Primordial Nothing’s blog

My daughter and her family live east of Spokane, about two miles from the Idaho border. There is a strong Mormon influence in this area.  Although, my daughter's family is semi-heathen, they are friends with many LDS families.

My son-in-law, and Bug, my grandson, were invited on a camping trip with a group of these friends.  I think it was a church function or something.

In the evening, Bug was trying to navigate through the campsite by flashlight. As he panned the flashlight, one of the other boys had come into view where no one had been before. Bug was so startled much by this face that appeared out of nowhere, that he blurted out, "Jesus Christ!"  All conversations ceased. All activities stopped. Dead silence until, my son-in-law said, "It's alright. It's just my son."  Everybody breathed a sigh of relief and conversations and activities resumed as they had been.

Thirty five years ago, I was part of something that shaped my life and Cherie's forever. ("C's" name is Cherie. She responds to Sherry, Cherry, or even Chickie Sue, but, like Marilyn Monroe in "Bus Stop," prefers the French pronunciation, Chay-ree. ). We were stationed at Torrejon Air Base on the outskirts of Madrid, Spain. My new organization was the 612th Tactical Fighter Squadron.

I don't know how to explain why this particular assignment was so profoundly significant.  I was in over my head, a lieutenant, just out of initial flight training and the F-4 school.  Most of the pilots and Weapons System Operators (WSO's) had already had at least one combat tour in South East Asia. I was un-tempered.

Plus, we were five thousand miles away from family and friends.

At our reunion, after the banquet, we had a kind of trivia contest. Several of our members had contributed stories of the antics we'd gotten up to while we were there.

I wanted to share the funniest of these, but was not sure how best to do so.  I've decided, to dole them out one at a time. Check my comment for the correct answer and, if necessary, a brief explanation.

Here's the first:

MQF 102  Rich Dolinar, placing his life in the hands of Skip Beasley over the Mediterranean, had just passed through the sound barrier for the first time when Skip got clearance for a low approach at Valencia followed by a burner climb to altitude.  They lit the burners, pulled five Gs to point in a heavenly direction, and aileron-rolled their way out of sight.  What did the Spanish controller say on the radio?

A.    “Bravo, bravo.”
B.    “Say your squadron and base of operations.”
C.    “Change clearance to read, ‘Do not exceed seven thousand feet.’”

The old two bedroom house that we've lived in while the new house was being built, is being lifted off its foundation, in preparation for moving to a new location.  A gentleman who has retired from New York will be living in it, soon.  If I get an interesting picture, I'll post it.

Today, on my sixty first birthday, we closed on the new house.
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Woke up this morning with this song in my head.

"I cross over that border every chance I get."

Here are two videos of talks that occurred at the  TED Conference.    

The first video is a talk given by Mike Rowe.  A guy that has done some interesting things and wants to share some of the insight he has gained in his gig as the Dirty Jobs guy.

The next is a talk given by Aimee Mullins, a double amputee, who has also accomplished some astounding things.

As forecast, it was raining this morning as we got out of bed. Not a great day to install carpet, considering the red mud surrounding the house, but , it arrived, all the way from Dallas, at 8:45 AM, so it was going to happen today. The guys did a good job of keeping the mud out of the house and I think they were proud of the job they did. We were very pleased with how everything came out.

When you buy a house that's already been built, you know exactly what you're getting. When you buy a house that you've only seen as a drawing, it gets a lot more "theoretical."

I've had butterflies in my stomach more than once about how one feature or another would look and feel. We took a house plan that the builder had built many times and proceeded to make several changes to it. The builder didn't really know how to handle some of our requests, so we have had to work some things out as it was being built.

The "Western Room" turned out great. That's the room with all the windows, looking out toward the back of our property (and the sunset). Everyone who sees it loves it.

The fireplace had me worried. Was it out of proportion? Was the brick as pretty in person as the samples? Today, after the carpet was in, I knew it was alright. It really looks good.

We have electricity and usable bathrooms now. We got to try out the heating today since the temperature was in the 40's. Wow! In less than 5 minutes, the house got cozy.

Next week, we will get a driveway and a yard put in. The yard will just be dirt until I figure out whether to seed it or sod it. I'm thinking maybe hydroseeding.

As you can see from the photo's below the cut, it's very muddy when it rains. All the foundation work and contractors trucks have left the yard a complete mess, exposing the red clay to anything that touches it. If you try to walk through it, it just keeps building up on your footwear so that after a few steps, you're lifting pounds of mud with each step.

Although this is a "turnkey" deal, there have been several situations that I've had to throw money at it to make things the way we want them. My cash flow is not the best right now. Crossing my fingers, hoping that not too many things pop up that I'll have to tap the bank accounts again.

You may notice blue tape marking little defects that the touch up crew will clean up.

The English have an old custom of taking a snack break at around 11:00AM.  They call it Elevenses.  When we lived there, we seemed to notice there was a strong tendency for the workers to take a less formal break at 10:00AM.  Thus, C and I made up the word "Tenses".  That seems a more reasonable time to bridge the gap between Breakfast and Lunch. 

We still enjoy our Tenses at the little donut shop in Van.  The Donut Palace is technically a chain, but no two are alike.  It's run by a Korean couple that have perfected these little heart stoppers.  I'd put their plain glazed donuts up against anything Krispy Kreme can produce.