Quote of the day
James Thurber
“There are two kinds of light–the glow that illuminates, and the glare that obscures.”
Entries Tagged as ''
Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival
Big days at the Toronto Aerospace Museum as they prepare for this year’s Wings & Wheels Heritage Festival on May 26 and 27. I’ve signed up as a volunteer and got a few details on Wednesday.
This year, the festival celebrates the 60th anniversary of the De Havilland Canada DHC-2 Beaver, one of the most famous bush planes ever built. The prototype Beaver, CF-FHB-X, which made its first flight in the hands of test pilot Russell Bannock at Downsview on August 16, 1947 was built in the museum.
A number of Beavers will be flying in along with other new and old aircraft. As well, vintage cars, motorcycles and trucks will be on display. Many events are planned so the whole family should have a great time.
More information is available here. If you make it out and run into me, say hi!
When work gets in the way of life
Again, a couple of weeks of hell at the office. Projects going badly, deadlines whooshing by and snipers in the weeds. I usually love my job but there’s been too many periods like this in the last year. Up at 5am and right on the laptop to check mail from Europe and run time sensitive reports and then off to the office to put out fires and wait for the next disaster. Finish a long day and meet the wife and friends for a quick pint followed by a hurried dinner at home (some nights I eat) and then into bed for a fitful night of tossing and turning.
My responsibilities are such now that I’m stuck right in between the proverbial rock and hard place. Too many things are out of my control but I still have the responsibility to make it work. I hate this position and it doesn’t seem to be getting any better.
Anyway, another weekend is upon us and - wonder of wonders! - I don’t have anything on the critical path that needs to be done by Monday. Of course, the taxes are due on Monday so I’ll have to do some creative bookkeeping tomorrow and file online but it’s almost a relief as it has nothing to do with the job.
Played nine holes of golf early this morning in the rain. Not a bad round if I say so myself. Here it is nearly 11am and I’ve already played golf, bottled Jan’s wine and installed a couple of new smoke detectors.
And written this, the first posting in a week.
Blue Angel Down
Sad breaking news that a member of the US Navy’s Blue Angels squad died earlier this afternoon after finishing a performance at an airshow in South Carolina.
Preliminary reports say that the pilot may have hit power lines and crashed in a residential area.
Close formation flying is dangerous and the Blue Angels are some of the finest masters of this art.
High Flight
Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of earth
And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings;
Sunward I’ve climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth
Of sun-split clouds - and done a hundred things
You have not dreamed of - wheeled and soared and swung
High in the sunlit silence. Hov’ring there
I’ve chased the shouting wind along, and flung
My eager craft through footless halls of air.
Up, up the long delirious, burning blue,
I’ve topped the windswept heights with easy grace
Where never lark, or even eagle flew -
And, while with silent lifting mind I’ve trod
The high untresspassed sanctity of space,
Put out my hand and touched the face of God.Pilot Officer Gillespie Magee
No 412 squadron, RCAF
Killed 11 December 1941
Rest in peace.
Quote of the day
Vladimir Nabokov
“My loathings are simple: stupidity, oppression, crime, cruelty, soft music.”
Old and older
A snowy/rainy Sunday; where is Spring? Instead of golfing, I’m hunkered in the basement doing the laundry and goofing around in Photoshop.
Today’s experiment involves combining 2 photos using a layer mask. The first picture comes from the Swiss Transportation Museum in Lucerne. The beautiful Lockheed Orion.
Then, we load a picture from the Clarieville Conservation Area here in Brampton. A tired, patient muddy steed.
Finally, we merge the images and “paint” the horse into the museum.
Quick, dirty and a whole lot of fun.
FlightMemory
Stumbled across a link to FlightMemory. A fun site that allows you to add details of each flight you take which are then compiled to show some interesting statistics. I went back and managed to dig up information on 52 flights I’ve taken since 2003. I know I missed a few but here’s what it comes up with:
Flights
All 52
Domestic 13
Intra-Continental 15
Intercontinental 16
Other flights 8
In Miles 86,131
In Kilometer 138,615
Earth Circumnavigation 3.46 x
Distance to the Moon 0.361 x
Distance to the Sun 0.0009 x
Hours 179:56
Days 7.5
Weeks 1.1
Months 0.25
Years0.021
Quote of the day
Kurt Vonnegut
“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”
Imus say Enough is Enough!
My first and last posting on the whole Don Imus/Rutgers basketball mess.
Don Imus has been fired. The Rutgers University women’s basketball team has accepted his apology. He’s an idiot. They’re very gracious. Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson and Anne Coulter have all had their say. Larry King found something other than Anna Nicole Smith to fill his crappy hour for a week.
Can the whole stupid matter now go away? Please?
Osprey goes to war
After nearly 2 decades of development costing $20 billion and the loss of 30 lives, the Osprey V-22 tilt-rotor aircraft is heading off to Iraq later this year. This will mark the first deployment of the controversial plane.
Able to take off and land vertically, the Osprey’s engines transition to a horizontal position allowing it to perform like a conventional aircraft.
Loud and relatively slow, no doubt the insurgents will be jockeying for the bragging rights of the first Osprey kill.
Another loss
Fresh on the heels of Kurt Vonnegut Jr’s passing comes the sad news that June Callwood died this morning of cancer at the age of 82.
Ms. Callwood was a Canadian treasure. Journalist and activist, she fought for the rights of women, gays and the underprivileged for more than 40 years. She never shouted, she didn’t need to. Her eloquence and passion got her points across loud and clear.
Canada has lost an important voice. Like Vonnegut, June Callwood looked at the world and wasn’t afraid to peek under the rug and expose the nasty bits.
Death of a literary giant.
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. died last night at the age of 84. Vonnegut wrote 14 novels including Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse 5 and Cat’s Cradle.
I’ve read them all and count him as one of the greatest authors to have ever lived. His style, humor and profoundly unique views on life struck a chord with me from the first page.
Truly sad that he has become, like Billy Pilgrim, unstuck in time and he won’t be giving us new pleasures. Time to dust off the library and start falling under his spell one more time.
Hi Ho Mr. Vonnegut, rest in peace.
I want to believe
Playing with a beta version of Adobe’s new Photoshop version CS3 and I grabbed this throwaway shot that I took up at Wasaga. Messing with some of the tools I discovered the alien living in Maxine’s garden shed.
I guess he thought he could hide there.
Please make it stop
FINAL FINAL UPDATE: Mats can go golfing. The New York Islanders won their game in a shootout and the Leafs are out of the playoffs.
UPDATE: Ok, so they beat Montreal in what was a very entertaining game (desperation brings out the best) but they now have to hope that the New York Islanders lose on Sunday.
Those lovable losers the Toronto Maple Leafs have a mathematical chance of making it to the Stanley Cup playoffs. They have to win…someone has to lose….blah, blah, blah. At the sake of being run out of town, I hope the Leafs lose to Montreal tomorrow night and this whole mess is over with.
The Leafs, who haven’t won the top prize since 1967, are one of a number of mediocre teams that have a chance because only the truly dreadful teams fail to make the 2 month playoff series.
Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment owns the team and they have more money than sports knowledge. The Air Canada Centre is filled every night so there’s really no reason to spend money or time worrying about how good the product is that they put on the ice. John Ferguson Jr. is General Manager and the only virtue he brings to the job, as I see it, is to do exactly what the suits in the boardroom tell him.
Fine players like Mats Sundin (shown in the picture - sorry Mats) are wasted when teamed with rejects and has-beens. No player development, no young prospects, no chances. The only hope of making anything better is to miss the playoffs and deny MLSE the additional revenue that those games bring. Hit ‘em where it hurts. The bottom line is the only line they understand and something has to be done to give the long suffering fans at least a chance to relive the glory of the past.
‘Nuff said.
Clever advertising
Excuse the crummy photo but I caught this on the way home tonight. Someone with a sense of humor comes up with a clever business name. Made us laugh.
Quote of the day
George Jean Nathan
“Patriotism is often an arbitrary veneration of real estate above principles.”
Goodbye Connie
The long battle to keep the Super Constellation in Toronto has been lost. The Toronto Aerospace Museum issued this press release upon hearing that the Connie will be moving to the Museum of Flight in Seattle.
Hopefully the folks in Seattle will be able to restore the bird to the glory that she deserves and the public will be able to view her for many years to come.
All my public photos
In case you’re interested, the tab at the top of this page labeled “Flickr Photo Slideshow” will show all the 1300+ photos I’ve upladed to Flickr. They’re presented in chronological order and, if you click on an image, you can see the photo’s details.
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