Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Current Events

Trump National’s Flag at Half Staff

A few months ago, the City of Rancho Palos Verdes, California, acquiesced to Donald Trump’s installation of a giant flagpole on his Trump National Golf Club in spite of not having a permit to do so. Recently, he got into a flap with the City of Palm Beach, Florida for about the same thing. Putting all the squabbles aside, The Donald did the right thing in both locations.

Last week, when our 38th President, Gerald Ford, passed away, Trump National flew their giant flag at half staff for the late president. I took this shot from Palos Verdes Drive South with the new telephoto lens.

03 Jan 2007 by Current Events Patriotism People

Life Goes On

Year’s end brought us a flurry of deaths. President Gerald R. Ford passed away in Rancho Mirage, California. James Brown died in Atlanta and Saddam Hussein was hanged in Baghdad. Regardless of that, the sun rises, the wind blows and the windsurfers hit the waves.

A windsurfer at Cabrillo Beach — December 2006

30 Dec 2006 by Current Events Photography

Flyin’ Brian Update

I posted about our Thanksgiving Day, and Damsel posted about the sacrifice our military families make on holidays. All good and well — but — imagine having an untimely event happen in your family on this holiday and having to make the best of a bad situation — well that’s exactly the scenario for Retired Geezer and family as they rushed to be with their son recovering from a helicopter crash. Seems like Brian is on the mend and will recover — A Thanksgiving, indeed.

Note to Brian: get well soon — and welcome to the club. “They” say there are two kinds of helicopter pilots: those who have crashed and those who are going to. You and I are both past that milestone now. I was lucky and walked away from my crash in 1979. Damsel and I hope you keep flyin’ Brian . . . I kept at it and I’m thankful that I did.

23 Nov 2006 by Aviation Culture Current Events

Prayers Needed

Retired Geezer and Mrs. G at Blog Idaho have a tragedy on their hands. Please offer your thoughts and prayers for their son and his passenger.

UPDATE: From Retired Geezer . . .

Mrs. G just got off the phone with Flyin’ Brian.
He sounded really old cause he is drugged up with pain meds.

He has a compound fracture of his leg, broken nose and multiple cuts.

He got choked up when he told us that if it wasn’t for the other people on the ground, searching for the woman, they both would have died because they crashed in the river. The other searchers pulled them out.

We’re going to drive to SLC tomorrow.

Brian comes under the heading of Praise but please continue to pray for Kevin Orr.

21 Nov 2006 by Aviation Current Events Law and Order

UFO, Weather Postpone Shuttle Landing

Space junk floating above Earth? In addition to losing a bolt on this mission (STS115), the shuttle seems to have shaken off an unknown object after testing the reaction control system:

From NASA:

Object Investigation, Weather Force Managers to Wave Off Wednesday Landing

The Mission Control Center in Houston informed the STS-115 crew about 10:45 a.m. EDT that Wednesday’s landing attempts have been waved off due to an unfavorable weather forecast, coupled with the possibility of additional inspections of Space Shuttle Atlantis.

An object was observed by flight controllers using a TV camera on the shuttle in close proximity to the spacecraft. It was observed following standard tests of Atlantis’ reaction control system about 2:45 a.m. today. Flight controllers continue to analyze the situation and are concerned the item may be something that came off of Atlantis.

Image: unknown object in center of highlighted circle (courtesy NASA)

19 Sep 2006 by Aerospace Current Events

Wake Island No More?

UPDATE: Coast Guard Flyover Photos

A reef, a blue lagoon and a coral atoll just barely out of the water — Wake Island may have been completely swept away by Super Typhoon Ioke.

Wake Island — Google Earth Image

From Voice of America

Super Typhoon Ioke has made a direct hit on Wake Island, pounding the tiny U.S. Pacific territory with catastrophic winds of up to 300 kilometers an hour.

Ioke is the strongest central Pacific typhoon in at least 12 years. Forecasters expect the “monster” storm to submerge Wake Island and destroy everything on it that is not made of concrete.

Wake is home to a U.S. Air Force base and a scientific outpost, roughly midway between Hawaii and Japan.

The eye of the typhoon skirted the north edge of the coral atoll Thursday. The U.S. Air Force had already evacuated all of the island’s 188 residents to Hawaii, 3,700 kilometers across the Pacific.

The residents – Air Force personnel and American and Thai contractors – left Monday aboard two U.S. C-17 Globemaster planes. It was the first time the territory was evacuated in nearly 30 years.

More about Wake Island’s history in pictures from Fox News.

31 Aug 2006 by Current Events Environment

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