Who Knows What Comes Next!

Happy New Year!

The Boy

With just me, and this house of all women (my wife and 4 daughters), the grandson is simply known as "The Boy". Of course his true name is Jesse.

He turned one year old in November. This is his Christmas Day this year.


--Dan

I can say Christmas

To all that celebrate Christmas, here is the sharing of my joy. To all that do not, I share my joy anyway. If some believe in other things, I respect your right to a free will. I do believe God gave us all that great gift of love, the free will.

Peace and joy,

--Dan

That Season of the Year

I dunno why, but plumbing is a forever "situation" during the Christmas Holidays. Always, always, always...leaky pipes crop up, toilets overflow, dah dah do dah dah.

All else is reasonably well.

See y'all,

--Dan

Another amazing thing

-Photo Credits - U.S. Air Force Museum-

It was in 1960, that Joe Kittinger made his famous record setting high altitude jump. The story is amazing, as are many events during the frenzied flight testing days following the second world war.

Exerpt:

"Kittinger floated to 102,800 feet (31,333 meters) in Excelsior III, an open gondola adorned with a paper license plate that his five-year-old son had cut out of a cereal box. Protected against the subzero temperatures by layers of clothes and a pressure suit--he experienced air temperatures as low as minus 94 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 70 degrees Celsius)--and loaded down with gear that almost doubled his weight, he climbed to his maximum altitude in one hour and 31 minutes even though at 43,000 feet (13,106 meters) he began experiencing severe pain in his right hand caused by a failure in his pressure glove and could have scrubbed the mission. He remained at peak altitude for about 12 minutes; then he stepped out of his gondola into the darkness of space. After falling for 13 seconds, his six-foot (1.8-meter) canopy parachute opened and stabilized his fall, preventing the flat spin that could have killed him. Only four minutes and 36 seconds more were needed to bring him down to about 17,500 feet (5,334 meters) where his regular 28-foot (8.5-meter) parachute opened, allowing him to float the rest of the way to Earth. His descent set another record for the longest parachute freefall."

ref. http://www.centennialofflight.gov

There are some great websites out there that document Joe's jump. look 'em up!

--Dan

Ten Things

I was "asked" to do this, so here it all is...NOT in order, as # 10 should be first.

Ten things I shall never do:

1.) I shall never, ever, give up. Not on anything.

2.) I shall never walk in the woods without looking for poison oak. Lesson learned way long ago, it still pays off.

3.) I shall never be unarmed in my home. I am the protector and guardian of my family. I need an edge to carry out that mission. I am familiar with what I say. I believe in the 2nd Amendment, and it's intentions thereof.

4.) I shall never sell my Gibson. Ever.

5.) I shall never cheat on anybody, for anything. Life is short, I want to remain true always, in everything.

6.) I shall never trust the ocean. Not at sea, nor on shore. There is way, way too much going on in those things, and I am but a grain of sand.

7.) I shall never flinch. It is a waste of time. Only true reactions are required to sudden events. A wrong move, such as a twitch while a bee lands on my leg....while I am perched on a precarious rock....no time to blink, nor slap that bug...the next move is critical, and it cannot be a frivilous one. Oh, may God help me if I fail in this one! I likely am OK there, as I rarely climb the rocks anymore.

8.) I shall never give up on any other person. We all deserve another chance...or two, or three.

9.) I shall always keep my gas tank at least as full as 3/4...at least while not traveling distances. It is not hard to do, and allows for a quick get-away when emergencies call, or even when an impromptu camping trip is upon me.

10) I shall never forget Our Creator. There would be nothing without Him. I wish to go home someday. I'll be seeing you all there too, I trust.

Note: This list was not heavily thought out, so it could have had more depth. Ah, such is the way of things.

The photo is me, at Edwards AFB air show, October, 2006, in front of the NASA 747 that carries the Space Shuttle.

Oh, and a great tribute to Pete Townshend, as well as my family is here:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1452574469


I was not going to put that out like that, it was only a demo, but it got "out" there anyway. Serena is my daughter. I was fooling with a demo, and misspelled stuff n all, but hey...my tribute to the Flying Boy, Baby Jesse (my grandson), with Pete Townshend's demo "FLYING BOY" song offered freely from his website in 2006 or so. Thank you Pete, It was an accident. It was Pete's son, that he wrote this song, several years ago, by the way. Jesse is adapted as the "new" flying boy.


--Dan

Friday Garage

Allen's garage, Friday night (last night). He broke a string on the acoustic playing "Something in the Air", switched to the electric, broke another string, then sorted it all out. Sounded fine.