Month: December 2009

Crappy Morning…

As I drifted off to sleep last night, I heard the hum of the well pump in the basement of our house. It usually runs when anyone uses water… the diswasher, a shower, toilet, etc. I didn’t think much of it as we had a full house – Christopher came home from college last night. Around 5:00 am I sort of half-awoke, and the pump sound was still there. My brain sort of skipped a beat and then I jolted fully awake. I knew that a pipe somewhere was broken. Things had just thawed completely from the recent big freeze. We’d had snow all Saturday night, into and through Sunday. This after two+ weeks of sub-freezing weather. So I throw some clothes on and grab a flashlight to go check that indeed the pump is running (it is) and then start searching for the break.

I really love this house, but it is obvious that it has an Achilles Heel in the form of its water system and plumbing. I actually PREPARED for this freeze. I shut off the water to the barn, and drained its pipes. I even shut off the valve I installed to protect the last pipe that burst in a big freeze. I found the leak, and thankfully was able to fix it easily.

Since Chris is home, and would like to have a car to drive, and I have some bulky items in my office to bring home, along with a waste-oil run to Snohomish, I left the Jetta for Chris and drove the truck. We rarely drive this truck. Sue bought it a decade ago to haul horses, but now the horse trailer is gone, and most of the horses are gone, and the sole remaining one lives elsewhere. The truck has been kept for runs to the dump, the hardware store, etc. and of course situations like today. So I’m driving down I-5 to work and I note an (obvious) unmarked police car following me for a long ways. I’m in the right lane, and have the cruise set at 55, even though the limit is 60. I don’t like to drive this truck, and never feel safe going fast in it as it always feels top-heavy and dangerous. After several miles the cop flips on his lights and I pull over onto the shoulder. He tells me my tabs have expired… in March(!)
WTF?
How did I let THAT happen? Usually the DOL sends out renewal notices and I renew them online within days. I never forget to do this… how did I not notice? The truck gets driven maybe 10 times a year, and usually only a few miles. But still… I’m usually not that unaware of things.

The cop takes my lic, reg, insurance, etc and goes back to his car. When he comes back he says “I’m not trying to be a jerk but… ” Sure enough he hands me a citation. Grrr. He explains how I can deal with it in court, but all I’m thinking is “What a jerk.” Now I know I can have Sue take care of all this, as she is an “officer of the court”… but I also know she’s going to be all ticked off at me for:
1. Forgetting to renew the tabs.
And
2. Getting a ticket.

Revenue collection device.

I take the citation from the Sheriff, and drive off to work in a bad mood. I renewed my tabs online as soon as I arrived at the office, but my mood hasn’t improved any.

787 First Flight

I am privileged to have witnessed first-hand today a historic moment. Mind you it is a small one in the big scheme of things, but I had the chance to see it, and now I’m sharing it with you.

My office is very close to Boeing Field, and my window is host to all manner of interesting aircraft, as you have seen occasionally. The flight path of Sea-Tac is also behind our building, so there is always something flying by. Today though, was a historic day as something special was set to fly by. Boeing’s new passenger jet, the 787 “Dreamliner” took flight for the first time. I watched it take off from Paine Field in Everett live on the Internet and set my phone’s alarm to remind me to be ready to photograph it 5 hours later when it arrived at Boeing Field a bit before sundown.

The winds were from the south which meant it would land towards my window, not across it. I was preparing to make a run to the post office to mail a few things when Kevin, our Facilities Manager and Civil Air Patrol member informed me that the flight was now scheduled to land much earlier. As I grabbed my camera my phone rang and my friend John, who works on the 787 project at Boeing let me know exactly when it would touch down: 1:22 PM. This meant I had about 12 minutes to go find a spot near the runway to catch it. If it had been a clear day with wind to the north I would have gone to the south end of the runway and been right underneath it as it landed. It was coming from the north though and 12 minutes would be not long enough to get to the far side of the airport and found a spot to park, so I gave up on getting really close shots and drove as fast as I dared to the Museum of Flight, which has a good view of the runway and a large parking lot. Of course EVERY light between my office and the Museum was RED.

I arrived with about 3 minutes to spare, with a large crowd already gathering. I lucked into a parking spot and walked around trying to find a good spot for photos. The air was thick with cold rain (the weather was what cut the first flight short), hovering news helicopters and a pervasive sense of anticipation.

News choppers overhead, people wait for the 787's arrival under the warm friendly umbrella of a retired B-47 Stratojet Strategic Nuclear Bomber.

That white speck under the bomber's nose is the 787's lights as it emerged from the heavy overcast above Seattle.

Zoomed as far as my lens will go. The 787 & chase planes approach out of the gloomy sky. Note the upswept wings.

getting closer.

Just after touchdown. You can see the flexible wings have let down.

The landing was essentially perfect. The plane was smooth and undramatic. By this point it was pretty much taxiing.

Once the landing roll was done and the Dreamliner was essentially just parading, the chase planes flew over.

Does anyone other than me find it ironic that the chase planes for the world's newest jetliner are:…

… a Lockheed design dating from the 1940s?

taxiing down past the Museum of Flight.

The IMAX chopper does a low flyby around the nose as the 787 comes to the turn-around point.

The crowd waves, and the pilot waves back.

A closer look at the Rolls-Royce engine. Interesting cowl shape.

As the 787 heads toward the testing center at the north end of the field, everyone takes a last look at her before heading back to work and out of the rain.

You can see all of my photos, as they were dumped out of my camera, here.

Car Photo of the Day: Flights of Fancy

Today’s photo is not an exotic racing or sports car, it is instead a prosaic American passenger car. I chose this image to commemorate in a small way the first flight of the newest American passenger plane, Boeing’s 787 “Dreamliner” which lifted off the runway at Paine Field in Everett, Washington just a few minutes ago. Congratulations are in order to Boeing and all of its employees (including a few who are my friends.) This hood ornament from the 50s pointed to a bright future, which we are indeed living out.

I hope to catch the 787 with camera in-hand when it lands at Boeing Field near my office later today, so stay tuned.

Car Photo of the Day: A tad overdone… or “Still Life with JC Whitney Catalog Extras”

Today’s CPotD is an engine bay shot of a truly landmark car, though this particular example seems to have suffered at the hands of somebody who has spent far too much time, and money, in the JC Whitney catalog. Can you name the car?

Car Photo of the Day: (sort of) Obvious Answer Edition.

Since nobody was able to name the red car in the middle-ground of the December 2nd CPotD (even Corvairdad, who stumbled for the first time in a long while!) here is a head-on shot of the same car. By looking at this photo, and the one linked above, you should be able to name this car… a fish in the proverbial British barrel.

TSA = (*Theatre) Security (*) Administration.

If there was any doubt that TSA is nothing more than security theatre, I present to these two links:

“Do I have the right to refuse this search?” – Interesting reading from somebody who is a trained law enforcement professional.

And…

“Redacted.” – A post by c.g.o reader David Traver Adolphus, where he links to a file that the TSA posted for the public, with black boxes covering the redacted text. However by selecting the text and capy/pasting it elsewhere it becomes readable!

These are the people who are supposed to protect us from terrorists? George Carlin was right.

A (really loud) blast from the past: Some CanAm footage

When I was a little kid growing up in northern Illinois, my dad brought me up to Elkhart Lake, Wisconsin a few times to see the Canadian-American Challenge Cup (CanAm) races at Road America. I can not recall which years we attended, and I’m sure it was later in the 60s than the event shown above, which was the series’ first season… but I do have a few vivid memories of the events themselves, notably:

  • The fact that you felt these cars go by more than you saw or heard them.
  • I can recall huge straw bales being used as “safety barriers” around the outside of the course.
  • Jim Hall’s Chaparrals were my favorites. Not only was the big wing really cool (and these videos show well how it worked, or didn’t as the case may be) but it also made his cars easy to spot for my then small size.
  • The big orange McLaren cars always won. My beloved Chaparrals were always the bridesmaid.
  • Most of all, it was really cool to spend time with my Dad, doing something he really enjoyed doing.

We also attended other races in the region, notably some open-wheel events such as Indianapolis (just qualifying, not the actual event) and another oval-track race in Wisconsin which I can’t recall the name of right now. But it was always the sports car races such as CanAm that I liked the best. Realizing now that in many ways this was a pivotal time in racing history, I recognize that I am privileged to have witnessed it first-hand, even as a small child.

The list of names involved in this particular race in Las Vegas reads like a “who’s who” of legendary drivers.

A little digging on YouTube turned up an event from ’67 that took place at Road America:

I may have been there, so keep your eyes peeled for a little blond kid on his dad’s shoulders! 😉