Went for a good, healthy walk this morning, although the humidity turned it into more of a schlep than a walk for the last half. My "North African Sunscreen" didn't work so well with this much water in the air. (A light, oversize chambray shirt worn as a gun burqa unbuttoned over a tee will keep the sun off, but if it's so sticky out that your perspiration won't evaporate out from under it, it can be stifling on a hike.)
Stopped hiking for a moment to watch a B-17G fly low overhead, apparently on short final. It's not something you see all that often, you know? I bathed in the drone from the four Wright Cyclones until it was a dot on the horizon.
While out walking, an interesting sculpture was observed. I'm not sure what the artist thought he was creating, but to me it looks like a hovering Pac-Man is vomiting eldritch tentacled horrors into our dimension:
The golf tee of the gods, maybe.
ReplyDeleteI know what you mean about the cool old bomber. I have been known to rudely interrupt social occasions by shouting, "I hear radials!" and run outside to look. Hey, auditory hyperacusis is one of my autistic superpowers!
ReplyDeleteSucks that it means I have to wear earplugs in church, though.
When and why did they start having electric guitars and sound systems in churches, anyway? The Church got by without electricity for 1900 years, and did OK. I blame hippies.
An eclectic sampling of freedoms that you celebrated your Fourth with; very nice.
ReplyDelete"I bathed in the drone from the four Wright Cyclones until it was a dot on the horizon."
Not a writer, huh?
AT
P.s. And Billy Beck.
ReplyDeleteApropos the sculpture: Pac-Man makes a meal of Chthulu?
ReplyDelete;-)
Peter beat me to it; I was thinking "golf tee of Cthulhu."
ReplyDeleteI kept waiting for Dudley to pat Bud on the shoulder and say, "That'll do, Bud. That'll do."
ReplyDeleteTurns out that it was Aluminum Overcast, which was in town for the weekend on tour.
ReplyDeleteMaybe, Atlas bearing the world, interpreted as the Midgard Serpent?
ReplyDeleteThat or Gandalf's Staff Top.
** NSFW Spoiler **
Perhaps an artist's rendition of the pertinent contents of a scrotum, idealised?
******************
Aluminum Overcast. Fine bird. I got to fly in her once. I am decidedly too tall for most warbirds, her included.
ReplyDeleteNamed my computer after her though - seeing as its almost three feet squarre by a foot deep and made completely of brushed aluminum ;)
Now if I could just find someone to paint some nose art on her..
Hey Justthisguy,
ReplyDeleteI've played electric bass in Church for years- it's kind of fun trying to slip in a bit of Entwhisle, Squire, or Lee whenever I could get away with it.
Kind of helps that my two main basses are a Steinberger and homemade Rickenbacker clone played with a pick.
Don't recognize fingers coming out of the ground with a "shooter" ?
ReplyDeleteObviously, Tam, in addition to the requisite projectile dispenser you also carry a pixel retention device. Is that routine, or only on occasion? And, pray tell, what device might it be? I've been looking for a good, compact one to drag around myself; too often I encounter an interesting visage with no means of sharing it.
ReplyDeleteHaving gotten to know Cthulhu a bit better through the offices of Neil Gaiman, I can safely conclude that while Pacman may well have gotten the power up and won the game, it's hardly surprising he's vomiting.
ReplyDeleteAnon 8:15,
ReplyDeleteActually, that photo was done thanks to Shootin' Buddy's cell phone camera.
Doth not shotguns talk, and more directly than mere speech?
ReplyDeleteThe trick to setting the second magneto rotor on the Wright Cyclone 9 is to use a dollar bill as a feeler gage. When the second rotor just drags on the bill at closest approach, you're in.
ReplyDeleteI told that to one of the wrenches at the Air Museum up the street and his comment was "You must be a lot older than you look".
I told him my old man had been line chief on SBD's and I got a pocket full of free passes.
I read Saburo Sakai's description of the first time he attacked a B-17. He was low on cannon ammo, and used it all up on the first pass.
Then he came back in again and again, until he'd used up all his machinegun ammo. The B-17 flew away.
Good to have you back. Summer may suck, but winter sucks worse, so enjoy the muggy.
Wow, I had a B17 fly overhead about 10 AM this morning too, down here in Houston's west side!
ReplyDeleteThat sculpture is marking the birthday of Cthulhu; it obviously is a representation of Cthulhu hatching from his egg. He didn't move into his house in R'lyeh until he grew up.
ReplyDelete@ Anon, 8:15,
ReplyDeleteFor a carry-anywhere camera, I've had good luck with the Polaroid-branded point-and-shoots, whichever model is currently selling for about $100. About the size of a cigarette pack, have 3x optical zoom, and use SD memory cards and standard "AA" batteries. Plus cheap enough that I don't feel nervous about stuffing it in a pocket.
Most everything (excepting a couple of cellcam shots) on my site was shot with the now-discontinued 7MP version (bought about 2 years ago). Most photos were tweaked with The Gimp for gamma and dynamic range.
Oh! Oh!
ReplyDeleteIt's an enormous white sphere that has landed on a calcified turd shat out by a mastodon, lo those many years ago.
Tentacle monster only wants someone to play catch with him.
ReplyDeleteThat statue sure looks to me like Cthulu licking a jaw breaker.
ReplyDeleteMmmh, The Great Olds Ones like their Gobstoppers.
Heh. Had a P-47 fly over as I was on the phone to my dispatcher a few back. I couldn't hear him anyway, but I'd have told him to shut up for a while, anyway :-) Sweet music.
ReplyDeleteLast summer was treated to the sight and sound of a DC-7 climbing out of IAD. Even with my noise canceling headset and lawnmower running there was no way I could miss 4 Wright radials climbing over my head.
ReplyDeleteBTW, if any of you have a winning lottery ticket in your pocket here's a DC-7 for sale.
http://www.buyplanesforsale.com/aircraft/douglas/dc-7/837/
Looks like the buildup to the last big fight in Hellboy.
ReplyDeleteI think what all right thinking people want to know was how was LA Confidential compared to SWAT, the greatest movie of all time?
ReplyDeleteThe sculpture is the new "Man-Caused Incident" target that Homeland Security will be using at all their ranges, since it doesn't look human, and that would be bad,m'kay? As for B-17's, I have the Wings of Eagles Air show happening 1.5 miles from the end of the runway to my back fence, and I get THREE DAYS of Warbirds flying over my house! And no rain until next week! Now where did I put my sunscreen...
ReplyDeleteGlad you rectified that SERIOUS omission in your movie-watching. Certainly a "must own".
ReplyDeleteHad a T-6/SNJ fly over the ranch on Sat 3rd and then a P-51 yesterday; can't miss the Merlin sound! The Mustang did a pretty nice four-point roll as he crossed the property.
Life is good. "Hoping" we'll be celebrating our Independence this time next year and for many to come...
When and why did they start having electric guitars and sound systems in churches, anyway? The Church got by without electricity for 1900 years, and did OK. I blame hippies.
ReplyDeleteI blame the architects. The church I go to is something over a century old for the main building and has the most amazing acoustics, most likely due to the design of the back wall of the altar. It *looks* like a church. The one I was married in, OTOH, looked like a middle school cafeteria with the altar playing the part of the stage for the christmas pageant.