When: Monday, Oct. 13 7:30pm EST

Where: https://youtube.com/live/gkXx6FKfX0s?feature=share

Who gets 10%: Fitchburg Pilots Association EAA Chapter 1454 https://chapters.eaa.org/eaa1454/dues-and-donations Free flights to new, young, pilots-to-be

http://paypal.me/vancevancevance or https://venmo.com/vancevancevance or VanceFunder P.O. Box 17, Arlington, MA 02476

*PRIVATE COACHING AVAILABLE - Contact me for songwriting, performance, and voice coaching.

***CUSTOM SONGS - Expensive, but sure, you want one about you or your family or something.

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MY BIRTHDAY PRESENT

It's my birthday. So I can post what I want.

I tend to keep my vocation and avocation somewhat apart, but today I'm all about my hobby - researching, designing, building, and flying rubber-band-powered flying replicas of real airplanes.

If I was rich it is all I’d do. Here’s the math. A hit song or 2 would = 25 open acres with a house here in the Northeast. Done.

And there’s great people in this hobby. That’s where “Old White Men” come from.

And so does Browen.

His grandfather was one of my Old White Men. He and his wife would show up at the darn-dest places to see me sing. His dad, now a mid-career airline captain, used to saddle up to me when he was a kid with questions and chatter. Now his kid, Browen, 14. Apples and trees.

A few years ago I watched Browen chumming about with another kid his age on the flying field through a whole weekend. The other kid was very, very clearly somewhere fluid on the gender throughline. Browen took all kinds of time with this child showing them how to fly this, come meet that person, let’s go help look for this other person’s plane, etc. He was smotheringly inclusive, and it made the two of them hanging look so - normal.

Honestly I hope that last sentence sounds as vulgar as it looks. It’s not always so in the eyes of many.

Last week, Browen helped me discern as my second set of eyes what was going on with some recent flights of a recalcitrant plane of mine. While talking, we both realized that at home we were both building teeny models classified as Peanut Scale thanks to their diminutive 13” wingspan. They are criminally hard to fly, so we decided to have bi-weekly FaceTime modeling sessions to egg the other on towards completion of these balls of lint. Just he and I for now. Dad’ll join in a few weeks.

We named the sessions The Peanut Scale Support Group and laugh every time we say the title.

Remember he’s 14. He’s kind. Thoughtful. Humorous. Brilliant.

It’s my birthday and the gift I give to me today (ok, ok tomorrow...) is that when I am no longer, this hobby, and with any luck this world, will be in the best of hands.

Happy Birthday To Me