Time Flies!

This time, it's been more than two years since I've visited the blog. I was reminded of it by an email notification of a comment. (The comment came from a reader in Egypt, I think, and I can't read it.)
  I think it was four years ago that I said I'd be making blog posts on my web site www.ericrush.com but you may have noticed I haven't followed through. I've been too busy living to spend time writing about it. I still haven't finished writing It's Too Bad I'll Never Build Another House Because Next Time I'd Know What I Was Doing. I built a studio in the woods on our property but don't spend enough time painting.
  Analytics show people still visit this blog, so I'll try to get back here more often than every couple of years. But no promises. I'm too busy trying to learn how to make YouTube videos.

It's been nearly two years since I visited my own blog. Last year, I was too busy building boats and fishing. I kept a photo diary building the second boat and published it as a free PDF book. The link to the freebie is at https://www.ericrush.com/books

Moving My Blog

My rebuilt web site www.ericrush.com has a built-in blog, so, to avoid duplication and to simplify my life just a little, my infrequent posts will appear on my site and, perhaps, be less infrequent.

My Flying Career Memoir

The book began as a diary of my working life, notes on what flying for a living was like from day to day. I thought perhaps someday my not-yet-born grandchildren might like to read about Grandpa's life. It turns out they're not the only ones.

I started flying late. I was 32 years old and, at the time, too old to be hired by a major airline. My goal was to earn a living in airplanes, working my way up as a flight instructor and charter pilot until I qualified to fly a twin-engine Cessna 402 for a commuter airline. In the 1970s, that was as high as I could hope to rise because of age, imperfect vision, and lack of a college degree.

Airline deregulation in 1979 created demand for pilots as airlines expanded and new ones began. By the 1980s, it became possible for people like me to fly jet transports for passenger carriers and for rapidly growing cargo airlines such as UPS, FedEx, Airborne Express, and DHL.

I was happy flying small airplanes on short routes. Such jobs didn't pay much, but I was home every night. But when people I flew with--some as old as I was--began leaving for bigger airlines, I began to feel left behind. But not for long.

A friend went to work for DHL and encouraged me to apply there. The domestic airline part of DHL Worldwide Express was just getting started and had big plans for expansion. My horizon expanded to include jet airplanes and transcontinental travel.

Commuting 2200 miles twice a month from home near Seattle to Cincinnati never became routine, but I did that for nearly 19 years before life's circumstances changed and I moved to Ohio for my last few years until retirement.

Part of the appeal of a flying career is than no two days are alike. In airplanes, routine always has possibilities for excitement and misadventure. But there is more to a flying life than piloting airplanes, and time on the ground was often more adventurous and hazardous than time in the air.

An early review on Amazon reads, "Excellent read for aviators as well as those who dream of it or are interested in what a great job it used to be, and occasionally still can be. Funny and very well written, accurate and honest, one of my most enjoyable reads ever!"

Another reviewer wrote, "The book is a well written tale of the trials and joys that accompanied author Eric Rush's rise from student pilot...to Boeing 727 Captain. The writing is free of technical jargon for the non pilot; and for the pilot will prove to be an interesting read... If Richard Bach or Earnest Gann flew the author's flights and lived his life, this is how they'd write the story."

A friend from high school I haven't seen in more than 50 years emailed, "Finished your book about 2 this morning.  Not the only night it kept me up past my bedtime.  Had a hard time putting it down.  Great book and I loved it."

Looking Out the Window, Talking to the Person Next to Me: My Life in Airplanes is available through book stores, from Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Autographed copies are available from www.ericrush.com and it is an e-book from Kindle, Nook, Kobo, and others.

Reviews are important. If you like the book, please post comments on Internet outlet pages and on social media.

Books I Read in 2010

I didn't think I'd like an electronic book reader because I like the look and feel and smell of books. It took only a few days to change my mind.

Aside from the obvious advantages of buying books at less cost, the small size of a Kindle makes it easy to carry it everywhere. Those of us in whom dead time with nothing to read induces anxiety bordering on panic, this is an ideal security blanket.

My eyes do not like small print. In Kindle, pressing a button changes print size through a range of from tiny to huge. If light is dim, I simply enlarge the text a step.

Another advantage is, you can have that book you just read a review of, Right Now! When you remember a favorite author you haven't read in a few years, a search of the electronic bookstore at the moment you think of it brings up the author's titles. This accounts for the cluster of novels by Alan Furst near the end of the list and the first appearance of the prolific Loren Estleman after an absence on my lists of more than a year.

Because my Kindle is always with me, I get much more reading done than otherwise. I read more than one-third of last year's books on my Kindle in the last one-fifth of the year. Because of Kindle, and because I've finished reading Churchill's multi-volume account of World War II, my annual lists will probably approach or exceed the 70+ average before I retired and no longer had as much time to read.

The only disadvantage I've found is, maps are often too small. perhaps I'll delve further into the instruction manual to see if there is a zoom feature I'm not aware of.

The only paper books I read now are quarterly literary magazines. I haven't checked yet to see if subscriptions to "Granta" are available at the Kindle Store, but I will. If the cost is significantly lower than the conventional version, lack of photos in color may be acceptable. (If color is important, more money will get you a reader with color.) I'll continue receiving "Glimmer Train" as paper, regardless of electronic availability, only because I'm a charter subscriber and my set is complete.

Books Read in 2010—47
(K) is for Kindle
* means not the first reading

1. Betrayal -- John Lescroart
2. The Hinge of Fate -- Winston S Churchill
3. “Granta” 109
4. The Catcher in the Rye -- J D Salinger *
5. No Country for Old Men -- Cormac McCarthy *
6. The African Queen -- C S Forester
7. Ask the Pilot -- Patrick Smith
8. “Glimmer Train” 74
9. Split Image -- Robert B Parker
10. The Earp Brothers of Tombstone -- Frank Waters
11. Last Tales -- Isak Dinesen
12. The Girl who Played with Fire -- Stieg Larsson
13. Closing the Ring -- Winston S Churchill
14. The Last Stand -- Nathaniel Philbrick
15. The Lost Symbol -- Dan Brown
16. The Madness of Mary Lincoln -- Jason Emerson
17. The Girl Who Kicked the Hornets Nest -- Stieg Larsson
18. Supreme Justice -- Phillip Margolin
19. Where Have All the Leaders Gone? -- Lee Iacocca
20. Wo De Hombe -- W J Siemens
21. “Glimmer Train” 75
22. Shadow of Power -- Steve Martini
23. “Granta” 110
24. Chief Joseph -- Kent Nerburn
25. “Granta” 111
26. “Glimmer Train” 76
27. Triumph and Tragedy -- Winston S Churchill
28. The Professional -- Robert B Parker
29. Nine Dragons -- Michael Connelly
30. Painted Ladies -- Robert B Parker (K)
31. “Granta” 112
32. Our Kind of Traitor -- John le Carré (K)
33. The Reversal -- Michael Connelly (K)
34. Where Men Win Glory: The Odyssey of Pat Tillman -- Jon Krakauer (K)
35. The Foreign Correspondent -- Alan Furst (K)
36. Autobiography of Mark Twain, Vol I (K)
37. Spies of the Balkans: A Novel -- Alan Furst (K)
38. American Detective -- Loren D Estleman (K)
39. The Polish Officer -- Alan Furst (K)
40. “Granta” 113
41. Eaarth -- Bill McKibben (K)
42. “Glimmer Train” 77
43. The Archivist’s Story -- Travis Holland (K)
44. Road Dogs -- Elmore Leonard (K)
45. Finders Keepers: A Tale of Archaeological Plunder and Obsession
-- Craig Childs (K)
46. Djibouti -- Elmore Leonard (K)
47. Flyboys -- James Bradley (K)

They Myth of Jobs Creation

Rich people do not wake up each morning and ask themselves how many jobs they can create today. Rich people do not "create" jobs. Jobs are the result of demand for goods and services. Goods and services are in demand when a large, confident, solvent middle class has money to spend on them.

In recent years, much of America's wealth has shifted from the middle class to the super-rich. It has shifted from those who would spend it on goods and services to those who sit on it in bad times, waiting for good times to invest it again. Good times won't return until the middle class has confidence, and confidence comes from having money in the pocket. Without jobs, or with widespread fear of losing jobs, people don't spend money on goods and services, which causes a further decrease in jobs.

Like it or not, it's government, not banks or hedge fund managers, that primes the economic pump to put money into the pockets of those who really create jobs: people who will spend it on goods and services.

For too many years, government economic policy as shifted wealth from those whose constant spending keeps them employed and the economy growing to those who don't spend it. The government needs to take some of that money back to pay its bills and to prime the economic engine.

Obesity Cure

Smoking declined after tobacco advertising on TV was outlawed.

Prohibiting food advertising on TV will reduce excessive food consumption.

We get hungry when we see juicy burgers, greasy pizza, syrupy soda pop, and sweet desserts, not because we need food, but because we see it on TV and the power of suggestion makes us want to eat. Food not needed becomes fat unwanted.

Even I, at 6'1" and 160 pounds, have to resist the urge to grab an unneeded snack when succulent sandwiches appear on my TV screen. I stopped the habit of eatiing when not truly hungry 30 pounds ago.

You can do it, too, Slim.