President COWARD

Another home run from Mr. Whittle....

Ever Wonder Where Your Gasoline Dollar Goes?

Here's a new chart by the American Petroleum Institute.

Exxon-Mobil recently published a report that they made a profit of 5.5 cents per gallon sold.

In The People's Republik of Kaliforniastan, the state tax on gasoline is almost SEVENTY-ONE cents per gallon!

So much for the "Greedy Oil Companies"......

The Weekend Already?

Geesh.......Been busy the last few days, so haven't posted.

Spent Tuesday on the Iowa playing radio in commemoration of the signing of the "Instrument of Surrender".

The Iowa was anchored in Tokyo Bay, alongside the Mighty Mo, hosting the Missouri's crew members who had been moved off the Mo to accommodate all the VIP's and dignitaries on the Mo, and handling all the communications from Tokyo Bay.

Trimmed a tree back in the backyard, but only about 20% done with it. The "tree" started out as some kind of potted plant my wife put out there years ago. It outgrew the pot, and completely took over a corner of the backyard.

I've cut it back several times, and last year we had a tree service come do it, and the damn thing just keeps growing like a weed. She'd like to completely get rid of it, but I kinda like trees, so I guess I'm going to get real good keeping it in check.

By the time I'm done whacking it back, I'm going to have to go rent a chipper to get rid of the limbs I've cut off.

Got my Jeep smogged today, and then ran over to AAA to get the new sticker for the rear plate. The smog place had me in and out in about 45 minutes, and AAA had me in and out in about 15.

Guess that's one nice thing about being able to take care of stuff during "normal business hours".

Came home, did the dishes and vacuumed, and then had to go to an emergency board meeting of my radio club. Two of the club members have various problems with the museum staff, causing the museum curator to tell us if we don't put a SHORT leash on these two, that we may be asked to leave.

ANYWAY......I'll try and get something creative (HAH!) posted this week.

In the meantime, check out the folks on the side bar.

I think you already know each other, so play nice......

Flying Through A Fireworks Display

Found this over at Bill Whittle's website.

I'm speechless.......


But thinking of buying a quad copter to mount my GoPro on! 

It's in High Definition, so watch it in full screen. You'll be amazed.

Headed Off to the Hollywood Bowl Tonight

Going to see one of my favorites, John Williams.

Enjoy the sample.

Papa Oom Mow Mow

Was scratchin' around for some Surf Music today, and came across this.

The Rivingtons sound great, but the artwork really caught my eye!

*Almost* Went to a Car Show Today

The annual "Legends Car Club" Car Show By The Sea was today, and the wife and I tried to go see it.

I hadn't heard about it until last week when my radio club had their August BBQ, and we noticed a sign for it.

WELL....T'was not to be. It was also the "Tall Ships L.A." festival this weekend, and the traffic along Harbor and Gaffey Streets in San Pedro was insane.

Having lived in San Pedro (or "Speedro" as the natives call it) for a few years, and going there all the time for my radio club and the Battleship Iowa, I pretty much know my way around, so we went in the "back way" (Western Ave South to 25th St, then East to Gaffey) to Point Fermin Park, and avoided 90% of the traffic that was clogging up Harbor and Gaffey.

Right about the time we got to Fort MacArthur (Our Field Day site), we hit the car show traffic.

I probably should have known it would be like this as their flyer said they limited entries to "the first 600 cars that apply", but I thought we'd chance it anyway.

Oh, well, at least we got to see some pretty nice cars in the "overflow"  lot, and a ton of tricked out Big Bikes, as we drove by.

Coming up on September 27th is the "Japanese Classic Car Show" at the Queen Mary, and hopefully I'll get to meet some of my fellow Supra owner's there.

Last year they had a Toyota 2000 GT, and I'd really like to see one of those "In The Aluminum"!

My Dad's Birthday

He would have been one-hundred years old today had he not passed away in 1991.

And like most adult sons, I miss him every day, and long to talk to him.

He taught me a lot of things, and for that I grateful.

Happy birthday, Dad!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.........It's OVER!

Well, I was processed out today, along with 27 other people from my group.

My former group is down to TWO people, and the facilities guys went from 12 people to three.

All three of the purchasing people are gone, along with one of the two Safety guys, the Communications Manager, 3 of the 4 IT people, and the guy who ran Document Control.

That's 46 people that I know of, out of about 70 people on-site, or well over half the staff.

One of the security people has already found another job, and the other is seriously looking.

In the next week or so, several managers will be released, and then there's 8 the Boeing people still there.

I expect the Boeing guys to be released in the next week or so, as my former employer wants to weasel out of renegotiate their contract to get costs down (they're already about as low as they can be made and still make a small profit), and eliminate the $20 million early termination clause that's in the existing contract.

I expect them to shutter the place by the end of the year.

The Big SIX THREE Today!

30 didn't bother me

40 didn't bother me

50 didn't bother me

BUT....when I hit 60, I realized I wasn't a kid any more, and some changes would have to be made!

Well, Mother Nature took care of that last year, first with a MRSA infection, and then my cardiac incident requiring three stents to fix.

Still have some weight to lose (I can drive by an In-N-Out and gain 5 pounds), but I've been getting more active since the first of the year with things like walking the dog nightly, doing yard work (we fired the yard service and I bought a small electric mower), volunteering on the Iowa, and scrambling around working on the Supra.

I know my limits, and when I first started getting more active, I had to stick to about a "50% duty cycle", of 15 minutes yard work followed by a 15 minute break.

Now I can do about 30~40 minutes, and only need a 5 minute break to drink some cold water.

After either this Thursday's or Friday's layoff, I'll have LOTS of time to get my groove back, along with building up my stamina back to where I think it should be.

And the dog will probably lose a little weight, too!

We Choose To Go To The Moon.......

Another home run from Bill Whittle.

Makes me almost cry when I listen to President Kennedy......