Tuesday Bag o’ Brains

Today’s the day I was going to start work on a 20-30 minute PowerPoint presentation about the F-15 Eagle.

A few months ago the head of the Pima Air & Space Museum volunteer presentation program asked me to give a briefing on the F-15 to museum staff, volunteers, and benefactors. I’m the only PASM volunteer to have flown the Eagle, thus clearly the man for the job.

Actually I’m flattered they asked. My presentation will be on Saturday, September 21st, and if you’re in town you’re invited to attend as my guest … for realz, as the kidz say.

I plan to talk about the F-15’s development, past and current basing, my experience in the A & C models, and the differences between the two. At the end I want to address current USAF plans for the remaining F-15s: how long they’ll remain in service and how the USAF envisions using them in conjunction with the F-22.

My goal for today was to draft an outline; later this week I planned to cull the photos and videos I’ve gathered down to a reasonable number and start transferring them to PowerPoint slides.

As a military officer and later as a defense contractor I got to know PowerPoint well. It wasn’t always a friendly relationship, and I foolishly thought once I retired we’d part ways for good. You might think it’s a stretch to compare PowerPoint to the Catholic church, but you know how they say once a Catholic, always a Catholic? Yeah, it’s like that, apparently.

So why am I blogging instead of working on the presentation? Because I found this concentration-destroying message in my inbox this morning:

The camel’s nose is officially inside the tent. I don’t count generic messages from AARP, since we all start getting those as soon as we turn 50. This is different, and spookily specific … my auto insurance company thinks I might be getting too feeble-minded to drive. How long before they send around a burly guy in a white coat to hide the car keys? How long before they start suggesting local assisted living facilities?

Thanks, USAA, but no, I think for now staying alive on my motorcycle will be more than enough to keep my brain in condition.