Congratulations!

Last night was a Retirement Dinner/Celebration for one of the controllers at Springfield. Brian Hawkins actually retired from work on April 1st but we had his party last night. I know that SGF will miss him and so will the pilots that we serve. Brian is one of the "old timers" that hung on to working with the work ethic of a generation that is too quickly leaving the work force.

More and more I see an attitude of laziness and carelessness in all kinds of working environments; from the drive up window at your favorite fast food restaurant to the people that occupy the seats in the tower and radar room. I don't want to come across as a "high and mighty, better than thou" kind of guy. I have my moments of wanting the least busy position from time to time, too. On the other hand, it always amazes me at how hard some people will work to avoid work and how little regard they have for the people that they work with.

I know that I'll be talking to Brian often. One of the things that he'll be doing in retirement is to continue to donate his time and skills as an Angel Flight pilot. If you take the time to read about Angel Flight, you'll get an idea of the kind of person that Brian is. Also his son Evan will soon be checked out as a journeyman controller. Evan is certified through the tower and working on getting checked out in the radar room.

It was too bad that I wasn't able to stay at the retirement gig for long, but had another meeting to attend last night. Our chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Magicians meets on the 3rd Friday of odd months. Last night we had a good turnout and I enjoyed catching up with everybody. I've been trying to work on some card effects lately. In the past I've not spent a lot of time on cards since I don't have a venue for using them. Since I'd like to work on getting some close-up gigs at some time, I figured that now is as good a time as any to start working on some new things. There are many that scoff at card conjuring, and I don't want to be the "pick a card" kind of magician that can bore you with a few "tricks." Skill at card handling takes many hours of work and the guys that make everything look so natural truly impress me. Knowing the what and how only makes seeing it done (or not seeing it done) even more amazing!

I shared a couple of new effects last night and refrained from sharing a couple of others that are not yet ready for performance--even among friends.

John