Sunday Flying

Sunday I went flying at Toledo. Once the clouds burned off it was a great day for flying. The winds were light to calm all day. I got in 15 flights while I was there. Then it was home to watch the Seahawks I had recorded, good to see them win! My knee was really sore after being on it all day. Ice and heat were the order of the night. I will be glad when the 17th. gets here and I can see the Doctor again.

Black Friday and Saturday

I spent most of Black Friday in front of the computer shopping the ads. Nice and relaxed compared to what I saw when I picked up James. I ended up getting 3/4 of our Christmas shopping done.

James all set to do a little Xboxing. He spent Friday night with us. I played some Xbox with him, hard work I was all tensed up after playing for a while.

Saturday James had a game at Kelso. He had just made a foul shot in the picture above.

James 24 making a basket during their first game Saturday. He had lots of support, Emmy, Steve and Dianne, Mik and Michelle and Vera and I were there watching him. After the game we went over to Mik, Michelle and James for a turkey dinner which was great.

I'm Full

Today, we met the family at Noon for dinner at the Mansion.
The view of SW Longview from the Mansion.

We were on the Sun Porch and it was real nice, there were walls on 3 sides of us so we were not bothered by other groups.

My girls, everyone was in a great mood today.

James and Gage, they were having a great time with the camera taking strange colored pictures.

Mik and Elle, I think she wore out his knee bouncing. The food was great and there was lots of variety. I had lots of turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes and gravy, I did put a few broccoli and cucumbers on my plate to make it legal. Talk about desserts, I had apple tart, pecan pie, pumpkin pie, chocolate cake and another piece of pie that was real good, but I don't know what it was. I missed some, but there was just no space left in the old tummy, I am still full 6 hours later. Probably no evening snack for me.

Hope you had a very Happy Thanksgiving!

Alan

Starting to look like Christmas

We got our first decoration today. A nice Poinsettia for Vera from Mik, Michelle and James. I took off early this morning and met one of the flyers for coffee (well Coke for me) at Burger King in Longview. He had a transmitter I was thinking about buying, but it turned out to be the wrong model. After visiting for an hour and a half, we went out to Willow Grove and flew a few flights. What a nice day by the water. Then a stop on the way home to visit Michelle and James as they started their long weekend. Since then, it has been a pretty laid back day, mainly in my recliner reading. Boy are there lots of Black Friday Ads from everywhere online, 35 or so in my inbox at Yahoo.

Turkey tomorrow at the Mansion with the family, I am really looking forward to it.

Have a nice Thanksgiving!

Alan

Beautiful Day

What a nice day to be outside! I mowed this afternoon, well really I bagged leaves, maple seeds , fir limbs and cedar branch's that had blown off. There are not many leaves or seeds left after the winds of last week so this may be the last mowing for a while. As I was mowing the thought came to me that I should have taken a before picture to go along with this after one. Vera blew off the decks and we both worked on cleaning the pond. Then it was off for a bite to eat, get the mail and take a short drive sight seeing. We ate at Lions Pride Park and watched the river, it is real pleasant there. The knee was a little sore so I sat down to put some heat on it when we got home. That turned into a big fat nap!

Hope I can sleep tonight!

Finally!

It took most of the day, but I finally got all 46 ribs for my new plane cut out. I got the building board out and laid out the plans for one wing so I could look at them and see how they are going to fit. Watched a little football and recorded the Seahawks, but I will probably just delete it after seeing the score. Texted with James for a while this morning, their power was out. It sounded like we were surrounded by outages.

Knee

Every time I took a step today, I was thinking about my knee and how much better it felt. I was on it quite a bit today and no major problems. Hope it continues on like this. I started on a diet, nothing special just smaller portions to see if I can't take a little load off the knee.

I had a nice visit with Barry on the phone this morning. He may have mentioned a couple of time that he was outside enjoying the sunshine and that it gets up into the 70's. We will really appreciate it when we finally get some next year.

Thursday

Up early for a doctors appointment, even set the alarm(dang I hate that thing). The knee has been feeling pretty good so I tested it yesterday and managed to get it a little sore. I am looking into a procedure that restores the joint fluid. I have another appointment in 4 weeks when I hope to start on it.

Power was out for a while this afternoon, the wind has really been blowing! I puttered in the shop rewiring some batteries and testing a new battery charger. This week I started on one of this winters projects, a 101 inch wing span B-36. The first step is cutting out 46 wing ribs, I am about half done. The picture is the plane with it's designer.

Sports Sunday

Sports Sunday, that is about all that went on here today. I watched three football games and we went down and watched two of James basketball games. The pictures are a little grainy as I shoot them at a high ISO (3200).


James during his third game today at Monticello Middle school. They almost pulled this one out at the end.


James shooting a foul shoot. He did good today, he makes awesome passes. He is seeing the whole court. I enjoy watching youth basketball, in fact it is the only kind I watch.

Doctors appointment tomorrow, maybe they can find out why my knee is bothering me so much.

Flying with the kids

One of the planes James flew today, his Yak 55P.


Auna, James and Parker at the field.

James making a fly-by. There was lots of laughter and giggling going on.

The telephoto lens makes it look close to them, but it was much closer to me than them. I got out another plane that is a little simpler for Auna and Parker to try. All three of them ended up flying it and having a great time. I wish that I had thought to take pictures of them doing it, but I was having too much fun watching.

On the way home we stopped at Bettie's in Toledo for treats. The kids spotted this deer on the hill as we came down into Toledo. They bailed out of the motor home and ran out to look at it. Auna was back in a couple of minutes for the camera and James took this picture of it. We had a great day. It was one of the noisier rides to the field and back I have had for a while, but fun.
They are a good bunch of kids!

Leaves

I was right, the leaves did not get as far in the wind as I had hoped. I was out mowing them into the bagger and there was this deer about 30 feet away under the apple tree eating apples. I went and got the camera and watched him for awhile. He went all around under the tree sniffing the ground looking for them under the leaves. Then he headed up to the other tree by the pond.

It made a pleasant break for bagging the leaves. My timing was good also as it started to rain just as I finished.

Looking like it belongs!

Funny how little things make something look like it belongs there. Our old fridge had lots of pictures and magnetic things on it. When Vera took them off to get ready for the new one it looked like someone had stolen our fridge. It looked darn strange being naked after all those years. The new one looked strange because it is Black where the old one was White. Vera put some pictures and magnets on it and now it seems like it has always been there.

Wind

Boy! the way it blew today those maple leaves should end up in Lewis county. Just my luck, they will probably just end up in the North end of the lawn instead of under the trees. I spent three hours looking for the plans to a plane I want to build. Finally spotted them just walking by. I know where most of my other plans are now! I have not been up in the loft for months. Tomorrow I get to try Wwe on the Xbox. As is my norm, I will probably get beat.

Hope you stayed warm and dry today.

Chilly Flying

It would have been nicer flying if the wind would have died. It was 2-3 Mph when we got there and was up to 4-5 Mph with gusts to 11 Mph by the time we left. We were dressed for it so I had fun regardless. My friend Bob came down also and I test flew a plane he had bought from me. The plane in the picture is one I built for James but it never got flown much as he liked the one with the bomb bay better, so when Bob was looking for a plane I sold it to him.

After flying, I came home and attacked the leaves with the mower. After emptying many mower bagger loads of leaves, I blew the rest into the brush with the mower. That seemed like lots more fun. It looks like maybe half the leaves have fallen of the maples, so I will have another session in a week or so.

Time for New

The new Ultimate Biplane that I finished on Saturday before we went to James game.


James (Black 52) spent the game getting held by Yellow 70. He still got in on some tackles.
Today we got ready for our new Stove and Refrigerator. We took out the old ones, cleaned up where they had been and ran a water line for the ice maker in the new fridge. Bev and Debbie came and picked up the stove, and Mik took the fridge so all we have to do now is wait for the new ones tomorrow. Vera is darn excited, she has never liked that stove! Probably because it was a GE. We had a GE TV that probably never worked more than a month at a time, it really turned us off GE's. The stove was installed when we bought the house. Of course it never missed a beat in 25 years.