Just so he didn't think this was a joy ride, I insisted he do a little reading and write a short report on the B-24, and its importance to WWII. He learned a little about the famous May 1944 Ploesti raid, in which B-24s with their longer-range and higher bomb load capacity than the B-17s, bombed this strategically important oil refinery in Romania, important to the German war machine. Unfortunately, they didn't do nearly enough harm to slow down oil production, and many B-24s, and crews of 10, were lost.
More recently, the B-24 was central in the newly famous story of Louis Zamperini, an Olympic hopeful in track who flew as navigator on B-24s, as made known by the book Unbroken - a WWII Story of Survival, Resilience, and Redemption by Laura Hillenbrand of Seabiscuit fame. While B-24s factored in heavily to the story, unfortunately what I took out of it was the brutal horrific inhumane treatment of POWs by the Japanese, to whom the Geneva Convention meant nothing and capture was viewed as disgrace -- you were way better off being captured by Germans.
Last year when I flew on the B-24, the volunteers who are running the Wings of Freedom Tour said they'd just met Louis Zamperini, now in his 90s, while in San Diego a few weeks back. WHOOOOA.
Our rides are always light-hearted joy rides, though I try to stay aware of what the actual airmen had to endure in the 1940s. I don't expect a 10yo to truly get it, but someday he'll be glad he had to learn a little bit about what these planes actually did in one of the most horrific and destructive conflicts in history.
Gabriel and I at the back of the B-24.
Gabriel in front of the aircraft, dubbed "Witchcraft."
The whole thing. Such a striking view. While we waited for some late passengers, who were ultimately too late to board, we got to see the B-17 take off -- now that was a treat!
The B-24's tail fins are really distinctive.
We're on! Gabriel sat in the tiny scrunchy radioman's chair, always reserved for the smallest passenger. I sat there last year, it is NOT comfortable.
Having done this before, I know the drill: the moment the flight engineer gives us the unbuckle signal, I let loose immediately and crawl down to the best view in the house: the nose. If you're more than 2 feet apart, it's almost impossible to talk, so I had to do a lot of tapping Gabriel and pointing to him where to go. Don't waste a second here -- go straight for the nose, the best seat in the house!
It's difficult to explain how intense it is to be in the nose -- full panoramic view, extremely windy and noisy. Nothing like it in the world. You're well below and under the pilots too -- you really are at the absolute front of the plane. But imagine being shot at from here?!
Someone else gets a turn, but we still get to see the area just below the nose, I think where the navigator did his thing.
Then it's hands-and-knees crawling to get back to the cockpit area, and to the back of the plane. First, you have to cross the bomb bay catwalk. It's long and narrow, and the crew likes to freak us out a little by taxiing with the bomb bay doors open. Not that the bomb bay doors would do much to hold you if you fell into them -- this plane is designed for dropping bombs, not keeping clumsy airmen in. Maybe that's why we taxi this way, to underscore the point of just how long and how narrow and how minimal that catwalk is!
I can always count on Gabriel not to be freaked out -- and walking this 20' narrow bomb bay, doors closed or not, is pretty freaky.
Now we were in the back of the plane, which is almost more fun because the windows are wide open, with the machine guns sticking out.
Gabriel tried to shoot down a commercial aircraft with a clear con trail to project its path, but it was out of range. In truth, while having half your crew devoted to defensive weapons on these planes, they couldn't do much by themselves against the capable Luftwaffe or anti-aircraft groundfire.
Offensive strategy or not, it was still a fantastic view. And with the rear windows open, a really windy one!
We flew close to the coast, where the land came up much closer to the airplane. Great views of local mountain trails, and cool views of the plane's shadow, which Gabriel was very excited about.
(I need to do some studying of local topography and figure out where exactly we were! Or go back to Moffett and ask the pilots :) )
Fun was over too fast -- two bells meant "We're landing, take your 'seats'." It's really a stretch to call them seats -- a clear area on the ground that includes an ancient belt that we can't possibly adjust to our size even it'd do any good at all anyway. But, OK, if it makes them feel better.
We sat in the waist hatch to land, instead of up-front. The ball turret was behind us, which meant a lot of wind directed around it -- these planes aren't sealed against air leakage, let alone pressurized, so you live with what you get!
We disembarked quickly, as we'd been told they'd do a "hot-load" -- putting new passengers on the plane without shutting the engines down, but some warning light caused them to shut the engines down (and, we think, cut out flight short by a few minutes). As soon as we landed, ladders came out and the guys started checking out the B-24 engine. Glad we were on the first flight, 'cause that group of would-be B-24 riders looks pretty bummed!
But that meant the chance for a few more photos with the plane.
Gabriel dead-center on the B-24 after landing, just under the nose area that is SO exciting to be in while flying.
Fortunately most passengers are snapping and clicking away with photos, and are all too happy to volunteer to take a photo for me.
Does a kid get how special this is? I doubt it, but I know he'll understand it later. Not many adults can look back on their childhoods and think, "wow, my Mom took me on a historic ride on a WWII bomber plane -- cool!". He'd better mention this at my funeral, and make sure my beautiful wooden model of the B-17 goes with me into my coffin!!
But that's WAYYY far off -- we have so much living to do together, so much learning the world together to do first. And how exciting it was to share that past living (much in part thanks to the sacrifices made by the very young men who flew on these plane) with the future living. I can think of no more fitting juxtaposition of past and future than that!
5/20/12
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
5/16/12 The Model
So one little "extra" my presentation will have is a description of how my small-company employer can do wireless network heatmapping and spectrum analysis, with a trainee demonstrating the process.
I was struck when this trainee said, "Look, a rainbow!" Truer than she knows. And now all the kids have seen with their own eyes what a microwave oven can do to a wireless network signal. No wonder dinner was late.
One could argue that I didn't need to go through the effort of setting up this photo shoot or hiring and training this model, but I hate cutting off the truly fun silly parts of a project, even if they're not strictly necessary. For better or worse, it seems this is I go through many things in life -- extraordinary absurd extra effort, to the point that the extras become almost necessary to make it worthwhile to the heart and soul.
Meantime, these photos will make the point that our ability to do RF planning is young (hah hah, get it?), but also that it's pretty easy with the right tools -- a kindergartner could do it!
And now, back to the grindstone....
5/16/12
Tuesday, May 15, 2012
5/15/12 Camping photos
May 2012 - first camping trip of the year!
But alas, never mind this: HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY (belated) from the most disorganized but appreciative loving daughter to my own mother!
5/15/12
Tuesday, May 08, 2012
5/8/12 The Survey
Question: Would you prefer your childʼs teacher assign more or less homework?
Regular readers know what I'd answer to that! Here's what the (self-selected) parents who did answer came up with:
More: 35.1%
Same: 56.9%
Less: 8.0%
I have very very little support in the "Less" category!!!
5/8/12
Monday, May 07, 2012
5/7/12 More fashion disaster
Katrina's choice of clothing today, on a super-hot day, was ... well interesting. She wore this clowny dress that I (regretfully) got her at Target (before realizing it was quite as bright and ill-fitting as it is). But everything's cute on a 5-year-old girl, so, whatever.
She knows enough to put something under it to avoid the showing-underpants problem at school. But despite a wide assortment of drawers in her drawers, she insisted on heavy wool skort, complete with its own set of shorts underneath!
And a T-shirt under the dress!
I tried to talk her out of it this morning, but she was insistent. Among all the battles I have as a Mom, this is very low on the list! Gabriel pretty much refused to wear long pants all winter last year, so, whatever. The only time he wore long pants this winter was when I insisted because we were headed to the mountains. I think I've proven myself as a let-it-go Mom! (Well, except for horrendous rudeness -- I can let major fashion problems go, but not mahor obnoxiousness.)
5/7/12
Sunday, May 06, 2012
5/6/12 An outdoor weekend
So beautiful that it seemed we just had to get out. I spent a fair amount of time gardening on Saturday with Katrina: planting two new plants, cutting back ones that are getting out of control, answering her incessant, "Moooo-oom?" every time she has something to say (sweet but tiresome).
But after a while I could tell the boys were getting stir-crazy and needed to get out. So I took them all to OSH to check out plants and patio furniture. Now that I want to be outside in our yards, we need somewhere to sit!
We couldn't find the firepit in the catalog, but Katrina enjoyed testing out a lounge chair.
When we got home, Julian and Katrina engaged in a game of "find the foxtails" -- that is, weeds that have nasty sticky seeds that cling to dogs' fur. We've mostly rid our yards and park strips of these unfriendly plants (I like native, but not too native), but there are still a few around. Then they decided to water some new plants, and some that aren't irrigated.
Though any kid would rather play video games, I was glad to see these two happily engaging in the garden and plants for the better part of the afternoon (Gabriel was inside obsessed with a voice recording project, which I allowed).
Somehow, the retro-snob in me has to believe this is better for them than what they want to do (which is sit inside playing video games on the computer all day). There's only a short window in your life that finding foxtails is a truly fun activity....funny, I'm getting back to that place in life myself!
But today, Sunday, as nice as it seemed to lounge around, I could sense that everyone needed to get out. I had planned to work as much as possible today, but I could feel burnout and stir-craziness building in everyone. Gabriel in particular gets into a state in which he's unbearably obnoxious and out-of-control.
So I endured the 30-minute process of getting everyone ready to get into the car and off for a little excursion. It wasn't totally random; it was a park in Los Gatos that I'd seen was connected to an open space preserve with short loop hikes -- perfect. Well, perfect if I'd noticed that the hikes didn't actually have trailheads in the developed park itself, and there was some hiking to do just to get to where I'd planned, if you'd downloaded and printed the correct map that is. The park didn't even post one!
But we made do. The objective was to get the kids (and myself) out, and that we did. We hiked a short 1.4-mile out-and-back along a fire road that was pretty steep. The boys were very engaged in Gabriel's off-road RC car, while Katrina happily chatted with me about how much she liked mountains and hiking.
On the way down, Katrina got ahead and was running, so I trotted to catch her to warn her that running downhill can lead to painful falls, but not in time -- she slid on leaves just as I was within earshot, and fell hard on her back. "I have butt burn!" she cried. She got over it in 5 minutes, but was much more cautious about running downhill after that. I've tripped and fallen running downhill too, and it was bad -- both knees, both elbows, lots of scrapes, and an out-of-commission thumb for a few days. It's easier on kids, but falling while running down hill is no fun.
Short but sweet, and totally what was called for. The rest of the afternoon was spent lounging around at home after a substantial snack (some would call it lunch but our timing was way off!) - which a nice little hike transforms from goofing off to a deserved relaxed afternoon.
We are very lucky to live in an area with so many opportunities for the beautiful outdoors so closeby!
And even closer -- our own backyard! A white "sticky monkey flower," some of which we saw in a light apricot color today at our open space preserve hike, truly native.
5/6/12
Thursday, May 03, 2012
5/2/12 Finding Flowers
Yesterday we discovered a Stickey Monkey plant had bloomed with scarlet flowers.
And another Sticky Monkey bloomed with apricot flowers!
We learned from our new landscaper that sticky monkey leaves are called that because the undersides are sticky -- enough that Native Indians used them as organic band-aids. Katrina demonstrates the concept of a Spongebob-free wound protector (the undersides of the leaves are a little sticky).
A few weeks ago, I planted my own native irises, with small (1cm) purple flowers. So pretty, and featured on the cover of my new favorite book, California Native Plants for the Garden
Turns out, we have some of these irises!!! They hadn't bloomed yet, so I didn't recognize their grassy leaves. But their little purple flowers are unmistakeable.
This week I'm in a training class again, which means it's best done from home, which means during our short breaks I de-fry my brain by walking around outside and musing at what to do to my garden. That's the best break there is! But it's even more fun sharing it with my enthusiastic daughter when she gets home.
We sure are having a fun spring together finding flowers!
5/2/12
Monday, April 30, 2012
4/29/12 Pacific Coast Dream Machines
And thank goodness I did, what a great day!!
So much happened I can't possibly document it all here, so I might as well try to be brief. Knowing all events and rides would get very crowded, we went straight to do things that would likely have lines built up later in the day.
First, a monster truck ride!
I'd never heard of this, but some outfit was actually giving rides on a monster truck, on a flat muddy lot. For $5 each, how could we could pass it up?
The monster-truck owners recommended kids sit closer to the cab so they don't get scared. No one was scared at all! Julian sat up front with the driver, the little sneak (I wanted to do that). Of course no monster truck ride could scare Gabriel, but Katrina? No, she had a great time!
Katrina laughing her head off on the monster truck.
What can top that?
Well, how about a helicopter?! All three experienced their first helicopter ride today!
Julian rode with me and another man, while Gabriel and Katrina and Dave rode in another helicopter.
We were only up for about 7 minutes, but the views were spectacular. Things look very different from a helicopter, at least on these tours they fly low enough you can see the ground pretty well and really see things. Our pilot said he'd spotted a bobcat that morning, and that they do whale-watching tours too -- that sounds way better than from a boat!
Landing.
On to the aviation section! A B-26 Marauder (WWII bomber, of course)
A C-47. This is what dropped paratroopers in WWII, and this plane in particular saw action in Normandy about 2 weeks after D-Day. Cool!
Katrina next to a "paratrooper." They'd clear out the plane of about 20 paratroopers in about 35 seconds, the host of this plane told us lots of guys just got shoved out.
We had lunch at an airport cafe, and were joined by a NASA test pilot. A delightful fellow who could identify any aircraft and who I thoroughly enjoyed talking to. Two days ago, I saw the strangest airplanes -- or helicopters? -- landing at Moffett Field, and from Googling I figured they were probably these bizarre "tiltrotor" V-22 Osprey helicopters. Turns out this man is a test pilot specializing in tiltrotors, so I really hit the jackpot! He confirmed that two Ospreys landed at Moffett last week, in fact. Plus he just was a great guy.
Kids being kids, they were very focused on souvenirs. Each got to pick a toy plane. Someday I'll miss that.
There was plenty else to see, such as this 1912 steamroller.
And a very interesting cold-war era missile. Actually, the guys' description of its purpose as a deterrent against the USA being bombed by the Soviets during the Cold War was really interesting, but the boys were thrilled to see a real missile.
And lots of interesting cars and motorcycles of course too. I hijacked this trip a little by spending so much time in the aviation area, but I think we all got a lot out of it. A totally worthwhile day, perfect to shake off the burnout!
4/29/12
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
4/25/12 Fried
Well, I'm not fired, but I am fried. I'm taking a training class this week in which somehow I ended up the only student. I thought that'd make it easier, but in fact, it means absolutely no downtime at ALL. I feel seriously taxed and like every day is totally full.
But while I'm completely spent by 5pm, my other duties -- including work-related -- don't subside. To complicate matters, my wonderful employer needs me to refocus my work somewhat, away from what I'm training on now, away from my core skillset. It's the right thing, but it adds to my emotional and mental load: I have goals I'd wanted to accomplish, but now new ones have been added. This is a GREAT problem to have, especially considering my last job -- which seems more a joke as each month passes -- but I'm still wondering where the necessary extra energy cycles will come from.
The one good thing I have to say about the intense work this week -- from home -- is that during my rare minutes off, I can spend it wandering around my landscaping -- dare I call it "garden?". I fantasize about what to put where -- plants, rocks, logs, how it will look when it's grown, building a rock garden, placing a bridge, or a huge log. Every corner, every empty area is a potential planting space. I don't see it as a showpiece, it's a playspace, somewhere new to exercise my horribly underdeveloped artistic side. But it's living and breathing and growing -- every day, I'm rewarded with some subtle change: a new sprout, a new bud, and often, a new flower. It's so nice to have this as an escape from the crushing burden of balancing work, priorities, family, home, life.
And so goes my excuse and explanation for being so incommunicado lately!
4/25/12
Tuesday, April 24, 2012
4/24/12 Making Dinner
For example, tonight I couldn't grill steaks as I'd planned for dinner, unless I started early and on the dot, because Julian needed to be done and ready to go at 7pm. This time constraint on Monday nights is increasingly frustrating as it stays light later -- sometimes I want to do something else on Monday nights besides scramble to get the kids fed in time to be somewhere. I know this is the norm in Silicon Valley kids' lives, but I just can't abide by it.
So having messed up the kids' dinner, I heated leftovers for Julian, which he scarfed down in minutes. After Dave took him to counseling, I started to work on the grilled steak dinner I'd had in mind. And this turned into an unexpected, surprisingly wonderful time with Gabriel and Katrina.
I showed Gabriel how to light the grill (whose electronic ignition is on the fritz and you have to use a lighter), he got a pot for noodles ready to boil, he floret-ed some broccoli, and got the pot for noodles ready to boil. Katrina wanted a job, so I let her sprinkle balsamic vinegar over some red onion slices I'd made. Both kids roared with laughter when this latter grilling attempt went down in flames (note to self: slice onions thicker!), but I played it up gladly. Katrina set the table, and Gabriel was agreeable with one minor task after another.
At one point, Katrina said something like, "Mommy, this is SO fun I don't ever want it to end!" She said again and again, "We're making dinner together, RIGHT?!" She also brought up several times another mistake of mine, unrelated, just to see my reaction, "Remember when you accidentally drove to Carson City?!" I always make a huge deal of this and say "HEEYYYY! Stop making fun of me!" and boy do they laugh.
Katrina wouldn't actually eat the steak that she "helped" cook, and in fact, her basic food consumption was same old usual nicky pits she subjects us to every night. But I was so struck by how happy she was about the process. Was it that Gabriel was involved? Was it because it was a nice manageable triad, instead of the usual chaos of 3 kids and two increasingly irritate parents? Or was it that for once, I was happily involving them, instead of barking out annoyed instructions about homework?
In any case, I had a great time with them, explaining how to time cooking tasks, giving them jobs and instructions, quizzes, and (half-)joking that now one of them can do something better than Dad. Poor Dad takes a lot of good-humored ribbing in abstentia in these situations, but always in a light spirit and the lesson being that they'll grow up knowing how to handle themselves in a kitchen, unlike most men of my generation. I also explained to Gabriel that Dad not knowing how to grill stuff isn't his fault, but he will grow up learning how to make French Toast and Macaroni and Cheese and banana bread -- and use a grill.
Unfortunately our family-bonding antics meant a late dinner, and got everyone to bed too late. Never good on a school night, and we pay dearly. But my memory of Katrina's obvious joy at the family cooperative, and Gabriel's roaring laughter when I completely messed up the grilled onions are completely worth it.
(Shh, the real reason we ran so late is that Katrina and I snuck in a little gardening late this afternoon....I couldn't help it, these native irises just had to be added to my new native garden....and what fun to do with your independent little girl who so often wants nothing to do with you!)
4/24/12
Sunday, April 22, 2012
4/22/12 Native Gardens
Yesterday I visited some gardens just by myself, knowing that kid-attention for this sort of thing is limited, and some gardens are only open on Saturday or Sunday, but not both. I reserved Julian's attention for the two I knew I'd want to see on Sunday.
Ironically, the first garden I wanted to see wasn't far at all: our own school's garden. 4 years ago, a group of volunteers at our school transformed a dull strip of dirt into a thriving habitat, filled with native plants and other hard features (boulders, logs and painted rocks), and formed a garden club for kids. The school community maintains the garden, leads tours, and decorates it with painted rocks and all sorts of informational plaques. It's really a labor of love and such a nice thing for a school -- especially ours -- to have!
It turns out that Gabriel's teacher, and his now-pregnant wife, a 2nd-grade teacher at the school too, are very involved in this garden. So though we can see it anytime, it was worth going today to talk to the garden hosts, see photo displays of how this garden came about, and do a scavenger hunt. Julian was so into finding every last thing on Gabriel's teacher's typically very thorough lists meant we were there for over an hour (and I have the sunburn to prove it!)
Julian had a great time at this garden, asking questions of the teachers/gardeners, finding things, noticing what was related, looking at the butterfly identification cards. Then we went around and picked up garbage, because there's a constant flow of wrappers and paper that get blown in from the lunch area. It was a rare Good Mom moment for me.
Then we went to another garden/home we'd been to two years ago, that I'd found was the most spectacular one there is, and it still is. I was blown away -- I want my "garden" to look like this! It's really beautiful and so diverse, with so many different sorts of plants and spaces. Lots of manzanitas too, my favorite.
The homeowner here is involved with a local native-plant nursery though, so it's related to his business as well as his passion. He has at least 5 manzanitas, for example, not always easy to come by, and they're pretty big. Most home gardens are not this beautifully designed or mature or diverse; most are more like how mine will be, a smattering of plants left to their own devices. This one is really a showpiece. He even named certain areas, like "Puppy Dog Path" or "Manzanita Trail" and put up nice little wooden signs.
The rest of the day, I was a total slug -- fighting a headache and procrastinating on numerous pressing chores, like filing my Dad's late taxes, getting airline tickets for a trip to Vancouver, cleaning out the garage, and a few work items. Ah yes, and planting some new plants I just bought at the garden tour. I'm totally hooked on these beautiful, scrubby, hardy sorts of plants and these so-not-showcase gardens, devoid of law and order and just a fabulous display of fauna. But I also like bumming around on Sunday afternoons too.
4/22/12