[stevebrot]

I guess that this gets me banned from this thread. Sorry for my weakness. I could only resist for so long.

No, you have to stay. The problem is that staying involves penance and the penance involves mortification of the flesh.


Steve

[tim60]

Forgive me, but the hociR is strong and it is winning. The latest price drop has been too much to resist. I am going to get one. I guess that this gets me banned from this thread. Sorry for my weakness. I could only resist for so long.

Since this thread has almost banned discussion of image making you need not worry. So long as you keep you wit, and wits, you should remain with us jesting about whatever we jest about.

[Jean Poitiers]

Yuck ... hociR goes pastel (?!) ...

[Racer X 69]

SWMBO and I were first stationed at Offutt, where she was a Comm Controller in the SAC Underground. The Senior Controllers in charge of each shift (well, some of them) failed to see the humor in our t-shirts. The "Welcome to Offutt AFB, Ground Zero USA" ones with a nice little mushroom cloud image... Who woulda thunk it?

Jim

Been to Offutt many times. Boeing has maintenance, engineering and warehousing people there working on their planes, including the Air Force One fleet. I moved thrust reversers, wing parts and landing gear in and out of there. The stuff goes out to various contractors for rebuilds.

The first time in was an eye opener for me.

They have very tight security. All the heavy truck traffic is funneled through a gate with pits that the trucks are stopped over so the undersides can be inspected easily. Then the drivers are asked to exit the vehicle, open the hood, doors and all compartments, and go inside for a credential and background check.

While inside the guards use bomb sniffing dogs to screen the truck and trailer.

I think the most unsettling thing, at least the first time, was that all the security personnel had automatic rifles and sidearms. When one is not used to being around so many people with weapons it can be unnerving.

And I am a gun guy!

Anyway, provided all is good, a Boeing employee arrives in a pickup and escorts the truck and driver to the next stop, a gate onto the tarmac.

After clearing that gate it is time for a FOD check.

Every tire must be cleared of FOD (whatever rocks and other debris that is in the tire treads. Now remember, the trucks I was driving had EIGHTEEN tires.

That's a lot of rock picking.

And they can't just be dropped on the tarmac.

Nope.

There is a place for everything, and everything is in its place.

So one trip around the truck and trailer, drop a handful (or two) of rocks in the FOD can, pull forward enough to get the bottom of all the tires in a position to check, clean EIGHTEEN more times, toss the rocks and then follow the nice man in the pickup even deeper into the airbase.

When we were at the right place, tarps were removed (if I didn't have a Conestoga) securement (straps and/or chains) was removed, the parts were unloaded, then parts going out for rebuild were loaded, secured and tarped (if I did not have a Conestoga). Everything must be covered.

The first time I went there it happened to be lunch time when we arrived at the FOD check. One of the lead guys asked if I had eaten yet, and when I said no, he invited me to lunch.

We went to the Officers Mess.

What a feast!

And FREE too!

Another time I went there it was a "HOT LOAD". I had picked it up at McConnell AFB in Wichita (another Air Force One maintenance location, although it is being phased out), late in the day, and was told it absolutely had to be there ASAP.

I arrived at about 2:30 am.

The boys at the gate didn't want to let me in.

I made a phone call, and within 10 minutes I was picking rocks out of EIGHTEEN tires.

But wait, there is more.

Again, it was lunchtime.

So the guys bought me "lunch" at 3 in the morning.

Then we made the journey to the deepest reaches of the base, I unloaded, reloaded and headed back to Dallas. The sun was coming up as I left the base.

I found a parking lot behind a grocery store and took a much needed nap.

[monochrome]

Yuck ... hociR goes pastel (?!) ...

Another iteration of the K Three!!

[Jean Poitiers]

Another iteration of the K Three!!

+1 ... didn't think about that one.

Now which sweet flavor to taste ... "Lime Pie", "Strawberry Cake" or .... "Blue Cream Soda".

[magkelly]

Yuck ... hociR goes pastel (?!) ...

I still think the body design is awful, but I kind of like the lime and white color thing. It's better than the first models color schemes I think. I still would not buy one of these but I'd like to see that color thing on a better camera design, something small like the Q. Just the lime though. I'm not crazy about the pink or the blue.

[RoxnDox]

Been to Offutt many times. Boeing has maintenance, engineering and warehousing people there working on their planes, including the Air Force One fleet. I moved thrust reversers, wing parts and landing gear in and out of there. The stuff goes out to various contractors for rebuilds.

The first time in was an eye opener for me.

They have very tight security. All the heavy truck traffic is funneled through a gate with pits that the trucks are stopped over so the undersides can be inspected easily. Then the drivers are asked to exit the vehicle, open the hood, doors and all compartments, and go inside for a credential and background check.
.....

I found a parking lot behind a grocery store and took a much needed nap.

For a long time, we could set a clock by the launch of the Airborne birds, the 24 hour round the clock airborne nuclear command post. If one was late on liftoff, you knew it without even realizing it... Lots of security, indeed - between the 24/7 schedule, as you noted they also had a fleet of 747-derived NEACP planes (not AF One, normally, but capable and part of the support fleet) that had to be ready to go anywhere, anytime. There was one incident when a dumptruck was going thru the checkpoint after getting cleared, and the barrier malfunctioned and activated while it was on top of it. Broke the dumptruck's drivetrain and bent its frame...

There was always good food available for the alert crews - and the O Club had good food to keep the couple dozen General officers (and hordes of bird colonels...) happy, no matter the hour

Jim

[gaweidert]

No, you have to stay. The problem is that staying involves penance and the penance involves mortification of the flesh.


Steve

I think I have that covered. At 63 my flesh is already mortifiying itself. Knees, back, eyes etc. In fact, I am mortified that this thread is still going!

[Pioneer]

I think I have that covered. At 63 my flesh is already mortifiying itself. Knees, back, eyes etc. In fact, I am mortified that this thread is still going!

Hey! Relax and enjoy! That body mortifying thing is just getting started. As for the thread, the more participants the more mortifying it becomes.

(Oooh. I think the grandkids left out the limbuger...)

[monochrome]

I think I have that covered. At 63 my flesh is already mortifiying itself. Knees, back, eyes etc. In fact, I am mortified that this thread is still going!

Don't let the hociR get you down.

You do realize at 63 you've lived as long since age 38 as you have yet to go before you reach Life Expectancy?

And at age 38 you hadn't the benefit of experience bordering on wisdom?

[TedH42]

+1 ... didn't think about that one.

Now which sweet flavor to taste ... "Lime Pie", "Strawberry Cake" or .... "Blue Cream Soda".

Hmm. But the K-3 (the hociR-ed camera) doesn't come in "Lime Pie", "Strawberry Cake",or "Blue Cream Soda". Clearly it is being abandoned by the livE hociR, being obviously replaced by the newer, much glitzier KS-1, and that's why only fools would buy it now.

So we are all going to be safe soon - when there are no more K-3s in stores.

[MarkJerling]

That reminds me of when my dad burned a bag of trash in the fireplace that contained a box of rifle ammunition. The whole family was in the room and we all hit the floor when the fireworks started. Fortunately, it was the casings that were flying and not the bullets themselves!
Steve

Yikes - that sounds like a bit of a wake-up call. In our case, our neat 12 ft high pile instantly became a flying burning heap - some crates landed a good 250 yards away and we spent the next hour putting out many small brush fires where the burning crates landed. Luckily there was very little wind or it could have been a big mess. And, luckily no-one was hit.

[monochrome]

Yikes - that sounds like a bit of a wake-up call. In our case, our neat 12 ft high pile instantly became a flying burning heap - some crates landed a good 250 yards away and we spent the next hour putting out many small brush fires where the burning crates landed. Luckily there was very little wind or it could have been a big mess. And, luckily no-one was hit.

Since I haven't bought a K-3, it wasn't the doings of the evil hociR. It was a boneheaded, stupid move, and Jack is Doomed, but hociR has nothing to do with that.

Just last spring I visited a 'Bonfire' party at a High School classmate's hobby farm.

After drinks and dinner and more drinks, about dusk, we moved into "The Meadow." The idea was to have an old-fashioned college frat party blow-out under the stars, jitterbugging to The Drifters, Sam & Dave, The Isley Brothers, The O' Jays and the like blasting out of an iHome. Then crash in the house and the Bunkhouse and drive home in the morning.

He had constructed a tall council fire of old pallets surrounding an interior shaft of split logs. About a foot above the ground inside the shaft he had laid a small stick-platform and he poured/scooped the contents of 12 Sterno cans on some tinder there. I expressed my skepticism ("Never use accelerants to start a fire, Jack") But he dismissively told me he knew his stuff and "you Boy Scouts weren't any fun in High School, in College, after College - and you still don't know how to have fun." Nevertheless I suggested we all stand well away from the fire, and most people followed my advice.

Unfortunately the pallets had blocked air circulation and allowed the Sterno vapors to collect in the enclosed space.

Fortunately, when he stuck the flaming torch in the starter hole nothing happened - at first - so he backed away as well.

Unfortunately, the torch suddenly ignited the Sterno vapors. The resulting explosive fireball was at least as large as the firewood was tall. Pallets blew out in a concentric, 10 foot circle. The interior shaft collapsed. Then the fuel started burning. We still don't know why Jack wasn't incinerated. We think maybe the alcohol fumes canceled the Sterno vapors or something.

Fortunately, only a few cool-girl women had stayed nearer the fire. They had their eyebrows singed, but all that hurt was their pride. They of course went in the house and whined, and the ensuing hubbub was enough to send most of the rest of us home, ostensibly ruining the party.

Unfortunately, he blames me for having planted doubt about his sanity in the minds of everyone there before the explosion. He's probably right (but he should have made me FireMaster).

Fortunately, Jack had fun anyway.

[Parallax]

I think I have that covered. At 63 my flesh is already mortifiying itself. Knees, back, eyes etc. In fact, I am mortified that this thread is still going!

Have a lutefisk and bacon, on toast, sammich with a generous slathering of Vegemite. You'll feel better.