Time Flies....and, So Do Planes

When I was younger, I heard it said many a time that the older you get, the faster time goes by. I gotta say this is true, true, true. This week blew by so quickly that I woke up and couldn't believe it was the weekend again.....and, that a blog had yet to spew from my bowels during the week. (That, and I get confused by my Book de la Face status updates--I feel like I've written a blog but in reality have just been posting strange/silly/ridiculous status updates and wasting time scanning everyone else's FB stuff. I gotta start limiting my time there.)

The airshow was fabulous. (If you don't care about the air show, keep reading--I have other things to babble about. Hopefully, I won't write about how I think I'm sprouting a wart. I might write about how I was on a web radio show this week, which is an interesting, self-centered topic, but I'm not sure I'll get around to that. Perhaps I can tell you about today's alumni picnic....) Talking about the airshow this late in the game (a week later) seems rather pointless, but I enjoyed it enough that it merits mention. It was so "long" ago that I literally had to check my own blog to see if I had written about it. (I have not.) I wanted to share a few photos from the event, anyways. Suffice it to say a good time was had by all, I'd gladly go again and the price was extremely reasonable. The planes inspire and awe. Well, they do until they start blowing up things--then, you remember why such planes exist.

Talk about your variety of air vehicles. There were big planes, little planes, propeller planes, fighter jets, cargo jets, helicopters, hover crafts, passenger planes, a blimp and even some Tebala Shriner planes. This photo nicely illustrates the variety of planes to chose from. Cargo plane, passenger plane, fighter jet....all parked next to each other. Yum! That, by the way, is the American Eagle plane we could have taken to Connecticut in June. I am SOOOOO glad we didn't take that little puppy to New England. Is there even a bathroom on that thing? Give me the lap of luxury and six across seating any day.

One of the highlights of the airshow was the Harrier. I was excited to see they had a few of these on site--after all, I had a glossy color photo of a Harrier in my high school locker (which, in hinds sight is really weird. But, I digress.) The Harrier is a plane that can hover. It is a mystery to me how this can happen but I'm guessing that one should not stand under a hovering Harrier. Imagine my giddiness when I learned that the aircraft would be part of the flying acts. It was delicious. That puppy hovered this way and that way, a real crowd pleaser. Thankfully, it didn't start bombing things, so I was able to keep my Harrier image unsoiled.

Here's a photo of the Harrier hangin' around, entertaining the masses. I took video of it, too, but it just didn't do the sacred event justice. Pretty amazing to see something like that hanging over your head. Shock and awe, indeed.

Another thing that intrigued me is that all the aircraft have these little red tags hanging all over them that say "remove before flight." Um, does anyone else find it humorous that professional airmen--trained fighter pilots and the like--need little reminder tags to do things like remove before flight? I loved it. Another highlight of the event was spotting a guy wearing a red shirt with the same saying on it. Clever.

Here I am, removing before flight. I wasn't flying anywhere, so I suppose removing before flight was probably a bad idea. Notice I am wearing (once again) my reunion T-shirt. Side note: guess what I am wearing again today, this time to the alumni picnic? Yes, that's right--this exact same shirt. I do believe the wife is going to burn it upon our arrival home. It seems to be my outfit choice of this summer.


Three Hawk and Argo Warrior Princess were the perfect Air show companions. Actually, they are perfect doing-anything companions. A good time truly is assured when hanging out with them. Argo and I are thinking about doing a little ultra light flight this summer, but I'm not sure if I'd rather spend the money on flying, new glasses or another tattoo....time will tell.
Since time flies, I will know much sooner than later what the decision will be.

Yes, today is the high school alumni picnic. Funny how it took me thirty years to really think about high school. I'm not sure what I think about it, but I do think about it now. This summer has been the summer of high school. The picnic is being held in the Chicago suburbs. Since the mosquitoes will probably be bigger than most airplanes seen at the air show and since there will be an entire squadron of mosquitoes dive bombing us throughout the event, I'm not sure how long we will last. We haven't purchased any food for the picnic yet; in fact, the wife and I haven't even decided what we are actually going to take to the event. My goal is to take something pre-made (i.e. sub sandwich) and call it a day. I'm simple folk. I really have no need to grill giant slabs of beef....but, the wife seems to think this is what she would like to do. I have a feeling the car will be stopping at the local butcher on the way out of town. She can befriend someone with a grill because I know we don't have a grill and we are certainly not going to stop and buy grilling products.


And, so I must go primp for the picnic. Stories of warts and web babbling will have to wait......