Stacking the Kitty

Found this last night and yelled at Mikey to come and see.

We used to play this game with our Kitty, but we called it "Stacking the Kitty." In our version, we'd see how high we could balance stuff on him, carefully stacking assorted lightweight items until the whole pile fell over.

Didn't take pictures, though--didn't want any evidence that could be used against us.

(Link via Czeltic Girl, where I also found the Silly Sleeping Pose Olympics)

Still pouring

Bob lost his job this morning. I'm too drained to feel much about it yet. I'm sure he'll be by shortly and I'll remind him that a guy as broke as he is doesn't have the luxury of a smart mouth but, honestly, I wish he would just stay home today. I need a day off, badly.

Had both girls yesterday, and all three of us were sobbing by noon. Then their mom was three hours late picking them up.

Been worried about Cathy and not feeling very chatty. I hear her diagnosis was changed to an actual aneurysm; Sherri's posting updates on her blog, so go there for more info.

When it rains, it pours

Jenny's baby's in the hospital, too. The same one as Cathy, so that's one small mercy.

It's Piper's asthma; she couldn't get any air yesterday, so she's in the pediatric ICU.

Cathy's still camped out in the critical care section of the ER, because there are still no beds available in ICU.

Cathy's in the hospital

They think she might have a pulmonary embolism, which is serious, so everybody needs to pray.

Sherri took off work and went back up there; you can call her or Mom on their cell phones for updates.

UPDATE - 8:30pm: Not an embolism after all; it's a tear in the lining of her aorta. Still in the emergency room, waiting for a bed in ICU--can you believe it? She's been at the hospital since about 5:00 this morning.

Read about her condition here, if you want. I kind of wish I hadn't. It is very serious.

Just pray as hard as you can.

Margie's blog

is not margie.blogspot.com, unless there are aspects of her personality that have never before been revealed to us.

So, Marge, your user name is not "Margie." That's why your password never did turn up in your mailbox. It isn't "Marge" or "Margie" with your numbers after it, either, or "Margieblog" or "Margiesblog." Couldn't think of anything else to try.

Sorry I couldn't be more help. Let us know when you get it figured out.

Chris & Sherri have been showered

And a fine time was had by all.

They did forget to add this item to their registry, though, so if you know anyone who hasn't picked out a gift yet...

Subversive diapers

Brittany's nappies have a colorful band of zoo animals printed across the front; the rest is decorated with little green lines of verse. And what do you think those verses might be? Nursery rhymes? Children's songs? Nope. Try John Lennon:

Imagine all the people
living life in peace...

Isn't that cool? I love it.

I'm being humped

by Bridgie's dog.

Off! Quit that!

Gyaaah--and it's a girl dog, too.

Why don't you go find something else to do? Please?

Oh, finally. She laid down.

This dog will not eat the food Bridge left for her. She chowed on leftover spaghetti sauce yesterday and ate some bacon and the filling out of a chicken cannelloni today.

Oh, for Pete's sake--she's whimpering.

What? What is it?

She's being very needy right now. Anyway, she's got these funny little fringes on her toes that remind me of the Grinch...

Would you quit humping me, please? Oh, that is it.

She's cooling off in the backyard for a bit. Anyway, these fringes, they're cute and her nose is real pointy, too, so she kinda looks like a little Grinch dog:



She's cute when she does her business, too; she doesn't quite manage a hike or a squat. It's sort of a half-hike with a twist.

Things that made me laugh

during my last spin through the blogroll:

Finslippy's pot roast recipe

Dooce's plumbing problem

Go read.

Bridgie's in Cancun

so I'm watching her little doggie this week. Missy's a fuzzy gray terrier mix, and a cuddler. She's having a timeout in the backyard right now because she had a barking fit right after I put Brittany down for a nap, but mostly she's been pretty good.

Strollin'

Pausing for a cute break in front of the spirea hedge:



The stroller's been stored in our garage for a couple of months; I just brought it outside two days ago because the weather's been so nice. Brittany sits in it and smiles and claps at everything while I bird-watch, and we take walks around the yard--it rolls great on the grass.

So, of course, Bob asked if he could take the stroller home yesterday. I said, "Sure, it's yours. Take it." Inwardly, though, I was like, "No! No! Don't take it away from us! We were having so much fun!"

I gotta go shopping--need a stroller of my own and more challenging toys for Brittany. She's already bored with the ones she has.

Finally figured out why

the flash doesn't work when I take still photos with my video camera.

It's because I don't have the optional flash attachment.

Duh!

Birdie love

Oh, my--I feel like such a voyeur. Watched my sparrows doing the wild thing this morning. It just seems naughtier somehow through binoculars.

I'm pretty sure they're house sparrows. Almost certain. I could be wrong.

Birding: Fledgling efforts

Finally got some binoculars for my birthday, but the pair Mikey picked out are so powerful that I can't focus on anything in my yard. I can see what's going on in the neighbors' trees just fine, though. Sherri loaned me a little bitty pair that's perfect for viewing within the yard, so I've been getting to know my birds and enjoying myself immensely.

There's a pair of (I think) sparrows that live in the top right hole of my purple martin house (it's a 12-holer), and a black or blue-black bird that lives in the top left--too small to be a crow. There's a huge granddaddy bluejay living here that looks as big as a crow. Saw a robin today, and watched a squirrel cavort about and then drape itself across a branch in such a cute way that I ran to get the camera. Got one shot before it took off, but the picture came out too dark.

I think I need a more comprehensive bird identification book (sorry, Bridgie). And a 35mm camera with a telephoto lens--I just can't get the pictures I want with digital.

15th mission: Royan

Exchanged e-mails with B-17 navigator Marshall Stelzriede a few years ago, and he told me:

It is really amazing that your dad could have flown 15 missions in 30 days. That was a mission every other day. It took me five months to do 25, and that was really exhausting...

Daddy's last combat mission, just a few weeks before his 19th birthday:

It was yesterday's target but today's weaponry was new--for the first time the Air Force used napalm. The armorers obviously had trouble with these "new fangled" bombs for pilot Peder Larsen recorded: "New petroleum bombs were put into the planes and were leaking! Flew ship #777 out to the Channel and was instructed to drop them from 300 feet"... -- Snetterton Falcons

[T]he bomb load consisted of some P-51 wing tanks filled with napalm with an igniting device. Emitting fumes that even penetrated the crew's oxygen masks, the bomb bay doors were opened slightly to allow the fluid napalm to go out into the slip stream. One can conjecture that the personnel responsible for filling these tank did not take into consideration that by filling the tanks to the brim at ground level, the fluid would expand at altitude and over flow... -- GG Greenwood, 351st Bomb Squadron

1,278 Eighth Air Force heavy bombers attack fortifications, strong points, gun emplacements, and flak positions at Bordeaux, Royan, and other German defensive positions remaining along the French Atlantic coast. One B-24 is lost. The Royan mission is of interest in that it involves the first and only operational use of napalm bombs by Eighth Air Force heavy-bomber units. The results are negligible, and plans to drop more napalm from heavy bombers are canceled. -- 354th Fighter Group

A total of (54) 75-Gallon and (154) 85-Gallon canisters of Napalm was dropped along with (156) 100 pounders to act as a diffuser for the Napalm. Results of the mission were most satisfactory though the new weapons were noted to have very unpredictable falling tangent ballistics... -- 392nd Bomb Group

<***WARNING: POLITICAL CONTENT!!!***> This next bit is by Howard Zinn, historian and anti-war activist, who was a bombardier on a B-17 crew; follow the links at your own risk:

The raid on Royan was an even more difficult experience for me as I thought about it later. It was a situation where the war was just about over, a few months before the end of the war. We thought we weren't going to fly any more missions, because we had already overrun France, taken most of Germany, there was virtually nothing left to bomb, and everybody knew the war was going to be over in a few weeks. We were awakened at one in the morning, the usual waking up time if you're going to fly at six. It's not like in the movies where you leap out of bed into the cockpit, rev up the engines and you're off. Five boring hours of listening to briefings, getting your equipment, putting on your electrically heated suit, going to the bombardiers' briefing, the officers' briefing, going to eat and deciding whether you eat square eggs or round eggs. They briefed us and told us we were going to bomb this little town on the Atlantic coast near Bordeaux, a town called Royan. They showed it to us on the map. Nobody asked why. You don't ask questions at briefings....It wasn't until later, when I did research into it after the war, that I realized that it was twelve hundred heavy bombers going over against two or three thousand German soldiers. But they told us in the briefing, You're going to carry a different time of bomb in the bomb bay. Not the usual demolition bomb. You're going to carry canisters, long cylinders of jellied gasoline. It didn't mean anything to us, except we knew jellied gasoline would ignite...

After the war, Daddy was stationed in Occupied Germany through 1945 and 1946, but I haven't done much research on that part of his service yet.

14th mission: Royan

Daddy's next-to-last mission--they hit Royan two days in a row:

It was an early wakeup at 0030 for an 0200 briefing which led to take-off at 0425 for the long over-the-water haul down the French Atlantic coast to end these last desperate pockets of resistance near the massive gun emplacements in the Bordeaux area. All three air divisions woke British civilians with the drone and roar of over 1,000 four-engined bombers. Assembly, unlike the old days, was made over France. Royan was a town situated on the mouth of the River Gironde in which a stubborn German garrison was still holding out thus preventing the Allies from use of the port of Bordeaux. All A/C carried fragmentation bombs and strike photos were only fair to good. No losses. -- Snetterton Falcons

The target assigned on this mission was one of the most unusual types ever given to the 14th Combat Wing. Enemy ‘pockets of resistance’ were still prevalent in various parts of France and on this date a gun emplacement on the Giraud Estuary, just north of Bordeaux, was slated for attack. The bombing formations were unusual, as well, with six ship squadrons flying in waves across the target. Also, since enemy fighter reaction was not anticipated this late in the war for a mission to be flown almost entirely over friendly territory, .50 caliber machine guns and ammunition were not loaded and most Waist Gunners did not fly with their crews...A tragic accident occurred on take-off to one of the 578th aircrews - the last 392nd crew to be killed-in-action in combat during World War II. The aircraft, # 446 (R-Bar), piloted by Lieutenant Charles Warner crashed just after breaking ground in the pre-dawn take-off. He, and (6) others of his crew were killed in the crash but (1) Gunner survived, having been thrown clear of the burning bomber after impact on the northeast end of Runway 05. The cause of the crash was attributed to the loss of two engines on the left side just as the ship was breaking ground on take-off. Tower observers saw the pilots vainly struggling to keep the crippled Liberator in the air and gain some altitude, but the left wing would not come up and the bomber crashed in an open field, bursting into flames immediately. This grim tragedy was a somber spectacle for the remaining (26) crews which took off over the crashed bomber’s site to continue the mission... -- 392nd Bomb Group

April 14, 1945 was the number 5. We bombed gun batteries at St. Palais. That is down in southern France. The Germans had about 100,000 men down there and they had the entrance to the Harbor at Bordeaux. We had a bomb load of small frags. Boy oh boy, we really plastered that place. When we got over the target, it looked like it was raining bombs. We didn't see any fighters or get any flak. We flew over Paris on the way down so we didn't see the city. We passed over LaHarve and it was really tore up. It has so many bomb craters that it looked like it had the smallpox. That was a pretty nice mission, but as far as I'm concerned none of them are milk runs...You have to fly level and straight no matter how thick the flak is. Brother, it gives you a creepy feeling to see a wall of flak in front of you and you know you have to fly through it. You just sit there and hope to hell you don't get knocked off... -- Sgt Madison Parker, 486th Bomb Group

Mourning doves

Sherri said she could hear doves when we sat on my back porch last night. I saw these in the yard today:

Birthday flowers

Made our annual trek to Grandpa's Greenthumb yesterday. Got a couple of hydrangeas to replace the ones Mikey pre-emergented to death, and a miniature rosebush to replace one I accidentally yanked up while weeding. Geraniums and asparagus fern for my big patio pot, and some lantana.

Didn't find much I wanted, really. Still need forsythia and a flat of something or other and a couple of packets of seeds to fill in some empty spots, and then I should be all set for the year.

Oh, yeah--snuck out last week and bought some different colors of irises--blue, pink and yellow--and some echinacea. And a packet of zinnia seeds.

Got everything planted already and Mikey mowed and edged this weekend, so the yard's lookin' pretty darn good.

Just me & Sis

Kayla started back at her old day care last week, so I'm only watching the baby now. Haven't mentioned it before because it kinda hurt my feelings--her mom just announced it one morning without any discussion.

Hope it wasn't a comment on the care Kayla was getting here. Surely not. I won't deny she's a handful but--surely not.

It's not all bad--my days are calmer and pass more quickly now. Gave Brittany-Boo her breakfast this morning and then a bath, then we played, and now she's down for her nap. And, for the next hour or two, a little quiet time just for me--which simply doesn't happen when her sister's here, because I can never get them both to sleep at the same time.

13th mission: Donauworth

This was Daddy's last flight over Germany, though he still had two more missions to go:

Another milk run for participating crews and a bombing under ideal conditions for bombardiers. The 108 Fortresses of the 45CBW dropped 321 tons and thus left another massive space in Hitler's diminishing logistical network. -- Snetterton Falcons

We bombed airfields at Ingolstadt, Germany. We had a 6000-pound load of G.P. bombs. There was very little flak and none of it was close. Boy we sure bombed the hell out of that place. From the best I could see, we really did a neat job. Bombs scattered up and down the runways and several of the hangers got direct hits. We flew over several large cities. One of them was Brussels . It is sure a pretty place. We saw a lot of towns that were completely destroyed and miles of country that was a solid bomb crater and shell holes. It was a pretty long drag. We were up 7 hours and 15 minutes. -- Sgt Madison Parker, 486th Bomb Group

On April, 11 1945, the 357th FG was on an escort mission to Donauworth. After they were released from escort duty, they went looking for trouble and a few found it. They looked in on the Prague/Ruzyne Aerodrome, home of over 100 ME 262 jets. In spite of very intense light flak, they destroyed two ME262s, two JU88s and a big FW200. Three 364th pilots were shot down by flak during the strafing. Lts Monahan, Muller and Snedecker. I believe Lt. Irving Snedecker was the only survivor...On his first pass across the airfield, there was a loud bang, a jolt to his Mustang and he saw his prop going off across the field. A 20MM shell had hit the prop hub taking the prop with it. He managed to land the crippled plane inside the Aerodrome perimeter fence. The plane broke in two behind the cockpit in the process. Quickly getting out of the wreck, he sat on the ground a safe distance from it and lit a cigarette, thinking it might be his last one for a while. Told me it was a lonesome feeling watching the group leave for home... -- 364th Fighter Group