Dave Forster:  

Life In the summer of 1985 I was in a small town in Germany, drinking wheat beer and thinking of my classmates several thousand miles away, enjoying graduation ceremonies. I had joined an exchange student program in grade 12 and spent the last part of high school trying to follow a lesson plan in a language I could only just barely understand. The most challenging part was trying to learn French from an instructor who spoke German. That was pretty much a total loss! At the end of the program, I set off with a backpack and train pass through southern Europe with two objectives in mind: 1) To see more of the world and 2) to get lucky. I returned to first year at the University of Calgary with one of the objectives met. The next two years were spent goofing off and pursuing the unfulfilled objective, with the result that my marks were not high enough to get into the desired faculty, so I took a year off to work, figure out what I wanted to do with my life and maybe grow up a little. In the Summer of 1988, I returned from a motorcycle trip to California with a renewed determination and two new objectives: 1) To get a pilot’s license and 2) To get the degree I really wanted. Within a few months, I had the pilot’s license and sold the motorcycle, the car, emptied the bank account and went into debt to buy my first airplane. In retrospect, I’m not sure if I was screwy or just stupid, but I found myself with an airplane and no car to get to the airport. Fortunately, I lived within walking distance of the University and my folks would allow me to borrow their car to get to the airport. The first year back at University was spent pulling up marks and paying for earlier mistakes. By year 2, I was back on track and in the right faculty. Things seemed to be going pretty well. I had by now decided that women were way more trouble than they were worth and wasn’t looking for a girlfriend, much less a spous...Expand for more