A place to share recent activities and photos.
Monday October 8, 2012
I completed a second week of work for the FAA from home. Connectivity makes it a bit challenging to meet the expected productivity but things are going smoothly. Last Friday (Oct 5), I drove to Heathrow to pick up Lorna as she returned from a trip to San Antonio. We drove to the south coast and spent the weekend exploring Christchurch and other areas of the south coast. I'll be posting photos and descriptions fo our travels under "Roger and Lorna: Recent Travels" very soon. Check it out if you have time!
October 1, 2012
Well, this time retirement lasted all of eight months. My sabbatical following USAF retirement lasted six months… One day I will get it right.
Unexpected losses of experienced FAA physician reviewers has resulted in significant backlogs and I accepted an offer to return to work as a retired annuitant. This allows me to telework from home (in the UK!) doing essentially the same job as previous with full pay and benefits… Last week I made a quick trip to Oklahoma City to sign papers, pick up a secure government computer workstation, and accomplish other administrivia. I had a chance to visit my Edmond home and can report that my orchard appears to be thriving and my vegetable garden looks well cared for…
I have really been enjoying retirement and the opportunity to pursue leisure hobbies and other interests. So, I return to full time employment with some mixed feelings. I never had any trouble filling the hours. “Only the boring are ever bored…” I’ve already fallen behind in my French Lessons and several other retired pleasures and pursuits. Today I got so focused on work that I nearly forgot to run. How did I ever find time to work???
However, it is an honor and a privilege to serve our great nation and so I am happy to contribute to the FAA’s important mission enhancing the safety and efficiency of our national aerospace system. It is very rewarding to collaborate with so many talented, intelligent and dedicated physicians and other health professionals throughout our nation and indeed the world! From my perspective, returning to work at this time is mostly about service and commitment. A paycheck is nice but our financial future is pretty secure and we do not really need the extra income. The biggest worry may be accumulating enough leave but my FAA bosses understand that I may occasionally request “leave without pay” to entertain visitors or to travel.
September 21, 2012
We hiked through Wicken Fen. This wetlands area managed by the
National Trust is a natural habitat for all sorts of plants and wildlife. A guided three mile walk passes a spectacular array of plants, birds, dragonflies, butterflies, waterfowl and other wildlife. A raised boardwalk helped keep our feet dry and facilitated easy access through tall sedge grasses (used for thatch) and marshland. Flower meadows are grazed by a few well placed Highland Cattle. Recovering forests of birch, aspen and other trees border the trail. There is an abandoned windpump near the start of the trail, that was used to drain the area for harvesting peat, though most of this area has never been drained. (Unlike so much of the low lying flatlands of this area. We had fun trying to spot some of the dozens of varieties of Dragon and Damsel flies that thrive here. We also ran across a group of Konik Ponies. These wild ponies are the closest existing relatives to the primal ponies and now extinct wild horses that once roamed across Europe. One of the observation towers that border the trail had evidence of an owl who had taken up residence in its rafters. At the entrance to the fen there is a dragonfly museum. One can go geo-caching on the site and boat tours are also available through the canals and streams of the reserve.
September 9, 2012
The warmest and sunniest days of the entire summer with temps over 80 degrees in much of our area. Yesterday, we drove to the Duxford Airshow on the grounds of the Imperial War Museum. Beautiful day for an airshow... tens of thousands had the same idea! The 30 minute drive to Duxford required nearly two hours. However, we arrived in time for the flight demonstrations. We were enjoying lunch a bit away from the flight line while a couple of warbird demonstartion flights droned on. Lorna asked "What airplane is that?" I was more than a little amazed to look up to see the unmistakable profile of a Vulcan bomber over the airfield! To my knowledge the Vulcan retired from service in the 1980s! The Vulcan proceeded to perform several flybys. What an amazing bird to see in the air. I commented that this alone was worth the rather steep price of admission to the museums and airshow events. We learned the Vulcan did indeed retire from service in 1984. The RAF kept one airworthy for airshow purposes until 1992 but it became too costly to maintain. In 1993, the last serviceable Vulcan was sold to a private company. Funding and other hurdles to obtain civil aviation certification required more than 15 years. In 2008, the Vulcan finally flew again. The one airframe continues to do a few airshows each year. What an amazing sight.
We walked though several large hangar displays of ground and aviation history. The British museum houses a Concorde and a number of other historically important British/European aircraft from the early 1900s to the present day. The American museum includes an early model B-52 as well as an SR-71 and U-2. These aircraft from my air force days are displayed along with B-17s, early fighters and other aircraft… Anyhow, it was a great day for an airshow.
Today the weather was equally beautiful. We aborted plans for a wildlife walk in the Wicken Fens to attend our Church picnic. The Fens walk will have to wait until another day.
August 29, 2012
Well, after nearly a month posting and developing content, I decided our web site has progressed sufficiently to let it go 'public.' Over 150 hits the first week! Still very much a work in progress. I was stymied for nearly two weeks when our One&One host posted an 'upgrade' to the multimedia element I use to post slide shows. The upgrade was not well tested and several key features did not work. Thankfully, most of the features have been restored.
Lorna and I have been enjoying a very bountiful harvest from our vegetable garden. We've enjoyed a variety of lettuce and spinach for salads over the past 5-6 weeks. We should have more than enough tomatos, carrots, green beans, squash, green peppers, basil, chives, parsely, rutabaga, parsnips, spinach and eggplant in the weeks ahead. Our flower garden also is doing quite well.
The days are notceably shorter though so far daily highs are holding near 70 degrees. Most of our geese appear to have departed. I imagine for the French Riviera... but who knows where Canadian Geese living in Great Britain fly for the winter? Cheers!
August 14, 2012
Well, the Olympics are over. Britain hosted a memorable set of games using some awesome historic venues as a backdrop to the athlete's venture for their own historic quest for excellence. We are very proud of Team USA's medal count, but are equally cheered by Team GBs great efforts and equally amazing results before their home crowds.
Yesterday, I counted nearly 90 geese homesteading in our field. Today I watched several squabbles with the geese lowrng their heads and charging each other to assert some territorial claim. At one point about 8-9 geese orgnaized as a gang to chase a crane away from the field. At the same time I witnessed a cock fight between two ring necked pheasants. Nothing too serious but I suspect each is trying to lay claim to a bit of their own territory as nesting season approaches.
August 6, 2012
Enjoyed fun and games including pie in the face charity auction at hospital picnic Friday. One of Lorna’s co-workers offered us free passes to USA Olympic House in the Royal College of Art near Royal Albert Hall and the Albert Memorial in Kensignton Garden. So, Saturday morning we drove to Epping to take Underground into London. Some great free food and chance to see a few of our current and past Olympic athletes. We mostly enjoyed a fabulously sunny day walking around London and Saturday night got great seats to see stage version of "Rock of Ages". Lots of smiling UK fans on train as Britain had a banner day winning 6 Golds and a Silver.
Aug 02, 2012
Finally posted content from Heather, Gene and Ryan's visit. Working now to catch up with home pages and content from other trips.
Friday, July 20, 2012
Worked on guestbook and contact/feedback forms to ensure they are functional. Continuing to work on posting photos from Ireland and other trips.
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Whew...
I started building website yesterday. Worked on formats and content today. I hope readers let me know about spelling errors, broken links or possible improvements. This is my first ever attempt to
build a web site---sure to be a learning curve. If a reader finds a page with strnge content it is probably a sample or placemarker page with One & One's content. I retained a number of sample
content pages to help me understand how they implemented various features.
Please share your comments in the guestbook.
Please share your comments in the guestbook.