Arrow of light ceremony and musings...

This past monday my son brought back the old tradition that the Order of the Arrow would perform at all Arrow of Light ceremonies...

The Arrow of Light award is the highest rank award available to Cub Scouts. To earn the Arrow of Light, the Cub Scout must complete four required adventures, three of eighteen elective adventures, and the Cyber Chit and child abuse prevention exercises. The Cyber Chit exercises can be waived if the family does not have easy access to the internet. Earning the Arrow of Light can help earn many of the requirements for the lower ranks of the Boy Scouts. The Arrow of Light award is the only Cub Scout award that can be worn on a Boy Scout uniform. Both Cub Scouts and Boy Scouts wear the Arrow of Light badge below the left pocket. Adults wear the square-knot version of the badge above the left pocket. Cub Scouts who earn the Arrow of Light are eligible to join a Boy Scout Troop at ten years of age instead of eleven.

      The Order of the Arrow is the honor society of the Boy Scouts of America.   They used to do the arrow of light ceremony for the Cub Scouts in the area.  However the OA had gotten away from that.  Finding arrowmen who wants to perform on the ceremony team  is problematic.  Most of the kids don't want to devote any time to this.  My son restarted up the ceremony team for this.  He started talking about it several months ago and I told him " you want this....you set it up...it is your baby."   Well he did.  I was very proud of him. 

     My son was afraid of making a mistake and I told him..."Keep in mind, these people will not know exactly what is to happen, they are glad y"all are here, you added a *Wow* factor to their ceremony."

  The people in the Cub Scout pack were blown away by the pomp and ceremony involved.  This was a good thing for the lodge and gave the new scouts something to look forward to in the Boy Scouts.

     Now on the the election year circuses......The Trump is going through the GOP field like a shark through a surfer..

The establishment is terrified, their hand picked candidates are getting removed one by one...from Christie, to Jeb to now Rubio is the last hope of derailing the Trump Train.  I have no pity for the GOP establishment, they have blown off their base the last 3 elections.  We elected them to stop the Obama hope and change.  Instead the establishment GOP rolled over and showed Obama their belly and did nothing except trying to preserve their spot at the trough. 
    I read some "conservative" talking head at one of these conservative magazines that stated that "if Donald is the nominee, he would recommend that people vote for Hillary, because that is the person that they can rally the GOP around."  So lemme get this straight...in the name of ideological purity you would vote for the democrat candidate.....?    are you kidding?    the damage that Obungler has done is massive, so in the name of ideological purity you would continue to damage the country because it is better for the party?.  Crap..that is how democrats think....to them it is party first.  I always believed that the GOP was above such craven behavior...but crap like this reinforced the belief that both parties are one half of the whole.

    On the democrat side, the Bern is raising hell on the Annointed one on the Democrats side.  She won the Nevada primary....this showed the power of the "fix" to Bernie.  Harry Reid and the democratic machine made sure that she won that one....to hope to slow down the road to socialism that the democrats are peddling to the millennials

Bernie is tapping into the lack of reality that many younger people have.  I blame this on the socialistic school system that didn't educate people, just indoctrinate them in a certain ideology.  Now we as a nation are paying the price for the economic beliefs and pipedreams of the younger generation.  

  I saw and listened to the speech Obama gave for his reason to close Gitmo.  He wants to move the most incorrigible of the terrorist in the U.S. legal system where they would have all the access of the American system.

 Anybody that says otherwise is being delusional.  Can you see all the mechanism that will be utilized as they use our own system against us.   They would find a lot of "fellow travelers" that will assist those terrorist to use our system against us.

This past weekend...

We went camping this past weekend, the troop wanted to do some Hiking and shooting.   So we planned a trip and we went down to thunder. 

    This was the campsite and yes I already took my new to me truck camping...

   The Scoutmaster getting the various Zombies up to meet the challenges of the new day...and Yes the troop loves to use the hammocks.    The troop started getting ready to meet the new day

  I got my portable coffee maker out....boiled some water, then had coffee while the troop got ready to go shooting.

   The kids started shooting, and they had a good time...

  The kids were shooting soo good, I turned to Mac and asked him if he had any problem with my switching this up to qualifications for the Rifle merit badge.  He had no problem with my doing this....

  So we changed it up and the kids that didn't have the merit badge, got a chance to qualify.  This excited the kids immensely so off we went.  After they qualified, the kids that needed the merit badge got to clean the rifles...

  Also as part of the requirement, they also had to name all the parts of the rifle..

   I got even more detail than the picture showed.   I made sure the kids earned the merit badge.   Well the kids went to go hiking, so most of the rifles were cleaned...but a couple of them weren't .  I decided to clean them...I have commented in the past that the rifles the camp have are very good rifles so I try to take care of them. 

  I got to the last rifle and I decided to do some shooting......Gotta keep in practice you know...

  

  I then grabbed the bowl of bullets..

   I got into a comfortable shooting position....

  I then exercised some recoil therapy....Man that was relaxing....The birds were chirping....the wind was rustling....I was by myself.....And I proceeded to shoot a lot of ammo.   That was very enjoyable..

The troop after finishing the hiking, we went home and stopped by a pizza place as a treat...

  I saw this sign there and got a chuckle out of it.   

Monday Music "Something about you" by Level 42

I know when I have been doing this for a while when I have to put the name of the song in my search engine to make sure I havn't done it already.  I am surprised this song didn't show up...I remember this song was big when I was stationed at Fort Devens in MA for my advanced training and I just had gotten my new 1986 Mustang and I would drive all over the place. 

This song would come on the radio and it also had heavy rotation on the MTV playlist that always seemed to be playing in the break-room in the barracks.  I still enjoy the song, to me it is an easy listening song and everything seems to flow or as I comment, "the parts play well together" so to me it has withstood the test of time. 


Level 42 are an English pop rock and jazz-funk band, who had a number of worldwide and UK hits during the 1980s and 1990s.
Their most successful single in the UK was "Lessons in Love", which reached number three on the UK Singles Chart, and number 12 on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart, upon its release in 1986. The earlier single, "Something About You" was their most successful single in the United States, reaching number 7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart.
After much success as a live and studio band in the 1980s, Level 42's commercial profile diminished during the early 1990s following a series of personnel changes and musical shifts. After disbanding in 1994, the band reformed in 2001.

"Something About You" was released in several countries beyond the United Kingdom, including United States, Germany, Italy, Canada, and many countries of South America and Asia. It is the only Level 42 song to be a top 10 hit in the United States, where it reached #7 on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, and it is their second top 10 hit in the United Kingdom, reaching #6 on the UK Singles Chart.
"Something About You" appears in many Level 42 collections: Level Best, The Very Best of Level 42, and The Definitive Collection.

The music video of "Something About You" is directed by Stuart Orme, who also directed videos for the Level 42 songs "Lessons in Love" and "Running in the Family", as well as Phil Collins and Genesis. The music video appears in their video album Family of Five, released in 1987.
Mark King appears as a dark clown magician, representing the negative aspects in the relationships of Mike Lindup, Phil and Boon Gould with their girlfriends, all played by actress Cherie Lunghi.

Book Release by Daddy Bear

My Blog buddy "Daddy Dear" has released another book.  This is a 3rd book released by him.  His 2 earlier books were excellent in my opinion, they don't rate up there with Shakespeare but they are pretty dang good.

   I shamelessly ripped this off his website......Because Cut and Paste is wonderful that way :)

Escort Duty Pre-Order

My latest collection of stories, Escort Duty, is up for pre-order.  You can find snippets here, here, and here.
UPDATE – Oops, found another snippet here.
This collection runs a gamut of subjects.  The book begins with a short novella from the Minivandians universe.  Next are short stories that deal with action, religion, and  intrigue.  The book finishes with a sort-of action/thriller novella that has been ruminating around in my brain for quite a while.
Hard copy will be available soon, and I’m enrolling the book in Kindle On-line Lending Library and Kindle Unlimited, so subscribers can read it that way if they want to.
Hope you all enjoy it, and no matter what, please leave an honest review on Amazon.

Free Space Travel Posters compliments of NASA

I ran across these from my Axanar website.....These are "Free" posters compliments of NASA.  Just go to the website and download them.

This may come as a shock to you, but we’ve never been to Mars. We’ve never dived beneath the icy crust of Jupiter’s moon Europa, strolled beneath the twin suns of Kepler 16b or watched the acrid clouds of Venus float past. Never skydived under the heavy gravity of the Pictor constellation’s HD 40307 g or sailed across the icy methane seas of Titan. But these retro-style space travel posters from the design studio at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs are fine consolation prize for the time being.
The posters are a continuation of the Exoplanet Travel Bureau poster series first created by JPL’s design studio last year. The studio, first put together 13 years ago, helps JPL’s scientists and engineers plan out future missions, which means they’re always aware of the latest and greatest ideas being bandied about the lab. When NASA came to them asking for additional posters in the series, they were able to integrate many ideas the agency had already been spitballing for the future—such as floating cities hovering above Venus.
NASA’s faux travel agency is, obviously, a tad grandiose in their claims. Mankind won’t set foot on another planet for at least another decade, and even that’s optimistic. Zipping off 42 light-years for some super-Earth skydiving will probably remain science fiction forever. But anything that keeps the public aware of the grandeur of space exploration is cool with us.
All 14 posters are available as free downloads at JPL’s website.

Monday Music "Disco Inferno" by the Trammps

  I decided to roll with some 70's Disco.  Saturday night Fever rejuvenated the Genre that was starting to fade.  A lot of people hated Disco but I like the fast paced music and man talk about the costumes.  You don't see stuff like that now a days.  I make no bones about it, I prefer the older music to what is playing now...Occasionally I hear something that is "modern" that I consider really talented like Adele.  But overall I think the Music  industry is in the doldrums of suckitude.  Where are the acts that blazed a trail with talent....now it is just "shock " value.   Where is the showcase of talent?  Like I have commented in a prior posting...Look at Motown....they influenced music like nothing else did and look what is coming out now....   I have been accused of living in the past....Perhaps I am....it keeps me young I suppose.

"Disco Inferno" is a 1976 song by The Trammps from the album of the same name. With two other cuts by the group it reached number one on the Billboard Hot Dance Club Play chart in early 1977, but had limited mainstream success in the U.S. until 1978, after being included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, when a re-release hit number 11 on the Billboard Hot 100.
It was also notably covered by Cyndi Lauper on the A Night at the Roxbury soundtrack and Tina Turner on the What's Love Got to Do with It soundtrack.

The song was originally recorded by The Trammps in 1976 and released as a single. It was inspired by a scene in the 1974 blockbuster film The Towering Inferno in which a discotheque is caught in the blaze. According to Tom Moulton, who mixed the record, the Dolby noise reduction had been set incorrectly during the mixdown of the tracks. When engineer Jay Mark discovered the error and corrected it, the mix had a much wider dynamic range than was common at the time. Due to this, the record seems to "jump out" at the listener. With "Starvin'" and "Body Contact Contract", it topped the U.S. Disco chart for six weeks in the late winter of 1977. On the other US charts, "Disco Inferno" hit number nine on the Black Singles chart, but it was not initially a significant success at pop radio, peaking at number fifty-three on the Billboard Hot 100.
"Disco Inferno" gained much greater recognition once it was included on the soundtrack to the 1977 film Saturday Night Fever, this time in extended form, running nearly 11 minutes. Re-released by Atlantic Records, the track peaked at number eleven in the U.S. during the spring of 1978, becoming The Trammps' biggest and most-recognized single. Later, it was included in the Saturday Night Fever musical, interpreted by the 'DJ Monty' in the "Odissey 2001" discothèque.
The song also became an unofficial theme song for former New York Yankees outfielder Bernie Williams. It was often played at old Yankee Stadium while the scoreboard and video systems displayed the phrase "Bern Baby Bern", a play on the song's refrain and Williams' first name.
In 1996, "Disco Inferno" was included on the soundtrack to the cult comedy film Kingpin and featured in two pivotal scenes in which Roy Munson (played by Woody Harrelson) confidently strolls into a bowling alley. The song was also used in the trailer to the Adam Sandler comedy Bedtime Stories. In 2006, the extended version was featured on a remastered version of the Ghostbusters soundtrack.
On September 19, 2005, "Disco Inferno" was inducted into the Dance Music Hall of Fame

Looks like "KC" of the KC and the Sunshine band on keyboards

Supreme Court Judge passes on.....Also a new arrival at Casa de Garabaldi

Anthony Scalia, one of the most conservative Justices, and the biggest thorn in the side of the Obama Regime has passed one.   He was known as a strict constitutionalists and repeatedly wrote the dissenting opinion against the latest government overreach.  He was known as a critic of Obunglercare and fervently believed in the Constitution and what it meant as the founders had in mind rather than the "living document" that the liberals tried to push to justify the latest scheme to strip the people of autonomy and increase the power of the Federal Government.  The Democrats are already pushing for a replacement and they don't want to wait until the election.  They know that Obungler will immediately fill the spot with a far left liberal judge and skew the balance of power in the Supreme court.  I remember when a liberal Judge passes on, they insist on a person with the same viewpoint and political leanings.  But with a conservative judge...Obama will try to replace him with a liberal.  Remember obama only has a spine when fighting the GOP.  Supreme Court Justice Anthony Scalia...He will be missed by the conservative movement.

   On a different note, my replacement for my disgruntled veterans Ranger showed up...I drove to South Carolina to look at the truck from a Ford Dealership.   I considered the price I paid a good price, for the trucks here in Atlanta were more expensive and had more mileage.

  There are a few cosmetic things that I need to fix, but mechanically the truck seems solid.  I am glad to have an F150 again.  The last one I owned was my 1991 I bought in 1991 and sold it in 2001 when I got my Sport Trac.

A quick post on New Hampshire primary....

This is my pithy thought on the just completed NH primary....On the Democrat side, Bernie beat the crap out of Hillary....but due to vague DNC rules and the coin tosses in Iowa...She won....Funny background on that one...the Head of the DNC in Iowa is a rabid Hillary supporter whom has contributed thousands of dollars to her campaign and fronted several committee's to help Hillary get elected....And they use a coin toss...6 of them and Hillary won each one...and gets all the delegates....And they come to New Hampshire and Bernie beats her like a kettle drum and again due to the vague rules of the DNC, She gets the same amount of delegates that he has......Somehow if this don't show the fix is in for the establishment candidate...nothing else will..Now we are in New Hampshire and several icons of feminism tell the women present that " if you don't support a fellow women...there is a special hell for you....".   Funny where were these people when Bill was running amok and the women that complained got crushed by the Clinton machine...and the feminist were silent......funny how that worked.

Now on the GOP side...The Trump won New Hampshire, and Kasich came in second and Cruz and Rubio were dueling for 3rd.  Jeb Bush was a footnote and Ben Carson, Carly Fiorina and Chris Christie were marginal at best.  All this shows is that the this is the most anti-establishment election since the mid 70's.  I like all of them except Jeb, to me Jeb screams "Establishment".  If Jeb gets the nomination and Hillary gets the nomination from her party....You will see a lot of people sitting out this election and the anger of the population will get worse......

Monday Music..."Suddenly last Summer" by the Motels

For Starters, my apologies for the delay in posting.  I try to post something every couple of days,   it has been hectic here, from the aftermath of the funeral to my immediately diving back into my work.  I was unable to post anything.  I have been following the political process but I am suffering burnout on it, that is why I havn't posted anything political lately.  I am amazed that Hillary is still campaigning after her email debacles....I really guess the rules are for the" little people".

  All I know is that if me, Old NFO, DaddyBear and many others have done what she has done....we would be guest at Leavenworth Confinement barracks.   It could be worse...we could wound up like Vince Foster.   Google that one...if you don't remember.  

   On a different Note, Today is an auspicious Day, today 13 years ago, I got the best title an honorable man can have...that is "Dad".  My son is turned 13, who would have thought that this little 7 week preeme that would "squeak" when I talked to him would turn into this strapping 13 year old kid.  I am proud of the boy he is and proud of the trail of an honorable man he is traveling on. 

   I was driving home and this song came on my XM Sirius and I remembered the song, it came out in 1983, I heard the song on the radio a lot but for some reason I missed the video on MTV.   It was a bit of a haunting song talking about time passing you by and the missed opportunities.  Pretty heady stuff for a 17 year old back to listen to. 

"Suddenly Last Summer" is a hit song by new wave band The Motels. It was the lead-off 45 from their RIAA Gold-certified fourth album Little Robbers. The single entered the Billboard Hot 100 at #60 on September 3, 1983 and peaked at #9 on November 19, 1983.

"Suddenly Last Summer" peaked at number 18 on the Adult Contemporary chart and hit #1 on the U.S. Billboard Top Tracks chart, the only instance of a Motels song topping any US music chart. Two bootleg dance versions have been made of the song, one with a techno-like dance beat and another with a semi-tropical beat.
Lead singer Martha Davis has said in various radio interviews that she wrote the song while reflecting on her life and "how you know summer is ending when you hear the ice cream truck go by for the last time and you know he won't be back for a while". An ice cream truck appears throughout the music video (directed by Val Garay, the single's producer), which also features one of Davis' daughters (presumably Maria) and actor Robert Carradine as Davis' love interest. The single began climbing the Hot 100 as that summer turned to fall.

Tennessee Williams, writer of the earlier same-named 1958 off-Broadway one-act play, died in February 1983, the same month The Motels returned to the studio to record Little Robbers.
The song was included on the 1990 compilation album, No Vacancy: Best of the Motels.
The B-side of the 7" single was "Some Things Never Change." The song has appeared on the soundtrack of the TV show Breaking Bad

What I am doing at work...

For those who follow my little corner of the internet know that I am working a LOT of overtime and I figure I would post some pictures of what we are working on....It is actually pretty cool.

  This is the plane we are working one.....It is a Boeing 757
The twin-engine, medium-range 757 was up to 80 percent more fuel efficient than the older 727 jetliners it was designed to replace but retained the 727’s short-field capability. The 757-200 carried up to 228 passengers and had a range of approximately 3,900 nautical miles (7222 kilometers).
The 757 and the 767 were developed concurrently, so both shared the same technological advances in propulsion, aerodynamics, avionics and materials. The pioneering two-crew computerized flight decks, or “glass cockpits,” of the 757 and 767 are nearly identical, so pilots could easily qualify to fly both.
The first 757 rolled out of the Renton, Wash., factory in 1982. On March 29, 1991, a 757, powered by only one of its engines, took off, circled and landed at the 11,621-foot-high (3542-meter-high) Gonggar Airport in Tibet. The airplane performed perfectly although the airfield was in a box canyon surrounded by peaks more than 16,400 feet (4998 meters) high.
In 1996, the company launched the 757-300. It seated up to 280 passengers and had about 10 percent lower seat-mile operating costs than the -200. The first 757-300 was delivered in 1999. By then Boeing had delivered more than 1,000 757s. Four 757s were modified as replacements for the older 707-based VC-137 executive transports for government officials and designated C-32As.
In late 2003, Boeing decided to end 757 production because the increased capabilities of the newest 737s and the new 787 fulfilled the 757 market’s needs. On Nov. 28, 2005, Boeing concluded the remarkable 23-year run of the 757 passenger airplane by delivering the final one to Shanghai Airlines. The airplane was the 1,050th Boeing 757.

    We are doing interior upgrades to the airplanes in our fleet.  My employer charges a premium for the customer experience, the upgraded seats, WiFi and many creature comforts.  The airplanes we are modernizing were to be tacky....stripped...they had seats in them...and that was it..The plane is a very good plane but the other company had different ideas on passenger aminities..the WiFi was added later after the merger.  The version of the airplanes we are working on were originally "red tails".    The Boeing's that are originally on our fleet are called "blue Tails".  Those airplanes have more amenities for the airplane travelers.  They have monitors in the headrest interactive games and movie selections and recharging ports for electronic devices and many other stuff that the legacy "red tails" don't.   This is that the seats look like right after they are removed from the airplane

old seats...

We then start removing the seats, then we start removing the old over head bins..they are easier to remove once the seats are out of the airplane.

 

We have already removed the overhead ceilings, we will start removing the PSU's "Passenger Service Units" this has the flight attendant call button, the reading light and the emergency O2 masks.  The ductwork that you see in the ceiling will be removed, cleaned, and reconfigured for the new mod.

   We have removed the seats, the overhead bins, the ductworks and we have started the metal fabrications and antenna movement and installation for the WiFi and all the wiring for the electronics and passenger interactive games and videos and other stuff.

The sidewall panels are installed, the overhead bins are installed, we are starting to install the ductworks, the antenna for the WiFi is installed, the seats will be going in, the galleys and Lavatories are already installed.

   This was the view from the back of the airplane, we have installed the ductworks and fixing to install the overhead ceilings.  You can see the Lavatories.  They use a LCD lighting or mood lighting.

, the carpets are installed.

  You can see the huge difference in the interior modifications, this takes us about 45 days give or take to do the mods, this includes moving the mid lav from the left side to the right side.  This is where my overtime comes from$$ The airplane gets a huge facelift and the customer gets the experience that they pay for.    We call this stuff "arts and crafts"  We make jokes about it but it is neat to see and it is considered a capital improvement and a benefit to our customers and us, it gives us long term job security as long as my employer remains ahead of the rest of the airlines, we will be the preferred carrier for the discerning customer who won't mind paying the extra coins for the extra amenities.