Deposit Placed on Tri-Pacer

Well, I took a leap of faith today. Faith in the Piper aircraft company and the Lycoming engine company. Here is a front and back view of the plane that will be the next one in line I've been lucky enough to be able to own.

Thinking of this Tri-Pacer (instead of a new pickup)

PLANE

Step one of Bucket List Trip to Alaska

Things to do, places to see

**Be a better husband, man, brother, stepfather, bumpa (grandfather name for Fiona)
** See Yellowstone Park
** See the Grand Tetons
** Visit New Zealand
** See Spain
**See Mount Rushmore
**Visit Greece
**Visit the Balkans
(love all that Roman stuff don'cha know)
**Possibly visit Vietnam
** Solo a glider and soar on thermals
** Lose 50# while healthy, not dying of cancer.
**Play Tuba part in a Mariachi band
**Do volunteer work at a soup kitchen in Pueblo
**Fly a small plane to Alaska via Al-Can highway, camping along the way.
**See the Galapagos as an ecotourist, possibly by sail.
**Learn to dance properly with my wife, wearing my tux when it fits again!
** Attend the 4th of July at Esplanade Boston
**See a bullfight (real kind)preferably in Spain
**See an active volcano with lava flow
**See the Caves in Lascaux France (cave paintings)
** Tour DC in spring to see Cherry Blossoms

Life is short, and I've got lots to be thankful for already!.

Ok folks, I'm past 62 yrs old, and to tell the truth, there are not too many things that I've wanted to do that I have not already done. Best place to start is with a thankful listing of what I have been able to do. Life is precious, and I'm not suicidal. One must 'toot one's own horn' a bit in recounting achievements. I will attempt to be humble.

First I have thanks for my health, which despite my attempts over the years to destroy, lingers on apparently in good condition.

I've been blessed with having had one son for 3 years until he died of a strange condition, probably called Angelmann's syndrome. Though he died early I would not have passed up on the chance to have him even for such a short time. Having Jonathan helped shape the way I would deal with patients, because of the poor treatment my first wife and I received as worried parents of a fatally ill child.

After divorce from my first wife after Jonathan's death,(83% of marriages wherein a child dies end in divorce) I married a woman I loved from the first day I met her those long years ago when she and I were married to other people.

Possessions? For toys, I've had 6 motorcycles (one almost had me) and horses, and 5 airplanes, and 2 boats. I've done aerobatics in a Citabria, flown a Cessna 172 across the Rocky Mountains, and even between the clouds. Always VFR of course. As Joanie Mitchell says, "I've looked at clouds from both sides now." I've sailed the Caribbean in two live-aboard boats with J., as free as the gentle breezes in the clear blue seas where naked snorkeling was a joy and the shark got away. (At least he didn't get me) I've flown from Maine To Florida in a small plane with my dad.
Fortune gave me my second wife J. who in turn is teaching me to be a more sensitive person and look at the things in my life that have been painful. Things that have been damaging to my interpersonal relations lifelong. To look and to understand that they do not have to have the power to make me into a critical unpleasant person, an abusive husband with petulant ways. None of these things are necessary just because bad things happened in my past.

I taught high school science for 4 months in Turner Maine as a temporary full time substitute. I've built: several houses, a private practice medical office after leaving the health center in Rangeley Maine fired me. I was fired for reporting a dentist (one Dr. Kippax in Lewiston Maine) to the state of Maine.. I believe my efforts were instrumental in creating the health center in Rangeley as a direct result of many volunteer hours donated to developing networks, fund raising, and chairing the board of directors that built the facility. Also as a gift, I donated 3 acres of prime Rangeley land for the location of the health center, with no regrets. I resigned that post as board chair to avoid any conflict of interest charges or even the appearance of such.

Travel has been a gift and a blessing to me. Africa in 1969 inthe Peace Corps accompanied by my first wife; European travels with mother to Italy; several trips to England, the UK, France, Germany, Switzerland, with J.

Travel has an addictive effect of making more travel desirable. After all travel however it is still wonderful to get home, to sit by the fireplace J. and I built, and enjoy the view of the mountains.

A multitude of jobs have given me a broad look at the world. Invisible jobs such as hospital orderly, caretaker; fun jobs such as being a firefighter for Bath Maine, delivering flowers on mothers' day for a friend who is a florist; laborer selling firewood (cold work but satisfying);surveying for the Maine Central Railroad; Landscaping in Massachusetts; rescue work and ambulance work while a firefighter; and finally a mid-life course change to become a medical practitioner as a physician assistant. Publishing a weekly newspaper column in Rangeley Maine for almost 3 years. Being a physician assistant turned out to be the career I was made for after all those years of seeking. The job of being a P.A. gave good income, travel to Alaska, community prestige, and the satisfaction of helping others in a way that was denied to me when my son was sick. Jonathan's death made me vow to practice medicine in a caring, humble way, and to know my limits, unlike the pediatric doctors in Bath who failed to refer him to proper specialists.

I've lost a brother to AIDS. A good man who died too young.

I have another brother who is also a good man, and a sister who is amazing. I'm thankful for her survival of something that should have left her dead.

Memorable life events: Seeing Barack Obama in Pueblo is high on a list of things to cherish. Playing in the U.Mass marching band was great fun. There was that nighttime shuttle launch we watched from our Catamaran, "Off The Grid" while anchored in Florida. I was in Boy Scouts and made Eagle; attended a Jamboree in '64,saw President Johnson, and went to a world's fair. They don't even have those anymore.

Good friends, though few in number, I am blessed with. I have a place to work where people smile and are happy to see me when I arrive. I have been with people as they died, providing care to the end and wondering about the process we all must face.

I've traveled on the Masai Mara, the Serengeti, Amboseli, Western Tanzania, Lake Manyara, and other places where I got to practice my rusty Peace Corps Swahili.

So what is left? Stay tuned to see my ideas of what I want to do before I kick my bucket. The bucket list of a lucky man with few regrets in life.

Bob