I don't apologize for the dearth of recent entries, but I will mention some of the reasons why:
I had one day off this week, and one the week before that (and the one before that, and . . . ) While the overtime money is nice, the chores and such tend to pile up. As a result, I'm halfway through replacing a static line behind the Baron's panel, and no progress has been made in over a week. Meanwhile I finally put the truck back together, only to discover that it still leaks.
The good news: After nearly two months of mortgage and escrow wrangling, I finally got the keys to the house this past Saturday. The not-so-good news: Since then, I've had no time to even go by and check the mail, much less get started on the painting and other things that I'd like to get done before moving furniture next month. Photos sometime in the future.
This week's day off has been booked for nearly a month: I went to see a radio program last night. No, that's not a misprint. I went up to Pasadena to see a taping of Wait,Wait . . . Don't Tell Me! Afterwards, I got to meet the hosts of the program, who somehow don't look at all like they sound. The show is very topical, and so the taping I attended will probably air this weekend - I'm on the right side, as you face your radio. Spoiler Alert: skateboard pro Tony Hawk is the celebrity guest for the 'Not my job' segment. What probably won't make the show is how he skated onto the stage when they introduced him, and how he gave his board to Peter Sagal as he was leaving at the end of the segment. While the radio program is an hour long, the taping session took nearly twice that long, as there were some edits and re-takes that will get spliced in before air time.
As Pasadena is a bit of a drive from Long Beach even on a good day, I went up early to avoid the traffic. Like five or six hours early. A bit of overkill, to be sure, but I had noticed a movie theater across the street from the Pasadena Civic Center. So I saw Amelia - a film about the life of Amelia Earhart. Nothing too surprising there - the plane still disappears (sorry if I gave it away). While there were some neat shots of an Electra flying over some beautiful landscapes, I doubt if we'll be hearing about this one at the Oscars.
After the movie and before the show, I wandered around a bit and discovered that Pasadena has its own ice rink! Meanwhile, at the ballroom next door to the civic center, there was a big to-do for the retiring police chief. On display was a Plymouth Satellite police car from the late 1960's, looking better now than it ever did when it was in service - or even when it was new. They also had a new Honda police bike with enough lights to fill in for one of LAX's approach light systems if needed. I noticed that the bike's certified speedo went up to 160 mph. Yikes! You would have to be absolutely insane to try and go that fast on our highways, much less the streets.
And that's pretty much it for now. Don't forget to fly your flags for Veterans' Day, coming up Wednesday the 11th.
Thanks for this great blog. A question for you: I was on Alaska Airlines Flight 704 from YVR to LAX on Sunday Nov 8. We came in from the coast and headed east with LAX to our south. We expected to turn south to line up for landing, but then we rolled/banked suddenly to the left (north) what felt like 45 degrees, eliciting gasps from everyone on board. The plane felt like it was out of control at that moment, but then it leveled off. A few seconds later, the same thing happened again. After we leveled off a second time, the pilot announced that it was “wake turbulence,” and immediately banked hard to the south, then seemed to come in for a much faster than usual landing. I fly a lot and have never experienced anything quite like this. I’m curious how common this is, how serious a situation it is, and whether “wake turbulence” is just one of those things, or a hazard that could have been avoided.
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