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.

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....

1950's Los Angeles

WAY too many pictures to post her, so just mosey on over to this website and enjoy!

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.....

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!

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:

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.........

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.

Full Metal Star Wars...

Found on the web.....

Stilton's Back!

"Hope n' Change" was one of my favorite blogs during the 8 years of the Obamanation. His humor helped keep me (and countless others) going on with our lives during what will most likely be considered by future historians as some of the darkets days in American history.

Well, with the election of President Trump (I still like writing that!), the Hope n' Change blog had pretty much run its course.

But Stilton promised us he'd be back, and he just launched his new blog.

Without further ado, I highly suggest you mosey on over to "Stilton's Place" and enjoy his new pursuit.

Meanwhile, Out Near San Clemente Island.....

Just going through some old pix of my Sea Launch days and found this one.

We were out by the Naval Bombing Range on San Clemente for sea trial after coming back in 2011. We were required to go out there to fire up all our various radio and telemetry systems as some of the Russian stuff used frequencies not licensed for that use in the US.

Well, there we were, and along pop up these guys:

Obviously some type of training mission......