Tom's Blog

[Tom Goodrick]

I won't bother copying anything from the Blogs on the old Forums. Blogs become old fast. Maybe they should be purged every couple of months.

My three kittens are now my three cats. Alex, Buddy and Charley are lots of fun. We have been slowly introducing them to the rest of the house although they still spend most of the day in their special bedroom (which used to be my practice room). Our two dogs, Princess (Pomeranian) and Duke (Shetland Sheepdog) still have to go into their crates when the cats come out. Two of the cats, Alex and Buddy are getting very large. But they had the worst time with the neighbors dogs when we rescued them so they have a strong distrust of dogs. Charley got scared but not chewed on by the neighbors' dogs so he has ventured out to sniff noses with Princess. They might even get along ok. Time will tell. Thank goodness that as the kittens became cats, we discovered a very good brand of litter. It keeps their room essentially odorless.

This morning I hit a new high score on Tennis with the Nintendo Wii: 2270. But two sets later I had 2227. So it goes.

In Wii golf (Woods PGA '08), I have finished the '09 season and aced the first Fed Ex Playoff (Barclays) as I aced all "last year". I have achieved "Legend Status" and all the sponsorships I care to have.

But a new problem has arisen that takes time out of my day. I had more tests yesterday and Monday to check the amount of change in the past year. But I am having more problems with fatigue that make it necessary to take more naps during the day. Last year a "fixed defect" was discovered in my heart which seems to result in a loss of about 20% in its pumping power. This was evidently a result of one big and one small heart attack over the past 3 years. The worst thing about this is that it affects my FS flying. I'll start a flight and then get so tired I have to pause it for a nap. Then I get involved in other things and end up not finishing the flights. I've been making a few short flights. I have discovered it affects my ability to write coherently. I do most writing offline and end up discarding some of it as it would take too much editing to fix it. So it goes.

[Bill Von Sennet]

Sorry to hear about your fatigue problems Tom.

I have a lift chair/recliner now, and I'm still using a wheelchair with leg lifts at the computer. So I don't have to go back to bed as often as I did before. I Still have some trouble with swelling in the legs and feet. I'm on lasix to take care of the excess water.

Other than that I'm doing great. My hip surgeon saw me last week and is very happy with my progress. I am pain free in my hip for the first time in about 10 years.

[Tom Goodrick]

I got the results of my tests. The situation is stable - not getting any worse. That's good news.

[Tom Goodrick]

In the October issue of FLYING Magazine, Richard L Collins has published his last "On Top" column. I am sorry to see ON TOP come to an end because that has been the first article I have read in each FLYING mag for many decades.

I decided to see what the oldest magazine was I could find quickly in my den with an ON TOP article in it. It is the June, 1970 issue. Richard gave a fine discussion of wake vortices. This was just a few years after I got my aeronautical engineering degree and had studied wake problems to some extent. Richard was right on target, of course. Next to this magazine in the pile was the July 1971 issue where he talked again about some wake vortex problems and then about his brand new Piper Cherokee Six. That was about a year before I started taking flying lessons. There was a direct relation between Richard's writing and my interest in personal flying.

I know he had owned a 182 before the Six, and then he bought a 172 after owning the Six for just a few years. Why? It seemed the Six fit his family. Then there was the Cardinal RG just after that. Next thing was the P210. He went from the Six to the P210 in one decade. Then he kept that for about 28 years. When he left that one in Georgia, it shook my confidence in older airplanes! (So many of the "good" airplanes are "older airplanes.")

[Tom Goodrick]

A new chapter is being written in my Cat Story. Our three male cats are now full grown and we are searching for a vet that offers neutering at a low cost - maybe a package deal. Our house may not hold up for long with them carrying on in their "extra" bedroom. They really do bounce off the walls.

But the new chapter involves the five other cats that have joind us temproarily. My wife noticed that our cats' mother was getting amorous again with one of their fathers. Sure, enough a few weeks later she was obviously pregnant and then a bit later it was obvious that she had left her load someplace. We assumed she had them in the same place she kept ours until they grew old enough to escape and get into trouble with the neighbors' dogs. We marked on the calendar when we though the birth occurred and kept out eyes open for possible trouble. Then with the kittens about at three weeks, the mother started hanging around our house a lot. one day when our cats were exercising in the house, we let the momma cat see her black kitten with white paws that looked just like his father. She came into the mud room and they sniffed each other. He was very happy to see her.

The next day my wife heard a rustling sound in a box in our garage. It was full of five kittens and a nursing momma. My wife has continued to feed several neighborhood strays in the back yard and a couple, including Momma and a nice old big gray Tom that we call "Mr Gray" had been invited into the garage where they got special food. Mr Gray took to sleeping on or in our car.

Well, Momma's milk was pretty good but we noticed the kittens were getting big and were probably growing teeth which makes it tough for Momma to nurse them. So we quickly rigged a playpen from some boards my son had laying around. We put a litter box in it and some toys and put the kittens in there to play and eat. They get commercial cat's milk, baby food (chicken and turkey) and kitten chews. Our plan is to keep them a few more weeks and then give them to a store, vet or pet society for sale or giving to the public.

But it is not that simple. Because the Momma is not only a stray but is considered a "feral Cat" by some local people, we have been told that no pet society people will take the kittens. I have offered to pay for a Leukemia test on one kitten (which I am sure it will pass because our others did). We know one kindly vet who may help us.

We certainly do not want to add the five kittens to our existing troupe. There is one female who is all black like Momma. There are four male kittens who all look like the papa - black with white sox of varying sizes, some white on the face and little stub tails. They are just like our Charlie. Once grown we'd have a tough time telling them apart.

One strange thing is that their papa has not been seen since he walked away "arm in arm" with their momma. She came back pregnant and he dissappeared. Before he was a regular visitor at our back porch cat-feeding station.

The one thing we are certain of is that very soon, Momma will visit the vet and get "fixed" so this chain of events will end. She will not be happy about that trip and may have a tough life after that. We will let her stay, as well as Mr Gray (who seems to have been fixed) in our yard and garage where we do no longer have a problem with mice or rats.

[Bill Von Sennet]

Wii's are still in short supply. You can pay a premium on ebay and get one for about $320.00 or buy a bundle. (gamestop has a bundle with wi play (includes an extra controller) a twin station remote recharger with batteries for $349.00

Otherwise keep calling the store and you might luck out and get there in time on the day they come in.

Best Buy in Greensburg PA will have some at 2pm tommorrow. I bet they have a line of people when they open.

I've heard some negatives about Woods '09 (putting in particular).

I was really impressed with the Ryder Cup. Very exciting TV.

[Tom Goodrick]

My advice to any who want to get a Wii is still to checkout frequently the nearest Super walmart or Sam's Club. These sell groceries at good prices so you can always check the Wii situation when picking up some groceries. That's how we got ours and how my wife got the Wii Fit the other day. BTW that is more fun than I expected. It gives you a considerable variety things to do that provide either a little balance and agility work or some actual effort that will quickly work up a sweat - like running on a path around an island with mountains, rivers and other runners. For light effort I do the balance events although you can't beat the Yoga breathing exercise where you just stand still and take measured deep breaths.

The first balance exercise involves leaning left and right as needed to hit a soccer ball with your head. The team kicks balls at you and you must bend left or right at the waist to get your head in the way of the ball. You must dodge the occasional shoe or Panda bear head !? Slalom skiing is neat. You bend left and right to steer though gates and bend forward for speed. Ski jumping gives your thighs a little work as you bend you knees and keep a red dot in a blue dot by balance for speed and then straighten your knees quickly (but do not actually jump) to fly off the sky jump. There is a game where you ride down a river in a bubble bending left and right to move laterally and fore and aft to control speed. Touching the bank pops the bubble.

In all these activities, records are kept of who has done the best.

But I have one word of warning. If you are sensitive about your looks, among family and friends, you may be humiliated at least a little. At the start the board you stand on measures your weight, you tell the game your height and it computes your Body Mass Index or BMI. Then it gives you a few simple balance exercises to determine your level of body control, flexing your body to move a dot around the screen. Then it gives you an "age" and shows where your BMI ranks on a general chart. My age is 75 - 10 years older than actual. I am ranked near the top of the chart at the "Obese" end. My character, who does all the events, looks very fat. The game is unkind and unfare to us older folks. It was obviously developed by young people.

I just read the comments by customers to Woods'09 golf at Amazon. I will not bother getting Woods'09. I am happy with Woods'08 and can continue playing PGA events for subsequent years on that. I have just finished the '09 season and am halfway through the Fed Ex Playoffs for '09 (winning every game).

[Bill Von Sennet]

We have the Wii Fit but haven't taken it out of the box yet.


The lady from my church who needed 2 Wii's for Christmas presents, got them today at Gamestop in Latrobe. They got 5 in today.

[Tom Goodrick]

The other day I hit the highest score yet in tennis with Tom18: 2294. That was lowered on the next set and now I am down near 2190. It does not take much to drop back down. At 2190 you gain 20 points if the opposition gets no points in a set. At 2290 you get only 12. At 2190 giving up two points in a set still gains you about 5 points in the ranking score. At 2290 you would lose about 5 points. The maximum possible score is probably about 2350 where playing a perfect set gains you nothing. That's just a wild extrapolation from what I've seen. Nothing about this scoring is linear.

Today we took a firm step toward the aleviation of our cat problem. We took the momma cat in and had her spayed. There will be no more litters of kittens. But we still have the three six-month-old cats from the first litter and five from the second litter.

Since Momma Cat is a wild stray who's never even been in a house before, it was a neat trick getting her in the garage over night (no food or water before surgery) and into a cat carrier for the drive over the mountain to the vet's office - 30 minutes during which she voiced her opinion of us.

The vets we have previously used in this area are all too expensive to help us with the cats. They both charge $250 to spay or neuter a cat. My vet I have used for dogs for 15 years wnats me to pay him $50 per kitten so he can sell the kittens from his lobby for $40 each. What a deal! The lady vet who used to be our favorite cat vet would also charge $250 per cat to neuter the three "boys" we have from the first litter. We paid her $100 per cat for the first kitten shots. Those will be the last kitten shots she gives for us.

There is an organization that takes pitty on poor Government Pensioners that offers spaying for $50 and neutering for $40. A vet that does that did the work on Momma Cat today and will get the five kittens (which he will give away at no cost to us). Then Alex, Buddy and Charley will pay him a brief visit for neutering. But they will remain our favorite little scardy cats. They continue to be very jumpy about loud noises - especially loud dog noises.

[Bill Von Sennet]

This forum is pretty smart. Today there is an ad for free kittens up on top.

[Tom Goodrick]

Yes, I have noticed the ads shown on each page often bear a close relation to the topics discussed. The ads are never objectionable but some are interesting. What does "Plastory" have to do with writing a blog?

Indeed I may register these kittens with iams.com after we give them to the vet. After all, they have been eating Iams cat food for a couple of weeks now. They prefer it over the fresh meat their momma brings them (which they avoid and we remove as soon as we see it).

We are about to go pick up Momma Cat - also officially known as "Little One". Her surgery went well. The total bill is only $126. She flunked the first blood test but passed the second. That does worries me with regard to the kittens. We'll hear her story all the way back over the mountain. It will be interesting when we let her out of the carrier. I'll be ready to jump back five feet. We have probably destroyed her recently-learned confidence in people.

[Tom Goodrick]

That least chapter in the Saga of the Cats has been finished. Momma cat recovered fine from her surgery. We had fun keeping the kittens safe for two weeks until we could give them up to the vet for adoption (the vet that fixed their mother offered to take the kittens for no charge. He'll charge a good price for the kittens but that's a special rich area east of Huntsville (over the mountain) where the average home value is $600,000.)

Momma cat first put the kittens in a box 18 inches high, shared with a reindeer (who was still assembled for Christmas display). That was good for their sleeping for the first two weeks they were their. (They were about 3 weeks old when she brought them). We hastilly put together a play pen for the kittens by simply taping four playwood boards together. Son Craig had those ready for shelving. They were 24x42 inches and made a very nice play pen for the kittens. But after a few weeks in there they started scrampling out. (They were not in there un supervised.) We were ready for that from our experience with the other kittens from her first litter. We laid down planks of 1x8 and 2x6 over the edges of the playpen making it more difficult for them to climb out. We also had a piece of old "wainscoating" board 42 x 48 inches that fit over the 1x8 boards and was held down by the 2x6 boards so the kittens were protected at night.

We had an additional problem with scavenging racoons at night that were a threat to the kittens. since we fed the Momma cat in dishes that were left out long periods, and we had to leave the garage door up about 6 inches for her to come and go, the racoons would come during the night.

The last four weeks we had them, the kittens lived in the play pen. I made it more secure by screwing in corner braces. They had a litter box in there from the first we started using the playpen. They learned very quickly to use the litter box so we had no stinky messes. (A new type of litter is very effective at controlling odors.)

A neighbor found out about the kittens and was happy to take one of the kittens. Another neighbor found out from him and took another of the kittens. So we had only three during the last week. Finally on the 14th we took the three remaining kittens to the vet's office over the mountain. (The car does not like climbing mountains so it's good we are done with that.)

We miss the little rascals, of course. We avoided naming them so we would not get too attached. (We still have Alex, Buddy and Charley from the first litter.) These kittens in the second litter were completely normal, happy kittens with no cares. We made sure they are friendly to people and enjoy being held. The guys from the first litter were so severely traumatized from their encounter with dogs that they remain very jumpy to this day. They probably would not have been adopted. But they are now very neat and beautiful adult cats. One is normal in size but two are very big. They are about ready to take on our two dogs for control of the house!

That battle will probably be Chapter 3.

[Tom Goodrick]

Today was a beautiful day to vote here in the South. I cut my tennis playing short - not doing well anyway; had a quick and reduced breakfast and then walked the five-six blocks to a church and voted. It was a beautiful day for walking, 62 degrees when I left the house just before 10 am and in the upper 60's when I returned at 10:45. The only line was at the table for E-K people where there were about 6 people ahead of me. The effort was worth it no matter what the outcome. But it looks very promising.

[Tom Goodrick]

My little walk was worth it even though my vote is note reflected in the Electoral College.

Last night I tired of the election news and went to bed early. Every channel showed maps with different colors. I did manage to catch McCains concession speech ( a good one) and Obama's acceptance speech (also good). But in searching for a late TV show to put me to sleep, I found an old black and white movie from the 1930's about a test pilot who had trouble flying a Bristol 170. he managed to land it and walk away after an engine fire and a door that opened in flight (not sure how that happened but it was interesting seeing him climb around inside that airplane trying to close it. The whole movie seemed more about how being a test pilot can stress a marriage. So I woke up and came into the den and fired up FS to fly the Bristol

I had not flown the Bristol in many months since working on the FD files. I was operating in partial darkness (didn't want to awaken the sleeping bird). I failed to see that it had flaps so my first landing was a bit fast and used the whole runway at Vancouver Intl to stop. Then while taxiing back the plane became divergent in pitch (on the ground) and hopped into the air and settled on its tail, sinking straight into the ground so only the nose and props stuck out. I remember putting in a lot of hours testing that and yet this problem remains.

So my next order of business is to fix that landing gear problem. Sorry if it has caused any trouble for BGA pilots.

[budsbud]

Tom
If you find out what caused this.... "plane became divergent in pitch (on the ground) and hopped into the air and settled on its tail, sinking straight into the ground so only the nose and props stuck out... please let me know as my R4D has done the same thing twice now.
Bud