Thursday, May 1, 2008

30 April 2008, Ma's airport today

Got a package from G & D today, for Mother's Day. Now, that's a
bribe, if you ask me. They want something!
But, ok, maybe not, just getting ahead because they have two business
trips, one in Boston and one in San Francisco. Thanks, guys!

Got another package today, an ebay treasure! Another pot of gold!
Now I have a matched pair. The rest of today's images were shot with
this Nikon goodie.












Windy again, and the guys were grounded, no fertilizer spreading today. So, here comes Don to visit on his Gold Wing, and an Army Blackhawk shows up for fuel.



Hungry, and they chose McDonald's.
They each wore a different patch, and gave me one for driving them to
town in the old station wagon. O I F, Operation Iraqi Freedom.

Stationed in Maryland, next stop Arkansas for the night. Mission is
to deliver the heli to Arizona. Long way to go. Really nice guys!

Another sunset! Five days in a row. I'm not complaining!

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

29 April 2008, Ma's going to bed

Adding photos for 29 April, as I was too tired to do them all.

I got to fly today! That's my camera ship in the hangar.
Had a paying job! This photo isn't from that job, though. Top secret.
Yeah. All the way to Mansfield, 25 miles.




Busy day at the airport, Randy is worn out.
The wind wouldn't quit, so he did.





Air Evac arrived and Randy had to work a little.
















Didn't think I'd miss a sunset, didja?

Tuesday, April 29, 2008

28 April, 2008 from Ma

After a couple of flights this morning, the guys called it quits;
check out the Alaskan windsock, up & down all day.
The planes just sat there all day waiting, but it kept blowing until
nearly dark.


After fueling up an Air-Evac helicopter, the guys checked out the
contents of a delivery, made minor repairs to the planes, and tackled
that dreaded paperwork.

Briggs and Bitty, the guard cats, set up a lookout, and the wildlife
got our attention. The killdeer tried to lead me away from their
newly hatched chicks that were hidden somewhere in the grass, but
they wouldn't do their usual broken-wing dance, just flew around and
squawked a lot. That squirrel was eating fresh new oak leaves, and
the wind rocked the spindly branches and nearly dumped him out.

Sunsets three days in a row! Got lucky when a great blue
heron flew across. The upper winds were tearing the jet
trails apart, and the temperature dropped, with frost in the forecast
tonight. And we thought spring was here. Ha.

Monday, April 28, 2008

Fwd: 365 project, 27 April, 2008

>
>Subject: 365 project, 27 April, 2008
>
>Today started out great... I slept in, the boys went to the airport
>and started their spraying runs, and by the time I got there, Lloyd
>had made three trips already. Randy got in a couple of trips, and
>they finished almost all of the jobs. The wind came up, and the
>temperature came down, and by sunset it was cool, about 40 degrees.
>Sprinkled off & on all day, and was just borderline miserable.
>Winter jackets again.
>
>Jerry flew in with a student in the Super Decathlon, and the boys
>worked on his wheel. Funny to see Lloyd as the "go-fer" and Randy
>doing the work. "Hey, get me a beer while you're getting me that
>wrench... " Yeah, right.
>
>While Jerry taxied out for takeoff, Smudge led me down the ramp to
>the runway lights, and sure enough, he led me right to a mouse nest.
>Quick as a flash, he had that mouse, and her babies, and had himself
>a candy treat. I didn't want to get too graphic in the photo, but
>you can see little pink legs. Aren't you sorry that you invited me
>to participate in this photo-a-day project?
>
>We gathered up all four cats and put them in the hangar for the
>night, the daily procedure. We can't let them run outside at night,
>because that would draw in the coyotes, or even a bobcat. I headed
>for the house to fry up steak for supper, and got distracted by the
>sunset. Still have a few ants, but the cold weather has sent most of
>them back to the nest. I'm guessing they'll be back tomorrow for
>another dose. And the cold weather drove in another mouse who
>perished in the trap I keep set in the corner by the oven door. It's
>out of the way, so it poses no threat to bare toes unless you move
>the trash can and magazine basket. When LAD comes to visit, it will
>be removed, of course. I stepped over the magazine mess that
>decorates my office floor and used that photo to close today's
>story. Well, no housekeeping got done today (big surprise, huh?).
>
>Love ya,
>Ma

Sunday, April 27, 2008

26th of the month

Record flights for L & P Aviation.

Well, today Randy flew 7 missions, and Lloyd flew 6. Or it was 8 and 7. Only because Lloyd's Pawnee had a flat tire on the tailwheel, then the replacement went flat on the next flight. So Randy got ahead in the Ag Husky. Ben was there at that time, and he was in seventh heaven toting air tanks, crawling under, etc. If he didn't have to make a living, he'd be lineboy instead of me.

Oh, pictures. I took pictures of the sunset, while waiting for the wandering lost boys.

They started at 6 am, left the ground at 7 am, left tire tracks on the roof one after the other to wake me up, and we ended the day at 9:30 p.m., and caught the last half of the Alaska Experiment on tv. (Randy wasn't very impressed.)

As the airport B----, Lineboy fueler b----, weather reporter b-----, records-keeper b-----, telephone answering-machine b-----, Ben-entertainer b-----, lunch provider b-----, mail deliveryman - fertilizer deliveryman receptionist b-----, 5-gallon-can fueler-upper
collectthemoney- b-----, (keep it to buy pizza with b-----), and to think I actually got to sleep in until 8. Of course, now they're both asleep and I'm still the answering-email-b----.
Not that I'm complaining, but my feet hurt, I've had one of Randy's lite (why did they invent that stuff?) beers, a homemade wine glass, the top layers of two pieces of (oh, yummy) Pizza Hut Pizza (haven't they ever heard of tomato sauce?), and two Aleve (generic, of course). (Randy had a headache from the morning without food, so I rummaged the cabinets at the house and found aspirin, vintage April... 1999 (Seemed to work, after a belch from the Coke). (Believe it or not, I have not consumed a drop of wine or beer or other since January... don't know why... burp... just haven't)

But who's complaining. Oh, I forgot N7071F, from Mansfield, who bought gas, (essentially paying for the Pizza). Yes, the very same one in which I, and you, and Ben, and everyone else since 1988 trained. (Didn't you?) Grant trained in the one before, it was red, white & black, I think. But he did finish in 71F.
This has been the busiest day since 200x when... .

I forgot to mention that Ben was really wanting to fly the luscombe, but couldn't bring himself to tear away from the ag operation going on. I kept teasing him that he didn't really want to fly, do ya, huh, do ya, ... so he finally did, then when he landed, and the Pawnee was in the ramp and Randy's Husky was in the loading area, and Ben's wing wouldn't clear the Pawnee, so we pushed him into the grass near where the Chief used to park. Then John Smith taxied out his RV4
and had to maneuver between them all, then...

I forgot to mention that after Pizza, TV program moaning on about how extreme the Alaska hike was becoming, and cabin fever, Randy about to nod off but making a valiant effort to be alert, Lloyd about to snore... 122.9 erupts with "Air Evac 1 on 1 mile final for Mtn Grove for fuel... and the monitor ablaze with light obviously almost at the jet pump...

Anyway, so Lloyd puts the overalls on over his t-shirt and jumps in the van and high-tails it for the airport and fills up the heli and (without complaining) slithers back into bed and all is quiet again except for the eternal tv on Fox News. And the ants. Still have ants.

So, You should see us putting Randy's plane in the hangar. There's at LEAST a foot of clearance on each side. So tonight, after dark almost, they are groaning and grunting and pushing and working the tailwheel, and I'm running from right wingtip to lift wingtip around the tail watching the wingtip clearance, and it JUST fits, if it's done right. "How are we doing? Which way? ??? " (Well, if you don't have to move the tailwheel, you're just perfect. Well, never mind. STOP) And if you stop, the plane won't go over the hump and you have to back out and get momentum and try again. Sh...). Well, the only thing I did wrong today (that I know of) is break the belt on the
lawnmower/airplanetug while going to retrieve the mail, and mow a little grass on the way up and back.

I guess I will go to bed, too. All's quiet, I've read all the emails and haven't figured out how to blog yet, but I WILL, soon. So here's today's pics. You deal with it. Tomorrow it rains, and I will try.

In the middle of the afternoon, Ben put his arm around me and said "Do you think Lloyd will put his arm, like this, around Randy and say "You're doing a great job, and I'm SO proud of you"". And I punched Ben in the arm and said "You A..., what do you think?" But you know Lloyd, if you're doing it right, he says nothing. If you screw up, you hear about it. There was another last load that Lloyd needed to be putting out, and he was just sauntering down the ramp from the
hangar, and not in any hurry, and I said "Look, Ben, he'd be running down here". I found myself mentally pushing him, because normally he would have been trotting to the plane to get the job going. But his load had been lifted already. They accomplished in one good weather day what Lloyd would have taken a week to do by himself. I don't know how satisfying it is for Randy, but Daddy sees efficiency and profit (well, maybe not this year). Investment justified. When one's down, the other's working. Gears meshed, machine running. Happy, happy.

Ever have a day like that?

Love you,
Ma