Greetings Loyal Airmen, as you can see by the arrival of this speedy air racer, Hangar 27 is getting all geared up for a party. Nov. 5th, Guy Fawkes Day in England, is the Air Chief's 64th birthday.  Its a fun time and this year also connected with a very special election.  (Not that we were at all unhappy with this week's Congress victory by the Republicans, of which the Air Chief is a member in good standing.)  More importantly, our granddaughter will be vying for the Presidency of her sophomore high school class.  Go Chelsea!  We are sending her all our good wishes for a landslide victory.  She has campaigned long and hard, and much nobler than most of the politicians who flooded our airwaves the past few months.  Thank heavens that's over. Now maybe they can actually get to the job of governing, though the Air Chief isn't going to hold is breath. When it comes to government, the older the Air Chief gets, the more he understands why Guy Fawkes tried to blow up Parliament. It probably seemed like a really good idea at the time.  Ha.

My favorite food in the whole world is crepes, those thin, sweet pancakes the French invented long ago.  My mother, displaying her own French Canadian heritage, would often whip up a batch for us when we were growing up and Valerie makes them the exact same way. So it has become a once a year treat for the Air Chief. Even as we pen this on the night before, we can almost taste those crepes, layered in butter with a thin coating of maple syrup.  Geez, it is probably a good thing both of us joined a gym this week.  Oh yes, now resident of the Rocky Mountain state, Valerie and the Air Chief have committed themselves to a healthy and fit life style.  The Air Chief has a twenty pound spare tire around his middle that has got to go.  Turning 64th, and feeling good, we only want to improve on that health by dropping the weight and really enjoying the coming years with as much vim and vigor as we can muster.  We are 64 years young and we aim to prove it.

          
                                     The New Sherlock Holmes & Dr. Watson
As most of you Loyal Airmen know, the Air Chief is a huge Sherlock Holmes fan and the two volumes of Sherlock Holmes stories we've published via our Airship 27 Productions pulp books have been our best sellers for the past year.  Which is why we were delighted to find on PBS Masterpiece Mystery the first three episodes of a new BBC televisions series called Sherlock which offers up the great detective and his loyal assistance living and working in a modern day London. At first it seemed impossible to think of Holmes using the internet, cell phones etc., but after viewing the first couple of shows, we've become big fans.  Aside from the extremely well written stories and the great production values, it is the duo starring in the roles that make it work for us.  Benedict Camberbatch and Martin Freeman are just great as Holmes & Watson.  If you've not seen this show yet, we urge you to find. It truly is worth your time.

Finally, many, many years ago when our oldest Granddaughter, Kristi, was in kindergarten, she was asked to write about someone special to her.  Her teacher told the class it could be a relative or pet.  Well two days later all the kids in that class stood up to read their little stories about their cats or dogs.  All had chosen to write about their pets.  All but one of them.  Kristi stood up, opened her pages and told her class about her Pepere (grandfather). The Air Chief was present and it was one of the proudest, sweetest moments in his life.  Last week, Ms Kristi, now a freshmen at the University of New Hampshire, called to ask if she could interview us for  a paper for her Tourism Class.  She needed to talk with someone who had traveled to distant lands.  And as we'd been in South East Asia, Russia and Canada, we fit the bill.  A few days later she sent along her finished paper for our approval before turning it in to her teacher.  Of course she had done a marvelous job with the interview and it read extremely well.  Upon writing back to her to confirm this, it dawned us that after all these many years, Kristi was still writing about her Pepere.  Yeah, even at 64, life is still sweet.

Take care, Loyal Airmen, have a great week and see you back here in seven.
Ron – Over & Out.