Summer over? Not yet.

We had a very pleasant weekend here in the Antelope Valley. It managed to make the mid 80s on Saturday and all of 79 yesterday. Today was a mid 80s day with a NNW cool breeze of about 35. But it will be short lived. By this weekend, which is starting on Friday, it will be 105.
But the Missus and I are headed out of town, We are going to Oceanside to visit Sharon's sister and family. We haven't seen Jerry, Hector and Ashlee for quite awhile. There is also the pool, spa and beverage of choice in the hills inland. Just off of the CA 76, the next exit south of the Camp Pendleton main gate.
Might go to the pier and get a new sweatshirt and or ball cap.
It is supposed to be in the seventies in North San Diego County. Pleasant. Sunday next is forecast to be all of 65-68. A fleeting taste of Autumn. Then back to the Desert.

The Highwaymen - Highwayman

For some of us.....from a certain generation

He's a poet, he's a picker--
He's a prophet, he's a pusher--
He's a pilgrim and a preacher, and a problem when he's stoned--
He's a walkin' contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction,
Takin' ev'ry wrong direction on his lonely way back home.

The chorus from Pilgrim Chapter 33. Kris Kristofferson's Album from 1971, The Silver Tongued Devil and I

It was my senior year.

Kind of fits after the life led, at certain points in history.

My sister has it up at her blog  Pixie Place Two from the you tube thingy.

Buck will understand this one.  

Falcon.. Part Two with more plane pr0n!

Here we go again. More random pictures of us out here in the Desert. Plus a few of the temperatures we are dealing with.

Sunrise. Looking towards Barstow.

Ryan, hard at it!

Towing an airplane. They let me do this!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Dan. Doing checks following engine start.

This was the temp during the launch procedure Dan was doing. It was about 0940!

Dan. Directing the jet out of the chocks.

Me. Waiting to start.

Launch checks.

Dave-O and his new friend, a Praying Mantis!

12:12 PM. Yup. 111 degrees. It did finally hit 113 on this one later. I had already turned in my photo pass and stowed my camera inside.
I hope you readers like them. It is just a point and hit the shutter button and see what happens!

Gettin WARM!

The Weather Thingy on the right has the forecast for this part of the world. In addition the one TV station that I do watch for news and weather(LA) has the temps for the Antelope Valley/High Desert possibly hitting 108 to 110. The LA area is going to be around 107.
But the flight line up here at Edwards and the one for our brethren at China Lake is going to be really toasty for the next few days! Taking camera for a shot of our Time and Temperature, I hope.

Tanking, Naval Aviation Style

Buck got me thinking with a neat shot at his place. So here is a really old one, circa 1980-1981 embarked in the Good Ship USS Ranger CV61 as a member of Attack Squadron One Four Five, The Swordsmen.

Note, this is a scan of a print that is around thirty years old. It has discolored over the years. Taken with a Yashica TL Electro 35mm. I forget what the lens was. I got rid of it a few years later.
Buck at Exile in Portales has a really neat shot of a KC-135 refueling an AC-130 over his location. Go on over and check it out. The link is over on the right.

Hometowns

Havre, Montana
Great Northern, Burlington Northern and now Burlington Northern & Santa Fe Depot. Oh yeah, Amtrak is there, too.
The statue is of James Jerome Hill. The Empire Builder. Havre exists as it does solely because of this man. It is the halfway point between the Twin Cities and Seattle. So when the GN was pushing across the Northern Tier it became a major facility for the Railway. Roundhouse, locomotive and car shops and crew point.

From the hill to the west. Also the site of the Wapka Chug'n  buffalo jump. Along the Milk River.

Downtown Malta. This is 89 miles east of Havre. Did grades one through three here. Mom and her parents taught school here. This is Center Street looking north to Hwy 2 and under the railway. Note stack train in picture.The shadow to the left is the marquee on the Villa Theatre. It is the only movie theatre between Havre and Glasgow, 160 miles apart. The GN hotel is on the right. The white building is the First State Bank.
Grandpa, Grandma, Great Aunt and an Uncle are buried here. People still knew who I was when I was dumping the rock train from here to Glasgow in the spring of 07. Like when I was in diapers remember.

BHO and the mosque and nancy p and associates

Just a casual observation. That idiot just can't keep from stepping in the manure, can he? And his "envoy" sent to the various countries that comprise the sandbox has been shown to be just a tad on the radical side. And now the sphincter of the house has the idea that someone or something is paying for the opposition to the mosque and they need to be investigated, by the FBI? The woman has issues. Reading a real news source is something she has failed to take up. Just like the CinC! Hmmmmm. Peas in a pod?
Seems to me that some of the observations are indeed correct. The Administration and The Congress are out of touch...............with pretty much everything. The percentage of Americans against the BHO Super Mosque is such that the realization of the voters being angry makes things a bit obvious. Well obvious to you and me, anyway.
Oh, just for giggles, Carly Fiorina leads Barbara "call me senator, I worked hard for it" Boxer by five points in the most recent poll here in the Socialist Welfare Republik of Kalifornistan. I do believe this is a step in the right direction. A real turnaround would be on the other side of the San Gabriel Mountains in the 30th congressional district. That being the ouster of Henry Waxman.
BTW, the kidney came out eleven months ago, today. 

Bell, California

If anyone has been following the news lately, out here in SoCal, the little city of Bell has been highly visible. It seems that the Manager, Council and certain city executives have been paid really, really large salaries. This in a city of about 37,000 with a median income of around 35.000 dollars a year. The city manager, a guy named Rizzo, made over 800K a year. The Chief of Police got about 430K or there about.
Now the special investigator from Attorney General Moonbeam, has been in the mix. It seems that the residents of Bell have been overcharged on property taxes to the tune of 3 Million Dollars. Now the boy from Sacramento, a guy called John Chiang, has said they don't get it back. It must go to schools. An overcharge not being returned to the people whose money it really is. Wow, talk about out of control bureaucrats! The overpayments should go back to the taxpayers since the tax overage was declared illegal. But no. Not with the likes of the governator and moonbeam in charge. And the folks in Bell are going to keep getting screwed regardless of what happens.

BHO Commercial

Pretty much sums it up, don't you think?

Thanks to my facebook friend, Chris Muir. This one is a real jewel. Yeah, I swiped it.

I hope all of you get a kick out of it. It is funny and painful, when one thinks about it.

I Don't owe You

Borrowed from the Violence Worker.
Excellent read and does it ever make sense.

I don't want to sound like a scrooge, because I'm not, but I don't owe you healthcare.  I don't owe you food stamps.  I don't owe you a home and I don't owe you a free ride.
By the same token, you owe me none of those things either.
If you choose to sit on your ass, do not think that you have a right to a free doctor's visit on my dime.  If you are here illegally, the only thing I owe you is a boot, squarely applied to your butt, as I kick you out of MY country.
If you are incapable of helping yourself, compassion demands that I should help you and I will and I do.
If you truly want a hand up and not a handout, I want to help.  We've all needed a little help now and then.  Most of us don't expect to make dependency a lifestyle.
I cringe when I read some liberal telling me the opposite is true patriotism.  Bull Twinkies!  We are a compassionate people and we should seek to help those who cannot help themselves, but if you are young, able to work and are willing to do so, then do so and shut up.
No one expects you to make a career on minimum wage.  If you do, then you are either incapable of doing much else, or you are lazy.  Most people, who are willing to work, do not stay on the bottom rung.
You do not need an ipod.  You do not need a blackberry or an i-phone and you don't need a wide screen TV.  You don't need a brand new Lexus.  You don't need the latest fashions.  If you can afford those things, then you can afford healthcare.  You can afford a place to live and you can afford to buy your own food.
I've been poor.  I had a Tandy 1000A I bought for 25 bucks from a friend when all my friend had 486 based machines.  I didn't have a cell phone until about 6 years ago.  I don't buy new cars very often.  I've wondered where my next meal was coming from, but I never thought to ask for your tax dollars so I could buy it.
I'm not better than you and uncountable numbers before me and after me have bettered themselves while suffering much worse than I ever have.
I don't owe you.  Stop begging.  When you demand free this or that, you may as well be begging.  Tell me what's the difference.  Being an American used to mean that you understood that the American Dream was not a dream, it was a goal.  Now they try and tell me that it means that I must finance your dream for you.
Understand that the middle class is getting tired of funding your dream.  Understand that we have been pushed a bit too far.  Understand that we aren't buying that "tax the rich" crap.  That is nothing more than a code for taxing the producers.
To the politicians:  We are tired of seeing untold billions go to bailout your political friends.  Some of the biggest names in bailout are some of the biggest donors to the Party of Handouts.
I don't owe you re-election either.

Obama does it again. Rant.

The "I Won" came out in support of the mega mosque down the street from Ground Zero. It has nothing to do with religious freedom or tolerance. He is on their side. Why else would he have sent that radical scumbag to the mid east as a feeler.
The worthless bastard does not give a rat's ass for this country. Hope and Change. Should be Hope? and Chains.
Could be that woman he is married to was spot on with the Kenyan statement.
Done for now.

Kagan. Whiskey Tango Foxtrot!

The only thing I can think of is that the ghost of Saul Alinsky visited the CinC in a dream. There is no reality based reason for this pick for the Supreme Court of The United States. I pray to the Almighty that the conservatives on the Court stick around until we vote that piece of shit out of office.
Readers should remember that I was a rather vocal opponent of that "wise latina woman" that got on the court prior to this.
It is not because they are women. There are many intelligent, conservative women judges in the Republic who would be much better choices than avowed traitors such as obamastein has picked. It is because they have no belief in the very words that we live by. I saw that line in a TV PSA about the Constitution of The United States some years ago.
Kagan and Sotomayor are just a couple of communist trollops as far as the Old Retired Petty Officer is concerned.
 

So much for moderate weather

Currently in California City
Click the above link for the current conditions.

In a word.....................HOT!

Moderating forecast!

Click on this one from Accuweather.

http://www.accuweather.com/us/ca/edwards-afb/AC935/forecast-details.asp

It looks as though things are going to cool down over the next few days. Yes, folks, the nineties can be considered as moderate out here in the Mojave Desert.
At least we don't have the humidity that our friend Buck has had on the East Central Plateau of New Mexico.

Falcon, A day in the life

CJ, Crew Chief Lead, Flying a Desk!

Bobby "Black Magic" McAdoo

Ed and Ruben doing paperwork

Tom being Tom

Dave and Dan at 91-383

Yours Truly!

Normal daytime temp this time of year

Dan and the pilot, Major Rogerson, Canadian Armed Forces

Looking at the Borax plant over the Dry Lake

Just a few of a day at Falcon Maintenance. Enjoy!

Buyers(voters) remorse defined

Appropriated from elsewhere. Yeah. It hits the nail on the head. Said better by Chris Muir than I can, at least today.