A Christmas Message from Bill and Ava Frisinger, December 2001
Bill Gets the Holy Ghost and Retires
It
has been an eventful year for me. These
are two significant events in my life and even though they happened within a few
days of each other, they are unrelated. Let
me explain. As I mentioned in last
year’s newsletter, I have started attending a Pentecostal church while in
California. One of the core beliefs
is in Acts 2:38, “Then Peter said unto them, Repent, and be baptized every one
of you in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of sins, and ye shall
receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.” This
wording is from the King James Version. Some
other versions are significantly different but both the Jerusalem Bible and the
New English Bibles, for example, are about the same. At any rate speaking in tongues is considered a sign one has received the
gift of the Holy Ghost (Spirit). Now
getting an old engineer sufficiently free of his hang ups to speak in tongues is
not easy. We tend to be as
computers rather than little children when we deal with God. This does not seem to be a positive addition to our relationship with
Him.
To
cut to the chase, I was finally able to speak in tongues at a revival service
Friday July 27th at the St. Mary’s County, Maryland Fairgrounds.
My
work as part of the JSF flight test team had taken me to Maryland where the Navy
has its principal aircraft test facility at the Pax River Naval Air Station.
Saturday, July 28th we were due to fly a full day
of testing. We only needed three or
four more days of testing, but the weather had been bad and it was hard to say
how long that would take. The way
the rules work at Boeing you need to retire on the first of a month to optimize
your benefits. It was looking like
August first was no longer an option. The
principal objective of the day’s testing was to clear the flight envelope to
Mach 1.10. We had already flown to
Mach 1.05. Mach 1.20 was the
maximum the prototype was designed for. The
weather was beautiful on Saturday. We
got some preliminary testing out of the way and refueled the airplane for the
flight to Mach 1.10. In my
discipline the flutter testing would be critical. As soon as the airplane got to Mach 1.10 it developed a problem with the
redundant speed and attitude measurements. They were not consistent.
We
had a similar problem on the other airplane, but the fix was apparently
inadequate. The program decided to
finish out the day with the remaining subsonic testing that was required. The fix, a change in the software, would take a week and by the end of
the day the program decided to shut down flight testing Saturday rather than
delay testing a week.
I
therefore found out late on Saturday the 28th that I could retire as of
Wednesday July 31st. Monday I packed everything up to be shipped back to
Seattle. Tuesday I flew home. Wednesday I was off the payroll.
I also retired just in time for the first ever Frisinger reunion attended by 30 Frisingers. It was held in Estes park Colorado. That may seem like an odd spot for a reunion for a clan all tied together to a couple who spent most of their life in Ann Arbor Michigan and whose six sons all spent most of their lives either in Michigan or an adjoining state. However it tuned out it was reasonably central and it was close to Howard Frisinger who was coordinating it all.
The big news for Ava is where she was during the 6.8 earthquake Seattle had on February 28th. Think of the scariest possible place to be during an earthquake in Seattle then click HERE to see if you guessed right.
The
other big news is that Ava was reelected
for another four year term as Mayor of Issaquah. She did such a good job
that the only person willing to run against her was the eccentric owner of a
small diner who was not even a registered voter. He ran as a write in
candidate for reasons that varied depending on when you asked him. He lost
handily. The public likes a good race. Believe me the candidates
don’t. The only money we spent on the campaign was the filing fee.
Ava
has been working so hard as Mayor that she was able to embarrass the council
into giving her a substantial raise. She
was making $1,300/month. Beginning
in January she will make $4,000/month. It
helped that two of the councilmen were considering running themselves and could
not make a go of it at the original salary.
Me trying to free my sled, I have not mastered all the intricacies yet.
Scott with Lake Keechelus in the background.
Diane and Scott had so much fun that they decided to buy two new ones of
their own. It was good to see Diane
finally find something exciting about winter. Being addicted to a winter sport is a great coping mechanism for the
doldrums of the season.
The MRI made to problem
obvious to anyone.
The herniated disk is the just above the tail bone. The light area it is pressing into is the spinal column. Needless to say Diane was feeling some discomfort.
Amber, Rob’s wife, had surgery on her “good” eye to keep it from deteriorating further. The surgery was so successful that she can now see the large E at the top of the eye chart at ten feet. There were a few setbacks during recovery, but things seem to be settling down. (Be thankful I do not have photos of this surgery. Amber offered to show me the "stitches" but I declined.)
Joshua and Kaleigh riding Federal
The latest with the grandkids is that they are taking horseback riding lessons. When I found out they were going to start shortly after I retired, I volunteered to join them. We are expected to be able to do everything from getting the horse in the snow-covered field to saddling them up and riding them ending with returning them to the field.
Joshua and Kaleigh listening intently to their teacher Shannon King holding the rains of Magic, Kaleigh and Amber's favorite horse.
Our performance still leaves something to be desired such as when I was cinching the saddle down and did not notice that the stirrup on the other side was caught under the saddle, but we are making progress. Amber has previous experience, so she is doing better. We have practically mastered the trot and are struggling with the canter and are totally lost on the two point position which is a precursor to jumping and obstacle courses and I do not know what else. Joshua, being not quite five yet, is somewhat behind the rest of us but seems to be generally enjoying himself and certainly riding better than any of us did at his age.
My
favorite book of the year is The Civil War by Bruce Catton.
Since I spent two months in Maryland, I had a chance to visit a number of
battlefields and this book put everything in perspective.
Ava
has discovered the Mitford series of novels about an Episcopal priest in a small
town in North Carolina. The author
is Jan Karon.
Diane’s
favorite is Merrick by Anne Rice a story that combines the lives
of one of the Mayfair witches with the Vampire Chronicles.
Rob
and Amber liked Drinker of Blood by Lynda Robinson, a mystery set during
the reign of King Tutankhamen.
Kaleigh liked Behind Rebel Lines and Train to Midnight,
both books set around the time of the Civil War.
Kaleigh has exchanged e-mail messages with the author of Train to
Midnight, Janie Lynn Panagopoulos.
Wishing
you all the best in this Holy Season.
May
God’s Love be with you now and throughout the coming year.
Ava
and Bill Frisinger
Bill with Amber and Kaleigh
My electronic address is,
bill@frisinger.net, Ava’s is ava@frisinger.net
. Our web page is: www.frisinger.net
Rev 12/26/01