Category: Uncategorized

This year started off hopefully. Val and I were going to go to Cambodia to support Fountain of Hope. However, in March, COVID-19 shutdown everything and sent our lives into Work From Home mode. This was two weeks after we planted into Omaha.

It’s been a tough year for the entire world. It is difficult to change the way we live life. Masks, no indoor dining, not seeing my parents much or hanging out with friends or co-workers. The vaccine is coming in 2021, hopefully everything will be back to normal by next year.

Flying the Tri-Pacer is still lots of fun! We did at least get to go on a trip to Panama City Beach, Florida. We had absolutely perfect weather as we flew down and as we flew back. I will never forget how beautiful it was flying south of Norris Lake. It is a great privilege.

The exciting things have been in spaceflight. The first humans launched on Falcon 9 rocket this year, and the Starship SN8 prototype flew for the first time. SLS is almost ready to go.

The end of the decade is upon me. It’s crazy to think back over the last 10 years as to how different my life is than I imagined it. I imagined being a world class game developer, being single until I was 40, and never leaving the safety and comfort of the basement with my suite of video game consoles.

Although those things didn’t work out how I expected, I’m glad that they didn’t, ultimately. Being married is a sweet gift. Having friendships and community is a sweet gift. Some things haven’t changed. I still get to fly and go on adventures, and I have a partner to share them with!

We had an interesting adventure going to Oshkosh this year. It was totally soaked in the Vintage area. Vintage is almost never closed and almost always has open parking. As we arrived up in Wisconsin, we ended up diverting to the Fondulac airport and camping there for a night. The next morning we flew into Oshkosh, and we got parked right on the end of a row, as though we were a show plane (of course we always get attention with the Tri-Pacer!). Many old friends stopped by to say hello, and our whole family gathered under her wing for shade, coffee, and conversation. We are all EAA Lifetime members and got to enjoy the benefits during the airshow. This year’s show was one of a kind. It is a great privilege to get to experience.

This year involved a lot of growth in my personal security before God. I notice this in cases where I can more readily say ‘yes’ to being involved in social situations. I can say ‘yes’ to more family time, whereas I was prone to shy away. It’s cool to be in the same experience a year later and realize that you are a different person from a year ago. My friends are also different people, in the best possible ways. My wife, the same way. There is so much richness to the soul and to personality. We even see it in the youngest of babies. Anyway, it’s cool to reflect on a year of changes. I started at Kudu Dynamics, LLC this year, and it’s been really cool to finally get out of the basement that I used to love to dwell in.

This is my 10th year of annual blog posts!

I am married! Marriage is such a great privilege. Valerie and I had a fun wedding on April 8th and then we jetted off to Maui for our honeymoon. We are living in Clintonville and enjoying quiet apartment life. We saw Hamilton in New York and got to fly to Oshkosh together. I feel so glad to get to be involved in spiritual community with fellow Christians. I do not deserve it at all, but I am grateful for it because nothing else in the world is quite as satisfying to my soul as loving those that God has put in my life. I’m still involved in Robotics with team 1014 and working alongside Saaj and Isaac in discipleship! Joy exists in my soul by God’s grace.

I can’t wait to see what further adventures are in store for us!