Cap'n Bob & the Damsel

Alligators in the Sewers – One Year After Capture

zoo-reggiejpg.JPGReggie has been in the zoo for a year now.

We followed the story about Reggie, the suburban alligator, almost from the start:

Alligators in the Sewers – Still!
Alligators in the Sewers – Part IV
Alligators in the Sewers – Part V
Alligators in the Sewers – Part VI
Alligators in the Sewers – Part VII
Alligators in the Sewers – Epilogue?
Alligators in the Sewers – Reggie, Where Ya Been?
Alligators in the Sewers – The Epilogue

Unfortunately, some of the earlier posts (Parts I, II and III) were lost when we converted from our old blog format to WordPress.

The story started when a San Pedro resident introduced the alligator to Machado Lake in a Harbor City Park when he decided that he couldn’t keep his exotic pet any longer. Authorities later traced the animal to the resident and brought appropriate charges.

The alligator, however, managed to elude potential captors for a couple of years and laid low in the park’s lake. The ‘gator became a celebrity in his own right as sightings by park visitors continued to be reported.

A year ago, a team from the Los Angeles Zoo managed to snare the reclusive reptile.

Here’s a report on the health and welfare of our favorite ‘gator from the Daily Breeze:

Continue reading…

24 May 2008 by Critters Environment

Marine Corps Other Toys

red-humveeI know that our men and women in the Armed Services have access to a lot of necessary battlefield equipment. I like to use the term ‘toys’ because, even though they are equipment designed for military purposes, some of them are really neat.

But this ‘toy’ seen here is the real thing – an actual Humvee set up to be used for entertainment purposes, publicity and amusement – literally, a toy.

This Hummer is practical only for being used as a recruiting tool. It hardly has the paint color to be used in any theater of operations, and I’m certain that the awesome high power sound system isn’t going to scare off any enemy.

But it is a beautiful work of military art. You have to envy the guys that get assigned to the care, feeding and operations of this unique military vehicle.

Photographed at Torrance, California, in the static display area after the annual Armed Forces Day Parade. The city hosts the parade every year; this is the 49th consecutive year.

One of our favorite weblogs, Blogs of War posted a great YouTube video of the 2008 Torrance Armed Forces Day Parade.

23 May 2008 by Military Photography

GunPedia

GunPediaI knew it would be just a matter of time until somebody would do this.

Gunpedia is a wiki that was created in January 2006. A wiki is a website that anyone can edit and improve, sort of like Wikipedia, only this is more specific – it’s for the documentation of just about anything about guns. Right now, you can edit 347 different articles about this subject, and can create many, many more.

On the front page there is a section for:

  • Monthly Featured Article
  • Monthly Featured Image
  • User of the Month
  • Newest Pages

Also featured is an alphanumeric index to specific firearms pages. If you don’t see your favorite weapon there, you can add it yourself! I looked at the index, and it appears that there will be a lot of work to do.

There are many special-interest wikis in cyberspace, not the least of which is the IMFDB or Internet Movie Firearms Database, another very interesting wiki.

22 May 2008 by Cyberspace Firearms

Airplane and Helicopter Pilots

BlackhawkThis past weekend, we celebrated Armed Forces Day by visiting some of our military folks who brought some static displays and military equipment to show off to the public. The Army brought this UH-60 Blackhawk for all to sit in, touch, photograph and just plain gawk.

While I gawked, I remembered something that a 70’s news anchor, Harry Reasoner, said when he compared airplane and helicopter pilots with the following statements:

The thing is, helicopters are different from planes. An airplane by its nature wants to fly, and if not interfered with too strongly by unusual events or by a deliberately incompetent pilot, it will fly.

A helicopter does not want to fly. It is maintained in the air by a variety of forces and controls working in opposition to each other, and if there is any disturbance in this delicate balance the helicopter stops flying, immediately and disastrously. There is no such thing as a gliding helicopter.

That is why being a helicopter pilot is so different from being an airplane pilot, and why, in generality, airplane pilots are open, clear-eyed, buoyant extroverts and helicopter pilots are brooders, introspective anticipators of trouble. They know if something bad has not happened, it is about to.

– – Commentary by Harry Reasoner, February 16, 1971

As you may or may not know, I am a pilot – I’m rated in both airplanes and helicopters. While I agree with Mr. Reasoner’s basic corollary, I can see that it only applies to a pilot while flying a particular aircraft type.

For example, while flying airplanes under visual conditions, I do a little drill by identifying potential emergency landing sites around the airplane – an alert, but mostly casual drill. But, when piloting a helicopter, I find myself making slight course changes in order to be in a position to autorotate to a landing site. Sort of like a stepping-stone approach to navigation. It’s a bit more intense then the airplane drill.

When not flying, I like to think that I can be as extroverted or introspective as conditions warrant.

21 May 2008 by Aviation Media

Gardenia

GardeniaI’ve had this Gardenia for at least three years. Every spring it blooms, but this spring it is going to produce many of these beautiful, fragrant flowers since there are bunches of buds this year. For the previous couple of years, I only got a small handful of blooms.

There are hundreds of varieties of Gardenias; this one has a very strong and pleasant fragrance, but I’m not sure of it’s exact subspecies.

Click on the image to the right to see the 800×600 version.

This is a general description of Gardenias from WikiPedia:

Gardenia is a genus of about 250 species of flowering plants in the family Rubiaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, southern Asia, Australasia and Oceania.

The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus after Dr. Alexander Garden (1730-1791), Scottish-born American naturalist.

They are evergreen shrubs and small trees growing to 1-15 m tall. The leaves are opposite or in whorls of three or four, 5-50 cm long and 3-25 cm broad, dark green and glossy with a leathery texture. The flowers are solitary or in small clusters, white, or pale yellow, with a tubular-based corolla with 5-12 lobes (‘petals’) from 5-12 cm diameter. Flowering is from about mid-spring to mid-summer and many species are strongly scented.

20 May 2008 by Home & Garden Photography

My Shiny Girl Gun

When I saw her, I thought “oh look – something shiny!” I took this photo of my Para Warthog .45ACP pistol right after cleaning her up. I put something like 50 rounds through her and she was pretty dirty.

Click on the image for a bigger view.

Girl Gun

19 May 2008 by Firearms Photography

Armed Forces Day

howitzer.jpgArmed Forces Day was yesterday. Our town has a parade and static exhibits every year for the event. There is usually a flyby by a crack F/A-18 flight team. Yesterday was no exception. It always gives us a rush when those magnificent men in their flying machines streak across the sky.

Today, we went to see the static exhibits at a nearby mall parking lot. I got this shot of some soldiers proudly displaying a mobile Howitzer unit. We always enjoy seeing the hardware and talking with the contingent of military personnel on hand. It fills us with American pride to be with these fine men and women.

Click on the image to enlarge.

18 May 2008 by Military Photography

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