Happy Birthday!

Born on February 7, 1951, he was a precocious kid. My grandmother had film of the before and after of him chasing the chickens and getting spanked for it. She showed that to her grandson with extreme glee.

He graduated from Sunnyside Senior High Shool in 1969. He went to YVCC. I recall a story he told about how he and several other malcontents took the college newspaper and changed the headline: "No Butt Flicking On Campus" (about cigarettes) into something much more...shall we say, x-rated. I also recall a trophy he won for being the fastest driver through town in legal way...although I suspect legal may have been a stretch...and I think some of the details may have slipped his mind...

In 1972, he was married. In 1974, he helped produce nothing less than a miracle: Me. About five years later he helped create someting a little less wonderful (at least to me at the time): my sister (love ya, sis!). Since then, he has worked, cooked, cleaned, and suffered through physical malodies like the best of them. Yet, he has remained steadfast and stubborn.

It is from him that I learned to appreciate ships with big guns. He stirred in me the interrest in aircraft. He made me slightly interested in trains, even (don't tell him). He is none other than my father.

Happy Birthday, Dad!! I hope it was a good one! I am sorry I did not get the chance to spend it with you, but I hope last weekend was a weak second. I don't call anyone else MY DAD.

Here is Cora and my dad on the hangar deck of the USS Kitty Hawk on the day of her decommissioning.

Here is how his grandkids see him...as we call himon occasion, Grandpa Camera-Face.

Without him, the world would be missing a very crucial thing...me!

Oh, yeah. And these would not be a part of the family, either...

Good Job Dad! Happy Birthday!

Air Expo!!

So, I was looking at the site for the McChord Air Expo and I found out that they are going to have a B-2 Spirit bomber doing some sort of AWESOME (my word) demonstration. The B-2 is a relative (Grandchild?) of the YB-49 and XB-35 flying wings that were tested in the 1940s and early 1950s, only to be scrapped by a short sighted administration (my opinion. Its funny how my history oriented opinion and my air plane oriented opinion sometimes differ. I shall not go into it here). I have a piece of one of the YB-49s…one of my valued possessions (I have a few of those). It was recovered from the crash site near Edwards AFB in California. I am looking forward to seeing the B-2. There were only a very few built, not much more than 20 of them. I will be seeing a very special aircraft. Cora does not seem to agree with my priorities, but I think she understands that if I am going to be a freak about something, it’s better this than something else.

Also, they plan on having the Tora, Tora, Tora performers from the CAF. Used to be the Confederate Air Force, but now it is the Commemorative Air Force, apparently due to the connotations of the word confederate. It has been three years since I was last at an air show. I took my Dad on Father’s Day of 2005. We had a good time. He and my Mom are planning on being gone, prior arrangements, which I am sure my dad now wishes he had made for another weekend.

There will be a CV-22 Osprey, an F-22 Raptor, and several other new aircraft on display!!! I am SO lucky!

We are watching After the Catch. Phil is a sick man…I hope he does what the Doctors tell him to do…he apparently only has 2 months to live if he does not change his ways.

Oh, and my Dad e-mailed me tonight. The first REAL e-mail since last year sometime. Satan knocked on the door, just then, asking for a jacket since their HVAC was on the fritz, apparently the AC is on HIGH and there is frost damage to the molten lakes of sulfur. He then kindly asked for my soul, to which I replied, "You're a bit late, ten minutes ago I would have sold my soul just for a short e-mail from my father, but I just got a long one." As I was telling him this a feathered warthog flew by. The neighbor started doing cartwheels on the lawn and the sun set and rose again...weird.

Well, I have to go, since Cora caught me posting…again. See, Cora can't even appreciate the CORRECT end of an air plane...