Warmed Up and Miked Up!

Hello everyone. It’s been two months since I’ve written on this blog. Wish I had a good excuse, but I don’t. I have been busy writing my new novel and loving every bit of it. I had an exciting experience about our 9/11 book which I’ll tell you about in a minute. My book, Redeeming Rob, won a Firebird Award. And then, Stewart and I actually got to go away for two days.

It took a village to get us to the Outer Banks, but we did it. His granddaughter Dana and her boyfriend Ezekiel loaded up the car and truck, along with Bill. We had to take a scooter, wheelchair, walker, rollator, bag of medicines, luggage, etc. I took less when I had two babies and had to take diaper bags and furniture in order to go anywhere!

Dana drove their rental car with me, and EZ drove our truck with Stewart and when we got to the Comfort Inn South Oceanfront on Nags Head, they unloaded everything and carried it up to our room. Their room was just one floor down from ours. We went out for breakfast both days, but at night they went out to get dinner and brought it back to our room. And, of course, when it was time to leave, they carted all our stuff down to the vehicles for us. It would have been very difficult indeed to have made the trip without them!

Stewart and I spent most of the two days sitting on our private balcony watching the waves roll in and out and listening to the ocean’s roar. It was pure Heaven! I did manage to read a few chapters of the book I’m currently reading, by Mike Lindell called Against All Odds, From Drug Addict to CEO. I very much recommend it.

On our last day, we packed up and drove to a pier where we inhaled the air, sound, and sights of the ocean, talked to the fishermen, and then ate breakfast at an outdoor restaurant on the pier. Wonderful, wonderful time.

Okay, I told you I did something else very exciting this month. I was on TV! Along with four other writers in our writing group—Ellen Kennedy, Nancy Panko, Terry Hans, and Jim Lewis. We talked about our group project, 9/11 That Beautiful, Broken Day. We met at Ellen’s house with Scott Mason of The Tarheel Traveler television show and his cameraman. Scott talked with each of us, had us read our contribution to the book and discussed our feelings about that historic day. One at a time, we got miked up, the camera was aimed at us and we talked for about fifteen minutes each. This was a whole new experience for me. Scott’s show lasts five minutes which means he had to condense an hour and a half of recorded time down to only three minutes. And may I say he did an excellent job! Hopefully, you can click here and see the show that was aired on September 9.  https://www.wral.com/tar-heel-traveler/17382329. Scroll down to the September 9 program headlined: Twenty years later, authors pour heart into reliving September 11 through their books. 

Jim, Me, Ellen, Terry, Nancy

Twelve Seconds That Changed the World

Think back. What have you done in the last twelve seconds? Did your last twelve seconds change the world? Could you change the world in twelve seconds? The answer is most assuredly, Yes.

On December 17, 1903 Orville and Wilbur Wright changed life as the world knew it. On a sandy beach of the Outer Banks of North Carolina, Orville, dressed in coat and tie, left earth’s gravity and flew the first airplane, keeping it aloft for twelve seconds for a distance of 120 feet. The brothers proved that a manned, heavier-than-air, machine could leave the ground under its own power, fly through the air, and land on a point as high as that from which it started.

Three more times that day they took turns flying their aircraft. The second attempt lasted, again, twelve seconds but went 175 feet. The third lasted fifteen seconds but went 200 feet, and the fourth attempt on December 17^th lasted fifty-nine seconds and landed 852 feet from where it had begun.

Since then, airplanes have provided transportation to distant places, dropped bombs in wars, broken the sound barrier, and, with a few adjustments, landed men on the moon. What have you done in the last twelve seconds that made such a difference to humanity?

Last weekend, after bringing his dad and me home from a cruise ship, Bill and Cyndi made a detour and took us to Kitty Hawk, NC. I’d wanted to see Kitty Hawk since I moved to this state and was thrilled to know I would finally get there. When we parked the car, we saw a big open field with a monument on a high mound. The Wright Brothers 60-foot white monument atop Kill Devil Hill marks the site of the hundreds of glider flights that preceded the first powered flight.

In another area, a rail spanned a length of maybe fifty feet along the ground. The plane rode the rail with Wilbur steadying the wings until it was airborne. At the end of the rail sits a life-size replica of the first plane, made of bronze and steel and weighing ten thousand pounds. Lying on his stomach on the bottom wing is a statue of Orville manning the controls. In back of the plane stands Wilbur, his arms outstretched having just released the plane’s wings from his grasp. Behind them, is the statue of photographer John Daniels ready to take a picture with his camera affixed to a tripod. Three other men stand by for eternity, witnessing the first airplane flight.

I felt as though I, too, were a witness to that historic occasion as I stood with John Daniels and Wilbur and watched Orville prepare to take control of the sky.

Granted, there were years of preparation that took place before that first moment in 1903, but the actual flight that proved it could be done, took twelve seconds. And changed the world forever.

Quote of the Day: “They have done it! Damned if they ain’t flew!” Witness to the first flight.