For a while there, it seemed like maybe my town was ground zero for every high-wind event in the area. This time, however, someone else got to deal with all the downed power lines and trees.
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Do you know who Cindy Sheehan is?
Of course you do. You may not remember her name but unless you lived under a rock during the George W. Bush presidency, you know who she is.
Back in 2005, Cindy Sheehan spent several months protesting by camping in a tent outside of Bush's Texas ranch in order to draw attention to the death of her son, Army Specialist Casey Sheehan. Casey was killed in action during the Iraq war in 2004.
The media spent much of the time covering Cindy's protest and campsite. Every night, the evening news would give her a few minutes of time so she could say how her son had died because of George Bush.
Do you know who Pat Smith is?
Probably not. Very few people know who she is.
Pat Smith's son, Sean Smith, was an IT consultant who worked at the US Embassy in Libya. He was killed when President Barack Obama fired up all the people of the middle-east with his famous "Arab Spring" speech.
The citizens of Libya first killed their government and then started killing each other. After a while, they decided to attack the US embassy and kill the IT guy, along with our Ambassador and an understaffed Marine detail assigned to protect the Ambassador.
What amazes me is that when a mom protests a republican administration who had a soldier die during their watch, the media covers her like she was the second coming but when a mom protests a democratic administration who stood by and watched an embassy get wiped out, the media doesn't even mention it.
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Here's a terrible picture I took of the Quabbin reservoir while flying over the Amherst/Pelham area this afternoon.
I was at 3,300 feet and heading roughly south/south/west when I took it.
The foreground is the west arm of the reservoir.
In the background, almost at the horizon, is the east arm and just at the wingtip is Mount Zion Island. That is where they want to reintroduce the timber rattler.
I only flew for about 45 minutes today. When I took off, the winds were right about at the limit of my solo restrictions and I got tossed around pretty good. When I got to 2,000 feet, things got really interesting and I almost decided to head back. Once I climbed to 3,300 feet, things smoothed out and I did a circuit over Whatley, Sunderland and Leverett.
Just as I started towards Quabbin, the winds picked up again and I figured that maybe they were exceeding my restrictions. Since I'm a smart guy, I figured it would be a good idea to head back to the airport.
Once I settled into the pattern at Northampton, I did one touch & go just because I could, re-entered the pattern and saw my cousin in a golf art heading out towards the runway.
Now I gotta tell you, that touch & go landing was interesting because I was flying directly into a gusting headwind and the airplane seemed to have a mind of it's own. But hey, I managed to get it down without bending anything and took off to re-enter the pattern.
The second landing, with an audience sitting near the touch down point, was only slightly better than the first. The headwind still made the plane difficult to handle but I managed to slide in nicely, exit the runway at midfield and taxi the plane back to the parking area without looking like a complete ass.
Have I mentioned that I love doing this.
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The Red Sox are playing the Giants this evening and I need to watch the game so I can provide them with my sage coaching wisdom via my special coaching TV.
While I do that, here are some links that you might want to visit:
- Only in Pennsylvania.
- I'm pretty sure that's not the right way to start your marriage but then again, I'm not Chinese.
- Where was she during the whole "nipping to the loo" incident?
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