Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

Yes, I've Been Very Quiet Here Lately

I just made it back from my third round-trip drive to Greensboro NC, after the ones on Thanksgiving and New Years. This one was less than scheduled, shall we say, but it was necessary. Thankfully I had good driving weather 3 of 4 days there and back. I'm sure I'll post more about my travels, because I took a lot of pictures along the way.

This Was Not Expected

The Lockheed C-130 Hercules is a workhorse. No question. The four-engine military cargo hauler is one tough sonofabitch. I know that they've made carrier landings and take-offs. And...

In 2007, the C-130 became the fifth aircraft—after the English Electric Canberra, B-52 Stratofortress, Tupolev Tu-95, and KC-135 Stratotanker—to mark 50 years of continuous use with its original primary customer, in this case, the United States Air Force. The C-130 is also the only military aircraft to remain in continuous production for 50 years with its original customer, as the updated C-130J Super Hercules.

I used to regularly see C-130s flying around Chicago -- along with Navy P2 Orions -- and used to see C-130s taxiing at Chicago's O'Hare field.

But I've never thought about the size of them before, or thought about putting one on a flatbed and driving it around. Good thing I had a 20mm ultra wide angle handy for the Kodak DCS Pro SLR/n so I could get it all in one shot. (grin)

Click on photo for high res.

This was at a rest stop in Ohio on I-75. I was going to drive around in front and get a cockpit on face view -- but I couldn't pull off the exit road because there was no shoulder and I didn't like the one foot hard drop-off. (evil grin)

Now for my idea for a kick-ass RV conversion van...

Dr. Phil

Friday 26 February 2010

Yes, once again it's WMU's Spirit Day. That magical day which was once before Homecoming in the Fall Semester, but was moved to the Spring Semester to balance the calendar and now allows them to "not" start Spring Break in February. (grin)

So... today was not a work day.

Recovery Day

It's been a long and busy week-to-ten-days or so. Though Spring Break showed up on the calendar at about the same time as in 2009, we started classes a week later, so it's been tough to keep up with a schedule and be ready for Exam 2 on time for Thursday. We made it. And then there's been the roads, which have included a number of days of either very long commutes or very icy glazes on the roads and long lists of crashes and slideoffs. Last night I found myself shimmying around on the highway when hit by hard crosswinds -- thank goodness for 4WD. It's not magic, but it does add stability to all four corners. We managed to get to/fro work as well.

Took the opportunity to get some extra sleep today, but also managed to catch the Women's Bronze Medal Curling match between China and Switzerland on USA network. Ran out to do some errands and was amazed at 3:21pm on the way to the bank to hear on WLAV-FM that the Men's Hockey Semi-Final between USA and Finland was already 4-0 in the 1st Period. Eek! A few minutes later on the way home and they reported that Finland had changed goalies and it was now 6-0. Still in the 1st Period.

Back End Of The Storm

Unusual weather pattern had us getting the back curl of the big Northeastern winter storm. It came at around noon with big soft flakes. Nothing like they got in New York, where 6-12" of fluffy white stuff was covering a thick, deadly heavy water soaked layer of wet snow. The heavy stuff was weighing heavily on the trees in Central Park, where one tree limb broke and killed a guy, and another tree limb took out a city bus before they closed Central Park to vehicles and pedestrians. slithytove in Philadelphia described a lovely wintry scene outside, without the heavy wet stuff where he lives.

Sometimes if there is no traffic on a snowy day like today I'll put on the four-way flashers and stop in the left hand lane to get the newspaper and mail from the road. But there was too much traffic, so I pulled into our driveway. A Chevy Astro van, which had been following me, pulled over to the side of the road... and was quickly enveloped in a huge cloud. Coolant. The young lady driving it was grousing about almost being where she needed to go, it was the second time there'd been a leak, she'd just put in a bottle of Stop Leak and what was she expecting for a beat up van she'd paid all of $100 for within the last two weeks. Her friend was coming to get her -- I suspect it was one of the nearby motorheads and they'd be much more capable of helping her than me -- so I wished her luck and told her if she was stuck out there for any length of time to come up to the house. I heard her hood slam when I was getting out of the Blazer in the garage, but couldn't see anything through the trees. She never came by and Mrs. Dr. Phil said there was no van on the shoulder when she came home. I hope it works out okay for her.

Spring "Break"?

I've got a list of way too many things to do next week. But after Monday, the weather looks sunny and warm -- in the upper 30s -- for the rest of the week. So we'll see what I can accomplish. And at the moment, I don't have a cold and my sinuses are in much better shape than the last couple of years.

There may be some news next week -- or maybe not. You can never tell with these things.

We'll see.

Dr. Phil

The Good News

The company we briefly had at the beginning of the week made it back towards Chicago on Tuesday. Not Wednesday. Because by Wednesday the route to Chicago late in the day was a mass of pink on The Weather Channel -- and that meant freezing rain and slush. Ugh.

"Biggest Christmas Storm In Eighteen Years"

Or so I read from someone in Wisconsin on Facebook. Parts of Wisconsin are expected to get two feet (or more) of snow. If you're doing a Wisconsin Christmas, I hope you're already there.

Sliding Into Ho-Ho-Ho

Meanwhile, in West Michigan on this side of Lake Michigan we're on Winter Watches for tonight, with some freezing rain passing through. But Christmas Eve during the day should still be clear -- Christmas Eve Eve started out with bright sun and clear skies. Then from 5pm Christmas Eve to 5pm Christmas we're going to get more freezing rain and crap, changing to rain and warming up to 37°F on Saturday. So it'll be slick and treacherous here, and our driveway will be a wet sheet of ice. And then it'll melt off before the next snow? Maybe?

We're on the southern end of the storm and are not supposed to get the big snow in Milwaukee. That's what they say. We'll see.

Tuesday and Wednesday next week should be clear. Maybe.

Anyway, we're not going anywhere on Christmas. Let it frain. Let it drizzle. Let it freeze.

Dr. Phil