the "other" blog is coming

After a wonderful six night extravaganza in Las Vegas over Thanksgiving I am home. Talking to you. My dear readers. Who have given up clicking on your bookmark titled General Aviation Informal. It might be boring for you if I tell you all about my wonderful trip. Like the old cliche of the guy showing his vacation slides. Remember "slides"? Like vinyl records. I'm so old that I used to listen to 78's. My parents had an old "step-table" console and a small collection of 78's. Burl Ives, Gene Autrey, Bing Crosby. They had loose 78's and they had "books" of 78's with anywhere from 2 to about 8 records. These books of records were called "albums". So when the new"33 1/3 long playing (LP)" records came out they held as much as one of those books of 78's. So the LP was called an "album". And CD's are called albums to this day. The 33 was so high tech we couldn't believe how new and great it was. The first one my sister got was "The Kingston Trio, String Along". My parents had "slides" too. But not in a carousel. The projector had a gadget that would show one slide at a time but you could load a stand by slide, then twist the thing around top to bottom and see the new slide and unload and load the top slot. It was a pain in the butt. But when I was about five or six I loved to operate the thing. I still have the projector and many of the slides. I have a collection of 78's, 45's and 33 1/3's. I use one of those label makers that punch out the letters on plastic tape which you can still find sometimes today. But they don't work too well, never did. I used to also have as a kid, a picture viewing gadget that would hold a disk with small slides and you put in a slide and look through binocular lenses and move the lever to advance the slide. It was called a "magic viewer" or something like that. One of the disks we had for that was Niagara Falls. Once TV became popular, these other video devices faded away. When I was a kid of course I loved TV more than anything. My mom had rules about TV. More than one hour would ruin your eyes. Too close to the set.... ruin your eyes. Too far from the set...... ruin your eyes. If you sat on the floor to watch.... ruin your eyes. If you didn't have a lamp on while watching....ruin your eyes. If you ate in front of the TV.... ruin your eyes. But mom, what about TV Dinners? (a blog post all by itself) ......those that eat them in front of the TV will ruin their eyes. Color TV? ....... ruin your eyes. Oh yea and our rich neighbor had a remote for the TV in about 1959. It was a hard wire across the room and it was set up to rack the dial around with a complicated mechanical attachment to the channel knob. But he had trouble keeping it adjusted and working. And of course you would still have to get up and go to the set if you wanted to change the volume, or turn the set on and off. And my parents had grown up with radio. They would say: "Are you going to listen to the game on TV? So, no, I'm not gonna bore you with my "slides" of Las Vegas. And this blog post is supposed to be about General Aviation. I'm gonna start another blog to handle all the other topics I want to talk about. I'll still keep this blog for General Aviation. And I will never run out of General Aviation stories. My new "other" blog is going to be about things I don't understand because they don't make any sense. Or they seem, but aren't, supernatural. Or just things I really love, or really hate. Oh yea, and I want to have a place to tell airline stories. And I had promised in GA Informal that I would not do that. And I have kept that promise. But now I'm starting to get crazy dreams about my old airline career and it's time to tell the stories and hopefully the dreams will go away as my former suffering fades from mind. Also, I like to vent about religion a bit. I won't rant on, or be mean to Christianity. I will just talk common sense and fun. And there's music too, even though I'm in a narrow niche. We're goin to Rita Coolidge on the 18th. So look for me on another channel. I may call the blog "Lloyd's free-for-all" or maybe.... "I"m Uncle Lou, and I Take Everything Personally". Happy late Thanksgiving everyone. Talk to you soon. GA Informal. :::::+:::::

Buss man's Holiday

I love the "sea changes". Especially from bad to good. We had that Nor Easter that just got out of here yesterday. Today I finally see the sun. Yesterday I walked around the place checking to see how bad we were flooded. But it wasn't too bad. I had some standing water on the airstrip, but nothing that won't dry up in a week or so. Our soybeans got cut, thankfully, just before the big rains. Last Wednesday, during the rains, I went up to Dover and worked on the M-10 with Mr. Mechanic. All of the stuff I've mentioned in previous blogs about my lack of mechanical ability, well it applied as usual. And I literally did go to get coffee for the guys. I'm looking forward to getting the M-10 back home. There's a guy who is serious about buying it. That could happen after Thanksgiving. I'll be on vacation for six days up to and including Thanksgiving. Vacation. I'll be on vacation. For the last two years I've been on a permanent vacation. So how do I get in the state of mind that feels "vacation"? Well, I'll be going somewhere. Las Vegas! So, let me get this straight. I'll pack bags, plan flights, forget one or two things, drive to BWI, schlep through security, fly to destination, wait for the hotel van, and go to the hotel, check in and then find somewhere to go to dinner. Vacation? OK, if you say so. It sounds like the work I retired from after 33 years! Yes, it's called a "Buss- man's holiday". You see, my wife won this crazy trip by sending a photo into "Regis and Kelly Live". She answered the question correctly on the air and she won a fabulous vacation for two. There's lots of parts to the prize, and we're looking forward to every one. Especially meeting Regis! I can tell you what will be the best aspect of the trip for me. It will be being with my wife and basking in the warmth of her company. The second best thing about the trip will be coming home to my beloved "Rosewind", seeing my son after three months, and greeting my dog, "the Jaker" who will have waited for me the whole six days. I'm not waiting for Thanksgiving. I'm the "Buss-man" who is very, very, thankful right now. Gen. Av. Informal. :::::+:::::

Navy SEAL Petty Officer William DeGennaro

It's been almost a month since my nephew Bill was stricken in Afghanistan. It's time for me to talk about him. To tell you, my faithful readers, about him. He's not my blood nephew. His father, James, was the best friend I ever had. And I've always been Bill's uncle. Bill is a twin and I've always been Uncle Lou to the twins and the other three siblings. I could write volumes about this family. Which has been my family. They are the nicest, kindest, most forthright folks you could ever have the good fortune to know. I am the man that I am, in good part, for the knowing of this family. There's a lot of good blog posts I could write about my early years before the twins were born. But not now. I could talk a lot about Bill's mom when we came of age. But not now. I could spend some time on the twin's grandparents on both sides. But not now. There's lots to say about Bill's twin and his brothers and sisters. But not now. You see, I have to talk about what happened and my and everyone's reactions. I can't write any more blog posts, or put up any more YouTube's, or go to any more fly-ins, until I talk to you, my readers, about Bill. I got the word about Bill being seriously injured on Saturday October 10th. About a month ago. It was his older brother who called. Bill, the twin in A-stan, was in a coma. He was going to be airlifted to Germany ASAP. He had suffered brain damage due to lack of oxygen. Jim, the older brother, was so patient and kind to me. Here he was comforting me when his brother was in peril. Thanks Jimmy. I just sat there at my desk. It wasn't sinking in. I was numb. Shocked. So I told my wife. Just telling her seemed to make me better, like she was there to share my sadness, and yet now she was sad too. What she said later is getting to my point of this post. You see, we were going to go out on this Saturday night to the Avalon Theatre to see Nick Lowe. So hours later after the news about Bill, my wife said this: "Lloyd, after what's happened to Billy, do you still want to go out tonight"? I didn't know what to say. I asked her to decide, but she said she would abide by whatever I decided. I was confused about what I was feeling. I was at a stage where I wanted answers as to how did this happen to Bill. Like somehow we could replay it in a better way. A kind of denial. I thought it might not be appropriate for us to go out. Out of respect for Bill. But he wasn't dead. In fact he was fighting for his life. I walked out back towards the airstrip. I just kept wondering and worrying about Bill. I couldn't cry. Then I thought about Bill's dad, my friend James. The tears came easily after that. I went back in and heard myself say to my wife: "Honey, one twin is my flying buddy and one is my music buddy. The music buddy is the one fallen. He can't speak for himself now, but he wants me to see Nick Lowe and Bill Kirchen and tell him about it later." We that love Bill are going to feel guilt along with our sadness and anger and confusion. Readers, I want you to know that I love those twins so much, that there is no earthly way to ever convey it. And I know each of you feel the same way. And I love all of you as well and thanks for understanding. My best wishes and prayers go especially to Bill's mom and Bill's twin. Yes, I'm gonna write my blog posts. Yes, I'm gonna go to Las Vegas for Thanksgiving. Yes I'm gonna live my "Disco" life. Twin #1 told me he speaks right now for both men. He said it's OK with Twin #2. I hereby dedicate this post, and any and all blog posts I write for the rest of my life, to my good friend and nephew, a genuine hero, William "Willy" DeGennaro.

Georgetown De. Wings and Wheels

As the days get shorter and the temps get colder the fly-in season tapers to an end. Pretty soon the Holidays will be here and my die-hard aviation friends will be talking about April and Sun'n'Fun. And we'll do it all over again. My personal finances are such that I can't host too many parties, but I'm thinking that I'd like to have a winter fly-in. Maybe a campfire and a few local planes. Just to get the engines exercised and the batteries charged. So it turns out that GED Georgetown, De. may be the last fly-in for the season. Of course there's always Campbell, almost every Sunday. I went to GED this last Saturday. It was a wings and wheels. The weather was about as bad as it could be without canceling. There were about 200 cars. It was great. Cobras, a Jensen, lots of vetts, a tricked out Corvair, 2 rail dragsters, street rods galore. Just as a car show alone, it was excellent. They were giving rides in a restored PT 19. There were two B-25's. One was the polished "Ponchito" and it was selling rides too. There were formation flights flying around all day with smoke systems. One formation was 2 L-39's with 2 T-28's. It was a spectacle. Constant fly bys of beautiful war birds. Yaks too. So I showed up in my little M-10. There was a small turnout for display airplanes due to the weather. However the beautiful 1957 Cessna 310 I had seen at Essex Skypark was there. It was my favorite of the day. A "Sky King" airplane. I have some videos of the old Sky King TV show. The oldest episodes had Sky King with a T-50 Cessna. But in the later episodes it was the 310. I got to meet Kirby Grant, the actor who played Sky King. He signed one of my log books. It was at College Park and not too long before he passed away. The guy who had the 310 at GED lives in my old home town and his wife went to high school with me. They win prizes wherever they go with that 310. This day he won the prizes for best twin and largest airplane. And he also won a prize for being the youngest pilot displaying an airplane. Trouble is, he's in his late 40's! These car shows and fly-ins seem to be for old geezers like me. And the guys with the street rods are long in the tooth too. Sometimes there's a young kid with a 60's classic. But if you talk to him, it's his Granddad's car. This fly-in had a food court. Incredible. Lot's of choices. I had a hot dog. They had Karaoke at the food court. Lot's of families. Good ole Delaware east coast Americana. I found myself turning in a little slip of paper to the Karaoke guy ( who was a good host and good singer). Then I was singing "Someday Soon" at a fly-in. That's a first. It started getting windy, and misting and raining. The antique and classic cars started rolling out towards the gates and home. They still had Halloween to celebrate tonight. The t-28's kept flying. I wandered back to the M-10 and found I had won a prize. It was a plaque for "Shortest Distance Flown". 23 miles. It was time to go, but I wasn't going home. I was hoping I could get the airplane up to Dover in the wind and the rain. My flight up there went well and I only went through a little shower and it wasn't dark yet and the winds were dying down with the sunset. I tied the Cadet down and didn't have to wait long for wife to arrive to bring me home. We stopped along the famous Rt. 13 retail corridor to celebrate Halloween. The only better Halloween I ever had was when I was about five or six and my trick or treat candy had, among the hard candy and candy corn, a pretty good supply of Three Musketeers bars. GA Informal :::::+:::::