So, corporate HQ is making a worldwide tour of company deployment sites, in concert with holiday parties and presents to exceptional employees and such. Your host had wild notions of maybe renting a Cessna 172 for to transport his bride and hisself unto Camarillo, renting a car, dining with the co-workers and spending the night. ‘Twas to be a brave notion of demonstrating the subtleties of navigating the Los Angeles Class B airspace using a tower-to-tower clearance maybe, but Gaia gets her vote: A forty knot windshear was forecast at 1500 feet at the time of his arrival, which made the notion of lowering a mere toy like the Skyhawk – which crosses the fence at maybe 80 knots – problematical. Then there were clouds, rain and the undesirable prospect of carrying some icing.
Car?
Car!
Weekend commutes through LA via the 405 are merely objectionable rather than soul-destroying, and we made good enough time in the M5 – which devours highway miles as efficiently as it does premium gas – to take the 10 north of LA over to Santa Monica, working our way up the scenic coast highway through Malibu and around Point Mugu into Ventura County. It was with a bit of trepidation that I gazed into my beloved’s face as we turned the corner and entered the agricultural regions surrounding my new home base. We’ve been 10 years in Sandy Eggo, and Ventura County, well: It’s nae Sandy Eggo.
She’s a trooper though, always has been or else none of this would have worked out, 29 years and seven deployments later, not to mention the greater and lesser dramas along the way. If her heart was dying inside her at the prospect of doing it the remote, never a trace of it made it to her eyes. And it really is lovely country, seen through the right lenses. Your host is cautiously optimistic.
Christmas dinner – there, I said it! – was lovely, really. Cocktails at 1800, for which we were fashionably late, and pleasant conversation until 2200. Speeches were made of gratitude and respect, fond hopes were expressed for corporate growth. We gave our thanks and headed back to lodgings.
Today we head into Oxnard Beach for to break our fast at a funky little cafe whose existence was revealed to me by an occasional reader with knowledge of the area. Then we poke around a bit to get a feel for the land’s lay. Where suitable housing may yet be found for our eventual domestic establishment, should ever the Crushing Burden of Debt be lifted from our shoulders. Which we’re in negotiations, so there’s that.
Then! The outlet mall, for some last minute stocking stuffers. And then back down to Sandy Eggo, to see what a 17-year old daughter with the keys to the house on Christmas break an no parental oversight might have made of her newfound liberties, and whether the police were called, at all.
Apart from these small things, that will make our day.
Chat amongst yourselves, I do beg.
May the blessing of Christmas surround you and your family. And may the house selling, moving, and house buying be as painless as possible. Good luck with your counter-offer.
Have fun, Lex.
67 years ago Friday was the start of the last desperate Nazi offensive we call The Battle of the Bulge.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075565/Vivid-new-Battle-Bulge-photos-offer-seen-look-war-weary-soldiers-braving-frigid-weather-fight-Nazi-Germanys-major-offensive-World-War-II.html
One of the branches of the Veterans of the BotB in WI held its last memorial before disbanding.
It is up to us to keep their memories, effort, and sacrifice alive.
Thanks Joe. My late father in law was there. One of Patton’s
Tankers. Miss him…
Hope the negotiations go well with a highly favorable outcome for you.
No more Lex Meets in San Dog, alas.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2075565/Vivid-new-Battle-Bulge-photos-offer-seen-look-war-weary-soldiers-braving-frigid-weather-fight-Nazi-Germanys-major-offensive-World-War-II.html
Several Vets of the BotB branches held their last memorial services this year and are disbanding.
It is now up to us to keep their memories, deeds, courage and sacrifice alive.
Weird – when I started typing that, there was only one (1) reply, so I thought my first one had gone missing in the ether. Sorry for doubling up.
“It is now up to us to keep their memories, deeds, courage and sacrifice alive.”
It cannot be said too many times….
Joe, my Uncle Dan lived through the Bulge.
As did my Dad.
Never went camping again when he came back: too much time in foxholes I guess, and he no longer liked the cold.
He’s been gone seventeen years now -still wish he was here, especially during the Holidays with the kids and all.
Hope the weather is back to normal in Sandy Eggo Tuesday when we arrive. The merriest of Christmases and most prosperous of New Years to all of you.
“Chistmas Dinner-There, I said it”, You had Christmas Dinner with Mark Levin?
Over at The Other McCain, they’ve posted a clip with Christmas wishes from Netanyahu. Makes me laugh at all the leftists that can’t bring themselves to say Christmas.
Lex … Lovely essay. You and Mrs. Lex are so very lucky to have each other through 29 years of life’s struggles and rewards. And you are weathering the toughest part of raising three beautiful sometimes contrary children in splendid style. Have a Happy Christmas and New Year. No one could deserve it more.
Marianne
Sounds like a good trip. Stop by the Reagan Library on your way home. You will not be disappointed. It will take you back to a time when we had a real CoC.
Merry Christmas to you, Lex and family.
You will get more rain in Ventura County than in SD.
And I second the motion of Rumbear — do stop by the Reagan Library. It is a wonderful place, and Stanford’s foolishness is our gain. And since it is not convenient to the liberal educational establishments, the possibility of disruptive demonstrations is greatly reduced.
Lex, for future reference when you wish to impress any and all breakfast guests who may be accompanying you: Cajun Kitchen. Downtown Ventura. All the basics, plus some real live cajun delights. Lines out the door are a dead giveaway.
Lex, I hope you find the cottage of your dreams in the Ventura area. Not a bad place to settle, here in the Granola State. We’ve had a dry cooler season here in SJ. Not much rain at all and none in the forecast, and we had to protect the tomatoes from the freqeuent frosts.
Great to see that Lex left the Joe locker ajar. Bring on Page 3, I triple dog dare you.
[...] This Post Tweet This PostA commenter at this Neptunus Lex post reminds us that Friday was the 67th anniversary of the desperate German assault in the Ardennes [...]
Camarillo, as you pointed out, is no San Diego. Go up the 101 some more, try Carpinteria or Summerland– they are BETTER than San Diego.
Or even Montecito. You might score on Al Gore for a neighbor.
Too bad. The Dawg guys all talked about how cool the LAX VFR corridor was on the NLC-NKX flight.
Haven’t been by for a while but it looks like I picked a great post to land on. My one and only (so far) trip to California was to Oxnard beach. A group of friends rented a beach house and we had four lovely (much too short) days. Other than that my only memories of California are of LAX and a great little restaurant at (or near?) Malibu. It was right on the beach so you sat outside with your feet in the sand and a sun umbrella overhead. They had great seafood (of course) – a friend and I (Doorkeeper – she use to grace these parts occsionally) shared a seafood platter. I had no idea what half of it was but it was all excellent!
So I must have missed something (will have to read back and poke around a bit) – you’re planning a move? I was wondering how long those commutes (fun as some of them must have been) would go on. I trhink I will save my Christmas greetings for later … thsy way I will have to be sure to drop by again in the next few days.
Deployed for Iraq from Port Hueneme and got to spend time in Ventura for a 4 day liberty over Labor Day 2004 with Mrs. SK1…. A charming place, a lovely village and some place that I would visit again….Hope all goes well and glad things are moving in a positive direction given the state of affairs in Cali….
Cold has returned to Boston and Christmas is a week away….best wishes to all here for a Merry Christmas and a better 2012.
This is how Lex managed to make his takeoffs equal his landings. A superior aviator uses his superior judgement to avoid situations that might test his superior skill.
Oxnard can be a tough place–domestic housing wise. Camarillo has some great neighborhoods. Go up in the hills in the general direction of Spanish Hills Country Club. Ventura has its charms as does the little village of Ojai in the hills. I agree it’s not San Diego. But then as a fellow who lived in San Diego from 1956 to 1974, I can tell you that San Diego is not San Diego these days. It’s acquired more than a bit of the Los Angeles mode–congestion etc. But it’s still got a harbor full of Navy ships, so there’s that.
Merry Christmas! Followed by a Happy and very Prosperous New Year.
Lex – please, I beg you – write the book. Any book actually. Just write it.
And since we are talking amongst ourselves, completely O.T. I would like to submit my recommendation to one and all for a movie – Crazy, Stupid, Love. It is about the funniest, sweetest, most touching movies we’ve seen in a very long time. It is – purely entertainment. No statements, no hidden agenda. Just pure enjoyment.
If we are talking amongst ourselves, how can it be off topic?
At least no one has mentioned the likker locker this time.
Oops. I just did.
Nah, don’t worry about that. I don’t know about y’all, but I brought my own this time. What should concern us is how to get into the arms chest, and the magazine.
Ah, yes. The winds (and gusts!), the wing loading, and the stalling speed. This is one of the reasons why there are so few hang glider flyers who are:
A. Still alive, and
B. Still doing it.
P.s. I might still be willing to give it a try at Kitty Hawk Kites, despite my chalky brittle old bones, because that is the safest place in which to do it. It was carefully selected by Wilbur and Orville for steady, moderate winds, nice dunes to launch from, and somewhat-loose sand to come down upon, so as not to break one’s body too much.
That’s where I did it at JTG. Quite moderate for us “seasoned” folks. Especially nice during the off-tourist season.
http://www.yorkpress.co.uk/news/9427157.Helicopter_co_pilot_avoids_jail_term/
Sounds like a 2nd x 10^nth honeymoon to me. Gramps and CincHouse just celebrated ‘versry numba 42, so there’s something to work on.
Dear Leader Is Dead
I think the world is going to get more interesting. Supposedly Dear Son is not well thought of. Wonder who or what will replace Dear Leader.
Maddie Albright’s hot date has finally reached ambient temperature.
Hopefully it was some bad dog that got to him.
In contrast: Vaclav Havel Has Died
Admirers poured into the streets of Prague Sunday night with candles and flowers in memory of Havel, people on the scene said.
The former dissident playwright helped topple communism in eastern Europe through the power of his words, insisting, “Truth and love triumph over lies and hate.”
His longtime friend and translator Paul Wilson remembered him as a “a very shy and gentle man with a will of steel, who was fearless when confronting a regime that tried, relentlessly, to crush his spirit.”
Presuming that this is true, from my lips to God’s ears (so to speak), the inevitable assimilation that both China and/or South Korea face is far more challenging than what West Germany went thru.
Well,
I lived in Solana Beach, Del Mar Heights, Encinitas and occasionally worked over the last decade or so at Port Hueneme and Point Mugu. I suppose the best thing I could say about Oxnard is that it does have an In-N-Out. So, not wholly evil.
It is asking a great deal. It’s pretty much asking for everything. Friendships of 25 year standing don’t get made overnight. On the other hand he did marry a remarkable woman and I wasn’t looking at housing or neighborhoods when I was there.
I wish you success in the oozing mire that is house buying and selling – at least that`s what it is in the Yoo-Kay. 3 years after putting the old Hogpen up for sale, 3 abortive transactions, a string of time-wasters and a double dose of legal bills later and we’re now 11 weeks in our new abode in a crisp, cold south Norfolk. (ok, today its frozen, but they say it’ll thaw this week). Gas Central heating went in last week so we now have the option of setting the timer or getting up in the frosty air and firing up the log burner. BTW I hear that gas prices have gone up 20% to pay for some R.soles screw-up with something called the economy. Life is good, though, when you have the love of your life, a mysterious cat and a Jack Russell Terrorist. And when the barn door is finished tomorrow I’ll be able to get the Road King under cover, so its yippee again. Whatever next? A job?? Keep having the adventure, Mr and Mrs Lex
Jack Russell Terrorist? LOL! No truer words. A friend had a pair in SE Ohio. The male took on a Groundhog that was a bit bigger than hisself. He killed the Whistle Pig, but he had a bunch of cuts on his head to show for the mortal combat.
QM, He thinks he’s a Bull Mastiff. Just off for his second walk of the day after this comment. He needs careful supervision anywhere near rabbit or badger holes – and there are bloody hundreds of them around these here parts. Little bugger. Named after a certain British Field marshal who was small, wiry, erascible, awkward, occasionally punched above his weight, never backed down. I reiterate, little bugger.
Hmm. I have seen Bernard Montgomery on a list of suspected aspies, along with T. J. Jackson. Stonewall was more of a classic case, though. He was right strange. A lot of Americans are still annoyed at Montgomery about Market-Garden. I used to work for a guy who is the posthumous offspring of a paratrooper killed in that operation. He understandably had only bad things to say about the Field Marshal.
Quite!
Personally, I’d have named him `Gonorrhea`
P.s. One of my cat’s names is Felix Dzerzhinsky. He has never failed to get a confession from an Enemy of The People. We used to wake up every morning to a couple or so mangled palm rat corpses at our front door.
I got so upset once at teh kitteh’s stringent interrogation technique that I whacked the rat on the head with a baseball bat. This annoyed the cat, who did not speak to me for a few days.
That’s just the way they are. They don’t have enough sense to know what they are getting themselves into and often pay the price, even though they, more often than not, win the set to.
My Blue Heeler (Aussie Cattle Dog) was the same way. She picked a fight with a Doberman Pincher when my daughter had her out in Marietta, Ohio. She didn’t like other dogs getting close to us and din’t care how big they were. The Dobie tried to run away yelping. The sheer ferocity of the attack bowled over the much larger dog. She otherwise acted like she had more brains than a Jack Russell. But not too much more.
Sassy was a Ground hog killing machine when she was on the farm in Tennessee. We had no problems with them getting in the garden while we lived there. It was a death sentence to even think about it.
Jesse, was my last blue heeler. Best. Dog. Ever. Currently working with Pete. Miniature Aussie Shepherd. Smartest dog ever, but still not a heeler.
Would a European Badger, Meles Meles, be terrorised by a Jack Russell? An American Badger,Taxedea Taxus, would probably eat him.
Been a while since I lived there — migod; longer than Lex and Mrs. Lex have enjoyed connubial bliss; a while indeed — but based on brief visits I will endorse the view of Oxnard as “not wholly evil” and concur in the recommendation of Ojai. As I understand it, CA 33 nowadays meets Lex’s definition of “merely objectionable rather than soul-destroying”.
It all looks pretty grim to this country Texan, but, then, so does SD.
Regards,
Ric
Lex,
We must have crossed paths on the Oxnard Plain, as I returned to DC last night. Contrary to one post earlier, there is a harbor with a couple of haze grays, although they have an “x” next to the hull number. I was there to do the largest scale ASCM defense test ever conducted, from the Self Defense Test Ship, the remotely-controlled ex-DD964. (Let’s just say the results are why we do testing!)
FWIW, I frequent both Ventura Co and San Diego, and much prefer Ventura Co. You can find everything that you find in S.D., you just might have to look a little harder. Check out Andrea’s in Ventura Harbor for great fish. I caught the Xmas lighted boat parade from their back deck Friday PM. Good family fun.
There is a nice little fresh fish market scene at the Ventura Harbor on Sat. mornings. Go Early. It pairs nicely with a nice open air farmer’s market in downtown Ventura, also on Sat. One of my favorite things to do in Ventura is hit both and produce some killer chow. Lex, since you have previously commented on the culinary skills of your beloved, perhaps a trip through both the markets could tip the scales. Bon Apetit.
Feel free to cry.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=veGqfAEn7_U&feature=related
Well, I’m enjoying the weather down here in Ft. Hood, TX while we finish up our pre-deployment training for follow-on assignment to Kuwait. My first time with an aviation unit, so that’s a learning curve. When they did the equipment issue last week, I got in the line to get all the flight gear; now I know why y’all become pilots! The new FREE (Fire Resistant Environmental Ensemble) system is pretty cool – they actually issue skivvies & socks, as well as myriad other outer & under wear. My favorite is the ACU vest.
I’ve become known as the “flying chaplain” nowadays, and the troops think it’s pretty cool that their chaplain likes to go flying. Too bad the Army’s flight suits looks just like nomex versions of the ACU cammies – except for the multitudinous pockets and uber-convenient zippers, of course.
My chaplain assistant wonders if we’ll qualify for an Air Medal once we get in-country.
Many blessings to you, Padre, on your impending deployment to Kuwait. As a former member of Army aviation who used to wear those suits, check every one of those pockets before they need to be washed. I remember I made a Super Bowl bet with one of my fellow pilots and washed a C-note by accident.
And remember, wash it on gentle cycle.
My wife still finds earplugs and other debris in our washing machine from where I didn’t check all of the pockets.
So, you are now an actual “Sky Pilot.” Heh.
LOL!