me for a couple of reasons. First, anything to do with jumping out of airplanes was of interest. I had just graduated from U.S. Navy jump school the previous june and was an active jumper stationed in Naha, Okinawa at the time. When this happened it was a major topic of conversation around the parachute loft. After all, jumping out of a jet was not something the average skydiver experienced.

The second thing that makes the incident so memorable is the impact it had on air travel in the United States. Hijacking was not something that happened in the U.S. There had only been one prior to this and that was a cuban militant in 1958. Hijackings were not uncommon in Europe where people used it as a means to escape the Soviet Union but the U.S. was relatively immune to that sort of thing. Then along came D.B. Cooper.

After Cooper's hijacking the airlines began putting metal detectors in all the airports and air travel would never be the same. Prior to November 1971 air travel was almost as easy is riding a bus. Buy a ticket, go to the gate and board the plane. Guns? Not a problem. My handgun was usually in my carry on bag and the stewardess would store long guns in the closet with all the suit bags for you. No one ever gave them a second thought.