What did Mrs. Holland say?

OK, it's a bit of a stretch.  In the movie, Richard Dreyfuss' Mr. Holland sings/signs a John Lennon song to his deaf son.  This one, that I ran across while of course looking for something else, seems to evoke some of the same spirit, and is one of those uncommon FM performances that is better than the original recording (on Tusk).  Part of the bonus, IMO, is that the engineers made Lindsey's harmony vocal more prominent.

Carmen Miranda, where are you?

In part 2 of Family Style, Pastor Brandon dispenses advice on how to have the fulfilling marriage God intended:

Sunday Sunshine on My Shoulders

With a title like that, you know there's just gotta be a dead musician connection around the corner, huh?

Oldest son texted yesterday, inviting me to the Air Power Expo at NAS/JRB Fort Worth today.

After grabbing some burgers, we got to the show around 1:00.  Apparently, the show was just for normal terrestrially-based aircraft, as this Rebel Alliance Starfleet fighter - complete with R2 unit (that's not a flux capacitor, Mr. Faraday) - had to be left in the parking lot:

Of course, once inside the show perimeter, not all displays were aircraft related.  Apropos to this camper's body style, it has been equipped with 'Freddy' fenders:

In event of foreign invasion, the Air Force is developing stealth hot rods to outrun the Chinese rickshaws:

Okay, it's mainly a recruiting tool for high school campuses...

If the Zombie Apocalypse occurs, I'm getting my .30-30 and my .45, both stoked with Hornady Z-max ammo.  Then I'm going looking for Combat Medic Kev driving one of these, 'cause he knows more about the undead than I do:

BTW, since it was an Airshow, there were also airplanes present.  Here are oldest Son and Fiancée on a Grumman C-1 Trader:

Here's a cool dune buggy - would've been cooler if it was a Sand Car (with a CBM LS2 motor) - this one just had an air-cooled four banger boxer motor - but cool anyway:

Oh, yeah, back to the airplanes - a Curtiss P40 Warhawk:

A Northrop F-5 Tiger II:

And a Douglas DC-3 C-47, with a  B-24 Liberator in the right background.  With thousands of B-24s having been built just a half-mile west of here, as well as Grand Prairie, Tulsa, and Willow Run, MI, the one on display here was born in San Diego.  If you stand on your tip-toes and look over the B-24's tail, you can just see the roof of Todd the Blogger's old house:

I unfortunately didn't get any images of the awesome Mig-17 demonstration.  Closing out the show was the headline act, the Navy's Blue Angels - they didn't disappoint:

Look out for that pole!

In Rev. 22:13, the Lord says, "I am the Alpha and the Omega."  I don't know that the Lord meant that this guy is the Alpha and the Omega, but I wouldn't pick a fight with him:

 And, finally, a Rutan Long-EZ:

Do not fly over Monterey Bay with insufficient fuel.

Sunday Morning Dead [Folk] Rocker Society

Today paying homage to the late Jim Croce & Maury Muehleisen.  Who knows, maybe this song inspired Lindsey Buckingham's Go Your Own Way?

Sweet 'stangs

Stopped by the Ford house to get a part today, and thought I'd see what was on the showroom floor.

Turns out there was a 64-1/2 original pony, with under 600 miles on it:

My phone's camera's color balance is a bit off, 

as this car is more pearl colored than green-gold.

And another, not-so-sweet, pony, called 'Eleanor's Nitemare' (has something to do with the Gone in 60 Seconds movies).  No Mustang expert I, I guessed '69.  The dealership guy said it was '71.  My subsequent crack interweb research would place it as '67.  Said to have been acquired through Barrett-Jackson's for $345K.  I tried, but could not get close enough to see if it was equipped with Callahan brake pads.

Ordinarily, you probably don't want someone scribbling on your

dash - unless, of course, it's this guy.

God on the lam

Isn't it great?

Yes, He's loose and running around the whole world, hiding in plain sight.  

Anyone can find Him (Acts 2:21, Romans 10:13) though, and receive everlasting life.

Whoever follows Him, can loose the chains of sin to walk in freedom.

Happy Easter Weekend

The weekend started a bit off-schedule.  Kids' Mom invited me to attend their Good Friday service, where she was playing (musician), so that I could pick up Daughter following the service. Got there about 3 minutes into the service - too late to get a seat next to Daughter and middle Son.  Since no one had had time to eat before, we all went to dinner after.

Daughter and I watched Field of Dreams before calling it a night.

Puttered around the house Saturday.  Unfortunately, the sewer line was clogged.  Rammed the water hose down the clean-out nearly two dozen times, but couldn't seem to get it to flow.  I did notice that the far reach of the hose was 20-25 feet farther than it'd ever gone before, and thought maybe the main sewer was backed up.  Before heading to the Ace Hardware to rent a power auger, I called Public Works to find out which side of the street the sewer tap was on (the far side), and if anyone else had reported problems (they hadn't).  They promised to send out an on-call guy to locate the line for me.

Running the hose down the line one last time, I finally managed to dislodge the clog, about five minutes before the city worker called for directions.  I told him it had cleared, but he said he'd come by Monday to scope it out anyway.

With all the Don the Plumber efforts, we missed volunteering at our Church at either of the Saturday services.  Made a decent homemade chicken noodle soup for dinner.  Daughter, who had dug a fire pit in the backyard during the afternoon, announced that we had to go to Kroger to get graham crackers and chocolate pieces (we had marshmallows already).

So, from about 10:00-11:30, we roasted marshmallows, before retiring to watch On Golden Pond.  I fell asleep sometime before Hanoi Jane made an appearance.  Probably just as well.

Introducing the DonCo "As Seen on Radio" Firepit 2000

with exclusive "set it and forget it" marshmallow rotisserie.

Woke up from a deep sleep around 4:00 a.m. to catch a glimpse of the Easter Bunny in the mirror hiding eggs and goodies until about 5:00.

Roused Daughter out of bed around 8:15 so that we could take Sienna to the Operation Vaccination  for her shots. We were about 10 minutes early - about 25 minutes and $106 later, we were good-to-go, with 2 boxes of heartworm tablets, to boot.

Building wrap membrane at the place they had the vaccinations.

Got back home in time to change clothes to attend the late service at our Church.

Apparently a family of terrapins attends church with us.

After a light lunch - so as not to spoil our appetites - we went out to the Grandparents' house, where we were met by middle Son, and oldest Son and his fiancée.  Mom & Dad served a delicious dinner.

Shots - I don't remember getting no shots...

I hope your Easter weekend was as blessed as mine.

Update:  City worker came by on Monday and TV'd the sewer lines - left me a door hanger noting the main sewer junction was clear, but there were roots @ about 12' from the cleanout.  As a result, I've made some 'teabags' of Cu2SO4 crystals wrapped in toilet paper to teach the roots a lesson.

Air pollution

What you don't want to see in the bright blue sky when you walk out your backdoor on a Saturday morning:

Doctor my eyes, indeed.

Following a promotion to the Starfleet institute, Dr. Emmett Brown stalled out the reactors of the USS Enterprise, subsequently slowing it to 88 miles per hour.  Having achieved this state of near-suspended animation, he found himself, along with Lt. Jameson Trevor Kirk, Dr. Leonard MacAodha, over the skies of Glasgow, having just boarded the new flight engineer, Colin Montgomery Scott.  Soon after this image was taken - eager to return to the 22nd century - Lt. Kirk urged 1st Engineer Scott to quickly add altitude to access favorable winds. "Lieutenant, I'm giving her all we've got - she's gonna blow!" was the response. - a possible explanation for the picture.

h/t: qdub

Thrills and chills - no spills

Disclaimer:  The following blogpost contains a number of 'selfies'.  If you are allergic to, or have aversion to this type of photography, please do not proceed.

After church service last Saturday, a quick dinner, and feeding the dog, we went to the Fair, arriving after dark - there was no sense going earlier, half of the excitement is from the lights.  We bought a sheet of coupons - just enough for three rides for the both of us.  While Talley Amusements certainly had a good assortment of equipment on hand, one has to caveat that it was not a complete carnival midway, inasmuch as there was no Tilt-a-Whirl¹ present.

We rushed to the Zipper, and were the next-to-last car/gondola be loaded.

Surviving that, we proceeded to the Kamikaze:

Blogger's stock photo - the actual one we rode was red.

I think we rode this one at a different event a year or two ago.

Red-eyed and white-knuckled fun:

I wouldn't have known if we were upside-down or rightside-up, but the camera did:

Finally, we rode the Haunted (or Spooky) Castle Mansion.  The operator let us ride twice, because the dude in the back who's supposed to jump out at you, tap you on the shoulder, or whisper in your ear, was missing the first time.  He was back on the job the second pass through, though:

Daughter reacts to spooky guy in the dark.

(Double exposure effect resulted from near-simultaneous strobe

discharge inside the darkened course - not from the old 110 film

in my smartphone.  That, or the Mansion really was haunted...)

¹ Physicists Bret M. Huggard and Richard L. Kautz came up with a mathematical equation that approximates the motion of the Tilt-A-Whirl.[2] Although it was without knowledge of chaos theory that Herbert Sellner invented the ride, in his patent text he clearly demonstrates an appreciation of chaos – "A further object is to provide amusement apparatus wherein the riders will be moved in general through an orbit and will unexpectedly swing, snap from side to side or rotate without in any way being able to figure what movement may next take place in the car."

A little dab'll [Dew] ya

Wonder if that's the goop he puts in his hair?

Disclaimer: Not for use on pencil thin mustaches.

Edit:  I had forgotten I'd already used this photo from a few posts back...

Pray for Them

Saw this on the way home the other day.  I don't seem to see this on cars much anymore - it almost struck me as kind of quaint:

Because it's more than two weeks since the wedding (3-23 on the window), it's obviously a matter of importance to this couple - they could've washed the windows long ago.  And while "Just Married" seems sort of rare these days - I can't recall seeing any cars with the inscription "Just shackin' up" or "Just bumpin' uglies" or "Just evaluating the sex - 7 positions so far!" - ever.  Maybe that's because the institution of marriage, created by God to fulfill His purpose among the people He created, still has importance in the modern world.

To be sure, even within holy ordained marriage, it's not easy - as imperfect people we have an innate way of mucking things up.  Life is complicated - lots of distractions and obligations remove our focus from those beautiful plans envisioned the day we took those vows.  Todd the Blogger has mentioned more than once that, despite everything, he misses his best friend.  Combat Kevin laments the ease with which cellphones/facebook (I can't remember which one - maybe both) have facilitated infidelity in relationships.  And, like Todd, I sometimes mourn the loss of the one who used to finish my sentences - and I hers - and who often told me "I look forward to growing old with you."

You can say that power lines are just power lines.  But I'd like to think there's significance that, in the instant this photo was taken, there's an image of a power line and pole to the right, in the shape of a cross.  I pray that they will seek guidance in their journey, from the power who created them, reigns supreme, and who came to redeem all us from a broken world.

Not long after snapping this photo, I passed the SUV.  Just ordinary young folks - probably in their mid 20s.

I wish them well.

From the smallest acts of kindness

Sometimes I need to be reminded that the small things count...and can turn into big things:

Car Show!

Well, we started out on the Camarow - look at all of them!

 I almost bought one like the white one when I was 15 (summer '76)

Then proceeded to Wilson Pickett's Mustangs Alley:

A '70 Boss 302 would probably be my ultimate 'stang pick  Alas, none at the show.

This is probably my favorite T-bird series:

An exquisitely customized Chrysler 300:

A 'rarri motor:

Trivia: The nicknames for Cadillac and Ferrari both double the 

consonant that is not doubled in the proper name.  The more you know...

A Sunbeam Tiger:

Followed by a zoo of Tigers:

The Tiger was the result of Carroll Shelby's shoe-horning a small Ford V-8 into the Sunbeam Alpine's engine bay.  With only 20% more weight, it doubled the horsepower of the Alpine's I-4 mill.

I had a great caption for this, seen on a classic GM pickup, but, nah...

In high school I wanted one of these, a 124 Spyder.  The summer after graduation, I bought a rear-engined 850 Spider soft-top instead. Fix It Again Tony, indeed.  Still, it was a fun little car, that, downhill with a tailwind, could reach 65 mph!  The 124 was significantly peppier.

Todd the Blogger will tell you what 442 means.

A not quite stock '55 or '56 Chebby powerplant:

Much cooler than Orenthal James' model:

And wouldn't one of these be fun for a Saturday afternoon drive, or a few dozen laps at Motorsports Ranch?