CLOUD FLYBY

Last week during our flight to Las Vegas (LAS), we flew around several thunderstorms. Here's a shot I took at 40,000 feet of a jet passing in front of a 41,000 foot thunderstorm. It's hard to believe how small a large jet is when passing by one of these monster cells. I wish I'd have been a bit closer, but the shot is still pretty cool. Now that my camera is in the shop to have a "tuneup", I'll have to use a few of my older shots for this blog. Off to Newark (EWR) tomorrow for five days of work.......ugh!!! ;-)

AHHHH........THE MEMORIES

Yesterday while relaxing at South Beach, I heard a couple of small helicopters approaching the beach. It turns out they were Hughes 300's. When I went to military helicopter pilot training for the Air Force back in 1981, this was the little guy we learned how to fly in. They called it the "Mattel Messerschmidt" since the bubble canopy was made by Mattel. It was powered by a Volkswagen engine and five washing machine belts!!! Learning how to hover this helicopter was probably one of the hardest things I've ever done. If you wanted to see a 40 acre field in three seconds or less, learning to hover the Hughes 300 was a good way to do it.......LOL I would equate it to trying to keep a pat of butter in the center of a red hot skillet. You could literally fly an entire traffic pattern and never move the cyclic (the control stick in front of you which is used for pitch), more than the diameter of a nickel. I guess that's where all my smoothness in flying comes from......... ;-) Thanks for the memories little guy!

BEAUTIFUL CHERRY TREES

The time of the year has finally arrived for the cherry trees in the northeast to bloom . Here's some shots I took of a tree a block away from my crash pad. These trees are absolutely gorgeous. Of course, these beautiful trees make a big mess when they blossoms die and fall off. Oh well, it's nice while it lasts!!!

EUGENE AT THE BEACH

Here's a picture of a guy who's living the life..........well, sort of. "Eugene", has been a resident of the Miami area for over 25 years. Quite a while back (or so I'm told by the head lifeguard on South Beach), Eugene was living in a nice condo in Miami. Apparently 20 years or so ago, the cost of his condo rose too high for Eugene to afford, so he packed up his rather meager belongings and headed for the beach..........South Beach to be precise. And for the last 20 years, he's lived ON the beach! He gets a social security check for around $600 a month and uses that for food. You have to feel sorry for this guy, but he seems to be happy and content walking around and talking to everyone. Here's to you Eugene...........and living ON the beach!

UMMMMMM......Okay......... ;-)

Finally home for ONE day, and then back to work for a couple more days. Here's a "funny shot" I took at the beach about a week and a half ago that I thought everyone might enjoy. I gotta admit, this "swimsuit" ( if you can call it that), was certainly generating a LOT of stares, photos, and chuckles. Now maybe it's just me, but why on earth would someone wear something like this to the beach for EVERYONE to see? And, how on earth could he put his "goodies" in something this small, because he certainly had to have pretty big ones to wear this on the beach. And what makes this even worse, is that he was parading around in a BLACK swimsuit just like this one a couple of hours earlier (fortunately I missed that one.... :-) ). My "South Beach Faux Pas" calendar is almost complete!!!!! Yeehaa! Click on the photo to get the "big picture"....LOL