Shoup Airlines

Sacramento

I took a little trip up north on Monday, paid for by all of you lovely California tax payers, so I thank you for the delicious Quizno’s sandwich I was able to partake of that night. Never having visited Sacramento, I was looking forward to perusing the state capital. However, when you arrive after dark the excitement wanes just a tad. Especially when you’re driving a mini van, the only vehicle the rental agency had left. Doing the usual rental car fumble around for everything dance, I went for the radio dreading to hear if Sacramento is rural enough to play mostly Country. No, instead I’m greeted by the universe syndicated radio station Jack FM!  You could take a trip to the sixth planet of the Dagobah system, create that world’s first radio and you’d already find Jack FM not taking any requests. The Buggles need to revamp their one hit wonder, calling it “Jack FM killed the radio DJ.” But I digress…

What surprised me the most is how small the city is, I drove from the far northwest corner to the extreme southeast corner in under 10 minutes. Now don’t start crying the “rental car lead foot” defense, there is only so much you can do with the “rental MINI VAN lead foot.”  Just face it, Sacramento is tiny. 

This whole trip was rather unexpectedly dropped in my lap at the last minute. Last minute = last Monday when they called to know if I could make it up this Monday.  Normally, a week’s notice wouldn’t be terribly bad but add in just a pinch of Thanksgiving and you begin to see the snarl in making reservations.

For those even still reading and remotely curious as to why I was in Sacramento, I was there to visit with some rather high brass at the State Adjutant General’s office. No, I’m not that important, there were 21 more individuals of assorted enlisted and commissioned rank vying for that precious chance to visit Alabama. What’s so special about Alabama you ask? This.  And it ain’t so easy to get an invite as I’m finding out.

Sitting in the waiting room (cafeteria), everyone starts that falsely relaxed yet frenetic conversation with each other trying to discover if someone else might know more about what happens once you step behind that ominous closed door. That futile attempt lasts less than a minute when people realize no one really knows anything. Then the required outlandish and comical rumors begin to fly. I actually relish this because a) I become more relaxed in the sight of everyone else’s nervousness and 2) the rumors are hilarious!

“Dude, I hear it’s a five year waiting list for Rucker!”

“I heard we have to go through Basic again!”

Both of these came from First Lieutenants, “the educated” ones interviewing.

Luckily, because I flew in, I got to be one of the first to step behind that closed door. What I found were a Colonel, a Major and a Chief Warrant Officer 5 (comparable to Generals in rarity) that were the friendliest interviewers I have ever met. A painless twenty minutes, this “board” was essentially a meet and greet. They just wanted to flesh out our paperwork. How come no one could have told us this beforehand? The Guard has such a funny sense of humor. Of course, you’d think I would have seen this coming after taking a test that asked if I’d rather pop a friend’s blister or visit the dentist.

Another twenty minutes and I was back on my way to the airport.  This time I got to see Sacramento during the daylight hours.  From the highway.  Going 80 mph.  Kind of blurry, if you ask me.  Actually, the place seemed very midwestern-y to me.  Maybe I’ll go back someday.  Most likely though, only if you guys are paying.  Again.   

Remember, the military is very traditional, so if they wouldn’t tell us what to expect in the board don’t begin to think, even for a second, that they told us how many slots were available or when we might find out who got in. My only advice? Hurry up and wait.

An Interesting View

So I got this new phone that takes photos and video. Then I realized that I needed to buy an SD card to transfer said media to my computer (I’m too cheap to buy the plan with multimedia messages). Anyway, one of the first things I noticed was the shutter speed of the camera and what it does with objects moving relatively fast. The first shot is looking out the front window of a Cessna 172. Those horizontal streaks are the prop.

This shot was taken while we were working on a Blackhawk. We have the rotor running at 30% torque so it would normally look like the rotor disc you see when you spot a helicopter flying. Instead, the camera curves the blades and bends them as if they’re folded back for shipping. After seeing that photo, I wondered what video would do to the main rotor…

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Oh damn, guess what I forgot?!

I’m very much a staunch supporter of not seeing Christmas stuff until after the Thanksgiving holiday.  I believe the 30 days on average between Thanksgiving and Christmas is more than ample for all commercial gains. 

But sometimes you just have to break the rules.  Especially when you’re an even stauncher fan of giving Andy as much crap as possible.  Why?  Because it’s just so much fun.

Digging through my stat files this week I found a bunch of search engine hits leading to this site of people looking for the cranberries they’d forgotten.  I immediately thought of Andy and his endless love for this Christmas time favorite from the Waitresses.  The look of joy on Ini’s face every time this song comes on, it just embodies what Christmas is all about.  In fact, if you run into him, play the song for him, he would love nothing more!

Merry Christmas, pal!