CARL'S BLOG

House Where I Grew Up

2006-05-29T21:30:00.000-05:00

This is the house I lived in from age 5 to 18. It is over a hundred years old and in need of some probably extensive repairs. Right now the house is empty and for sale. I think if the right person with the proper know-how and the money to do it would buy it and restore it, it would be worth a pile of money. It's all hardwood floors inside with lots of hardwood staircases, bookcases, etc. From what I could see from the outside it is structurally sound. Unfortunately it's not in a very good neighborhood now; so I suspect it won't be there a few years from now.

GLOBAL HAWK

2006-05-20T19:10:00.000-05:00

This was forwarded to me in an email:

A pic of the Global Hawk UAV that returned from the war zone on Monday under its own power. (Iraq to Edwards AFB in CA) - Not transported via C5 or C17..... Notice the mission paintings on the fuselage. It's actually over 250 missions.... (and I would suppose 25 air medals).

That's a long way for a remotely-piloted aircraft. Think of the technology (and the required quality of the data link to fly it remotely). Not only that but the pilot controlled it from a nice warm control panel at Edwards AFB.
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Les- I worked on Global Hawk several years ago during it's OT&E out of Edwards. It has really long legs- can stay up for almost 2 days at altitudes above 60k. They flew it via satellite control to Australia, and we flew missions during OT&E that went from Eddy to upper Alaska and back non-stop. I also got the chance to work as pilot debriefer and test evaluator on the FA-22 OT&E summer before last at EDW. I was totally blown away by the airplane. Unless you have ever watched them go 2 or 4 V many on the big electronic game board, you have no idea what stealth brings to the battle. Basically, they come into the fight at a high mach # in mil thrust, start killing people way out with AMRAAMS, and continue doing that until everyone is dead, and no one ever sees them or paints them on radar. There is practically no radio chatter because all the guys in the flight are tied together electronically, and can see who is targeting who, and they have AWACS direct input and 360°situational awareness from that and other sensors. The aggressors had a morale problem before it was all over. The only shots that I ever saw taken on a 22 were when someone screwed up and popped up high enough to leave a contrail. I went in a skeptic and came out a true believer. It is to air superiority what the jet engine was to aviation.

CAIRO, EQYPT

2006-04-24T16:56:00.000-05:00

PARIS • Eiffel Tower

2006-04-24T16:28:00.000-05:00

LONDON, ENGLAND • Trafalgar Square

2006-04-24T13:41:00.000-05:00

From the shadow it looks to be about 3:00 in the afternoon.

FROG

2006-04-07T23:48:00.000-05:00

TANK Picture (Edited)

2005-09-10T14:36:00.000-05:00

I took the liberty of doing a little electronic manipulation on one of Pounce's photos.

Photo from Final Mission of COLUMBIA

2005-08-24T18:49:00.000-05:00

This was shot from COLUMBIA on a clear day. You are looking at parts of Africa, Europe and Greenland at the upper left. Part of the area shown is in daylight and part in darkeness.

World War II - Iwo Jima

2005-08-12T20:46:00.000-05:00

These screen shots were take from archival combat footage shot during the landing at Iwo Jima.

TORNADO IN OMAHA 1975

2005-07-29T23:12:00.000-05:00

In 1975 I lived in Council Bluffs, Iowa which is right across the river from Omaha. I worked in an office building in downtown Council Bluffs at that time. Our office was on the fifth floor. Late in the day near quitting time we were all told to head for the basement because of a tornado warning. So everybody in the building was huddled in the basement where we couldn't see anything or hear anything, and nobody had a radio. After a while a few of us had to go up and look out to see what was going on. Apparantly the tornado had missed us.

I went home and stayed glued to the TV until the wee hours of the morning. It was the best Television coverage of an event I've seen up until the Flood of 1993 in Des Moines.

My brother was at Aksarben Racetrack in Omaha at the time. This is a photo that was taken at the track as the tornado appoached. My brother obtained a print of it several days later. He remarked that it was the first tornado he had seen in person and he didn't care if he never saw another one. (Click on the photo to see a larger version. Click on it again to see a still larger version.)

The tornado tore a swath along the West part of Omaha and did tremendous damage.

CONSTRUCTION PROJECT

2005-07-21T09:54:00.000-05:00

Close to Four Mile Creek there is a huge underground construction project going on. They sure tore up a lot of corn; so it must be something they didn't bother to tell the farmer about before he planted. Whatever the project is it must involve water and the huge concrete pipe sections indicate quite a lot of water. I wonder if they are going to channel Four Mile Creek through it. The structure in the pit must be a manhole in case they have to go in there and do some work in the future.

CREEK

2005-07-21T09:48:00.000-05:00

Four Mile Creek runs through the farm property shown below. I have no idea why they call it Four Mile Creek because it's a lot longer than four miles.

FARM OPERATION

2005-07-21T09:39:00.000-05:00

This is a pretty good sized farm operation for being so close to the Des Moines Metro. They raise corn and beans, and also cattle. All of the corn and beans in the previous sections go with the farm buildngs and structures shown here. As you can see, our Flag was still there.

AFTER THE RAIN

2005-07-21T09:24:00.000-05:00

We got a really good rain early this morning. It was coming down like the well known cow and woke me up. It was such a beautiful morning I took my camera and went for about a three mile walk.

The rain certainly helped the soybeans and corn which needed it badly. Here is some tall corn and a couple shots of some soybeans.

MORE PHOTOS I SHOT TODAY

2005-07-12T20:37:00.000-05:00

The photo in the middle is a field of soybeans. Last year that field was all planted in corn. Farmers usually alternate between corn and beans. The soybeans put nitrogen in the soil and corn takes it out.

The other photos are at a Park here that is maintained by the County. It is kept in a semi-wild state. I call these photos The Iowa Jungle. For some reason, when you post photos to these Blogs they never end up in the order you post them.

MY AFTERNOON WALK TODAY

2005-07-12T20:25:00.000-05:00

Here are some things I saw on my afternoon walk today from about 3:00 to 4:00 PM. On top are some Oak Trees. Bottom photo is of some wildflowers along the road side. The orange flowers grow wild and look to be some kind of wild Iris. Even though they grow wild they are attractive enough that some people cultivate them and grow them in their yards.

The temperature was a bit on the warm side, but not oppressively hot. I was not particularly uncomfortable, but the air conditioning sure felt good when I got home. It would not have been a good day to to have to do physical labor outside for any extended length of time.

More Screen Shots from SWAN LAKE

2005-07-04T16:39:00.000-05:00

Screen Shots from SWAN LAKE

2005-07-04T16:31:00.000-05:00

INTRODUCTION

2005-07-04T12:52:00.000-05:00

Odette

I am starting over with my blog. This time I think I will use it primarily to post photos and other graphics of things that interest me and which I think may interest other people I know on the internet.

I recently recorded a broadcast of Swan Lake on DVD. Above are some screen shots from the recording.