Aviation

The past couple of weeks have truly sucked mentally.
The world has been trying to run me down from any and all directions.
I do not know if this deep in the suck time is over,
or if i have just gotten used to it.

I have managed to accomplish shit,
had some successes.
But:

I feel that i am surrounded, ground down and besieged and do not know why?

I am doing the best i can, trying to learn how to just be--from my dog:

Currently working on my B-36 project:

The cockpit and flight figures are completed,
the fuselage is roughed out:

I primed the fuselage this morning.
I knew this was a huge model even at 1:72 scale 
it is difficult just moving the parts and pieces about
while working on it.
 I am forced to consider a new method of
mounting it for display.
I have an XB-35 flying wing antique kit in stock:

I also ordered an another out of production kit.
A Junkers F.13 passenger aircraft introduced in 1920.
The first all metal private aircraft and very Bauhaus in design.

I am planning on building the Junkers F-13 after completing the B-36
and starting the XB-35, as a break between the two larger, very complex aircraft. 
I will build the Junkers as the float plane version and
will use the bare metal/black paint scheme.

I am truly enjoying the concept of constructing these
diesel punk aircraft as decorating objects for my nerd cave.
I enjoy these bizarre aircraft.

"Time moves in one direction

memory in another."

William Gibson

B-36

I had a very strange memory strike me suddenly the other evening.

When I was 7,

I had been sent to stay with my Uncle..in 1959.

The reasons are still unknown to me.

When you are a kid--shit just happens.

My parents liked to drink and fight and sometimes

just for variety's sake they would fight and drink.

If i think about the why--something in that no doubt played a part.

It did forever.

My uncle was in the Air Force his whole life and i stayed with him and his family

at Bradley AFB in Massachusetts for a while.

He was a Sargent in the Strategic Air Command.

One day while i was there, my Uncle drove me out to the hangers

and took me around and inside a Convair B-36,SAC nuclear bomber.

I was amazed by two things--first that an adult would actually

think of doing something for me...just for me...that had never happened before--

The second was how awesomely cool the huge B-36 was.

The largest combat aircraft ever built the ten engine B-36 was the only

aircraft at that time that could carry the 1950's automobile sized

nuclear and hydrogen bombs.

It was designed to attack Russia from high altitude 

flying from bases in the United States, the first true 

Intercontinental bomber,

and the last prop driven US military bomber. 

I remember being in awe that it had a kitchen, bunks, thousands of switches and

analog gauges, a tunnel with a rolling cart that ran from the

front flight compartment to the rear crew compartments 

which didn't scare me at all when i rode it.

The B-36 was manned by a crew of 16.

It smelled inside of leather, oil, aftershave and unfiltered cigarettes.

This memory was created during the cold war....

We were being taught to duck and cover in school.

That was supposed to, help us survive a nuclear bomb attack.

No Shit.

We were told the Strategic Air Command was the only thing that could save us.

I'm sure i thanked my Uncle afterward--i think?

I didn't actually speak much then.

Over the years I hadn't forgotten this happened, I always remembered it--

but it drifted away somewhat...

but when the re-memory struck me,

I wound up stalking the B-36 on the net.

 I found an old, out of stock, model of the B-36 on Amazon from the 1970's

offered by a private seller.

It, like the real thing,  is huge (when assembled)---wingspan over three feet.

It is supposedly tough to build properly according to reviewers.

I am going to build it and hang it flat against one of the

side walls of the nerd cave...when done.

Building aircraft models is not necessarily my forte.

The best i can say is

I'm doing it for the memory.

"Parenting isn't just parenting your own child."

Lewis Black

No Worries eh?

I hate daylight savings time.

Being a watch enthusiast, DST calls for tremendous effort

in realigning the watch collection back and forth between two phony time settings.

Designed to steal daylight from the individual's off hours

and give it to the owner/corporate overlords,

I hate daylight savings time.

Binge watching 7 years of Burn Notice on Streaming--
and
Last Days on Mars was movie night--
Enjoyed the correct technology used in the Mars movie
Enjoyed Levi Schreiber one of my favorite actors--
but still up in the air about the movie--
It was sort of like Zombies on Mars so to say.

As i am sure you know i have a thing for tape recorders,

 reel to reel and cassette.

Excellent cassette tape is hard to come by.

Now that only we insane geeks use it for music.

Denon tape is, in my opinion, one of the best brands.

Manufactured by a Japanese electronic firm started in 1939, Denon tape

is excellent in overall quality and when i see a new old stock

Denon tape offered for sale i tend to snarf it up if i can.

No longer produced and expensive.

When i open a still sealed, new old stock tape,

 I always wonder if this is the last time i ever do this?

That there will be no more? 

Started the re-paint project in the nerd cave today!

Happy!

No real change in the mental state---

"He who keeps his cool best,

wins."

Normal Cousins

We'd like a sample of your brain

I was terribly sad to read Harold Ramis passed away this week.

Dr. Egon Spengler--one of my heroes--

"Let's say this twinkie represents all the psycho kenetic energy in the New York area.
According to this morning's sample it will be a twinkie, 35 feet long and 
weighing approximately 600 pounds."

"Egon, this reminds me of the time you tried to drill a hole through your head.
Remember that?
Egon--That would have worked if you hadn't stopped me."

I received my Russian Slava, Chinese movement watch:

It works, keeps decent time as long as you keep it 

wound by wrist movement.  

Completely and totally worth the $40.00 cost.

An especially excellent, heavy, solid casing.

I changed out the pure shit watchband 

that always comes with these types of watches,
for one i had in stock.

I also inlaid black paint in the rotating bezel numbers.
These little touches have made a decent difference in
both the appearance and feel of the watch.
No sense in posting photographs--
No one could see a difference except me.
I desperately need a success in the watchmaking world.
I was failing right and left at watch repair or modification i attempted.

I continue work on the Nerd Cave.
Painting is the next step---

Which will happen as time allows...
Not pushing it----

Horribly non-motivated for a considerable period of time now.

It's ok i am dealing with it but---

I cannot find the source....

that does bother me.

"Well begun, is half done."

Aristotle