This is the day the shuttle Challenger exploded during launch. It’s one of those events that you remember where you were and what you were doing with crystal clarity. I was in Las Vegas giving a talk to hundreds of people about the AMRAAM missile. It was my first visit to that city and my first Reliability Symposium. It was terrible news and since some of the attendees were from NASA—and this was a reliability oriented meeting—a special session was arranged for us to get as much detail as was available.
Besides the shuttle there are at least 3 other moments I recall exactly where I was when an event occurred. Two are the assassination of President Kennedy and the shooting of Lee Harvey Oswald.
I heard about Kennedy as I was boarding the city bus to go home from high school that day. I remember hearing a black girl on the bus say that she was glad that “they finally got him”. That shocked me because I thought everybody loved Kennedy.
The Oswald shooting was broadcast live. The networks were covering the assassination story full time (this is well before 24-hour news stations) and I was parked in front of our black & white TV most of that Thanksgiving weekend. We usually didn’t eat in front of the TV but on this day I wanted to and my Mom said it was OK. I was sitting there with a big plate of spaghetti on one of our metal TV trays watching them march Oswald out the parking garage in the police station bringing him to a car to be transferred to another facility. All of a sudden there was a pop and Oswald folded over in pain. My first impression was that someone had jumped out and stomped on his foot or kicked him. That’s what it looked like to me. Then the commentator started shouting that Oswald has been shot.
There are other events that many people have strong memories about. One is when Princess Diana died, one the day OJ was found not guilty and the 3rd the day Michael Jackson died. I have no strong memory of where I was when these things happened. They just didn’t have an strong emotional content for me.
Of course, the 3rd for me is 9/11. I was again on the road for work driving down to Orlando. I was listening to an audio book oblivious of the day’s events until about 12:30. I got a call from Penny saying we were being recalled to base because of the attack. I’m thinking what attack? I missed all the agony of watching the towers fall in real time.
Friday, January 28, 2011
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
The Baptismal Weekend
My grand-nephew or grand-godchild or whatever Joey is to me was baptized this past weekend. I hadn't yet met Joey and haven't seen Anne and Todd in 2 years (I think) so when the invitation arrived it provided a good opportunity to see them and catch up.
The trip got off to a humorous start when I couldn't get through the security checkpoint without setting off the buzzer. I never did find out why it kept going off, the only metal I didn't remove was my glasses and the 2 clips in my right shoulder. Penny got a kick out of the whole ordeal and was standing there chuckling while I got the well publicized extensive TSA pat-down . The guy patting me down did not laugh when I asked him if I should cough when he checked a certain area. Penny also thought the joke was in poor taste.
The flight up was good and we got super treatment at the Dulles Enterprise rental car office. Actually the drive to the office was interesting because we had a conversation with the driver, who was from Ethiopia, about marriage in this country and his. When we arrived at the office the manager was inside the door handing out water bottles. My clerk was a friendly "100%" Italian woman who sat me down in the lobby and brought the paperwork out on a clipboard. She chatted with Penny and I as I filled out the paperwork, then she went and got the car, did a walk around checking for damage then dashed inside to get some maps for us. At the end of our visit our return to the office was just as friendly. I was surprised to find that level of customer service there.
The hotel turned out to be quite nice and we got a great rate for the room. The hotel was about 2 miles from Anne and Todd's house and the house was about a mile from the church so I didn't have any difficult driving to face on this trip. I only put about 50 miles on the rental car for the entire weekend.
Friday evening Kathy and Joe treated us all to dinner to celebrate their anniversary.
We slept in on Saturday and headed over to see Joey and family. Since there were no definite plans for lunch Penny offered to make ravioli using my mother's recipe. She prepared the meal and I spent some time with Anne plying with their Wii. I helped cook the ravioli and it all was good. Penny once again worked her cooking magic.
Sunday was the baptism at a beautiful church, Saint Timothy's. Two babies were christened and the deacon did a wonderful job of managing the ceremony without losing the beauty and meaning of the event. Joey was a champ. Here are some pics.
After the Christening it was back to the house for sandwiches, football and family time.
Joey is a big boy. He's only 6-months old but he is into 1 year old clothing. I never expected to see Todd show much in the way of emotions but with Joey he is a typical dad. He plays with him and is usually the one holding him--because he wants to. Anne looks great and appears happy. It was good to see how well Anne, Todd and Joey go together.
Monday was the go home day. We surprised Joe with some Dunkin Donuts coffee and apple fritters. He was missing that on this trip.
After bidding farewell to the family we visited the Udvar-Hazy - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on our way back to the airport. It has displays and items that didn't make it to or didn't have room in the downtown air and space museum. The most prominent being the space shuttle Enterprise, an SR-71, The Enola Gay, a Concorde SST, the first Boeing 707 and hundreds of other aircraft, rockets and satellites. Here are some pics.
The trip home was typical of air travel today. All our flights were delayed. We got home quite late.
Our cat did just fine being home alone for 4 days.
I did lose my cell phone at the airport. TSA found it and so I'll get it back sometime in the future.
The trip got off to a humorous start when I couldn't get through the security checkpoint without setting off the buzzer. I never did find out why it kept going off, the only metal I didn't remove was my glasses and the 2 clips in my right shoulder. Penny got a kick out of the whole ordeal and was standing there chuckling while I got the well publicized extensive TSA pat-down . The guy patting me down did not laugh when I asked him if I should cough when he checked a certain area. Penny also thought the joke was in poor taste.
The flight up was good and we got super treatment at the Dulles Enterprise rental car office. Actually the drive to the office was interesting because we had a conversation with the driver, who was from Ethiopia, about marriage in this country and his. When we arrived at the office the manager was inside the door handing out water bottles. My clerk was a friendly "100%" Italian woman who sat me down in the lobby and brought the paperwork out on a clipboard. She chatted with Penny and I as I filled out the paperwork, then she went and got the car, did a walk around checking for damage then dashed inside to get some maps for us. At the end of our visit our return to the office was just as friendly. I was surprised to find that level of customer service there.
The hotel turned out to be quite nice and we got a great rate for the room. The hotel was about 2 miles from Anne and Todd's house and the house was about a mile from the church so I didn't have any difficult driving to face on this trip. I only put about 50 miles on the rental car for the entire weekend.
Friday evening Kathy and Joe treated us all to dinner to celebrate their anniversary.
We slept in on Saturday and headed over to see Joey and family. Since there were no definite plans for lunch Penny offered to make ravioli using my mother's recipe. She prepared the meal and I spent some time with Anne plying with their Wii. I helped cook the ravioli and it all was good. Penny once again worked her cooking magic.
Sunday was the baptism at a beautiful church, Saint Timothy's. Two babies were christened and the deacon did a wonderful job of managing the ceremony without losing the beauty and meaning of the event. Joey was a champ. Here are some pics.
 |
| the whole group |
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| Todd and Joey |
 |
| the baptism |
After the Christening it was back to the house for sandwiches, football and family time.
Joey is a big boy. He's only 6-months old but he is into 1 year old clothing. I never expected to see Todd show much in the way of emotions but with Joey he is a typical dad. He plays with him and is usually the one holding him--because he wants to. Anne looks great and appears happy. It was good to see how well Anne, Todd and Joey go together.
Monday was the go home day. We surprised Joe with some Dunkin Donuts coffee and apple fritters. He was missing that on this trip.
After bidding farewell to the family we visited the Udvar-Hazy - Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum on our way back to the airport. It has displays and items that didn't make it to or didn't have room in the downtown air and space museum. The most prominent being the space shuttle Enterprise, an SR-71, The Enola Gay, a Concorde SST, the first Boeing 707 and hundreds of other aircraft, rockets and satellites. Here are some pics.
 |
| SR-71 Blackbird with shuttle in the background |
 |
| a WWII German missile with wooden fins and wings |
 |
| the Concorde SST |
The trip home was typical of air travel today. All our flights were delayed. We got home quite late.
Our cat did just fine being home alone for 4 days.
I did lose my cell phone at the airport. TSA found it and so I'll get it back sometime in the future.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
50 Years
Fifty years ago today, as a 12-year-old, I watched JFK deliver his inaugural address. Lots of the politicians wore top hats but Kennedy was bare headed. I was watching because my teacher at the time, Mrs. Serene, said it would be historic and something I would remember forever. She was right.
At the time I didn't have any idea about what made a good speech and I didn't have any experience to draw on. This introduction to inaugural speeches set the bar of expectations high for future presidents.
Kennedy marked the passing of the torch of government to a new generation. The feeling was similar to the Obama inauguration.
At the time I didn't have any idea about what made a good speech and I didn't have any experience to draw on. This introduction to inaugural speeches set the bar of expectations high for future presidents.
Kennedy marked the passing of the torch of government to a new generation. The feeling was similar to the Obama inauguration.
Wednesday, January 19, 2011
Wed Jan 19
This past week (Tues-Wed) saw me with a nasty cold that peaked just before I went to Jacksonville for the long MLK weekend. I still have sinus congestion and postnasal drip and now Penny has the cold just in time for our next bit of travel. This cold is a bad one and it holds on for a long time. I feel bad for Penny.
Our trip to Jacksonville was nice. I got in some good 1 on 1 time with Lucy but not so much with Sophie. Sophie is very jealous of any attention given to Lucy and it was tough for me to have any Sophie alone time. We spent a relaxed weekend with K&T and got down to High Springs to see C&C. We didn't get over to see Kerry this time but we will see her next weekend.
Yesterday when we returned from Jacksonville the cat feeder was empty and no cats were around. Later that evening we were visited by a big fat raccoon. I set the trap and to my surprise I caught him. So my first order of business today was to go release the raccoon. There still were no cats tonight.
Today we unpacked from one trip. Tomorrow we pack for the next one. I’m hoping Penny gets a milder version of the cold than I had.
Our trip to Jacksonville was nice. I got in some good 1 on 1 time with Lucy but not so much with Sophie. Sophie is very jealous of any attention given to Lucy and it was tough for me to have any Sophie alone time. We spent a relaxed weekend with K&T and got down to High Springs to see C&C. We didn't get over to see Kerry this time but we will see her next weekend.
Yesterday when we returned from Jacksonville the cat feeder was empty and no cats were around. Later that evening we were visited by a big fat raccoon. I set the trap and to my surprise I caught him. So my first order of business today was to go release the raccoon. There still were no cats tonight.
Today we unpacked from one trip. Tomorrow we pack for the next one. I’m hoping Penny gets a milder version of the cold than I had.
Tuesday, January 11, 2011
Tall Falls
Last year we visited the highest place in Florida. Today we saw a tallest falls in Florida. We went to Falling Waters state park near Chipley, Florida. It is another cold day with temperatures only in the forties so Penny and I bundled up, grabbed our hiking sticks and set out to the east.
The park is about an hour and 1/4 drive from our house. It's a lot smaller than I thought it was. On the map online one of the trails is labeled as a 45 minute walk. In reality, hiking all the trails in the park is a 45 minute walk and a leisurely walk at that. Our purpose today was just to go on an explore, visit someplace new and just spend some time together. We accomplished that.
The park has the falls and a few sink holes, a 2 acre lake, a small butterfly garden, camping and regular hiking trails. The falls themselves are simply a stream that empties into a sink hole. The waterfall is, however, 73 feet in height. Here are some pictures:
As you can see there is not a tremendous flow of water right now. I think this is typical. They get their largest flow right after a thunderstorm. Sometimes the water completely dries up. It was interesting to see and would be much more picturesque on a sunny day. We had clouds and cold weather.
We also drove around Chipley and looked at the architecture of the old houses there.
The cold winter continues with temperatures going down into the low twenties tonight and tomorrow. It's not supposed to warm up until the weekend. At least we don't have 4 inches of ice on the roads like Atlanta.
The park is about an hour and 1/4 drive from our house. It's a lot smaller than I thought it was. On the map online one of the trails is labeled as a 45 minute walk. In reality, hiking all the trails in the park is a 45 minute walk and a leisurely walk at that. Our purpose today was just to go on an explore, visit someplace new and just spend some time together. We accomplished that.
The park has the falls and a few sink holes, a 2 acre lake, a small butterfly garden, camping and regular hiking trails. The falls themselves are simply a stream that empties into a sink hole. The waterfall is, however, 73 feet in height. Here are some pictures:
As you can see there is not a tremendous flow of water right now. I think this is typical. They get their largest flow right after a thunderstorm. Sometimes the water completely dries up. It was interesting to see and would be much more picturesque on a sunny day. We had clouds and cold weather.
We also drove around Chipley and looked at the architecture of the old houses there.
The cold winter continues with temperatures going down into the low twenties tonight and tomorrow. It's not supposed to warm up until the weekend. At least we don't have 4 inches of ice on the roads like Atlanta.
Monday, January 10, 2011
Monday Jan 10
It's a cold and dreary Monday. My one big adventure today was a trip into town to exchange a prescription. The Dr. prescribed the wrong medicine for me. It had a similar sounding name but was for something else. This was my dermatologist and instead of giving me cream for the cracking dry skin on my fingers she gave me something for cancerous and precancerous growths. The stuff close to four times with the generic stuff cost. At least I was able to return it and they can put it back on the shelf since I didn't open it.
Those of you who don't watch TV during the day didn't get to see the 24 hour news stations happily fill their full day of broadcast covering the shootings in Arizona.
I've got to admit it makes a great story. I'm also happy that this person doing the shooting was not a right wing lunatic. He was simply an antigovernment lunatic. As it was both sides did try to blame the other as the cause of the shooting.
At least the majority of people are calling for restraint. And if this leads to our politicians taking a more civil note towards those who disagree with them maybe something good will come from this. I personally would like political ads to be limited to politicians talking only about themselves and not about the opponents. Negative ads work however, and they are not going away anytime soon.
I feel so badly for the parents who lost their nine year old daughter. Hearing her father talk about what kind of a person she was really choked me up. Knowing how one feels when their daughters reach an age where they begin to demonstrate their wonderful talents and show such great potential. Knowing the love, devotion, blood, sweat and tears that has gone into raising her I can't imagine how it would feel to see her die in such a senseless manner.
Yes, there were heroes also. The woman who brought Christine, the nine year old, to the event--after being shot three times was still only concerned with Christine. She thought she was doing a wonderful thing for the girl and ended up bringing her to her death. Although she's not responsible I don't see how she won't be haunted by guilt for the rest of her life.
There was the man who covered his wife's body with his own to protect her and was shot to death. He did save his wife.
They were the men and woman who tackled the shooter.
It will be interesting to see if this event actually causes some change in the way our politicians now conduct their business. Only time will tell.
On a lighter note, Jeopardy had another "you are getting old" question the other night. The answer was Marlin Perkins. All 3 contestants drew a blank.
Over the past year or so I've been gathering up the pieces for a wireless security camera system (as cheaply as possible) Today I finally fired the system up to test it out and found out it interferes with our wireless internet. Well, interferes is a mild word--it simply knocks it out. So the 1st test is a failure. At least it can work when we are not home and aren't using the internet.
Those of you who don't watch TV during the day didn't get to see the 24 hour news stations happily fill their full day of broadcast covering the shootings in Arizona.
I've got to admit it makes a great story. I'm also happy that this person doing the shooting was not a right wing lunatic. He was simply an antigovernment lunatic. As it was both sides did try to blame the other as the cause of the shooting.
At least the majority of people are calling for restraint. And if this leads to our politicians taking a more civil note towards those who disagree with them maybe something good will come from this. I personally would like political ads to be limited to politicians talking only about themselves and not about the opponents. Negative ads work however, and they are not going away anytime soon.
I feel so badly for the parents who lost their nine year old daughter. Hearing her father talk about what kind of a person she was really choked me up. Knowing how one feels when their daughters reach an age where they begin to demonstrate their wonderful talents and show such great potential. Knowing the love, devotion, blood, sweat and tears that has gone into raising her I can't imagine how it would feel to see her die in such a senseless manner.
Yes, there were heroes also. The woman who brought Christine, the nine year old, to the event--after being shot three times was still only concerned with Christine. She thought she was doing a wonderful thing for the girl and ended up bringing her to her death. Although she's not responsible I don't see how she won't be haunted by guilt for the rest of her life.
There was the man who covered his wife's body with his own to protect her and was shot to death. He did save his wife.
They were the men and woman who tackled the shooter.
It will be interesting to see if this event actually causes some change in the way our politicians now conduct their business. Only time will tell.
On a lighter note, Jeopardy had another "you are getting old" question the other night. The answer was Marlin Perkins. All 3 contestants drew a blank.
Over the past year or so I've been gathering up the pieces for a wireless security camera system (as cheaply as possible) Today I finally fired the system up to test it out and found out it interferes with our wireless internet. Well, interferes is a mild word--it simply knocks it out. So the 1st test is a failure. At least it can work when we are not home and aren't using the internet.
Friday, January 07, 2011
Friday
Today involved a little bit of everything. A little house work, some yard work, a little shed work and of course some recreation.
Penny and I planed an us day for next Monday or Tuesday. I put some insulation on the sliding door between the den and not our sun room. And at 4:30 I made a quick decision to go to the beach to see the sunset.
The beach was very windy. The wind was so strong that it was sweeping the sand along peppering anything it encountered like a sandblaster. There was absolutely no one on the beach. There were no footprints on the beach. The wind had filled them all in. I had on my heavy leather jacket and earmuffs and I needed every bit of it. The sunset was decent and I got a few good pictures.
Yesterday I booked a trip for penny and me for her 60th birthday celebration. We're going to go to California for a whale and wine festival and then just generally explore the area. We seriously considered going to Hawaii for whale watching because whale-watching and Hawaii are two things on bucket list. Hawaii however turned out to be too expensive (even for high rollers like us).
Penny and I planed an us day for next Monday or Tuesday. I put some insulation on the sliding door between the den and not our sun room. And at 4:30 I made a quick decision to go to the beach to see the sunset.
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| a cold windy sunset |
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| wind-blown beach |
Yesterday, I looked out our kitchen window two see Lady Marmalade on top of our ladder watching the bird feeder very patiently. I had to take a picture.
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| ME NOZ ME WILL KECH BIRDEE |
I'm back to writing using the speech recognition program. So far my computer is working fine with Windows 7. The problem obviously was Vista on this computer. Maybe Microsoft has finally improved their windows OS.
Tuesday, January 04, 2011
It’s a New Year
I haven’t had much to write about lately. I’ve just been doing normal stuff. But yesterday we got our Christmas present from my sister Kathy. When I opened it I did a double-take. It was a DVD labeled Dolphin Cove and dated Nov 3rd. That was the day we swam with the dolphins. We didn’t think the DVD was worth the price so we didn’t get it that day. Well, sis knew that we were sorry we didn’t get it. She went through the trouble of tracking it down and ordering it for us from Jamaica. So now we have video and big smiles on our faces. Kathy hit a home run with this present.
I cut a couple clips from the video to show here how up close and personal we got.
It may be the only time we have the opportunity to do this and I’m glad we jumped on it. Yes it’s even more exciting and fun than it looks.
On a completely different note I’ve been seeing little signs of the changing time and our generations knowledge and experience slowly fading from the scene. I got a kick out of the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing add set up to look like an outing in the ‘50s. The guy was taking a picture of the girl with a vintage Polaroid camera. Instead of looking through the eyepiece viewfinder he was holding the camera out as if he were looking at an LCD screen on the back.
I also like the Staples (?) add where the kid says the printer is out of ink, is told to shake it and he drops the cartridge, picks up the printer and proceeds to shake it.
Jeopardy also highlights my age. I don’t have a clue on many of their pop culture and popular music categories. I’ve forgotten a lot of my history and even on technical questions I sometimes find myself fumbling. But it’s questions like fill in the blank—See the USA in your --------- or even question from just the news just 30 years ago that go unanswered and show up regularly now that are getting to me.
Kitty Update—Normally2 and sometimes 3 cats show up each night. The 2 are the orange crush—Marmalade and Buzz. The 1 is Meredith. On warm night Marmalade usually stays the night. When it’s cold everybody goes to wherever it is to keep warm. Buzz and Meredith would like that to be inside our house.
I cut a couple clips from the video to show here how up close and personal we got.
It may be the only time we have the opportunity to do this and I’m glad we jumped on it. Yes it’s even more exciting and fun than it looks.
On a completely different note I’ve been seeing little signs of the changing time and our generations knowledge and experience slowly fading from the scene. I got a kick out of the Abercrombie & Fitch clothing add set up to look like an outing in the ‘50s. The guy was taking a picture of the girl with a vintage Polaroid camera. Instead of looking through the eyepiece viewfinder he was holding the camera out as if he were looking at an LCD screen on the back.
I also like the Staples (?) add where the kid says the printer is out of ink, is told to shake it and he drops the cartridge, picks up the printer and proceeds to shake it.
Jeopardy also highlights my age. I don’t have a clue on many of their pop culture and popular music categories. I’ve forgotten a lot of my history and even on technical questions I sometimes find myself fumbling. But it’s questions like fill in the blank—See the USA in your --------- or even question from just the news just 30 years ago that go unanswered and show up regularly now that are getting to me.
Kitty Update—Normally2 and sometimes 3 cats show up each night. The 2 are the orange crush—Marmalade and Buzz. The 1 is Meredith. On warm night Marmalade usually stays the night. When it’s cold everybody goes to wherever it is to keep warm. Buzz and Meredith would like that to be inside our house.
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