3 Jan., 2009 -- New prospective pilot

New student pilot! A friend brought his granddaughter Abbie to look at the airplanes today, and she got to sit in the pilot seat and work the aileron controls. She thought that was pretty neat! She knew about gps, because Gramps has TomTom in the truck that talks to him!

Lloyd and Ben and Zack drove to Willow Springs this morning for breakfast, and it was FOGGY. After it blew away and became clouds, Bill and Laurie flew the Lance back to Michigan. They had a hefty tailwind, with the surface wind gusting to 28 mph. We guessed they were getting nearly 200 knots ground speed, and climbing! Yeee-haw.

2 Jan., 2009 -- Duck, turkey

Duck!!! Run, hide! You're bein' watched!

Wild turkeys (looking a little bit like space ships) grazed their way across the runway. They marched a retreat when the township yard got busy. Bunch of beards in that herd.

1 Jan., 2009 -- It's a first

Holy cow, it's the first of January, 2009!


Happy Anniversary, Devon and Grant, 16 years. Here's your bouquet!

Orchid in bloom on the kitchen table, lit by romantic flashlight.

Another orchid about to bloom.

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?