If you know, you know. I don’t think I’ve shared that story here yet, but it’s not hard to find online if you’re curious. It’s fascinating. For this context, let it suffice to say that NASA and the Apollo 12 crew were seconds away from having a very bad day, but that command saved the day.
It’s been one of those weeks so far. No one’s dying or anything like that, but some days you just work way more than 8 or 9 hours and during all of that time it’s like you’re trying to fit ten pounds of pickles into a five-pound pickle bag. So you can start screaming…
…or you can set SCE to AUX.
And some days you’re flicking that switch between NORM and AUX until your fingers are blistered.
Still standing, still fighting, still upright & taking nourishment. Until tomorrow!
On the lower levels of the Guggenheim as I wound my way down we got into the more “traditional” classic paintings.
Paul Cezanne, “Bibemus” – I absolutely love that one bright blue dot just to the right above center.
Pierre-Auguste Renoir, “La femme a la perruche”
Edouard Manet, “Devant la glace” – all these dudes loved painting women, which is great!
Edgar Degas, “Danseuses vertes et jaunes”
Claude Monet, “Le Palais Ducal vu de Saint-Georges Majeur”
Pablo Picasso, “Le homard et le chat” – there were multiple pieces by most of these classical Masters, but this one by Picasso still cracks me up every time I see it. “Lobster and Cat”? Aside from the unique and amazing style, the concept and the expression on the cat’s face are just hilarious.
(Click to enlarge to full size)
No one was really dressed up for their visit, which was absolutely fine! Outside it was in the 90’s with 90+% humidity the whole time we were there.
Who knew that these guys had first names? I thought it was just “Monet,” “Degas,” and “Renoir.” Just like it’s “Elvis,” “Tiger,” and “Pele.” All so unique that they only needed one name.
One last look at the ultimate piece of art at the Guggenheim, the amazing architectural wonder created by Frank Lloyd Wright.
Another place I could have spent all day and then come back for more a hundred times. But, this being my first trip, if it’s Sunday we have a dozen more things to do, so that will have to wait until the next trip. Oooh, what’s that, another museum down there? Why yes, yes it is! Let’s start swimming through the heat and humidity down 5th Avenue!
Being Finance Officer of the CAF SoCal Wing I spent a good part of this weekend counting cash. This led to a most curious observation.
Here’s the situation. We have a number of sales sources around our ramp. Some of them (PX with T-shirts, toys, hats, patches, and so on – and the beer/margarita stands) generate a decent amount of sales but it’s mostly electronic, or $10s, $20s, $50s, and $100s if it’s cash. But most of the others (tips, candy, chips, snacks, sodas, water, and especially the aircraft tours) are simple and charge $1. Simple, just drop a dollar bill in the bin and off you go!
Except…
Someone has to count all of that. And to count it you have to unfold and stack and put it all in a format where you can go through it. It’s tedious, it’s time consuming, and it’s a pain in the ass when you can hear the planes flying and the “bombing” explosions and action going on outside.
But here’s the thing.
Having my desk covered with a mangled, messed up, mish-mash of $1 bills (with the occasional $5 or $10), almost everyone coming through the office wants to ooooh and aaaaah and just drool over “ALL THAT MONEY!!!” It’s like Scrooge McDuck frolicking in his hidden lair full of gold coins.
Only these aren’t gold coins. While everyone else is looking at it and obsessing over “CASH!!!” I’m seeing $100, maybe $125. Max.
And the majority of those with that attitude were pilots. Pilots who work for the airlines are are making $200K/year or more, sometimes a LOT more. This money lust that’s taken away their common sense is about what they would pay for dinner with their wives, OR LESS, yet they act like they could use it to go buy a new Ferrari.
It struck me as odd and a bit amusing, so I’m sharing. It’s what I do. Well, that and spend hours unfolding and stacking dollar bills until my hands cramp.
Meanwhile, if you’re tired of being obsessed with the mountainous stack of $1 bills, pull up a chair and start unfolding, stacking, and sorting. I give it fifteen minutes, tops, before you never want to see a $1 bill again.
Today, before it got too busy and crazed for me, I went and visited the STEM Pavilion being hosted in one of our hangars.
There were a lot of neat things going on. Needless to say, I would have killed to have things like this to do when I was ten or fifteen years old!
DRONES?! They will let me play with drones? Well, actually no. They’re more than happy to let kids play with drones. Adults, who presumably have their own disposable income as well as the ability to manage their own lives, are not allowed. 😫 No matter how big the temper tantrum.
Again while it was calm, before the crowds got there (and we had a nice sized crowd again today) I got up close and personal with another favorite of mine, the P-38 Lightning.
Have I ever told the story of my flight training on the way to John Wayne / Santa Ana airport… No, I don’t think I did. I’ll put that one on the list.
The obligatory picture of two of the CAF SoCal aircraft, our Zero and our Hellcat.
And a quick, cellphone picture of yesterday’s favorite, the Corsair, in flight. Most of today I was shooting cell phone and video with the good video camera. Busy, busy day for the finance dude, a.k.a., me.
Speaking of video, here’s how the show ended for the weekend. We had a fair amount of “pyro” late in the show and I hadn’t seen any of it yesterday being busy, and almost missed everything today. But I made sure to get out for the big “wall of fire” finale just as the show closed.
Sweet! Nothing and nobody got bent or broken, the crowds were good, the beer, PX, and ride sales were excellent, and we look forward to seeing everyone next year. Or you can come out and see us at the museum on any open day (see our website to check the current schedule, we’re not open every day but are gradually ramping up as we recover from the COVID lockdowns) or book a ride for another time.
I had figured the show could go either way in terms of crowd size, and relatedly, the financial success or failure for both the Camarillo Wings Association and all of the different sponsors, including the CAF SoCal Wing. First, we could have a huge crowd because all of the airshows for the last 18 months have been canceled along with a HUGE chunk of everything else, so folks will be desperate to attend a relatively safe, outdoor event with minimal close contact with strangers. OR, folks would still be really nervous about the resurgence of the COVID Delta variant and it would be something of a ghost town.
The air show fans of SoCal voted with their dollars – today at least had the biggest crowd I’ve ever seen at a Camarillo air show.
In between my duties as the CAF SoCal Finance Officer (so I was hoppin’ all day!) I managed to capture a few pictures to share. (Huh! Go figure!)
Out in front before the gates opened there was a long line of fighters and warbirds. You’ve seen pictures of the CAF SoCal planes dozens of time on this page (search for the “CAF” category tag) so I was drooling over this gorgeous Corsair. A favorite plane (ever watch “Ba Ba Black Sheep”?) we don’t have one (yet) so I don’t get to see one up close or flying that often.
There were military aircraft on static display, but not nearly as many as most years. This AWACS, a couple of helicopters, and that was about it. In particular no huge cargo plane like a C-17, C-5, or even a C-130. They said something during the show about them being “in use overseas,” so I wonder if all of a sudden they’re all busy over in the Afghanistan evacuations.
Lots of old bi-planes and privately owned warbirds, particularly a lot of trainers like PT-19s, Stearmans, and T-34s. This 1929 Travel Air D-4-D was particularly gorgeous.
Usually the fast military fighters close the show, but today they started. It might have been to wake everyone up (like, everyone between Encino and Santa Barbara!!) or it might have been because of the cloud cover that hadn’t lifted quite yet. Either way, it definitely made an impression on the crowd, as well as every car with an alarm for blocks around.
You’ve seen this MIG before, it’s owned by our CAF SoCal Wing Leader, Jason Somes. But I’m not sure I’ve shown it to you in flight yet. Here you go!
Should you happen to be in SoCal and not have other plans for tomorrow, we’ll do it all over again. Gates open at 9:00. If you make it out, swing by the CAF ramp to see our planes, the STEM Pavilion in our hangars, the Beer & Margarita Garden in our other hangars, and maybe even ask someone where I am. Say howdy!
This site has a metric ton of pictures from previous years’ Wings Over Camarillo airshows – just “Search.” Last year we didn’t have a show due to COVID-19. For the longest time I didn’t think we would have one this year, but sort of at the last minute (meaning four or five months ago, instead of the usual 9-12 months of planning and preparation) they decided to go for it and have it anyway. We’ll see how that works out…
The CAF SoCal Wing is one of the big sponsors and participants of the WOC show, so naturally we’re throwing everything we can at it. Again, given that we’re just coming out of 18 months of shutdown, including pickling all of our aircraft to preserve them while they’re not flying, and then working frantically for the past month or so to un-pickle them, this has been hectic. There are a few things that we normally do which we didn’t have the time or staff to do this year (lots of our docents and members are still staying away due to COVID and the Delta variant, which is 100% understandable) but hopefully it won’t be too many things that folks will be disappointed to do without.
The big question will be how many people will show up? We’ll know tomorrow.
Meanwhile, today I was out at the hangar getting all of the finance stuff prepped. It was also “arrival day,” when most of the planes from other airports fly in and get positioned.
I took a few quick photos. (Hey, the Chiefs were playing their Week Two pre-season game at 17:00 – priorities!)
Our ramp is littered with aircraft – a good thing! How many can you identify? (Click to see the full sized photo.)
These speakers are set up along the flight line about every 50 feet – I keep hearing the M*A*S*H announcer’s voice – “Attention. Attention. All personnel. Our movie tonight will be ‘My Darling, Clementine’ in the mess tent at Oh Nineteen Hundred hours…”
Jason’s MIG, one of our SNJ’s, and China Doll. Off in the distance, tents and booths as far as the eye can see…
A group of lunatic Republicans (like there’s any other kind left) has managed to push through a recall election on California’s governor. Election Day is September 14th, but being a sane state for the most part, EVERY registered voter gets a mail-in ballot, or you can go stand in line next month. This political stunt will cost the taxpayers of CA something in excess of $250,000,000, which seems like a particularly stupid thing to be spending funds on when we’ve got massive brush fires covering close to a million acres of the state. Oh, and that little pandemic thing also. And a monstrously huge homeless crisis. And the global warming thing that’s going to kill EVERYONE ON THE PLANET in a couple hundred years, if not much sooner.
So, yeah. Guess where I stand on the issue?
Anyway, I got my first piece of Republican propaganda in the mail today. It annoyed me. I wanted to shred it instead of simply putting it into the recycle bin.
Not good enough.
Now, mind you, I’ve got a decent shredder.
It doesn’t just cut things into strips, it does the whole cross-cut bit with little tiny pieces.
Not good enough.
So I pulled all of the shredded bits out and ran them through the shredder again!!!
Look at how much smaller and closer to total disintegration those pieces are now!!!
It took a few minutes, made a mess, and was harder than I thought, but it was worth every second.
As it says on my pinned Tweet:
The Republican Party must cease to exist or the United States as we know it will cease to exist. The Republican Party must go the way of the Whig and the Federalist Parties or the US will go the way of the Roman Empire. If the GOP doesn’t die it will kill the United States.
I don’t think that’s a wishy-washy or vague position. Do you?
If you’re in CA, grab that ballot, vote “NO” on Question One, leave Question Two blank, and get that ballot back in to your local election board. These psychotic fascist Death Cult members have to be stopped.
Even with the noise-cancelling headphones and music on, the helicopter going overhead rattled the building. A minor disadvantage of living on top of a hill.
Then the second one went over.
Okay, pull up the Flightradar24 app. Where are they going?
Okey dokey! Not only these six, but at least one more, the big Sikorski Skycrane, was also flitting in and out of the area, probably going to refill its tanks at a local reservoir. All of these were registered to LA City Fire, LA County Fire, and Ventura County Fire. So the two that came over our head must have been the Ventura County pair, coming from Camarillo where they’re right next to the CAF hangars.
And there you go! Good thing that it’s a cool, cloudy, drizzly day (where did THAT come from?) with no wind to speak of. And six or seven helicopters dropping water might be considered overkill – until you remember that something much like this (albeit on a hotter, windier, drier day) led to THIS less than three years ago. And a couple years before that. And before that. And…
We haven’t talked about the flying critters here recently. Let’s go back to that again, this time with some pictures of ravens.
Three batches of photos – the first is from a raven that sits on top of the telephone pole at the bottom of the driveway.
One of the traits that makes me believe these are ravens instead of crows is the squawking and croaking they do instead of the traditional “caw” sound that the crows make.
Another is that honkin’ huge beak. Plus, these guys will sit out there and “talk” to me (while the neighbors no doubt are mentally fitting me for a straight jacket) while the crows won’t.
In general, another trait I notice is that the ravens will perch lower down – on top of telephone poles, in the lower branches of the pines out in back, and so on. The crows seem to perch way up in the top of the trees.
Plus, the ravens seem to be larger, and they’re always loners while the crows tend to fly around in groups (“murders,” I know) of up to a couple dozen.
Ravens and crows are both very intelligent. I’m told they can learn to recognize individual humans, and they’ll hold a grudge if you try to hurt them.
I’m always trying to make friends, feeding them a little when I can. I would like to put out a suitable feeder, but the squirrels make that difficult.
When they squawk, they can make quite the ruckus. I’m not sure what they’re saying, but they’re certain of their sincerity.
I’m not so fond of the Baltimore football team named after them, but these guys are welcome any time. They’re great conversationalists, even if neither one of us understands the other.
When you’ve been living in earthquake country for long enough you learn something important about them.
Some sway – some shake.
The ones that shake, jolt, and dance? They’re nearby. The energy that is bending and shaking the entire surface of the earth like it was tissue paper hasn’t had the time or distance to dampen out. If you’re bouncing like you’re on a trampoline set on a flatbed truck going down a dirt road at high speed, that epicenter is close.
The ones that sway and wave and make you feel like you’re in heavy seas? They’re a long way away – but they’re huge. By definition they have to be to be making you shake hundreds of miles away from the epicenter. But the energy that is destroying a city over the horizon has had the distance and time that the shakers and jolters haven’t, so you’re going to spend five minutes getting seasick while nowhere near a boat, instead of thirty seconds on the above-referenced trampoline with the building collapsing around you.
Now we’re learning the same about brush fires.
There are those where the whole sky is black and brown and you’re choking on the soot. That’s a fire that’s nearby and you might lose your house, your neighborhood, or your city.
But there are also those that just make the sky orange when it shouldn’t be. That fire’s a long way away – but it’s huge. By definition it has to be to be filling your sky hundreds or even thousands of miles from the live flame.
We’ve been pretty lucky here in SoCal with few fires in our part of the state (but remember, it’s a BIG state!) while others in Utah, Nevada, Colorado, and all the way to the Midwest are choking on smoke from NorCal, Oregon, Washington, and Canada. That started to change today.
My first thought was that we actually DID have a local fire starting up. The conditions are all too ripe for it.
But there’s almost no smell of smoke, and a quick double check shows no new large fires near us, at least, not today.
We Love The Stars Too Fondly 