On March 2nd, after two months of studying, Titus took the FAA 107 - Commercial Drone Pilot Exam. This is a serious exam in a facility where you can take NOTHING in with you and it's two hours long. At the end of the exam the proctor handed him a piece of paper upside down, smiled and said congratulations! When he walked out to the car he tried to look sad but was too thrilled to pull it off. This is a huge accomplishment; it will allow him to get training in CAP as a search and rescue drone operator and d.v. start making some money doing drone photography.
Speaking of S&R on March 7th CAP had a Emergency Services Day at the Raleigh Jet Port as well.
March 12th was FIAR trip to Hemlock Bluffs. There were some special wild flowers in bloom and with the help of the docents we were able to go off trail and find some cool salamanders. At the end of the trip a big storm came in, which was actually rather cool.
The main event, of course, this month is Lance's birthday. This year he did a variety of things. He started out March 12th going to his first Hurricanes hockey game with his friends Max and Wade. Apparently Max's mom has season tickets and they were rather nice seats. Lance really enjoyed the game. He also worked in playing some bowling with friends, where he scored a 168.
Followed by the ECD - Literary Ball, which was a great excuse to announce his birthday and embarrass him.
The movie focus during his birthday week was action thrillers. He found some real winners, some I'd forgotten about. As a surprise, we got him seat covers for his car. He was thrilled.
Then as a special treat, his friend Nathan made it to his birthday dinner. He and Nathan have been friends for forever and still talk "pirate" in text. So hard to accept he's now 23. However, no matter his age he'll always be my baby boy. So proud of the young man he's become. He's doing so well in his apprenticeship but he does well at anything he decides to do. Praying this year will be full of more blessings than he ever imagined.
Then to finish out the his birthday week there was a Game Night/Music Fest at the Blackwoods.
Next was the big event for Jared! After almost of year of planning it was filming day for "Field of Fortune" his first full length movie. The hardest part of getting this day to happen was finding a field, it was ironic that the easiest field to get in the end was the famous Durham Bulls Athletic Park. The actors were a rag-tag group of friends from work, baseball and dance, the beautiful part is how well they all got along and the incredible servants hearts. People were not sitting idle on their phones they jumped in to help where ever they saw a need, often without even being asked. It was of course the hottest day on record, which played havoc on equipment and people so the whole film was not completed in one shot as planned. However, everyone had a marvelous time and he'll finish it in the fall when the weather cools. One of the key highlights was a friend who'd never played any sports, playing the catcher and another person (we found out after was D2 football player) staging a collision at the plate. There were concerns the catcher was dead for a moment but thankful just a few scrapes and big smile :-)
On March 23rd FIAR went to a Creamery and back to the Falls we visited earlier in the year (since it was around the corner). We took a hayride around the farm and sampled the ice cream, kids played at playground for bit then a few us went to walk the trail to the falls and see how it was faring after the recent rains. It was a really nice day.
The month finished out with Titus attending the Spring RTW. It was a little cooler this year and Titus was now used to camping. This year his focus was drones and becoming UAS Technician, the first step to become a S&R drone pilot. He of course passed the tests and the live action tasks, but most importantly he had a great time. Hard to believe only a year ago this was his first time camping or going away from home, its been quite a year.
