Scattered Thoughts . . .

While we were staying in Dayton with Kenzie and Lukey back in June, we stayed at the Marriott Hotel at the University of Dayton.  This is a fairly new hotel...  actually, I don't think it was there the last time we were in Dayton...  so the hotel was clean.  In fact, the hotel was bursting at the seams with airshow participants when we arrived and it still seemed well organized and effectively managed.  In short, our stay at this hotel was very nice but not without a few little problems as one might expect during a long stay. We certainly have a few complaints just as we do with every hotel but I think our complaints here were quite minor by comparison.  For instance, it seems that all hotels have done away with daily housekeeping service even when all signage in the rooms indicate daily housekeeping service.  For instance, they have multiple signs telling you to put dirty towels on the floor of the bathroom if you want them replaced.  That would ...

On our recent trip to Ohio with two of our grandchildren, Kenzie and Lukey, we visited the US Air Force Museum twice.  On our first visit, we focused on walking around outside in the Memorial Park.   I have already written about our moment at the Wall of Honor in a previous blog entry so I won't write the whole story again here in this entry but this is one of the reasons we wanted to show the kids the Memorial Park...  a Data Plate in my name had been added to this 'Wall of Honor' in a ceremony a few years ago but the kids knew nothing about this honor.  When they noticed my name on this wall their eyes opened wide and mouths opened in shock.   We meandered around the Memorial Park for about an hour in the unbearable heat and humidity.  Fortunately, most of this park is under trees!  The monuments and memorials related to my career in the Air Force were pointed out and I offered a few very short and incomplete stories about these incidents...

I wanted to attempt to make my own pinhole digital camera using my old Sony a7 so I came up with a plan for this little project yesterday.  I've been toying with the idea of doing some film pinhole photography but, for various reasons, I didn't want to go that route at this time.  I'd prefer to start on the digital side of photography for this project.  This was simply for testing the waters plus a small project to do.  It turned out to be a bigger project than I anticipated but it still was only a half day of work...  which is about all I can handle on a good day! I had been searching online for a manufactured pinhole cap but couldn't find any available anymore.  There used to be all sorts of ones on the market but not anymore.  I assume the borderline criminal and poorly planned tariffs have affected this commercial market.  Now there are fewer lenses and fewer cameras available in the US today.  Tariffed retail prices have increased so hig...

The US Air Force Museum is one of my favorite museums.  I've spent a lot of time at this immense museum and I could still visit at least once a week without losing interest if I still lived in the Dayton area.   Here is just one historical display that was worth sharing here especially today when our society seems to have forgotten about the nightmarish, oppressive horrors of Nazi Germany.  I was going to transcribe this letter but I think it is easily legible here as a photo... Here is the actual violin and the letter on display at the museum...

During our recent visit to the US Air Force Museum, Kenzie and Lukey were able to participate in a few space activities.  The Air Force has always been an integral part of the US Space Program and that is abundantly visible at the US Air Force Museum.  The museum has rockets used for launching space missions, the progression of space capsules, space suits, launch pads, simulators, as well as artifacts from different missions including artifacts collected from the moon,  Kenzie and Lukey had an opportunity to get up close and personal with a real space suit and to step into one of these big, heavy suits.  They didn't get to actually wear the suit but they were able to step into the suit from behind.   In the photo below, we have Mission Specialist Mackenzie and Mission Specialist Lukas on a tethered space walk.  They are captured floating in space while completing their mission to repair a solar array while at the ISS...  Earth is 254 miles beneat...

While we were at the US Air Force Museum, Lukey had a chance to try flying in an F-22 flight simulator.   This was on our second day at the museum.  Our first day was a rather short visit walking the grounds outside.  We came back again on a day that was forecast to be rainy so we could avoid being caught in the rain doing something outdoors so we spent the entire day at this immense museum.  And, we did get some loud thunderstorms and heavy rain mid-afternoon as forecast so we made the right decision to spend the day indoors at the museum. During our day-long visit, Lukey got to step into a fighter simulator.  This is a simulator that moves to whatever orientation you fly the plane...  it pitches up and down and can roll 360°...  if you spin all the way around to flying inverted, then your cockpit spins all the way around to inverted...  if you bank hard right, then the cockpit banks to a hard right...  whatever you input on the flight ...