A whole lot of nada

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We were up in time for me to run a bridge game at 8am and Dominique to head off to church for a 9am mass. She met Nancy at the bottom of the hill. The church grounds were very crowded and they expected the sanctuary to be the same. As it turned out, since the church vends food on Sunday morning for the locals, the throngs outside were actually buying food. It did fill up just before the service started.

She had a coffee with Nancy somewhere then was home 10:30ish. Not long thereafter we headed out for one of our favourite walks. The big hill by Irma then Calle Adelita to the bay where we cross over onto Playa Principal. We walk the length of the beach then cut over to Cinco de Mayo. We walk the length of that street, then hang a right on Avenida José María Moreles y Pavon. Next turn is right on Boquita to Plaza Kioto. The small hill is next until we get to nuestra casa. The whole circuit is about 4.1k, a perfect distance for una vieja y su chica. The breeze today was like none other. It is amazing how different the trek up the small hill can be with a wind that keeps sweat from pooling on one's face.

We decided to deviate from our weekly whole chicken in the air fryer for dinner, in favour of the leftover pasta from the soirée last evening with the company. The balance of the day was standard fare for us ... I did next to nothing and Dominique kept herself busy around the house. She has her fam jam at 6pm and we will try to find a movie to watch afterwards.

Company (brother Michael and SIL Gail) arrives in eight days. Dominique scoped out a delightful oasis at the bottom of the hill where we can do happy hour and dinner this Friday. The location looks out on Zihua Bay and it is somewhere Dominique is familiar with from years ago. She believes Michael and Gail will "approve" of the location during their short stay here for a week. While they are here, brother David and mate Javier will be here as well, so expecting a fabulous Robillardfest. David/Javier are staying next door at the Irma.

About a year ago I subscribed to a channel on YouTube called Mentour Pilot. This channel dissects airline disasters/near collisions and more. I just watched him take apart a collision between a US Air and Skywest plane at LAX in 1991. I do not remember that accident BUT ... for many years when I was active in an Oracle user group called the IOUG, one of the board members was Chris Wooldridge. He was an amateur pilot with enough credentials to allow him to occupy a jump seat in the cockpit of some commercial jets if there was one free. Chris lived in Taos New Mexico, and lived life through extremes. Sadly he perished in a mountain bike accident when in his 50s or so. 

One night, as we got together after a board meeting in Chicago, Chris related a story about this collision. He was piloting his small plane into LAX at the time and claimed he knew the small jet was parked on the exact runway where the US Air jet was cleared to land. During the aftermath of the accident, Chris happened to speak to a few pilots of other planes who were also close to runway 24R at LAX and discovered he was not the only one who knew what was possibly about to happen. He told us at that time pilots, be they commercial or amateur were not allowed to:

  1. Initiate in cross talk between pilots on the same frequency
  2. Speak up to air traffic control (ATC) about a situation that did not directly involve the plane they were piloting
We were told that one of the rules related to crosstalk pilot to pilot OR pilot to ATC was changed as a result of that mishap. Chris did not seem to be the grandstanding type of individual so we imagined all that we were told was true.

We once had a board meeting at his ski chalet in Taos, I flew to Albuquerque and drove with a colleague up to Taos. Chris offered to drive a few of us back to Albuquerque in his 4-seater. I took him up on that offer, as did two others, and we flew through the Rio Grande canyon. What a trip ... literally.

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