Y'all

Rain and thunder is around today, but should be gone by this afternoon. Around here there has not been house explosions due to gas leaks in about, ahh. let's see, in about a week or so.

We do need to face the fact that between the age of the infrastructure and gas, water and other utility pipelines and nature shifting, there need to be repairs and upkeep commitments made.
Add the newer material technologies, some of them not up to the rigors of actual use, and the let's face it, normal mistakes in alignment, etc. there will be incidents. I hesitate to call them accidents even if they have caused pain, death and destruction because some of them we have gone in with our eyes open. As in...?
Well, looking for a line with a hydraulic cat to save time when a couple of shovels and hard work might be called for. A line drawn by a contractor in the wrong place or the wrong purpose. Or someone decides a pool is needed here, right in his backyard and...
There are always honest mistakes, transposing of numbers etc.
And perhaps the biggest, a commitment by the bean counters or politicians to not spend a needed penny more than what looks good on paper.

Yes, I am unhappy with the taxes and fees municipalities, cities and state and federal agencies want from us, but things do wear out, and plastic replacements may not be the way to go.
And apparently...yes. Remember that big long hole you guys dug a mile away for the new highway? The ground upstream did shift to compensate.
Didn't you tell me ages ago there was an old stream somewhere around?
Didn't you tell the new guys that? Oh, a different company or different party, eh?

Thanks for the heads up on the changing offerings by Netflix and Prime.
Found "Thud Pilots" last night on Prime. Saw some friends faces in it. I expected a movie, but it was more of a documentary on part of our war.

Folks,

Fittop:

I heard about an older couple who had the misfortune to be smokers. It seems they got up one morning and, coming down to breakfast, the wife stopped on the stairs and wrinkled her extra long nose. She sniffed the air and complained to her husband. " Don't you smell that terrible pong?"

"No dear I do not.", said the man who was nursing a heavy head cold and couldn't have smelled fresh horse crap if it were in his shirt pocket. They both continued down the stairs and stopped in the kitchen to light up before preparing their breakfast.

Indeed there was a pong in the air. There had been a sizeable gas leak from the stove in the corner of the kitchen over night. The old man got his cigar lit but his elderly wife never even got her Zippo to fire up. BOOM!!! THe gas had instantly exploded.

After a sad funeral, one mourner was overheard saying, rathe irreverently, to another, "You know dear, it was the first time those two went out of the house together in years." 🏠 👫

Folks,

Considerably cooler and much drier around here this Monday . But folks, what a night of storms we had last night. Strong winds and heavy rain. How heavy was the rain? Well, I'm so glad you asked. Imagine you are in a car running very slowly through a demon controlled car wash. Friends, I have never heard wind and rain hitting my windows as hard as that without a hurricane track heading straight to my house showing on the TV.

No damage evident here but North of us in Halifax county there was considerable damage there. It has been a weekend of nasty weather.There was a tornado that touched down on last Saturday about 45 miles West of us nearer Raleigh. Season change is always volatile for us.

Rem: Our 18th anniversary of SNAFU's "HWH Continued" rolls around on Wednesday of next week. Be sure to drop by. Several breweries and distilleries have put on extra shifts in anticipation of the happy celebration.

Folks:

OOPS, on consulting the HWH calendar the celebration is a week from tomorrow. Not tomorrow. Wishful thinking I guess. Gulp! Sorry about that. Once in 18 years isn't too bad.

Y'all,

No problem, JRT. I know you were just checking on us.
But it did make me look at the calendar, and then the previous thread page where you stated the 24 was the big day.
It might have worked it we were not so conscious of just passing the income tax deadline yesterday and mailing a check to the IRS.
I'll confess to also mailing in an extension form since I cut it a bit close on adding up the medical expenses.
But today I decided to take a day off so papers are all over the place and it may be next week until I face that mess.
But wait! That's HWH week, right?
The medical sheet will have to wait then.

I will add my respects to the near-loss of the Notre Dame cathedral.

Gentlemenses,

Good day to you all. The weather here is wonderful warm days with cool nights. Good time of the year. But the hot humid summer will be here shortly. Summer also brings our rainy season. It is pretty dependable that during the summer we will start with mostly clear skies and as the day progresses so do the clouds. These then begin summer squalls of rain cells which pop-up and give areas of isolated rain showers. From the air it is amazing to see these rain clouds since you can see half a dozen of them slowly moving and giving a waterfall of rain. You can actually fly a circle around them while watching the rain pour out of them. I am always in wonder that they are some defined and think to myself that with as much rain coming from them that they don’t disappear in a short while. But I guess the conditions that formed them keeping refilling them with the necessary moisture. No matter how many times I’ve seen them they still fill me with wonder.

I just got my plane back from an external refurbishment and painting. Absolutely beautiful. So I will be boring you all with flight reports again shortly.

My sister-in-law was laid off from her job at the bank and is job hunting now. She and my wife are stressed since she is alone and has very little money to cover expenses until she finds employment. Being the warm hearted benevolent soul that I am offered that she could move in with us if she needs. I implied that she could help with cooking, cleaning, and other wifely duties. For some reason my wife found this offensive and said I’m a pervert. I mean she said it as if it were something bad. Oh well, I am often at a loss as to how men and women see things so differently. And here I was trying to be helpful.

I have ridden motorcycles for 49 years, but am now going to give it up. My reason ? Cellphones. Too many people are giving the phone as much attention as their driving. They are looking at the phone and half-watching the road. This means that while they may register a car they will not do so a motorcycle. I just don’t feel comfortable riding now. That feeling of freedom and joy are greatly diminished. My flight instructor friend and I were discussing this and both agreed that we were going to sell or pass on our bikes. I called my nephews and offered it to them as a family bike. The most vehicle inclined would be the holder and would come to get it in a month or so. My buddy was going to sell his. Not more than two weeks later was in a an accident with his motorcycle. Bad. Will have lifelong leg issue now. Broken clavicle and six ribs. Lots of road rash. Real shame.

Anyone else getting uneasy because of cellphones ? MG, are you feeling the pressure ? My impressions are that you have a lot of narrow roads and biking means squeezing in.

Folks,

Fittop:

These days, in my senior years, it is not unusual for me to be a week ahead or behind on any event. Tax day for me now is just a date to remember the sinking of the Titanic and a couple of birthdays. 🤔

OG:

Yup. I am concerned about my son riding his motorcycle. Regale us with your flight stories anytime you like. I always enjoy them. I think we all do. Flying vicariously is lotsa fun too. 🛩

Easter is near. In case I don't see you folks before the holly day...... don't forget to hide your eggs. 🥚

Gents.

I'll save the happy 18th speak for another week then, no problem.

With Easter coming up, the weather is showing itself from the best side; sunny and 15 - 19 C or approx. 60 F, gentle winds. With my Easter vacation lasting until the 29th, a lot of bicycle riding is on the horizon. I've switched to the summer bike, the classic steel bike and to me at least the steel frame and the downtube shifters are the proper way to ride a bike.

I've had many odd or potentially very dangerous situations due to cell phones and/or other people being too distracted by just about anything to watch where they're going or what they're doing so I've come to expect that the unexpected is going to happen.

Pedestrians checking their cell phone while walking in the middle of the combined bike lane/pedestrian board-walk, or joggers listening to music with in ear monitors changing lane without checking over their shoulder first, people walking or riding side by side blocking the path completely, single riders swaying unpredictably, cars cutting me off, not spotting me and blocking me more or less on purpose, or at least by some very ill considered manoeuvres.

Some of the worst situations were a guy picking up his child at the school, crossing the bike lane and when he pulled out and crossed the bike lane again he didn't even look over the shoulder because if he had done so, he would have seen me bearing down on him. As it was he heard my braking and my shouts of Whoaaaaaaa!? Another ridiculous situation was to guys in each their car meeting on a narrow country road, stopping just after a blind turn, blocking the entire road and me coming through the blind turn, again so hard on the brakes as I saw them that my weight couldn't keep the rear wheel to the ground but the entire rear of the bike lifted off the ground, and me shouting something like "you're just not doing this!"

How about the car doing a three point turn just in front of me, again causing me to throw the anchors with great haste and force, or the car that passed me then slammed on the brakes to take the next right turn, nearly running into me.

Yes Sir, everyone on the road is an idiot. Including me.

Folks,

The grass (not the corn) is as high as an elephants eye. Cheerful songs from lawnmowers have finally cranked up to punctuate our spring. Before long the mower sounds will move to concerts mostly on Saturdays. Usually these concerts are scheduled just in time to wake me up.

MG:

I am glad your weather continues to be good.

Back when I was a kid, and riding a bike all the time, I had an altercation with two motorists that I can remember. Either one might have been serious but were not. The first had me coming down a steep hill at high speed when a driver parked beside the road opened his car door right in front of me. I had no time to avoid hitting the thing. YIKES! POW!

In the second I was riding my bike on a narrow dirt road. A large car was coming my way at a brisk pace. The driver showed no inclination to share the road. I had the right of way but wisely chose to relinquish it just in time by taking to the bushes. The front tire hit a root, I flew off and landed comfortably in a small briar patch (without the pesky bother of having to beg not to be flung in there).

As the motorist sped by, he made a nasty hand gesture and suggested all bike riders and I should stay the hell off public roads. 🚴

Y'all:

Hard to believe Easter is almost...no, it will be here tomorrow, (or next week if you're Orthodox).
Not sure how many here are helping dye eggs for the little ones, but most of us in the Northern Hemisphere are celebrating the arrival of new plants, flowers, bugs, storms, etc.

McGonigle is looking forward to better weather for the bike rides, Dux may be readying the guitar or other musical instruments for the young ones or planning vacations at the sea shore and Roger may be contemplating cutting the grass as I try to invent new words for those disturbing the afternoon naps with the harsh noises from the leaf blowers.
Yep, and Spring will catch me unprepared again. But the front of the house is looking better.

I'm pretty sure we will all wander to the RC part of the community forum and admire Oldgrognard's flying beauty.
The current ten pages are worth reading.

Admire is all I am doing, just a little envious but not jealous at the results of the work, worry, commitment and joy of going through the process of getting such a complicated machine through that part-overhaul, paint and polish and then checking it out because you are trusting your life to it and your knowledge and capability.

It's a beauty! Congratulations, oldgrognard. Many more happy and safe landings.

And to all of us, a Happy Easter and in three days, Happy Anniversary to the HWH thread.
Thank you guys for the joy you have brought us.

Folks,

A happy Easter to one and all. Fittop, do you suppose they celebrate high holy days or at least Easter in deepest most darkest and decadent Derbyshire? If so, I'd guess, on Easter morning our Dux might be busy at work nursing a painful headache whilst attempting his best to find his eggs.

Now, Dux would be the only one I might even vaguely suspect of filling each one of the shells of his hen fruit with a shot of Thames Embankment. vin midnight. But that is only a rumor... so far. 😉

Fittop:

Excellent post say I. I enjoyed reading it. Happy Easter to you as well. I hope all your well painted eggs were found and enjoyed. Our kids attended a big do after church this morning. About a thousand people were expected to attend the event. Our kids participated. Granddaughter helped with tending several exotic and indigenous animals. Grandson played bass with my nephews Bluegrass band. Unfortunately, the stage was small and there were 7 in the band after a late arrival wishing to accompany the band playing the harmonica.

The wind was unusually strong this morning. That tended to make it difficult for the players to hear each other. With only 3 inexpensive microphones provided, even without the wind, it might have been problematic for the audience to have heard very much. There was an egg hunt, free hot dogs and snow cones donated by local businesses. Seven churches participated in setting up the event.

Other than the wind, the weather was excellent today. Despite the problems, the kids proclaimed the family event was a great success.

It is cloudy now and the temp at the moment is a cool 61°F. / 16.1 C.

Folks,

It is that time of the year that we have scrawled into our prayer books... make that onto our drink napkins HWH Day. The day we celebrate te beginning of HWH Continued.

A year or so before this an ardent fan of BoB by the cryptic if also suggestive name of SNAFU began thinking about the need for a "safe haven" where pilots could post their after action reports.

This was the unruly time just after the long awaited release of BoB's source code. The BDG was forming and hopes ran high for an improved game. At this time there was much unrest amongst the troops. I dubbed this the time of the "Flame Wars". It seemed nothing was happening and everyone was firing flames at each other. A sorry time indeed.

So SNAFU was looking for a way to bring relief to those serious pilots who could not post action reports without receiving a devastating flame or two from their "pals".

That is when HWH was born fully formed in the imagination of our "Fearless Founder" SNAFU. A thread set aside for those who really wanted to behave responsibly and celebrate Rowan and Empire's BoB in an adult fashion. This was to be a special thread designated a "Flame Free" zone and kept that way.

We came in droves. Soon, the after action reports fille the first pages. Pilots who didn't know they could write found they could when others responded favorably to what they had posted. It was a heady time for us all. When about 600 posts were lost forever down the Internet rabbit hole due to a SimHQ server crash, SNAFU was asked to and quickly inaugurated "HWH Continued". We've been here eighteen years I'm happy to say.

Of course, things have sadly changed a great deal since those days when our pages filled so quickly. Unless you have stuck with the soon to be abandoned (without paying a fee) Win 7, you can no longer get BoB off the ground, as it were. HWH members have dwindled to just a few. And every year might be the last for this very special forum.

So it has become my custom, on every April 24th to post the HWH story plus a small, artistic representation commemorating attaining each new year.

Everyone is welcome to join us. Come as you are. Post what you like but no flames please. HAPPY HWH DAY to all with our thanks to our "Fearless Founder" SNAFU wherever he may be.

But I type too much. Let SNAFU have the last words on the subject of "HWH Continued":

"All,

To begin, thanks to all of you who have taken time to visit the Here's what happened thread which started in late April 2001. The stories, mission accounts and fine discussion was a part of my online time since that time.

It appears that the software has been stressed to the maximum with the shear size of HWH and as such further posts to it are apparently not possible. Jolly Roger Too among others has suggested that I start a new thread to keep the idea of HWH intact. I sincerely am honored to be allowed to begin the new thread and hope it brings you as much fun and enjoyment as the old one did for me. It is after all, BoB and the BoB that bring us together. "

Gentlemenses,

Happy anniversary !

And lookee there; my meager contributions got a mention.

I am humbled to be included.

Folks,

OG:

You post so you are as much a part of HWH as am I. It is nice that you typed what you typed... but surely the day they cut off the tail of your shirt was almost as big a deal?

Happy Anniversary to you too sir. 🎉 🛩

Y'all

Happy Anniversary to all of you.
Especially you veterans of the thread.
Thank you Roger.

I raise a glass to those missing.

Greetings Chaps and a Happy Easter and 18th Anniversary!


What's this about starting a new thread JRT? Are we about to be padlocked at last?

We just had the hottest Easter on record but the weather has socked in and temps have now dropped again to the seasonal average. Rain and thunder yesterday. Now we have milder weather we should be back in the garage for practice this morning as we progress with mainly sixties Britrock in the mould of the Yardbirds, Spencer Davies Group, Them, The Animals, and Quo etc.

Our name which was dreamed up by my brother is Dirty Rotten Scroungers. Much of our gear has been gathered from various sources and we don't intend to give it back without a fight.


I recently acquired an acoustic bass. Initially, I cancelled the order due to much delayed despatch. They refunded but next day the guitar arrived 9 days after order was placed. I am waiting to be reinvoiced, if ever, but if not.....well you do see what this implies don't you chaps?

Gents,

Happy 18th Anniversary and I hope your Easter lived up to expectations.

I've been recovering from an Easter luncheon with too much delicious and tempting food and as a consequence suffered a nausea which has now thankfully passed. A couple of windy days has meant time to tend to the garden a bit and also restocking the larder and fridge.

I've now completed volume two of a four-volume autobiography by Soviet Academician Boris Chertok who tells the story of Soviet rocketry from early beginnings and importing Nazi-Germany technology and know-how after WW2 to present day operations. Volume two leaves the reader in the early sixties with a sense of incredulity regarding their achievements in the face of how many rockets they managed to blow up, in some instances killing scores of their own technicians through sloppy preparation, manufacture, non-testing, implementation and totally inadequate launch procedures. The books are slow to read because a lot of people were involved and the author feels obliged to mention nearly all of them.

Folks,

Dux:
Felicitations to you as well. Good to hear from you mate. Nope, that was years ago. LeRoy still has the big, brass key to the front door of HWH Hall hangin on a heavy chain around his bony neck.

How things do change when we grow older. Previously, an extra hot holy day may have meant several well painted but near naked groupies hiding in the bushes and the band hunting for them whilst staggering around with a bottle of bubbly in one hand and a cork screw in the other. 🍾
HMMM. Great name. However, I have to wonder what caused your "all knowing" brother to associate your band with that particular name? 🤔

MG:
Congrats to you as we celebrate our 18th annum on this long lived thread. I enjoyed a most delicious meal as well. Including, beautifully prepared rare and tender lamb, Homemade mac and cheese casserolele and nearly a dozen deviled eggs. OK. Now picture me, just after that heroic meal, lying nearly comatose on my bed, painful belly horribly distended, and my face colored a sickly puce green. 🤢

Boy, since I survived, that was indeed a rare and wonderful feast. 🐰 🐇 🥚 🐑

Folks,jj

Folks,Fittop:

I missed your post hiding there above Dux and MG. Indeed, we should raise a glass to those no longer with us.

From the 1939 Errol Flynn/ David Niven WW 1 film "Dawn Patrol":

"So, stand to your glasses, steady!
This world is a world of lies.
Here's a toast to the dead already—
Hurrah for the next man who dies!"

and thank you for reminding me Fittop. 👍

Gents,


Decide to dust down me old BoB2 Wings of Victory CD and take a nostalgic trip down memory lane. Trouble is I can't get past the campaign selection screen which returns to desktop at every attempt.


Seem to remember a patch for post Win 98 OS but can the game still run under Win 10? Probably not