Sunday Photos 02/12/12

Visions of days ahead to help warm your winter Sunday.

Still working on my invention to have these emit small amounts of ultraviolet light to help treat Seasonal Affective Disorder, so you'll just have to think pleasant thoughts.

Thanks, Dennis

  If you live in or around Northeast Kansas you probably heard the sad news about the recent Alzheimer's diagnosis of our former Congressman and District Attorney, Dennis Moore.

  Dennis is one of those people that truly put public service ahead of any personal ambition.  He was a leader in genuine efforts to reach across the aisle to his political opponents, to try to bring people together to solve our common problems.

  If you are interested in sending a personal message of thanks or encouragement to Dennis, you can do so via this address:  thankyoudennis@yahoo.com

Here's what I wrote:

Congressman Moore,

  I am writing today to thank you for the way you have dedicated your life to your neighbors here in Kansas.  Your public service made a real difference in peoples lives.  I considered it a pleasure and a privilege to have volunteered in a small way on all of your congressional campaigns.

  I was saddened to read of your recent diagnosis, but at the same time I was heartened by your response to it.  Great days still lie ahead for you and Stephene.  

  My mother is also an Alzheimer's patient.  We find comfort in the following passage form 2 Corinthians. I hope that you do as well.

¹⁶ Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. ¹⁷ For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. ¹⁸ So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.  

¹ For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands.

Sincerely,

Tim L


Join the fight. http://www.alz.org/join_the_cause_donate.asp

Sunday Photos 02/05/12

West Bottoms, Kansas City, Mo

Local Charm (and a blast from my past)

Had some time to myself today, so I went wandering, camera in hand.  I ended up driving around the Charles B. Wheeler Downtown Airport (MKC), a place where I spent many wonderful visits as a boy watching the planes come and go.  And I finally took the time to visit the National Airline History Museum there.

Despite the grand sounding name, it's a volunteer run organization that began 25 years ago when a group of guys decided to restore a Lockheed Constellation to flying condition.  They named their group "Save A Connie". The organization expanded and now also owns a Martin 404, DC 3, and an L-1011.  The Connie has been grounded for several years due to some engine issues, but they hope to have it and the DC3 back in the air before long.

The museum itself doesn't really live up to the name, but it's worth a visit anyway.  The volunteers are very friendly and knowledgeable, and hey, there are big airplanes to see up close!

L to R: Martin 404, DC3, Constellation

Martin 404. (SAC stands for Save A Connie)

Lockheed Constellation

This shot is of the tail of the L-1011 where the engine used to be. This aircraft is not available for up close viewing right now, as it is parked on the airfield side of the fence.

There are also a couple of interesting non-airplane items at the museum.

This "rocket ship" is a smaller version of the one that greeted visitors at the entrance to Tomorrowland at Disneyland in California.  This rocket sat atop TWA headquarters in downtown Kansas City for many years.

And finally, the most recent addition to their collection, one my old ATC buddies will recognize immediately.

Yes, that's a real radar scope (Plan Video Display, if you want to get technical) that was used at the Kansas City Air Route Traffic Control Center in Olathe.  Perhaps even by me.

More pictures form my day out in KC next time.  

Lost and Found

I hear plenty of things on the radio at my current job that are fairly depressing, but every now and then I get to laugh.

A couple days ago officers were dispatched to a store where a suspected shoplifter was being chased by store security.  Officers were still en-route to the store when this additional information was relayed to them:

"Loss prevention officers have stopped chasing the suspect, a white male, no shirt, tan shorts, last seen headed south behind (local business). They do however have the merchandise and his wallet."

I don't think it will take the detectives long to crack that case.

Fear of Creativity

"Why didn't I think of that?"

Because you're not crazy.

Well, that's a bit blunt and over the top, but it makes my point rather concisely.
Many truly gifted actors and other artists, I think, come up with the performances and ideas they do because they literally don't think quite like most of the rest of us.  Evidence of this is voluminous.  Several magazines and TV shows owe their existence to this phenomenon. Just think about how many times you've read about something someone famous has done or said outside of their professional lives and thought to yourself, "That's not normal. Why did they do that?"  I think it's for the same reason they are able to awe and amaze us in their work.  They are, well, not crazy exactly, but not exactly sane either.   I also wonder how many are self-aware in this regard, and if they are, does it matter?

All of this led me to reflect on my own bouts of creativity.  For me they frequently come at emotional high or low points. I don't think I'm at all unusual in that. There are probably a couple bazillion songs or poems that were written by someone madly in love or despair.  (Or both.)  It's just that in the past, my low days were far too deep in the shadows.  So recently when I've tried to write, my mind has had a tendency to drift toward those shadows.  Back towards a place where I must not allow myself to go.

And so the page sits empty.

But not forever. I've concluded that if I am strong enough to see the shadows and steer clear of them, I'm strong enough find a way to live and create without them.

Yes, that's means I'll be here more often.

Columbia

I was working traffic that day at the ARTCC.  It was chilling every time I glanced at the weather radar display in the control room and saw the large swath of green radar returns the falling debris created on that cloudless day.

Oh! I have slipped the surly bonds of Earth 

And danced the skies on laughter-silvered wings; 

Sunward I've climbed, and joined the tumbling mirth 

Of sun-split clouds, — and done a hundred things 

You have not dreamed of — wheeled and soared and swung 

High in the sunlit silence. Hov'ring there, 

I've chased the shouting wind along, and flung 

My eager craft through footless halls of air. . . . 

Up, up the long, delirious burning blue 

I've topped the wind-swept heights with easy grace 

Where never lark, or ever eagle flew — 

And, while with silent, lifting mind I've trod 

The high untrespassed sanctity of space, 

Put out my hand, and touched the face of God.

— John Gillespie Magee, Jr