Siblings III

I'll guess this one was taken in the early '80s, say 1983. (After that, my hair and beard started going gray in a big way.) It shows me with two of my sisters, Cathie and Ellen in the dining room at Mom's house. I don't know who took the picture, but I like it. (I have a small framed copy of it on my desk.) That's a lot of hair; "Gimme a head with hair, long beautiful hair. . ."


This one, of Daniel and Lisa, was taken in Karen and Richard's kitchen over Labor Day weekend 2004. This was about the time I was getting fed up with driving back and forth between Atlanta and Texas (either Austin or Grand Prairie) four or five times a year.


The picture above shows Natalie and Ben in the foyer of Ellen and Stan's house in San Antonio in 2008. Ben was within a month of graduation, and he brought Natalie down after her swim practice. We had gone down for a pre-party party on Saturday, then reconvened in Austin the next day at Karen's to celebrate Mother's Day. After resting on Monday, Mom and I drove out to San Angelo to visit Kim and Robert.

Random Portraits

I've got two or three photographs that, whenever I see them, generate in me overwhelming feelings of happiness all out of proportion to any artistic value they may have. This is the first one of those that comes to mind. Gillian, sitting in her somewhat worn highchair with half a cup of cow juice (milk), wearing a friendship bracelet her brother, David, made for her and a smile that lights up her entire face. I wonder for a moment what she's thinking, but it's immediately clear. She's thinking, "We're having the best time!" (Arlington, 1989)


I consider this one of my best portraits ever. It's my friend, Pat, and I took it on the deck in his backyard in April 2002. First of all, the lighting made the photograph perfect for my sketchification process. And the elimination of the background in this process allowed for the focus to remain squarely on the subject. Don't get me wrong. Pat's back yard is a marvelous place; green and lush. . . flowers and trees. . . But curiously, all detail in my recollections of his yard have faded - the extravagant beauty of his dogwoods, you see, simply wipe everything else out. Alright! I have this thing for dogwoods.


I think this was taken in 2000 or 2001 at Mother's house in Grand Prairie. I had already taken several pictures of the kids and was trailing Lauren into the kitchen. As she was passing Dad's globe I got her to stop and pose for me. I guess she thought posing with the globe was a good idea - she readily agreed. But, of course, Lauren has always been ready to have her picture taken. She'll be down here next weekend for our Labor Day celebration - a big holiday for us retired folk - and I suspect she'll still be pleased to pause in her endeavors for a moment whenever I grab my cameras.

Sequoia National Park

Mary came to visit us in Lemoore over Christmas holidays in 1975. We had a great time while she was with us which included among other things New Year's Eve in Reno, drives around Lake Tahoe, a speeding ticket (hers) on the way through the Donner Pass on the way to San Francisco, an afternoon visit to Yosemite, and a drive through Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.


I believe this is on the edge of the road (Hwy 198), looking Southwest towards Visalia, on the edge of the San Joaquin Valley. It was a cloudy day, but at least we were out of the fog you can see in the valley. Dallas always loved coming up here because we'd come up during the middle of the week when there were only a few visitors and I'd let her run loose among the Sequoias.


This is the Sequoia visitors center complex on a different trip. They have very interesting displays in the visitors center describing the specific ecological requirements necessary for the Sequoia to flourish and showing the very few locations that meet the requirements.


I like this picture because I've got both Mary's and Dallas's attention. The light's mostly soft because of the cloudy skies, but when it shines through it really brings out the color of these redwood cousins.


This is the General Sherman Tree - there is also a General Grant Tree in the park. The General Sherman is thought by many to be the largest living organism on earth. (I think I read about some kind of giant algae or moss that grows somewhere in Michigan, but I don't know if that could be considered a single organism.) For your edification, I've listed the specs for the General Sherman Tree:

• Estimated Age_____3000 to 3500 years
• Estimated Weight of Trunk_____1,319 tons
• Height above the Base_____272.4 feet
• Circumference at Base_____101.6 feet
• Diameter at Base_____36.5 feet
• Diameter 60 Feet above Ground_____17.5 feet
• Diameter 180 Feet above Ground_____14.0 feet
• Diameter of Largest Branch_____6.8 feet
• Height to First Large Branch_____130.0 feet
• Volume of Trunk_____50,010 ft.³

When something that big falls it's impressive. (No, we didn't get to see one fall.) There are, however, several in the forest that have fallen and I have to say they're as impressive lying on the ground as they are standing up. Here, Mary and Dallas are posing in front of a fallen Sequoia giving a just hint of the root system, now pretty much clean and somewhat worn away by the weather over the years, that supports these giant trees.

Siblings II

I was over at mom's this afternoon and she, Stephen and I were discussing the many similarities and differences among our siblings - sort of a compare and contrast exercise. It's almost always entertaining, but eventually you have to get back to work - whether work is taking a nap, painting, or posting to a blog.


I'll take a wild guess and say this is a Christmas photograph. If I had to, I could probably dig into my files and determine the specific year, but it's probably not that important - I'd guess about 2004 or 2005. Left to right, the lineup goes: Angela, Stephen, Cathie, Bill, and Mary. It was taken at Angela's house which is configured very nicely for large gatherings of hungry people.


This one, also at Angela's (at either Thanksgiving or Christmas) is of Karen and Ellen having a chuckle over a photograph. It's all right for them to take a laugh break, since the table in the room behind them has been cleared and the kitchen probably already cleaned up.


Meanwhile, out in the sun room, Tracy and Melissa are ready to watch the Cowboys or the Longhorns get after some evil organization like the Eagles or the Aggies. The important thing is that there's plenty of beer and wine to get us past any gridiron disappointments. Hook 'em!

Random Portraits

Cathie -- 1980

This picture was taken in front of the Christmas tree at Mom's house as the clan gathered on Christmas Eve. All was quiet as we waited to reach the critical mass of Parkers for a party to break out.

Ellen -- 1980

I took this picture of Ellen basking in Inks Lake from the back of Tim's Sea Ray. I have a number of pictures of many of the gang on skis, but a disproportionate number of them depict the subjects as unbalanced to some extent - most often physically. In some, the subject is unidentifiable, concealed by a splash of more or less "terminal" imbalance. In this instance, however, Ellen appears completely at ease in her surroundings and exudes unquestioned confidence that she'll maintain her equilibrium through the end of the run regardless of the incompetence of the boat's helmsman.

David -- 1982

This is one of my favorite portraits of all time. I had finished mowing the lawn and David brought the two dogs - Dubbo on the left and Dallas on the right - out to watch me as I trimmed the the shrubs in front of our house on Howerington Circle. I made David the crown of leaves from my clippings and the dogs, always anxious to please, lay expectantly on either side.

Random Portraits

Happy Birthday, Mary!

Mary -- 1974

I'm just guessing at the year on this one. I don't believe I visited Austin while I was stationed on the Roosevelt and I think the picture was taken before I got married. That narrows it down considerably. I suppose it's not that important, but not being able to pin down the date annoys me. The picture was taken in Pease Park - I shot a whole roll of film, if not more - and feel it was an afternoon well spent. Mary was very patient and I got several good shots.

Paul -- 1978

Again, the year 1978 is not carved in stone; if someone has a better guess... This was taken one morning at NAS Dallas when Paul was visiting for the weekend. He and Stephen and I drove out to the base so he could show us "his ride", an A-6 Intruder. I took the picture with a Polaroid Pronto and over the years a lot of those prints have developed cracks - the surface looks like crazed pottery. In any event, I scanned this at the highest resolution I could and then proceeded to clean up the cracks. I've always been very pleased with the results.

Richard and Karen -- 1980

This one was taken at Inks Lake State Park on one of our family campouts. In the early '80s we usually had around 15 people spending the weekend and a few more driving up from Austin for the day. Of course, those were the days when Tim came and could be counted on to bring his ski boat - Oh! And we were young. What a time we had! I don't know whose hammock that is, but it sure has shown up in a lot of pictures covering a bunch of years.

Random Portraits

I've found myself spending entirely too much time preparing my posts so, as a remedy, I'll spend less time trying to come up with themes for each post and simply publish a few pictures each time that I particularly like. I'm going to start this off with more or less random portraits, random at least in their relationship to each other. I have a folder of favorites chronologically ordered and I'll just start at the top. I will, however, skip the occasional picture to keep one subject from appearing twice in one post for variety's sake.

Ellen -- 1970

Ellen's birthday was this past Wednesday so I guess it's an appropriate time to start this series of portraits. This one was taken in the back yard in Austin when I got home from Adak on leave in the summer of 1970. I was still learning to use my Minolta camera which I'd only had for a couple of months. I especially liked the look on Ellen's face in this one, the hint of a smile - and of course her "big hair".

Mary -- 1970

This picture of Mary was taken later in the afternoon of the same day as the previous portrait - and she's in the same mimosa tree. Of the several I took of her that afternoon, this is one of the few that didn't have a shadow across her face. As I said, I was still learning my new camera and all the new things I had to account for.

Donna -- 1973

I'm guessing on the year for this one; it may have been 1974. It was taken in Asheville the weekend we painted Tony and Donna's "new" house. Donna's hair was cut shorter that I'd ever seen it - but I like it. The dog is the first of several miniature schnauzers in the family, so forgive me for not being sure of their order. This one is either Heidi or Gretchen.

Cats - Too many to keep straight

I've been informed that both Cats posts (i.e., Part 1 & Part 2) need to be corrected, so I suppose I shall handle them in order.

It seems I misidentified the cat above as Pork Chop and I have no earthly idea why I should have made such error. Lauren kindly pointed out that the subject kitten is in fact the unfortunate Girl Kitty, who took up residence at Angela and Danny's at the same time as her brother, Boy Kitty. Girl Kitty left Arlington for the Heavyside Layer following a very brief, violent, early morning encounter with an owl outside Danny's bedroom window. R.I.P.

The real Pork Chop probably heard about Girl Kitty's ghastly luck and tries her best to maintain a low profile. She apparently feels the owl might identify her photo and come after her, so she's very adept at turning away from the camera at the last moment unless one of my attractive assistants hold her. In the shot below, Allison has wrapped up Pork Chop and Lauren has Peach under control - at least for the moment.

*****

My faux pas in Part 2 was most disconcerting, having been pointed out to me by Stephen. I wanted to include a reference to Mary and David's cats and it appears that, when I called David to confirm my facts - which cat was Tiger and which was Leo - David and I spent our few minutes talking past each other. So I still don't have pictures of either cat but, after checking with Mary, I can assure you Tiger is the black one that reflects no light and Leo (as in leopard, get it?) is the brownish/grayish one with spots. And you know what that means - I no longer have an excuse for not having a picture of Leo.

Another good reason for being a "dog person"!

Cats - all cats are Jellicle Cats - Part 1

It should come as no surprise that I consider myself a "dog person". That's not to say, however, that I don't appreciate cats. They're often beautiful creatures, and watching a house cat stalk its prey provides a wonderfully interesting window on the world of the Big Cats - without putting your life at risk. Frequently you'll find that cats are simply the best entertainment around. It's just that, when I scratch a critter under the chin, I'd like it to show some appreciation. But I promised you some cats, so here they are.

First up is El Gato (La Gata just doesn't get it) or, if you don't remember her when she was in fighting trim, Fat Cat. On the left, she looks every bit as fierce as her much larger cousins. On the right, she's practicing her signature technique for luring birds closer. She practiced in the laundry hamper - which was always full in a house with nine kids - with the serendipitous result that the clothes stayed warm. Gato started out with us in Austin, moved with the family to Tyler and then Grand Prairie, and ended her days - or at least that life - back in Austin.

Are you blind when you're born? Can you see in the dark?
Can you look at a king? Would you sit on his throne?
Can you say of your bite that it's worse than your bark?

Are you cock of the walk when you're walking alone?

This fine specimen is Peach, who lives in Arlington at Angela and Danny's. If nothing else, I've noticed that Peach has a very secure relationship with Chester, whom you've already met. They spar regularly and often and no one seems the least bit concerned to see the match end with Peach hanging from Chester's mouth.

When you fall on your head, do you land on your feet?
Are you tense when you sense there's a storm in the air?
Can you find your way blind when you're lost in the street?
Do you know how to go to the Heaviside layer?

Pork Chop, above, is much less sure about Chester's motives and tends to hang out wherever Chester is not. A pretty cat, Pork Chop may be too nervous for Angela and Danny's house.

Can you ride on a broomstick to places far distant?
Familiar with candle, with book, and with bell?
Were you Whittington's friend? The Pied Piper's assistant?
Have you been an alumnus of Heaven and Hell?

If you see Lisa's Saab parked out in front of Karen and Richard's house, glance around and you may also catch sight of Hush, visiting from Dallas. Lisa's friend, Hush, is a polydactyl cat, with six toes on each paw (see the photo on the right). While not common, neither are they rare. The Guiness Book of World Records at one time featured a cat named Tiger with 27 toes. The current record seems to be held by Jake, with seven toes on each paw. Polydactyl cats were considered lucky by sailors - that's good enough for me.

Are you mean like a minx? Are you lean like a lynx?
Are you keen to be seen when you're smelling a rat?
Were you there when the pharaohs commissioned the sphinx?
If you were and you are, you're a Jellicle cat

Allison tells me she has two cats, Pom-Pom and Princess. I'm not sure that she's not putting me on. I've never seen both cats together and, as far as I can tell, she's calling the same cat two different names depending on how the fancy strikes. If there are two, they don't hang together much. Next time I go to San Antonio, I'll try to get proof, one way or the other.

We can dive through the air, like a flying trapeze
We can turn double somersaults, bounce on a tire
We can run up a wall, we can swing through the trees
We can balance on bars, we can walk on a wire

(Keep reading, there're more Cats below)

Cats - all cats are Jellicle Cats - Part 2

Some technical glitch, probably a file limit of some sort with which I was not familiar, caused me to break this post into two parts. Of course, it may just have been my computer suggesting that my post might, in some places, be considered garrulous. Anyway, shall we continue. . . ?

Whether Hush is around or not, Bagheera will be in evidence at Karen and Richard's house. She's a beautiful cat, and she knows it. All I have to do is break out my camera and she moves about posing for me, sure that one day I'll make her famous.

Can you sing at the same time in more than one key?
Duets by Rossini and waltzes by Strauss?
And can you, as cats do begin with a 'C'?
That always triumphantly brings down the house?

This is Casey, who was pretty enough but never had the arrogance of Bagheera, with whom she shared Karen and Richard's house. On the right, Casy's pretending to be a garden gnome. Casey recently moved on to the next life (R.I.P.) and left Bagheera to deal with Sox, Shadow's replacement (see: Parker dogs I have known. . .).

Practical cats, dramatical cats
Pragmatical cats, fanatical cats
Oratorical cats, delphic-oracle cats
Skeptical cats, dyspeptical cats

This fine fellow is Boy Kitty. Angela and Danny have had so many cats, that I suppose they ran out of real names. But that's alright. Boy Kitty comes and goes as he likes, and seems to get along with everyone. He's a great hunter and does sometimes bring home largely unappreciated "gifts" for Angela; it's always fun to be around when he does.

Romantical cats, pedantical cats
Critical cats, parasitical cats
Allegorical cats, metaphorical cats
Statistical cats and mystical cats

When I was preparing materials for this post, I found I had several pictures of a cat I couldn't identify. I finally decided it was probably one of Tracy's critters but, to be sure, I sent a picture to Lauren for a positive ID. Angela and Lauren both answered my e-mail, so here's the straight skinny on the cat above. She was rescued from the pound by Angela and Danny but, after a couple of weeks, she decided that next door was a much "saner" environment - no offense, Chester - and moved over there. The neighbors named the cat "Rufus" but, when told that Rufus was female (I think the term "bitch-kitty" may have been used), she was rechristened Rufina.

So, those are all the Parker cats I have pictures of, though there've been many others over the years. Over at Mary and David's house they have two cats, Tiger and Leo, neither of which suffer paparazzi. They are easy to keep straight, if not keep track of; Tiger is the grayish, brownish one with - get this - spots, not stripes, and Leo is not a buff colored critter exuding a regal air, but a feline black hole as dark as the night. The problem with pictures and these cats is that when I see Tiger's spots I start laughing and can't hold the camera still. And, of course, I couldn't take a picture of Leo because he doesn't reflect light. Ah, well. . .

I wonder if anyone has pictures of Rohar and/or Graybaby (Greybaby?).

The Aluminum Overcast

The sequence of pictures in this post, taken from the tower at Lemoore Naval Air Station, are not particularly interesting in their own right but they do remind me of a mildly interesting event more than 30 years ago and provided a few of the many details I had forgotten. And, the little bit of research I did on Fat Albert and the Hueys highlighted at least one apparent discrepancy in the tale as I've always related it. The story itself has two parts: the first, relating to the airplane's arrival, took place before the sequence of pictures and the second, relating to its cargo, took place afterwords. So I'll tell the story and sprinkle the pictures in just give you a feel for the setting.

It's 247' 10" long, 65 feet high, and has a wingspan of 222' 9". Because of its size it's been referred to as "The Aluminum Overcast" and, occasionally, as "the box the C-141 came in". Until the Russians built their big Antonov's, the C-5 Galaxy was the largest airplane in the world. I believe it still holds a number of world records and, though its complexity and its sheer size make it a difficult plane to maintain, a modernized cockpit and new engines will go a long way towards correcting its deficiencies. (Sorry, my persona switched from air traffic controller to engineer for a moment. The C-5 fleet is currently being upgraded for the US Air Force by Lockheed Martin.)

Anyway, it's big. When you're used to scanning your airspace, looking for something the size of an A-7 Corsair or an A-4 Skyhawk, it's really easy to see a C-5 Galaxy. Of course, that's part of the problem. Especially if you've never worked (or even seen) one before. The other part of the problem is that none of your rules of thumb work because of the scale of this one player.

We saw this guy that seemed to be parked south of the airport just above the horizon long before approach control called to tell us about him. He was clearly inbound and I had to think about how I was going to work him in with my VFR traffic. After eyeing him for several minutes with no call from radar, I called down and asked about him, only to be told that he was still 20 miles out. That should have given me a clue. Hulking there on the horizon, he brought with him a feeling of impending doom - my very own Sword of Damocles.

As I recall, I was working three to five A-7's in the VFR touch and go pattern on 32L at regular speed and the C-5 was coming straight in to 32L under radar control, seemingly at half speed (or even slower). In the normal scheme of things I would work my traffic until radar's inbound bird became "a factor" then I'd adjust my pattern to accommodate the radar traffic. In this case, the C-5's size made him a factor as soon as he showed up. When radar finally told us he was at 10 miles, he looked like he was at five. I figured radar had called me late and started to extend my VFR traffic downwind to follow the big guy. The first A-7 I tried to extend asked me, "Tower, are you wantin' to put me behind that guy?" When I told them that was indeed my plan, he told me, "Tower, he's still way out there. You could probably turn my whole squadron in in front of him."

Now, on occasion, when you're going down the tubes, a savvy pilot can subtly take control of the pattern and things will work out alright. Usually, however, if you let a pilot take control of your pattern, you'll find you're being led down the Primrose Path. Against my better judgment, I went ahead and turned the first A-7 in front of the C-5 and cleared him for a touch and go. He asked for a full stop, so I cleared him to land. I don't remember what happened to the others, whether I let them sneak in in front of the Galaxy, or they suffered in an extended pattern - past five points on the upwind and past Westhaven on the downwind. Or maybe they just vanished - I couldn't say. In any event, everyone made it through unscathed.

While I was fretting over my options, the tower supervisor suddenly thought about all the problems this guy could engender once he was on the ground. Were the taxiways wide enough? Was there room between the ops building and the hangers to taxi across to the transient line? Was there room for him to turn around anywhere?

What a mess! Even writing about it 30 years later there are more factors involved than I can deal with. The sequence of photos suggests that after he and I screwed up my pattern he ended up making a circling approach to land on 14L. That allowed him to roll out to the end of the runway with a minimum taxi distance to the transient line and keep the tower supervisor out of trouble. Radar could have helped us out a lot if they'd let us know this guy was coming. Oh well...

So he parks at the transit line at the base of the tower and they start unloading his cargo. The first thing down the ramp is a UH-1 Huey helicopter. They tow it over to the edge of the apron and park it. Next off, another Huey - park it over there by the first one. When they pulled the third Huey off, we started taking bets on how many UH-1's a C-5 could hold. Nobody guessed more than six and, in the end, they offloaded seven! (I remembered nine, but my research online suggests that I was mistaken.) Anyway, about nine o'clock that night the helicopters had been fueled and serviced and departed Lemoore in a gaggle, headed for Houston.

I like this last picture best of all. Directly over the C-5 there's a T-34 on approach to runway 32R. It's N1410Z, one of two T-34's the base aero club operated. My first flight in a T-34 was in that plane when I rode down to Long Beach with my instructor to pick up some spare parts for the aero club. All I can say right now is that it was an adventure, and Steve and I were both pleased to have survived it.

The Learning Experience

I've started having to reach now for groups of pictures with a "theme". . . though some of you probably think I've been reaching for a while. This post is from a 2003 visit to Angela and Danny's house in Arlington. Tracy was visiting and had brought her new puppy, Peso, with her.


It all started when Lauren introduced Peso to Chester, the resident canine. When you're the size of Peso and Chester's the size of Chester, discretion being the better part of valor, you should try to maintain a low profile. In this case, Peso stayed low and watched Chester closely.


It wasn't long, however, before she started to establish the bounds of Chester's good nature. Chester, for his part, kept a close eye on the upstart and, for the most part, tried to maintain an even strain.


The first lesson is to show that you're in control. The pup has sharp teeth, but Chester's are much, much larger. Peso's quick, but Chester flips her over on her back with little apparent effort.



Occasionally, a dental touch is necessary to remind Peso to "play nice". . .


. . . but every now and then Chester lets Peso win a fall.


After all, you want to build their self-confidence, not stifle it.


And, with any luck, the pup will exhaust herself before you do.