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‘David’ Category

  1. October 1

    October 1, 2007 by Gail

    October 1, 2004
    click to view photo notes in Flickr

    I use my passport quite often (especially at the U.S. border), and came across this page recently when I was at the Passport Office to renew it.

    October 1, 2004, is when I first met David face-to-face. We were in some online forums together and until that point our communication was online and on the phone. I mentioned in September that I was interested in flying with him — I never knew anyone who owned his own airplane — and suggested that we should meet.

    David picked me up at JFK, quite nervously. I told him later that my first impression of him was that he was "a little gruff". It’s about 2.5 hours from JFK to Scranton, Pennsylvania, so my goal for the whole car ride was to make him feel more at ease. By the look of things when we left JFK, I had my work cut out for me.

    We got engaged shortly after, so I would venture to say that first weekend was a resounding success.

    (more…)

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    Posted in David, House of Fielding, Living with Cancer | 4 Comments

  2. Keep the Outtakes

    May 7, 2007 by Gail

    outtake

    From our photo archives, off David’s work computer. It’s taken me a long time to be able to go through our photos. I was putting something together for a wedding, and I stayed up all night just looking at photos. I’d been putting it off, then suddenly I couldn’t stop looking.

    David didn’t like having his picture taken, but I’d try and be stealthy and sneak up on him with my vari-angle screen. Note the reluctance in his face. David was pretty shy in front of the camera, but he eventually got used to it. I guess I didn’t give him a choice.

    There are quite a few photos I’ve never posted because I considered them outtakes: out-of-focus, poor composition, crappy lighting, et cetera. Now my motto is more like “shoot now, rescue later” and use big (high-capacity) memory cards. Also, back up and store.

    But keep the outtakes.

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    Posted in David, House of Fielding, Photography | 6 Comments

  3. Royal Gala, You Won Me Over

    April 2, 2007 by Gail

    Royal Gala

    I used to dislike apples. The only ones I would eat were the occasional Granny Smith. I would avoid any red-skinned ones. Something about the texture put me off, and I found the apple a little… mealy. My apple horizon obviously needed some broadening.

    Sometime over the past year, I slowly began to enjoy Royal Gala apples. I like crunchy food, and they fit the bill for texture and taste without that mealy feeling. The skin’s thin and doesn’t get caught in my teeth as much. Next thing I know, I’m eating them all the time.

    Years back, David used to own a 4-acre apple orchard with a 100 year-old farmhouse on the property. He lived there from 1998-2001.

    “Gail,” he said like an old-timer, “I’ve had every form of food made from an apple: apple pie, apple butter, apple cake, you name it, I’ve eaten it.”

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    Posted in David, Food + Drink, Raconteurism | 2 Comments

  4. It Pays to Shop Around

    March 19, 2007 by Gail

    geeking out at the Apple store

    David geeking out at the Apple Store at King of Prussia, PA. I was randomly searching for a photo that would go with this post, and picked this one. Then I looked at the date on the photo: March 19, 2005. I took this photo two years ago, to the day. How bizarre.

    * * * * * *

    On Saturday night/early Sunday morning I found myself reading through my old email, messages that David and I exchanged while I was living in both Vancouver and Scranton. I kept reading until five o’clock in the morning, alternately laughing and crying at the things he wrote until I made myself stop and sleep so I could be coherent at brunch.

    I really miss David’s sense of humour. This is an email he sent to me before our Summer 2005 rendez-vous in Toronto, a meeting place where he could drive to and I wouldn’t get in trouble with U.S. Immigration while waiting for my fiancee visa. The original plan was for David to fly the Tri-Pacer up (he even obtained the Canadian Customs sticker), but in the end he had to drive because it was July 1 — Canada Day — and Toronto City Centre Airport’s customs office closed early.

    From: David Fielding
    Date: June 29, 2005 3:08:55 PM EDT (CA)
    To: Gail Edwin
    Subject: It pays to shop around…

    There are two places to park planes at City Centre airport; the “nice” FBO, City Centre Aviation Ltd., wants $35 CDN per night for parking. The Esso Aviation place only asks $20/night, and they waive the first night.

    The Esso guy said that they are on the “rough-looking” part of the airport; I told him I would be right at home.

    The girl at CCA said I have a “Pennsylvania accent”!

    “Well,” I thought, “yaz* ain’t gettin’ my business…”

    * See third bullet point at ‘Lexical Characteristics’.
    Stumbled across this, too, which is hilarious if you’re familiar with the area.

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    Posted in David, David's Writing | 1 Comment

  5. Pilot

    March 7, 2007 by Gail

    post-haircut, Toronto

    July 2, 2005
    Eglinton Street, Toronto

    The bottom part said ‘insurance’.

    Last week after ground school I was talking with another student pilot about our flying goals. Ground school is a mix of recreation, commercial, and airline pilot students in various stages of instruction and experience. A good third are already flying. Some have clear career paths for aviation, some just want to fly for fun. In this rotation it’s nearly all men, some 20s and 30s but mostly older. This is unsurprising as flying comes down to money and time, after interest. Flight training is expensive and most people fall into the category of career pilot (which takes a long time to build the hours so the younger you start the better) or recreational pilot (it’s expensive to buy and maintain your own airplane, so that tends to come later in life). These are broad generalizations, but the demographics are recognizable.

    I’m clearly in the latter category. I’m in it for the fun. Since the first day David took me aloft in the Tri-Pacer I was hooked — that auspicious moment taking place less than 36 hours after we met and sooner if it had not rained the first day. In fact, one of the reasons why I wanted to meet David Fielding in the first place was because he had his own airplane. I’d never known anyone who had his own airplane before. It smacks of irony, but if all I had to do to fly in a private aircraft for the first time in my life was to travel in a jumbo jet for five hours first, then why not? The whole idea of being able to give my input into the flight plan was a novelty that grew into a lifestyle.

    (more…)

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    Posted in Aviation, David, Gail at Large | 5 Comments

  6. Ground School #4

    March 7, 2007 by Gail

    It’s 8:30pm and we finally get a break, goodness gracious. I was getting squirrelly…

    … it’s a lot of sitting in one day, with only a period of aggressive rush hour driving in between. Because of where I live, Wednesday means breaking a LOT of road rules to get from my underground parking to the expressway: right turns from the left-turn lane, inches between cars, merging from wrong lanes. When I sit in traffic, I eat my dinner which today consists of a sandwich and an apple.

    Have I mentioned ground school is 15 weeks? I’m looking forward to the beginning of Daylight Savings Time, when I can drive in daylight instead of darkness to the flight school. I’m DONE with winter!

    Tonight is actually Ground School #5 on the schedule because I missed Class #2 due to a snowstorm, so I’m debating whether to take the PStar exam next week… I don’t know if I’m ready yet. It takes 90% to pass the exam, and it’s multiple choice. I need some serious review this weekend. This stuff came naturally to David, who had an engineer’s brain. I don’t — it’s a lot more effort for me to absorb the material.

    It’s strange to feel so close to him in an aviation environment, yet so far away because I’m here without him. He’s both present and absent, which seems contradictory. I can even recall him leading a Civil Air Patrol class on weight and balance (I sat in on two of his classes); I can visualize him in his uniform holding a model airplane and showing angle of attack to demonstrate a concept. David loved to teach aerospace, especially to kids. He was a good teacher.

    /wistful

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    Posted in Aviation, David, Student Life | 3 Comments

  7. The Master Tinkerer

    February 28, 2007 by Gail

    The Master Tinkerer

    September 3, 2005
    Cherry Ridge Airport, Pennsylvania

    David working on the Piper Tri-Pacer’s brakes. If he were sitting here in ground school class with me while I learn about engine components, he’d nudge me and say, “Hey Gail, were you paying attention when I was tinkering?!?”

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    Posted in Aviation, David | 5 Comments

  8. Scranton’s Claim to Fame (Before “The Office”)

    February 19, 2007 by Gail

    ...the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania
    …the hill that leads into Scranton, Pennsylvania by blynaffit

    Click on the picture for the answer. Thanks to blynaffit for letting me use her picture.

    See also David’s description of his city from the Flickr group “Praise and Curse of the City” two years ago:

    I love that my immigrant grandparents made a life here, and my memories of their house across from the park and the museum, and hearing my grandmother’s Yiddish as a child. I love the railroad tracks and the boarded-up coal mines and the slag heaps. I love the careless accents and the affability of my neighbors’ voices. I love that there are soaring cities to the east, and endless forests to the west. I love that we still have our original chrome diners and our wonderfully awful newspaper, and one remaining human elevator operator. I love that Harry Chapin sang a silly song* about our town.

    I hate that so much was lost when our city fell ill, around the time that I was born, and the youth and optimism that bled away over the years. (I love that health is returning, though.) Sometimes I hate that my city isn’t quite big enough, so that foreign films and foods and people don’t find their way here. I hate that the nearby farms are turning into housing developments, gated communities full of New Yorkers, wealthy and imprisoned. I hate the inept, corrupt and – worst of all – unimaginative public officials.

    I love and hate the idea of leaving it, someday. I am Scranton.

    *30,000 Pounds of Bananas.

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    Posted in David's Writing, Expat Life, Flickr, Other Photogs | No Comments

  9. Those Chubby Cheeks Look Familiar

    January 17, 2007 by Gail

    Last month I met Holly Yvonne, a fellow Flickrite from Pennsylvania, and her three little ‘uns. (Her fourth will be along any day now!) When I walked in the door, I met Holly’s littlest fella almost straightaway, which stopped me in my tracks. Not just because of his smiley ways, but because he looked so much like David when he was a baby (larger version). There aren’t many baby photos of David online, but compare this larger version with the one on the right.

    Hangin' in my Crib don't take my food away!

    Uncanny!

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    Posted in David, Flickr, Friends | 1 Comment

  10. This guy had the *best* accent

    January 11, 2007 by Gail

    New York pigeon
    New York pigeon by AviatorDave [admin'ed by gailatlarge]

    Things suddenly got very busy at the House of Fielding, so I’m posting one of David’s photos from his collection of Personal Favourites. (Ahem, that would be Favorites.)

    Because Toronto’s starting to feel winterish, although I haven’t seen snow yet! I think Vancouver and Toronto have swapped winters this year.

    This photo was taken on a very memorable weekend in New York City, almost two years ago. David’s post is here:

    Dave’s Logbook – January 30, 2005: Reunited

    It was the weekend that I closed my apartment on Beach Avenue, officially closing a chapter of my life — almost a decade in Vancouver. David met me at JFK again, opening a new chapter in Scranton, Pennsylvania.

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    Posted in David's Writing, House of Fielding | 3 Comments

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