Snow

Yup.  Got snow.  When I awoke at 0600, it was still dry.  But by 0730, there was this: 

 

Snow on the Gnome Noses:

 

Spaceflight Academy!

This week's volunteer shift at the Museum of Flight was quite interesting.  I spent the shift over in the Space Gallery where I watched the final push for installation of the new Spaceflight Academy. 

First, as I arrived, I caught this interesting view of the newly delivered Boeing 787 (# 3).

I had been a bit annoyed when I heard the Christmas tree was already up.  It was still a week before Thanksgiving.  However, the previous evening, at the volunteer meeting, it was explained that the Museum will have several groups hosting their holiday parties, starting right after Thanksgiving so the tree needed to be up early.  They are also dependent upon the schedule of the volunteer group that does the set up.  This tree celebrates the 50th Anniversary of the Museum of Flight!

While watching the Spaceflight Academy final build, I met Alfred.  He's a retired Boeing engineer.  And he built the fuel tanks for the model of the Space Shuttle!  He said he began the build nearly 2 years ago, in December 2012.

He was there to watch the installation of the tanks.  The model of the shuttle was built by AeroJet Rockadyne and donated to the Museum.   I waited as long as I could.  Next week, my shift falls on Thanksgiving and the Museum of closed.  So it's likely I won't be there again until early December.  I'll have more photos then.


Dieter is a Museum docent and a real Rocket Scientist.  He is an engineer for Aerojet Rockadyne of Redmond.  He presented at the Museum's Spacefest on the rockets built for NASA Mars missions. In the second photo, he's posed holding a plastic model of one of the engines. 

 

I meet such interesting and accomplished people at the Museum!  There were several astronauts there for Spacefest but, this time, I didn't meet any of them. 


All the photos are here.

Halloween 2014

The porch decor theme this year is Harry Potter.  JK is releasing a new bit of fiction on Pottermore today and AFK, the geek tavern, is celebrating Halloween with a "Death Eaters" theme. 

I dressed as  Professor McGonagall.  The thing on my face is a cat nose mini-mask.  Prof M was an Animagus who could morph into a Tabby Cat.

More photos here.

On the last day of my Michigan trip (29 Oct), I took a drive to a neighboring small town.  I saw three houses that were over the top for Halloween.

All those photos are here.

Star Wars Reads Day

Yesterday was a good troop at the Museum of Flight.  Alpha Base & Garrison Titan helped the Museum celebrate Star Wars Reads Day. 

Amanda is missing from this photo, which was taken by Bob, the R2D2 builder

We had to have our photos made in two specific places.....
The Destiny Module (aka "Tantive IV")

Here are Amanda and me.

and in the payload bay of the Space Shuttle Full Fuselage Trainer.

The Museum staff had lots of fun things for kids to do, including "Death Star Ground School" and lots of crafts.  Yoda holds min-lightsaber building parts.

Lots of people came dressed in Star Wars costumes.  Here some kids using the Force:

All the photos are here.

Homeland Security and the Lightsaber

As the lone Alpha Base/Rebel Legion member, I joined two from Garrison Titan/501st Legion to do a fund raising photo booth at the Combined Federal Campaign (CFC) Kick off event at the Jackson Federal Building in downtown Seattle.

The building has an airport-like screening process for entry but it's run by Homeland Security officers.  It was amusing taking my lightsaber through.  The officer pulled by bag out, asked whether it was mine and then said he had to search it.  He pulled out the sink-tube lightsaber and asked, "what's this?" I told him it was a lightsaber.  I'd intentionally brought one without any electronics in it for this reason.  Another officer was interested and wanted to see it, too.  All was fine from then on.

The GT members came through the loading dock with their bins.  These were screened in a large device.  Despite the presence of at least 3 prop weapons, Cheryl said the item about which the officers were most concerned was the aerosol can of hair spray!

We three posed for photos for a donation to the CFC charity.

Local TV and comedy personality, Pat Cashman, was there.  He's on a local show called The 206 (Seattle's area code).  While at the event, he filmed a brief segment for the show which was a fake ad for lard.  He asked the TK to pretend to eat it.  This will be on the show 18 or 25 October.
Update 20 November:  That segment finally aired a couple weeks ago and the Stormtrooper wasn't in it.  

All the photos are here.

Back to the flute

First practice session today.  I think it's been over 30 years since I last played regularly!

I went to a music store down the hill to buy key oil and a beginning flute tutorial.  I bought 2 of them.  The one on the left looks very familiar.  It might be the one on which I learned at 9 years old!  I bought the other as it has some modern innovations, including a CD with MP3's of the little compositions.

I am hoping to be able to play at least at the intermediate level fairly soon. 

I'm going to go back to Michigan in October for a memorial concert in honor of the music teacher I had for 9 years.  He died recently at the age of 90.  Some of his former students who still live in my home town are organizing the concert.  Many of them play in the community band and some of them are professional musicians and teachers.  They have invited everyone who was taught by John Cummins to return and join the band for one piece.  I'm hoping it is a fairly simple one.

Other than my parents, John Cummins was probably the most influential person in my life.  He taught me, and all of us who paid attention, so much more than music!  I believe I owe much of my success in life to the lessons I learned from him.  The fact that I was his student for so many years made the impact greater. 

I find during this first practice session that my embouchure (lip position) muscles tire quickly.  I also don't quite remember the fingerings.  On the plus side I have no trouble reading music.  I know what notes they are just not all the fingerings.

My flute, at least, is in good shape.  I had it overhauled some years ago.  A former student of mine who went on to earn a Master's degree in Flute Performance told me many years ago that the mbouchure hole on the flute's headjoint was defective!  I had it replaced at the time of the overhaul. So now I can finally play the lowest notes easily.

Since I'm going to Michigan, I will also see friends and relatives.  I've not been back to Michigan since about 2002. 

Sewing at the Fort

 I put in my second shift as a volunteer for Fort Nisqually today.  I spent about 3 hours doing mostly hand sewn repairs of period clothing.   Here is the very full second floor dormer where the work is done.

Just visible to the left of the yellow chair is a sewing machine.  I also did battle with it today.  I did a "growth tuck" in a little girl's dress.  That means I put a tuck in it to shorten it temporarily.  I'm told it is a period technique for hand-me-downs.  My battle was getting it threaded correctly.

I also did some research in the library for about an hour.  I have a number of things to look up on the intarwebs.