Being Houstonians, we are naturally prepared for a temporary interruption in American life: a week’s worth of canned goods, an extra propane tank, a solar powered radio – but this is different.
I don’t know if CVH didn’t accept my eyewitness accounts of grocery shopping or what, but this morning she insisted on visiting the local megamart herself.
We actually did pretty well. They had just brought out pallets of toilet paper, kleenex, and butter. The toilet paper evaporated like spit on a hot iron skillet, but we got one for us and one for mama. We also got bread, eggs, bacon, canned soup, and blueberry pie. There was no chicken, ground meat, or fish (what are people doing with all that meat?). Plenty of Porterhouse steaks and broccoli, though.
And we got something more important than food or toilet paper – cat litter. They had a pallet sitting in the aisle. Not our cats’ preferred brand, but we must all make sacrifices in these troubled times.
I woke up CVH this a.m. with my rendition of the classic The Knack hit.
When you gonna give to me, g-give to me Is it just a matter of time, corona?
Of course, there were about ten thousand of these already out on youtube.
Also went to the grocery this a.m. Finally snagged some potatoes and a loaf of bread (carbs will keep you alive). Milk is still coming in; you can’t hoard that, although I’m sure some people are trying. If I had been five minutes earlier, I could have gotten a pack of toilet paper; people must have been in line waiting for the doors to open. Their carts were overflowing, mostly with junk food. I looked at what the couple in front of me was putting on the belt – stacks of frozen pizzas and frozen convenience meals – and thought “That stuff is going to kill you before Wuhan does.”
The breakfast cereals were back, though. I guess it takes more time to eat through several boxes of those.
No potatoes. No carrots. They did have broccoli and cauliflower and blueberries, so that’s what we got. No cottage cheese. Three containers of yogurt; I took one. There was milk and cheese and sauerkraut.
Canned food aisle? Fuhgeddaboudit. And no bread, not a loaf.
Breakfast cereal? Don’t make me laugh. There were several boxes of bran flakes, but that’s it.
And there was some frozen seafood. Probably because that’s one of the priciest items in the store.
They had hors d’oeuvres and sweets for the sweet. The goat cheese-stuffed dates were particularly delicious.
The happy couple
After we ate, we got to meet Cornflake the corn snake, as well as some beetles and a millipede.
Cornflake
Then we went on the night hike. It was below freezing and it had rained two inches yesterday, so the trail was very muddy. Still, I enjoyed it. CVH, not so much.
The 2019 Bowman Festival of airplanes. And a bunch of other stuff these days to get more people in, but I’m really only interested in the airplanes.
There was a classic Bell 47 flying all day.
The Bell 47 was featured in the TV show Whirlybirds, which, along with Bullwinkle, was my favorite TV show when I was little.
There were a couple of these pushme-pullyou planes
There were lots of what I call Real Airplanes that look like airplanes are supposed to look .
Including this C-47 (aka DC-3). The pilot was sitting inside and I was able to discuss with him some of the handling issues that I have been having with the DC-3 in Flight Simulator. You can learn a lot from the man who flies one.
You could walk through this old bomber from nose to tail. The bomb bay was a little tight for me. And fortunately they had a ladder (above) so you did not have to enter Gregory Peck-style.
Just the bear necessities
Here’s the instrument cluster from a homemade plane.
Tachometer, oil pressure, altimeter, compass, air speed, and inclinometer.
Attitude indicator? Just look at the horizon. If you can’t see the horizon, you shouldn’t be up in this plane in the first place.
Vertical Speed Indicator? Just look at how fast the ground is going away (or coming up). If you can’t see the ground, well.
ADF, VOR, COM? Radios? You don’t need no stinkin’ radio. Actually, I did speak with the owner and he said there is one hidden out of sight so that he can use controlled airspace when necessary. Like when flying to the airshow!
And note the padded dashboard for those less-than-perfect landings.
Another beautifully restored old plane, this one came down from Chicago. The owner said he’d be taking it back early today, as there was a rainy cold front moving in.
The Experimental Aircraft Association were there with some of their very dangerous-looking homebuilt airplanes. One tiny one was powered by this cute three cylinder radial:
There were several other craft flying around (and rattling the windows in our house), including a B-25, an incredibly loud TBM Avenger, and a P-51.
There was also this nice Buick Special, but I don’t think it could fly.
Our annual trip to the Kentucky State Fair (We went on Senior Day, and got in free). It was hot, as usual. There were very few parking lot shuttles; nowhere near enough for the demand on such a day. There used to be plenty of the tractor-drawn wagons that one could ride. I think they may have privatized the service.
This year they had several large fiberglass animals at the entrance. To get you in the mood, I suppose.
Me with large Chicken
Me with large Pig
Me with small Horse
CVH always looks forward to her State Fair Corn Dog each year. She arrived just as they started frying, and got a fresh hand dipped dog (not a Sysco dog from Houston). This year I refrained from eating an elephant ear or a large fried whatever and I felt much better.
CVH with real State Fair corn dog
The State Police had an small helicopter that you could get inside. I thought it was so cool to see the actual implementation of what I was familiar with only through Flight Simulator. Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good photo of the copter, but here is CVH posing as a pilot.
We watched a magician escape from a locked box. He had a young female assistant in a sparkly outfit (some things never change). It wasn’t too hard to figure out how the magic box worked, but it was amazing that a guy his age could do it so quickly.
The Culinary Competition
CVH inspects the award-winning okra
Last year, for the first time, CVH entered the culinary competition. She baked a pound cake.
It did not win an award.
When we went to the displays, we studied the award winners very carefully to see what it was the judges were looking for. All of the top pound cakes had a much tighter crumb than CVH’s, and their crust was very light (her cake had a darker crust). So this year she bought a silver flute pan instead of the dark one she used last year, and she strove for a denser cake.
Imagine our shock when we saw this year’s winning cake. It had not been cooked in a flute pan at all, was glazed (in clear violation of the standard), and had a nearly burnt crust. Unfair at the fair!
However, we regained our composure and enjoyed the rest of the day.
The sheep show
The Easter Christmas tree
Feeding a baby calf
CVH plays with a snake
Finally, there was the always popular baby duck exhibit.
