You know that life is good, when your garbage bin contains 12 empty quarts
of aeroshell W100, and 6 empty MGD bottles.

Today I installed the oil "quick change" valve, then went flying for 30
minutes, then changed the oil. Oh that makes it SO much easier! No safety
wire, no "channeling" the oil to a container. I have 3/8" tubing connected
to the valve so I just fed it into a milk jug. Jug full, pinch tubing, next
jug, etc. Hardly even needed a rag!

Then this evening I took Nicole back to Abilene. I invited my Vietnamese
friend to go along. It was a smooth starry flight. Filed IFR both ways but
just got flight following on the way back so I could let Paul fly. I had a
six-pack on ice back at the hanger for our debriefing. We cleaned up the
plane. I showed him how "safety wiring" works, and we discussed some
politics-- that Tytler quote*. He has some rather uplifting views of
America, refugeed at 14 from Saigon in '75 just two weeks before it fell.
We noted that flying to Abilene and back and enjoying a six-pack with a
friend-- with nobody's permission-- were examples of great American
freedoms. Like he put it, "It doesn't get any better than this".

Just felt like sharing...

Cheers,
John Clonts
Temple, Texas
N7NZ

*Sir Alex Fraser Tytler, in 1801: "A democracy cannot exist as a permanent
form of government. It can only exist until the voters discover that they
can vote themselves largesse from the public treasury. From that moment on,
the majority always votes for the candidates promising the most benefits
from the public treasury, with the result that a democracy always collapses
over loose fiscal policy, always followed by a dictatorship."