Veteran's Day

We celebrate all the veterans today.  Jacquelyn and I are both veterans.  We were in the U.S. Air Force.

We were both stationed at SAMSO (Space and Missile Systems Organization) at Los Angeles Air Force Station.  That's were we met each other and got married.  Lt. Swift and Lt. Swift.

 This is my senior picture from the Air Force Academy.

Here's Lt. Swift hard at work at her desk working for DARPA as a Cost Analysis for the Air Force on new technology development programs.  This is a picture of girl I met and started dating and fell in love with.

This is Jacquelyn as a Captain. 

Here we are in our formal Mess Dress at a big Military-Industrial Conference called WINCON that Jacquelyn was in charge of organizing.

Then I got out of the Air Force and Jacquelyn took a transfer to McConnell AFB in Wichita, Kansas where she stayed in the Air Force for several more years.

We were lucky not to have had to experience any wars while we were in.  I was an Astronautical Engineer and worked on the first experimental GPS satellites.  Here's a picture of one in the factory.  So every time you use a GPS, now so common, remember I helped make it possible.

I got to take part in four different launches of the satellites on Atlas F rockets from Vandenberg AFB and was a mission controller at Sunnyvale deploying the satellites up into orbit and getting them activated.

We can't forget another veteran.  My dad was a veteran during the Korean War when his guard unit got activated.  He was a bombardier on the B-36 Bombers.  When they got over the targets he took control of the aircraft, scoped out the targets, and let the bombs fly.  The B-36s were part of America's nuclear arsenal and were stationed on the Atlantic Coast full of atomic bombs.

Their mission was to attack Russia with nuclear bombs in case the Korean War got too far out of control and world war broke out.  They had to have a lot of dedication too.  The thing was, the B-36 couldn't carry enough fuel to hit targets in Russia and make it back home.  So the plan was to fly their mission, destroy the assigned target, and then get as far back as they could before ditching the airplane and bailing out.  Depending on the target that would put them in eastern Russia or Communist East European countries.  Then they would have to evade capture and try to escape for home on foot.

Visiting Mom and Dad in Arizona

I got to spend a few days down in Mesa visiting with Mom and Dad.  The weather was beautiful every day and we had a great time.

 This is the front entrance to their house in Mesa, Arizona.

Here's Dad in front of one of their trees in the front yard.  Is it still called a yard when you have rocks in place of grass?

 Here's Mom by the front gate.

This is a side view of the house.  The oranges were still green but getting plump, and you can see the giant 20-30 foot cactus in their yard.

 Driveway and car.

 Picture of their house from the corner.

 They live in Leisure World which is a retirement community.

The clock tower.

 Lots of beautiful streams and ponds and water fountains.

 The central courtyard.

 Two 18 holes golf courses which makes for lots of beautiful walking paths.

It's so much fun just walking around it's so beautiful.

Shuffleboard courts.  They also have tennis courts and a large gym and they're putting in several pickleball courts, which is the new rage among the retirement community.

 Another beautiful walking paths, this one along the way from their house to the recreation center.

 A favorite of mine, one of the two jacuzzis.

 Rec. Center #1 swimming pool.

We went out to dinner twice, the first time to China City, a buffet just outside the South Entrance.  Tons and tons of good food.  I ate so much shrimp it was unbelievable.

The second time out to Texas Roadhouse.  Good steak char-grilled to perfection and a fun western atmosphere.

We did do some work.  Once a year the palm trees have to be trimmed.  Dad let me help him with one of them but he wanted to save the others for later.  He's always liked working in the yard.  We've only got about 6 limbs trimmed off so far.

 Here's all the damage.

 The finished product, a neatly trimmed palm.

 It was Halloween and some people decorate, desert style.

You wouldn't think pumpkins and cactus would mix, but they look good here.

 We got to go on some fun walks all around.

 I couldn't resist photographing some of the wildlife.  This is a heron.

 Another type of heron and some other squat birds watching for fish.

Just some plain old mallard ducks, but it's always impressed me the way they pair up and stick together as couples.  I've heard ducks will sometimes stay together for life.  How do they keep track of each other and not get lost from each other?

 A third type of heron.

 The heron in flight, not an easy picture to get.

 Quail all over the place.

The famous leisure world vultures.  For some reason they seem to like it here too.  They're always watching.

 I must of taken 100 pictures trying to get one in flight.

On the last day there it was sunny and beautiful as always so we decided to go to the swimming pool.

This is Rec. Center #2 swimming pool.  Dad and I went in the hot tub while mom enjoyed a good book.

It was a great trip to Arizona.  Mom and Dad are doing good and we had a lot of fun together.

Cider Mash and Corn Maze

On Saturday we went out for some October fun with Malachi, Layne, Andrew and Mallory

First we went to a cider mash at Meeker Mansion.  We had free tickets from Brother Dawson and so we got to make two giant buckets of apples into cider.

 Malachi and Andrew and I were operating this cider mash.  The girls were doing the other one.

 We got two full gallons of cider.

 There were also some games and displays of crafts and we got to take a tour of Meeker Mansion.

Mallory wanted to meet the Princesses - here she is with two of the high school Daffodil Princesses.

 Then we went out to one of the farms with harvest activities.  It was raining on us at times but Andrew was prepared.

 The highlight was the corn maze.  The corn was humongous, really really tall and thick.

 It must look extremely tall and scary when you're a small person.

We found all the check points and had a lot of fun.