I think it's time to admit that I have reached an untenable position.
Since becoming chief pilot, I have been inundated with tasks and deadlines. This leaves little time for other things, like blogging.
Since posting pictures and status updates to Facebook and posting here is really just duplicating my effort and resulting in redundancy I have to announce that, to maintain a more tenable situation, this blog will be on indefinite hiatus.
So, to those that were following, thank you for your views and support (I know where you are...cause Google Analytics tells me). Maybe in the near-ish future I can start where I've left off. We'll see.
First was a visit to the rehab center my grandfather had been moved to, where he will be tortured while he convalesces. I can't imagine it's easy to relearn how to walk, especially when you're trying to do it with two brand new knee joints.
I saw this sign every time I went to the hospital/rehab center and I laughed every damn time.
After that we went to lunch at Rosa's.
Where apparently it's very expensive to eat on Tuesdays...
...But maybe that's how they pay for all the pink paint?
One of the best things about Rosa's is the sopapillas. Another is the home made tortillas. Like any decent tortilleria, they have an automated machine that presses and cooks the tortillas before sending them to a conveyor to cool and be stacked. Keira thought this was the most amazing thing and drug her "cousants" to view them with her.
OMGWTFBBQ!!1!!1! A TORTILLA MACHINE!!!
After lunch it was off to Frontier Texas, a museum in Abilene with some cool multi media exhibits and unabashed accounts of frontier life. The artifacts, while far and few in between, were at least of decent quality and interest.
Frontier Texas!
Artifacts from the area - the cases nearest the revolver are a three-inch and a six-inch Gatling gun casing.
One of the cooler exhibits, I think it might have been titled "Stampede".
Wolves and buffalo. To not like this would be unamurican.
Stacey and K in the stage coach that was used in multimedia exhibits. (I think it was originally built for Dances With Wolves according to the plaque on it.)
A cross section example of the "cannon ball courthouse" that still exists today in Buffalo Gap (I totally have to go see this building next time I'm in the area). With the cannon balls, the stones will not move no matter the condition of the surrounding mortar.
I think barbed wire in Texas is like corn in Kansas.
...
After Frontier, we headed to the Grace museum. The Grace started as a hotel way back in the day, located across the street from the railway station.
After being a hotel for many, many years it fell into disrepair and became an eyesore. Then, not too long ago, it was taken over and turned into a museum and reception venue.
The ball room about twenty-five years ago (upper right).
And the ball room as it sits today (ready for a wedding and everything).
A hundred-year-old, Victorian "second day" dress. Apparently it was just as important as the wedding gown, as it's what the bride wore the day after her wedding to receive guests (and ostensibly after a long night of showing her husband her ankles!)
One of the most notable exhibits there was an Ansel Adams exhibit with it's own dedicated room, with original prints from an original album (they framed the actual pages of the album for the exhibit).
Picture unrelated: Girls gone wild, 1914.
After that, it was off to the Texas Store to buy a few souvenirs.
How much do Texan's love Dr. Pepper? This much.
When we were done at the Texas Store it was time to hit u Starbucks as we were all draggin' just a bit. And then it was time for the best shopping trip ever. Me, U, C1, C2, and Keira headed out for what is probably the best store I've ever seen.
It's...so...beautiful...(tear)
After about an hour we made our purchases and took our fireworks outside to the car, then headed home.
That's right, we bought a grocery basket full. And most of them can double as ranged weapons that can kill a horse in a hundredth of a second. Enjoy your sparklers, Californians.
When we got there we headed over to the Texas Roadhouse for dinner. Me being somewhat retarded, totally spaced that I could embarrass Stacey by telling them it was her birthday. She of course waited till after dinner to tell me she was worried I would do that, at which point I facepalmed and realized my mistake. Next year Stacey...next year.
On the way home from dinner we stopped at a small stand and got a few more rockets and such to shoot off that night, since there was no way I was gonna wait till the fourth to start setting shit on fire.
The fourth was fairly low key. It started with another visit to the rehab facility, then off to Whataburger for lunch. Stacey and I think Whataburger is just about the best damn thing there is as far as hamburgers go (excluding, of course, in-n-out, wich is the best thing to ever be put in ones mouth), so we were more than agreeable to going there. of course, I may never use their butter after seeing the care they take to seal their tubs...
The gap is so it can breathe, right?
Apparently, no one told anyone else that it was Stacey's birthday. That little diddy came out when I started to make birthday brownies for Stacey. After a dressing down for not announcing that fact over public media and/or using an Amber Alert to disseminate the info, we got down to Stacey's birthday dinner: Chicken satay, peanut sauce, rice, salad, and for dessert: frosted brownies and chess pie.
I think it was while we were making dinner that the bottle of scotch disappeared between U and myself. It was weird - I'd pour a shot for one of us into our respective shot glass and it would evaporate. I know that's what happened cause we went through just about a full bottle of twelve-year Macallan and I only remember drinking three shots...
While scotch was evaporating Keira, C1, and C2 made Stacey a paper birthday card/cake. (Note: I've told my grandparents they should get an exterminator to rid themselves of that rat on the top of the chair behind Stacey but they insist it's a dog and their pet.)
After dinner, with bellies full and some of us with scotch-induced bubbles popping around our heads, it was time to get down to business. Serious business.
We had bought mortars (the re-loadable kind, not the lame one shot deals), roman candles, firecrackes, etc, etc. I don't have to many pictures because I was too busy blowing shit up.
The re-loadable mortars were awesome.
"Light, and get away."
Thanks to a slow shutter speed I got the fuse burning and the air burst.
To be honest all the "Wrong & Dangerous" things look awesome...
You know this was awesome just by looking at it.
The next day we had a few fountains and firecrackers left, so we put them to good use.
... on a fire ant hill!
I was thinking we could leave to head home around nine am, then that got pushed to noon, then finally at two pm we left for home. The biggest hold up was to see my grandfather one more time before we left, and then lunch at Rosa's one more time. On the way out of town I promised Stacey we could stop by a sunflower field, so we did.
This was maybe one-tenth of the sunflower field.
Of course, Stacey had to wade into the sunflower sea and get a few pictures.
We finally got home around three am on the sixth. It was a low key day; picked some ripe Montmorency cherries to freeze for future mead production, cussed the birds that ate all the rip cherries in our Bing cherry tree, got the sprinkler timer working for the lawns, and I got myself ready for work the next day at eight am. And that was how I spent my days off this month.
I have been assigned some duties and for the most part I've been not swamped, but decently busy. I'm thinking once I've gotten a little practice with the new activities they'll wind up taking less of my time. Or more. I guess we'll see.
On the twenty-sixth I had started a new batch of mead.
That's about a gallon of water and fifteen pounds of honey I'm pouring in over raisins, oranges, cinnamon sticks, cloves, and nutmeg.
Unfortunately, I had tried to use a liquid yeast, but it arrived very warm and I figured it was probably mostly dead, but I tossed it in anyways since it'll just settle out in the end even if it doesn't ferment.
Don't you die on me!
After two days with no visible signs of fermentation I ordered another kind of (dry) yeast. However, when it arrived on the thirtieth, I checked the carboy and while I saw nothing coming out of the airlock, I smelled fermentation. Apparently the new cap I was using hadn't sealed 100%, and the CO2 was leaking around the cap. As soon as I moved the cap a little bit, it sealed the rest of the way and the airlock started bubbling. I don't think any nasties could have gotten in since the CO2 leak would have been under the lip of the cap, and with fermentation happening, it would have caused the pressure inside the carboy to be higher than outside, creating a positive flow outward (preventing bacteria and such from coming in).
Oh well, I'll save the dry yeast I bought for the next batch - I'll probably be starting two new batches as soon as I can get thirty-five pounds of honey and two gallons of fresh, ripe apricots (I already have the cherries (Bing and Montmorency) halved, pitted, and frozen waiting for those batches, just waiting for my apricots to tree ripen).
Turn into alcohol faster!
On the first we left Blanding and headed for Texas to see family and celebrate the fourth. We left fairly early, about four am so we could get a decent ways towards Abilene before Keira awoke.
Like mommy...
...Like baby.
The first stop we made was in Gallup at Cracker Barrel for breakfast, where K decided she needed to stay in her night gown.
Breakfast in her night gown. In a restaurant. Completely normal.
The next stop after that was in Ft. Sumner, NM, at the Billy the Kid Museum.
It's kind of hard to miss.
It was actually pretty cool, with an entire room of Billy the Kid stuff including the knife he was holding when he was shot and his rifle. (I thought I got a picture of the knife, but apparently I did not.)
Billy the Kid's rifle. If you look up Henry McCarty (aka William Bonney, Billy the Kid) in Wikipedia, you will find a ferrotype of him holding a rifle (you can see it in the bottom left of this pic), I think this might be the rifle in that picture.
A stone inscribed by the Kid: Billy | Kid, 7/4, 1880. He died just over a year later on July 14, 1881 at the age of twenty one. He was also allegedly a bit of a dick.
Billy the Kids hair. Admittedly, even though it's tangible history (which I love), this is kinda creepy.
The Kid's chaps and spurs.
One of the original twenty-seven wanted posters. I guess twenty-six was not enough, twenty-eight too many?
The best picture of Billy the Kid I could find, and he still looks like a tool.
Along with the Billy the Kid artifacts, they also had a bunch of cool stuff from the Ft. Sumner area as well as the fort it self.
Uniforms worn at Ft. Sumner during the Civil War. I think the top uniform jacket was an enlisted artilleryman's based on the color and style.
The sword of Captain John Chisum, the man who would later help found the Goodnight-Loving trail, help elect Pat Garret as sherrif, and tell Billy the Kid to f**k off (and live to tell about it).
Artifacts found at the old Ft. Sumner.
Personal effects of E.V. Sumner, for whom Ft. Sumner is named.
An American flag with fourty-five stars (it's displayed incorrectly though, the union is supposed to be at the top).
The plaque explaining the flag, kinda scary to think Oklahoma wasn't a state till 1907...
Spurs made for Pancho Villa and his men.
A few of the firearms caught my eye as well.
A Colt 1860 Army (Colt trivia: an "Army" revolver was one chambered in .44 cal., a "Navy" was chambered in .36 cal.). I have a reproduction at home.
Winchester Model 1894, chambered in .30-30. I also have one of these back at the house.
I think this might be a Japanese Type 38 (Or maybe a Type 97, I couldn't see the other side of the receiver to check for a scope mount, but it has the bipod). It caught my eye because A) It's Japanese (I think), B) was produced in the wrong time period for the museum, and C) was never used by the US (at least not in the Continental US). If it has an intact imperial chrysanthemum it might be worth some money...
Down the road was Billy the Kids grave (he's buried with a couple of cohorts). Next time we roll through we'll try to stop at the old Ft. Sumner museum and see what it has to offer.
The graves, the Kid's is to the right.
Billy the Kid's foot-stone.
The plaque explaining why the foot-stone has it's own cage.
We got to the Abilene area about nine pm with some daylight left. It was nice to see the family again, including my aunt and her family, who I haven't seen in roughly fifteen years. They have been between Texas and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia during that time, with most if it spent in the Kingdom. I know they're sensitive about having information on the internet, so from here on we will call them A, U, C1, and C2 (aunt, uncle, oldest cousin and youngest cousin, respectively).
There's something...different...with your Saudi-bought laptop's keyboard...
The rest of the night was spent watching Stacey and K trying to catch toads and visiting with A, U, C1 and C2.
First you corner them...
...then you hold them for two seconds before they jump.
That night we decided that since we we were in a state that sold actual fireworks, we'd go ahead and use up the crappy "safe and sane" fountain pack that Stacey bought in Blanding.
After that was done we watched TV for a bit before heading to bed. Most would argue that watching TV at my grandparent's house requires moving a chair or two, but not Stacey.
I'm cynical as hell and like to think of myself as well adjusted. And while euphemisms are all good and well, sometimes you just have to call a turd a turd, no matter how polished it is.
