A New Record!

I finally got ambitious about Noon today and put the new tail pipe on the Blazer.  Of course, it did not fit and had to be bent a couple of times before things lined up.  I had to take a break when Ava and Harper showed up to Trick or Treat.

Harper was determined to open that candy bar, a couple more minutes and she would have done it.  I finished the Blazer, put the tools way, moved the motor home back and cleaned up for the Trick or Treaters and Monday Night Football.

Auna and her friend were the next ones to arrive, right after them, Cathy brought Bridget and Jillian by.  Jillian looked really cute, her dress had LEDs under the skirt that blinked.

A little while later, Rielee and Parker trick or treated us, and that was it for the evening. We set a new record tonight, 8 Trick or Treaters, that also means I have some left overs to eat!  I should have given the kids two a piece, because I sure don't need the candy!

Debbie's Birthday

We celebrated Debbie's eighteenth birthday tonight, her birthday was Thursday, but Josh and her had a trip to the Corn Maze planned.  We had a great time visiting with them, Mik, Michelle and James at the Masthead during dinner.  Earlier today I worked on the Cub with the sensor station in it and got the current probe hooked up.  Vera went to bible class this morning and then church after that.  I watched the end of a couple of football games, it did not seem like my teams were winning today, then went back out to work on the planes some more.  It was a very relaxing day.

Foggy Morning

Friday 10/28/2011

Vera had an appointment this morning, so we ran to town and did several errands before it.  My new Techie Toy (that is what Vera is calling it) came in the mail, so I was anxious to get home and play with it.  It is a sensor station for my planes that sends back information about speed, altitude, temperature, rpm, amps and volts while I am flying.  I spent the afternoon installing it in the Cub.

Saturday 10/29/2011

It was really foggy this morning, so I started later than normal, after picking up sub sandwiches, taking pictures on the way, we finally got to the field about 11.

It was still foggy there, but I wanted to see how the GPS unit worked, so I flew about 11:30 in the fog.  You can see the water on the plane from the fog, at 100 feet altitude the plane was getting hard to see.  I found out it's top speed is 44 mph and it lands at 14 mph.  I had a great time playing with it and will hook up more of the sensors for my next flying session.  It turned into a lovely day, 66 degrees, lots of sun and a few good friends to visit with.

Country Cousin's

Right after Vera's walk this morning, we headed up to visit her sister Marie.  Vera had a Halloween sack made up for her.

When we got there Marie was addressing birthday cards to church members, so we watched while she finished up.  We had a nice visit and spent some of it talking about their early years in Randle.  When it was time for Marie's lunch, we left and went to the Country Cousin's restaurant for our lunch.  Then it was off for home, traffic was not bad this afternoon on I5 so we had a nice drive home.

 Shortly after we got home, I went over to see what the twins were up to.  They wanted me to come into the play room, so I sat on the floor and played for a bit.  Harper wanted to show me how she could turn on the light, she got the stool out of the bathroom, packed it in and set it under the light switch and hopped up.  I think that switch is going to get a real workout for a while.  Grandma asked if they wanted to go for a walk, right away Ava had me get Smoky the Bear down so she could take him with her.  Then Dianne could not get Harper's zipper started, so I tried it and got it to work.  Naturally Ava wanted me to do her's also.

 Both girls were wearing Rielee's sweaters, Ava really loaded the pocket with rocks.  After I left there, I decided to spray the moss on the roofs with Wet And Forget.  I put a gallon of mix on the shop roof and a gallon on the house.  While I was on the shop roof, I noticed the grape vines had grown onto the carport roof, so I got the hedge trimmers out and cut them back.  By the time I got rid of all the debris from that job, I was ready to call it a day.

Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday!

Monday:

I put the last piece of the roof repair on and cleaned up all the mess.  There was plenty of debris, I filled up our wagon with it and discovered I could not pull it up the incline by the SE corner of the house, it was muddy and my feet slipped out from under me and down I went.  The 4 wheeler did not have any problem pulling it, I should have done that first thing.

Tuesday:

The forecast was good, so we went flying at Toledo.  The only thing they missed  in the forecast was the wind, it never let up all day.  We had a pretty good turn out of flyers,  I think Vera counted 8.  I had planned on spraying the runway for weeds after the flying was over, so we had the trailer and tractor with us.  I ended up putting two tanks full on the runway and parking area.  Then we hustled home and changed for James' concert at LCC.  Cascade Choir had been invited down to the Mark Morris concert.  James really enjoyed it and remarked several times he had fun!

The Cascade choir did three songs, then they were in the last song of the evening that combined all the groups there.  We had a great time, then went to Coldstone  with Mik, Michelle and James afterwards.

Wednesday:

Since I had the sprayer all set up, I went down to the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers field at Goble and sprayed the runway there for weeds.  I put in one flight with the little Cessna before I started.  After I got home, I sprayed our lawn and then cleaned up and put things away.  Since I did not take any pictures the last three days (the concert is a screen capture from video) I decided to look back and see what I was doing around this date when I first got the digital camera.

This is October 23 1999, the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers got together for a dinner one evening at the Willow Grove yacht club.  We had a good time that evening.

Time for the cold weather gear!

I am still a little stiff and sore from the roof project, but had a great day!  After Vera went to church, I gassed up the motor home, got sub sandwiches, mopped the motor home floor and put the rugs back in.  When Vera got home, we were all ready to head for the flying field.

Here is most of what I flew today, I was really anxious to fly the P-51 and see if moving the wheels ahead would help the nosing over problem.  It did, I put in two flights with several touch and goes each time and then taxied back on both flights with no problem.  I have broken lots of props in the past trying to taxi it, so I am glad to see the improvement.

Leonard and Audrey were the only ones there when we showed up. A little while later, John showed up with his jets.  It was pretty cool out there today and I think that is why we all left a little early.

I think it is time to load the propane heater and put the thermals on for the rest of the year's flying!

Since I got my benches halfway clean this weekend, I had to get my next project out and start planning how I was going to finish it.

Getting ready for a new project.

It was a good day to work inside, there was rain or drizzle coming down almost all day.  I finally got the B-36's wing out of the way, I hung it from the ceiling in the shop.  Then I started cleaning, something that kind of got ignored this summer.  By the time we left for the party, I had 1 1/2 benches cleaned up fairly well and I had vacuumed the floor.

Tomorrow, my niece Robin turns 50 and they had a birthday party for her tonight with a 50's theme.  The Hula Hoop contest was great fun to watch, it was a team event and the pardners had to be 15 years different in age.  Most of the times were around 2 seconds and it ended up in a 3 way tie, with the teams all having a 7 second total.  During the tie breaker, Ainsley got it figured out and she and Julie won with a total of 19 or 20 seconds.  The party was a good ending to the day, we had a great time!

Thursday and Friday

Thursday:

Boy was I tired today!  Every time I sat down it was nap time.  I guess the 3 days away from home, driving 400 miles, and 3 days on the roof got to me.  I did go down and get my monthly blood test (2.2 INR which is good!) and putter a little in the shop, but I lost count of how many naps I took.

Friday:

I slept good last night even after all the naps.  I spent half the morning looking for the laminator, I finally gave up and decided to buy a new one the next time we went to town.  Later I was sitting at the computer and looked to my right and there it was! 

All that showed was one end, and that was not the image I had in mind, I was looking for the front view of it.

I did some work on the B-36, it had one landing gear that had shifted a little, so I drilled new holes for it.  We made a flying trip to Chehalis to run an errand and to make the trip worth while, we had lunch at Skipper's.

NOT a beautiful day on the roof!

Sitting down on a wet roof is not my idea of fun!  I was off to a good start this morning, and then a rain shower came through!  It was never more than a heavy drizzle, but it sure got the roof wet.  Never the less, I got the job done after the rain quit, in fact I saw some blue sky later in the afternoon.  No picture today, it was too dark when I quit.  Maybe I will add one tomorrow.  I had to make a run downtown for nails and more cement this morning, Vera had a grocery list on the counter, so I picked it up while I was in town.  When she got home from bible study, it turned out she had stopped and picked up the same things I did, we even got the same brand of flour!

Another beautiful day on the roof!

This is how the roof looked yesterday after I got the old vents off.  I covered it up for the night and started again this morning.  I had a call from Barry today, they have been in Arizona for almost a week, and are starting to get things in order.  90 degrees there today, he said the cats were taking a little while to adjust, they were not liking the hot weather.  I took one break to run down to Baker Lumber for some flashing and picked up a Cookie Jar Blizzard at Dairy Queen, Yum!

This how it looked about half way through the day.  I got most of the shingles on before I quit this evening and with any luck, I will get it all done tomorrow.  It is strange how jobs seem to take about 3 times longer than you planned on!  It was sure warm up there today, first the vest went, then the sweatshirt, but I was really comfortable in a long sleeved tee shirt.  The twins did not know what to make of me on the roof, they waved from over by the shop, but did not come much closer.

A beautiful day on the roof!

It was sure nice today on the roof, the only thing that would have made it better would have been me flying airplanes rather than replacing the vent.

I slept great last night after the trip yesterday, I made an early trip over to see the twins and had a good time playing with Hot Wheels with them.  Hiding things with their blankets and them saying "Where is it" was fun also, they did not know how to handle it when I put Harper's blanket over my head and said "Where is Uncle Alan".  Harper finally came and got her blanket and said "My Blanket".

Vera came out and took a couple of pictures of me on the roof, I am picking up nails and staples with the magnet.  The job went pretty good, just not as fast as I would have liked.  I should be able to finish it up tomorrow with no problem.

Friday, Saturday and Sunday

Friday Morning we headed for Arlington to help our granddaughter Jackie and husband John celebrate their first anniversary.  The party was on Saturday, so we made arrangements to spend Friday night camped at my sister Pam's place in Lake Stevens.  We only got lost once, the GPS quit just as we came into Enumclaw.  I banged on it and got it going again, only to have it quit the first bump we hit after lunch.  It is in the garbage now!  I tried to do the route by memory (BIG mistake!), but knew I was in trouble when I saw the Renton city limits sign.  I gave up then and broke out the smart phone to guide us to Pam's.

In the picture, Pam is showing us a quilt she's making.

We had a nice time Friday evening visiting with Pam, Jim, Raye and their neighbors.  Pam cooked a great dinner for all of us, I was so full that I did not have my usual bed time snack.

In the morning we headed for John's folks place North East of Arlington.  They have a beautiful view of Whitehorse Mt. from their place.

Jackie's dad, Joe, his sister Sherry, Pam and Raye were there for the party along with a bunch of John's relatives.  John's mom Tami had prepared a great lunch, with the sweetest corn on the cob we have had in a long time.  After lunch and cake, Jackie and John opened cards and gifts

Later in the afternoon, John's folks gave us a tour of the farm.  They have Alpacas, chickens, calves, cows, dogs, goats, horses, pigeons, and pigs.

John's pig had just had a litter of 11 a few days ago, they were sure cute!  One was making his escape out the door, maybe he is camera shy!

Vera and Tami are with the Alpaca's, Vera got to pet the dark colored one, but the light colored one was having none of that.  John mentioned it might spit if it was pushed, so that was the end of that.  We spent the rest of the day watching activities around the farm and visiting.  Sunday morning, we were up early and left for home about 7:30.  By the time we got to Toledo, I was really sleepy!  We pulled into the flying field and several friends were there flying, so I put in 4 flights, which really refreshed me.  We got most of the unloading and cleanup done before settling in for the night.  It is amazing how good it feels to get home even after just a few days away having fun.

Football

After my exercises and shower, I decided to take James' school pictures for Laury and Des over to Dianne's and see what was new with the twins.  Laury was there, so I gave her a picture.  The girls sure love their "Bum" it was fun watching them unwrap it and share.  On the way back home, suddenly rocks and leaves started sticking to my left shoe.  By the time I got to the shop it was like I was walking down hill.  I scrapped all I could off in the grass and could see this ugly pink and green stuff.  I took my shoe off and got a screwdriver out of the shop to clean it off with.  It looks terrible, but smells good, it is a big glob of Play Doh!  The twins must have left a trap for me outside.

James is rolling out to throw a pass that turned into a 50 or 60 yard touchdown play!  Today was the last game of the year and also a home game.  James played good, you can see the bandage on his leg where he got stepped on early in the game.  They won 26 to 20, the game was an exciting one, close all the way.

Motor Home Maintenance.

Tuesday Vera and I went down and got our flu shots.  Vera's nurse was nicknamed "Slick" because you could not even feel the shots she gave.  Mine was pretty good also, as I never felt a thing.  Afterwards we went to the Country Village and had a nice lunch.  Their carrot cake is really good!  When we got home, I did some more cleanup and rearranging in the shop.

That is where I spent a good part of today!  It has been a while, (like before my knee was done), since I have done much maintenance on the motor home.  Right off the bat, I found a bolt missing and the other one loose on the rear motor mount.  Talk about a tight spot, after I found a replacement and got it started in the hole, I could not tighten it with any of the wrenches I had.  I needed to fill one propane tank, so I stopped and bought a set of stubby wrenches at Gunnar's on the way.  That did the trick and I was able to tighten the bolt.  I also greased it, fixed a parking light that was not working, tightened all the hose clamps, adjusted the doors (that took a while!) and checked the oil and water.  The twins were outside several times today, the second time Ava said "Hi" pointed at grandma and said "Yummy" so I walked over to see what she was talking about. Dianne had made cinnamon rolls and they were still warm.  Steve brought me one and it was great!  It was fun watching the girls eat theirs, Harper loaded up her fork with most of the pieces before she took a bite.  All too soon it was time to get back to the motor home.

On my last trip in the clouds looked pretty spectacular and I thought the sunset might be interesting tonight.  I kept an eye on it as I was doing this, but the colors just were not there tonight.  Vera baked chicken for dinner and it was really good, I could tell it was going to be when I smelled it as it baked.

Football and Football

After flying three days out of four, I really slept last night, almost 9 hours.  After exercises, breakfast and emails, I started cleaning some of the shop so I would have room to bring the B-36 in and start detailing it.  I figured out a place for the fuselage, maybe tomorrow I will get a spot for the wing located.  I kept an eye on the babies sleeping sign each trip to the motor home and finally spotted it's absence, then the door was locked, after knocking a few times, I called Dianne with my cell phone.  We got a laugh out of that!  The twins started showing me stuff right away, then Ava played a trick on Steve by covering Elmo with her blanket and saying "Papa where is Elmo?".  She was really excited to show him.

They were playing catch when Harper sat on the ball to show off.  Shortly after that, they hauled out some books for me to read to them.  I was just getting ready to leave for James' football game, but I could not resist going through a couple of books with them.

James played really hard all game, here he is in the backfield tackling for a big loss.  He took some hard hits, but never let up.  The game ended up tied 6 to 6 and they went into OT.  During their possession it was an absolute downpour which did not help them and they lost 13 to 6.  During the game one of Michelle's former students asked "How come the flags are at half mast, did some one die?",  One of the other kids said "Al Davis", I loved that answer since the Raiders are one of my favorite teams.  We made a quick stop at Sears so I could pick up a pair of snap ring pliers, had dinner at Dairy Queen and headed home.  I went out to try the pliers and finished up some maintenance on the P-51 before coming in to watch Monday Night Football.  Right in the middle of the game there was a knock on the door, it was Steve with a piece of German Chocolate cake, boy was that good.  Then the Lions won, so my night was complete. 

Flying at Goble

My helicopter is not on the table, but this is what I flew today.  The Cowlitz Valley RC Flyers had a picnic today, so Vera and I headed down this morning.  The weather looked iffy all the way down, but when we got parked the drizzle had quit.  I flew the B-36 two more times, now it will be taken in and decorated.  The weather was probably responsible for the small turn out, we only had 7 flyers there.  Lunch was good, we did lots of flying and we even had some sunny periods in the afternoon.  We left about 5:30 and made a stop at Fred Meyer on the way home, then I settled in to watch my recording of the Seahawks winning!

Boy, lots of geese flew by today heading South, is that an indication of things to come? 

Friday and Saturday

I was not too productive on Friday, I charged a few batteries from Thursday and then picked up James after school for a visit.  I had skipped lunch and he was hungry, so we stopped at Papa Pete's on the way home for a family sized combination.  That sure took care of our hunger pangs.

We went over to Dianne's later and had a nice visit with her and Steve.  Steve's story about taking the twins up to get Rielee really cracked us up.  We played some Xbox wrestling, I get beat every time, I can not figure out how to pick up things to hit people with.  Vera made a fresh batch of cookies and when Michelle showed up to pick up James, we all had cookies and milk.

This is how it looked this morning when we arrived at Toledo to fly.  I put 3 more flights on the B-36 during the day and even got relaxed enough to sit down during the last one.  We had 12 members out there today, and after one B-36 flight I got a round of applause, that was a big surprise!  I managed to select the Lancair on the radio and then try to fly the Ultimate, not good, now I have some repairs to make.  Our friends Leonard and Audrey changed their plans so they could come see the B-36 fly, quite an honor since it was their 30th. wedding anniversary!

It Flies!

Today, Vera and I went up and flew the B-36 for the first time!

I almost blew it on the first flight by leaving one aileron connection loose, boy did it flutter, shaking the whole plane.  I slowed it way down and nursed it around the pattern and managed a pretty good landing.  After hooking up the aileron the right way, I made a second much longer flight that went great.  Vera took these pictures of that flight.

I ended up making a total of 4 flights today.  I had invited Mik up and he videoed the third flight and once I edit it, I will put it on Vimeo.
Here is the link to the video. http://vimeo.com/30195964
 We made a short stop at home after flying, so I could see how the pictures and video turned out.  Then it was off to James' football game against Huntington.

He did all the kickoff's during the game.  It was a close game all the way, Michelle and Vera said it would have been a nail biter if they had not been wearing gloves.  They won 25 to22 and after the game we met James, Mik, Michelle, Joey and the two other Cascade coaches at the Masthead for dinner and talking over the game.  The day just flew by, it always seems to when you are having fun.

I love it when things go as planned!

I made a list of things to do in town this morning when I went down to get my glasses repaired.  First on the list was an errand for Michelle, no line, done in about a minute!  Found a parking spot at the post office right away, in and out in a couple of minutes.  I took the Westside Hwy. to Longview, it was a nice relaxing drive.  I went to the Kaiser Optical Dept. to get my glasses repaired, no line again and a tech took my glasses and told me to sit down, 5 minutes later I am on my way!  Then it was off to Ken's Engraving to get a tag made, the lady said the machine was all set up and that she could make it right then.  I was out of there in about 5 minutes also.  Things were going great until I went to the mower shop for a belt, the Closed sign was up, so I was off to Lowe's for some material for the roof.  I got my stuff and no one was in line again, so I was out in nothing flat!  I called Vera to see if she wanted anything from Fred Meyer and got a small list from her.  When I got over there, I noticed there was no one waiting at Great Clips, so I went in for a haircut.  I was the only customer, so that did not take long!  At Fred Meyer I found everything on the list plus a few extra things and only one person was in line ahead of me.  By the time I put everything on the belt, they were done and I was out of there pretty quickly.  I tried the mower shop one more time, but the Closed sign was still up so I headed home.  I came home and ordered the belt online, Priority Mail is cheaper than gas to go back and get one.  I spent the afternoon working on the B-36 wiring and then watched Monday Night Football.  It was a great day!

Sunday is off to a good start!

9:00 AM, Sunday is off to a good start.  I slept great last night, I did my exercises, flew a couple of flights with the Champ, had my shower and breakfast and just finished checking my emails.  Now it is off to the shop to work on the B-36.  3:30, making great headway, cowlings are all on, motor wiring terminated, but I have to go redo one set to add the power supply for the radio.  I got another flight on the Champ after lunch.  There will be more later!

The blue thing is what I forgot to install earlier!  Now I am working on the wiring to the Optima receiver, it has 9 outputs and it looks like I will be using all of them.  I am going to splice some of the wiring together to eliminate some connectors.

Then as I was walking across the shop, one lens of my glasses falls out on the floor!  The screw came loose and had fallen out.  I finally found a pair of old glasses that the bifocal prescription was close enough to my current prescription that I could see to do something.  I ended up getting my sunglasses out of the motor home and using a screw from them to put the lens back in.  That seemed like a good time to call it a day on the B-36.  I came in and watched recorded football games for the rest of the evening.