"When I do not want to say things in real life I often say them here." — Mimi Smartypants
Yeah, that’s what I’ll call it, a mini-gypsy tour, and add 2012 because it’ll probably be the only big ride I’ll take this year. A friend of mine rides coast to coast, 5,000 or more miles at a whack, at least once each year. What can I say? I am not worthy. The last time […]
In my day, the only video cameras we could use to film our own air-to-air flying were hand-held devices. USAF pilots weren’t (and aren’t, AFAIK) allowed, for safety reasons, to use cameras or video recorders in single-seat cockpits. If you were flying a two-seater, which you might do once a month or so, and you […]
Tuesday is a packing day: packing, that is, for a five-day solo motorcycle trip from Tucson to Flagstaff, Las Vegas, Laughlin, and back again. It’s an art … even with a Goldwing, luggage space is scarce … and certain things need to be placed where they’ll be easily retrievable: bad weather helmet, maps, camera, cell […]
You Can’t Read That! is a periodic post featuring news about banned and challenged books. Arizona: That rumor I mentioned in my last YCRT! column? The one about the racists going after ethnic studies at the universities, now that they’ve “fixed” the high schools? Looks like there’s some truth behind it. Here’s another disturbingly Orwellian […]
Remember our aroused aloe? A month ago, when I first noticed it, it had grown a spike three to four feet tall. Two days later it was over six feet. Today it’s about twenty feet high, and it’s started to bloom. Such a mass of yellow flowers, with prominent pistils and stamens, I have never […]
Man, they are flat on it! Yesterday, when I picked up the project bike, I told my friend I’d help her sell two older bikes her late husband had in storage, his homebuilt racing bike and a mid- to late-60s Ducati single he was planning to restore. She doesn’t have an internet connection, so I […]
I always thought I’d have a project bike some day. In my daydreams, I’d see a Triumph or BSA 650 twin, perhaps a pre-1965 BMW with Earles forks, maybe even an old Sporty. One thing I never pictured, though, was an Italian bike, and a relatively new one at that! My long-awaited project bike turned […]
On April 13th, during a practice flight before a weekend air show, a member of the Thunderbirds aerial demonstration team went supersonic over Tucson. The sonic boom frightened people and broke a lot of windows. Going supersonic over populated areas is a huge USAF “be no” (as in “there shall be no …”) and I […]