13 Sept., 2008 -- EAA meeting today

It worked! The computer that I've been hassling for two days performed all day just fine. It's slow, though, with an ancient Celeron processor. We really didn't have much time to play Flight Simulator, just tweaking and fussing, and exploring software options.

The flight simulator is surrounded in the EAA hangar by airplane stuff: an airplane engine, a skeletal airframe, airplane construction tools and parts, and a big barbecue (we gotta eat, ya know).

Hurricane Ike's eye is marching into Arkansas tonight. Here today the clouds rolled around low, spitting mist at us now and then. Tomorrow we will probably get the big wind and rain.

12 Sept., 2008 -- Something always comes along...

Just when I think I won't have a photograph for the day, something usually triggers that dreaded AD-OS syndrome (Attention Deficit - Oooh, Shiny).

The untrimmed roadsides are full of yellow wild daisies, or little sunflowers, or whatever they are. And the bugs are working the flowers, fighting the wind. The bug book says they are Pennsylvania Leather-Wing beetles. The larva eat grasshopper eggs, and Corn Earworm caterpillars. (I guess you noticed there are two bugs there, not counting the one at the top trying to get into the picture).

Spotted a couple of friends on the square doing advance prep for a portrait photo shoot. They didn't see me spying on them for a few minutes.

Took out the hard drive, ran scandisk on it from another computer, found no errors, reinstalled it, and it's been running Flight Simulator without hiccups just fine all day. I didn't beat on it, nor feed it chicken soup. No broken legs found. Huh. I hope it runs again tomorrow when I put it back in the simulator with the yoke and rudder pedals attached. (This is a follow-up from yesterday's post).

My beach treasures from last year's Thanksgiving trip to Corpus Christi were still wet from a little shower we had this afternoon. The shells and driftwood are still sitting on the deck in their little dish.

Clouds are encroaching ahead of Hurricane Ike. I'll bet we won't see the full moon in the next couple of days.

11 Sept., 2008 -- Rain again, this time it's Ike

Computer in our mobile Flight Simulator needed attention, so I drove to Willow Springs this afternoon. Took me a few minutes to find the breaker box to turn on the lights in the EAA hangar, then I spent about an hour fighting with the hard drive. I lost.
Brought the computer home, the beatings will commence! (By the way, FAT doesn't mean fat, it means file allocation table, whatever that means. I only know that the hard drive has the hiccups, or a broken leg, or needs chicken soup.)

The rain got more serious on the way home to Mtn. Grove. Tonight there were tornado warnings near Willow Springs and Gainesville, but no damage reported anywhere so far. Hurricane Ike is forecast to dump about 11 inches of rain on this area. It's a huge system, so it might happen.

10 Sept., 2008 -- I'm hiding, yes, um-huh, Hiding, yeah

Bitty was hiding. Uh-huh, yep.

Meanwhile, Squeaky was creeping up to attack the ... water hose! Siphoning off the revetment, I guess the little stream of water was making funny noises in the dry weeds. What a circus.

They're baaack! Here we go again, AT WAR with the ants.

9 Sept., 2008 -- Co-Pilot

Hey, there's a lady co-pilot, National Guard.

Do you really suppose that rotor stopped and reversed direction? Just a phenomenon of the camera shutter speed and the speed of the rotor spinning down.

Senior night buffet at the Cajun Kettle, with some hoe-down bluegrass entertainment.

8 Sept, 2008 -- Yard Ornament

One of the yard ornaments left today, for the salvage yard in Arkansas.

Spent most of the day at the airport, waiting for the construction crew that's going to do excavation work in preparation for runway improvements. Grading, removing trees, etc. Much needed! (They never showed up today). Tonight it's raining again!

7 Sept., 2008 -- Is it Halloween yet?

Guarding the deck... Granny Cat comes from her house across the road and begs food and affection when we come home at night. Beneath her perch lurks the other guardian.

Better be careful where you wander around in the dark! I took scraps out to the compost pile, and look funny doing that at night, because I always wave my arms around in front of me so I don't face-plant into one of these webs.