Choose Cruz!

It was quite the transition for CJ, leaving the academically challenging yet cozy and comfortable environment of Busan Foreign School for the relatively massive southern school in Tennessee where "fitting in" far outweighed the reading, writing and 'rithmetic on many occasions.  There were definitely bumps in the road for our sixth grader this past year.

Part of that I'm sure was because the Busan Foreign School that the boys attended for the last two years in Korea was so dang awesome.  The teachers were incredible, CJ had many like-minded friends and the social aspect was nothing to fret about.  It was much more innocent and carefree than what you see in the US.  At BFS, a male student could wear a Tom and Jerry cartoon shirt, orange pants and carry around a notebook with unicorns on it and no one would care.  He could wear these same clothes three days in a row and no one would care.  That would get you beat up in Tennessee, or at least ostracized from the cool inner circle of popular kids.

Don't get me wrong.  Arlington Middle School is a high quality school.  Their screening process for the gifted program is thorough, the teachers are caring and conscientious about students' learning and the facilities are very nice.  Lots to like and one of the reasons why we moved into our neighborhood.  But with any move, there's always transition.  Being the new kid can be tough.

So my chest was puffed out when CJ was recently voted by the school body to be next year's Student Council Vice President.  Proud Dad moment!  Carol and I knew it would just take a little time to adjust.  And adjust he did.

He ran a great campaign - cool posters and buttons, a really nice speech, help from his buddies and neighbors and even some online ground swell that might've impacted his campaign.  And of course a catchy slogan - CHOOSE CRUZ!

All of the campaign posters had to be approved by the school before going up.  CJ had no problem with any of his posters except for this controversial gem:

I haven't been keeping up with Charlie Sheen's verbal diarrhea and the whole "winning" comments he made.  I do understand why the school didn't approve this poster though.  Charlie Sheen probably isn't the role model you want the future of America to emulate.

A funny thing happened though.  The kids on the bus liked the poster and took pictures of it with their phones.  And they started spreading it out - emails, text and Facebook.  Isn't that how Obama got elected?  Well, maybe replace Charlie with Oprah and it would be more accurate.

Anyway, I'm very proud of my skinny, Filipino kid.  CJ actually used skinny, Filipino kid in his speech and got some laughs.  Now that he's elected, he'll make all of your dreams come true. If you don't know what that means, you need to Netflix Napoleon Dynamite today.  Hope you have a "winning" day!

A Special Mother's Day Gift

We have some very cool neighbors.  It's common for us to do things for each other - lend tools, pick things up while you're at the store, help with parties, etc.  So when Amy from across the street said she could use some raspberries while Carol was making a run to the store, it was no problem at all.

After Carol comes back from the store, she sees Amy outside across the street.  She asks Jake to walk the berries over to Ms. Amy.  He takes his happy little self and scoots on across the street, the whole time with Mom's watchful eye over him.  And so after Jake delivers the goods, Amy, in total jest, says to Jake in a loud voice so that Carol across the street can hear, "You tell your mother she's the WORST neighbor ever!"  Amy repeated it just for good measure.

Of course, Carol could hear the whole thing.  Both Moms got a chuckle out of it.  Carol and Amy have really gotten to be good friends and so the ribbing is common between them.

Jake trots on back to our driveway.  Already knowing the answer, Carol asks Jake, "So what did Ms. Amy say?"

"Umm, let's go inside first," Jake says.  They go into the garage.  "We should go into the house too," says the little guy with some nervousness in his voice.  

So now with the garage door closed and them deeply imbedded inside the house where Ms. Amy surely can't hear him, a very curious Carol asks Jake, "So what did Ms. Amy tell you to tell me?"

And Jake lifts up those big brown eyes and quietly says, "Umm, Ms. Amy said thank you."

There's the little guy that didn't want to hurt his Mom's feelings.

Mother's Day at the Air Force base in Osan, Korea two years ago.

Mom with the boys over 40 years ago in San Diego.  I'm the one drinking the bottle and being held by Mom.    That's the Coronado Bridge on the left.

Mom with the Cruz boys (three of them anyway) at our house in Coronado.  This was when Dad was working at the BOQ on North Island.

Another Coronado picture.

Here comes Darby!

And along comes Lee.  Here we are at the Botanical Gardens in Norfolk, Virginia.  I used to like looking at the airplanes takeoff from one of the hills at this park  The hill had a great view of the Norfolk International Airport.

While the whole family is rocking the heck out of some polyester, I'm starting a whole new fashion trend with my patches.

Happy Mother's Day to all you fabulous Moms!

Different Type of Old Navy Commercial

Just got back from the Naval Symposium in Pensacola.  Great stuff.  2011 marks 100 years of Naval Aviation.  Here's a humorous look back at the days of leather helmets...  

Get Lucky - Click here for the funniest movie of the week

Flooding and Tornadoes

A year ago, Millington was hit hard with flooding.  Here are some of the pictures of the Navy base from last year:

  

This is where I gas up on base.

A year later, the sand bags are in front of the doors again.  This is the entrance I use at work.  We've had flash flood warnings, tornado watches and vicious storms.  Trees came down all over the place, trash cans were flying down the street and roads were closed.  Needless to say, the weather here is serious business.

On cue as I'm typing this, the tornado sirens are going off again.  This latest round of extreme weather shouldn't be anything like the rampage of tornadoes that ripped through Alabama, Mississippi and other parts of the South last week though.  Over 300 dead.  Sad.

We appreciate the calls and emails.  We're good.  Carol's family in Alabama is good.  Some family members experienced some damage but fortunately, everyone's healthy.

Jake said something about some of the people that died in Alabama.  He said that maybe they can be brought back to life by pumping air back into their stomachs and in their mouths (CPR).  Wish it were that simple.

One of the great things about the Navy is the opportunity to experience new places.  We really have loved every duty station we've been to.  I can't say we've been crazy about the different weather phenomena we've lived through though - earthquakes in San Diego, blizzards and ice storms in Rhode Island, hurricanes in Miami and now tornadoes and flooding in Tennessee.  Can't say it's been boring!

The Mississippi is supposed to reach its highest level on Wednesday or Thursday.  Man I hope we stay dry.  Everybody be careful out there.  And be ready.

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.