Foggy Fullerton Frolic

This is a picture of what I saw as I started out on my morning walk today. Needless to say I didn't see any planes today nor did I hear any flying on instruments. It was only low lying fog so it did burn off quickly. No animals or interesting people.
We did have some rain last week which only caused the houses which had previously burned to float away what was left in a landslide. Since there is no vegetation left to absorb the water, the water just greases the ground to slide away. They got it coming and going this year.
Global landslides only prove that we're all on this flight together.
Dick

Gobble gobble Mark I

Deb, Rick and I drove down to Fallbrook yesterday to join in the Thanksgiving day feast at brother Bob's house. The usual crowd was there as was an 18 pound turkey with all the trimmings. Thanks Bob and Dianne. We drove home, stuffed to the gills, as darkness and rain descended on Southern California. Thanks Rick and Deb.
It's been a while now since I was diagnosed with Parkinson's disease. The tremors have been confined to my right arm. Although the tremors have gotten worse, they are not enough to alter this left hander's life. And I am able to stop the tremors entirely while I meditate. In the last few weeks I discovered an occasional twitching in my left big toe. Not the toe next to it or anyplace on the foot, just the left big toe. Can Parkinson's be that localized or am I creating something out of whole cloth? Time will tell, in the meantime the only negative effect is when I try to hold a letter in my right hand and read it or when I hold up the newspaper with both hands to read it. Too much shakin' goin' on!
Too much food yesterday! I was really dragging the last two blocks this morning. Ugh!
The twitching in my toe shows, once again, that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Gobble gobble

Well, it's 6:30 am on Thanksgiving. Happy Thanksgiving to one and all. This year I've got more than usual for which to be thankful.
I've had my cup of coffee. After this note I'll meditate for 20 minutes then go for my walk. Back at 8.
Deb and Rick are coming down later this morning and will take me to brother Bob's house for turkey day festivities.
I'm off for my meditation.

Dick

Another right gone!

Check this out.
http://www.protectrighthandedness.com/
This is an obvious attempt to keep left-handers out of society. There is concern that being left handed might be contagious or worse... a conscious choice. Oh my!
The weather this morning was clear, the advantage of having fires nearby is the terrific sunsets and sunrises. The daily walk will be interrupted in the event we get some much needed rain as predicted later in the week.
Rick and Deb will pick me up on the way down to brother Bob's on Thanksgiving. And I've got a lot to be thankful for this year.
Dick

The Dog Whisperer and me.

It's interesting what topics can arise when the mind empties out. I am a big fan of the TV show "The Dog Whisperer" which is more about people training than dogs;. When new person is introduced to his pack of dogs his instructions are "No touch, No talk and No eye contact and walk in like you own the palace." Then to introduce the dogs to each other, they smell each others behind. This instinct was ingrained in the animal DNA far back in the evolutionary chain. In fact, it was before the split with the monkey line of inheritance. To speak the truth smelling each other is a trait fairly common to mammals. Right in the middle of this train of thought I nearly ran over a young woman out walking with her dogs.
And no I did not!
The weather was foggy but I did hear a single plane obviously operating on instruments fly over head. Two dogs.
Dogs smelling each others behinds reminds me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

And the tears rolled on.

It's Saturday. I don't need the discipline today and KPFK was broadcasting a Woody Guthrie special. All the old hard time folk songs from the 20's, 30's and 40's. Headset on and volume set. Then came "This Land Is Your Land", the song that should be our national anthem. Well anyway, the nexus of Obama's election and the truth of that song was too much. There I was strolling down Wilshire Ave with tears running down my face. An inner feeling of contentment hoping the country has at last taken a turn for the better. Maybe our Constitution will survive. But I'm afraid we'll never return to the 50's.
Those tears reminded me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

A Senior Moment?

One light twin airplane and one cat on my walk. I got half way through the walk and completely lost track of what I was doing. A Senior Moment? Probably.
Well, the election is over. Now we can watch as the Dems piss away the opportunity of a lifetime. Same old same old.
Yesterday I stopped at the car wash to wash off the ashes for the recent fires. The dirt washed off in sheets. The 'news' people have lost their interest in the recent fires so I assume the fires are over. If there is anymore ash falling from the sky I can't see it.
I can't see any ash but I can see that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Me and my bike.

I didn't mention it yesterday but after my walk on Tuesday I took the bike to Huntington Beach and rode along the bike path for about 5 miles. Good exercise and not too tiring. I did have some concern about the air quality because of the fires but saw no effect during my ride.
On this morning's walk.... two airplanes seen and three heard. No animals.
I'm off to wash the ashes off my car and do some grocery shopping.
Getting on the bike again reminded me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Mindless question after mindless question....

On my morning walk I saw two planes and heard none. No animals. But the question came to mind regarding how to count the planes. One was headed East and the other was headed West. So do I count that as two or should I cancel the Eastbound plane with the Westbound plane for a total of zero? I suppose it doesn't really matter since I've already decided that there is no connexion between the number of planes I see with anything.
The fires rage on but with less enthusiasm. They're losing to the firemen (and women). Another day or so and it will be all over until the next one.
Seeing one Eastbound and one Westbound equates to the fact that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

And the fires rage on.

The fire nearest my house has been about 70% surrounded but it's still burning houses and disrupting people lives. When will we learn not to build in fire areas and flood plains?
As the days get shorter the later rising of the sun is apparent. Since my morning departure time is fairly well set, the change in the length of morning shadows is apparent. I'm focused on standing straight up on my daily walk. No more bent over.
Eve with the local fires and the attendant ash, the morning was beautiful. The visibility seemed good from the ground. But everything is covered in ashes and that comes form somewhere.
On the walk: no animals and a single airplane leaving KFUL. Somehow coming back on the home stretch I recall seeing a lot of people out starting their day. More than usual. Coincidence? I think not.
In spite of the destructive fires we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Me and the wildfires (continued)

Everything indoors and out is covered with a very fine dust. Among other things it is caustic when wet and is very abrasive. Not good for the finish on a car. The fires go on and houses are lost every day. Thankfully the fires are still too far from me to affect me aside from the ashes.
I shortened my walk this morning to be cautious about the effect of the ashes on my lungs. Not good, I'm sure.
All day yesterday and last night the visibility was limited because of the fires. I tried to see a glow from my front steps but it's still too far away. Right now (it's 10:30 am) it seems pretty clear but I know there's a lot of stuff still floating around. It's a little bit spooky to think that the ashes were someone Else's house just yesterday.
On this morning's walk there were no plane and no animals. Maybe because I was hidden behind my iPod.
The opacity of the polluted air indicates that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Me and the wild fires.

This morning the air is filled with debris from the Carona-Yorba Linda fires. Still it is two suburban towns away. The main east west route is closed (rte 91). This morning the world is covered with ash from the fires. I've decided not to take my morning walk today in deference to the bad air. So there is nothing new to report except that the fires are some distance away for now.
The ash covering everything convinces me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Left handers rule

One dog and a standoffish cat observed on my morning walk. I also saw two airplanes and heard another for a see/hear ratio of two. Since there have been no major events or terrorist attacks I am assuming that there is little correlation between the observation of planes to any observable events. Another triumph for science.
Brother Bob brought me a left handed coffee mug when he was last here. Thanks Bob. It had a list of famous people who were (are) left handed on it. Recent U.S. presidents have been overwhelmingly left handed. Both President-elect Obama and John McCain are left handed. We won't take credit for GWB but his father is left handed. It was obvious when I was working with video people that the creative contributors were nearly all left handed. Coincidence? I think not.
It's no coincidence that us left handers are on this flight together with everyone else.

Dick

Arcane ratios and tsunamis.

Having been properly chastised by brother Bob for not being more consistent with my daily posts, here comes another.
Earlier this week I questioned the possible connection between an arcane ratio and several possible physical events. Now that a few days have passed, we can search for connections both positive and negative. There have been terrorist attacks on Iraq and Afghanistan but none in the United States. There have been no major earthquakes or tsunamis and no civil rights taken away (of which we know). There has been a president elect who has been described as using 'deliberate haste' in his actions. That sounds a lot better than setting foreign policy by shooting from the hip.
So today's conclusion is that either the ratio measured on Monday is the zero point or there is no connection with any of the events cited. Today's ratio: Planes seen/planes heard=1/2 or 0.500.
Again there have been no major earthquakes or tsunamis and no civil rights taken away so again we can assume for the time being that there are no connections between anything. How fatalistic.
The absence of tsunamis is a hint to me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Science in action

I used to watch pro golf on TV with my friend Greg who was a golf enthusiast. I kept explaining that at that level they should all be Tiger Woods-like. After all, I told him "It's only physics". The only real variable is the wind and, to some extent, the density of the air. That's the long way around to my insight of the day. Today I saw one airplane bu heard two more. Now, if you believe as I do, that we are here to learn. But first we must wrestle with the question. So we must be alert to signals that may lead us to the question (or the answer). Suppose for a minute that there is an esoteric connection between the 'see airplane' to 'hear airplane' ration. That's not so strange. We know that there were few animals killed as a result of the Indonesian tsunami in 2004. They had all fled to higher ground (which is the name of one of my favorite Gospel songs). So what's so strange about deriving information from an arcane ratio? Exactly what information I'm not sure.
If we only had more data! It's still only physics...and chemistry... and math. And the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle... and Einstein's theory of time and space
All that thinking made my head hurt.
But the hurt just reminds me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

It's about time!

I've been derelict in updating the blog. Sorry about that. No real reason. I just didn't get to it.
Saturday was the annual Veterans Day Celebration at historic Flabob Airport. It's really right out of the 50's. Real patriotism not the phony flag waving jerks with no real respect for the country or the flag. Aside from the array of homebuilt planes indigenous to Flabob were the WWII flight trainers a helicopter and several ground vehicles right out of WWII. And the Vets. All heroes from another era, soon to be extinct. All in all, seeing old friends, it was a great day.
Two dogs with their keepers and two airplanes on today's walk.
Veterans Day at historic Flabob Airport reminded me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Airplanes and Russian Blue cats.

The sun was up and it was starting to warm up. A beautiful day for flying. In fact I saw 5 airplanes and heard another. One of the planes was a Dragonfly. It's interesting point is that the wings, which are normally swept back on an airplane, are swept forward on the Dragonfly making a funny looking airplane. Very small and very light and powered by remarkably low power engines. Anyway, there it went. Looking like it was flying backwards.
I also passed a Russian Blue cat with a gorgeous gunmetal gray coat. A little stand-offish.
Counting 6 airplanes assured me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

I forgot to say Get Out and Vote

I forgot to say Get Out and Vote. No matter for whom you vote, this is one of the precious rights that has not been taken away yet. Every vote is important. Voter rolls can be purged and even votes flipped on electronic machines, but none of this works if we're all watching. It's time for us to watch Big Brother ( no reflection on brother Bob).
With all those eyes watching we must all be on this flight together.

Great songs and wing lift

Yesterday I took my iPod along instead of the metronome. A chance to lollygag a little bit. One of the songs is "Wind Beneath My Wings" performed by Willie Nelson. Every time I hear that song it prompts two thoughts: First it brings tears to my eyes as I picture daughter Deb coming around the corner in ICU after my incident. Thanks again, Deb.
Secondly, as my eyes dry out I think that the phrase is incorrect. It's not the wind UNDER my wings but the wind flowing over the wing that provides the lift to the wing. Bernoulli's Theory shown pictorially is that since the top of the wing has a curved cross section the air has further to travel over the wing than under said wing. Since the air molecules travel further over the top of the wing the molecules up there are spread further apart. That's the definition of a (partial) vacuum which 'sucks' the wing upward.
But it's still one of the great songs.
Great songs always remind me that we're all on this flight together.

Dick

Me and Stanley.

On October 4 I spoke of a cat I met that day. Today he showed up again. Then the light went on over my head. In the 70's I lived for a while with Suzy and her 7 cats. It was my first real exposure to cats and living with them. Suzy had 6 indoor cats and Stanley who was an outdoor cat. While we were in Texas used to take my guitar out to the picnic table and just pick away. No matter where he was, Stanley would always show up and try to tuck himself under my arm. Then one day he showed up much the worse for wear. He had gotten into a fight and although we didn't know it yet , Stanley had contracted feline leukemia. Here was fearless outdoor cat Stanley who had to be isolated from the indoor cats and the world. The indoor cats were kept outdoors and Stanley settled in to a more sedate indoor life. Stanley finally succumbed to the leukemia. Anyway the light over my head was because (for those of you who believe in reincarnation) it dawned on me that Stanley had returned looking like Tigger. He walked up to me like he owned me, rubbed against my leg and in a typical catlike maneuver rolled over so I could rub his belly.
Welcome back Stanley. It's good to see you again.
Seeing the reincarnation of Stanley showed once again that we're all on this flight together.

Dick