I’ve been traveling this week and still am. I apologize for the sporadic updating, but it has been largely unavoidable. You probably want to hear about Boston Comic Con. I met some wonderful readers in Boston. I had so many people come by and say such nice things. However, so many kind words were prefaced the same way: “I used to read you all the time in the newspaper!” Of course, I would point out that I’m still in the newspaper, and they’d say, “Yeah, well, we don’t get a paper anymore.” Aside from being flagrantly reminded how far the scene has shifted from my professional turf, Boston was great. I will talk a lot more about it in days to come. Vermont Comic Con is yet to come!
213 responses to “Boston Is History”
WTH? Han Solo is dead??
Wait. Of course, he’s dead…he lived “A long time ago in a galaxy far, far away….”
Coming from the Mississippi Delta as I do, crop duster crashes were common. As a kid we’d see the planes flying back and forth. Then you’d see a smoke tower and you’d know one had crashed. I used to fly with some crazies who while not dusters them self would dive the fields. The rule at Freeman was to report any rented planes that returned with cotton foliage in wheels.
Ghost, the sea us much more forgiving when you hit it than a mountain or the ground. In fact, if I am remembering correctly my Welsford Penguin is self righting to a 90 degree heel which basically means you can almost lay her on her side, turn sheets loose and she’ll pop back up and turn into wind and not capsize unless you broach her and fill hull with water.
Most fixed-wing aircraft are designed to be dynamically stable which means that, if the control surfaces are trimmed to neutral, letting go of the controls in most attitudes (even, I suppose, a 90-degree bank) will cause the aircraft to regain a straight and level attitude. The caveat is (and it’s a big one) “if you have enough altitude.”
Spin recoveries are interesting though, even in clear conditions when you can see outside the aircraft. In instrument conditions, “interesting” is not really the word to describe them.
You do realize I am in awe of people who have the knowledge and skills to do things like that? Bet you all thought I wasn’t capable of that, I had enough self esteem to cover anything.
Not true. Some things still blow my mind. I still consider pilots and jet jockeys special. Funny because I did know lots of astronauts in Nassau Bay and the Houston Space Center and they were just friends and neighbors, parents at school, church members, customers.
But the smarts, now that is what I ink impresses me, along with the guts for a more polite word.
Whatever was in that antibiotic/steroid cocktail with which I was injected this morning seems to have been very effective…I’m coughing very little now, and my throat (which the doc said looked really awful this morning) doesn’t hurt nearly as much when I do cough. I also no longer feel the painfully swollen glands on each side if my throat when I swallow. The oral med has really dried up my nasal congestion, and my voice is about halfway back to normal. I suppose that when you only have to be treated for something every twenty years or so, you don’t realize what medical advances have been made.
I’m going to polish my black dress shoes now, and pick out a tie to go with my black funeral suit. My mom’s favorite color was pink, and yes, I’m secure enough in my masculinity to own a pink tie. 🙂 And then I’ll pick out some significant framed photos to display at the visitation. I know one of them will be of my sister and me, in the yard of our house in our hometown, made when I was about five and she was about three. Mom found it a few months ago, a small print in pretty sorry condition which I scanned, retouched, enlarged to 5×7, printed on photo paper, and framed for her. She kept it by her recliner at her apartment and often commented it was her favorite picture of her children. The photo went to the nursing center with her and was placed where she could see if from her bed. It will be quietly and unobtrusively placed in her casket before it is closed.
That is so sweet, please tell me your mom is wearing pink and you had pink roses for her coffin. Details like that matter to me. You see, when I became a florist I thought I would hate funerals. Instead they became what I loved doing most, not because I enjoyed it, I would often work through grief, but because it was the last beautiful thing I could do for that person or family. It is indeed a tribute and a way to honor a life.
You are so thouhjtful, I am certain your mother’s flowers and service will be lovely.
In somewhat the same way, I never minded taking the “mortuary flights” that freaked out some other pilots. To me, flying somewhere to pick up the deceased’s remains was the simply the quickest way to return them to their loved ones, so that the process of closure could began that much sooner.
Funny, I have spent so much time working to create beautiful flowers for people I did not know, yet mattered so much to me they be exquisite. When I created flowers for my stepfather, my grandmother, my favorite aunt. My mother in law, for family headstones, I worked in odd places, outdoors in yard where butterflies landed on flowers, on our big, deep farm porch outside. It brought me peace for I was outside with birds calling, butterflies landing, the breeze blowing. I was never in a shop so it did not seem like work but more a gift and service I gave them.
“Find a job you love and you will never work a day in your life.”
Final thought before I give up and clean my desk, we’ll one of them anyway.
Being Southern, we lived with death. Until I was in my 20s the deceased slept in the living room or front halls, not in a funeral home but home. Friends and family came and stayed for days or a week. Twice or more per year we had cemetery cleanings at each cemetery your relatives were buried in and you went and cleaned and visited.
If you attended a funeral you went and paid your respects and I sited your own kith and kin while you were there, pulled a weed or two, remembered. The departed never really left as long as you remembered and told stories, laughed at the memories, told about the great buggy wreck that killed the beautiful young aunt but the basic you was saved.
That was the South, we kept our dead close. If you had ghosts they were usually your own and beloved. I discovered an affinity with the ceremonies the services, the mourners because I understood them. Even as we lose the old traditions new ones come along. I loved including the baseball over, the lariat, the fishing tackle, the things that made the service personal.
My mother wore red lipstick and red nails. It was not pretty and I begged her to change. She did not. I buried her in a red silk cocktail suit with black hair, red lipstick, red nails, as she was in life. Every woman almost wore red nails and lipstick in her honor including me and the chapel overflowed with red roses and red dresses, red ties.
That is full of typing errors and Hals versions. We need edit here.
Good night.
Good morning Villagers….
Gal…happy trails 🙂 Don’t forget that sunscreen and don’t EVEN think about work…it’ll be there when you get back girl.
Jerry, love to watch George Carlin…love his take on the Seven Dwarfs.
TR, I can empathize with that girl. I once got so caught up on Animal Planet’s “Meerkat Manor”, that when the matriarch, Flower, died….I cried uncontrollably. Husband said that’s what happens when they name animals. Never watched it again. They are cute though.
GR I like the idea of a pink tie to honor your Mother….thoughts and prayers will be with you today….and I’m glad to hear you are feeling better too.
Going to have to talk to the Farm Manager this morning…I want to know WHEN they are going to start helping us get our hen house prepped for this FDA inspection. I am peeved off.
Going in early…
Mark????
Monday’s grin….
http://cheezburger.com/8968117248
GR, this came to my heart this morning and I wanted to hear it and share it with you…..
https://video.search.yahoo.com/search/video?fr=chr-greentree_ff&p=judy+collins+amazing+grace#id=1&vid=62fe616ed931b69473c2cd088db486c0&action=click
Elephants across the river. Remember to close expl ore. Peace,
http://expl ore.org/live-cams/player/african-safari-camera
Ghost, it might have been the fog in my eyes, but at first I thought you were going polish your black dress…..Hoping that might might bring a smile to you on a very rough day. Keep getting plenty of fluids. Be well.
We will all be with you in spirit Ghost. All day feel us surrounding you and supporting you, as you have supported us. Love.
“Well, if you’re going to set up I’m going to bed.”-Lewis Grizzard.
Good morning all. In your remembering today Ghost, you represent us all. Thank you for taking care of your mom and sister over the period of their decline. Take care of yourself now. We look forward to hearing more from you.
Personal update: Wednesday will be two weeks since the operation. Feeling better now. Got neighbor to drive me to grocery store yesterday, where I got to play with an electric cart. Folks dont realize those things don’t have mirrors. Don’t walk past one without letting the driver know you’re there or you might get dinged.
Good to hear from you Mark. Glad you got to store, I was worried about you, your mom and cats running out of food. Have you heard anything at all from VA or other doctors? I can’t believe they sent you home following such major surgery with no follow up care or home health care arrangements.
Since Brenda can’t lift with just one lung and your mom can’t either, who did you find to carry in groceries? And who loaded your car at grocery?
Mark, a couple of weeks ago I decided to move an electric cart sitting in a spot in a parking lot so my daughter could pull the car into it. It took me much too long to figure out the “simple” controls on it… she was having hysterics watching me trying to make sense of the icons and get the cart to go the right direction.
I greatly prefer properly written instructions to arcane symbols!
Years ago, shortly after getting assigned to a new truck, I was puzzled by a warning symbol that appeared on the dashboard. It looked sort of like this:
D=
except it had 3 bars in the equal sign… I pulled out the owner’s manual, but it didn’t have that one anywhere in it. I got out of the truck and walked around it and realized that I had a headlamp burned out (less than a month from the truck’s delivery!). Given that the dashboard was set up to give all sorts of warnings in English, French, Spanish, German, and Swedish (it was a Volvo), why did they have to use a symbol?
Report to The Village from Baton Rouge:
We are back and family is safe. Two of my three grown children suffered severe flooding to houses. Houses can be rebuilt, lives cannot. We are all safe and living together. The flooding was unbelievable, probably worse than Katrina. Please pray for us as I’m sure you all have been. God bless us every one.
So glad to hear you and family are safe. I have been getting reports from friends on Facebook who are other helping with rescues and who are safe. My thoughts have been with my poor home state whose people are suffering.
I too think this is far worse than Katrina but the publicity was on Katrina, not this. I was so impressed by the Cajun Navy who mobilized to rescue and save people and pets. I know my Louisiana and they will come back. My prayers do go out to your family and the thousands of others.
Big shift in travel plans. Canada shipped my trailer parts and they arrived in New York. I am heading for New York state to pick up boat and bring back to Oklahoma.
Yeah! We will probably do it long days, no scenic route.