Getting prepared to travel

On Friday of this week, May 4, we will fly to Sacramento CA. We return after a week or so. The purpose of the trip is to attend a wedding in Pleasanton, CA, and then to drive to Palmdale, CA to visit our son and his wife. We will see some friends in the Antelope Valley as well. We lived there for ten years.

The wedding should be interesting and fun. The invitation said "black tie optional", so I used the opportunity to buy a tuxedo, the first I've ever owned. There will be some other formal events to attend in the near future, so I thought it would be worthwhile. The bride is the daughter of good friends, and we met the groom the last time we were in California a couple years ago.

We are really looking forward to our visit to SoCal, as its been months and months since we saw our son and his bride.

My cousin will house-sit and watch the dog while we're away, so we have no worries while we're gone. I've been mowing the lawn and getting a few honey-do's scratched off the list so the house should be fine.

MRO in Atlanta

I am currently doing a little consulting for a firm in Texas. The firm makes jet engine testing equipment, and is run by people I have known and liked for years. So last week I attended the Aviation Week MRO (Maintenance Repair and Overhaul) Conference in Atlanta. One of the firm's engineers attended as well, and we canvassed the floor for potential new business for the firm. It was exciting and refreshing for me to see quite a few people I knew from my career, and think about how to generate some new business for the firm.

The tragedy at VT

The news has been filled with the details of incident and the aftermath of the shootings and murders at Virginia Tech. Friends of ours have a daughter who is a senior there, and she is fine. She was in another building when the incident was happening. But it is only by chance that she wasn't directly involved, and it gives pause that any of us are just an instant away from something as terrible as this. There seems to be a lot of focus on the young man who wielded the guns and his loneliness, reports of stalking, bomb threats, and other "signs" that things were not right.

It seems impractical and unconstitutionally intrusive that some sort of government oversight and intervention of anyone who is troubled could prevent these kinds of things. Ideally, when someone exhibits behavior that tends to make them reclusive and antisocial, we as society would shower some attention on that person and get them to feel included again. But that is admittedly a bit pollyannish as well. My feeling is that a better system of gun control is a step in the right direction.

Looking at the German system, I see some positive things that could have precluded this and other similar incidents. To own a gun in Germany, you have to be a member of a club or organization that is involved in a sport or organized activity, like target shooting or a hunting club. You have to become certified as knowing how to handle guns and be safe. You have to demonstrate that you have a safe and secure place to store the weapons. In other words, the German government takes a couple steps to insure that you are a responsible gun owner. You might argue that these steps don't do anything to preclude a depressed individual from committing a terrible crime. But I would counter that the mandatory membership in a club or organization and the related instruction and certification is inclusive in its very nature, and tends to foster a sense of social responsibility in anyone who is exposed to the rules and the societal norms taught and practiced in these clubs. So the thing that would have happened with this student if he had had to join a club and get instruction, and be with other people who were enthusiastic about the hobby, is his depression and feelings of being left out would have been eliminated. He would have a group of people he regularly associated with for normal and healthy expression of feelings.

I am not trying to advocate elimination of gun ownership, rather a method of insuring more responsible gun ownership.

Saturday musings...

It has been a few days since I posted any thoughts. Not to say I have been thoughtless, just nothing major or terribly exciting has happened.

My sister-in-law's husband had an operation this last week. We spoke to him on the phone later in the day, and his spirits were good. He had a problem with a herniated disk in his spine. I'm glad he has had this fixed, as I know it was bothering him. He is an avid, and very good, golfer and getting this out of the way should make for a good golfing summer for him. When the wife & I travel to Milwaukee later this year, I hope we get to play. He knows a lot of good courses.
Speaking of golf, I played yesterday at the local club, where we are members. It was a bit cool, and it was seniors day, as it is every Friday. But I didn't go until just after noon, and played alone. I managed to get around the course in just under 3 hours, and shot a respectable (for me at least) 94.

Earlier in the week, I received some not so pleasant news about a friend and fellow work mate of mine who was diagnosed with a Stage 4 cancer. He too, had recently retired, and is of a similar age to me. The news was initially pretty bleak, but the prognosis is now not as hopeless. There are some experimental treatments out there that may offer some help. I am keeping him and his family in my thoughts and prayers.

Birds, feeders, and squirrels

We have a couple bird feeders set up in the yard. They consist of two cloth bags and a tower to dispense Niger seed to finches and other small birds, a suet station, and a general bird seed feeder on a pole. The latter one attracts cardinals, starlings, finches, doves, and woodpeckers, among others I can't name. It also attracts grey squirrels. Squirrels have a place in the scheme of things, to be sure, but they can sure pack away a lot of bird seed. Within a day of filling the bird feeder, the squirrels rediscover it, and start gorging themselves. I raised the feeder higher, and put a squirrel baffle under the feeder itself. I would have been better off investing that $7 in a dollar machine at the Indian casino. I have considered some other methods of trying to deter the little rodents, but I can't bring myself to harm them. So I guess they get some bird seed once in a while....

Lats night, we spotted an unusual bird, the Pileated Woodpecker, as shown in the picture. My wife has seen the bird several times, and she called me to look at it last evening, when she spotted it again. That is a surprisingly large bird.

Our new little dog, Jasmine the black Yorkie, is fascinated by birds. She runs after them in the yard, and watches intently as they fly away after she scares them. This morning, however, she was startled when some Canadian Geese flew overhead and started honking. It brought a smile to my face as I watched her follow the birds in flight, honking at each other.

Spring takes a short break

As it happens most every year, a cold snap has interrupted the warming weather of Spring. It was preceded by some pretty violent thunderstorms that blew through our neighborhood Wednesday evening. We even had a little bit off hail that added quite a tattoo to the sound of the driven rain on the metal roof of our home. No frost has formed yet, but its supposed to get even a bit colder this Good Friday evening. It will warm up again after Easter, and allow us to enjoy the outdoors in shorts and t-shirts again.

We enjoyed a visit from some friends yesterday afternoon. They live in Cincinnati, and were taking a short vacation to Asheville, NC, and decided to stop in to say hi on their way south. I met them over twenty years ago on a visit to Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, when I covered the SR-71 engine program as a field rep. We remained friends and stayed in touch, despite the distances.

We are looking forward to visits from other good friends this month as well.

The Natchez Trace

Friday afternoon, we decided to take off for the weekend. I had done some heavy duty yard work the previous day at my wife's Aunt's house, and we both wanted to see some new scenery. We packed lightly, put some water, soda, and fruit in the cooler, loaded up the dog and her stuff, and away we went. We took mostly non-Interstate roads to get to the Natchez Trace.

The Trace is a roadway or parkway operated and maintained by the US Park Service. It is 440 miles long and runs from just south of Nashville to (you guessed it) Natchez, MS. The road's origin and historical significance is that it was used in the late 1700's through mid 1800's by people who manned the riverboats and barges floating down the Mississippi River. After reaching the gulf, they would walk or ride by horseback back to where the work started again. The path they took was the Natchez Trace. The roadway is similar to the Blue Ridge Parkway, but not nearly so heavily traveled. There are many historical sites and things to see along the way. The speed limit is only 50 mph, and it was a very relaxing and beautiful drive. We got on the trace just north of the TN border (mile marker 375) with Alabama, and followed it to Jackson, MS (mile marker 90). We will explore the two ends of the Trace on separate trips.

The pictures show a bridge across the Tennessee River, some Indian Burial Mounds, and some wildflowers (red clover) we observed along the way.