Armageddon in General

Steven Tyler, in an interview I read years ago said they really knew they had struck gold the first time he heard the finished version of “I Don’t Want to Miss a Thing.” Just before the first chorus and the symphony kicks in.

Sheesh, twenty four years later it still gives me chills.

Diane Warren composition, I believe. The master of overly large, ridiculously romantic movie music. Who claims she has never been in love.

Big fail on the 4th. I had bought 10# of Korean Style Flanken Ribs. Plan being I would marinade and grill half, and freeze the other five pounds. I opened up the bag late in the night of the 3rd and dumped my marinade in. Early in the morning on the 4th I took the package out of the fridge. Opened I up, and there was an incredibly “not right” smell.

I called the folks and told Dad the bad news. He shrugged it off. “We’ll just throw some burgers on the grill.

The back is a little better. Sitting at the deck table on my folk’s deck I saw red every time I blinked. My younger sister is the office manager at a physical therapy doctors office. She saw me sitting there wincing, went into the house and came back with a handful of pills. Something like three Tylenol and four Advil. I scooped them up and washed them down with Gatorade.

I dropped the bean back off at her house and came home and leaned against a heating pad. At some point I fell asleep and woke up at 3am (0300 if you are so inclined), hobbled up the stairs, took a very long, very hot shower, fell into bed naked.
It still hurts, but I don’t see red every time I blink. And I still don’t know how going back to work is going to work.
I was watching the noon news, and the weather girl was showing the radar predictions – saying “this is a little deception, because most of this isn’t reaching the ground.”
I immediately said “Virga.”
I can’t count the number of times I have used a word or phrase and had someone argue “that’s not a thing.”

Adiabatic Lapse Rate (5F-ish degrees per thousand feet), Density Altitude (high, hot, heavy, humid.)

I have a goddamned encyclopedia between my ears. Unfortunately I can’t immediately access it. If I ponder on something, it usually comes to me hours later. But ask me EA-6B spin recovery procedures. That shit is akin to muscle memory. It is just there.

In “The Terminal List” it turned out Reece had multiple TBIs and probably PTSD. It was some of the most disturbing TV I have ever watched.

I had a boarding ladder collapse from under me in 91 or 92, I grabbed the canopy rail - all 210 pounds of me plus another 30 pounds of equipment and flight gear under the force of gravity. I slipped and fell 15 feet to the concrete, landing on my head. I had a helmet on, but good god didn’t that ring my bell. I am lucky I didn’t break my neck. I probably got a concussion. But warriors don’t complain.

Maintenance fixed the boarding ladder, and I went flying.

I graduated from High School in 1980 and went into the accelerated commissioning program in the Army, my goal being flying AH-1 cobras.

160th SOAR was established in 1981. I would have been there. And it is a statistical probability I would be dead.

Wow that took a morbid turn.

Last updated July 05, 2022