Author Archives: momdude

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About momdude

Space cadet | Family dude | Photographer | Music lover | Traveler | Science fiction fan | Hugo Award nominee | Writer | 5x NASA Social participant | KC Chiefs fan | LA Kings fan | Senior Director of Finance & Administration for ALS Network | Member & former staff Finance Officer at the Commemorative Air Force SoCal Wing | Hard core left-wing liberal | Looking for whatever other shenanigans I can get into
June 1, 2019 · 23:36

Solid Overcast, 700′ Ceiling

It was a gloomy, cloudy, cool, ever so slightly drizzly day in Camarillo, so the flights we had scheduled got cancelled or rescheduled for some other day.

However, out on the ramp, in position for Monday morning, we had a number of aircraft, including our C-46 (in the back on the left) and the AAF’s C-47 (foreground, left).

On the KTLA Monday morning news show we’re scheduled to have live segments with reporter Gail Anderson from the ramp every hour starting at about 06:20. It’s in honor of the 75th anniversary of D-Day on June 6th.  If there’s some dramatic breaking news or a car chase or something else we might get pre-empted (it’s happened before) but let’s hope for the best and you can get a view of my home away from home, some of the folks I work with there, and some of our aircraft.

If you’re in the LA area, or if you can pick up their feed online,

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Filed under CAF, Photography

May 31, 2019 · 23:50

Two More Yellow Roses

I don’t know if they got here late because they came from Texas…

Actually, on closer examination, these have a delicious combination of yellow in the middle with pinks on the outside!

I think there might have been some horticultural hanky-panky going on here. I think “cross pollination” is what the kids are calling it these days.

Yep, that’s where it happened! Lovely result!

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Filed under Flowers, Photography

May 30, 2019 · 23:59

I Think I’ve Been Scraped

Interesting couple of interactions with people who claim to have “discovered” this site and be very impressed with what I’m doing.

I’m skeptical. It’s my default position, doesn’t let me down often.

One person was putting together a clickbait article on American tourists and how we confuse the locals in other countries. They wanted to use one of my pictures and link to the article. They gave me credit, so fine. I’m not a huge fan of clickbait, but given the tone of the article and the picture they want to use (let’s see if you can figure out which picture…), I can see the validity of their request.

Then there’s the sales call and email at work. This is very much my personal site, but I got emails and a call at work. It’s not a secret where I work, but I don’t think I’ve ever given out my work email address or phone number here, so I had a little yellow flag popping up when they showed up.

Also, both the emails and the phone calls took pains to praise me on three or four particular points about the site. As in, it sounded like the sales person was trying to be very personal – but was reading the email and then doing improv off of it.

It was very tempting to start asking her questions about what part of the site she liked other than the three or four mentioned and which recent article she liked. And did she really like my series of articles about flying first class to Australia last year? (I’m sure she did…)

It will be interesting to see if she comments on this article. As I said, a card-carrying cynic.

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Filed under Paul

May 29, 2019 · 21:53

No Context For You – May 29th

Perusing the photos on my phone I stumbled on a “burst” of 64 photos. This is photo #3 of that series.

Perhaps Crash’s advice for Nuke applies – “…don’t hold the ball so hard, OK? It’s an egg. Hold it like an egg.” I must have had an inadvertent death grip on the phone. In my defense, look at that tarmac. If I drop it, that Mophie might not be that much of a help. (Although, truth be told, a previous Mophie on a previous iPhone took the hit onto the concrete at Yankee Stadium and the phone survived without a scratch. The Mophie – not so much.)

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Filed under Photography

May 28, 2019 · 23:43

The Red Roses Remain

When we moved in last year I don’t remember the roses by the driveway being in bloom, and we only had a couple of scraggly blooms in the following nine or ten months. For the longest time I don’t think that I believed that they were actually still alive. Then they started blooming like crazy about two months ago, all different colors, and they’ve been a real joy to see every day.

It could well be that they were blooming when we moved in and I just didn’t notice – one might recall that I was pretty much balancing on my last remaining nerve 24/7 during those couple of months.

But now, the yellows and whites and pinks and orange-ishs have come and gone. There are still some raggedy, browning, dying blooms on some of the bushes. But the red roses remain in good shape.

I might rarely have time to stop and smell the roses – but I always make time to stop and take pictures of them!

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Filed under Flowers, Photography

May 27, 2019 · 23:35

Jumpy A Little Bit?

It might be a small case of PTSD (Post Traumatic Stress Disorder) previously unnoticed. Or at least previously untriggered.

An hour or so I started getting a whiff or two of smoke. Very faint. Enough so the first few I wasn’t even sure that I was really smelling it.

Then there was a bit more – but not much. Enough so that I thought it might be something minor like a light heating up with some dust on it. Sort of like that burnt smell you get when you turn on the forced air furnace for the first time in the fall and the dust in the burner goes up.

But it didn’t go away, and I got a couple more stronger whiffs. Now it’s time to get up from my desk and check it out.

Nothing in the hallway at all. Go out into the living room. Nothing really, maybe just the faintest trace.

Open the front door and step out – and it hits me like a hammer. It wasn’t my imagination.

The cause was obvious. We’re hitting an unusually cool stretch for Los Angeles in late May, highs barely reaching 70°F, and the lows down into the upper 40’s. It’s 56°F now. Someone in the neighborhood, possibly a couple someones, had their fireplaces going, or a backyard firepit for their holiday BBQ. The end result was that the air was heavy with the scent of wood smoke.

No biggie, right? That’s a homey, comfortable, happy memory smell of fall and winter in Vermont, Christmas mornings… Well, it used to be. Now?

Remember last November less than a half mile from here as we had our valuables packed in the cars ready for the “Go!” command to evacuate?

That would explain the way a whiff of wood smoke put my brain into high alert mode and being outside in the dark with the air filled with the scent doubled my heart rate in a matter of seconds.

Olfactory cues can trigger strong associations with specific memories. It might be a while before the smell of wood smoke again means a cozy evening in front of the fireplace instead of panic and evacuate.

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Filed under Castle Willett

May 26, 2019 · 23:56

Tattered

When we moved into this house a year ago (and by the way, geez louise, look back at my posts from last May, I have no clue how I survived that), we got a new flag for the front porch.

A year of the SoCal elements have taken their toll, especially some of the high winds and rain of the last month or so.

I’ve left it up like that for a few weeks since it’s sort of symbolic of how the whole country is doing.

But enough’s enough. A new flag went up today for Memorial Day.

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Filed under Castle Willett, Photography

May 25, 2019 · 23:43

PBJ & Convection

The weather at Camarillo was quite nice, if a touch windy. But that wasn’t nearly enough to stop our PBJ or other planes from flying.

While the PBJ was sitting out on the ramp waiting for our passengers to arrive, I noticed the view with some growing convective clouds building 25-30 miles north, up over the mountains along the northern edge of Ventura County. Later in the day they grew into some significant thunderstorm cells with flash flooding along the I-5 over the Grapevine, but at this point they were just a pretty background for the gorgeous plane.

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Filed under CAF, Photography, Weather

May 24, 2019 · 23:57

Only One Choice

Sitting, keeping the idiot box off, listening to a favorite playlist with the really nice headphones on, dealing with a bit of old, familiar pain, more of a bit of discomfort really but always with that threat of having it explode into agony, but it probably won’t and I’ll just be sitting uneasy for a day or two.

Great, just in time for that three-day weekend that I so desperately need.

Juggling, lots of unresolved, low-level fears and angers, disturbances, trust issues, uncertainties, trying to figure if there’ some gaslighting going on or if I’m simply going batshit crazy at last, thinking about how unfair it’s going to be if it’s hallucinations and losing my grip when it’s not the good hallucinations, the ones with the karmic out-of-body experiences and multi-dimensional, mind-blowing colors and sounds and sensations, but instead getting the grey, boring ones that are like that last fifteen minutes of stolen sleep before you really have to get out of bed but all your stupid, stupid brain can spit out are endless anxiety dreams where you can’t get some boring accounting journal to balance.

Physical discomfort, mentally off-balance a bit, all leading to a headache that I could really have done without, especially when I’ve already taken Extra Strength Excedrin and can’t take any more so I’m just going to have to suck it up and keep breathing.

The playlist spins. Garth Brooks. ‘Til Tuesday. Linkin Park. The Eagles.

“Life In The Fast Lane.”

Only one choice.

Fuck the headache, it will be there either way. Hit the volume and see if the really nice headphones can take it to eleven.

Then play it again. Just because.

Lower the volume as it fades. Move on. Still breathing.

Got a website article to write for tonight.

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Filed under Health, Music

May 23, 2019 · 23:17

Is It Less Beautiful

…because it’s a day or two past its prime?

…because it’s got ants and bugs on it?

I do love the lacy, delicate, pink highlights on the yellow leaves, as well as the texture and patterns as it starts to brown and shrivel around the edges.

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Filed under Flowers, Photography