Monday Mood: Recent Photos and Reflections

When I mentioned to Bob that we were going to the Air Force Museum he said that they might have one of these, and he has always wanted to see one.  He is an aviation geek, he was flying airplanes before he had a drivers license. Only a handful of these were built near the end of World War II, and there are two of them in the museum. I texted him photos of them. 

Another rarity, from the end of World War II. 

When I checked into the hotel in Dayton, there was a gift of chocolates and a card waiting, from a blogger. 

Bears always want to be included in the picnic. 

We had a free day in Ft Wayne Indiana, I planned too many days there, so we went to the Zoo.  It is a surprisingly nice zoo.  A great Africa section.  I saw these two, and emailed the photo to our favorite giraffe lover. 

Not the best Scotch Eggs, but good.  I sent a photo to John at Going Gently, our dear Scotch Egg aficionado. 

A clean car is a happy car.

Here comes the Groom and Groomsmen 

Lake Michigan in the distance. 

It was a long trip, two weeks, five stops, six hotels.  A diversion.  It was nice to get away.  It is delightful to be home for a few days. 

 

The Sunday Five: Gone to the Dogs

1: Do you trust unfamiliar dogs? 

2: Have you ever been bitten by a dog? 

3: Is a dog a member of your household? 

4: Did you have dogs in the family when you were growing up? 

5: Should he get a third dog? 

My Answers: 

1: Do you trust unfamiliar dogs? No, I sit quietly and wait for them to approach quietly. 

2: Have you ever been bitten by a dog? No

3: Is a dog a member of your household? No

4: Did you have dogs in the family when you were growing up? My father had a hunting dog, an outdoor only dog. 

5: Should he get a third dog? Where would he put the third lead? 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: Adventures in Flying: You Never Forget The First Time

 It was a typical Saturday afternoon at the local Lapeer country airport in about 1972, Cessnas and Pipers coming and going.  The cowboy flew in in his Citabria,  in need of a paint touch up because the cows had been gnawing at the tail again.  He had repaired the fabric at home, but wanted the shop to do the paint work.  He was still learning to fly aerobatics with it.  A dream that would never come true, but that is another story. 

In the distance there was a bit of a rumble and growl from the sky.  A couple of Cadillac Fleetwoods pulled up and parked in the lot waiting. And a small business jet landed, taxied up to the office. Half a dozen men got out, with luggage and golf clubs, got into the waiting cars and left.  The Pilot stood around and talked for a few minutes after they left.  The Jet belonged to Vlasic, the pickle people.  They normally flew in and out of a much larger airport 30 miles farther west. The runway at Lapeer was not long enough when the plane was loaded with passengers and fuel. That afternoon the plane would depart with only an hour's fuel and no passengers. The runway at Lapeer was long enough for him to take off.  

It was the first business jet I had seen live and in person.  Needless to say I was impressed.  The pilot said, "let me show you what it will do on the way out." He taxied to the end of the main runway, lined up, and spooled the engines up to full power, released the brakes and about half way down the runway lifted off, and then pulled the nose almost straight up.  With no passengers and a light load of fuel, he would climb to 10,000 feet in less than two minutes. Normally they would do that climb in five to ten minutes, a gentle climb, easier for the passengers, easier on fuel, but when they want to, the plane could really climb. 

I will never forget that first time.  

One of the Vlasic sons graduated from Rollins the same year I did.  He was amazingly down to earth and kind. He married the daughter of a professor who was a friend of mine.  

100 Ways to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #25 Enroll in TSA Pre-Check

Airport security is a pain.  It takes time, it is inconvenient, the rules are often confusing.  Short of flying private charter, it is a fact of flying, and unlikely to go away any time soon.  The best we can do, is make it as easy as we can. 

In the United States airport security is easier - still not always easy - if you have access to TSA Pre-Check.  For Pre-Check the security lines are generally shorter, sometimes drastically shorter, you don't have to take off your shoes unless they contain metal reinforcements, you don't have to take out your laptops and larger electronic devices, or small liquids and gels.  You do need to empty your pockets, ideally placing everything in your bag or briefcase that goes through a scanning machine. At most airports, Pre-Check uses metal detectors, rather than than the full body scanners.  This type of scanning is faster. 

There are several options to get Pre-Check.  One is buying premium tickets from the airline, and if the airline has enough information on file for you, they can assign you to Pre-Check.  

More commonly the flyer enrolls in Pre-Check by filling in a simple application, paying a fee, and I meeting with TSA for a short interview.  TSA runs a background, and verifies the person's identity. 

Enrolling in CLEAR or Global Entry, also automatically include Pre-Check. I will talk about those options in other posts. 

With Pre-Check security usually takes me less than 15 minutes, sometimes less than five. And even if the airport is unusually busy and it takes 20-30 minutes, the wait in the non-pre check line is likely twice that long. 

Many, but certainly not all, Pre-Check flyers fly often. Meaning they are better prepared for passing through security easily on the first try.  Not to say people won't do something silly, recently the guy in line in front of me, pulled his phone out of his bag and slipped it in his back pocket, as he was headed into the metal detector.  He was redirected to run the phone through the luggage scanner, and he was sent to the full body scanner.   

I will post my tips for clearing security separately.  Pre-Check gets you into the express lane, then simple preparation gets you through the line faster.     

Thursday Ramble: Don't Take Life Too Seriously

A comment a couple of weeks ago, inspired this post. A simple comment that I am always easy going. And I have to admit, it isn't easy all of the time, there are a few people that try my patience, but in the end I generally remind myself that it isn't worth wasting my energies on.  Nothing tried to eat me today, I didn't have to escape an assassin, it would take weeks for me to starve to death. So if something ugly happens, it happens, move on. 

Years ago there was a Hagar the Horrible cartoon, Hagar was pleading with the skies, "Why Me!" The thunder replied, "Why Not!" The wonders of Google, I found it, and found that a framed copy of it is by the desk of President Biden. 

I try not to take it personally. Sometimes it is me.  I am not perfect. I sometimes say the wrong thing.  Sometimes it is the other person. As Jimmy Buffet said, "We are all flawed individuals, the cosmic bakers took some of us out of the oven too soon." 

If we wait for the world to be perfect, we may have to wait a very long time, and in the mean time great adventures are being missed.  As my grandmother taught me, don't take life to seriously, none of us are going to get out of it alive. 

Keep learning, keep doing, keep exploring, keep being kind to others. 

My World of Wonders, aka The Wednesday Ws September 25, 2024

Where have I been this week? Ashley, Michigan - my mother finished high school there, Holland Michigan, to attend the wedding of a dear friend, daughter of dear friends that we met through blogging, then Ft Wayne Indiana, to visit my sister and her brood.  The Auburn Cord Duesenburg Museum to see lots and lots of cars. 

What have I seen this week?  Miles and Miles and Miles of corn and bean fields.  The agricultural heartland, that stretches from here 1,000 miles west to the Rocky Mountains.  

What Amazing thing happened this week?  I wore a bow tie, only the second time in my adult life.  The wedding was modern black tie.  We had dinner with the bride to be a few weeks ago, and plotted to wear rainbow bow ties, and make sure we were introduced to the soon to be mother in law - a very outspoken conservative. 

Who have I seen? SBs brother, his nieces and their husbands, lot of people at the wedding, my sister, my oldest nephew and his wife, and met Owen, their five month old. A new branch on a shrinking family tree.

What made me go Umph this week? Climbing back up the dunes from the shore of Lake Michigan.  One giant step for any man. 

What change did I make in blogger this week?  I removed a daily read from my list, after the blog was inherently racist a couple of days in a row. If you are missing from my daily reads and wish to be added, please message me, I may be missing a few people.  

Where to next? Dayton Ohio for the Air Force Museum, then onto home, for a few days. 

What made me smile this week? I slept 10 hours Monday night. 

When is the next adventure? NYC, soon, for a couple of days. 

Travel Tuesday: Lake Quinault, Washington state

 

Monday Mood: Getting Around

With a title like The Adventures of Travel Penguin, I guess there should be some getting around on this blog. Someone asked how many airline flights I have taken, I wish I had kept track I know it is in the hundreds.   

Let me see if I can remember how many trips I have made across the Atlantic.  London 1990, Paris 1991. Rome (the photo above), Oxford, Paris, Normandy, Greece, Normandy, Rome, Germany, Ireland, Spain, Iceland, Iceland, Provence - I think 15 trips to Europe from the Untied States, with another trip scheduled for next spring.  

I have been to all 50 US states. Canada, the Bahamas, and Mexico. The list above does not include all of the countries visited on each of those trips, the Netherlands, Belgium, Switzerland, Austria and Vatican  City would round out that list.  

I always learn things or observe things when I travel.  Differences in the landscape, cultural differences, differences in food, and attitudes.  I never really understood immigration from Mexico. Why would someone leave a wonderful warm and dry climate for  Toledo, until I saw the unbelievable poverty in Mexico. It makes flipping burgers at McDs look like a career choice. I didn't really understand working to live, rather than living to work, until I experienced the lifestyles of Spain and France.  

I have kept a record of all of the hotels I have stayed in since 2005.  This year will be a new record high for the number of nights in hotels in a year.  All told in the last 19 years, over 750 nights in hotels, about two out of the past nineteen years have been spent on the road. 

I do get around.  

Sunday Five: How is the weather

1: Is the sun shining where you are? 

2: What is the high temperature? 

3: When did it last rain? 

4: Does it snow where you live? 

5: What kind of weather do you most enjoy? 

My Answers: 

1: Is the sun shining where you are? Not at the moment. 

2: What is the high temperature? Forecast is about 85 f 

3: When did it last rain? Last night

4: Does it snow where you live? A couple of times a year. 

5: What kind of weather do you most enjoy? Mild, with low humidity, and a slight breeze. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

Adventures in Flying: When Things Go Wrong

My first trip in a free seat from frequent flyer miles, was from Lexington, Kentucky to San Francisco. I had been scheduled to present a training in Santa Rosa, California, and I had booked a prepaid non-refundable hotel in San Francisco for a long weekend after the program, adding a couple of personal days onto the work trip. The training was cancelled at the last minute, and I was left with a choice of walking away from the pre-paid hotel, or flying to California on my own dime.  I had enough miles with Delta to get a free round trip, and I wanted to spend a couple of days in the City by the Bay.  It was a great little getaway.  The trip out was easy. 

The return flight was San Francisco to Atlanta, a change of planes in Atlanta and onto Lexington. The plane from SFO to ATL was newer and well equipped.  I was watching the Lethal Weapon movie that was filmed in Orlando (they imploded City hall for the film) at about 40,000 feet someplace over Texas when the lights went out.  Not the lights in the movie, the lights on the plane.  A minute or so later, the captain came on the speakers, saying there was a little problem with the electrical system, and would be stopping in Dallas, would the flight attendants please prepare the cabin for landing.  Less than ten minutes later we were on the ground in Dallas. When we rolled up the gate, there was smoke coming out the engine cowling on my side.  

More on the technical side, there are three electrical generating systems on a twin engine jet airliner, one in each engine, and a third one in a small jet engine in the tail that is used for power on the ground (the APU.) One of the main generators had failed, and when it went down, it overloaded the other one and shut it down. The flight crew restarted the APU in the tail, it supplied power for essential systems for a safe landing. Airplanes have lots of backup systems for safety, and pilots spend years practicing what to do when something goes wrong. 

Delta called in the troops that night, I was led to another gate and onto another plane to Atlanta within minutes of landing.  I arrived in Atlanta after the last flight to Lexington.  I was loaded on the crew bus and taken to a very nice hotel for the night, and on the first flight out the next day. 

In years of flying that is my only emergency landing. It was a little  unnerving - - - but I know the pilots are professionals and planes are built with lots of backup safety systems.  A couple of weeks later I was back in the air headed out for the next training. 

A friend of mine was traveling cross country with her 8 year old, when the oxygen masks dropped down, and they had an emergency landing someplace in the middle of the country.  She was worried that her son would be terrified at the idea of getting on the next flight, instead he said, "I wonder if the oxygen masks will drop again, that was so exciting."  Her worry, not his.    

100 Ways to Slightly Improve Your Travel Experience: #24 Selecting the Best Airline

There is more to selecting the best airline, than searching for the lowest price. Often when you add back in all of the niceties to the lowest cost carrier, you are spending as much or more than it would cost to fly a "full service" airline. 

My criteria. 

The airline that has the most flights, or at least a lot of flights in and out of the airport. Flights get delayed or cancelled - not often - but often at the most inconvenient of times. The more flights the airline has, the more options there are for rebooking, the more open seats they will have.  I learned this one the hard way flying in and out of Lexington, Kentucky, a couple of the major national airlines, only had two or three flights a day from there, and if anything went wrong I was stuck.  Delta had a dozen or more flights a day, and could almost always get me where I needed to go. 

What is included matters.  If you are carrying on luggage on, is it included, or extra.  If you are checking a bag (I almost always check a bag) what does it cost, and can you get it free of charge.  I have airline credit cards for a couple of major airlines, in large part because I get free checked bags with them (and priority boarding, and extra frequent flyer points.) 

Is seat selection included, or extra.  Unless you are less than 5 feet tall and weight less than 90 pounds, seat selection matters.  The dreaded middle seat can only be avoided by being able to select a seat.  I am right handed, my right elbow is most likely to move out to my side.  I prefer an aisle seat where my right elbow moves into the aisle, or a window seat where my right elbow goes toward the window, and not the face of the person sitting next to me.  If you have long legs, seats with extra leg room matter, are those seats available and at what cost.  

An added factor for me, is concentrating on a couple of airlines to accumulate frequent flyer miles or points.  I should have kept track of how many trips I have done on award tickets, lots of them.  Earned by spending lots of time and money flying places I needed to go.  When I was working, much of the flying was paid for by the office, but the frequent traveler bonuses belonged to the employee (we actually had a policy on that.)

Kind of the last thing I look at is price in selecting an airline.  

Thursday Ramble: Brave Turning Point Choices

 

A dear friend is struggling a bit with anxiety and making choices to move forward. It is a difficult time, my friend has professional help, the right choices will be made in time. This got me to thinking about some of the choices I have made over the past 50 years, not the ones I regret, but the choices that were brave turning points for me to be where I am today, difficult but good choices. 

The first two involve my time working in the home building industry in central Florida.  The first one was taking the plunge and moving to Orlando to work for Laurel Homes in 1980.  I was going into the unknown.  The second was walking away from Centex in mid 1991, my personal life was a mess and the stress of 70 hour work weeks on a project that I didn't understand or like, was driving me over the edge. It was a choice that gave me time to rethink my personal life, and change directions. Even if I did make a bit less money for a few years.  

Then the choice four years later to sell out in Orlando and move to Lexington, Kentucky with the Sweet Bear (SB.)  He had a great job to go to, I had dreams for the future that included going back for a graduate degree. I choose to follow love and opportunity. That led to a job, that led to a job that required one of the bravest turning point choices, the decision to move to Washington DC.  

We were settled in Lexington. We owned a nice home, SB had a great job, I am licensed to practice law there.  I was terribly underpaid, working 60-70 hours a week, and an opportunity came up to double my income, work fewer hours, and concentrate on parts of my work that I most enjoyed. But it required setting up a second home, and bravely getting in the car and driving away.  It was an emotional trip across West Virginia. 

Looking back I am so glad I made those choices.  They were not easy at the time.  I questioned if I had the bravery to make the choices, but somehow I did.  I don't think about what would have happened if I had not.  There is a whole other category of choices I could have made and didn't.  These are the choices I did make, and I am so glad I did, they led me to where I am today, and I like it here.    

My World of Wonders aka The Wednesday Ws September 18, 2024

What put a smile on my face this week?  Last Friday I spoke on legal ethics and clients with dementia at a conference.  It was the first time I had spoken to a live in-person audience in 11 months (did my last webinar in December.) I was a little worried, I needn't have been. Within minutes of taking to the stage I settled into an irreverent rhythm. My timing was a little off, but they laughed at my jokes, asked great questions.  I have to remember that training was one of the parts of my work for 25 years that I most enjoyed, it still makes me smile. 

Where have I been this week?  The farmers market, Richmond Virginia to speak, George Washington's Mt Vernon, and drove to Cleveland to visit family. 

What surprised me this week? When I left for the farmers market on Saturday morning, sparrows had built a nest on my little car.  I know I don't move it often - about once a week. But the nest was a unexpected. 

Who have I talked with this week?  The sweet bear, and a whole room full of fellow lawyers at the conference last Friday.  I drove down the evening before and had dinner with the planning committee and other speakers. 

Where to next? Michigan and Indiana. 

How was traffic? Dead stopped coming around the DC beltway, we got off and found the back roads. 

What have I seen? On Saturday we went to Mt Vernon for the annual Colonial Fair. The weather was wonderful, the place was packed, and many many vendors this year. 

What was the highlight on television this week?  One for the Road, the final episode of The Grand Tour.  It is good, sad to see the trio call it quits, but I fully understand it is time.  

What made me go, huh! this week?  Entering Ohio on the turnpike from Pennsylvania, Ohio hasn't installed high speed toll transponder readers yet, you have to wait for the gate to go up. 

What is my Wish for the week? Fun and easy travels.  

Travel Tuesday: Time Travel in a 95 year old Ford

This plane was built in 1929, when my father was only 2 years old. He took his first ever flight in one in the late 1930's, without his mother's permission, she was upset by this.  Only 199 of the Ford TriMotor were built, only half a dozen remain in flying condition.  It is owned and operated by the Experimental Aircraft Association. Short 15 -20 minute flightseeing tours in it are currently $99, for $199 you can ride in the co-pilot seat, and if you are a licensed pilot receive a logbook entry for 15 minutes of dual instruction in a Ford TriMotor.  

How would I describe the experience?  It fills all of the senses, seeing a magnificent old machine, the sound of the radial engines, you feel the vibration, you smell the exhaust. Flying in it is very much stepping back in time, except for the portable GPS unit above the instrument panel. I very much enjoyed it. The profit helps fund EAA's non-profit work.   

 

Monday Moods: A sense of humor

I used to laugh and tell jokes that made fun of people on things they have no control over, I am deeply sorry for any hurt I may have caused to anyone who is short, or blond, or Polish, or Italian, or . . . well you get the idea.  

My reform from bad behaviour resulted in a lot less humor.  And not laughing is sad. 

I will try to be better. 

Did you hear about the proctologist and psychiatrist who decided to share office space.  They debated what to call the practice.  Someone suggested Odds and Ends - that was rejected.  They debated Fears and Rears, and decided that was no good.  They settled on Heads and Tails. 

In a presentation the other day on legal ethics and clients living with dementia, I was talking about some clients with dementia experience delusions; strongly held personal beliefs that cannot be confirmed by outside evidence.  I said, some persons living with dementia will develop delusions, kind of like some politicians.  That drew a bipartisan laugh. Everyone can identify with that, without it being insulting to anyone in particular.  People remember things that made them laugh, I made them laugh about delusions.  

So my mood this Monday, is trying to regain my sense of humor.  

 

  

Sunday Five: Fishy

1: Do you like fish? 

2: Have you ever gone fishing? 

3: Have you ever caught a fish? 

4: Have you ever cleaned "cleaned" as in filleted a fish? 

5: When was the last time you cooked fish? 

My Answers:

1: Do you like fish?  Yes

2: Have you ever gone fishing? Yes

3: Have you ever caught a fish? Yes - it has been a long time. 

4: Have you ever cleaned "cleaned" as in filleted a fish? Yes, I have bought whole fish in the local markets and prepared them. 

5: When was the last time you cooked fish? We cook fish once or twice a month. 

Please share your answers in the comments. 

The Saturday Morning Post: More Adventures in Flying

The froward sweeping tail, is a unique to Mooney. 

In the early 1970s Republic Steel bought Mooney aircraft manufacturing.  No one really understood what a steel company was doing with a company that made aluminum airplanes, but the purchase infused a lot of cash into the company allowing expansion of the dealer network. 

The local airport in Michigan became a stocking dealer. The planes were sleek and fast with variable pitch propellers and retractable landing gear.  Dupont Lapeer airport quickly took delivery of several of them, and as was normal for them, added a couple of them to the rental line. 

To be able to rent them, a pilot needed to take a check ride with a qualified flight instructor.  The instructor was Don, a former air force pilot with literally thousands of hours of flight time in everything from tiny single engine, single passenger planes, to bombers, fighter jets, helicopters, and airliners.  He was the consummate pilots pilots.  If it could fly, Don knew how to do it well.  His standards were the highest around.  

I climbed in the back seat, my father and Don were in front and off we went.  It was a fun ride, very comfortable, a step up from what we normally flew.  On the proficiency checklist was manual deployment of the landing gear.  The gear was electric hydraulic, and the pilot needed to know what to do if the system failed.  Don pulled the circuit breaker and asked dad to manually put the landing gear down. 

Dad slowed to the appropriate speed, checked to make sure the hydraulic system was not working, then went looking for the manual crank. He looked, he asked Don, and Don said, I don't know, I have never flown this model. On other model, it is here on the floor, it is not there on this one. My father calmly said, David, hand me the owner's manual it is in the seat pocket behind Don.  Don could see the look of terror on my face and smiled and said, "relax, that is exactly what we should do." Don looked up the anwer, a crank just above the pilots left knee (a really awkward location.)  They cranked it down, cranked it up.  Pushed the circuit breaker back in, and tested it. Check ride complete, we returned to the airport ready to fly. 

When all else fails, read the instructions.