Pilot's Log

Dad and I went Christmas shopping today. We went to a store in Newport that I liked but he hadn't seen before, and sure enough he fell in love with the place.

But before that, we were driving there and talking about the relatives on Lynn's husband's side of the family...how their kids and their needs were going to play out in the near future. He mentioned that having all three of us, myself and my siblings, in college at mostly the same time almost brought the family to financial ruin. Now, only my brother Dana made it all the way to a four-year degree; Lynn dropped out to work and I had to settle for a two-year Associate's degree.

Dad reassured me, though, that he never regretted the fact that I went to flight school and completed it as much as I could. He'd wanted that for himself all his life, and couldn't because of an eye defect he had. So I wasn't just doing it for my own selfish ends.

I don't know if I'll ever get back in the cockpit again, but I guess I can't be so down on myself that I couldn't work in aviation like I wanted.

For the price of two Shillings (I have some weird terms for mundane money) and some legal fees, I am now officially Stephen R. Bierce, Esquire for acquiring 49.44% of Rather Manor. Dad arranged to have my name on the property deed in place of my mother's to save me the possibility of estate taxes if anything happened to him.

I'll need to get together with my siblings, my niece and my nephew about further redistribution of stupf. The problem with such family get-togethers is of course some people exercize too much EQ and do too good a job of entertaining for much to get done.

* * *

My brother is now a Blackjack dealer at the Harrah's casino in Cherokee, North Carolina. They had no shortage of applicants but how he told me he must have been one of the best ones. I wish him all sorts of success.

* * *

Yesterday I wasted a lot of time watching the movie THE SCARLET AND THE BLACK on TH¡S network. It was about a young man who is the illegitimate son of one of Napoleon's generals, and his travels in French high society as the post-Waterloo Reformation begins to implode. And the ghost of Napoleon himself hovers around, giving advice that eventually gets him killed. (I'm spoiling this because it is far too long a movie and so slowly paced you're better off finding the Russian version of WAR & PEACE.)

If you had a famous ghost giving you advice, would you always obey it? Or would you tell him to go to blazes and try to break the cycles?

Sagittarius Horoscope for week of May 17, 2012

In the coming weeks, you will have an excellent chance to develop more skill in the art of high gossip. High gossip has almost nothing in common with the mindless prattle that erodes reputations and fosters cynicism. It's not driven by envy, pettiness, or schadenfreude. When you engage in high gossip, you spread uplifting whispers and inspirational hearsay; you speculate about people's talents and call attention to their successes; you conspire to awaken generosity of spirit and practical idealism. High gossip is a righteous approach to chatting about the human zoo. It might not flow as easily as the cheap and shabby kind -- at least at first -- but it lasts a whole lot longer and creates connections that help keep your mental hygiene sparkling clean.

Dad also found Mum's stashed copies of my sister Lynn's short-lived tabloid paper The Ponderer, of which Mum, brother Dana, and other talents including Matt Mikas and David Klein were contributors.

I'm in Facebook chat conversation with my wonderful sister Lynn. We're all handling Mum's departure from our lives in different ways...tho' really there's no point in getting into details.

I was reminded of the time back when we were children, when Lynn's first cat Fluffy died. Lynn was so upset and hurting that she wrote the news opinion commentator of a local TV station--and he responded by reading some of her letter on air and expressing his condolensces to her for everybody.

On a whim I did a websearch for the name of the cat and the name of the TV station together: THIS is what came up.

The Circle of Life is a very real thing. Sometimes the next world is Heaven or Paradise, and maybe we don't see loved ones again. Or maybe we just come back to this one, in a form that befits us better and fated to find love and happiness. You know love can endure--and you know it will!--one of Mum's favorite songs from Crosby, Stills and Nash.

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A very good visit from my sister, her husband and her son yesterday.

Today I took Dad to Morristown to shop for replacement wheels to fit his mulcher. There is a little place just east of downtown (Tools N More) that we shopped at when I was in school...they were the best source because they handle surplus stock parts. I didn't expect to go there; I did expect to go to Lowe's because sister Lynn gave him a Lowe's card for Father's Day. But he told me he had already checked with them and they didn't have what he needed.

He was unclear about what he wanted to do when we sortied out...but we worked it out eventually.

After downtown we had an adventure finding the Social Security office in Morristown. They instructions he'd received on where it is were also rather unclear and perplexing. It took us three tries to find the place, as there weren't proper signs in the places they need to be, and the building's back is to the main road.

But now he knows where it is, and can take a friend for a required conference soon.

On Facebook today, I clicked on an ad about high school yearbooks...but if I had known it was classmates.com I would have passed it by. I HATE classmates.com; they don't get it that not everybody had a good time in teenage life. But now I'm on the hook again for their stupid junk e-mail and I'm going to have to dredge out that old Dear John e-mail I sent them years ago. Bleh.

Lessee...

* Mum had a good Mother's Day weekend. Lynn, Livingston and Egan were over on Saturday and we did Spaghetti Feast. I got Mum a pair of garden gloves and two bags of Russell Stover chocolates. Livingston returned our VHS player after repairs; we haven't had the opportunity to try it out yet. We sent Ollie's old toaster oven back with them for Geneva, as we heard she needs a better one than the one she has.

* A game store in Knoxville had a sale so I bought three Wings of War planes (an SE5A, a Wildcat and a ZeroSen). There are a lot of downloadable resources on the WWI game but not on the WW2 game, so I'll probably need to get the WW2 deluxe sets in the future.

I'm already planning out larger architectures for mainstream scale models. A double-size set would work for 1/72nd scale WWI and 1/100th scale WW2 planes; a triple-size is right for 1/48th WWI and 1/72nd WW2 models; a quad-size set would be needed to play using 1/32nd~1/28th WWI or 1/48th WW2 planes. A quad-size card would be roughly the size of a board of the kind used to stiffen packs of comic books.

I'm also adapting my ex-clicky Crimson Skies planes to the Wings of War system, but I'll need more info about the WW2 game before I can complete the porting.

* Mum's garden is beginning to recover.

* We got a box of goodies from the Winterization program, in addition to the work that will eventually be done upgrading Rather Manor's infrastructure. Basically, we got a supply of flourescent squiggle lights (which we've been already using for about ten years), thermometers, aerator faucet and shower heads, a duct cleaning brush, and a smoke detector (the source for yesterday's DRAMA TAG).

* Model meeting is tonight. Oh boy.

*) Did the Gamers' Bizarre Bazaar at HobbyTown. Sold a few things; bought nothing, made enough cash to go from "nowhere near enough money" to "not quite enough money".

*) Got a couple stickers that I will need to scan and post a separate entry about.

*) Missed my aunt and uncle when they visited Rather Manor for lunch. Did NOT miss Lynn's cake, however. In fact, I'm doing everything in my power to avoid the siren song of another piece. Granted, I will need a midnight snack in a couple hours.

*) Saw the ESPN show on ABC today about the life of NASCAR would-be superstar Tim Richmond. The ultimate spoiled rich boy/enfant terrible/non-Good Ol' Boy whose career and life were cut short by AIDS-related health problems.
Links...
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/columns/story?columnist=mcgee_ryan&id=5696274
http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=4397552
http://30for30.espn.com/film/tim-richmond-to-the-limit.html

*) Got to re-friend former Livejournal user Jolly Roger Blackburn on Facebook. I know I should have done it long ago, but there was no need as I participate very often on the official Kenzerco boards.

Q: Did your Mom have a nice birthday?

A: She had a very nice birthday. And you know a holiday that involves gift-giving isn't over until all the gifts have been opened and enjoyed...so it's still ongoing for her. Today my sister and brother-in-law visited and treated her to a lunch of exotic foods guaranteed to help her through her health issues. Sis also gave Mum three new shirts.

A family/church friend gave Mum a Key Lime Pie for her dessert tonight, which excused me to finish off Mum's birthday cake. Oh, the duties I have in this family.