I spent the majority of last weekend at the local airport...
On Saturday, our Civil Air Patrol squadron hosted the Andrew Jackson HS Jr AFROTC Cadets. The squadron flew six missions with 12 cadets. We entertained their families, who were outstanding in their support of the kids. We cooked dozens of burgers and hot dogs.
One of our new squadron members, Judy McCoy, who happens to be the new director of the Amelia Island Museum of History, made a wonderful pitch, both for the AFJROTC program and for the museum, as a result, 20 of our visitors went for a tour of the museum.
The kids and the families seemed to have a great day.
The day started early for me, 0730, helping set up the two squadron tents in front of the trailer, clearing out and cleaning out the hangar and icing down the drinks. Both our squadron safety officer and our deputy safety officer were unavailable on Saturday, so the unit commander asked if I was willing to step up and fill in, which I agreed to do. This meant that I was responsible for conducting the unit safety briefing, the pre-flight safety briefings for all of the cadets, and ensuring the safety of the cadet movements to, around and from the aircraft on the flight line.
Most of the kids had never been in a small plane, and many had never been in a plane at all. As I performed the pre-flight safety briefings many of the kids, despite the high school bravado, were obviously a bit nervous. It was so gratifying to see those same faces after they stepped out of the aircraft after their rides. To a one, you couldn't have wiped the grin off their face with a brush.
Most of the kids in this school come from (at least) economically challenged homes. It felt really good to help to provide a fun day for them, and to maybe offer some of them a glimpse into a possibility for a promising future.
After all of the guests had departed, and we had cleaned and cleared up, the unit commander flew the Craig unit's aircraft back to CRG, and I flew our unit's aircraft as chase plane, then flew the both of us back to 55J.
By the time we got the plane back in the hangar, it was around 1900 - definitely a long, but very rewarding, day.
On Sunday, I went out to the airport for our regular Sunday morning pancakes, coffee and conversation. This was followed by the monthly flying club meeting. After the meeting was finished, I flew with one of the local instructors, Keoki Gray, to get a sign-off to fly the club plane to and from grass strips. The grass strip we used for the practice / checkout is the "grass strip" at 55J. This "strip" is the section of grass two thirds of the way between runway 8/22 and taxiway Alpha, bordered by taxiways Bravo and Charlie. It is two thirds of the way because the first third (next to taxiway Alpha) has three large drainage grates. Depending on who you ask, it is between 1600 and 1800 feet. All things considered, I did pretty well. To make things more exciting, my last three (of the total five landings) were simulated engine out landings, with Keoki controlling the throttle. This made it interesting, as rather than the standard "cut the throttle abeam the numbers," he would make throttle changes to varying degrees at various points. Oh, did I mention there was a cross wind? We flew for just over an hour, and by the end, I was soaked with sweat and ready to be done.
After I got my debrief and sign-off from Keoki, I got the airplane cleaned and put away, and headed home.
Jeanie and I had planned to go to Jacksonville to do some shopping at Costco, but Jeanie wasn't feeling well, so we just stayed home and talked.
As I was logging my flights, I noticed that my night currency had less than 30 days before it lapsed, so I decided that since the night was forecast to have beautiful weather and a full moon, that I would go back to the airport and renew my night currency with three takeoffs and landings to a full stop in the CAP airplane.
So, I headed back out to the airport around 1930. By the time I had dropped off the recycling (it's on the way to the airport) and preflighted the airplane, it was o' dark thirty. I ended up taking off right at 1 hour after official sunset, and made my three circuits. My takeoffs and landings weren't horrible, but they weren't my best either. My guess is that was due to being a bit tired, and having a cross wind - which is very unusual given I have three runways to choose from. It was such a beautiful night, that I thought about leaving the pattern just to fly around and enjoy the view, but I decided I had had enough flying for one weekend (never thought I'd type those words) so I just did the three and called it a night.
All in all, it was a nice weekend. The only thing that kept it from being great was that I didn't end up getting to spend much time with Jeanie.
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I finally broke down and purchased a new UPS...
I had gotten spoiled by all of the $10 specials I had purchased over the years, but it had been many years since I last encountered a $10 special, and I just couldn't keep waiting.
I had lost two UPS units to failed batteries.
One died a sad and horrible death, wailing its death throws in a pitiful and irritating manner. I had to unplug it just to stop the noise. This was the UPS to which I had the DSL modem connected as well as the two phones in my office. While I had just swapped out the UPS with a power strip, every time the lights would even flicker (which they do on occasion for no apparent reason) we'd lose Internet connectivity and have to wait for the modem to reset itself. I'd also drop off any call I happened to be in the middle of. While not life threatening, it was inconvenient.
The other UPS was the one my Linux server was connected to. Again, each flicker of the lights would cause the server to hard crash - which isn't a pretty sight, even with a journaled file system.
So, when Staples ran a special a few weeks ago offering a CyberPower CP585LCD for only $49.99, I jumped on it. In fact, I would have purchased two, but they only had one in stock. I guess the fact that Hurricane Fay was bearing down on us might have added some urgency on my part, and explained why there was only one unit left in stock.
One turned out to be enough, as because the new UPS has better output than the one it replaced, I was able to consolidate two UPS' worth of load onto the new one. This allowed me to cascade the two old UPS units it replaced to the Linux server and the telephony equipment in the office, so everything is now protected.
One other advantage of the new UPS is that it has much better management features and it came with new workstation management software (CyberPower PowerPanel Personal Edition) that has many more features than the old APC unit/software had.
From a value/price/performance perspective, I am quite impressed with CyberPower.
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There are some things in life I just haven't been able to adjust to as the times change. One of those is cotton swabs with paper or plastic sticks as opposed to the old fashioned wood (or is it wooden) sticks.
Fortunately, after some hunting, I was able to secure a new supply of Q-Tips with wood sticks.
Well, technically, not Q-Tips, since I believe these are no longer manufactured under this brand, but instead, Royal brand cotton swabs I purchased "buy it now" off of eBay.
So far, Jeanie and I are very pleased with them. They were (relatively) reasonably priced - $15.74 including shipping for 4 boxes of 300 per box - and they appear to be good quality: solid sticks and adequate cotton at both ends. This differs from the Drugstore.com brand that are more expensive - over $4 per box of 125 - and have spindly sticks with an inadequate amount of cotton, or the Q-Tips brand that are still the "gold standard" in terms of quality which can still be found on eBay but at outrageous prices.
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I still feel sad every time I think of this date...
Not just because Jamie's first true love died aboard one of the aircraft that day. Not just because of the trauma that was suffered by people we know who were actually in the twin towers when they were struck that day. Not just because of all of the people who lost their lives that day. Not just because of all of the people who didn't physically die, but whose lives were shattered that day. Not just because the way of life of so many in the world changed for the worse because of that day.
But also because hatred has burned, did burn, and still burns so hot in the hearts of so many, that mankind has, did, and continues to inflict such suffering and such waste upon ourselves.
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We had a really nice labor day holiday weekend...
Our nephew and niece, Jay and Tricia, and their three sons, Tyler (8), Tanner (6) and Tripp (2), spent the weekend with us.
Friday
They arrived Friday evening. Jeanie had prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner which we all thoroughly enjoyed after initially snacking on pigs-in-blankets - one of the favorites of the boys.
After dinner, we all piled into the Durango and went downtown. We parked between 3rd and 4th streets and walked down to the marina.
We then returned home and sat out on the lanai and talked.
We got a bit of unexpected excitement for the evening when Tripp locked himself in the bedroom. I had to take the door knob off the door to get in. At Jay and Tricia's suggestion I then turned the knob around so the lock was on the outside so he couldn't do it again.
Saturday
Jeanie cooked a sumptuous breakfast of link sausage, patty sausage, bacon, cheesy potato casserole, scrambled eggs and orange rolls.
After breakfast, we went to the beach. It was so convenient being able to drive out onto the beach with all the "stuff" - five beach chairs, a beach umbrella, boogie boards, coolers, towels, etc. The boys about wore me out between boogie boarding and body surfing. The water temperature was quite nice - just a bit brisk when you first entered, but then quite comfortable. We stayed until early afternoon and then headed back home.
While Tripp took a nap, we snacked on cold cuts, cheeses, crackers and fruit.
We headed back downtown for Mexican food for dinner at Pablo's and then walked back to the marina.
After our walk, we returned home and chatted.
Sunday
The morning started with another yummy breakfast.
I forewent the weekly gathering with the airport bums to give airplane rides / island tours to Tricia and Tanner, then to Jay and Tyler. Then Tripp and I went for a short taxi. It was hazy, but smooth. Everyone seemed to enjoy their rides.
For lunch, I dropped the crew off at Whataburger and then went to AutoZone to get some automatic transmission fluid and power steering fluid for the Durango to see if the low fluid levels were the cause of the check engine light that had illuminated on the way home from the airport. The wind knocked the transmission fluid bottle over and fluid spilled on the ground. I spent more time than I would have liked cleaning up the mess. I also got some on my still relatively new Dunham flying / deck shoes which was a bummer. I finally made it back to Whataburger, just as everyone else was finishing, wolfed down my lunch, and off we went. The good news was that the check engine light did end up going off.
After lunch, we went to the zoo. We walked around some, rode the train, and went to the new water area. We all had a lovely time.
As an aside, the check engine light illuminated again on the ride home. I pulled off to check the fluid levels, but they were okay. I was a bit nervous driving home, as we had elected to take the Heckscher route which is a bit deserted, but we made it home okay.
For dinner, we had hot dogs, brats, hot Italian sausage, chili and baked beans.
After dinner, Jeanie installed the Pirates of the Caribbean online game on her laptop for the two older boys to play.
Once again, the adults sat around and talked.
Monday
I went flying with Tricia while Jeanie did breakfast with Jay and the boys. We spent about an hour in the air, and had a blast. I'm afraid I might have somehow slightly contributed to Tricia getting a little bit bitten by the general aviation bug.
Jeanie made Mexican food for lunch - taco meat, refried beans, tortillas, lettuce, tomato, home made guacamole. As usual, it was delicious.
After lunch, we said our goodbyes and the kids headed home.
It was wonderful having the crowd here. It was great spending time with all of them.
Epilog
Part 1 - We ended up taking the Durango to the dealer on Tuesday and learned that the problem was with a switch for the power steering that revved the engine when the steering was turned to full lock so the engine wouldn't stall. That switch that probably cost all of $1 to manufacture set us back $200 between the diagnostic fee, the installation labor and the cost of the switch itself.
Part 2 - The Pirates of the Caribbean online game has turned into somewhat of an addiction for me. In many ways, it reminds me of Diablo II, to which I also became somewhat addicted. The big question now is going to be if I continue to just stay at the basic access (i.e. Free) level, or if I break down and start paying the monthly fee. The issue is that I have advanced about as far as I can in quests, weapons and skills at the free level. On the other hand, I am cheap. And, if I don't break down and pay, I will likely get tired of the game soon, which will break the addiction.
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