Mine, All Mine Ha Ha Ha!

Yep, 4 Kids again this year, this is MINE, ALL MINE!  Of course I made sure and only bought stuff I like!  I made a trip over this morning to see how the sleep over went at Dianne's.  Everyone was in a good mood and I got to see another show put on by the girls.  I spent most of the day in the shop doing some maintenance on the Sukhois, they are both back in the motor home and I brought the Super Cub in to try a different style of bungee on the landing gear.  Vera went to Bible Study this morning, afterwards, we made a run to BK for lunch with some coupons Dianne had given me.  This evening we watched WSU girls volleyball team win their first PAC 12 game this year.

Opps! Missed Monday!

Monday was a day of rest for me, I slept in, messed around on the computer and did a little on the Turbo Bee until it was time for Monday Night Football.  I watched the recording for a while and gave up on that game, so I started my recording of Sunday Night Football.  That game did not hold my interest either, so I deleted it and did a little reading and watched the news.

Tuesday morning, I had breakfast, checked emails and headed over to see what the twins were up to.  Ava was really paying attention to what grandma was saying in this picture.

When the little black animal would wiggle it's head, Harper would just crack up.  They played with Play Doh for a long time, then they put on a show for us, lots of fun to watch.

When I left there, I walked down to get the garbage can, as I walked down the driveway I could see flashing red lights.  There were two State Patrol cars, a fire truck, an ambulance, the aid car and this pickup in the ditch.  From the tracks, it looked like he was coming down the hill, went into the ditch, hit the driveway where the aid car is parked and was launched into the next ditch.  I don't know if anyone was hurt, but it sure looked like a wild ride.  I went home, showed Vera the pictures of the wreck and the girls, then went out to the shop and worked on the Turbo Bee and did some cleaning on my electronics bench.  I also got my DVD recorder hooked up to the new Hopper system.  I spent the evening watching the latest Mythbusters and Large Dangerous Rocket Ships.

Flying at Pe Ell

While Vera was at church, I loaded the motor home with planes for a demonstration at the New Harvest Church in Pe Ell.  Our friend Bill had asked for help putting it on a couple of weeks ago when he was diagnosed with kidney cancer.  I made arrangements with several other members of the Lewis County Radio Controllers to come down, setup a display and fly.  I got a call from Bill's brother Tom this morning and Bill had taken a turn for the worse and would not be able to attend, Tom would be coming in his place.  The picture is one of the church member's kid who was interested in the Mustang.

This is Tom catching his helicopter after a flight in the church.  After dinner, Tom, Rob and I flew outside in the rain.  It was kind of cool, it was dark enough that the lights on Rob's helicopter and my Cub showed up really well.  It was a fun day, but at the same time sad.

Debbie's Birthday

Today was Debbie's birthday, this picture is her during her birthday party in 2002, she was a cutie then!

Now she has grown into a beautiful young lady.  We took her to lunch at the Masthead and invited Mik, Michelle and James to join us.

James had a monster hamburger, it was too big, so he took out most of that green stuff, I am not sure what Mik thinks of it.  We had a good time hearing all about Debbie's classes and work, it was a great time with lots of laughter.  I had a nominating committee meeting for the Cowlitz Valley Radio Control Flyers afterwards.  Vera went shopping at Fred Meyer while I was there, then we met up and did some more shopping, got gas, and picked out our Halloween candy.  While we were shopping, Barry called, they are just about all settled in AZ and were sitting out on the patio enjoying the 80 degree weather.

Friday

This is one of the first pictures with our first digital camera taken in 1999, James has sure grown since then.

It was a dark day on our walk this morning, nothing like yesterday.  I finished up Thursday's blog, later I went out and sorted magazines in the shop into three groups, store, give away and keep out for reference.  When I finished the first batch I ran to Longview for my monthly blood test.  My timing was not good, when I took a number, it was 24 and 10 was being helped.  When I sat down to wait I noticed a classmate, Shirley, across from me, so we visited for a few minutes and then I started reading the news on my phone.  They finally got to my number and I discovered the doctor had ordered a couple of extra tests, so when I was done I went down and made an appointment to see him.  I also made an appointment for an eye exam.  I had a couple of stops planned after Kaiser, I went to Hallmark and got Debbie a birthday card, stopped at Papa Murphy's for three Halloween pizzas that were on special and then made a stop at Safeway for a few things.  When I got home, we baked one of the pizza's for dinner and I promptly took a nap.  I was tired enough that I did not feel like going to the Mark Morris varsity game that James suited up for.  It turned out James couldn't play because he had already played four quarters this week during the C squad game.  Mark Morris won the game, their next game is Friday against WF West.

Walking, Cupcakes and Football

It was a beautiful morning for a walk, I was stopping and taking pictures so Vera and Peggy got ahead of me.  I really liked the way the "Rock" was showing above the fog and took several pictures of it this morning.

I went over to return the bowls the last cupcakes the twins brought me were in and see what they were doing.  Major busyness was going on, Jillian and Bridget were there to play and they had just decorated cupcakes.  As soon as I came in Harper asked me "Alan do you want a cupcake?", of course I said "Sure".  I had a great time visiting and watching them play.  I spent the afternoon editing pictures and messing with the repeater, no luck again!  James had his last C squad game this afternoon.

James had some nice runs from the back field position and as quarterback.  He gets called on for the short yardage plays when they need a first down.  Their pass defense broke down a couple of times, so they ended up losing 27 to 18.

The big news today was that James (10) and his friends Dalton (73) , Joey (40)  and Andrew will be suiting up for the varsity game Friday night, the only ones from C squad to move up.  We came home to warm up and then I watched the rest of Thursday Night Football.

Concert and Cake

Tuesday was Internet speed up day, the tech came earlier than scheduled after checking to make sure that it was OK.  He installed the new modem and had things set up fairly fast.  Right away, we could tell a difference, pages load faster and videos run smoother.  I had a big piece of cake for lunch, then I played around the rest of the day trying to set up a repeater for internet to the shop with no luck.  Tuesday evening we went to James' choir concert at LCC, the picture is a screen capture from the video I took.  We really enjoyed the concert and we are looking forward to the next one.  After we got home, I had another piece of the cake, boy is it good.

Today was Dish Network day, once again I got an early call and the job was done about 11.  I really like the new Hopper and still have a few things to learn about it.  No luck today on the repeater, maybe tomorrow.  Now I think it is time for a piece of cake, my mouth waters just writing about it.

Two days of pushing a mouse

Sunday and Monday were pretty much the same, two days of pushing the mouse around editing pictures from Vera and my reunions, making a movie of the program at Vera's reunion and watching football.  I ended up using Vera's computer for making the movies as it is much faster than mine.  I got it all done, the pictures and movie from Vera's reunion are ready to mail off, I delivered the pictures from my reunion this afternoon to Jerry and Karen and had a really nice visit with them.  We had to stay around home today, because the telephone repair person was coming.  He showed up late in the afternoon and after some checking found the DSL filter was shorted.  Vera made the best cake this evening, I had one big piece while watching Monday Night Football and I want another really bad, but I am going to wait until tomorrow.

Visiting Day

Vera and I made a trip to Centralia this morning to visit Marie.  We had a nice visit and got her caught up on what we had been doing.  When we left there, I called our friend Bob and we stopped by and visited with him for a while.  We were intending to head up to Costco from there, but instead talked ourselves into going to lunch.

Vera suggested Carl's Jr, so we headed there.  I had the Guacamole Turkey Burger and Vera had their Charbroiled Chicken Club, we both enjoyed our choices and will probably stop again.   After lunch, we headed home, it had been sunny the whole time we were in the Centralia area, but as soon as we headed home that changed.

This is at mile 57 on the way to Castle Rock.  We went into town to pickup the mail and on the way home, Vera saw hail piled up on the dental office roof.  It seems quite a storm had come through just before we got there.  Our ballots were in the mail, so we went home and voted, then we ran back to town and put them in the ballot drop box by the library.  I did a little work on Turbo Bee and the Sukhoi this afternoon.  After dinner, I discovered the phone was not working again, so I gave them another call, this time they say the line in fine, so I am going to check the outside box in the morning.  At least the internet is still working and I have my cell phone.

Upgrade Day

On our walk, Vonda mentioned she could record 5 shows at a time with her new DVR.  We often have conflicts when we are recording, so I checked with Dish Network and sure enough they had a new system out that will record 6 at a time.  I bet you would never guess, that it will be installed next Wednesday!  Our phone quit taking incoming calls yesterday, so while I was online checking on that, I discovered we could get faster Internet.  Now Tuesday is booked up as well while they come install the new modem and set it up.  Funny thing is, our bill went down for the next 5 years, I think I will upgrade again then.  I had seen an ad for chocolate peanut butter on TV, Michelle and I talked about it during dinner and I found some at Fred Meyer last night.  I tried it today and I must say, it is pretty good, it was my Noon time snack.  This afternoon, the phone started working again, so I called and cancelled the repair ticket on it, not sure what is going on, maybe they fixed it from the office.

I worked on the Turbo Bee this afternoon after I was all done with the upgrades, I put the motor and mount in to take this picture.  The only problem being, the super glue I put on to strengthen the tube was apparently still not cured, because it would not come back out.  I decided it was OK and finished gluing it in.  After the photo session, I painted the inside white and stunk myself out of the shop.

When I got the plane, the wings did not look strong enough for the way I fly, so I added a carbon fiber spar and braced up the ribs with carbon fiber strands.  With the rain that is forecast, I may get it covered this weekend.

PS:  Pretzel Sticks dipped in the chocolate peanut butter are really good!

A nice football day

We did our normal walk today then stopped at the store for some milk and ?, I knew there were two things I wanted, but I never could remember number 2,  of course we came out with a bunch of other things.  I finally remembered it was Q tips I wanted.  I worked on Turbo Bee a little and did some testing on the motor.  I got a call from Mik that James had a game today, so we headed to town about 3.

James is carrying the ball during the Mark Morris C squad game today.  He made a bunch of nice runs, intercepted a pass and made some tackles.  Here is a short video of a couple of his carries.  https://vimeo.com/51776868  They won the game 32 to 18!  After the game we went to Freddy's with Mik, Michelle and James for dinner.  We had a nice visit and boy was I full when we left, I will probably have the medium fish and chips rather than the large next time.  We went to Fred Meyer next, for Q tips, cereal and gas, then a stop at Safeway for pop and grapes, they have had the sweetest grapes this year.  After we got home, I watched my recording of the Seahawks game, that did not have a good ending!

A Sunny Day, time for some flying!

It was foggy this morning so I was not in a big hurry to head for Toledo to fly.  I made a stop over to see the girls, then got the motor home out and slowly loaded it.  One of the first things I noticed when I got to the field was the new snow on Mt. St. Helens.  My first flight was on the Super Cub with the new battery in it.  I had the motor on for 10 minutes during the flight, which is much longer than I got with the old setup.  My second and third flights were about 16 minutes of motor run and I still had about 30% left in the battery.  I helped a prospective new member do some setup on his helicopter, he is a friend of Vera's niece.  We had a pretty good turn out, there were 8 club members and 1 guest.

An Army Blackhawk helicopter made a touch and go at the airport, the first time I have seen one do that, then they headed on North.  I flew until almost 5 and then headed home.

Getting caught up

I let this slide for a couple of days and now I will try and catch up.  Sunday was mostly football all day and the Seahawks won which made my day.

Monday, we did our walk, then I spent most of the day cleaning up in the shop.  I was going to start covering the Turbo Bee, but I could not find a clear area to do it, so the cleaning started.  I did pretty good, getting the first layer off of three benches.  I had planned on going to James' game at Ridgefield until I discovered it was at 6:00 and I did not feel like driving on a rainy dark freeway.  I opted for Monday Night Football instead.

Tuesday, we walked, then on the way out to the shop I took a picture of our Burning Bush, it always looks so pretty this time of year.

Then I head over to Dianne's, the girls were drawing pictures and I saw Ava really looking at me.

She was drawing a picture of me and studying my hair, she ended up putting some small dots up there for it.

Harper taking a picture of me taking a picture of her.  She was taking pictures of Ava, her back, her feet all the while hollering "Stand Still Ava!".  I laughed so much my cheeks were hurting.  I spent the rest of the day working on Turbo Bee, the motor came and I got the mount for it just about done.  I spent the evening watching Off Road Racing.

A little bigger job than I expected.

I started on the shelves for Vera's book room this morning, I worked until it was time to go get the mail.  After we got the mail, we parked at the North end of the river trail and went for a walk.

We noticed activity over at the boat launch, so we changed our route, crossed the bridge, and went up to the boat launch.  It turned out the Cowlitz County Sheriff's Office Dive Team was clearing debris away from the boat launch.  The divers would hook a cable onto it and the cat would winch it in to shore.  We watched for a while and then headed home.

We have been watching this tree turn colors for the last couple of weeks, it has really changed in the last couple of days.  After we finished our walk we went to BK for an Original Chicken Sandwich, we have been using a card from the CR football team for a free sandwich when you buy one.  I worked on the shelves most of the day and had one set done before calling it a day.

A Shop Day

After our walk in the rain shower this morning, I finished up my battery installation on the Super Cub.  That battery is about twice the size of the one I had been using.  After putting the cowl and propeller back on, I took it outside and checked the motor current draw.  With the 13 X 10 propeller I had been using it was over 60 Amps.  The motor is only rated for 60 Amps for 60 seconds or 50 Amps continuously, so I changed to a 13 X 8 propeller and is 59 Amps at full throttle.  I can get by with that until I get the next size smaller, I just will not use full throttle much.  I also got the T-28 repaired, one wheel fell off when I made a touch and go Wednesday, damaging the gear door.  Turbo Bee got a little attention also, I got the lower bearing installed on the rudder.  It is now ready to cover.  I made a trip over to Steve and Dianne's this afternoon, Ava and Harper were painting.  That was fun to watch, I am not sure how Harper got paint on her elbow but it looked cute.  I spent the evening watching TV, working on my blogs and taking a nap.

Holy Cow that is big!

I had a hard time waking up this morning, Vera ended up going on the walk without me.  I had several things planned today that I wanted to get done before the rain.  The first thing was a tire leak in the club lawn mower and one in our Quad, I put Slime in both and then drove them around for a while to spread it inside the tire.  Then I unloaded a couple of things from the motor home and put it into it's car port, the first time it has been there all summer.  I used the quad to haul a load of pellets to the shop, filled and started the stove.  I was moving an extension cord around when I notice this huge bee's nest, that is a 2x6 behind it! The new batteries for my Super Cub came today, so I worked on finishing the new battery tray.  I almost got it done before calling it a day and going in to watch Thursday Night Football, it was a good game, close all the way.  The last thing I did was go out and spray the bee's nest.

Foggy Day

Boy was it foggy this morning, I had planned on flying early, but one look at the Toledo Airport Webcam and I decided to wait awhile.  I worked on Turbo Bee, lining up the rudder while I waited for fog to clear.  Every time I checked or looked out the window it was the same!  When it finally started clearing off, it was close enough to the time Vera gets home from bible study that I thought I would wait and see if she wanted to come along.  She did, we stopped at BK for an Orginal Chicken Sandwich for lunch.  It was still a little cool when we got to the field, but good flying conditions.  The sun finally came out and we flew until almost 5 before heading home.  We made a quick stop for groceries and then came home, Vera started dinner while I unloaded a few things from the motor home.  After a nice fried chicken dinner, I came in here to catch up on my blog.

Tuesday

I did not take any pictures today, so here is a picture of my second car, a 1951 Chevy.  Later on, it was lowered, had the hood leaded in and had duels put on it.  I forgot to mention on Monday that I finally took out the grape arbor South of my shop.  It turned into a pretty big job before I was done, but by the end of the day I had it all cleaned up.  Now the blue berries won't be overrun every year.  Today, Barry and Mona headed for AZ, they stopped on the way through and dropped off my power pruner.  After I got it home, I decided to mow, that turned into another big job, I had to empty the baskets every time around the lawn.  I was counting for awhile, but gave up on that after about 8 or 10 loads.  When I finished the lawn, I went to put the power pruner away and it had gas in it, so I started cutting some limbs that were hanging down in my way when I mow.  Let me tell you, it takes way longer to clean up than it did to use up that half tank of gas!  After that big day, I settled into my chair for the evening.

Columbus Day

I don't have much trouble remembering what I was doing 50 years ago on Columbus Day.  I was in Castle Rock at the Diner when the storm hit, quite a few people were taking refuge there.  The guys from one of the gas stations saw their gas price sign go sliding by and ran to get it.  When they came back one said he had been hit by a quart oil can flying through the air.The only reason I was able to get home later was because my MG was low enough to drive under some fallen trees and wires, I did have to go home through JimTown.  On the way home, I stopped at Roller's, Ed had a hammer and nails trying to fasten down anything that looked like it might take off.  Their Smoke house had blown away just before I arrived.  When I got home, it was amazing, there was no wind around the folk's house, the trees to the South were sheltering it.  The smoke went straight up out of the chimney for about 50 feet and then disappeared!  If you walked down the driveway as you neared the road, it was like you stepped through a door and you could hardly stand up for the wind.  We played games in the kitchen until the wind let up.   Barry and I walked over to the Chuinards and while talking to them, we all noticed their barn had blown down.  Later we went for a ride and saw the 4 Corners Store with the roof blown off.  Lots of houses lost their roofing on the South side, all you would see would be the nail with some shingle under it, the rest of the shingle would be gone.  The next day we were in Longview and you could not see down some of the streets for the fallen trees.  The folks lost quite a few trees on the East end of the place, Dad took an inventory of them and they were able to deduct the loss on their taxes that year.

This is my 1960 MGA Coupe.

Flying at LCRC

The Toledo forecast for today looked so good that I had to go flying!  It turned out great, the picture was taken about 11 AM.  As the day went on, more people showed up until all the benches were full, I counted 16 flyers.  I headed home about 5, we had fresh salmon for dinner, our neighbor caught one yesterday and shared part of it with us.  Then I watched the Seahawks win and came in here to down load the pictures and videos from today.  The picture is a screen capture from my GoPro video camera.  The marks on the runway are where threshing bee vendor stalls were set up and people wore the grass down around them.

Chili Fly In

I sure slept good last night, I did not get up until almost 8!  We headed down to Goble for the CVRCF Chili Fly In.  It was a nice day for flying, sunny and the wind was right down the runway most of the time.

The little generator was kept busy keeping two crock pots of chili, a roaster full of hot dogs and the coffee maker hot.  It was a great lunch, we had helpings of both chilis, potato salad, two kinds of corn bread and cookies.

They were doing combat with foam fighters and yes they are probably as close as it looks.  Once we hear them hit and one landed, but there did not appear to be any damage.

Then they did a piggy back glider launch, it worked, but the wings were close enough together that the air flow was disturbed, so the climb to altitude took a while.

Then it was a glider tow, both planes were equipped with a release for the line which was good as the pink plane's engine started losing power and the glider was swinging from side to side.  The powered plane released the line and made it back to the runway, but suffered minor damage on landing, the glider landed hard, also, and things got shifted around inside.

 I got to fly Kevin's Mosquito and was really impressed with how well it flew.  I had a great day and we headed home about 4:30.  Just as we were leaving, Kevin gave me the remaining Blue Berry Corn Bread to take home, that will be a great treat later.

Frost on the Pumpkin

Just Vera and I walking this morning, so we decided to start at the North end because Vera wanted a picture of the dahlias before the rain ruins them.  From there we went down to the view point on the river bank.

 It was kind of pretty down there with the sun highlighting the trees and hills.  It was 41 at home when we left, but it seemed lots colder in town.

Then we saw why, there was frost on all the roofs!  We had a nice walk, then stopped by the post office so I could pick up the new batteries that were there.  No twins today, but I had a nice visit with Dianne.  I spent most of the day working on the Sopwith, when I took it outside for a test run, it would not start! If I put gas in the carb, it would run for a few seconds and quit.  After an hour of trying, I gave up and will not take it tomorrow.  I loaded the motor home refrigerator with pop and water for tomorrow and called it a day.  I put in three flights with the little helicopter before coming in here, as soon as I finish this, I am going in to watch the Thursday Night Football game that I recorded.

Birthday Pizza

Barry came down today and we went out for my birthday pizza a little early since he will be in AZ in February.  The Castle Rock Papa Pete's is still the best, we had a great visit!

James had a game today at the Mark Morris field, so we headed down about 3.
Some turn overs in the first quarter really hurt them.  Here is James handing off to his buddy Aidan, they ended up losing 22 to 32, but they never quit trying.

This hit on the quarterback by James caused an interception.  An interesting thing, the kid that made the interception is the grandson of a friend who I taught to fly years ago.

Here James is doing a quarterback sneak and Aidan #33 is about to give him a big push in the back that helped him score.  It was a nice sunny afternoon to watch football.

Getting ready for Saturday

 Saturday, the Longview club is having a Fun Fly/Picnic so I started getting the 1/3 scale Sopwith ready to fly.  This is James with it in 2000 at a Fun Fly.

He wanted to bring it back to the pits after a flight.  The first major part of the job is getting it down from hanging on the ceiling, it weighs 37 pounds.  It took me a little while, but I finally got it on the floor with out destroying anything.  Then the search began for the radio I used for it last time.  I never did find it in any of my radio's memories, so I started programming it into a new one I have.