Pitchpull

That First Step-

2012-01-29T08:38:00.000-08:00

On the phone Wednesday I made the arrangements...
We will Winter in Destin, Florida this year. The plans now are to arrive in November and stay there until the end of February.
It's a huge step... so huge, Sara Jean cried all day stressed with the thought of such change in our lives. We've since had long discussions about how this will work and she has settled to the idea.
Me? I'm just disappointed the old rule is true that "the plan will work perfectly until contact with the enemy is made"...
My retirement plan went all to pieces over the last two years.

It was never my plan to quit work completely. Sara Jean's work is physical, so I wanted her to be able to quit completely if she wanted. But I always figured I'd continue to work at least part-time until my body assumes ambient temperature...
Flight/Ground instruction.
Buying and selling used aircraft.
Scavenging aluminum cans from the roadside.
Being "Greeter" at the WalMart.
I like work and feel no work is beneath me. We'll be fine so long as there is enough money.
But there is the rub we all face...
How much is "enough"?

Most of us are facing the same scenario...
Our 401K's have become 200.5K's.
Until two years ago I felt phat...
We'd have had more income in retirement than while preparing for it. The market downturn means my years of preparation will provide just enough income to continue our present standard of living. Supplementing retirement funds with part-time work will put gravy on the mashed potatoes and will also provide a second benefit... I'll be out of Sara Jean's hair much of the time.

Now the "elephant in the room" question...
When do I actually retire? I still love my job. I respect most of my co-workers. It's the petty politics and the attitude of a few people that irritate me and keep my job from being perfect.
And that's my burr beneath the saddle...
I've never been good about keeping my mouth shut when I get irritated, and it gets harder as I get older.

So I'm working to pay off our debts. I'm shuffling money around to conserve it.
And as we realize we'll be fine, we're adjusting to the idea of spending next Winter on the balcony overlooking the Gulf of Mexico with an adult beverage close at hand.

"Welcome to WalMart. Enjoy your shopping experience!"

Newt?

2012-01-26T15:58:00.001-08:00

Bob Dole says a Newt nomination would be disastrous.
John McCain has endorsed Mitt Romney.
Yeah...
That certainly helps make up my mind.

January 25, SR-71

2012-01-25T00:08:00.000-08:00

I don't remember the incident.
Perhaps it was because I simply wasn't paying attention.
Or maybe it slipped by unnoticed in all my birthday celebrating. But until recently I was unaware we had ever lost one of these fabulous machines.
Ejecting at mach 3.8?
Unbelievable.
More here.

I prefer to think of them in "faster than a speeding bullet" mode.

Forty-six years later we still appreciate your sacrifice, Jim Zwayer.
Rest in peace.

Wherever You Are-

2012-01-24T04:18:00.000-08:00

Thanks Arlene and Clarke!

General Spruance

2012-01-23T00:08:00.000-08:00

In the early '70's I had the privilege of seeing this man in person with 300 or so of my peers at a safety seminar at Hunter Army Airfield in Savannah, Georgia.
At the time he was what we affectionately called a "Crispy Critter"...
No hair. No ears.No eyebrows. His burns looked MUCH worse then. Oddly, I think his warnings had more impact when he looked less like a human being.

I've looked for this video for a while...
His talk had a dramatic impact on me then, and if/when you watch it, it will have an impact on you. (Got kids? His auto accident tips are worthwhile so you may want teens and older to watch too.)
The video is almost 90 minutes long, so you'll need to set aside the time to watch it at some point in the future.
Take the time. You may, like me, find yourself remembering some pieces of it at the oddest times. And at those times you'll be glad you are human and have the ability to learn from the mistakes of others so you don't become a "Crispy Critter" yourself.
He's humorous at times. Enjoy:

Watching Science Fiction Become Science Fact.

2012-01-20T03:28:00.000-08:00

I don't know why, but it troubled me from the time I saw it. I think the reason it troubled me was that I could see, fantastic as the idea was at its core, there was a frightening reality there.
It was a "Star Trek" episode called "A Taste of Armageddon". In the episode, two tribes are warring with one another. The "gimmick" of the story is that the two warring factions have come to an agreement to "war" in a civilized fashion:
Why destroy one another's infrastructure and face the ugliness of having to clean up and bury dead bodies? Why not fight one another via computer simulations?
A catchy idea and neat solution, right? But these two tribes went even further-
When the computer simulation indicated X number of citizens had been killed in an attack, that tribe, by treaty, had to line up that number of citizens and send them to the "disintegration booth". Inspectors from the warring tribes were there to insure the contract was fulfilled.
A clean, intelligent alternative to settle disputes.
"Our computer versus your computer".

I've been reminded of that episode a lot lately. We've been using unmanned drones quite a while in dangerous missions so that we don't have a pilot at risk. At first, these missions were for reconnaissance... then someone realized we could attach a missile to the drone and actually use them as fighter/bombers.

One of our drones recently succeeded in "saving" itself by landing virtually undamaged in Iran. It's easy to see where this progresses, "Star Trek" style...
Our enemies "reverse-engineer" our technology... maybe even tweak it a little here and there to improve it, and the next thing you know OUR leaders are being blown up by stealthy pilotless aircraft flying unseen, overhead.

For some time now the "weak link" in fighter aircraft has been human capabilities. Our "Electric Jet" F-16 fighters actually have the ability to sense when the pilot has been subjected to forces rendering them unconscious, and are programmed to try to save aircraft and pilot under these circumstances. We know that future fighters will either have to find a way to overcome human frailties or get the job done without a human onboard. Having no pilot at risk is so attractive, it's easy to see that we'll soon be fielding "unmanned" fighter aircraft to do that dirty job.
And surely we'll then see "our unmanned fighters versus your unmanned fighters"...
Who can build the best flying computer?

We use computers because they are better/faster at calculating than we are. In 1997, chess champ Gary Kasparov was beaten by Deep Blue, a computer developed for the task by IBM. Deep Blue simply could crunch more numbers
than Kasparov... calculating thousands of different permutations for each move and planning hundreds of possible future moves. I'm told great chess champions can plan five or so future moves.
That was in '97, and computers have not been idle...
They're getting better and faster every moment. Some are predicting that computer "thinking" power will exceed that of man by the year 2020.
What happens then? Do we resign ourselves to our machines and let them take over? Will we face "disintegration booths"?
Or will our computers be smart enough to finally resolve the problem and point out how stupid we are by wasting our material and human resources in useless wars?
That is my hope.

So now the question is, can we make it to the year 2020 without destroying our world so our computers have something to save?
Meanwhile, the "Doomsday Clock" continues to tick!

Who Owns It?

2012-01-18T07:48:00.000-08:00

It's an interesting day on the innertubez.
Wikipedia is unavailable.
Google is up, but management there is expressing its displeasure with government tampering by covering their logo with a black band.
I wish this was a "black and white" issue. It's not. I can see truth in both sides of the argument.
But for me, FREEDOM always comes first.

I just tried to go read a couple favorite blogs and find they are also down.
If I owned those blogs I'd be angry and frustrated, and I'd be inquiring about my 1st amendment rights.

Obviously, that's not a problem here.
Thank you "BLOGGER!"

Curtis Mathes, Muntz, Sylvania, Zenith... On And On.

2012-01-14T10:28:00.000-08:00

I pushed the button on the remote control and the TV came on but the picture was about half its normal size, and although it still displayed colors the overall tint was blue, like viewing it through blue sunglasses. I pushed the button again, then again, to reset it...
Nuttin'.
How old was this set? Wow... lemme think.
It's a non-HD set. We bought it on sale "a while" ago. It was on sale because the remote was missing. I initially bought a "universal" remote for it that worked most of the functions, but when we started using "Dish Network" I was able to make the Dish remote work all the functions but "picture on picture".
No big deal.

Its first duty station was downstairs in the living room, then we moved it to the Master B-room when we bought the new flat screen and installed that downstairs.
It was heavy. I was a blockhead and wanted to prove I could move it upstairs by myself, and I did too...
One step up. Stop and rest. Another step up. Stop and rest.
Thirteen steps. Stop and rest, wheezing.
Finally, lift the thing four feet into its new cabinet.
Wheeze some more.

But the memory of that move makes me realize how quickly time has passed and how old this set is.
Is it even worth fixing? I haven't seen or talked with my old friend Jim the TV repairman in YEARS... is he even still in business?
Grab the phone book and EUREKA, he's still listed! I sheepishly call him...
"Whatd'ya think Jim? Is it even worth the effort?"
"Well, bring it in and I'll look at it, but I'll have to charge you $40 to open it up. If it's worthwhile to fix it, the forty bucks will pay part of the bill."

This set is a Sanyo. You tell me... Korean?
I think Zenith was the last brand made in the USofA and I bought one of the last sets they made within our borders. (Got good service out of it too.) Zenith moved their factory, I believe to Mexico, years ago. Can you even buy something with the name "Zenith" on the front now?
Samsung. Sanyo. Vizio. Magnavox! (Where is that old American name now made?)

And we all know the "problem" don't we?
We can go into Wally World and buy a brand-spanking new (HD!) TV for nearly nothing...
Why fix an older non-HD set?

But having called Jim I feel obligated to give him a shot.
I lug the thing downstairs...
Step. Rest. Wheeze. Repeat. And load it into the rear seat of the car.
More wheezing at his shop, I hand over forty bucks cash and he hands me a receipt and tells me he'll call with the diagnosis.
I shudder at the thought of having to tote the thing back upstairs and secretly hope he calls to tell me it's dead.
Unfortunately, he's able to fix it. And it only costs me another $20...
A bad capacitor or somesuch.
That was a couple years ago, and the old soldier soldiers on.

We pretty much invented TV. For years we were the leaders in the technology. Sets were so expensive you repaired them when they broke. I can remember when "remote control" meant Mom or Dad telling me or my sister to "change to channel 4".
Now? They're not worth fixing. (And they're much lighter... easier to put out alongside the garbage cans on "trash pick-up" day.)

We're told by REALLY SMART people that this global market is a good thing...
That cheaper goods from other countries means we have more discretionary income to spend if we want more cheap goods from Korea, Viet Nam, or China.
Maybe I'm not so smart.
But the fact we don't make our own cars, motorcycles, electronics, etc. still scares me.

I fear we'll one day look back at the 1950's with nostalgia in many ways.
Please. Let me be wrong.

Peeing In A Cup

2012-01-13T08:08:00.000-08:00

Born January 1947... 65 this year.
My flight physical is scheduled today at 1800 hours.
Until recently I didn't worry about visiting my friend (and former student) Dr. Rich.
But last year I finally broke down, put the cheater/reading glasses away, and popped for a real pair of bifocals. (The improvement in my seeing was considerable, particularly chart-reading at night.)
What's that? My hearing? Were you asking about my hearing?
Forty-four years of being exposed to one of the noisiest environments known to man...
But if you WERE asking, thanks for your concern.

My blood pressure last time around was 110/70. My weight is up since last year, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed those numbers will increase only slightly.

Diabetes runs in my family.
On both sides.
And my diet and exercise program lately has gone the way of Barack Obama's economy.
Peeing in the cup is always a concern.

But I look around me at peers and realize the blessings of health I have had to this point, and know that if I fail this physical I won't be able to complain...
I've had a great run.
But I don't know what I'd do if I had to grow up and actually start working at a JOB.

"No Reserve!"

2012-01-12T07:38:00.000-08:00

Sigh.
There is so much to learn, and some things don't come easily to me.

I want to buy another bike. There is no room in the garage, so the purchase of another (smaller, maybe an 883 Sportster) bike is dependent on the sale of the older GoldWing.
A couple folks were interested enough to come and check it out in person. Both wanted to make trades for vehicles I'm not interested in, so their purchase of my bike is dependent on the sale of the vehicles they wanted to trade me. Still, I'm checking eBay daily, just to insure I know what prices bikes I'm interested in are bringing. And that's where I need your help-

"NO RESERVE!" it says at the top of the narrative for the bike.
Yet under the bid box we are informed, "Reserve not met", even though 14 people have bid on this machine. And you see where I'm confused...
If there's no reserve, how can the reserve not be met?

I'm sure there's a simple explanation this simple mind can understand.
Hep me somebody!

I Now Believe in Global Warming.

2012-01-06T17:38:00.000-08:00

Temps were in the mid-sixties yesterday, and again today.
Normal highs in these parts are mid-forties.
I took advantage of the weather and rode the Pizza Bike to work last night, even though I had to arrive at my workplace 90 minutes early in order to avoid riding in the dark.
It was worth it. It felt like Spring and was invigorating. (Going home this morning was a little "nipply"!)

The Winter has been unbelievably mild so far in our part of the world. Yesterday's high temp actually was a record breaker. Today's high came within four degrees or so of being another record high.
Maybe the climate is getting warmer. But you still cannot convince me man is the cause.
When we start breaking record highs on a daily basis, then maybe I'll consider all this shouting and spittle-spreading "settled science".

John B., where are you?
When the "spitters" were caught trying to fudge the data, you kinda fell off the earth, pal!

"Oh (Deleted Expletive)!"

2012-01-04T00:08:00.000-08:00

Cool heads, both in the cockpit and on the ground.
Airliners have great anti-ice systems to deal with this. The rest of us try to avoid it all all costs.

I "Assumed".

2012-01-02T11:28:00.000-08:00

In many ways I'm still VERY naive.
I have cut back on the number of folks I call close and allow within my "wall".
And among those folks were friends I included in my circle because we share a great deal... assuming we shared political views because we were so much alike in so many other ways.

And then in a discussion about my hope for smaller, more efficient government my friend said "Well, they are trying to help people".
This, from someone who ran a business and knows full well how efficient (not!) government, ANY government is.

Then, the icing on the cake...
In a discussion re: the poor investment decision-making of mutual friends who had lost all of their retirement savings I hear the comment, "Well, government should insure that cannot happen."

I don't want to live in that world.
And I'm VERY uncomfortable with anyone who can even make such statements.

We live in a world where "Jersey Shore" and "Keeping Up With the Kardashians" are top-rated TV shows.
With that in mind, why are we surprised Barack Obama was elected in 2008?
I won't be surprised at ANY outcome in 2012.

Signs of The Times-

2011-12-28T00:08:00.000-08:00

When I read something in a blog that strikes a chord, my initial reaction is to hit the "like" button. It's irritating to remember there isn't one.

You all know my hearing is less than satisfactory these days. Listening to the radio
I frequently miss important parts and think, "I'll just back that up so I can hear it again."
Everything that is broadcast should have TIVO's capabilities.

And it's my bet one day they will.

The Douglas Dragonfly

2011-12-26T01:38:00.000-08:00

Vincent. Brough. Henderson. Excelsior. Ariel.
Those brands are familiar.
Douglas?
A new marque to me. (And doesn't that engine look like an old boxer BMW?)

It's British. Owned by the brothers Douglas, the company was the first to experiment with disc brakes on their racing bikes (in the 1920's!)

If you'd like to learn more about the Douglas "Dragonfly", go HERE.

"The Christmas We Get We Deserve"-

2011-12-24T00:18:00.000-08:00

It is my hope that what you deserve is an adequately filled tummy, warmth in your surroundings, freedom from fear, contact with friends and loved ones, (and a lack of friction there), and just enough stress in your life to make it interesting.
Those of you who come here often to comment have become family in an odd way.
I appreciate your thoughts.

"Odd Family"... thank you.

Ya Can't Roller Skate In A Buffalo Herd

2011-12-22T14:28:00.000-08:00

And I won't ride a motorcycle when it's raining and the thermometer says 45 degrees.
I'm pretty tough, but I'm not interested in seeing how miserable I can make myself.
All four of the bikes have electrical systems that drain the battery even with the ignition off...
Clocks, radio memory, etc.. I like to start them all and ride them half an hour or so every two weeks. But it has rained a lot lately, and my time off hasn't coincided with dry days.
Monday morning the rain stopped. By afternoon the temp was still about 45 but the streets were dry. I disconnected the trickle charger, pushed the old BMW out of the garage, and rode into town to pick up a few needed items.
Later, Sara Jean came home and said, "I have a craving for a 'Subway' sandwich... let's go get one."
To which I replied, "Bundle up. Let's ride."
And so we did... top speed of 30 mph in third gear. Still, it felt great, good for bike, and us.

Big Bubba flew in from Arizona last night. I drove into BigTown to pick him up and arrived early so I could do a little last minute shopping before going to the train station to pick him up. I arrived at the Mall about 9 P.M... they were staying open until midnight. I was surprised at the number of folks there shopping, and most of them were actually carrying bags of items they had purchased. Almost everything was on SALE, so it will be interesting to see how retailers have done this year. I suspect the fact that sales started early and stores have kept their doors open longer will mean profits will be slim. Let's see if my feeling of the pulse is correct.

So the Greybeards are ready for Christmas. It's been a year since BB has been home and it is a comfort just knowing we can reach out an touch him. I'm starting my week of nights tonight so our celebrations will be scheduled around my hours at home. That's fine. It may limit chances for disagreement.

All of us in EMS hope to be sitting on our hands the next few days. All too often we are called to cases we know will taint memories of the holidays for years to come. All we can do is try to mitigate the damage and hope to make those memories brighter.
Hold your loved ones close, everyone.
And behave yourself... please.

The Final Frontier

2011-12-14T00:58:00.000-08:00

Our steps toward space haven't been halted...
Just detoured, to a more efficient path.
Lead on, Mr. Rutan!

On Two Wheels Part 4- The Japanese Two-Strokes

2011-12-12T00:18:00.000-08:00

"Combat Pay".
It IS just as it sounds... pay for being in an area where your body might get perforated by some fast-moving projectile.

I was in Viet Nam, a single guy making a decent wage. And on top of that decent wage my Uncle Sam was adding "Combat Pay" and something called "Hazardous Duty Pay", because someone in the Federal Government actually thought flying low-level in a fairly large, slow-moving target over folks wanting to perforate me was hazardous!

For a year my food, clothing, and lodging were paid for.
Even my "wants" were cheap...
A Scotch and water at the "O Club" was 35 cents. If I tried hard enough I could drink six of 'em in an evening and stagger back to my hooch having spent all of $3.00, including the tip for the beautiful, almond-eyed cynic that delivered the libations.

I paid little attention to my checking account as the year slowly passed. But I subconsciously knew my funds would be accruing and I knew I wanted two things when I got "Back to the world"...
I wanted to get back to Savannah, Georgia and teach others to fly "Hueys".
I wanted to buy a new motorcycle and, on warm evenings, with an attractive member of the opposite sex, take regular rides to Savannah Beach.

To that end, about halfway through my year-long tour I started educating myself by reading motorcycle magazines. As a teen I had mostly ridden Harley-Davidsons. Back then, anything other than a Harley was something less.
But in 1968-'69 there was big change going on in the biking industry...
Triumph and BSA had just come out with a new 750cc triple.
Honda, Yamaha, Suzuki, and Kawasaki all had new offerings. And there were rumors Honda was about to release a radical new machine.
But all the magazines were RAVING about the performance of the new Kawasaki two stroke triple:

Zero-to-sixty time of 3.2 seconds!
Top speed around 120 m.p.h.!
I decided to kill two birds with one stone-
Buy my first Japanese motorcycle. Buy the first bike I ever owned with a two-cycle engine.
At the end of my Viet Nam tour I got my wish to return to Savannah. I quickly found the local Kaw dealer and bought a machine exactly like the one pictured above.
It was evil.
Extraordinarily fast in a straight line, in turns the frame couldn't stand up to stresses involved and it flexed and wobbled terribly. It made a noise like a hive of hornets. Two-stroke engines produce more horsepower for a given displacement and engine weight, but the penalty you pay is in fuel efficiency... they are gas hogs.
Vibrations made the handgrips buzz and would put your hands to sleep on long trips.
From dead-stop, the initial acceleration of these machines was less than mediocre. Then, as the tachometer ticked past 4000 rpm... WHOA NELLIE!! It was as if someone flicked a light switch...
All the torque the engine could produce came on, trying to wrench your hands from the bars. It was difficult to keep the front wheel on the ground in first and second gear.

I loved the power of the thing. After riding it just over 10,000 miles I bought another one almost exactly like it (with upgraded electronic ignition) the following model year.

A year after that the rumors started...
Kawasaki was coming out with an even faster bike.
They were increasing the displacement of their two-stroke triple to 750cc's.
I went to my Kawasaki dealer, (who was now a close friend) and threatened him with noogies and wedgies if he sold the first 750 he received to anyone other than me. He called me when they had the first bike out of the crate and assembled. I rode home on it that night. This is what it looked like:

That disc brake up front eliminated any chance at brake fade, so it stopped better. But the rest of the evils remained:
Noise. Vibration. Terrible handling in anything other than a straight line.

All in all, I rode over 30,000 miles on Kaw triples in five years.
In spite of their terrible faults, I still have fond memories of all of 'em.
Others obviously do too...
Prices for examples in good shape on eBay bring more than I'd consider spending for one.
(But I'm still lookin'. And if I can find one in decent shape at a reasonable price, I might just own one again!)

Too Good...

2011-12-10T18:18:00.000-08:00

You may have had a similar experience...
It happened to me shortly after I got my driver's license, setting the date sometime in 1963 or '64, so the subject car would have been about five years old.

One of my closest friends says, "My Uncle knows a guy who is trying to sell a '59 Cadillac for $100.00. But there is a problem...
The owner died in it and wasn't found for several days, and the car reeks of the smell of his decaying corpse."

Wow. $100 for a car that was the "Cadillac" of automobiles when it was new?
For a new driver it was tempting. If necessary, I could drive that sucker around for a year or so with the windows rolled down, even when it was -4 degrees F. outside!
I talked with my old man...
"Well, if necessary we can take it apart and sell it as a parts car. The engine alone would be worth more than the asking price."

So I called my buddy-
"Tell your Uncle the car is sold. Where should I take the check?"

And you probably know "The rest of the story" already, don't you?
The rest of the story is that my good friend didn't return my call.

Oh well.
The car probably had a prosthetic hook hanging from the passenger door too.

Fine For Me, But For You? Not So Much!

2011-12-08T01:38:00.000-08:00

How do you know you've been a successful parent?
I won't even attempt to answer that. Jerry Sandusky's parents probably thought they had done a decent job raising their son. If they're still alive, they must now be reconsidering.

But our son has been on his own for almost five years now. He supports himself, and we're often made proud by remarks we hear from those associated with him at work and play. Thanks to Verizon, the 2000 miles that separate us are almost eliminated by several cell-phone calls daily.
He talks with his Mother often...
He calls me (not so often), when he wants advice or reassurance.

He has watched with interest how his old man has gotten back into motorcycling now that he's moved to Arizona. Last Fall he even rode behind me on the GoldWing about a half hour to see what that experience would be like. It was chilly and he wasn't dressed properly, but still he seemed to enjoy the ride.

I think he's been talking motorcycles with his friends in Arizona, because one of those friends just GAVE him the Yamaha 400 "Special" that has been sitting idle in his garage for a couple years.

His drive from his Casa Grande, AZ home to his workplace in Chandler, AZ takes about 40 minutes and is spent mostly on Interstate 10. His Ford Explorer "Sport Trac" gets a little over 20 m.p.g. on the highway, so he's burnin' about 4 gallons of fuel each round-trip.
Driven sanely, the Yamaha should get around 50 m.p.g. and will cut his fuel costs in half. Great Arizona weather should allow him to ride the bike to work much of the year.

When his friend gave him the bike our son called and was excited.
We are excited, AND concerned.
In my head I'm thinkin', "It's okay for me to something slightly dangerous and fun, but I'm not so sure I want you doing the same thing, my son!"

So we have to do what we have done in the past...
Try to educate and instill the proper amount of respect he needs to have for the bike-riding experience.
He has always listened well and put our advice to good use. I see no reason he won't do that again.
And now I'm lookin' forward to our next trip to Arizona...
I hear there are some wonderful roads to ride East of "Apache Junction"!

Easy To Assemble. No Tools Required!

2011-12-06T08:28:00.000-08:00

We've been sleeping on a Queen-size, soft-side, fully baffled waterbed for 22 years. With one exception we love the thing-
My wife sleeps as a "runner". At 5'10" she's mostly legs, and she lays claim to about 80% of the bed when she's sleeping. Put both of us in a Queen-size space, add two dogs (that want to lay right on top of me), and you've got a cramped situation.
I don't complain...
I only need about a foot WAY OVER HERE on my side of the bed. But if she happens to touch me or the dogs when she is "sprinting" , she's not a happy snoozer.

For several years now she's been begging for a King-size bed. A couple months ago QVC had a special on "Select Comfort" air beds. We chatted, then agreed a new bed would be a nice Christmas gift we could give one another. So we pulled the trigger.
And that meant doing a "musical chairs" routine with our bedrooms. The bed in our guest room was a full-size... much too small for our 6'3" offspring to sleep on, requiring us to inflate a portable air mattress for him during his visits. So the plan unfolded:
Sell the antique bed in the guest room.
Drain and move the waterbed to that bedroom.
Build the new "Sleep Number" bed in the Master BR.

Our UPS driver Tim delivered seven big boxes about a month ago.
Three weeks ago we finally sold the bed in the guest room.
Draining, disassembling, the re-assembling that bed downstairs took the better part of two days.
Then my work-shift week started. We inflated the portable air mattress normally used by our son and slept on the floor of our bedroom for a week.

Two days ago I started unpacking (BIG!) boxes. (And what a shame there isn't an easy, good use for all that wonderful cardboard.)
No tools required... EASY to assemble!
Yeah... right.

There was an assembly manual, AND an "easy to follow" DVD. Problem was, they didn't agree on how to build the bed. Tired and frustrated the first night, I finally quit when I couldn't make the foundation pieces fit the way the DVD said they should, figuring I might better understand with a rested mind.
Sure enough, the next day I did a little experimenting and sorted that problem out, only to be once again stymied by missing pieces to the puzzle. The DVD indicated four plastic "corner pieces" should be installed to hold foam inserts in place at the side, head, and foot of the bed.
Go outside and search through all the discarded cardboard...
Those pieces were nowhere to be found.
Find the "800" number for help...
Dial it...
"We're sorry, but there is no one here to answer your call. Please call back during normal business hours. Your call is important to us!"
ARRRRRGHHHHHH!

RTDM... read the damn manual...
There I find, those pieces ARE NOT necessary with our particular bed.
The rest of the assembly goes without a hitch.
We slept off the floor last night on a bed that looks the size of a tennis court.
My "runner" would have to sprint the 100-yard dash to touch me.
The dogs and I slept undisturbed on my 1 foot piece of territory at the edge.

It's a great bed.
I'm calling "Select Comfort" today with suggestions on how to improve the instructions so that when you buy yours you won't consider committing suicide as I did.

That Unlocked Door

2011-12-03T06:38:00.000-08:00

Now more than fifty years later I cannot tell you how old she was, but she was old and infirm. A walker parked next to her chair, she was able to get up and slowly make her way to the bathroom if necessary.

The house was tiny...
Two bedrooms, barely big enough for full-size beds. A bathroom, living room, and kitchen.
The interior was austere...
Nothing on the walls. Two old rocker/recliners in the living room with a floor lamp between them. The chairs faced a small television, (black and white of course), and "The Secret Storm" was always on when I entered. No knock at the door was necessary... she expected me.
I was her newsboy, and I'm sure that on many days I was her only contact with a real human being.
She wanted to talk. I knew she needed to talk.
Her daughter paid me to deliver "The Indianapolis News" to the old woman. I'm sure she paid me not for the newspaper, but to walk through that unlocked door and insure her Mother was still alive, then spend a few moments in conversation with her.
She didn't have much, but when she had something to share she wanted me to partake-
"There are fresh radishes in the refrigerator. Do you like radishes?"
Not really.
But I ate a couple and acted as if they were delicious, then thanked her for her generosity.

She was still alive when I handed the paper route over to my replacement.
I made sure he knew to walk through that door, put the newspaper on her lap, and brighten her day for a few minutes with chat about what was happening outside her unlocked door.

Looking back, I now realize I learned most of what I needed to know about life from being a newsboy.
I've even learned to tolerate radishes.

Better Than A Dirty Diaper!

2011-11-27T01:38:00.000-08:00

I am not a big Newt fan. There are things about him that trouble me A LOT. As others have pointed out he comes with his own set of "baggage". His recent immigration comments make me cringe. But I have also said many times recently, a feces-filled baby's diaper could do a better job as POTUS than the present golfer in the White House. And if that's my only choice versus Obama, the soiled diaper will get my vote.

Viewing this video will consume less than ten minutes of your life.
Watch it.
Then, in the comments, tell me if it doesn't give you hope for the future of our beloved country.

Face- Updated

2011-11-24T17:58:00.000-08:00

I'm a sucker for a beautiful face.
This one stunned me.
No, it's not a young Bo Derek.
You may know her if you're into historical trivia.
Hers is a fascinating story! (WWII Germany)

Know her?

24November Update-
Both "The History Channel" and "The Military Channel" have had a lot of programming devoted to Nazi Germany and the steps leading to World War II lately. Regular readers know I see many comparisons with that era and what is going on in the U.S.A. right now. (In his comment to the post just below this one, Ed Bonderenka points out that the Nazi party started out as community organizers. Start the spooky music now!)

One of the programs I watched was devoted to the fact that many Nazi leaders (certainly including Hitler) were interested in the occult, and thought ancient civilizations could not have accomplished their great works without the aid of "other world" beings. We've seen some of this interest portrayed in movies like "Raiders of The Lost Ark".

The face above belongs to a gal named Maria Orsic (or Orsitsch). She was a member of a post-WWI group called "The Vril Society". They wanted to know how the ancients, in their buildings and art, could accomplish things impossible (or nearly impossible) to accomplish today.
I think we still have much to learn from history. I think we are a LONG way from having all the answers. If you agree, click the links and read some more about the Vril, and the beautiful gal who mysteriously disappeared from the face of the earth in 1943.

Hitler?

2011-11-14T10:48:00.000-08:00

I'm watching a program on the military channel illuminating Adolf Hitler's life just prior to and during World War II. There is a saying out there that the first person to bring up Adolf Hitler in a political conversation is the loser.
So I guess I'm a loser here. But there are many interesting comparisons going on right now for those with eyes that see and ears that hear. And while I was watching the program this morning, this one struck me-

Hitler had signed a "non-agression" treaty with Russia. When it became politically expedient to forget his promises, Hitler ignored that treaty and invaded Russia. All went well until Winter time when Germany's offense was stifled more by the weather than the Russian defense. Russian soldiers, knowing what the weather could bring, were FAR better prepared to deal with Mother Nature than their German counterparts. Hitler's top military advisers suggested a retreat... with the hope of "living to fight another day" against troops that obviously were better prepared to fight in those conditions.
Hitler, ego bigger than the superdome, ignored his advisers and issued a statement saying something to the effect that German soldiers, being German, were better than Russian soldiers and should hold their ground until Spring when they could once again wipe the floor with the ignorant Russians.
And we history buffs know how that turned out.

It's an interesting study...
An egomaniac doesn't want to admit he might be wrong so he blames his failures on others, in spite of the fact those others, (who were smarter than he on these matters), tried to save his bacon by giving him VERY good advice which he ignored.

In the White House now we have a guy with a pretty big ego.
In spite of having done pretty much nothing of note since being born half-white, he's been surrounded by sycophants all his life telling him how "cool" he is...
How smart he is...
What a wonderful speaker he is...
And our President(?) is convinced of his own greatness, not smart enough to listen to that adviser whispering in his ear.

Now we find the reason our economy is failing is because we are lazy.
Yeah, it's not his fault. And his advisors are just stupid.

Is it too late?
Who is smart enough to listen to the whisperer?
I fear we are not.
So to those of you with ears that hear-
Be prepared.
Listen to the whisper...
There is almost nothing to lose by preparing, but there is MUCH to lose by ignoring the many signals.

Retire? I'll Miss The Good Outcomes. I Won't Miss The Injured Kids.

2011-11-12T00:18:00.000-08:00

I walk a tightrope here much of the time.
I'm frequently involved in stuff that makes the news...
"So-and-so was involved in a head on collision last night and was taken by helicopter to such and such medical center where he remains in critical but stable condition."
And if I give you too many details about the case, I might find myself talking to a lawyer.
But my job involves real drama much of the time. And that's particularly true when young-un's are involved.

Last night was one of those nights. At some point in the future I hope to tell you about it. But for now, let me relate a story about a similar case that happened long ago enough I likely won't get my butt in trouble telling you-

We were called to the scene. Paramedics were there and knew this was one of those situations where "seconds count". The patient was a four year old boy. He had gone out into the family's garage and against one wall was his Dad's tool chest that looked somewhat like this:

There was something at the top of that chest this boy wanted. So he pulled the lower drawers out and used them as steps to reach the top. His weight, combined with the weight of the tools in the box, toppled it over, crushing him beneath it.
My crew quickly did what was necessary...
Established a secure airway.
Started an IV.
We loaded and transported him the short distance to the Children's hospital.
There, they immediately took him to the operating room where they found he had a badly torn aorta and other internal injuries.
He died.

My kid last night was not so terribly injured, and it's my hope he'll have a much better outcome.
And I hope his parents don't beat themselves up with guilt.

Rick Perry- ALMOST, (Not Quite) This Confused !

2011-11-11T01:38:00.000-08:00

Motorcycle Road Racing

2011-11-10T00:28:00.000-08:00

March of 1971-
I had just bought my new 500cc Kawasaki, so it was just natural I'd be rooting for Kaw riders. Daytona was just five or so hours away and I had never been to "Bike Week". I mounted my new bike and headed South out of Savannah on I-95.

If you like motorcycles, Daytona Bike Week is nearly heaven. I've never been to Sturgis so I cannot compare the two, but my image of Sturgis is that it is mostly a Harley-Davidson event.
Daytona is different. Sure, there are plenty of Harleys there but that Saturday night, standing on a street corner oogling the bikes as they stopped at the traffic signal, I saw just about every motorcycle made to be ridden on the street, including the one and only Munch Mammoth I have ever seen in person... one of the first motorcycles ever built with an engine designed for an automobile.

Sunday morning dawned and the weather was perfect. I got to the track early and was amazed at what I saw...
The speed of the bikes was just unbelievable. They were hitting almost 200 m.p.h. on the banked part of the track, then they had to brake heavily to slow and enter the twisty infield portion of the course. (Just a few years after my visit the bikes had gotten so fast that tires could not be made to withstand the forces put on them, so a chicane was installed in the middle of the backstretch to slow the bikes down.)

Other Kaw riders I had talked to were buzzing about this rookie-expert Kawasaki rider- Rusty Bradley. He was fast. He had a good ride. He was someone I needed to watch.
Most of the Kawasakis were painted Lime Green. I picked him out... number 64.

There were so many bikes competing in the race they started them in two waves...
The fastest group of about twenty roared off, then a few seconds later the second group followed. I watched in awe as Rusty passed several machines on the back side of the track, then came down the front straight where he'd need to clamp on the binders in order to make the left turn into the infield.
I still don't know for sure what happened.
He fell.
Right in front of me.
Still traveling at about 150 m.p.h.
It was horrible. He log-rolled, over and over and over. His arm would flail out until the weight of his body would bear down on it and it would fold under him just as the other arm would get free and would flail out.
It seemed he rolled forever before coming to a stop. Then he laid there lifeless. To the guy
I had befriended in the seat next to mine I said, "He's dead".

They waited until the end of the race to announce what I already knew...
Rusty was gone.

To me, motorcycle road racing is the most beautiful, dangerous sport in the world. Unlike car racing, the riders are exposed so you can see how they manipulate their machines to make them do what they have to do...
Hang their butts off the machine to the left or right to lower the center of gravity so the bikes can reach a lean angle (and at a speed) that just seems impossible. On the straights, they tuck down behind the windshield making themselves as small as they can in order to reduce drag. Then approaching a turn they sit upright to catch the wind on their chest to provide an aerodynamic assist to the brakes.
It's a gorgeous ballet.

Two weeks ago, the same weekend Dan Wheldon was killed at Las Vegas, a young man named Marco Simoncelli fell during the Moto GP race in Sepang, Malaysia and was struck by two other riders. He had terrible head, neck, and other injuries and did not survive.
The video of the accident is hard to watch.
It took me back to 1971 and made me think of Rusty.

Motorcycle road racing is a beautiful thing to watch.
And I cannot deny it...
Part of my fascination with it is because it is SO dangerous.
And, like so many things in life, those who live "out on the edge" sometimes pay the heavy toll.

But they come back the next week, suit up in their protective gear, and go try to extend the envelope once again.

And I'll be watching and enjoying, knowing how hard it is to do what they make look so easy.

The List

2011-11-09T12:08:00.000-08:00

Newly added:
Ben (I would never have amounted to a pile of doo-doo without my parent's help) Stiller.

I'm still confused-
If you are in the business of selling yourself to the masses, why would you express yourself in a way that would anger 50% (+ -) of your audience? Add to that the fact that you live in a cloister of like-minded people and have NO IDEA whatsoever how real folks make a living.
Why not just shut your pie-hole and let 100% of your audience enjoy your work?
I present to you my list...
The list of folks that I refuse to support with my hard-earned $$$$$ because they're destroying my country.
"The List" will be updated and re-posted as new "smarter than you and me" folks make themselves known.
(Feel free to leave suggestions for additions in your comments.)

Robert Altman
Ed Asner
Alec Baldwin
Rosanne Barr
Meredith Baxter
Joy Behar
Tony Bennett
Sandra Bernhard
James Brolin
Jimmy Buffett
Ladies and Gentlemen- Cher!
The Dixie Chicks
George Clooney
Elvis Costello
Sheryl Crow
Matt Damon
Ted Danson
Johnny Depp
Danny DeVito
Pee Puff Diddy-Daddy
Phil Donahue
Richard Dreyfuss
Roger Ebert
Mike Farrell
Will Ferrell
Tina Fey
Sally Field
Jane Fonda
Megan Fox
Janeane Garofalo
Danny Glover
Whoopi Goldberg
Kathy Griffin
Tom Hanks
Woody Harrelson
Heart
Scarlett Johansson (Man I hate that she's on this list!)
Ashley Judd
Val Kilmer
Kris Kristofferson
Spike Lee
DAAAAAAVIIIID LETTERRRRRRRRMAN!
Jennifer Lopez
Madonna
Bill Maher
Barry Manilow
Paul McCartney
John Mellencamp
Michael Moore
Bill Nye
Rosie O'Donnell
Keith Olbermann
Gwyneth Paltrow
Sean Penn
Rob Reiner
Tim Robbins
Alan Rosenberg
Tim Roth
Linda Ronstadt
Susan Sarandon
Jerry Seinfeld
Martin Sheen
Sarah Silverman
Bruce Springsteen
Martha Stewart
Ben Stiller
Oliver Stone
Barbra Streisand
Wanda Sykes
Gore Vidal
Kanye West
Oprah Winfrey
Henry (The Fonz) Winkler

Making Do

2011-11-07T11:08:00.000-08:00

Use it up. Wear it out.
This economy is forcing a lot more people into this mode of thinking, isn't it? One of the things I will proudly tell others is, "That butt you see hanging outside the dumpster is probably mine!" I NEVER go to a dumpster without checking to see what perfectly usable item others have thrown away. (And wonder, why didn't they consider giving it to the Salvation Army or Goodwill?)

But this attitude can result in the kind of trouble we face right now...
The lowest mileage automobile we own now has 152,000 miles on it. Last week Sara Jean had just left home when she came back through the door...
"The steering is locked up on the car!" She had driven about half a block, then parked the car alongside the road. We walked back to the car and I jumped behind the wheel, started it, and experienced something I'd never had happen before-
From the neutral point, (driving straight ahead), to the right steering lock, everything worked fine. Moving the steering wheel from the right lock to the neutral point... fine.
But from the neutral point to the left steering lock, it was like there was no power assist at all. (And obviously, to the weaker sex that felt like the steering was locked up.)

I drove the car the short distance back home and SJ grabbed the keys to our second car, (238,000 miles) and headed off to work.
Our mechanic says the rack and pinion has failed on the newer car and the repair will be $700+.
Ouch.
So we're keeping our fingers crossed the older car will continue to motivate until the new car is repaired.

Buying most any new car would entail taking on the payment for the car loan... probably somewhere in the vicinity of $5- $800 per month. The cheap voice in me shouts that so long as the cars we drive are safe and are not costing us anything close to what a new car payment would be, we should just continue to drive our perfectly nice driving older cars. But just over the horizon we can see the time coming when our high-mileage cars will no longer be "nice driving" OR "safe". Were it just me, I'd just drive 'em 'til the wheels fall off and take out some roadside billboard. But I'm not willing to take that risk with my bride.

Got a better formula for when to trade?
Share it, please.

On Two Wheels, Part 3- Ride As If It's Yours

2011-11-02T00:48:00.000-07:00

Drool.
In my "pre-legal" driving days as a teen I wore out certain pages of the Sears catalog...
If you are "of a certain age" like me, you'll remember the "Good/Better/Best" way Sears displayed some of their more expensive items. I wore out the motor scooter/motorcycle pages in those catalogs. Under motorcycles, "Good" was a Puch 150cc machine, "Better" was a Puch 175, and "Best" was a Puch 250. (If you're interested, there's a decent pic of the Austrian-made Sears/Puch 250 pictured here.) I'm actually glad I wasn't able to afford one of 'em because I've since learned they had a strange engine that used a system of two pistons sharing one combustion chamber. That, along with the inherent inefficiencies of two-cycle engines, made the Puchs terrible gas hogs.
I ended up buying the Aermacchi/Harley 250cc Sprint we discussed earlier.
I wanted a bigger bike, but my budget precluded me from buying one. And there was another reason I never bought a larger displacement motorcycle.

I've written before about my love for the Harley Davidson Sportster:

I love the Sportster because next to my little Sprint, I probably rode more miles on one than any other motorcycle while I was in High School.
How is that possible?
It REALLY pays to have a wealthy, generous friend! One of my best friends owned two Sportsters while we were in H.S....
An early "H" model, which was probably of 1957 or '58 vintage, which he traded on a "CH" model similar to the one shown above about the time we became Seniors.
I was able to frequently borrow both bikes and ride them almost as if they were my own.

When I came home on leave after Flight School and before departing for Viet Nam I found my friend had bought a new toy...
Another machine for which, as an early teen, I had saliva stained sales brochures:

He flipped me the keys to the Bonnie and told me to bring it back when I had to go back to playing soldier. I rode and loved that Triumph for 30 days.

I have some GREAT memories thanks to my wealthy friend.
And with friends like that, it's pretty easy to feel rich yourself.

The Root of Our Problems-

2011-11-01T00:08:00.000-07:00

Boston.
Kennebunkport.
New York City.

Democrats from that corner of our Nation, and those calling themselves "moderate" Republicans, have joined to royally screw up our economy.
"Fool me once"...
Have we learned anything here?

Remind me...
Where is Mitt Romney from? And what is his track record on this HORRENDOUS health care reform bill?

Just 'Cause It Made Me Feel Good, And I Think It'll Make You Feel Good Too!

2011-10-31T12:38:00.000-07:00

R.E.M. Sleep Vs. E.M.S. Sleep

2011-10-29T00:38:00.000-07:00

Here at our base, pilots make shift change at 0700 and 1900. My days of riding to work are coming to an end. Tonight I had to leave almost an hour early in order to arrive before darkness fell. Even at that, there were two instances tonight where I motored by deer grazing in fields only a football field or so from the roadway. We will change our clocks... "Fall back" soon, and when we do my ability to ride to work will be gone until March or April next year. Riding to work has been great this year... I think I've only had three or four days when rain precluded my coming to work on two wheels.

I've had a surprise. If you told me right now that I could only keep one of the four bikes parked in my garage, I'd want to keep the 800cc BMW airhead. It's a comfortable machine to ride, gets good gas mileage, is "flickable", and even though it only has two cylinders it doesn't vibrate. This morning on my way home at 60 mph I decided the proper word to describe the sensation in the handgrips and footpegs isn't "vibrate" or "buzz"... it's more of a "hum".
It makes me smile.

This is my first shift back since our trip to California and I'm finally back in stride with the routine of work. Weather set in on us my first night back and I was reasonably sure I wouldn't fly because of low ceilings and poor visibility due to rain. The phone didn't ring.
The second night was clear blue and twenty-two... and again the phone didn't ring. We all watched that marathon of a World Series game between the Texas Rangers and the St. Louis Cardinals.
Tonight it is once again flyable. Game seven of the World Series is in the history books and we got to watch it in its entirety because the phone has once again remained silent.
So we have been able to "Earn Money Sleeping". And although it's nice to earn a nice wage while watching TV, reading, or resting, it ain't quite what a lot of folks imagine.

A long time ago in another life the second best wife I ever had, while working on her Master's degree in Education, did some research on kid's sleeping habits and the effect those habits have on learning. I helped her with the research and learned some interesting stuff:
We need to dream when we sleep. It's while we are dreaming that our bodies rebuild and recharge. When we dream our eyes move behind our eyelids. This phenomenon is called "Rapid Eye Movement", or R.E.M. sleep. R.E.M. sleep happens late in our sleep cycle... So if your sleep is limited to just a few hours, you may experience little or no dreaming and R.E.M. sleep. That's why you feel like a dog if you have a "toss and turn" night, and why you may actually begin to be a danger to yourself and those around you if you have bouts of insomnia several nights in a row.

Here at work we all know our sleep may be interrupted at any time, so we always sleep seemingly with one eye open... never allowing ourselves to fall deeply asleep. And then we go home in the day and try to recharge our batteries, only to sleep fitfully there too. After a week of a little sleep here, a little sleep there, we need a couple nights to recover.

This is a great job and I'll miss it like crazy when I finally hang up my wings...
But I won't miss having my sleep messed up all the time.

Boeing

2011-10-28T00:18:00.000-07:00

What happened to you?

Affirmative Action

2011-10-27T12:58:00.000-07:00

I'm damned tired of racial issues.
I've said before, one of the things I hoped for when this man was elected President was that in our country, all would realize that all things were possible for ALL people if they applied themselves and were prepared to take advantage of opportunities as they presented themselves. Say what you want about him...
Bozo certainly was smart enough to take advantage of the opportunities that fell at his feet.
But now we have members of the "Gimme" generation soiling people's lawns and businesses all over the nation.
Hope and change...
I'm sure we all hoped things would change for the better.
Is it better?
You tell me.

At some point a proud people will begin to realize you're not equal if you're a guy playing golf, competing against your friends while hitting your initial drives from the women's tees.
Then, and only then, will racial issues begin to improve in this country.

Racial minorities need a unifying leader.
That leader needs to be able to say "Yes we can!", and MEAN it.

"No Drugs Were Found in her System"

2011-10-26T16:28:00.000-07:00

CBS, and other news sources today:
"But her blood alcohol content was FIVE TIMES the legal limit."

Uhh...
I think we need more drug education in SOME circles.

Unintended Consequences- The Airlines

2011-10-25T08:08:00.000-07:00

We just got back from another trip to LaLa land. Every two years I make the trek to Torrance, CA, home of the Robinson Helicopter Company, to renew my Flight Instructor certificate. The school lasts three and a half days and includes a flight of at least an hour in either the R22 or R44. (For interested helicopter pilots, the company will be adding the R66 to the list of aircraft you can fly starting January.) I have been alternating the aircraft I fly each time I attend... two years ago I flew the R22, this year I flew in the R44. Next time out I'll probably fly the R66. I expect to find the R66 is very "JetRanger" like, only lighter, faster, and more fuel efficient.

We participate in the Frontier Airlines frequent flyer program and had enough miles to use on this trip. When I made our reservations I was surprised to find Frontier Airlines intended to charge us $20 for each bag we intended to check. This presents a problem for this family...
The bag containing Sara Jean's hair care, cleaning and moisturizing, and makeup products is about the size of a 15 cu. ft. freezer, and she is VERY attached to all of these products.
I worried that trying to convince her to limit her "stuff" to a single carry-on bag would be met with wailing and gnashing of teeth.
She surprised me. "Twenty dollars! That's highway robbery!"
And when we left the morning of our flight I was surprised at how well she had packed...
Her carry-on bag met the carry-on requirements... It just WEIGHED as much as a 15 cu. ft. freezer!

Getting to the gate to board our airplane was an adventure this time and I may bore you with the details later. But waiting at the gate to board we heard this announcement:
"Ladies and gentlemen this flight will be full and all the overhead compartments may be filled. If you are interested in checking any of your bags, FREE OF CHARGE, please see me now and we will insure your bag arrives at your final destination."
So SJ's bag, weighing half as much as a Volkswagen, went into the cargo hold of the airplane and cost us nuttin'. I can't begin to tell you how glad I was that I wouldn't have to lift that sucker up into the overhead storage compartment! (And it happened again on the trip home.)

Now, watch with me and see how long this "first checked bag" charge remains in effect. (I already wrote to Frontier and gave them my opinion on the subject.)

I No Longer Speak The Language of My Countrymen

2011-10-24T08:48:00.000-07:00

Someone PLEASE translate what this woman is saying:

City Mouse, Country Mouse

2011-10-21T12:08:00.000-07:00

Waiting for the light to change I first noticed the approach of the lady with the dog, a mutt with his question mark tail wagging over his back. Only then I noticed the reason for the wag...
An old man, bent slightly forward due to age and bent even further because of a slight dowager's hump, was speaking to the dog as it and its owner approached. The lady stopped alongside the old guy, waiting for the light to change to "Walk", and the old man bent down to scratch behind both the dog's ears. It was VERY obvious that both beings, four and two-legged, were enjoying the encounter. It made me smile.

I was on a mission.
The donut shop that provided the delicacies I had been eating all week was just down the road. I'm once again in Torrance, California to renew my Flight Instructor certificate. The class is 3-1/2 days long and includes three days of classroom instruction and a half day in which a flight in either the two-seat R22 or the four seat R-44 is accomplished. Two years ago I flew in the R-22, so this time I needed to fly in the R-44. Yesterday morning I passed the end-of-course test. Sara Jean came with me this trip and after hearing my raves all week about the pastries, gave me orders last night to bring some back to the motel this morning.

Through "Thrifty Rent-a-car" I rented a Hyundai Sonata, wanting the chance to see if we might be interested in purchasing one in the future. When we arrived at John Wayne airport, my Hundai Sonata had magically turned into a new Chevy Malibu. We were running late and the rental agency was closing in 15 minutes, so I didn't complain. The Malibu looked like a nice car. But halfway in our 45 minute drive to the Torrance Ramada a bell sounded and these warnings appeared on the dash:
CHECK TRACTION
CHECK ESC.
Rental agencies remove the owners handbooks from their cars so I have no idea what these warnings mean. I haven't noticed any change in the car's driveability, so we'll keep the thing and report the discrepencies when we return the car tomorrow.

Sunny Southern California... isn't. It's been overcast and chilly most or our week here. That's a real shame, because we are only five or so miles from some of the most BEAUTIFUL views of the ocean to be found. With this bad visibility, it's not even worth the hassle of driving there.

And then there is the traffic.
Wow.
Surface streets aren't much different than anywhere in the U.S.. Traffic is busy and you just have to resign yourself to dealing with it. That means long, LONG waits at stop lights where you sometimes see chance encounters between man and beast. But the Interstates?
There are places here where there are 8 lanes on either side of the median and sometimes all those lanes are FILLED with cars. Sometimes all those lanes are moving at reduced speed. Sometimes those lanes aren't moving at all. We went to "Knotts 'Scary' Farm" last night and for the first time I heard "Carmen the Garmin" warn, "Severe traffic ahead, RECALCULATING."
And we were then redirected to the surface streets. The trip to the amusement park took 15 minutes longer than we planned. Still, we had a great time.

We're headed home tomorrow morning.
I'll catch you up on details soon.

Imagine-

2011-10-18T10:48:00.000-07:00

In that half-awake, half-asleep state thinking about these "Occupy Wall Street" folks I had one of those "Eureka" moments this morning:
The government is abusing ALL OF US!
We all need to retire and let GOVERNMENT take care of us.

"You may think I'm a dreamer.
But I'm not the only one.
Some day I hope you'll join us,
and the world will live as one!"

Deal's Gap

2011-10-15T00:38:00.000-07:00

Watch for these guys to pass the "Speed Limit 30" sign about 50 seconds into the video. Think they're exceeding the speed limit?
Both these guys are riding Honda GoldWings. These big bikes aren't supposed to be able to do this:

The now-and-then scraping sound you hear in the turns is the sound of something on the bike's undercarriage being ground away because the bike is being leaned at such a great angle.

Sent to me by friend Cary, who knew I'd be interested.

Formation Flying Made Easy

2011-10-13T00:48:00.000-07:00

Flying formation in a helicopter is stressful, hard work.
I have no fixed-wing formation experience, so I won't address that, but I can't imagine it's as tough as doing it in a fling-wing. But done well, both are beautiful to watch.
Still, we are amateurs at it.
Watch an expert:

Revolvers Are Dead? Not So Fast, Bunky!

2011-10-12T17:58:00.000-07:00

I thought I had bought my last revolver. Now I'm not so sure.
I'd appreciate your thoughts and feedback on this thing:

Whazzat?

2011-10-11T12:38:00.000-07:00

There's a hole in the front bumper of that MG-A. Do you know why?

(Motorcycles have similarly done away with something no longer considered necessary, and for the same reason.)

Heart Attack

2011-10-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

Myocardial infarction...
When I started flying EMS, one of the smartest and most experienced flight nurses I know told me the single most important factor in avoiding coronary problems...
"Choose your parents carefully!" This, after I had related the story of distance runner Jim Fixx. Jim's father had died of a heart attack in his early 40's. Wanting to avoid that fate, Jim took up long distance running. He was mostly muscle and bone when he died at the age of 52... of a heart attack.

Last night as I lay in bed trying to doze off I was thinking about the term "heart attack".
ATTACK!
An attack is an aggressive thing. Why would our hearts want to do something so openly offensive to us? These attacks are not good for the body as a whole, therefore they are not good for the "attacking" heart.
Why do hearts attack?

C'mon hearts...
All we are saying, is give peace a chance!

Accessory To Murder

2011-10-06T07:18:00.000-07:00

Two U.S. Law Enforcement Agents dead.
Countless civilians dead in Mexico.
All because of a program put in place, then overseen by this man.
Is this the most corrupt adminstration EVER?

You are a liar sir, and you've been caught in your lie.
Go to Jail.
Soon.

They Don't Make 'Em Like That Anymore.

2011-10-03T00:38:00.000-07:00

Do you ever get the "urge to splurge" and go buy some piece of machinery that will SWEEP you back to those "good ol' days" of 50 years ago?
I do.
And then I think about THAT car.
One almost exactly like the one in the photo.
A 1957 Pontiac Chieftain, four-door hardtop. Two-tone, white with red trim.
347 cubic inches with a four-barrel carburetor. Automatic transmission, radio and heater. It was a nice car, for sale by another Uncle so I knew its history. I was already bored to tears with the '53 Ford Flathead V-8 Victoria even though I had been driving it less than a year. I wanted something faster.
The Pontiac filled that bill. So I bought it.

And it WAS fast...
Sometimes.
The problem was that carburetor... The engine ran on two of the four venturis most of the time to conserve fuel. The only time the additional two "barrels" would open was if you pushed the gas pedal to the floor... then that big-for-its-time engine would bellow like a castrated bull and the car would LEAP forward, gathering speed (and burning LOTS of premium gas) at a frightening rate. It was a lot of car for a 16 year old.
The two extra barrels on the carburetor were vacuum actuated, and something about the system on my car wasn't working right. Pushing the pedal to the floor would sometimes produce the desired result... Thrilling.
Sometimes the two extra barrels wouldn't open... Disappointing, and sometimes, if I was depending on that extra power, dangerous. I tinkered, wrenched, cursed, spat, and chanted incantations suggested by friends... all to no avail.
The carburetor still worked intermittently.

There was another problem with this car. Fast and HEAVY, the four-wheel drum brakes weren't up to the job of stopping it effectively.
I should qualify this statement...
The brakes worked fine so long as someone like my Uncle was driving the car. With a 16 year old maniac behind the wheel, this car needed the stopping power of a Ferrari. It would stop just fine if it wasn't traveling at Warp 9. But during a panic stop from anything above the speed limit the brakes would heat up and fade, and it didn't make any difference how hard you mashed on that pedal... the car would slow, but at about half the rate you needed. And it would let you know it was not happy being treated that way by inundating you with the smell of overheated brake linings.

So here's the scenario-
I'm headed for school one morning and I am BARELY on time when the phone rings. A sister of one of my closest friends says, "I overslept and missed the bus. Can you come pick me up?"
She lives a couple blocks in the opposite direction I need to go to get to school, and I'm already nearly late. But I'm a nice guy and don't want to disappoint...
"I'm on my way."

I collect her and figure Warp 9 may still get us to school on time. Gas pedal down, tryin' to get those two additional venturis to open, we're probably goin' 70 in a 35 zone. There's a school bus stopped out ahead of us. I take my foot off the "loud" pedal and wonder what the bus is gonna do... It's just stopped there. No flashing lights. No "Stop" sign extended.
Then the little girl comes out of the adjacent house and the school bus driver goes all "lights and stop sign" on me.
I push that brake pedal hard as I can and pray.
And the damn thing lets me down. By the time I get stopped, smoke from the brakes swirling all around the car, we're about 10 feet past the bus' extended stop sign. I look up at the driver, shrug my shoulders, and continue to school.

We're not late! I'm actually sitting in my seat, ready for class when the announcement comes over the P.A. system:
"Will (Greybeard) please come to the office?"
In the office sits Officer Sheek from the Indiana State Patrol. Sitting in his drive warming the engine on his cruiser when I pulled my bonehead stunt pretty much right in front of his house, all he had to do was follow me at a leisurely pace, watch me turn into the school grounds, and do a 10-28 on the license plate.

Reckless driving.
Loss of license for 6 months. (Which would impact my life in some interesting and positive ways in a few years.)
... At a time when driving/riding meant the world to me.
All because I was an idiot, driving much too fast in a car equipped with brakes I KNEW were not up to the task demanded of them.

No, they don't make 'em like that anymore...
Disc brakes.
Fuel injection.
Better lighting.
Better tires.
Better electronics.
Better EVERYTHING.
And to top it all, less expensive too.

When I start getting the urge to buy a "classic" car, I think of that old Pontiac...
And then I lose that urge pretty quickly.

A Word For Our President(?)-

2011-10-02T02:38:00.000-07:00

JOBS!

You promised 'em. Where are they?
We've experienced our "recovery summer".
You've thrown money at companies racing into bankruptcy.
You've rewarded unproductive behavior.
Do you know the definition of insanity, Mr. Obama?
This country desperately needs some Hope and Change.

Can you change?
I hope you ARE changed.

On Two Wheels, Part 2- Starter Bike

2011-10-01T01:08:00.000-07:00

There's always a special place in your heart for "firsts", isn't there?
You're looking at one of mine in that photo. At 15 I found out a trusted Uncle was selling his car, a 1953 Ford Victoria. I bought it from him, then stored it until I could drive it legally. When I turned 16 and became a legal driver I started driving the Ford, but I also wanted to upgrade my two-wheeled capabilities. I wanted to go distances that would be impractical at 35 mph on the Cushman. Now, let's back up a moment...
My first experience with things "Made in Japan" was with the cheap toys we got from that country. You could actually look inside some of these toys and see the labels from the beer cans the toys were made of. The phrase "Made in Japan" meant cheap and fragile. That reputation worried me about some of the first Japanese motorcycles that hit our shores. For me, the "Harley-Davidson" name printed on the gas tank meant quality and dependability.

Shopping around bike shops, I saw a used bike exactly like the one pictured above for sale... a 250cc Harley-Davidson "Sprint". The Sprint was actually Harley's response to Honda's invasion...
H.D. realized they needed a small, entry level bike to draw folks to Harley shops and hoped when they moved up to a bigger bike they'd stay under the H-D roof to make that purchase. So Harley bought the Italian company Aermacchi (who made airplanes during WWII), and simply added the Harley-Davidson name to the small, decent motorcycles being produced by that company. How well that venture worked out for H-D is debatable... everyone knew these little bikes were not made in Milwaukee and looked at them skeptically. But I liked the looks of the Sprint and hoped if I did have problems needing service, my local H-D dealer would treat me right.

I owned the bike three years and put almost 10,000 miles on it, finally selling it when I was drafted into the ARMY.

With some minor complaints, it was solid, dependable transportation. It had a single-cylinder, pushrod engine and came up short on horsepower when compared to the efficient vertical-twin overhead cam engines being produced by Honda. In a 1/4 mile race, the Sprint would always fall a couple bike lengths behind a comparable Honda. It vibrated so badly I couldn't feel my hands after an hour of riding. But the Sprint would go 85 miles per hour, (and the speedo needle pointed to 85 on the rural roads I traveled FREQUENTLY!) It had an exhaust note like a shrieking banshee, (which I loved then but would HATE if my neighbor had a bike that sounded like it now), and would go forever on a tankful of gas.

It actually turned out to be a great starter bike, and in spite of its shortcomings I still have fond memories of it. If money wasn't an object and I had a place to store lots of bikes, I might buy one to tool around town on today.
(But as we've discussed earlier, 250cc bikes being offered by manufacturers today are better in EVERY way, and I'm also tempted to buy one of those simply because they are a SUCH FUN to ride!)

Later, I'll tell the story about moving up in the motorcycle world without having to worry about the money factor. Come on back!

Today Is A BIG Day!

2011-09-30T00:58:00.000-07:00

September 30th.
I'm not going out on a limb to make a prediction here, but it'll be fun to see if it DOES happen...
Do you know what's special about 30 September?
It's the end of the fiscal year for the U.S. Government. That means there are a ton of agencies and offices that, finding themselves in a "Use it or lose it" situation with their alloted budgets, will spend that money, even if they don't necessarily need to. ( I once watched as the U.S. Army spent a literal fortune sprucing up a military base that was scheduled for shutdown and return to the local economy, rather than lose that money and face the possibility of a lower allocated budget for the next year. Sadly, this is just the way our government works.)

So tomorrow is $$$$$$ day. I cringe when I think about how much taxpayer money will be wasted. But don't be dismayed Bunky... THERE IS a silver lining.
Think SOLYNDRA.
Smart democrats must be shaking in their boots right now, imagining the political ads they'll be facing in just a year. Solyndra has exploded in their face and will only get worse for dems as time passes. Now we find there are at least two more possible Solyndras out there, and this is "use it or lose it" money, so these two companies may have had the same amount of scrutiny as was given to Solyndra before that half-a-billion dollar subsidy was poured down the sewer. These two companies don't even have to go bust to hurt dems pretty dramatically...
They can hurt dems re-election prospects simply by not proving to be "The future of American industry", which I suspect is the way this will play out. Solar power is a VERY competitive global industry. What are the chances these two companies have a truly radical idea to reduce costs so "made in America" will once again be a big deal?

So this money will be spent tomorrow and dem pols cannot stop it...
it's "already allocated"... or in other words, in the pipeline.
But lots of eyes will be watching these, and other companies that got government handouts on 30 September. When the true reporting starts, I'll wager we'll all be stunned at how much this "spend our way out of debt" administration wasted on risky businesses they should never have had a hand in.

Anyone want to accept my wager?

Racist?

2011-09-26T10:38:00.000-07:00

Maxine Waters, Andre Carson, and now Morgan Freeman have called me racist because I want government to stop spending money it doesn't have.
I guess I don't understand the full definition of the word.

I thought the oceans would stop rising. I thought we were the ones we have been waiting for. I thought electing a half-white man would cause us to look more closely at "the content of a man's character". Have you seen some of the things these liberal{!} idiots are saying about Herman Cain? (Who I am thoroughly impressed with at this point.)
Oddly, Martin Luther King's character seems to be under question these days!

I didn't vote for him, but I truly hoped BOzo's election would lead to a more unified nation.
Man, was I naive!

(Seen the latest catchy acronym? OMG!... Obama Must Go!)

Hotel, Saloon, Brothel. Hotel, Saloon, Brothel...

2011-09-19T00:28:00.000-07:00

We just returned from a weekend spent at The Riverboat Inn in Madison, Indiana, once again sharing time with my schoolmates from High School. The hotel is quaint, clean, has a great view of traffic moving up and down the Ohio River, and the help does a pretty decent job of making everyone feel like occupants are all part of one big family...
Fresh baked cookies coming out of the oven at almost all hours and the coffee pot is never empty.

Saturday morning, twenty or so of us boarded a trolley for a tour of the city. It's a neat town, obviously situated there because of the river and the trade coming from that line of communication. Something the tour-guide said set my "light bulb" off...
She commented how streets in Madison, in the old days, seemed to be lined with "A Hotel, a saloon, a brothel, a hotel, a saloon, a brothel..."
This statement, seemingly, was made with some pride. It made me think of the town I presently live in and how folks here speak with pride about the gritty things that happened long ago near our downtown hotel, adjacent to our railroad, our comparable line of communication.

What is it about the passage of time that makes a sordid past something to be proud of?
("Frankie and Johnny" and "Stagger Lee" are both songs/stories of passion and murder from St. Louis, and illustrate what I mean about pride in our "colorful" history.)

On Two Wheels, Part 1

2011-09-15T07:58:00.000-07:00

I drove to work tonight because it was raining, HARD. It's the first time I've had to drive a steel cage to work in over a month. My round-trip to/from work is +-70 miles, depending on the route I take, and I figure I save at least $4 per round trip by riding, depending on which bike I happen to ride on a given night. My seven-night work shift also means I can exercise each of the four bikes at least once in a shift, weather permitting. All four have full-fairings and provide pretty good protection from the wind. My head sticks up higher than the windscreen on the Moto Guzzi and BMW, so I have to put my faceshield down if I'm caught in a rainshower on those machines.

I started riding "bikes" with motors when I was twelve. At that time our community was pretty rural and the county was geographically fairly large, so I suspect our Sheriff's department was stretched thin... we didn't often see a brown and beige Sheriff's cruiser, and we saw even fewer State Troopers. Those I did see seemed to ignore me... I think stopping us might have required calling out someone to deal with Juvenile offenders, and already overworked Deputies probably said, "I don't need the hassle". For four years I rode a Cushman Scooter similar to, (but not as nice 'cause it was OLD and WELL-USED), the one pictured above. It would go 35 miles per hour at full-throttle with a good tailwind, so although I have no idea how far I drove that thing, with daytime-only riding, nine or so months per year, I MAY have put 1000 miles on it in four years.

It was dependable. In addition to flitting around the neighborhood I used it to deliver "The Indianapolis News" to my customers for a couple years. Powered by a five horsepower Cushman Husky engine, it would start on the first kick when it was warmed up. Cold starting took two or three kicks with the help of full-choke. It had a centrifugal clutch... it was like an automatic transmission... there was no manual clutch to deal with. It would sit motionless until you increased the throttle. If you added throttle, (and you added throttle in the opposite direction of today's motorcycles), two spring loaded "shoes" attached to the end of the engine's crankshaft would be pushed by centrifugal force against the inside of a drum similar to a brake drum and the scooter would accelerate slightly faster than a turtle.

At the time many of our roads were barely "improved", meaning they were gravel-covered and graded whenever the county could get to 'em. These roads were traveled infrequently, and automobile wheels would cause gravel to be pushed aside so that there were two "paths" with very little gravel and a lane of gravel in the center in addition to the the sides of the "paths". Tiny wheels on scooters didn't negotiate these gravel roads very well... crossing from one path to another or meeting a car and being forced to the side of the road was like balancing on marbles.

Take a close look at the picture and you can see a little pedal on the right side of the floorboard. That's the rear (drum, of course) brake pedal. No speedometer/odometer. No tachometer.
Look again at the handlebars... no levers. Not only was there NOT a manual clutch, there was also NOT a front brake. It's a very good thing these little scoots would only go 35 or so, 'cause with only one (rear) brake they took a long time to stop, even from that sedate speed. Trying to stop quickly on rain-soaked pavement was an invitation to possible disaster.

I paid $50 for it with money I had earned on my paper route. I sold it to a friend for 50 dollars just before I turned sixteen when I started contemplating buying my first REAL motorcycle.

Looking back now through the eyes of a Dad, I'm surprised parents allowed teen-age kids in our community, (and in my case a PRE-teen), to ride a motor vehicle on public roads.
Strange feelings...
I wouldn't have allowed my kid to do it, but my son was 12 in 1995, and 1995 sure as heck wasn't 1959! But I have fond memories of riding that old "putt-putt", and I'm sure glad my parents didn't stop me.

I'll write about that first (and other) real motorcycle(s) later.

GWB Coin Flip, 9/11/11

2011-09-13T08:48:00.000-07:00

Man, Would I LOVE To See That!

2011-09-09T20:18:00.000-07:00

After the big speech Thursday night, even libs are beginning to question BOzo's intelligence.
No surprise to me... he's done nothing in his life of note except fool the fools.
Palin is smarter than he is. She had her facts straight on Paul Revere and made idiots of those trying to ridicule her. Obama's "Lincoln founded the republican party" comment? Dead wrong. Call the "Corpseman"!

But I bet she's a better athlete too.
I would just LOVE to see her take him on one-on-one in a game of B-Ball.
Sarah Barracuda Vs. BOzo!
Who are you betting on?

Where's a promoter when you want one?!!

Updated:
The only thing more stupid than the present occupant of our White House is our media, thinking we won't notice when they try to erase his gaffes.

6 September 1986

2011-09-06T00:18:00.000-07:00

I had been out of work 8 months. My unemployment checks had ceased and my "networking" to find another flying job in the area had apparently failed. What was I gonna do? How would I pay the bills?
In the distance, I could hear the proverbial howling of the wolves.

The phone rang. It was my friend J.M....
"You still looking for a job? I need you. How soon can you start?"

There have been mergers and acquisitions, so my paychecks have had three different signatures on them. But today I'm celebrating 25 years flying as an EMS helicopter pilot.
What a long, strange trip it's been!

Will You Watch The "Jobs" Speech?

2011-09-05T19:58:00.000-07:00

Fred Imus, (Don's younger brother), died a few days back. His appearances on the "Imus in the Morning" show always put a smile on my face. I TIVO the show and fast forward through most of it, slowing only for a few political interviews and Fred's now-and-then bits.
Just after BOzo's State of the Union address Don asked Fred if he had watched the speech. Fred replied he watched long enough to realize Obama didn't intend to resign, then switched the channel.
That's pretty much how I intend to handle Thursday's speech. I'll watch long enough to see which political factor will be furious by the end, then I'll start looking for a documentary somewhere on the WWII Lancaster bomber or an old "Honeymooner's" episode.
If there truly is a bombshell, (HA!), I'll catch it later on FOX News.

Are you gonna watch?

Work. Off. Work. Off. Work

2011-09-02T00:18:00.000-07:00

I'm at work. I work 12 hour shifts from 7 P.M. until 7 A.M., seven nights in a row. My shift starts Wednesday evening, so the following Tuesday night is the last night of my shift and I'm headed home for seven days in a row on Wednesday morning.
The four pilots at this base have a sort of love/hate sentiment about working this schedule...
We don't need to take much vacation because of the seven day break every other week. But stress factors involved with the job can make this schedule tough-
More flights than normal or other work stresses, and we can begin to feel a little draggy by the sixth or seventh night of our workweek.
Our company doesn't care about our schedule so long as the work gets done safe and efficiently. We've tried other schedules and the four pilots at this base have decided we like this one best.

Our schedule, no matter whether it is four-on, four-off or seven-on, seven-off means we all spend a quarter of our lives at work, not counting extra days covering for someone bein' sick, and vacations. So we all work a couple hours more than the normal wage-earner out there who works 40 hours per week:
There are 268 hours in a week (7X24). 268 divided by .25, (the 1/4 of our lives we spend in the air or waiting for the call to go fly, equals 42 hours (average, obviously).

Summer is harder than Winter. Our clientele are more active and are more likely to need our services. Weather is generally more conducive to aviating. Inclement Winter weather can sit on you for days at a time, and it's then that we frequently E.M.S.-
Earn Money Sleeping.

This summer has been stressful for another reason-
It has been hotter than normal and that puts added stress on people and machines. We had record high temps today (102 or so) and the forecast is for similar weather tomorrow. I had difficulty sleeping today because my upstairs bedroom was too warm. Still, I was glad I wasn't here at work waiting on a call to go take off in a "flying greenhouse" in above 100 degree temps.
(My counterpart didn't get a call today so the helicopter was still sitting where I left it last night when I parked it.)

It's an interesting job, different in almost all ways from the way most folks make a living...
And interesting almost every day because of the many ways people find to hurt themselves.
I love it. And I'll miss it like crazy when I can no longer do it.
And that day may be just around the corner.

The Miracle That Is Cosmetics-

2011-08-31T00:48:00.000-07:00

Compare and contrast.

When The Slaves Are Intelligent:

2011-08-30T00:18:00.000-07:00

You may remember this:

(She's on "The List".)
I USED to think Sarah Silverman was funny. I even thought she was cute, (although I hear she's hirsute and if I found that out for sure it would be a turnoff.)
But knowing BOzo was whelped in Muslim schools, and looking at his list of Muslim friends,
I could only shake my head in amazement at this video and at the polls that showed Jewish support for this poseur.
The amazing thing is that even as folks like Rodolfo and Flightfire come to the realization this guy is incompetent, there is still a surprising amount of support in the ranks of the "Slaves" out there.

And ya know what?
Intelligent slaves are wonderful, so long as they're still on your side.
But... when they finally turn on you?
Ask Pharoah, Mussolini, Hitler, and Ceausescu what happens then!

California II

2011-08-29T07:48:00.000-07:00

Late August can be a miserable time here...
Temps can reach the high 90's and stay there, sometimes even staying in the 80's all night.
This year has been different, so far at least. We've had almost a week of PERFECT weather...
Cloudless skies and afternoon temps in the mid 80's, and I have taken advantage of this gorgeous weather to exercise all the bikes. Yesterday Sara Jean took her position on the throne of the '89 Goldwing and we rode 227 miles, mostly through the surrounding farmland. A couple observations about that:
She's more comfortable as pillion than I am in the front. I began to feel hot spots on my butt after a couple hours. There's just no way to shift your weight around enough in front to avoid 'em. On the other hand, she can move pretty freely back behind me. We stopped for lunch at a family buffet restaurant and afterwards she actually found herself nodding off in the warmth of the sun back there. (She asked if we could install seat belt and shoulder harness back there to insure she won't fall off!)

A few days ago friend Dean called and asked if I could come back and help track and balance the Huey again. I had gone down a couple weeks ago to help with this job but we never did get the machine to settle within limits. On inspection, Dean found a bearing installed wrong and replaced it. This time we quickly saw improvement, and after 45 minutes or so had the machine well within limits. Flying the old girl was SUCH a neat experience, and this 45 minutes in my log book puts me over the 3000 hour mark in the UH-1 series of aircraft. (I have time in the UH-1B,C,D,H,&M.)
I rode the 800cc beater BMW three hours round-trip to do this job and have decided the old Beemer may just be my favorite motorcycle of all time. It's just powerful enough to be confidence inspiring on the highway, smooth as heck for a two-cylinder motorcycle, and gets 53 mpg when driven with respect. I'm gonna keep this bike and start slowly restoring it.

Most of my riding lately has been done with a Harley Davidson alongside. I LOVE the sound of the things and have decided this is the best way to enjoy a Harley...
Insure a friend that owns one is in the vicinity so you can listen to that lovely engine thump away!
(But I'll still jump at the chance to buy a Sportster for quickie trips if I can find one priced right.)

My seven day on- seven day off schedule is wonderful with weather like this. Even with the bike riding, I've had time to do yard work. An hour or so each afternoon when the dew is completely gone and our 2+ acres looks great. (But it's been so dry I stir up a cloud of dust everywhere I mow... the air filter will need attention really soon.)

Another fatal crash of an EMS helicopter last week... four dead this time in Missouri. No details on the accident yet, but the industry is so small you always fear someone you know will be among the dead. Names have been released and I didn't know anyone aboard, but it still hurts personally and it hurts our industry every time this happens. We're already regulated so strictly I'm now turning down flights (due to weather) I could safely fly. Accidents like this one may bring on more regulation. I've said before, I'm glad I'm at the retiring end of my career, not just beginning it.
Disheartening.

To those of you who wrote, concerned about me after you heard of the crash, thank you.
Don't worry about me. I've scared myself in in a helicopter most of the ways you can, and don't intend to do it again.

Veronica

2011-08-26T00:58:00.000-07:00

Joe got it...

The answer is Veronica Lake. I was also gonna use the following clues:

-4 feet 11 inches tall. Did she use a pillow to see out the windshield of that airplane?

-A comic book character was given a similar name in her honor. ("Archie's" Veronica Lodge).

-A character in an animated movie was a melding of Veronica and Rita Hayworth. (Jessica Rabbit)

-The U.S. Government asked her to change her hair style as a precaution in order to protect women who were increasingly replacing men in factories. (And she did).

This tiny beauty is just another of those that went to Hollywood, then died much too young under strange circumstances. But I too was surprised to find she had gotten her pilot's license.

-Born in 1922 in Brooklyn, N.Y. (Birthdate sometimes listed as 1919.)-Died in 1973-Became a pilot in 1946.-Flew, at least once, cross country from L.A. to New York in a light plane.-Considered "difficult to work with" on the set, it's now generally thought this celebrity was a paranoid schizophrenic. -BLONDE HAIR.

The Enemy of My Enemy...

2011-08-24T00:28:00.000-07:00

I don't know much about Rick Perry, but I have learned this:
Trial Lawyers are frightened enough of him they have formed a Political Action Committee to put obstacles in front of his campaign.
So the John Edwards' of the world don't like him?
That says it all, doesn't it?
I think I may like him A LOT!

Do You Ride? Here's Useful Information!

2011-08-22T17:28:00.000-07:00

I soaked up the lesson well-
I was following that pickup truck with a full two second gap.
In the bed of that pickup was a sofa.
Apparently the cushions on that sofa were not fully secured.
Yeah, you're gettin' ahead of me, aren't ya!
Guess the "Hang-time" for a sofa cushion that is caught up in turbulence and launched to an altitude of fifteen feet or so outta the bed of a pickup truck going, say, 55 mph!
(If you answered about two seconds, YOU WOULD BE CORRECT, BUNKY!)

Yes, I was able to avoid it.
But henceforth I'll give sofa-laden pickup trucks at least a three second gap!

Crosschecking The Instruments

2011-08-20T00:28:00.000-07:00

A commenter responded to my video below:

"Just how many of you are there to watch those gauges. If there is a problem do those gauges tell you first or does the change in sound or feel? "

It's a valid question. I can remember being sorta overwhelmed the first time I looked at the dashboard of a complex aircraft...
How can anyone possibly make sense of all that?

First, it's just me watching those gauges most of the time, Anon. My Nurse and Paramedic are in the back kicking death in the ass, so they're no help at all.

Now, think of your car. Most of us have owned a car with a speedometer, tachometer, water temperature gauge, oil pressure gauge, and maybe even an oil temperature gauge in the dash cluster. What did you pay attention to, mostly?

The BK117 I fly was built to be flown with either one, or two pilots. Watch the video again...
I always turn the lights on for the entire instrument panel as an insurance policy. Most of the instruments you see over on the far left of that panel are redundant instruments I have in front of me. If you look closely, you'll notice this bird even has THREE attitude indicators (artificial horizons if you like.) So I pay almost no attention at all to the left one-third of that panel unless something on my side fails.

The far right side of the panel contains the basic flying instruments:
Airspeed indicator, altimeter, vertical speed indicator, heading indicator, and the aforementioned attitude indicator. In this particular bird, the green rectangle you see at the lower right corner of the panel is the GPS... attached in an absolutely horrible place because in order to program it I have to manipulate the cyclic with my left hand to turn GPS knobs with my right. It's a pain.

In the center of that instrument panel are gauges for both engines and the transmission:
Oil pressure and temperature. Torque, (power being demanded), engine and rotor tachometers, and exhaust (or turbine outlet) temperatures. It's safe to glance at all these about as often as you'd check your rearview mirror in your car, because all these instruments are backed with warning (idiot) lights that would illuminate should any of them get out of normal operating limits. This would also set off a "Master Caution" light squarely in front of my face to say, "Something's wrong! Take a look at what's going on with your flying machine, stupid."

So it's not so overwhelming as it seems. The night I took that video was extraordinarily calm and I was able to turn the controls completely loose to handle the camera. On a night like that it really is a matter of monitoring the gauges by glancing at them now and then, and making minor changes in the controls to insure the aircraft is at the heading/airspeed/altitude I want.
(And your comment about how the aircraft feels or sounds is a valid one... the machine DOES talk to you, and better pilots may feel or hear a problem before any of the instruments indicate something abnormal is going on.)

Another commenter said something valid for that night...
I AM still trying to convince others I actually WORK for a living!

The View From My Office:

2011-08-17T11:08:00.000-07:00

I was surprised and pleased that my camera would record this video clearly in these conditions.
Look closely and you can see our home airport coming up on the horizon.

Absence Makes The Heart...

2011-08-15T10:18:00.000-07:00

She left me more than a week ago.
I took her to the train station, gave her a kiss, and she boarded the train for her childhood stomping grounds to visit family there.
She was gone four days.

She came home long enough to pack a larger suitcase with lighter clothing, then left the next day for Arizona.
She was gone five days.

I missed her.
BAD.

Her airplane arrived yesterday at Noon. I was trying to think of anything I could do to show her how much I appreciated her. Dinner on the way home was a given. But figuring she might be thirsty for a cup of our home-brewed Arabica blend, I brewed a fresh pot, pre-heated and filled the thermos with it, and put just the right amount of dry creamer and sweetener in a thermal cup so that when we were comfortably on the road to dinner she could enjoy a cup from home. I handed her the thermal cup and reached for the thermos. She opened the top of the cup, saw it was full of something white, and, figuring it was a new cup with a piece of styrofoam in the bottom, upended it and covered her, me, and most of the front half of the car with the creamer/sweetener.
Welcome home darlin'!

But, dinner was VERY nice.
And a partly-cloudy 82 degree day was a welcome change from the 109 degrees she left behind.
She took a nap when we got home. During that nap I studied her, marvelled at how beautiful she is, and took comfort in the light hum she makes when she's sleeping soundly.
She's glad to be home.
The missing piece of my life is back where it should be, as is my missing "peace".

I may even clean up the mess she made of the car.

For Ears That Hear and Eyes That See:

2011-08-08T14:08:00.001-07:00

"Shoot Him In The Face"

2011-08-07T02:38:00.000-07:00

"What do you think of this 'Bond Arms' derringer?", I asked my friend the M.D..
"If you're gonna use one for home defense, shoot him in the face", he said.
My friend the Doc is hard core. We're on exactly the same page about the direction our country has chosen and he, like me, is preparing for ugliness as quickly as time and money will allow.

This looks like a versatile little gun. It's chambered to shoot either .410 shotgun shells or .45 Long Colt cartridges. You can also buy other, easily switchable barrels in other calibers as shown in the article here at Gunblast.com.
Me? I think the .410/.45 Colt version would suit me just fine.
Anyone have any experience with this derringer?

Shoot him in the face?
Messy...
Wouldn't want to do that in my living room.

ER's And RINO's

2011-08-05T08:08:00.000-07:00

"Doctor it hurts when I do this."

Have we learned our lesson? Please... tell me we have.
And republican candidates, please note my request:
If you are a republican from a State North of Virginia, or a State East of Ohio, you need not apply for the job of President of the United States.
Your definition of "conservative" needs revising.

(And I've been saying for a year that BOzo is likely to have a primary challenger.
Ed Rendell... John Warner... some other "moderate" democrat... HELP US!)

In The Wind-

2011-08-04T16:58:00.000-07:00

Escapism from barry munsterteiger on Vimeo.

For all my biker friends.
But especially for CJ.

Blinded By The Light

2011-08-01T08:08:00.000-07:00

It's a HOT, humid Friday night.
I come to work knowing things might get interesting as the night progresses.
And they do.
Liquid flows in great quantities on evenings like this. Much of that liquid contains alcohol. Alcohol affects judgment. Poor judgment means job security for those of us in EMS.
But increasingly, it brings dangers to us too.

Our flight to pick up the patient, load him, and start the journey to get the care he needed was proceeding uneventfully. At about midnight, somewhere midway between the sending and receiving hospitals, a green FLASH hit me in the face. Your first reaction is, "What the hell is that?!" Your second (involuntary) reaction is to search for the problem in order to try to rectify it. That's a mistake. And it could have blinded me.

Someone, at midnight, out in the middle of nowhere, had pointed a green laser at our helicopter.
The brilliance of the light momentarily shocked and disoriented me. The "What the hell..." reaction contains a great deal of confusion, as your mind tries to sort out what could be causing such a bright light to suddenly appear.
When I finally realized what happened I dialed up the frequency for the closest operating FAA control tower, (in this case an Air Force Base) and reported what had happened. But I knew that action was probably futile...
What would the tower do? Maybe call local law enforcement and report what had happened so that if someone else reported something similar they could begin to track the culprit down. But the likelihood of catching someone doing this in the country in the dark of night is very, very slight.

Who would do such a thing? Why would they take the risk of blinding me and maybe killing all aboard my aircraft?
All sorts of answers come to mind:
An immature individual, thinking no harm would be done.
Someone under the influence of intoxicants, reverting to the thought patterns and immaturity of an adolescent.
Someone irritated by the sound of aircraft flying by on a hot summer night.
Can you think of others that, in an impetuous second, might do something so thoughtless?

We hear more and more reports of lasers being focused on aircraft. And one of the things that scares me is the thought that IF a pilot is blinded by these lights, the accident report will surely come up with big question marks as to why a perfectly healthy pilot flew a perfectly functional aircraft into the ground, killing patient, Nurse, Paramedic, and him/herself.

I now know of two incidences where this has happened to helicopters in our fleet, and in both cases it happened when a patient was on board and the pilot could not divert to investigate and see if he could locate the culprit.
And if this behavior escalates, we're going to have to begin to consider wearing some sort of protective eyewear to preclude being blinded by lasers.

What a world we live in, huh?

A New Chapter

2011-07-31T07:48:00.000-07:00

Our Nation is about to undergo the "change" we were promised.
I "hope" I'm wrong about how this chapter will unfold.

We have an administration that has not formulated a (constitutionally required, annually) budget in OVER two years.
And the media is allowing it.

This administration oversaw the delivery of weapons to folks it knew would use those weapons to hurt/kill people. One of our Border Patrol agents was killed with the complicity of this administration.
And the media is ignoring it.

The agencies responsible for overseeing our financial system and warning us when things are getting out of hand...
(The same agencies that were perfectly happy to okay the program responsible for lending money to prospective homeowners who had ABSOLUTELY NO CHANCE of repaying those loans),
has finally awakened and is about to downgrade the Nation's credit rating no matter the outcome of ongoing debt ceiling negotiations.
And the media is trying its damndest to spin it in Obama's favor.

Our media has taken a page straight out of "Pravda".
The voters were/are ignorant.
And it's mostly because "The Fourth Estate" has failed us miserably.
God, please help us through the coming troubles.

Certifiable?

2011-07-29T12:38:00.000-07:00

Well, the price was right.
Really, REALLY right.
And I've decided I love older boxer BMW's.
Picked it up yesterday, this one's a 1984 R80RT that I'll be wearing out between home and work.
(And I'm still looking for a buyer for a perfectly functional 1987 GoldWing Interstate!)

Repositioning The Deck Chairs On The Titanic

2011-07-26T17:48:00.000-07:00

We live in interesting times.
At the end of his term, this President will have increased our debt load more than all the other Presidents in history, COMBINED.
I think the only way we could possibly have avoided a meltdown is if our leaders had agreed to take drastic action, yesterday. That obviously hasn't happened...
We're still giving millions to folks who study shrimp running on an underwater treadmill.
We're still giving money to folks who funnel it to the Taliban.
And we're still giving guns to folks who are killing our Law Enforcement officers.

"There are icebergs in the waters ahead, Captain."
"Steady as she goes, Mr. Murdoch. But move those chairs over closer to the rail, please."

"But I Could Have Told You, Vincent..."

2011-07-25T00:08:00.000-07:00

How fortunate am I?!!
When weather gets a little schmutzy I get to sit around, surf the net, and still get paid.

We had rain yesterday afternoon, dropping the temperature from the high 90's down to about 70 degrees, resulting in an evening with reduced visibilities and low scud all around.
So the phone rings and my communication specialist says, "Weather check for..."
and I laugh before they can even finish the sentence.
I joke... "What are you trying to do, kill us?!!"
On nights like this they know the answer before they ask, but they still HAVE to ask.

Anyway, while being paid well for sitting on my can, last evening I found a neat site and I'd like to share it with you.
My life has been a blessed one, and there are VERY FEW people I envy.
This guy is one of 'em.
If you like bikes and things mechanical, poke around and enjoy.

(You'll have to tolerate bein' subjected to a thirty-second ad, but it's worth it.)

The Debt Ceiling

2011-07-23T00:18:00.000-07:00

It's times like these when I realize how far out of touch I am.
Every now and then I have to shake my head in wonder because what seems SO simple to me obviously isn't. And at these times I fall back on you guys to help bring me up to speed.

Here's what has me baffled:

-Why do we have a debt ceiling?

Seems it's a self-imposed limit we're unable to restrict ourselves to!

-If we're gonna have to constantly raise it, (and apparently we are), and every time we raise it we have to watch stupid politicians arguing about who's at fault and what terrible consequences there'll be if we don't jack it up again, why don't we just do away with it completely?

The Sky's The Limit!

Just think how many jobs could be created or saved if we had no limit on our financial resources! And we could use stimulus money to raise the minimum wage to like.... $100 per hour. No more poor people!

Hey...
I like this "Progressive" thinking!

Chrysler Bailout

2011-07-22T00:58:00.000-07:00

So!
Yesterday our government completed the sale of Chrysler to the Italian "Fiat" corporation.
In this transaction, U.S. taxpayers only lost 1.3 BILLION DOLLARS.
How many jobs were created or saved due to the loss of that $1,300,000,000.00 ?
Our country is in the very best of hands.

Debates

2011-07-21T00:58:00.000-07:00

Presidential political debates CAN be devastating...
Gerald Ford lost the '76 election when he stuck his foot in his mouth about Poland in his debate with Jimmy Carter.
Jimmy Carter lost the election four years later when Ronald Reagan made him look like an idiot saying "There you go again!" during their debates.
George H.W. Bush lost to Slick Willy when he reneged on his "Read my lips, NO NEW TAXES!" pledge.
Al Gore looked like a doofus when he tried to physically dominate G.W. Bush by occupying Bush's personal space during their debate.
John Kerry was, and is, just a stiff.

Barack Obama performed well in the debates in '08 because he had no record to defend.
That won't be the case in '12.
If he ends up being the Democrat nominee for POTUS, (and I still think that's in question), he'll have to defend policies that have run the country aground emotionally and economically.

I doubt this country can survive as a Representative Republic if Obama is re-elected.
From here on, it's gonna be fascinating to watch.
Bring on the debates!

Boyer-

2011-07-20T00:18:00.000-07:00

My bride and I LOVE old movies. We have so many of them recorded on our DVR, (and continue to record more), we'll have difficulty watching all of them in our "spare time".
Two nights ago we were watching one of our favorites, 1939's "Love Affair" with Charles Boyer and Irene Dunne. That's a still from the movie above.
(1939... an UNBELIEVABLE year for movies!)
This movie was later remade as "An Affair to Remember" with Cary Grant and Deborah Kerr, then (sort of) rehashed again as "Sleepless in Seattle" with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan. ("Love Affair" with Dunne and Boyer is my favorite of the three, although the others are VERY good.)

But as I watched I once again noticed one of that era's very noticeable co-stars... cigarettes.
It made me wonder if Boyer, like so many of his peers, died of lung cancer.
He didn't.
The way he died is sad, but oddly romantic.
If I've piqued your interest, read his biography and how he actually died HERE.

Jimmah and BOzo!

2011-07-19T00:28:00.001-07:00

US55846324

2011-07-18T20:58:00.000-07:00

That's me. US55846324... A number burned into my memory bank forever.
When I was drafted into the U.S. Army I became US55846324.
Guys who enlisted had a service number starting with "RA" instead of "US". We assumed the "RA" stood for Regular Army. Who knows why we draftees were "US".

When I graduated from OCS I became Lieutenant 05261163. I was 05261163 until the ARMY started using Social Security numbers for an individual's service number. Now that identity theft is a problem I wonder if they're still using SS numbers?

But it's funny how those numbers stick with ya...
Important numbers.
My first phone number, (a party line), was 370W1.
Now it's BR549.
Call me.

47.653/ 41.325

2011-07-12T17:28:00.000-07:00

Two Honda GoldWings-
One, a 1200cc four cylinder.
The other, a 1500cc six.
When I bought the bigger, newer bike, the intent was to start trying to sell the older bike right away. Well, it hasn't quite worked out that way.
The newer bike is wonderful. It rides like a dream and the onboard stereo system sounds as good as most cars. Sara Jean loves the thing and rides pillion with a broad smile on her face. But...
In many ways I like the old bike better.
It probably weighs close to 100 pounds less than the newer bike. That makes it much easier to maneuver at slow speeds and also shows up in the miles-per-gallon figures.
Driving to and from work, behaving myself, the four cylinder 'Wing gets 47+ mpg.

The newer bike is smoother and a little quieter. By smoother, I mean like the nearly unnoticeable difference between a car with a great new wax job and a car that has been worked over with a clay bar. There is a difference. It's not a big deal.
And under the same conditions the calculator showed the 1500cc bike covered 41.235 miles on a gallon of fuel. That's far better than any of our cars, so I save a small chunk 'o change each time I ride to work, but I'm still looking for a machine that will use about one gallon of gas on the 64 mile round-trip.
That's gonna require a bike with a much smaller engine.
And I'm still looking.

I left home for work tonight with some concern about the weather. I intended to ride the 1500cc 'Wing, and hoped I could drive the 45 minutes to work and arrive before the coming deluge struck. I tuned in "The Weather Channel" to get a quick update on what I'd be facing, only to find Peter Lik spouting off about how to get a great shot of a volcano in Hawaii.
So much for the foremost experts on weather, huh?
It's a bit like Headline News these days...
Want Headline News? How 'bout a little Nancy Grace instead?!

Fifteen minutes into the ride it was pretty obvious I was gonna get wet. The complete horizon ahead was dark gray with occasional cloud-to-ground lightning.
Twenty-five minutes into the ride, the bottom fell outta the bucket.
It poured.
But for a while I stayed relatively dry. My arms got wet first. Then the water caught up in the turbulence forming behind my helmet started trickling down my back, eventually pooling on the saddle and soaking my crotch. The temperature dropped from 95 to about 65 degrees and I actually was uncomfortably cool for the first time in days. But then the rain stopped, the temperature rose, and I was ALMOST drip-dried by the time I pulled into the hangar.
It was bound to happen eventually... a pop-up storm drenching me on the way to or from work. And I'm less fearful of it happening now than I was before. The big fairing does a pretty great job of protecting me.

If I'm going to get a bike that gets 65 mpg or so I've got to first sell the older GoldWing.
Anyone out there want a bike that rides great, is smooth as silk, and gets 47+ mile to a gallon of gas?
Call BR549. Let's talk.

A.W.O.S.

2011-07-11T17:48:00.000-07:00

"AWOS" stands for "Automated Weather Observation Service". These days, many little airports have these machines and they provide a great service... an unmanned weather reporting station, updating the weather conditions 24 hours a day. The radio frequencies for these reports are published in several places so pilots can tune in and find the local weather as they start their approach process.
Here's the report I heard when we returned from our final last night:

"****** Community Airport, Automated Weather Observation 0720 Zulu-
Wind 190 at 6 Knots.
Sky condition- clear below 1-2 thousand feet.
Temperature 30 Celsius, Dew point 27.
Altimeter 29.79
Remarks- Density Altitude, 2 thousand 4 hundred feet."

There's a ditty I use to try and remember how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit-
"Thirty is hot. Twenty is nice. Ten is cool, and Zero is ice."
So when we landed last night at almost 1:30 A.M. it was still hotter than a firecracker, and with a Southerly wind it got worse as the night progressed. Today was unbearable, and I was glad to be sleeping in air-conditioned comfort.
But tonight?
REPEAT!

The natives will be restless.

Motorcycle Artwork

2011-07-08T00:08:00.000-07:00

Now and then you'll see a machine that has been restored so perfectly it takes your breath away.
Driving such a machine on the street, risking damage seems a shame.
To me, this old BMW falls into that category.

WOWO

2011-07-07T19:38:00.000-07:00

How things have changed.
AM radio is almost all talk-radio now.
If you want music, you listen either to FM or satellite radio. And that's progress, 'cause AM sucks as a conveyor of music. It is seriously degraded by thunderstorms and other atmospheric phenomenon.

But come back with me to 1966. I was a Private "E-nothing" (lowest rank possible) in the ARMY at Ft. Jackson, S.C., just outside the State Capital, Columbia. Homesick as I could possibly be, I was thirsty for anything that remotely reminded me of home. My most prized possession at the time was a General Electric AM/FM radio I had purchased at the Post Exchange. With it, at night, I could tune to 1190 on the AM dial where I could hear a station several hours drive from my hometown of Indianapolis come booming into South Carolina...
WOWO, Ft. Wayne, Indiana.
Top 40, news, weather and sports...
At least I got news from Indiana, which frequently included stuff from Indy.
I was comforted.
In the (infrequent) event I couldn't get WOWO to come in, I'd turn the dial to the left and 890 WLS out of Chicago would generally be there as an alternative. And if thunderstorms precluded me from listening to stations close to home, I'd drop even farther down the dial to 690 WAPE, "The Big Ape" out of Jacksonville, Florida.

There are still AM blowtorches out there that can be heard over much of the middle United States...
1020 KDKA, Pittsburgh. 1120 KMOX, St. Louis. 890 WLS and 780 WBBM, Chicago.
1200 WOAI, San Antonio. 850 KOA, Denver. 1040 WHO, Des Moines.
Late at night I still poke around on the AM dial to find a strong signal. But I listen today because I'm searching for news, weather, sports, and political discussion.
Near-perfect music listening is just a CD or FM radio frequency away.

But how I miss the days of being able to tune in WOWO as I shaved in the morning and hear "The Adventures of Chicken Man!"
My heart hurts a little...
Some things just aren't better than they used to be.

Twenty-Eight Years Ago

2011-07-06T09:38:00.000-07:00

Is it possible?
Twenty-Eight years?

I woke when she shook me. Still dark outside, she was standing next to the bed...
"I think my water broke."
Yes, I could see it had.
Grab the 'phone, call the ER...
"Her water broke. What now?"
"Bring her here."

That five minute drive started in an unlikely way-
The starter was kaput on our Fiat 124 Spyder, so I pushed the little convertible to a downhill slope, then with fingers crossed, jumped in and popped the clutch. What a relief when the engine started!

At the hospital, things were moving slowly...
They had connected her to a monitor so we could watch the baby's heartbeat along with Sara Jean's vital signs. We quickly learned how to tell when the next contraction approached, and since they were still separated by 45 minutes or so I asked, "How long before she'll deliver?"
"A couple hours, maybe longer."
I was hungry.
"Honey, would you mind if I go eat breakfast?"
"No, go ahead."
I went to our local greasy spoon and ordered breakfast, announcing to everyone I knew that today we would be parents.
Back at the hospital, I was kinda shocked by the scene-
They had given Sara Jean a drug called Pitocin to speed up the labor process, and WOW!!, did it work!
We could still foresee an oncoming labor pain, but now they were coming every few minutes, and saying SJ was in considerable discomfort when they hit would be extraordinary understatement.

Time for the delivery. I scrub up with the Ob/Gyn. He insures my hands are scrubbed raw before he allows me to don rubber gloves to come and observe the birth of my baby.
I stand at Sara Jean's head, watching the action down below in a big mirror. Of course the birth is a miracle, but it's a bloody, messy miracle. The blood is understandable. The mess? Well, we won't go into that.

"Outside plumbing!"
Until this morning, the Doc has been predicting a girl. The baby's heart-rate when he first hooked up the monitor made him reconsider. We didn't know what we were getting until HE was born.
I whooped!
We both wanted a boy.

So now he's a 28 year old man, living in Arizona. Our work schedules conflicted this year so we cannot be with him on this special day, and that sucks, but we'll work on making up for it at a later date when his schedule (and mine) is not so frenetic.

On July 6, 1983 I could not have imagined the way this story would unfold.
I was out of work, we were living in a teeny-tiny house, driving a little Italian Sports Car with a busted starter.
God blessed us that day with a healthy baby boy, and he (and my son) have blessed us nearly every day since.
My son is a wonderful, caring human being. I could not be more proud of him.

Happy Birthday my son. We'll see you as soon as possible.
And Lord, thank you for giving him to us.

Last One To Leave, Turn Off The Lights, Please.

2011-07-02T14:18:00.000-07:00

My son left Los Angeles last month.
Boy, am I glad!
That town always makes me a little uncomfortable. He's back in Arizona, and I can now finally send him the handgun I bought him for his birthday almost exactly a year ago.
(Guns are BAD, doncha know?!)

The great State of California has a new law I'm sure you're aware of...
They're now gonna TAX online sales.
This is really smart because it will raise SO much revenue.
For those contemplating leaving the State because of high taxes, this may just be the "straw" that broke the critter's back. And of course those departing will be the ones paying the taxes. Those not paying taxes won't much be affected by the new law.

I really think California's fate will be the same fate our Federal Government will experience, but California will feel the pain sooner...
Maybe MUCH sooner.
Friend BZ goes so far as to say in Cali there are now two classes of citizen:
Hosts, and parasites.

For most of you, pay no attention to the man behind the curtain!
Nothing to see here.
Move along.
And if you're the last to leave, turn off the lights.

Me And Dad Install The Ceiling Fan

2011-07-01T08:28:00.000-07:00

For those new to the blog, my Dad passed away in 2003.
He was one of those unschooled guys that could figure out how most things work, and could fix them with a pair of pliers, a roll of duct tape, and a foot-long piece of baling wire.

We had a garage at our old homestead. It was a mancave...
a comfortable place for my Dad and me and the inevitable four of five buddies that would show up needing a little work on their cars or bikes. My friends loved both my parents and knew they were always welcome at our home. Anytime they broke a transmission synchronizer or blew an engine, they'd find a way to our garage.
We were ALWAYS tinkering there with something.

Against one wall of that garage was a large wooden cabinet with a myriad of small, uniform drawers. Each of the drawers had a dymo-tape identifier:
TAPE
AIR PARTS
SCREWS
BOLTS/WASHERS
And so on.
When Dad died, that cabinet ended up in my garage.

Yesterday I finally had the time to replace the patio ceiling fan that corroded apart last year. I opened and took everything out of the box, then compared the scattered bags of parts to the list of everything that was supposed to be there, according to the destructions.
All was well. So I turned on the "Dennis Miller Show" and started work.

These things used to be a nightmare. In the old days it was obvious someone who didn't speak English had written the destructions, and that's why I call 'em that. But the destructions are much improved now... not perfect, but much, much better. Impatience and lack of reading skills on my part are more of a problem now.

All was going well...
Up the ladder, crane your neck, install a component, down the ladder, read the destructions, grab the next stuff to put together for installation.
Everything went like clockwork and I was feeling mighty proud of myself until I got to the "blade installation" part of the process and the destructions called for bolts with washers to attach the blades to the fan motor.
The bolts were in a bag.
Where were the lock washers?

Back to the box with all the packing materials in it...
GOOD GRIEF... Enough styrofoam to make a couple hundred coffee cups, and a ton of irritating little plastic bags that used to have itty-bitty parts in them!
Mutter and search. Mutter some more.
No lock washers.
So I grab a bolt and head to Dad's cabinet, open the door marked "BOLTS/WASHERS", and start digging for the tiny lock washers that fit the bolt. I needed ten of 'em for the five fan blades.

And as I'm digging toward the bottom of the drawer for tiny lock washers the memories come flooding...
All the times Dad was there, over in his chair, letting us do the work and learn from our mistakes, only commenting or advising us when we needed him.

I found ten washers, put them on the bolts, then went back up the ladder...
Only then did I see there were bolts and lock washers in the fan motor that had to be removed, then re-installed with the fan blades. The bolts I had in my hand were extras.
Grumble, mutter, curse.
Damn destructions.
Damn Chinese. I think they do this just to raise an old man's blood pressure and try to kill him.

Dad and I finished the job.
The ceiling fan AND the light on it work fine.
I took the extra bolts and the now not-needed lock washers back to the cabinet drawer marked BOLTS/WASHERS and added them to the others.

Dad is strong there, and I could never have imagined how comforting that cabinet and the memories it sparks would be to me.

Thanks Dad (and Mom), for providing that little hub of activity where EVERYONE was comfortable.
Through those memories you'll both live forever.

Coming And Going At June's End-

2011-06-30T13:38:00.000-07:00

So, let's see...
What's happened that I haven't shared with you?

UPS Tim passed his Private Pilot Helo check ride!
And just in the nick of time too, thanks to Clarke. Tim had scheduled himself in the Robinson Factory Safety Course, which he needed to complete in order to be insured while carrying a passenger in the R22. We finished his training and started looking for a DPE, (Designated Pilot Examiner) to give him the check ride. One DPE I knew had just resigned from the position. Another (Clarke) was off chasing MidWest floodwaters with his company helicopter, and recommended we call the FAA and tell them of our predicament. One of my old friends at the FAA couldn't do it because he had no time in the R22. Another called and left me a message to call him back, and when I did it he didn't return my call. (Four un-returned calls!)

So we were in a fix. Tim had already paid the non-refundable fee and needed the license in hand to attend the course. But Clarke passed through the area and, realizing our problem, worked Tim into his schedule. Tim passed with little difficulty, then immediately DROVE to L.A. to attend the course! He's back home now, wearing brown and a smile.
Of course I'm proud of him!

The annual goose roundup went with little in the way of a hitch. Thunderstorms in the area worried us and actually delayed our flying for half a day, but otherwise it was a fun, safe, efficient operation this year. (The geese don't think it's much fun).

I've been riding one bike or another to work so long as the weather allows. The routine is to check out the forecast before I leave home at 6 P.M., and if I can make it to work without getting wet I have been riding in, knowing that the likelihood of rain will be slim in the cool of the morning but increase when the sun comes up. I try to ride each of the bikes at least once a week to keep batteries charged and engines exercised. I've only driven four wheels to work six or so times in June and I've been lucky so far...
I've had to wait out morning showers twice, then drove home on damp roads with spray being kicked up to soil the bikes, but I haven't had to ride home in the rain... yet.
Oh well. When it happens, I have rain gear and I know how to use mild, soapy water, then wax on a motorcycle.
Sara Jean has been along on the six cylinder 'Wing on several rides of around 200 miles through the countryside.
Beautiful. We both LOVE it.

So here we are. Tomorrow is July.
Time has flies.
How's by you?

The World Is Going Crazy

2011-06-26T04:48:00.000-07:00

This city desert makes you feel so cold...
It's got SO many people but it's got no soul and it's taken you so long to find out you were wrong when you thought it held everything.

How I love that song!
I often listen to it as I ride "In the wind" to work, meeting another car or bike on the road every five minutes or so.

So many people.
No soul.

Keith! Keith! Keith!

2011-06-25T17:48:00.000-07:00

Finally...
Our long nightmare is over.
KEITH IS COMING BACK!
He'll be on the "Current TV" Network.
(I think that's channel 124,007 on your TV dial.)
He's gonna set the world on fire.

Which Came First- The Train Whistle, Or Insomnia?

2011-06-19T19:08:00.000-07:00

Dan asked if I could work a couple days for him so he could go to the Viet Nam Helicopter Crewmember's Association meeting and dinner.
Days.

I hate working days.
But I want Dan to go enjoy his meeting. Dan is ALWAYS there for me when I need time off, so I've gotta be there for him too.

So Friday night I set my alarm for 5 A.M..
Ugh.
I'm normally beginning to think about hitting the sack then.
No real person is just getting out of bed at 5 A.M..
I hit the hay at 9 P.M., grabbed my copy of "Proficient Motorcycling", read a chapter, then rolled over. Sleep came quickly.

Bam!
My eyes are wide open. I squint them to clear my vision and look at the face of the clock/radio...
2:20, and I'm wide awake.
I turn to lay on my back and take a deep breath. A storm is supposed to arrive just about the time I leave for work. I listen for the sounds of thunder.

We've talked about how bad my job has been for my hearing. Flying helos over 43 years has destroyed my high-frequency reception. I can no longer hear the dog whine.
Or certain sounds my cell phone makes.
Or Sara Jean talking, sometimes. (Often.)

But I CAN hear the drumbeat of an approaching helicopter.
Or the sound of distant thunder.
Or the sound of a big radial engine.
Or the similar sound of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle.
Or... the sound of a diesel locomotive on the tracks half a mile from our house.

I can hear the low, quiet hum of Sara Jean almost snoring as she peacefully sleeps. But over that comforting sound I hear, almost feel, the sound of huge pistons compressing and igniting diesel fuel.
How far away is it?
How long before I hear the train whistle blow as the train approaches the intersection where our road crosses the tracks?

Before 5 A.M. the engineers cheat when they blow their horns, God bless 'em.
As they approach an intersection they are supposed to blow LOOONNNNG, LOOONNNNG, SHORT, and then as they enter and go through the intersection, another LOOOOOOONNNNGGGG blast.
(It's the letter "Q" in Morse Code, but I don't think that has anything to do with anything.)
Maybe BZ or some other railroad fan can give us a clue?

I listen for what seems like ten minutes before I hear the whistle, and this engineer is a good neighbor...
There is a long row of houses right next to the tracks at this intersection, so his signal is about 1/3 the volume it will be in mid-day. It makes ya smile to think these guys are thinking of folks in bed in those homes.
What an odd feeling...
I really should be sleeping, but I'm not discontent... comfortably lying in my bed listening to someone at work, being considerate of his neighbors.

I hear two more trains pass. They too cheat on the volume of their horns as they go through the intersection.
Of course I don't remember going back to sleep.
What I DO remember is the alarm going off at 5 A.M..
I HATE working days!
(I hope you had a great time at the VHCMA dinner, Dan! )

"Re" Words

2011-06-18T07:28:00.000-07:00

I wondered out loud-
"What are we 're-creating' when we participate in recreation?"
My wise Auntie responded, "Well, you're certainly recreating muscle tissue. You may also be de-stressing and recreating mental sanity and calm."
Made sense.

So now Anthony Weiner has resigned.
"Re-signed" what?
How does quitting equate with signing for another hitch at something?

I think I "re-sent" that use of the word.

Let's Play "Political Aspirations".

2011-06-13T00:08:00.000-07:00

Official unemployment is just under 10%.
I've seen studies that place REAL unemployment at somewhere between 18 and 25%.
Groceries, gasoline, and other sources of energy are taking off, and Dems are now chatting-up a possible $1.00 per-gallon tax on gasoline to see how we all react.
Housing is in the toilet and it looks like that toilet is about to be flushed.
We've been through "the recovery summer" last year with no relief, and it looks like there is little or no chance of another "Quantitive Easing" to pump more fiat currency into the economy in order to get its heartbeat back into a normal rhythm.
Frankly, the outlook is grim. I've been laughing at the Lame-stream media's attempts to belittle the Republican presidential candidates with their "Who can beat Obama?" mantra...
If the economy doesn't get turned around, and SOON, Gilbert Gottfried could beat him.

So let's play a little game, shall we?
Let's say my fears come true and the economy continues to tank. At some point Obama's numbers, (already below 50% approval), will be so bad even his most devout supporters will realize he is unelectable.
What then?
Who will step forward to run against him in the primary?

Perennial kook Dennis Kucinich will surely throw his hat in the ring.
Hillary? She hasn't hurt herself too badly in her job as Sec. of State, so she could certainly stick her toe in the water.
Another possible candidate I was thinking might try for another run at it is Jerry Brown...
I think he's now fully realized the HORRIBLE shape California's economy is in...
He's even begun to say things that anger Union workers there, for heaven's sake!
How could he get out from under the yoke of the California economy and the coming disaster there?
By being a hero and stepping forward to clean up the mess Obama has made!
And let's see...
There's a congresscritter in New York that will soon be out of a job that could also run as "Bill Clinton II", isn't there?

I think it's a distinct possibility that BOzo could have a primary challenger.
Can you think of anyone else that might step forward?

24 Hours In France.

2011-06-11T19:08:00.000-07:00

It's now about half over.
If, like me, you enjoy endurance racing, or if you're just a Corvette nut, you might enjoy going here for a quick look, or a long stay.
(200 miles per hour at night! EGADS.)

Details, Details.

2011-06-11T00:48:00.000-07:00

It's a strange feeling...
It does what it was designed to do VERY well.
The engine is smooth as silk, quiet, and powerful enough to propel that huge lump of metal, rubber, and plastic at a rate that can scare ya real good. I had Don put a new set of speakers in the armrests you see back there where Queen Sara Jean resides, and the system reproduces music so crisp and wonderfully I'm hearing sounds I've never before heard in some of my favorite "Classic Rock" tunes.
I've been driving it on the 64 mile round-trip journey to/from work. I've been disciplined and have kept my speed at or below the 55 m.p.h. speed limit, and I've checked two full tanks of gas...
Forty-one miles-per-gallon, which ain't bad for a machine with an engine powerful enough to motivate any small car.

I've started calling it "Galactica", named after the Battlestar in the series of the same name that my son and I religiously watched together while he was still living at home. It's an appropriate name for something so big and ponderous, I think. But it's odd...
I have no real affection for this "bike" yet, and wonder if I'll ever develop a personal connection with it as I have with other machinery that has served me well.
Maybe fondness will come after we've been out on the road comfortably eating up the miles. We'll see, and I'll let ya know.

I'm at work tonight and there are Thunderstorms lurking out there, so we pulled the BK117 into the hangar to protect it from the wind that was already whistling around, and the hail that MAY come when the Thunderstorms are overhead. Now when the phone rings and my Communications Specialist asks, "Can you go to....?", I laugh before she even has the name of the destination out of her mouth.
"WHAT?! Do you want to kill us?!"
And she laughs and says what I already know... they have no choice. They have to call even when they know I'm 99% likely gonna turn them down. And that's what'll happen for the rest of this night/morning, probably.

Anyway, with the aircraft in the hangar and the likelihood we'll go out tonight and "kick death in the ass" bein' pretty slim, I set about doing something I've dreaded since I bought the thing...
Detailing the six-cylinder GoldWing.
There are little places on this bike that have their own little places. Everything is covered in little plastic panels, and it's one of the things I hate about this machine...
Ya can't see what makes it work. You can see the camshaft covers on the engine, but you can't see the carburetors. You can't see the transmission. You have to strain to look behind the hard bags to see where the driveshaft meets the rear wheel.
The motorcycles I have owned up to this point had all their workings exposed, and you could go to a spray car wash and hose 'em all down to get the dust/road mist off 'em.
Not this thing. Plastic covers hermetically seal everything.
Who knows what's behind those covers?!

So I got a pail of water and put a little "Dawn" dishwashing liquid in it, and started washing one little piece of plastic at a time, then rinsing it, and then using this product to lay a coat of wax on.
(I can recommend it, particularly when you're able to do one little part at a time.)
You just spritz it on while the finish is still wet, then use a towel to wipe the wax/water mix off. It leaves a coat of carnauba wax behind and shines just fine.
It took me about an hour to finish the job and I have to say, I'm quite pleased with the finished product.

Clean and shiny, "Galactica" is an impressive machine sitting there, waiting and hoping along with me that the rain is long-gone before we head for home in the morning.
Now, I like lookin' at it.
Who knows...
I may learn to care about the darn thing after a while!

Intelligent Life?

2011-06-09T20:08:00.000-07:00

This is what passes for intelligent discourse in some places.
Challenge someone to "put their money where their mouth is", and they insult you.

Updated, 11 June:
The thing that scares the puddin' out of MSM regurgitaters like Paul is discussed in this post and the comments following.
They're scared of her because she has "flyover country" common sense and makes fools of them at nearly every turn.
That's why Paul and his ilk, when asked why they don't like Palin, can only respond, "She's an airhead".
Except if Paul got into a discussion with her, she'd separate him from his stones, (providing he has a pair!)