Archive | December, 2006

Sad News

UH-60 Crash

Ft Lewis lost an aircrew of three last night in King County. Our crew was out doing night vision goggle training in the UH-1H as well. Pretty blustery night. It is definitely a riskier business when your depth perception is compromised by the dark. How awful for their families.

My Children, The Dolphins (Part II)

The most recent update from our correspondent in the field (aka Grandma):

Natalie and I headed down to El Paseo to get her a new swimsuit while Stewbie played (what else?) Runescape. Then it was pool time again. The girl trainer announced that there would be no dolphin shows today as she was training a baby dolphin for his first time. Of course, we were invited to swim with the dolphins if we chose….and I did. The young male dolphin was easily distracted at first but very quickly learned to develop trust in his trainer and follow her directions. It was very impressive seeing such a patient teacher and such a good learner. We are so lucky to have dolphins in the desert!

Our Favorite Guy Is Back

Jeff (Harbor Marine, Everett – love him!) noticed a cracked elbow on our genset when he was messing around with the heater situation, so he’s back today replacing that for us. He’s been just wonderful about being here when we need him. We’re taking a cruise next week to celebrate my birthday, so it’s nice to know that everything is squared away on board before we go.

Whale Vomit

Fascinating
New York Times article. I have always had a rule that I need to learn at least one new thing every day ~ then I can go back to bed. Well, today it was ambergris. Bedtime!

Home In The Marina

We do have a bit of the Christmas spirit on our dock; our dockmaster has put up his display. We look rather Bah-Humbug on KJ, but Greg reassures me that it’s merely a “transition year” and next year we’ll do the whole light show. I think he’s waiting to put together an LED based light collection. That’ll work for me; it’s very pretty to see the lights from the bridge as we come home.