Reader Snowman passed the following along in the comments a few days ago when I started this Pic-a-Day thing:
Love the pic-a-day, but, seriously…we gotta get you a job, man.
Keep flying and posting the old Med pics. MORE TOMCATS!
So, to keep the Snowman and the other inmates happy, here’s another from the Big Sea-Little Boat archives - JFK meandering in the Med:
I’ve added my blog-buddy and fellow aviation photog bubba Parrothead Jeff from Las Vegas over on the blogroll. He ponied up and is trying to do this not-all-that-easy Daily Picture deal that I started on 1 Jan.
If you are unfamiliar with the term “Parrothead”, go pick up some Jimmy Buffett albums and you’ll solve that question.
Jeff has some great aero pics, but living next door to Nellis AFB helps.
Go give him a looksee - we have a bit of a competition going as to who will forget and not post a daily pic - I have MINE up for today and he is still lacking! Must be that Las Vegas latitude.
Todays’ daily pic is a two-fer!
But first….I have to remind you folks of Da Vicni’s old quote about flying…
When once you have tasted flight, you will forever walk with your eyes turned skyward, for there you have been, and there you will always long to return – Leonard Da Vinci
That’s why so many of these pics are of “stuff” in the sky. I haven’t climbed into an aircraft as anything other than a paying customer in many a moon, but one’s eyes are still drawn to the skies.
Mid-afternoon moon. Seeing it so clear in that bright mid-afternoon blue sky was kinda strange.
And doing the ol’ afternoon-moon-zoom deal, its interesting that my basic run-of-the-mill zoom lens even brings out some detail of the terminator (the light/dark boundry).
And the two-fer is the sunset this evening…..looking back through the trees behind the house.
I guess I’m pretty glad to be headed back to work tomorrow - at least I’ll be able to get some pictures of stuff other than in my back yard!
By the way, besides drawing some pretty cool flying gizmos, when the heck did Da Vinci fly, anyway?
4 Jan, 2009
Jet Route 75 (J-75) is a high-altitude jet airway that goes from Boston down to the Lee County, Florida VORTAC near Naples, FL - it passes just to the northwest of my home.
On a clear day, like today, the contrails are very distinct and clear, and the zoom brings out the aircraft as close as can be when you think about a 150′-or-so foot long airliner at 38,000 feet - which is over 7 miles away (I’m guessing at the altitude, although for a long-haul like wherever that aircraft is going they’ll get up in the high-altitude structure for optimum engine performance and to take advantage of any jet streams).
I’m thinking Southwest Airlines with that orange fuselage, white wings and blue nose.
Zoomed in, its interesting looking at the gap between the engine exhaust and where the contrail starts. The “Chemtrails” Morons will love these sorts of pictures - its proof….proof, I tell you! that the Evil Bush Government is seeding the skies with mind control gas. Burp.
3 Jan, 2009
2 Jan, 2009
Pinchette #1, IHOP while we waited for the truck to get an oil change.
I SAID some would be mundane - although Pinchette #1 is far from that.
Remember seeing those ads on TV lately touting California as a cool place to live? Phil Mickleson, on a green, saying “Its a long drive to work” or some bike-rider on a hill during a team ride saying “You’re always playing catch-up” or Vanessa Williams at Disneyland, amid Mickey and Goofy, saying “We work with a lot of characters”?
At the end, you have Maria Shriver and Ah-nold, sitting at a nice restaurant table, sipping wine, without a care in the world!
Maria: “If California seems like your kind of work…”
Ah-nold: “When can you start?”
What he DOESN’T tell you is….”…you may not get a tax refund for a while, though”.
California? No thank you very much.
Calif. Taxpayers Due Refunds May Get IOUs
By Patrick Healy
NBCBayArea.com
updated 5:19 p.m. ET, Thurs., Jan. 1, 2009
If you expect you’ll be getting a refund from California when you file your 2008 state income tax return, be prepared: you may instead receive a “registered warrant.” Translation: an IOU.
California is rapidly running out of money. Blame it on the state budget deficit that continues to bleed billions of dollars from California’s reserves. Facing inadequate credit to make up the difference, California’s Controller John Chiang warns that by the end of February, the nation’s most populous state may not be able to pay some of its debts, and instead be reduced to issuing those creditors IOUs.
“My office has projected that, in approximately 60 days, there will be insufficient cash available to meet all expenditures reflected in the 2008-09 Budget Act,” stated a Tuesday letter from Controller Chiang to the directors of all state agencies. “To ensure that the State can meet its obligations to schools, debt service, and others entitled to payment under the State Constitution, federal law, or court order. California may begin, as early as February 1, 2009, issuing registered warrants…commonly referred to as IOUs…to individuals and entities in lieu of regular payments.”
California has not resorted to IOUs since the 1992 budget crisis when Pete Wilson was governor. Back then, some 100,000 state employees got IOUs instead of paychecks for two months until the state approved a budget. The 1992 crisis came during summer, well past the tax season, but at least 12,000 tax refunds were also issued as IOUs, according to a contemporaneous report in the Los Angeles Times.
Thought I might try something this year - have a different picture each day, taken that day. If all goes according to plan, there will be 365 of these posts, beginning with the below sunrise on 1 Jan, 2009 and hopefully ending with a sunset on 31 Dec, 2009. Some will obviously be mundane and run-of-the-mill, but others may be half way decent (with a bit’o'luck). At least it’ll be an impetus to post *something* with a bit more regularity.
So, starting off, was a 0-dark-thirty trip to the Air Force Memorial in Arlington, next to the Navy Annex and adjacent to the Pentagon. It was absolutely freaking cold -one of those crystal clear cold morning with nary a cloud in the sky and a breeze taking the wind chill down to single digits - it felt like, anyhow. Time was about 0732 (sunrise was at 0727, but the sun had to climb up over the buildings over in Crystal City).
Sunrise, 1 Jan 2009, Crystal City, Virginia
The whole Air Force Memorial is visually stunning. I did a post on the dedication and construction over on Op-For a few years ago. I hadn’t stopped by the memorial till this morning, and a few shots were kinda neat.
Another perspective of one of the spires (yes, that is a contrail off to the right and yes, I did plan for it to be in the pic):
There is a polished mirrored wall off to one side, and the reflection of the Pentagon and the Washington Monument was interesting.
There is a larger-than-lifesize bronze statue of an AF Honor Guard off to the side.
Day 1, complete.
Some new Navy uber-weapon to eradicate cocaine-hyped islamoterrorists? Close.
The US Navy has awarded funds to develop a self-contained remote electronic sniffer unit which could be delivered to the holds of suspect vessels by a robot helicopter to detect “chemical, explosive, and illegal drug residues.
I guess when you have a cool toy like the Fire Scout you look for unique ways to utilize it.
Blog thoughts of a transplanted southerner, former naval flight officer, current naval reservist, newly-married father of two, right-wing reactionary and all-around adequate guy!
