Sunday, March 23, 2008

Spring is come the walrus said...




Here it is, the day before Easter. I volunteered at the Air Museum today. They seem to like me. I enjoyed it, even though things relating to my specialty are not prevalent. I like a good sized aircraft, but all they seem to have are models hanging from the ceiling. Yeah, they have a JT-Something engine, the civilian equivalent of a J-57, but mostly they deal in odd little civilian jobs. They got an ultra-light donated a couple weeks ago…they seem excited. Yeah, I looked at it and thought, “…hmmmm, an ultra-light, where are the real airplanes?” Maybe I am picky. Or maybe I want REAL airplanes at my airplane museum. Strange, that, don’t you think.

So, I took my ships in. If you are not familiar with my ships, you probably need me to fill you in. I have model ships at a scale of 1:2400, meaning for every 12 of our inches, my ships have 2400 feet. So a 2400 foot long piece of real estate in the model’s world, would be 1 foot in ours. Or, better put one inch equals 200 feet. A battleship sits nicely in the palm of your hand. Most of my ships are made of pewter, a few I have hand carved from different materials, usually balsa wood or styrene. About 6 months ago, I built a 5X7 inch diorama. It featured several buildings and a few large piers and a dry dock. I am enclosing a photo. I took it and several of my ships to the museum, since a few of the members have asked to see it. The members who saw it ooohed and ahhed. There was one member who had asked me about it, but I did not see him. I told him about them. So, I looked around and found a display case that was unused. I asked if I could leave a few of my models and my diorama so he could come in and see it. I was told that I was welcome to, if I wanted. I did. I left Yorktown, Enterprise, Missouri, Omaha, a DD, and a DE. Plus whatever was on the Diorama. When you think that the steam engine alone had 14 pieces on it…well, it is smaller than a grain of rice.

We had my parents over for dinner, no, they did not taste good…a bit stringy. Yuck. O.k., it was more a reason to show them how we want them to feed the fish while we are gone. My sister-in-law will be taking care of the dogs. Sully will be staying inside…we will have to get a litter box for him. Last time we left and he was allowed to go out side, he did. Then, when we got home, we looked and looked for him. He stayed away for several days. We think he was mad because we left him to fend for himself. He thinks he is at least part dog, if not mostly human, like he acts. My parents will be around to feed the fish and water them. Yes, water them. You ask, aren’t the fish immersed in water. The answer is “yes, but they are salt water fish and the water evaporates, but the salt does not.” Therefore. As the water evaporates, the water left behind becomes more and more salty. There is only so much salt a salt water fish can stand.

Tomorrow was supposed to be the day where we were going to get packed up and get ready for our trip, but my niece, lovely little gem that she is, wanted to make sure that she saw Uncle Jim before he went away; before his birthday! She was worried that I might not have a birthday party…lord knows, I could not manage without that! I am SO glad she worries about me, for, really, realistically, who would? She is a little angel in jeans…sometimes a pony tail. She is, honestly, my favorite niece!

So, our Easter is filled; hopefully we get something done. I guess there is the rest of the week…though it leaves us less wiggle room.
Jimh.

1 comment:

frogglet said...

Happy Easter, I think we are tiead on this one. I am sure we will get every thing done before our trip, don't worry, if not we will go anyway!! I can't wait.