We went to the post office and library this afternoon. I checked out some books about baseball from the late 1800s until the present. Three of them in fact. I put them next to Jerry's chair in the living room. He loves baseball. Even though this is Padre Country, he will watch whatever game is on tv. With the Major League Baseball channel on cable now, that means unlimited, all day baseball for him. It is a good thing I like baseball, too, or I would've been batty by now - pun intended!! Although, I am not into the stats of the players, etc., I do like to read or hear the history of the sport. And I do like watching the game on tv. And I really like going to the stadium to watch the games, not that you can see the game as well as you can on tv, but there is just something about being in that atmosphere. GO PADRES!
I got a Weight Watchers book for me and some fitness/beauty magazines for inspiration. I am currently reading a book about real people who lived during the big dust storms of the Great Depression - it is very interesting. My father-in-law lived during those storms and I asked him about them several times. He would tell me his experiences while he was a boy growing up in Texas and Oklahoma. He was born in 1916 and even with his memory fading of things that happened that very day, he could still remember all the details of events that happened in his younger life. He loved to tell stories of Quanah Parker and Charles Goodnight. A full chapter in the book I am reading was devoted to these two men. It was really fun to read because it added to the stories that my father-in-law would tell me. There are many times Jerry and I look at each other and say "I wish Dad was still alive, we could ask him about this-or-that and get his opinion." I do miss his stories alot.
When we lived with him we had satillite instead of cable. I would put on the Big Band music channel which he liked to listen to with me. On the hour they would play actual old radio newsreels from different days in the 1930s and 1940s. Those newsbreaks would bring back a flood of memories to him and I would turn the music down so he could tell us how things were in his corner of the world when those events were taking place.
Remember yesterday when I said the old planes were out flying around? Well we found out why today. As we were driving home from the library, we drove past our little airport. All the old planes were being moved out of the hangers. So we pulled into the gate and asked what was going on. This weekend they are displaying all those old planes along with antique cars. Best news of all - admission is FREE! Guess what our plans will include this weekend!
All afternoon the planes have been out flying around. I managed to get two good pictures. I love how the planes sound when they fly over. Our airport was a Marine Paratrooper Airbase during WW2. I often try to imagine what the airport and our valley looked like then. Back then our valley was nothing but grapevines (for raisins) and cow pastures. I also just read in a history magazine that our valley had olive orchards starting in the 1870s, too. The ripe (or black) olives were from Southern California. I don't care for ripe olives, but I do love history!! This answered a question I have had for many years... why a senior mobile home park around here is called "Olive Acres"... now I know it was because there were acres and acres of Olive trees here at one time. You can still see some of the old Olive trees around.
Yes, that little speck is a biplane flying over my parents house. I would love to buy a camera with a zoom lens. Unfortunately, my digital camera is from 2001 and is a basic one. Please bare with me and my photos until I get the money and courage up to buy a new one with lots of toys on it. I am technologically in the dark ages, so it is a little frightening at the thought of learning the new gadgets the more modern cameras have.
Oh, you should've felt the house and ground shake when this group of biplanes flew over..... oooohhh how I loved it!!! I know my neighbors think I am absolutely nuts now. I was like a little girl running outside to get these pictures.
Wait 'til you hear about the one that got away, though. A genuine, modern day Navy Fighter Jet flew over. By the time I got outside it was long gone.... it was that fast. That thing was low.... you could feel it vibrate every tiny cell in your body, it sounded like it was going to land on the house it was that low, and I missed it! You can ask Jerry how upset I was about that. We are used to them flying over as San Diego is Navy town (and Marine too), but normally they are up in the sky a little ways. They always amaze me when I see them, always. And I always swell up with pride for our military, they are true heros. Maybe that is why I absolutely love the old planes, too. I think about all the men who flew missions in them, fighting for our freedom, or just serving our country and being on-call in case they were needed. Those biplanes above represent the pioneers in fighting planes. They truly were flying into the unknown.
A great big THANK YOU to our military men and women. Thank you for volunteering to give up your freedom to protect our freedom. That is from my heart -- I am so proud of you all!
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