03 April 2007

An Adventure Has Begun

Riveting Experience
Copyright 2007 V1VrV2

"I had always wanted an adventurous life. It took a long time to realize that I was the only one who was going to make an adventurous life happen to me." -- Richard Bach


I've been "offline" for a few months -- not blogging, not writing a whole lot. My spare time, what little there is, has been consumed with an airplane. In this case, it's a home-built airplane project, a Vans RV-8.

Its arrival in my workshop signified the beginning of a new, great adventure for me, and I've been throwing myself into the construction process with all the zeal of a kid building a sand castle at the beach. The rewards have been tangible. My outlook on life is clearer, I'm less concerned with what's going on in the popular and media cultures, I notice more details in everything, and I've made some new friends along the way.

It's like anything else in life -- the more you devote your attention to something, the more important it gets.

This project is something I've looked forward to all my life, and half the excitement of the past several months has been watching myself enjoy the process so much. In the past, I've had a tendency to put off the really Big Things until conditions are "just right." However, as a wise person once pointed out, if you wait until conditions are just right, you will never get started. This project has only begun to teach me things. I have a feeling that drilling, de-burring, countersinking and riveting are merely the smallest lessons. The real lessons are coming from a whole different level.