LA fires from the flight deck

I was driving out to the barn and I saw THIS spectacle: Yes, that's a pick-up truck piled high with something huge and tall. I kept expecting it to tip over! Here's a better perspective--next to a semi-truck and under a freeway sign!

I was in Salt Lake City for my PC (Proficiency Check) in the sim this week. Airline Captains have PC's every six months; First Officers get them every twelve months.

A lot of people wonder what sim is like. It's in a box on hydraulic feet, so that it can fling you every which way the moment you screw up. Inside the box is a flight deck--it's exactly what is in the airplane, so when you are inside, you are really inside an airplane. The windows even look like RJ windows, but computer generated pictures show up when you taxi, take off, fly and land--or don't land, as is most often the case. Usually there is a vehicle on the runway, or you get a windshear with an engine fire, or the runway disappears in fog, or some other disaster. It's supposed to test your flying skills and decision making process. Fortunately for me (and maybe not as fortunately for my unsuspecting passengers), that's a normal day for me...

An FAA examiner sat in on my sim check ride, which is called a PC. A day after sim, I got an email from my supervisor. A friend had sent this to him. This is what it said (I took out last names):

Hi Rob,

Hope all is well! I just wanted to pass on a conversation I had with Ray , FAA SLC FSDO. He conducted my biannual observation for my check airman authorization. When I met him on the ramp in SLC, he mentioned that he had just finished an observation on Karen's PC check. I told him that I was friends with Karen and wondered how her check went.

He told me, " John, I've been doing this a long time and of the top three checkrides I've seen, Karen's had to be number two. She did an outstanding job and I swear she answered 98% of the questions she was asked and flew the heck out of that sim. If all checkrides went like that, my job would be VERY easy!"

Rob, I know your days can be filled with "problem children" so I thought a little good news might be in order. If you see Ray, ask him about her check. He won't run short of compliments for her :) Thought you'd like to know.

Take Care,
John

Rob forwarded it to me with a note saying "GREAT JOB, CAPTAIN!" It made my day! :-)

On the way home from sim, I saw my first real albino person. The photo came out blurry, but he had white hair, pink skin, pinkish eyes (WEIRD!) and white eyebrows and hair on his hands.

So, I picked up my trip in SFO. My favourite FO flew this trip with me. Here's Andrew-Cute, isn't he?This was the view going into LAX--the big fires north of the city. You can see smoke plumes from the smaller fires to the left, and the huge one to the right. It really looked like a volcano had erupted.This was from 39,000' feet, looking down on the smoke. We figured that it was up to at least 30,000'. We were on our way to San Antonio when I took that photo. Our route took us over El Paso, and I was able to spot the area in which Erick disappeared. It's so desolate. I sent a silent message to the universe, hoping that Erick is alive out there somewhere. Still no word from him, and no trace--his debit and credit cards haven't been touched. Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers until he's found, OK?

On our way home from San Antonio, we saw this Level 5 thunderstorm over eastern Colorado, just east of Castle Rock. It even spawned a couple of tornados. Scary, isn't it?Back to work tomorrow with a Cleveland overnight. Our hotel is next door to a Dunkin' Donuts, so I should have a pretty good day. Hope your week is ending on a good note!

This week

Still no word on Erick. Thanks, everyone, for your thoughts and prayers. Please keep it up! One of the ladies in charge of prayer at Del Sol Church left a comment. I emailed them, and they are praying hard for Erick, too. He really, really loves his church, its members and his ministry.

This is a self-portrait that I found. Now you have a face for your thoughts. Erick is a terrific photographer; if you have a chance to visit http://www.hotbebop.com/, be sure to look at his artwork, OK?I went on the Garden Walk, and saw 9 of 10 gardens. It took me 5 hours, because I walked the entire thing. I'm estimating that was about 5-6 miles! I was amazed to discover that I can grow many of the things I loved in my Washington gardens--peonies, roses, iris, hostas, lavender, coreopsis, clematis and more!This house used all sorts of decorative accents. Here, they took some very old shelf supports and used them to garnish the garage door! Can you see the acorns? I bought one of the sculptures from this lovely, casual garden. They are rusted zinc silhouettes. I got the Garden Joy sculpture, which now graces my front yard.I noticed a couple taking photos of tree bark. Odd...so I inevestigated. This is what was ON the tree bark! ISH...what is it? We think it's a cicada coming out of the pupae shell? It was about 2" long, and bright green. It's hanging upside down. Check out the eyes! And the wings!I walked down to the beach in Santa Barbara on Tuesday--4.2 miles each way--that's 8.4 miles round trip, including hills! Yes, I was sore, but it was worth it. Here's one for the Glamour Don't file:Go ahead, take a closer look...what ARE those on her feet? And WHY black socks????This sand sculpture was really cool--it's dragon guarding its egg. Gee, I can barely make a bucket castle...this is really good!My primary objective in going downtown was to go to the Farmer's Market. Santa Barbara has a nice one. I found PASSION FRUIT!!!! Yippee, I haven't had passion fruit in over 20 years, since I lived in LA! I also bought walnut oil--it's delicious, and can be used in anything you'd use olive oil for. I bought some honey, and extra virgin olive oil, too. My pantry is well stocked.Then, when I got home, my neighbor brought me this bounty from his garden. Tomatoes, lemon cucumbers, squash, the biggest zucchini I've ever seen, and an eggplant! The tomatoes are delicious! I'm hoping to make curried squash soup tomorrow or Sunday, have eggplant for dinner, and I don't know how I'm going to eat all of that zucchini--can you freeze it? Want some?Fall must be here. I spotted this tree yesterday. Beautiful, isn't it?Today, Trish & I went for a walk and spotted the cat in the basket. Cute!Remember my old couch? It was perfect in Colorado Springs, but overwhelming in my new house. So, I sold it on Craigslist.This is my new furniture! The red chair was delivered by mistake, but I'm going to enjoy it for the next day or so, until they pick it up. If they'll sell it at a floor sample price, I'll buy it--I love it!

Here's the new couch! It fits the space so much better, doesn't it? Its colour is really close to the old sectional, but the lines are so much cleaner and more contemporary.

Check out my new bookcase, which matches the old one. I was thrilled to find it! I'm finally unpacking, slowly but surely (ignore the box in the corner, OK? And the man behind the curtain!)

I hope that your week has gone well. Again, please keep Erick in your thoughts--I believe that every thought and prayer counts. Thanks.

Erick Djerf

My good friend Erick has been missing since August 10th. His family notified me today. He was supposed to take his mother to a doctor's appointment, but never showed up, which is completely unlike him. Instead, he went camping by the Rio Grande, near Ft. Hancock, which is an area used extensively by the Mexican Drug Cartel to smuggle drugs into the US.

Erick is not an outdoorsman--he's an artist, a jazz musician, and a chili afficianado--I have a link to his website on the blog. Camping and hiking are not things that he does, yet he set up a tent 8 miles off the highway. Erick's camp was found with everything still in it on Tuesday morning, after his mother and sister filed a missing person's report. The Border Patrol said that he had stopped and asked if he could camp at the spot at which they found his belongings.

Erick suffers from bipolar disorder. He had grown his hair long, but cut it right before the trip, but that may have been because school was starting in a week (he's a teacher). He left sticky-notes all over his apartment, telling his mom he loved her, asking that this or that be given to particular people. He left his cell phone, apt keys and other things one normally takes, but took clothing and the cat's food--but the cat was found outside the apartment. She's an indoor cat and beloved. Maybe he was taking her with him and she got away, and he left without her?

I talked to Ranger Shaw, who is in charge of the investigation. He is pretty convinced that Erick wasn't contemplating suicide, but was either going away to start a new life somewhere, or just needed to get away for a little while. He had gigs lined up, school was starting, and he was very involved in a lot of new church programs as well as art and music events. Taking the cat food and clothing isn't indicative of suicide. That is encouraging. Ranger Shaw pointed out that although Erick has had a tough time in life, he has always been a fighter and succeeded in getting around, over or through any obstacle.

Still, something is terribly wrong. The Border Patrol and Texas Rangers have been searching for Erick for a week using horses, dogs and helicopters. His tracks lead to the river, but the dogs have not scented an exit point. Kristen said that the Patrol and the Rangers plan to continue their search for another week. Obviously and unfortunately, our law enforcement can't go into Mexico to search for him.

Please keep Erick, his sister Kristen and his mom in your thoughts. I hope that this is just a bipolar episode and that they will find him safe somewhere. I'm very afraid that it's not.

A Walk Around My Block

I went for a walk yesterday and look what I found! Aren't those a cool take on Adiorondack chairs? I might have to stop by and find out where they got those--I love them!Right after the chairs, I heard an unusual hawk's cry--more like a cat's meow than a hawk's scream. I spotted this guy up above, and another in the trees. They were calling to each other. I inherited a love for birds and birding from my Grandma, and I've got a life-list of birds.

I knew that they weren't red-tailed hawks, but I didn't know what they were. Prairie Falcon? No. Swainson's Hawk? No. Definitely not a Perigrine or any sort of falcon, so it had to be a hawk. Not a Harrier, or a Ferruginous, or a Goshawk...what were they? So, it was off to the internet to figure out what they were.Aha! They were juvenile Cooper's Hawks! They were amazingly beautiful, and the one on the antenna let me watch him for quite a long time. They actually look almost identical to Sharp-Shinned Hawks, but can be distinguished by the half-white belly and the muted stripes on the tail with the white ruffled end. Sharp-Shinned have denser spots over their entire belly, and very distinct tail stripes, but otherwise they look almost exactly alike. The adult birds are even harder to tell apart--glad these made it easy for me! I'll bet your neighborhood is full of amazing jewels. All you have to do is look...enjoy!

Fun week!

This is never a good thing to see, especially if you are going TOWARDS it! That thunderstorm was 70,000' high--and we were at 36,000'! Glad we opted to go around it!

We ended up breaking the plane and had to ferry it to Colorado Springs for repairs. This is inside our hanger. It was nice to be surrounded by handsome mechanics! Finally made it to Lincoln. I went downtown the next day, had a nice lunch, and went to the art gallery. This is a 4-piece display by a guy named Tom Reinholt or something like that.

Trish and I went to see the Rockies vs. the Cubs on Friday night. Rockies lost, but we had fun!

Maybe a little TOO much fun!?!

Hope you had a good week, too!

New Sofa!

So I went browsing today at Arhaus Furniture as well as a couple of other high-end, I-can't-afford-it-but-I-want-to-see-how-they-live furniture stores.

I've been undergoing a lot of changes--downsizing, getting rid of things that I just don't love or want any more, getting rid of clutter and knick-knacks and doo-dads and extra STUFF. In fact, you can see the Goodwill pile in the back corner of the room--yup, that HUGE pile is leaving!

Somewhere along the line over the past year, I've realized that I've outgrown many of my things, including a lot of my furnishings. Other things are just languishing because I've been a little afraid to use them--like Grandma's table (which will become my sewing table when I finish unpacking the office).

I bought this sectional for the house in COS, where it looked terrific, and fit my style.
However, it's just too big in this house. Waaay too big. 95" x 95"--that's 8' per side! It's also no longer my taste or style. It's a cool sofa, but really, how functional is a sectional? There's no room for a chair, so there's nowhere else to sit. There's no way to face someone while having a conversation. And, although sectionals are designed to seat many people, more than two people is just too cozy.

So, I went to browse and get ideas today. Really, I was just looking. Really!

Sooooo, meet my new sofa! It's from the Yale Collection by Corbin--it's got a hand-crafted frame, and is upholstered in a chenille fabric with a herringbone pattern. The wood frame sweeps across the bottom; I LOVE the tapered legs. It's comfy, it's a smaller scale, and I LOVE IT!The sectional is listed for sale on Craigslist. The above sofa was on clearance, marked down over $1000--well within my price range. There is a matching armchair and ottoman, which I will buy if the sectional sells, and if the bonus check is a good one! Keep your fingers crossed!

Granite!!!

Despite the economy, we are still taking delivery of new airplanes. This is our newest one, with only 50 hours on it! It even has that "new airplane" scent! Look how spiffy and clean it is! Doesn't First Class look comfy? More leg-room and roomier overhead bins!Space age lighting, too! WOW!I was at a junk store the other day and spotted this lovely chandelier. I wish you could see how sparkly the crystals are. It's from the 40's, which is when the house was built. It's a heavy metal--possibly pewter or brass? It's definitely not the cheap stuff you find at the big-box stores these days.

Although I like the chrome and milk-glass track light that I installed in the dining room, it just doesn't quite fit. So, it's going into the laundry room (to replace the incandescent light), and this will go into the dining room. I wasn't sure that I liked the pointy spikes, until I realized that the curve matches the coved ceilings. The colour matches Grandpa's lamp, and goes with all of my furnishings. I'll post pics after I install it; I'm waiting for a ceiling cover to be delivered.Speaking of deliveries, guess what came yesterday? THE GRANITE COUNTERTOPS! Finally! It only took 3 months and 5 missed appointments (not by me...no surprise there).

(Yes, the ugly green shutters and trim will go away next year, probably replaced by black shutters and deep pomegranate trim, with a Grey Poupon colour over the brick. One of the neighboring houses has that paint scheme, and it's spectacular.)

Anyway, here's part of the counter!

The seam is in the middle of the cabinet. You can't even see it! They cut the sink after installing the granite and sealing the seam.

The colour has mix of garnet, mica, quartz (all of which are very sparkly and glowing), with blacks, tans, golds, coppers and even some green tones. It's absolutely beautiful!

Can you see the seam? I'll bet not!So, I finally have granite! This is the first time I haven't had to settle for low-bid builder formica, and low-bid builder fixtures. Even though this unit will become a rental in a year or two, I decided that it's worth it to have what I want. Life is too short to settle, isn't it?

Next kitchen project is choosing the backsplash--either a tan, tumbled stone tile which might be hard given the disasterous shape of the walls, or bead-board, painted high-gloss white, with matching crown molding. The walls will be painted one of the golds in the granite, probably close to a mustard colour, which is also in the cabinet finish. What do you think? Any other ideas?