Sad News To Report

Hi folks.

Moods are a bit subdued here today.

Regular readers know that I have been married and divorced twice. I don't talk about my ex's a lot. The first one, My Starter Wife (or MSW), was so long ago (we were divorced in, I don't know, '89, '90, '91...somewhere in there) that I never really think about it.

My last marriage resulted in my daughter, young Galadriel Tanqueray Onassis. That was cool. But I don't really think about her mother much at all. When I do, I just sort of think of her as The Egg Donor (or TED). Don't get me wrong, she's a good mother. She was just a lousy fucking wife. So her only remaining signifigance to me is as The Egg Donor (or TED).

I feel kind of bad about that now.

I just found out today that while my daughter was with me (thank God) on Father's Day and yesterday, her mother, TED, was in an accident.

Just a little background, TED had started taking flying lessons about the time our divorce started and she got her license shortly before our divorce was final.

You know how it is. One life altering change spawns another. You feel the need to stretch your wings and try new things.

TED also decided to get her belly button pierced.

Did herself. At home. With a needle. It got infected. Or so I heard.

I laughed so hard I peed myself. For about a week, actually.

I feel kind of bad about that now too. But I digress.

In the five years since our divorce, TED has logged a lot of hours at the controls. I've actually seen TED flying a few times. I'm sure her new husband (#3 for her...they were married 6 weeks after our divorce was final. Uh huh. Yep!) has probably been for a ride with her on more than one occasion.

Well, it turns out that Sunday afternoon, while Galadriel and I were watching the new Fantastic Four movie (it was fantastic, you should go see it), TED narrowly escaped injury in the aircraft she was piloting when she was forced to make an emergency landing in northern Missouri (just outside Maryville) because of bad weather. Some could call it a crash; it was sure as hell an accident at the least.

Like I said, I just found out about it today.

National Transportation Safety Board officials have issued a preliminary determination stating that pilot error contributed to the accident; she was flying a single engine aircraft (a basic model, at best) in IFR (instrument flight rating) conditions while only having obtained a VFR (visual flight rating) rating.

The absence of a post-crash fire was likely due to insufficient fuel on board. No one on the ground was injured.

Photographs below were taken at the scene and show the extent of damage to her aircraft.

She was very lucky.