Flying by the Seat of My pants

Days 88 and 89 reading assignment
Deuteronomy 11:1-15:3
Luke 8:22-9:6
Psalm 70:1-71:24
Proverbs 12:4-7

Many years ago, before my husband Brent was a certified flight instructor, we set out to teach me how to fly.  We took the first several lessons in my brother's Cub, a sweet little two-place "tail-dragger" plane.  At some point, for reasons unbeknownst to me but surely having nothing to do with my credibility as a pilot, my brother suggested we use our own plane for my flight instruction.  We would have begun my lessons in our 1946 Taylorcraft  but the Cub is just a little easier to fly and Brent was trying to keep things as uncomplicated as possible.  I should back up here and say that Brent "took-over" my flight training after I had taken many lessons from a friend who was indeed a certified instructor.  Brent was frustrated that I wasn't progressing as quickly as he thought I should and being a loyal husband, blamed it all on our instructor friend.....for awhile.

In the air, while I thought we were doing fine, he would shout,"DOES THIS FEEL RIGHT TO YOU!!??"  
"DOES WHAT FEEL RIGHT TO ME???" I gently and lovingly screamed back at him.
"YOUR BUTT, YOUR BUTT...can't you feel it in your butt?"
"Feel WHAT in my butt, what are you talking about?"
We were wearing headsets and normally you have to push the little black button on the yoke to talk, but at this point we no longer needed the intercom system to hear each other over the cockpit noise.  Without fail, by the time we had landed on the bumpy grass strip, I was crying.  We would sit in the plane and "go over" the flight and too little too late, he would try to encourage me to try it again.  If he wasn't repeating 'feel it in your butt', he was monologuing "right rudder right rudder!"  I finally realized it was comfortable to rest my foot on the left rudder and evidently this gesture was putting the whole plane...askew, so to speak.  In my defense I confessed that I usually rested my left foot on the clutch peddle of my car too,  he just slapped himself on the forehead muttering something derogatory and walked away.  I may never understand men.   I also do not understand why, if it takes feeling something in your butt (that I have yet to learn) to fly an airplane, why then am I not a natural because I do tend to squeak through this life 'flying by the seat of my pants.'  Evidently they are two separate concepts.  I could get us on the ground with only minor injuries if I had to land a plane now, if all the conditions were perfect and there was no wind and no other planes on the tarmac.  But who wants to?  My time is better spent on the ground, of that I am sure.  So I did not see flying lessons through to any kind of completion...that's right I quit.

Brent is organized. Whether he is flying a plane or eating his Cheerios.  (I would be organized too if I only focused on one thing at a time and one person at a time.)  Before he leaves the house he has a five point checklist:
"phone-check"
"watch-check"
"pen-check" (don't even get me started on the pen)
"wallet-check"
"glasses-check"....
As I watch this final part of his morning routine I am thinking: 'kick in the butt from your wife as you are walking out the door- check.'  Everything he does is a part of a bigger routine, it's mind boggling for a person who is routine challenged as I am.  If I had a check-list before leaving the house it would be:
Am I dressed or is a bathrobe acceptable where I am going?-check
Am I wearing shoes-check
Do they match-check
Was there time for make-up and if so do both eyes have mascara-woops no time gotta go.

The imaginary squirrels, like voices in my head, haunt me and distract me and oddly bring me some sense of comfort.  I say all this to explain that while there may be lapses in this blog, unlike my flying lessons I will not quit.  If there are readers out there in this unknown cyber frontier, please know that I will see this through.  My absenteeism is to the computer, not to the reading assignment.  This Bible reading in a year, unlike every diet I have ever tried, is a life-style change for me.  If there are no readers at all I will still "Blog On!"

As for the flying lessons, we toy with the idea of taking them up again now that Brent is certified but then our eyes meet and with smiles we just say "nah."