Through The Mist Darkly

I loved this picture as soon as I saw it in the viewfinder.  Vintage Wings of Canada’s WACO Taperwing watching the sun come up in the hanger at the Toronto Aerospace Museum.  One of the best parts of being a volunteer there is the chance to roam around before the public shows up.

I’m honoured that Vintage Wings of Canada saw fit to include this their online article “Eye of the Beholder”.

Just spent the last week in Switzerland for yet another training session.  When is my company going to learn that trying to train me is like trying to train a rock?  Actually, as these things go it was a productive week.

Flew with Air Canada last Saturday night stuck in cramped economy and then had to hop a train for a one hour trip to the town of Einsiedln which is famous for it’s Benedictine monastery.  Which, of course, means bells – lots of bells – all night long bells.

The monastery has two bell towers and they’re not quite synchronized so at certain times of the day and night you’re subjected to duelling bells.

Yesterday, it was off to the airport at 4am Toronto time and then  to Montreal on a Swiss Airlines A330 which is configured like the worst low-cost charter plane.  The idiot in front of me decided to slam their seat back without warning which caused a glass of red wine, that I was trying to enjoy, to spill all over my jeans and coat.  Lovely stain patterns that I had to put up with for the rest of the day.  We arrived in Montreal at 3:30 and an hour later it was home to Toronto on an A320 that felt positively palatial in comparison.

So now it’s Saturday morning and I have 48 hours to rest and get ready for a flight to Hartford Connecticut for 4 more days of training (they’re not getting it). 

So you’ve got yourself a lovely little seaplane.  The industry loves it!  Sales are about to boom.

One little problem.  D-ICKS???  Is that the best registration number you could get?  I know it’s a German plane (hence the D for Deutchland) and it probably doesn’t raise any eyebrows over there but it certainly does cause a little Beavis and Butthead giggle from this side of the Atlantic.

It’s a Dornier Seastar.

Years ago, a Canadian financial company touted their “Freedom 55” plan which extolled the virtues of their investment strategy which would let you retire early and lead the good life on your yacht or some bullshit like that.

As the world’s stock markets tank, a lot of my retirement investments are going down with them.  Yet there was George Bush on CNN this morning playing up how this was a serious but not catastrophic blip and assuring a hand-picked group at some factory in Bug Squat Idaho or somewhere that the American worker was going to get the economy back on track right quick.

George, you’re an idiot.  Your administration did nothing to rein in the lenders who got the world into this sub-prime mess.  Now you’re willing to throw a trillion dollars at them while counting on the little people to bear this whole mess on their shoulders.

Go!  Go now!  And take McCain and Palin with you.