31 Dec., 2008 -- It's not finished

2008 is not quite finished... still have 3.5 hours to go. And 1 minute.

Puzzle is not quite finished, either. We've been working on it for a week, in the waiting room at the radiology lab at St. John's in Springfield. I thought it would be done by now!

Happy New Year, everybody. I'm off to the brand new bowling alley!

30 Dec., 2008 - Happy birthday, Val, & get well, Larry

Happy Birthday, Val! I found some photos of you and sisters Judy & Eleanor in 2003, thought you might enjoy. Eleanor seems to be unhappy.


Larry, on Dec. 30, 2001 taking off from Mtn. Grove. Look at all that snow! Today it was about 65 degrees... no snow! Larry had surgery on his back today, in Little Rock. Hope you feel more gooder fastly every day! Happy new year!


Larry and Ben flew the Bumblebug back in 2001, in August.


Other flights in 2001. No, Larry didn't fly the Pawnee, but he did take son David in the 150.

29 Dec., 2008 -- Earthshine

Hiding behind a bamboo pole... maybe I'll go fishing.



Weird hairy tree... oh, ok... it's upside down. Sorry. The pond is high, but not as high as last spring.

There's that earthshine again! There will be a meteor shower on January 3, early morning.

28 Dec., 2008 -- Back to the million $ machine

The million dollar machine in action!
First, here's the image that's projected through the translucent tiles on the ceiling. Count the leaves.

Here's the machine and the crew, who line up the tattoos with the red light beams. Like lining up the drill press.

And the great coffee pot spout, complete with x-ray vision insert (that's the black-handled thing that slides in and out of a set of tracks - looks like a pancake griddle).

Now, the interesting part, without the x-ray vision insert. See all those little teeth? They move to conform to the shape of the body part that's being radiated. Sometimes they make a rectangle, sometimes they make curves.

Well, just a bunch of numbers that mean something to somebody. Maybe the timer for the coffee dispenser and the strength of the brew?

Here's the machine coming up to its final position after finishing its two minutes of work.

Ok, go home now. Next?

27 Dec., 2008 -- Big puddle

Rain 2.25 inches, 64 degrees high, 30 low, wind chill 20
Peak wind gust today, 47 mph. Jan reported wind damage on their farm east of town.
Our kids all went home today, to Jeff City in wind and rain, and Iowa through frost and snow.

26 Dec., 2008 -- Soil temp 45 degrees at 4 inches depth

Grant & Devon's bunch showed up today, we did Christmas and took a walk. I lost my cell phone! Well, I called it and called it and nobody answered. Ok, it must be on the road between the house and the airport. So Grant and I drove along the road, and sure enough... right where AD-OS had kicked in earlier! We found a snappin' turtle belly shell along the road, and had leaned over to inspect it, and the phone slid off of my pocket and landed in the grass. It really was a little farther down the road, and Grant spotted it. Good thing it wasn't out on the road, or it would be as flat as the turtle shell.

Look closely at the tv set...
Sammie-J and Cameron sat in the airplane, in the hangar, and pretended to go on a flight. The ceiling was indefinite, the wind blew up to 32.3 mph, temp at 64.2, humidity 88 percent, no precip (thunderstorms forecast), and bare soil temperature at 4 inches deep is 45 degrees. It's December...

We worked all kinds of puzzles; those 9 piece square things that are impossible; that 36 piece stacker that's impossible; those mathmania puzzles that are sometimes impossible; the jumping penguins Cool Moves that gets more difficult and then impossible; didn't bother with Traffic Jam, or those wooden fit-together Brain Benders, or the Rubik's Cube (Dev threatened me if I got Grant one for Christmas -- EVER).

It was a good day! Have you noticed that the days are getting a little longer? It's daylight now until about 5:25 p.m. with apparent sunset at 4:59 p.m. NOAA calculator.

25 Dec., 2008 -- Chasing a reindeer?

Christmas morning... a 10 point buck ran across the back yard... maybe chasing Rudolph?
Fonda shot these pictures. She's quick, eh?


OK, John, this one's for you... The question is: what's the altitude? You wanted some flying stuff, and you'd be bored by the ground shot of a rock quarry. Vertical speed indicates climbing, but I was actually descending, just turning to get the sun on the altimiter. Actually, I had been 500 feet higher.

I finished the flying part of the aerial photo job. Now I've got about 80 prints to make.

Here are a few places I saw today. Anybody know where we are?

Easy. New airport, not really local


There's only one person who will get this one.



Not many will get this place, either.

24 Dec., 2008 -- Christmas Eve

LAD, Randy & Fonda arrived this evening from Iowa, and we shared Christmas presents. LAD helped Grandpa Airplane.

Then LAD fixed the magazine rack with one of his new tools.

Merry Christmas, everybody!

23 Dec., 2008 -- Rain all day

Mtn. Grove got more ice & rain, Springfield just got drizzle.


Desperate for a photo today, have to copy off the tv news.


The senior center burned yesterday in Mtn. Grove. See Jan's pictures.

22 Dec., 2008 -- Growls, purrs, whistles

Had the muffler on the VW fixed today. Now it purrs, instead of growls like a hot rod. Blew about half of it off on the way up here Saturday. I was worried the cops would chase me down for being a nuisance. Huh, imagine that, me- a nuisance!

Invaders on the seventh floor windowsill! There was a big bunch of them cavorting in the canyons of the hosp. I assume they were whistling! I saw activity out the window, and was somewhat startled, being on the seventh floor. Nope, not a helicopter.

Starlings: All the European Starlings in North America descended from 100 birds released in New York's Central Park in the early 1890s. A group dedicated to introducing America to all the birds mentioned in Shakespeare's works set the birds free. www.birds.cornell.edu Thanks a lot, Willie.

One of these days, I will get out and do some creative picture-taking in Springfield. Maybe it will snow.

21 Dec., 2008 -- View from the penthouse suite

Well, maybe not the suite, but it is the seventh floor.

This was supposed to be a snow scene this morning.

Night life.
I get my walking exercise going across the parking lot to the building with the horizontal windows. Then I get to walk back. This morning the wind chill was sub-0. I could go through the tunnel. I dunno, I think I'd rather be above ground.

20 Dec., 2008 - Back in the city

Here's my mobile office tonight. I brought my camp tables since there is no desk.


Works well, even though the mouse skips now & then when it comes to the gaps in the slats in the tabletop.
Once again, the weatherman missed the mark with the snowfall prediction. Oh, well, back to the million $ machine in the morning. Maybe I won't freezle-me-noodle during the walk across the parking lot to the other building. Wind chill minus 0.
The view has improved (different room), now I can look across SGF and see the lights of Battlefield Mall in the distance. Glad I'm not there tonight, the last Saturday before Christmas!