Sick Kitty

Here's Sean-Delle, named after the commercial flight maneuver "chandelle." He's quite a good cat sociable and affectionate. In January he developed a urinary tract infection which caused him a lot of pain. We made an emergency call to the vet on a Sunday since he was not using his kitty box anymore and just looked very sick. He had to go back three times over the next couple of weeks to be relieved of his urine. They put him on antibiotics and told Krystle to feed him two pills a day. WHOEVER DEVELOPED KITTY PILLS SHOULD BE SHOT! The vet made it sound so easy: Open cat's mouth, add pill, squirt water with a syringe and presto happy cat! Well... Giving cats pills is about as easy as giving an alligator a suppository.

Self Portrait

This is me as a construction project manager.

Rambo Vince

I went shooting on Saturday, Jan 15 2005, in Cottonwood Arizona at the old city dump with Jeff Nelson, buddy pilot friend of mine from ERAU with his AK-47 and his PSS (Police Sharp Shooter) Sniper Rifle with a scope. It was quite a blast (haha).

The AK-47 Jeff has is Romanian made and seemed a little flimsy. I always thought the AK-47 would have a solid feel but it is just a gun barrel attached to parts made from fairly thin pressed steel and wood parts so that you don't burn up your hands on the barrel after firing a few rounds. It was made to be massed produced inexpensively and since it only has seven moving parts it is one of the most reliable guns ever made. Jeff field stripped the gun and re-assembled it within one minute. It has a 30 round clip and fires a pretty hefty 7.62 round semi-automatically. Although seemingly flimsy it is quite a hardy & reliable gun because of its few moving parts. It also flings a lot of led inexpensively.

Jeff's other gun, the Remington 700 PSS was quite powerful and precise. It fires a .308 round and had a nice Tasco 12x zoom gun site and bipod. I was able to hit a nickel sized bulls-eye on a target 100 yards away and knock off a shotgun shell on top of a can at the same distance. With the rite scope, a little practice and a steady hand it can easily drive nails into 2 by 4's from 300 yards.

We were also able to do a little skeet shooting with a 12 ga shotgun owned by a family that was shooting nearby us. We traded a few pops of the AK-47 for a few clay pigeons and shotgun shells. I did pretty well for being a non gun owner, I got 3 out of five clay pucks. Finding a place to go shooting out in Arizona is really easy to do, but shooting in California is nearly impossible. The only places that you can go are indoor shooting ranges, and what fun is that? All the folks I met out at the old Cottonwood dump were very responsible with their weapons and quite friendly. -VA

Flight in a Dash-8

Well this past weekend I stopped driving and flew home via America West from LAX to Flagstaff via Phoenix. This was so much easier than driving! I sat back and relaxed with a newspaper at LAX, and in flight I was able to get a lot of aerospace museum website stuff done. The only thing that was tough was making my connection since the first plane I took was late. Sky Harbor is spread out and it is a 1.25 mile run from the eastern most America West terminal to the Western most American West Express (Mesa) airline. I made this run with my two bags in 12 minutes, this left me with 3 mins to spare! On the round trip I was able to ride on three different airplanes: the 757, A319, and Dash 8. I've never ridden on a commuter airliner before and it was an excellent experience. I feel confident that I can handle an airplane like the Dash-8 (Pictured Above) without any trouble. Flying in the Dash 8 was like riding in a rocket ship. I've only flown into Flagstaff in relatively low powered airplanes and I've always been concerned with density altitude. This plane took off and climbed out like a dream, even fully loaded with passengers and baggage.

No Wepen

The school is in the middle of the Ghetto, This sign was made by a first grader and is posted on the wall right above the teacher's desk. If I can summarize in one photograph what happens at this school it would be this picture.