Jack the Cattle Dog

I've discovered something absolutely fascinating at work.  As if I didn't have enough distractions to keep me from being productive, here comes along a jewel of a shiny object to waste even more precious minutes out of my day.  It's the online want ads on the work intranet.  Anybody can go to this public folder and post items for sale.  There are houses for sale/rent, furniture, appliances, video games, gym equipment - you name it and it's on there.  Even pets to adopt.

Here's a recent ad that had me floored:

Jack:  5 yr. old male, pure Australian Cattle Dog, altered, current on vaccinations.  Jack is car trained & house trained.  Jack is a special needs dog - DEAF.  He lost his hearing when he was 2 yrs of age (he was a working dog prior to his accident and was kicked in the head by a cow), but has excelled at sign language and is very intelligent.  He has made the transition from working dog to family pet beautifully and is an amazing addition to an active family.  Because Jack was a working dog on a very large cattle ranch, he does have a very high prey drive; therefore, Jack is best suited for a home without small animals (to include cats).  Jack would be best suited for a family with no children or older children. Jack has a very domineering nature (as do all dogs that have been working herders) and is excellent with other dogs.  Australian Cattle Dogs have a very high energy drive.


A deaf dog that got kicked in the head by a cow that knows sign language and might eat your kids.  Awesome.  You can't make this stuff up.  

Bird Strike!

Bird strikes are bad news in the aviation business.  I've had one crack a windscreen while doing a low level flight over Italy and also had squadronmates ingest birds in the engines.  Not fun.  Certainly no day in the park for the birds either.

These pictures give a whole new meaning to the term bird strike though:

 

A little revenge for our feathered friends.  Tough day for this unmanned aerial vehicle or UAV.  Reminds me of one time when I was fishing.  I was working the "walk the dog" technique with a Zara Spook lure and a hawk comes swooping down and scoops up my lure off the top of the water.  He flies about 30 feet in the air before he realizes what he has in his talons is not edible.  He releases the lure.  Glad he didn't get caught by the treble hooks.  

Hope you're enjoying this awesome spring weather.  Great for flying and fishing.  Until next time...

Fire on Aircraft Carrier

Awesome job by the crew of the USS CARL VINSON recently.  Check out how they handled a recent fire on their flight deck:



The F/A-18C Hornet is from the VFA-113 Stingers based out of NAS Lemoore in California and currently on deployment in the Arabian Sea.  Everyone that deploys on an aircraft carrier goes to firefighting school.  This incident shows why.

One engine catches fire then the other one lights off too.  In a span of a couple of seconds, so much is happening.  The pilot is going through his emergency procedures.  I'm not a Hornet guy but I'm guessing the throttles are coming off, fuel and hydraulics are getting cut off to the engine, ignition switches are getting cut off and he's looking to egress out of that jet.  The Air Boss in the tower is probably on the radio with a few calculated words.  The CO of the ship and Navigator are thinking about the best course of action for the ship.  The search and rescue helo is snuggling up closer to the ship just in case.  The rest of the airwing that's still airborne are re-calculating their fuel ladders and conserving gas because they're not sure how long until the flight deck will be cleared to take them.  It's never a dull day on the carrier.  Well, maybe on a no-fly day.  Man, I miss it.