Sunday, March 26, 2017

Grandson Noah Saying "HI" To The Camera

Not really, but it makes a cool post title.....


Wife Headed Home

After a short stay for the baby shower in Fort Collins, she's on her flight, in the air, and headed back to LAX.



She should be here around 1600, so I'll get to the terminal parking area around 1530, see what gate she's arriving at, and go plunk myself down near the gate and wait.

Would have greatly preferred to have her return via LGB, but when you book your flight 12~14 hours before departure, AND you're trying to get a good price, you can't be too picky!

Friday, March 24, 2017

Miscellaneous Ramblings

Well, got the wife off to Colorado this morning, no thanks to Frontier Airlines. I've only flown on them once, and it was enough. She'd booked this flight a couple of months ago, as Saturday is the baby shower for little Noah, who arrived a wee bit early.

Her flight on Frontier was scheduled for an 1100 departure from John Wayne Airport down in Orange County, and they texted her a cancellation notice last night about 1800 citing a "Spring snowstorm" as the reason for the cancellation.

HUH? Now I know the National Weather Service has been getting a lot of flack lately for their "ZOMG!!!" weather "forecasts", and especially for their "ZOMG!!! SNOWMAGEDDON!!!!" forecast stunt they pulled a coupe,of weeks ago which literally shut down parts of the East coast. I looked at the satellite pictures, and the weather radar data, wet my finger and stuck it in the air, and decided that *if* Denver got much snow, DIA could handle it well, keeping the runways plowed (you get pretty good at the stuff after a while), and I certainly couldn't see any reasonable cause to cancel that particular flight considering that NONE of the other airlines serving Denver even had any delays expected.

I jumped on the old Intertubes and found her a flight on United leaving at 0947 from LAX this morning, nonstop, and while it cost almost double what her "economy" fare on Frontier cost. it had seats available, and gave you one free carry on bag.

Oh, did I mention that Frontier now charges $25 for a carry on bag?

Say what??

The only reason I can see for this is that they're stuffing the belly of the aircraft full of cargo, and the less stuff the passengers bring on board, the more cargo they can cram into the plane. I'll be on the Iowa all day tomorrow for Viet Nam Veteran's Day (Thank you all for your service), and one of our radio operators is a retied 747 Captain, so I'll ask him what he knows about this. He keeps up on industry trends, so he might know.

Our daughter-in-law laughed when we told Frontier had canceled the flight, saying it's been in the middle to upper 70's the last week!



So anyway......she's safely in Fort Collins now, and got to hold little Noah for the first time. She told me "He's barely bigger than a breath!", and that he opened his eyes and smiled at her, and reached out to grab her hair.

My wife was immediately overcome with "Grandma Love", so I imagine after she gets back Sunday afternoon we'll kick things up a notch to start getting things packed up in preparation for shipping a couple of "pods" there ahead of us. We're going back the last week of May to see the kids again and do some serious house hunting, and I know her holding the little guy today just increased her desire to move there by, oh, maybe 200% or so.


And in the Automotive News section today.....

Edd China has announced that after 13 seasons he's leaving "Wheeler Dealers", one of my favorite "reality" auto restoration shows.

When Discovery Network took over the show they wanted to glam it up a bit, claiming that there was too much time spent in each show showing Edd working on and modifying the car.

Hey, idiots, that's what we watch it for!

So, due to the infamous "creative differences", Mr. China has decided to leave the show and focus on his other enterprises and new projects.

Good luck, Edd. You WILL be missed!

I take issue with some of their past episodes where Mike Brewer overstated what work was done on the car as he gave the sales pitch to the buyer, but still, I always found it entertaining, and learned more than few good tips from Edd.

So, that's a wrap for this entry. I'll be yakking on NI6BB all day tomorrow, thanking our veterans, and enjoying the live music and food that are always a pert of these events.

To all our veterans, thank you for your service!


Saturday, March 18, 2017

Nothing In The World Sounds Quite Like This.......

Except maybe a Titan IV launch.

The first rocket I watched live was an Atlas Centaur that lofted a NAVSTAR Block-1 bird from Vandenbeg AFB. My first wife's Uncle Tony worked for Rockwell, and was able to get us passes to the VIP viewing area.

I saw one more Atlas launch, and then a Titan launch, at Vandenberg before he transferred from that program to another one.

I didn't get to see any more live launches until I started to work at Sea Launch, where I went on 18 launches.

I stumbled across this on YouTube and it reminded me of the Titan launch I saw.


Wednesday, March 15, 2017

First Start and Run of Hagerty's Rebuilt Hemi!

Whoo-Hoo!

They got so many requests to hear it run that they made this short video.

Full screen and high volume works best for me....



Saturday, March 11, 2017

International Crystal Going Out of Business

If you use quartz crystals for any of your vintage radio gear, you'd better get your orders in NOW!

International Crystal will be closing their doors in the very near future.

This is quite a blow to the Amateur Radio community, as IC not only makes superb crystals, but they have information on probably 99.999% of all radios, scanners, walkie-talkies, and just about any other device made that uses a quartz crystals, and make make custom crystals having the exact properties required to work correctly in the gear.

They could supply crystals that :just worked" for that old BearCat scanner, piece of obscure military gear, or any Drake, Hallicrafters, Heathkit, etc, etc, etc rig ever sold.

They will be sorely missed!

Looks like JAN Crystals is about the only place left.....

Friday, March 10, 2017

Wisdom

From a FarceBook buddy....



And on a side note, I was checking the spam bucket on my email today, and found one from Senator Diane Frankenstein.

How thoughtful of my email provider to automagically dump that particular email in the spam bucket!

Thursday, March 9, 2017

Grandbaby Update

He's a fighter!

Yesterday he ripped out his breathing tube, so they put him on a nose rig to supply him with O2, and they're closely watching his blood gases.

He's gained 5.5 ounces, and is doing better than expected.

His Mom came home from the hospital, and will be off work for a while while she heals up, but Mom and Dad have been going to see the little guy daily.

This is the most recent photo I have, taken right before he ripped his tube out.



His Mom just posted a "today" photo:


Friday, March 3, 2017

Welcome Baby Noah!

Well, here he is:



2.2 pounds, and 12" long. He'll be spending some time in the Baby ICU until he can fully cope with "Life on the Outside" on his own.

Mother and child are doing well, considering the circumstances.

My wife is ecstatic.........

Thursday, March 2, 2017

Uh OH! The Grandbaby Is Coming Early!

About 65 days early, and it's happening RIGHT NOW!

More to come..........

Possible baby in distress, as they just started a C-section.....



ANNNNND.....It's a BOY!

Which we've known was coming for months, but were requested to keep mum about.

No word on anything else yet, but judging from my stepson's text messages, everything is OK.

Official word is "Mother and baby doing fine", but the poor little guy is only 2.2 pounds...........that's worrisome.

2.2 pounds and 12" long. He'll be in the Baby ICU for a few weeks until his little lungs are strong enough to fully cope with life on their own.

Mother and child are doing fine, considering the circumstances.

Annnnd.....We Got Zip.....

 Total snow was about 6~8", but half o0f it melted as soon as it hit, and we never had more than 3" on the ground at any one time....