Flight Ops

 I have an 8 hour shift scheduled today.  Doesn't bother me in the least since the temps are supposed to hover around 54 (F).  The drizzles are still hanging around, with 84% chance of rain and more is expected tomorrow.  Later this week, Indian Summer might arrive with a high of 74 (F).  Of course, that's not true Indian Summer.  The real one occurs after the first frost.  For the past several years we've had fake ones since the temperatures have never truly warmed up into the 70's after a certain date.

Of course, everyday is a surprise when I head into work.  Some of the changes are good: they got rid of the rug table, a large 6' x 8' table covered with area rugs that was just behind us.  The rugs were stacked high, usually 18 x 20, on top of each other and we sold very few of them.  When we did, however, customers always wanted one near the bottom of the stack, which meant removing the 17 or so rugs on top.  While a number of people would look through that stack, very few bought.

I'll be dribbling out old, old Navy pics since they're now all in my computer.  This is an A7 coming in for a landing.  They were called maneaters since the intake was so large.  I was on watch one night when an acquaintance I went drinking with was sucked into one.  I can still remember the chatter on the headphones as the airmen on the flight deck went into panic mode.  They took the plane down into the hanger bay so the corpsmen could remove his body.  The whole thing was heart wrenching.

Flight Ops in the Tonkin Gulf - 1973

And, of course, the Supreme Court is set to begin hearing cases today.  A number of cases are on the docket which are considered controversial.  A majority of American believe that this court will continue their attack upon Democracy.  They will continue to break down the barriers separating Church and State our fore fathers put in place.  The more they attempt to make the country conservatives, the angrier Americans are going to get.  In fact, Republicans in general don't understand this.  They believe that all they need to do is be in charge.  In their minds, no price is too much to pay for the control they crave.  They do not understand America is going to teach them a terrible lesson, one they will all too quickly forget.