Greetings airmen. Well, unless you’ve been living on a deserted island the past week, you are aware of the relentess bad weather that recently covered New England. All kinds of
rainfall statistics were shattered as most of
New Hampshire, parts of Massachusetts and southern Maine were unindated. Rivers crested their banks and widespread flooding caused millions of dollars of damage both to private property and public roads. And at least one drowning fatality was credited to the flood waters.

The town of Somersworth was founded on the shores of the Salmon Falls river, a natural boundry between New Hampshire and the state of Maine. Sixteen years ago, when Valerie and I bought our home, situated on a hill overlooking the river, we appreciated the peace and quiet of living away from the hubbub of the town center. We gave no second thought to the house being on a very steep hill nor the problems that would pose when winter rolled around. After the first time it iced up and we couldn’t get up our own driveway, we knew what we were in for. Note, and since that first winter, every vehicle we’ve ever owned has to have 4-wheel drive. It isn’t a luxury. Anyways, over the past 16 years I’ve had many opportunities, when dredging up and down this driveway with my snowblower, to curse its steepness. Why couldn’t I have bought a house on a flat piece of real estate, I often pondered.

This past week the Salmon Falls River crested its banks and the area just below us down the river became lost under all that rushing water. It was unbelievable just how high the river rose. Valerie and I took a walk down and snapped several pictures, ala the one above. On our hike back up the road and to our
home, both of us were actually thanking God that we had a house high up on a hill. Oh, yeah,
a real life lesson learned here.

On other fronts, I’m told we’ve sold 22 copies of CAPTAIN HAZZARD – PYTHON MEN OF THE LOST CITY in the two weeks since its debut at
Lulu.com – Which probably doesn’t sound like a whole lot to most of you, but when you understand that’s ten more than BROTHER GRIM had sold by the same time, you can understand our
optimism. Books from small, on-demand publishers such as Wild Cat Books don’t generally sell beyond a few hundred copies..and those are the most successful titles. Thing is,
we get an average of 300 visitors a week here at Hangar 27. I’d like to think most of you
are regulars who come by every week to see what’s going on. If that’s the case, it would be so wonderful if just a third of you would
pick up a copy of the book. 100 sales is a wee bit better than 22, don’t you think? Of course I’d be euphoric if all 300 of you grabbed a copy, but hey, one dream at a time. And let me leave those of you who haven’t decided yet with this thought. Buying the book at Lulu (see our
Air Fare link) will get you the cheapest possible price. In a few weeks the book will be available at both Amazon and Barnes & Nobles on line. Of course, once they begin offering it,
they jack up the cost to cover their own expenses and profit margins. So, loyal airmen,
go to Lulu and save yourselves a few hard earned bucks. As always, heartfelt thanks for your support.

Till next week, Ron, over and out.