I love airplanes. I love old airplanes. I love new airplanes. I love biplanes. I even like Waco biplanes even with insane wing walkers that are unnecessarily loud with their jet assist. Though I prefer the sound of a rotary engine. I love the C-130. I love gasping the height of a C-5. I still think A-10's deserve the name Warthog because they are freakin' ugly. I love enormous helicopters named after Indian tribes. I love precision flying and I love the Air Force Thunderbirds nearly as much as the Navy Blue Angels. I love smoke and demonstrating bombing runs. I love when the airplane races the jet powered fire enginer (which I didn't actually witness this weekend). I love when an Extra flies strait up until it can't fly any more and hangs in the air for just a split second before tumbling back down. I love seeing a twin engine prop plane fly upside down and look like its ready to fall out of the sky but then recover perfectly.

Ah, I love airshows. And it was just one more reminder as to why I'm going to start risking my financial solvency by going back to flying.

On Saturday I actually worked. But it was fun work, because we got to drive a rover underwater in Key Largo from the control center here in Houston. That rocked. This morning was awesome too, because the father of modern cardiovascular surgery visited us. I got to be the communication goddess, which was fun, and it has made me feel that being a capcom is my calling. Unfortunately, that whole not being an astronaut thing might get in the way. Anyway, its lots of fun. Its nice to have a week or two of fun at work for a change.


Today, I am wishing I still was registered to vote in a place that matters. Today, Sen. Kerry is in West Palm Beach and Pres. Bush is in Boca Raton. The two candidates within 30 minutes of each other, now's the time for an all out slug fest. On a related note, today's probably a bad day to fly to South Florida.