It Was Fun ...

OAFS Photo

Saturday morning ...

A great trip to California comes to an end. Short, busy, and filled with family and friends. Now it's back to Little Rhody and the "normal" life.

More to follow.

Red eye back to Little Rhody, I so love those, but hey, a ticket is a ticket. It's a long flight no matter what. I'll just suck it up and carry on.

I'll write more of this trip when I get back on solid ground.

Until then, stay frosty.

Ciao!

You gotta have trust! And, even moreso, you gotta be trustworthy!

 

Another redo from when I joined Sarge's bandwagon and starting posting. 

Back in the day my folks would try and teach me the need for trust in the world.  One needed to trust their fellow man to do the right thing or else one would spend his entire life looking over his shoulder for protection instead of ahead for opportunity.  

Of course they also taught that once someone had proved themselves untrustworthy...Well, don't trust them.  Ever.  I'm not talking a simple "letting you down", but actual betrayal.  Failing to do their duty to honor their word deliberately regardless of reason.  That was the ultimate sin.

Then I joined the military and realized where that ethos came from.  My instructors insisted on trustworthiness in themselves and their students.  That expectation extended through all members of the military.  If you wore the uniform, your word was your bond.  You may fail, but you failed while giving your best.

 An F-4E from my squadron at Moody AFB.

Source

 

As a "For Instance", even non-flying readers will realize that an In-Flight Fire is an extremely serious event.  They would not be wrong.  Unlike a sailplane, the engines are the things that keep you aloft.  Without them, you are going to be landing.  Whether on a runway or not, is not generally your choice.  The airplane is coming down. Period.

Ok, how does the USAF address an Engine Fire?  The "Bible" on aircraft operations in the Air Force is affectionately called the "Dash One".  The F-4E Dash One can be found here.  Just as an example of how important that document is, 40 plus years after the last time I read it, looking through the Engine Fire or Overheat during Flight Emergency Procedure, I recognized some subtle changes in the wording and punctuation of the procedure from the previous reading.  That's how serious we took that book. In any case, here's the procedure. (It's found on Page 3-9 at the link above.)

Engine Fire or Overheat during Flight

1. Throttle bad engine - IDLE
2. If warning light goes out - CHECK FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM
Depress fire test button to determine that the fire detecting elements are not burned through.
3. If detection system check is satisfactory (i.e., warning lights illuminate when checked) - LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE
Increasing thrust on the bad engine after the throttle has been retarded and the warning light has been extinguished may cause fire or overheat damage, and/or possible burn through the fire detecting elements.
4. If warning light remains Illuminated or fire detection system is inoperative or fire is confirmed - SHUTDOWN ENGINE
5. If fire persists - EJECT
6 . If fire ceases - LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE 

CAUTION
Do not attempt to restart the bad engine. If the fire ceases, and a landing is to be accomplished, make a single engine landing.

Pay particular attention to #5 in that procedure.  If the fire light does NOT go out, you are to eject from the airplane. Period-Dot-End of Story.

So, juvat, interesting, but where are we going with this story?

Trust, my Friend, Trust.  We had an E-model at Moody that was pretty much a hangar queen. (For the non-familiar, the term indicates the jet has a boatload of mechanical problems which are difficult to ascertain, expensive to fix and the fix may not fix the entire problem.) One of the requirements when a Hanger Queen is thought to be "Fixed" is to give it a "Functional Check Flight" or FCF.  This is always flown by a VERY experienced crew and is flown on a fixed profile with specific parameters to make sure the airplane is fixed and ready to be put on the daily schedule.  This jet had passed it's FCF flight and was back on the schedule.

I'm Flight Lead for a 4 ship range ride to go and drop practice bombs and fire the gun at the gunnery range at Eglin AFB FL.  

No those are not 25Lb Practice bombs, those are inert 500Lb Bombs, but that is Eglin Range. Source

Typically the aircraft is loaded with 12 x 25Lb practice bombs and 100 rounds of 20mm bullets. 

 

Source

 Fighter Pilots, being the competitive type, typically bet on the scores.  Quarter a bomb, nickle a Hole.  So, worst case, one could be out 8 bucks, plus the requirement to buy beer in the Debrief.

Bragging rights, however, were worth much more than that.  So, one tried their very best.

Unfortunately, on this sortie, I've drawn the Hangar Queen and, even with my best body English, couldn't get the bombs very close or the gun to hit the target.  I'm irritated at myself on the way home and we're about halfway there when I simultaneously hear/see the Master Caution light come on and hear the WSO yell something about "Fire" over the intercom.  Suffice it to say, I am focused at this point.  

The right engine fire light is on.  Technically, at this point, I'm supposed to ask the WSO to get into the check list and read me the procedure after which I will perform the procedure.  That works well in the Simulator.  (AFAIK no one has actually died in the Sim.)  I immediately pull the throttle to Idle.  Nothing.  I decide on a count to 10 before skipping to #4 on the Emergency Procedure.  I know it didn't take 10 seconds for that count, more like 1  maybe 2.  

Light's still on.  So I shut down the engine.  Soon as it spools down, the light goes out.  I push the test button, it lights up and goes out when I release the test.  I have one of the wingmen give me a look over.  Nothing, no smoke, no visual damage.  OK we get to skip #5 (Thank you, Lord.  My takeoff #s in a jet will continue to match my landing #s in a jet.)  

Approach and landing are normal, well, as normal as a single engine approach and landing gets, and also except for the fire trucks, ambulances and other crash vehicles near the runway ready to respond if things go south.  

We pull into the dearm area.  Dearm crew safes the crucial stuff and give the shutdown signal.  1.6 nanoseconds later, myself and the WSO are on the ground and vacating the immediate vicinity.  

The jet goes back into maintenance, the maintenance repair checklists are applied and she  gets back on an FCF schedule.  The same thing happens.  Back into maintenance and another FCF.  Again a Fire Warning Right Engine.  In that afternoon's Wing Honcho meeting, the Maintenance Commander wants to annotate the problem in the maintenance forms as a "glitch" and keep the jet on the schedule. Maintenance Stats...Gotta love 'em.

At that point in the meeting, the Wing Commander relieved him from command.  As he did so, he said "If the warning light comes on, how does the pilot know that the jet is not on fire? If he stays with the jet and it IS on fire, he and his WSO will likely be killed.  Is your in-service rate worth that?"

In other words, the Maintenance Officer had betrayed our trust.

The jet went to depot maintenance and AFAIK never flew again, at least not at Moody.

BTW, that Wing Commander went on to 3 stars.  IMHO, shoulda had 4. Great Pilot, Excellent Leader, Talented Instructor.  One of the leaders I tried to emulate.

Interesting story, juvat, but what's behind this story? Well, when Little J and LJW's baby was born, she was very premature.  That required hospitalization for a couple of months.  This story would be about Miss B's monitoring equipment and sensors.  More knowledgeable medical readers may correct me, but I believe that one of the last organs that develop when a Baby is in the Womb are their lungs.  Therefore, premies, spending less time there, tend to have lung issues after birth.  Miss B is (was when this was first published, she's normal now) currently on O2 while her lungs get better.  She also wore a Pulse Ox sensor that kept track of her pulse rate and oxygen saturation level in her blood.  It set off an alarm when either reading goes below the minimum level. 

That alarm can, and should, be heard throughout the house.

However, the Damn thing went off ALL THE F.....g time!  The medical equipment company says that's caused by the baby moving.  OK, maybe.  But, then, why does it go off when she's sound asleep and not moving.  AKA one of us is sitting right beside her watching when it goes off.

So...Next they said it's a faulty sensor cord.  OK.  They send a new one.  Except that one is for a different model sensor. 

Top two are the new cable.  Bottom two are the old cable.  I'm not an electrician, but something tells me the new ones won't work.

 They send a new, new one with a technician.  No change.  Course the baby's awake while he's here, so moving.  Later that same day.  No movement, still alarms.  

Drive down to San Antonio to meet with the Pulmonary Docs.  They hook up their device side by side with ours.  There's doesn't squawk and their readings are virtually the same as ours.  Guess what squawks.

I mentioned to them my story about Trust and the fire light and asked what, worst case, might happen in the middle of the night if LJW, being extremely sleep deprived and tired, decided it was a false alarm and rolled over and went back to sleep.

After a bit of testing of the new equipment,  suffice it to say, the NICU Staff and Docs are on Santa's good list while the Medical Equipment folks...well...aren't!

Nap Time!

 

The problem was resolved and improvement was measurable immediately.  As I mentioned, she's doing fine nowadays. She and her parents are in England.  She's now attending pre-school at a school near London.  

 

Fashionista!

She's one of the few American's at the school, so she's picking up a bit of a British accent, which is a hoot for a three, going on four, year old.  They're coming home for Christmas!  Can't wait.

 

Peace out y'all! 

Just another Monday! Manic? Magic? Who Knows?

 So...Sarge goes on a family vacation and comes back with Dengue Fever (or something) and now I'm in Charge! There'll be some changes around here, I can tell you that!  Given that Tuna has defected and is providing comfort and content over at Borepatch's place, the first thing I'm going to do is reassign his paycheck to someone in need.

AKA me!  Bwaa, Ha, Ha (you'll have to insert the sinister laugh yourself).

What's that Sarge?  No paychecks????

Well, if that's not just a big pile of Bovine Fecal Matter!

Anyhow, and in all seriousness, this has been a tough month, lots of things happened and not a lot of them good.  I think I've mentioned that Little Juvat and LJW, had a miscarriage a week or so ago.  All the required medical procedures are completed and LJW should be released from the hospital shortly. Needless to say they're pretty upset, so prayers will be much appreciated. 

On the other side of the Atlantic, I've just about jumped through all the hoops necessary to get some treatment for my fall.  (I had tripped on the way to the horse barn, landed full impact on my left side.  Hurts from my ribs down to my ankle, most painful on my thigh.  Best I can manage walking is about a third of my normal pace.  Pain level on a good day is about 5 but other days are sometimes as much as 7-8.  Sleeping is hard, even on a good day. 

Finally got an appointment for the MRI that the Doctor needs to see what the heck is going on.  That will be tomorrow (Tuesday). We shall see what will follow that appointment.

But, given the lack of mobility, not much of entertainment interest has gone on at Rancho Juvat.  So... A retelling from a couple of years ago, when Little J and LJW's first child had a bit of "issues" in her first year or so.  Long story short, she's now doing fabulously and is funny, smart and a lot of fun to be with.  Thank you, Lord!

Equipment Malfunction

 Folks, bear with me on this one.  It's going to take quite a bit of setting the stage before I get to the point on this post.  I'll get there, I promise. But I'll start with the hero of the story.

No Beans, Not Princess Leia.  Miss B!

Back in the day my folks would try and teach me the need for trust in the world.  One needed to trust their fellow man to do the right thing or else one would spend his entire life looking over his shoulder for protection instead of ahead for opportunity.  

Of course they also taught that once someone had proved themselves untrustworthy...Well, don't trust them.  Ever.  I'm not talking a simple "letting you down", but actual betrayal.  Failing to do their duty to honor their word deliberately regardless of reason.  That was the ultimate sin.

Then I joined the military and realized where that ethos came from.  My instructors insisted on trustworthiness in themselves and their students.  That expectation extended through all members of the military.  If you wore the uniform, your word was your bond.  You may fail, but you failed while giving your best.

Source

 

As a "For Instance", even non-flying readers will realize that an In-Flight Fire is an extremely serious event.  They would not be wrong.  Unlike a sailplane, the engines are the things that keep you aloft.  Without them, you are going to be landing.  Whether on a runway or not, is not generally your choice.  The airplane is coming down. Period.

Ok, how does the USAF address an Engine Fire?  The "Bible" on aircraft operations in the Air Force is affectionately called the "Dash One".  The F-4E Dash One can be found here.  Just as an example of how important that document is, 40 plus years after the last time I read it, looking through the Engine Fire or Overhead during Flight Emergency Procedure, I recognized some subtle changes in the wording and punctuation of the procedure from the previous reading.  That's how serious we took that book. In any case, here's the procedure. (It's found on Page 3-9 at the link above.)

Engine Fire or Overheat during Flight

1. Throttle bad engine - IDLE
2. If warning light goes out - CHECK FIRE DETECTION SYSTEM
Depress fire test button to determine that the fire detecting elements are not burned through.
3. If detection system check is satisfactory (i.e., warning lights illuminate when checked) - LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE
Increasing thrust on the bad engine after the throttle has been retarded and the warning light has been extinguished may cause fire or overheat damage, and/or possible burn through the fire detecting elements.
4. If warning light remains Illuminated or fire detection system is inoperative or fire is confirmed - SHUTDOWN ENGINE
5. If fire persists - EJECT
6 . If fire ceases - LAND AS SOON AS PRACTICABLE 

CAUTION
Do not attempt to restart the bad engine. If the fire ceases, and a landing is to be accomplished, make a single engine landing.

Pay particular attention to #5 in that procedure.  If the fire light does NOT go out, you are to eject from the airplane. Period-Dot-End of Story.

So, juvat, interesting, but where are we going with this story?

Trust, my Friend, Trust.  We had an E-model at Moody that was pretty much a hangar queen. (For the non-familiar, the term indicates the jet has a boatload of mechanical problems which are difficult to ascertain, expensive to fix and the fix may not fix the entire problem.) One of the requirements when a Hanger Queen is thought to be "Fixed" is to give it a "Functional Check Flight" or FCF.  This is always flown by a VERY experienced crew and is flown on a fixed profile with specific parameters to make sure the airplane is fixed and ready to be put on the daily schedule.  This jet had passed it's FCF flight and was back on the schedule.

I'm Flight Lead for a 4 ship range ride to go and drop practice bombs and fire the gun at the gunnery range at Eglin AFB FL.  

No those are not 25Lb Practice bombs, those are inert 500Lb Bombs, but that is Eglin Range. Source

Typically the aircraft is loaded with 12 x 25Lb practice bombs and 100 rounds of 20mm bullets. 

 

Source

 Fighter Pilots, being the competitive type, typically bet on the scores.  Quarter a bomb, nickle a Hole.  So, worst case, one could be out 8 bucks, plus the requirement to buy beer in the Debrief.

Bragging rights, however, were worth much more than that.  So, one tried their very best.

Unfortunately, I've drawn the Hangar Queen and, even with my best body English, couldn't get the bombs very close or the gun to hit the target.  I'm irritated at myself on the way home and we're about halfway there when I simultaneously hear/see the Master Caution light come on and hear the WSO yell something about "Fire" over the intercom.  Suffice it to say, I am focused at this point.  

The right engine fire light is on.  Technically, at this point, I'm supposed to ask the WSO to get into the check list and read me the procedure after which I will perform the procedure.  That works well in the Simulator.  (AFAIK no one has actually died in the Sim.)  I immediately pull the throttle to Idle.  Nothing.  I decide on a count to 10 before skipping to #4 on the Emergency Procedure.  I know it didn't take 10 seconds for that count, more like 1  maybe 2.  

Light's still on.  So I shut down the engine.  Soon as it spools down, the light goes out.  I push the test button, it lights up and goes out when I release the test.  I have one of the wingmen give me a look over.  Nothing, no smoke, no visual damage.  OK we get to skip #5 (Thank you, Lord.  My takeoff #s will continue to match my landing #s.)  

Approach and landing are normal, well, as normal as a single engine approach and landing gets, well, except for the fire trucks, ambulances and other crash vehicles near the runway. Other than that perfectly normal.  We pull into the dearm area.  Dearm crew safes the crucial stuff and give the shutdown signal.  1.6 nanoseconds later, myself and the WSO are on the ground and vacating the immediate vicinity.  

The jet goes back into maintenance, the maintenance repair checklists are applied and she  gets back on an FCF schedule.  The same thing happens.  Back into maintenance and another FCF.  Again a Fire Warning Right Engine.  In that afternoon's Wing Honcho meeting, the Maintenance Commander wants to annotate the problem in the maintenance forms as a "glitch" and keep the jet on the schedule. Maintenance Stats...Gotta love 'em.

At that point in the meeting, the Wing Commander relieved him from command.  As he did so, he said "If the warning light comes on, how does the pilot know that the jet is not on fire? If he stays with the jet and it IS on fire, he and his WSO will likely be killed.  Is your in-service rate worth that?"

In other words, the Maintenance Officer had betrayed our trust.

The jet went to depot maintenance and AFAIK never flew again, at least not at Moody.

BTW, that Wing Commander went on to 3 stars.  IMHO, shoulda had 4. Great Pilot, Excellent Leader, Talented Instructor.  One of the leaders I tried to emulate.

Interesting story, juvat, but what's behind this story? That would be Miss B's monitoring equipment and sensors.  More knowledgeable medical readers may correct me, but I believe that one of the last organs that develop when a Baby is in the Womb are their lungs.  Therefore, premies, spending less time there, tend to have lung issues after birth.  Miss B is (was when this was first published, she's normal now) currently on O2 while her lungs get better.  She also wore a Pulse Ox sensor that kept track of her pulse rate and oxygen saturation level in her blood.  It set off an alarm when either reading goes below the minimum level. 

That alarm can, and should, be heard throughout the house.

However, the Damn thing went off ALL THE F.....g time!  The medical equipment company says that's caused by the baby moving.  OK, maybe.  But, then, why does it go off when she's sound asleep and not moving.  AKA one of us is sitting right beside her watching when it goes off.

So...Next they said it's a faulty sensor cord.  OK.  They send a new one.  Except that one is for a different model sensor. 

Top two are the new cable.  Bottom two are the old cable.  I'm not an electrician, but something tells me the new ones won't work.

 They send a new, new one with a technician.  No change.  Course the baby's awake while he's here, so moving.  Later that same day.  No movement, still alarms.  

Drive down to San Antonio to meet with the Pulmonary Docs.  They hook up their device side by side with ours.  There's doesn't squawk and their readings are virtually the same as ours.  Guess what squawks.

I mentioned to them my story about Trust and the fire light and asked what, worst case, might happen in the middle of the night if LJW, being extremely sleep deprived and tired, decided it was a false alarm and rolled over and went back to sleep.

After a bit of testing of the new equipment,  suffice it to say, the NICU Staff and Docs are on Santa's good list while the Medical Equipment folks...well...aren't!

Nap Time!

 

The problem was resolved and improvement was measurable immediately.  As I mentioned, she's doing fine nowadays. She and her parents are in England.  She's now attending pre-school at a school near London.  

 

Fashionista!

She's one of the few American's at the school, so she's picking up a bit of a British accent, which is a hoot for a three, going on four, year old.  They're coming home for Christmas!  Can't wait.

 

Peace out y'all! 

 

Wow! What a Great Weekend!

 I've had a lot of Good to Great weekends in my lifetime.  Some were exciting, others just extremely relaxing.  One or more of Family, Friends and Flying were usually involved in the enhancing the weekend outcome.

This past one expanded the definition of the word "Great".  We traveled over to College Station for two reasons.  First was to see our Grandkids again (Yes, Beans, also to be with our Daughter and Son-in-Law of course).  Our oldest GrandKid is the GrandDaughter.  She's a couple of months short of 4YO.  Lovely, Friendly, and Smart (as a whip), a joy to be around.

Our GrandSon is a couple of months short of 3YO (Their BD's are only a day apart.). He is amazingly smart.  He speaks in complete sentences which are understandable.  If he hears a sentence he can repeat it and he seems to have filed it away so the context is there if he needs to repeat it again in conversation.   I would read him one of his books.  He could repeat the verbage while pointing to the word he was speaking at that moment moving to the next when he started saying that one.  The rhythym of the reading wasn't perfect, but much better than I expected from someone his age.  

One of the other reasons to visit the Daughter's Family was also accomplished.  Since both adults have jobs, they need a sitter during the day.  Which leaves them with no sitter at night, so they can't go  out and have a little adult recreational time.  We assisted them in accomplishing a little time off from parenting and reacquanting each other as loving adults.

We had fun, the grand's had fun and Mom and Dad had fun!

Win, Win, Win!

While the Family reunion was a big reason for visiting, it wasn't the only one.

Since we are planning to move to College Station, we also wanted to look at some houses.  We had engaged a Realtor via phone a few weeks ago, telling her what we were looking for and why and what constraints we had. (The biggest one being selling our current house about 150 miles away).

She did her best and fortunately (mixed blessing...Hard to sell ours, prices are down for buyers) the market isn't all that hot right now. So, quite a few houses on the market.  Wednesday, we got a call from the Realtor handling the sale of our current home saying he had some folks wanting to take a look-see.  We did a quick simplifying sweep of the house moving things into closets, drawers etc, just so it looked a bit better.  

We loaded up the dogs and cat and went to City Park and walked them around for an hour.  Got the call from the Realtor that it was safe to come home.  He also mentioned that they really liked the house and were considering a contingency offer of 60 days for them to sell their existing house!

Yay!!!!!!

So, that's my first order of business today.  Did they actually make the contingency order?  

Why?  Because our excursion with the College Station Realtor showed us a couple of houses we really liked this weekend. That set the other half of the Real Estate Cycle in motion. 

We'd like to make a contingency order on the house we REALLY liked if it's still available or one on the one we also liked a lot if not.

 

This is the Street View of the house we really liked.

Front porch looking out over the front yard

My Cell Phone pictures don't even begin to do it justice.  Just beautiful! It was formerly owned by a retired Army Lt Colonel who became widowed and put their home on the market.  Very nice, neat and well kept.  Much as I expected when I was told about the owner.

The contingency we would need on either would be based on the buyer of our house actually selling his house and signing the contract to buy ours. At that point, assuming both houses are still on the market, we could commit to the house we liked. Hopefully, the one pictured above.

Lots of if's, and's and but's in the situation, but...it is progress.  We haven't had anybody else visit us and show any serious interest.  At least, if this goes through we can progress to the next step. We shall see.  Lot's of prayers going skyward nowadays.

So, we drove home Sunday, and as we're driving along, Mrs. J's phone rang.  It was Little Juvat, LJW and Miss B calling from England.  Ain't Technology Great?  A phone call from halfway around the world into a car travelling at 75 MPH. (Yes, Beans some of the Highways in Texas are 75.)

In any case, they wanted to video chat, but that was a bit much for the bandwidth available to the phone in the car, so we asked them if we could call them back when we got home in about an hour.

Sure!

So we did!  The phone was answered by Miss B and the video came up immediately.  She was sitting there wearing a T-shirt which said "Big Sister".

 

Yep, Grand Child #4 is on the way, a late January, early February due date.

So, as I said...It was a very GREAT Weekend.  Hope your's went well also. 

Peace out, y'all! 

juvat 

Yes! Yes it was fun!

 Well, Campers, our 4 day adventure to College Station By the Sea was....adventurous!  As I mentioned a while ago Mrs J and my campaign plan (No Beans, we're not running for office, more of a battle plan than an election) is to find a house near to our offspring where they can assist us and we can do the same with issues that may arise.

You know, take the grandkids or the grandparents to the doctors, babysit, grocery shop, cook dinner, tell war stories.

Go to your Granddaughter's Dance Recital

Or get a chuckle out of your Grandson's response to his first Hair Cut!

 

Or maybe just sit and read a book or something. Gets a bit quiet around here occasionally.  So,  we're looking at College Station (CStat for the gocnozcenti)  for our final move city wise.  Might have to be a short stay in a rental property and then into our final home though, which brings us to the "Rest of the Story" (with apologies to Paul Harvey).

MBD has a good friend that owns a realty business and was willing to help us find potential dwellings.  

 

Photo from Zillow

 :

First house was a non-starter,  5K+ sq feet and $1.4M.  Heck, we're in our 70's, no way we need 5K nor the other number.  Nice house, but lots of nooks and crannies,  No Go in about 15 minutes of looking.

 Next two houses were in the 800K +- range.  One was older, had a beautiful back yard with a pool (not fenced in), The perimeter fence had several gaps and holes in it.  The dogs would be gone in seconds.  Finally, the interior required a lot of renovation.  Decor was mid 70's.  

 

 Zillow

Doable, but the two fence issues and having young grand kids.... another non starter.

So...the first day was disappointing, but we had a pretty good discussion of what we liked and disliked about each and our realtor was pretty responsive.  She had one more listing on her original list but it wasn't available to look at until Saturday.  We needed to be home by Saturday evening, so it was a bit tight.

L

 

Nice house,  Owner was a "collector" though, so it was fairly crowded furniture and fixture wise.  Difficult to picture what it would look like without all the stuff.  

 

Being the cook in the family, I really liked the kitchen.  All the cool stuff and a nice layout.  The yard was magnificent.  Master Bedroom was smallish as was the master bath.  The Shower in there was a nice marble,but not very large.  But....The Clutter!  Very offputting.  Not a "No", but a "most likely not" without some concessions.

Mrs J, always the optimist, went on line and found four more houses that were more (at least in the pictures) what we were looking for (and closer to our price range).  The realtor is setting up appointments for the end of this week, so...another trip to visit the grandkids.

Got that going for us. Among other things! 😗😀

Peace out y'All!

 

WHAT a week!!

 Well, Campers, its been a very unusual week since we last talked.  To use an Air Force Acronym for activities and projects, it's been "Alovnv*".  But, that's ok, it just takes a lot of energy out of you.

First in the order of importance.  Mrs J has her PET scan Tuesday (AKA tomorrow).  With the Lord's help, we'll be through this "Big Adventure" with a clean slate.  Yes, I know, regular PET scan's are still in her future, to make sure the Cancer stays gone, but a clean slate will reduce a lot of familial blood pressures.

As to the Big Week, (No Sarge it isn't THE Big Week in WWII, I mean where would we find enough B-17s to reenact?) this Big Week started last Monday with the arrival of The Rev and MBD and their two children, MG and Leon.  The Rev and MBD were headed to a retreat in the Colorado Mountains.  I believe it was church related and his parents attended also.  The retreat started Tuesday and ended Saturday.  So, with travel, Monday through Sunday.

Suffice it to say, having a 3 year old and an 8 month old in the house is a challenge.  It's even more so with a 69 year gap between the youngest and oldest persons in the house.  Sleep?  We don't need no steenkin' sleep.  Parents flew in today, Sunday as I'm writing this,  Responding to comments tomorrow may be delayed somewhat.  I intend to sleep.

All that having been said, I was very impressed with the 3 year old.  Emotions and Self-control aren't up to maturity, but her intellect is pretty far up there. 

 She's gonna go far! 

The 8 month old spends the majority of the day sleeping, but he's got a pretty good sense of humor as well as a need to explore.  Yes, Mrs J and I have a hand off protocol when one or the other of us needs to do something.  

 

He gave himself a shiner last Tuesday when we were watching TV.  He walked up the the coffee table in front of the sofa, stumbled and fell on the corner.  Fortunately, the corner was well rounded, but, nevertheless, we were concerned.

It's healing up nicely though.

You may have seen the Uniform that is required on the property, but just in case,  let's take a look.

Yep, coming out in a flying helmet.  He's also a pretty good eater for 8 months old.  Most of it goes in his mouth.

Most of it!

Most went into his mouth, some went on the floors where 5 patient dogs were acting as floor cleaners.  The rest went on his skin, clothes and tray.  Cleaning the kitchen after meals takes a bit longer than it did week before last.  Oh Well!

But,  Mrs J and I as well as the rest of the family are ready for a bit o sleeping catch up.

Peace out, y'all!  I'm going to catch an afternoon nap.

*A lot of velocity no vector.  AKA we were going hard and fast and getting nowhere.

Manic Monday*

 So...There I was** minding my own business doing computer things on my 10 year old computer with WIN10 on it.  I'm pretty happy with it, it gets me through the day fairly well.  Then I get a message popping up on the screen saying I have to upgrade to WIN11 and my files will be uploaded to the cloud.  That was the instant I was no longer a  Windows fan.  I'd been one since Windows first came out.  Talked it over with Little J whether I should go Linux or Mac.  Surprisingly, since he does a lot of his work on Linux, he recommended Mac for me.  

So, This here posting is being written on my MacBook Pro. 

I've had it about a week and am starting to teach my fingers the tricks of the trade for Mac and to forget the Window's ones.  For some reason they no longer work.

Yes, Beans, I still have my Win10 computer.  I'm migrating things over as best I can, but I had an awful lot on it and the portable hard drive plugged in to it.  Which is nearly full.  

Not quite ready to turn off my Windows machine,  as I still haven't got my fingers trained to the Mac way of doing things, but I'm getting there.

So, please forgive any horrifying mistakes there might be in this posting.

Mrs J and I had a pleasant surprise Saturday,  Little J and his gang called us. Now, I'm still a bit trapped in my own history and the "way things were".  I remember my first operational assignment to the 80TFS, "The Juvats" in December of '79 at Kunsan AB, ROK.  It was the first time that I'd not celebrated Christmas at my folks house. The weather was crappy, I hadn't flown much, not qualified in the D model F-4 and IP availability also impacted getting airborne.  So, I was feeling a bit down.  Somebody mentioned that one could phone home, but there was a charge to do so.  

I figured "What the heck? I'll surprise Mom and pull myself out of this funk!"  So I did.  Talked to them for about 10 minutes.  Perked me up quite nicely.  Then I got the bill.  $100 smackers.  I don't remember exactly, but that was a significant percentage of my monthly salary.  Suffice it to say, letter writing became the "normal" way of communication from then on.

That memory from 40+ years ago, came back as Mrs J and I sat on the sofa and chatted with Little J and family.  Not just vocal, but video also.  For about an hour or so.

The first 10 minutes or so were interesting.  Apparently, Miss B didn't recognize us on the screen, so was a bit shy and reserved.  Then, all of a sudden, the lightbulb went on and we were known entities.  I was once again referred to as "Papa Julio".

(Don't ask me how that epithet came about, but the Grandkids all call me that. So it is written, so it shall be!)

But it was very nice to chat with them.  They're settling in nicely, although still waiting for their Hong Kong Nanny to arrive.

The big event coming up this week is that MBD and The Rev are going on a marriage retreat (Swahili for a bit of He/She time alone) later this week.  MG and Leo will be staying with Papa Julio and Mrs J for a few days.  Should be highly entertaining.

And...Just Because.  Apparently, Leo has discovered a new music genre.  I think there's something to it.  I'm sure Beans will develop a new dance step for it!

 Peace Out, y'all!

* With apologies to The Bangles 

**Standard juvat opening line

Just another Manic Monday!

 Just a short one this week.  Still a lot of basket balls up in the air 'round here.  I'm pretty sure even Meadowlark Lemon would have difficulty keeping them airborne.  As you read this, Mrs J and I are driving Little J, LJW and Miss B to the airport in San Antonio.  With a little luck, Hurricane Beryl will be East of San Antonio, so we won't be fighting that.

Given our luck, however....

But...It sure was nice to have Little J and family rejoined and in our AOR for a while.  Just very nice to have Family together. 

 

Miss B and Mrs J playing dolls

 Looking forward to having an excuse to visit London.  One of the places I've not had a chance to explore very thoroughly.  Mostly just passing through the airport.

Given that their "stuff" won't arrive for a couple of months, they have several bags that are going along with them.  Which means that we'll be taking two cars to the airport.  One with the three of them and Mrs J and one with me and the luggage.  Should be highly entertaining.  Especially if Beryl doesn't head east  and draws a bead on San Antonio.  

We shall see what we shall see.  

On the other front that's occupying a lot of my thoughts,  Mrs J has several appointments this week with various doctors who will be assisting in her operation.  The operation itself will be on the 24th.  Prayers are deeply appreciated.

On a less serious note.

This was taken by our garage camera yesterday.  I believe that color is called "Green" and I don't think we've seen it in July in the 26 years we've lived out here.  Kinda pretty isn't it.  Just went out and checked the rain gauge.  Had a bit of a heavy thunderstorm after dinner last night.  Added another inch to the field.  I think that makes it about 15" for the year so far.  Usually, we're happy if we get 7 or 8 in the entire year.  So, again, Thank You, Lord.

 While we've been busy, there's not been a lot of  "stuff" being completed.  With a little bit of luck, that'll change shortly.

But, I will miss her. They'll be leaving at about 1000 AM this morning.

This one is a little late for Independence Day, but it gives me a bit of a chill, and a lot of pride.  Talk about "Balls the size of these."

Peace out, y'all!

UPDATE: 11:30 CDT:  Mission successful!  Little J and Crew safely dropped off at San Antonio Intl Airport.  Beryl was off to the East and not a factor.  15 Bags offloaded, Bag Handler was initially concerned but a sufficient amount of paper was exchanged and quieted his woes.  Will miss them, Miss B especially, but the planning of a trans-Atlantic trip has begun.

juvat update: June 30 '24

 Happy 1st of July to all readers. May you have a happy safe Independence Day and may all the rights won in that war and all the subsequent wars remain intact.  As to the largest news item I've seen in quite a while, the camouflage was certainly ripped off the president, wasn't it?

No, Beans, the lower case was deliberately used.  If I offended anyone, well...sorry. However, I've been offended for pretty near four years now.

Ok, end of political commentary.

 

As I reported last week, we'd been over to College Station for an informal family reunion.  We had a blast, but like all good things, this too passed.

 But there are quite a bit of fond memories that weekend created.  That was much needed.

June has been a busy month.  Of the 20 weekdays available, Mrs J or I had Doctor related appointments on 13 of them.  It gets a bit old.  However, this past week, we did get a bit of good news on the health care front.  Mrs J had a "sorta" colonoscopy ordered up by her surgeon.  He wanted to take a look at the colon and see exactly where the cancer had been and whether he'd have enough room to sew it back together after removing the dead cells.  He's fairly confident that he does.  Mrs J was/is not looking forward to a colostomy bag.  

I'm not even going to begin to link to that definition.

But, on the other side of the dynamic duo, I'm scheduled for an EKG this morning as you're reading this and another one tomorrow.  Seems my stress level is causing me to have somewhat irregular pulse rate spikes.  My first medicine, started last month, worked pretty well for about 3 weeks, then gradually stopped working.  The NP prescribed a fairly hefty pill for 4 days to handle things until the EKGs but which sent me to bed in the evenings pretty early. Depending on today/tomorrow's results, they'll figure out a plan of attack.

I gotta admit, that plan of attack scares me, and I used to be fearless.  They're going to shock my heart which will stop it (for a very short period of time, I pray) then restart it and they say that will take care of the Atrial Fibrillation. We'll see.

So, if I'm a little slow replying to comments, well...

 

To get off the woe is me platform, it's been great having Little J home.  LJW is a lot more relaxed.  Miss B has a permanent smile on her face and her learning "stuff" pace has sped up even more than expected.  As I mentioned in earlier posts the reunion will be good for both of them.  Movers are coming tomorrow.  They fly out to London Town on the 8th.

Mrs. J and I will miss them, but we're already planning our visit to London.

While his birthday was a little earlier in June, we celebrated it this past Saturday.  Had a couple of friends over, told embarrassing stories about him (which were reciprocated against the storyteller), and much laughter ensued.

His birthday cake was quite nice, 

Had just a tiny touch of Bourbon in it, quite nice.  Although, it is hard to believe he's 40.

My how fast time flies.

He did get a bit back at me though.

They came up for dinner last night and this was what I saw driving up.  Now, that picture doesn't quite convey the "heart thump" I felt when I first glanced at it.  You may not actually pick it up.  So...

That would be MissB driving....ostensibly.  Yep, that's a couple hundred heart beats I'll never get back.

Yes, Beans, that's Little J's Maroon covered Left shoulder beside the registration sticker.

He was fined one glass of wine for startling his old man.

On a final note, Tony the Hay Guy has changed his operation a bit.  Rancho Juvat now has 3 new residents.

That's Papa Moo on the left, Mama Moo on the right and Baby Moo in the background.

I have no idea what his final plan is, but they seem to be quite content and are mowing the front pasture quite well.

And finally, just a reminder that "Being Cool is not a part time Job!"

Peace out, Y'All!