Saturday was my birthday. I was kind of looking around for a good image of a hippopotamus, a bird, and a couple of sheep, but I didn’t find one I really liked. So I’ll post my favorite birthday song. It’s a little bittersweet now that he’s gone, but I still like it.
That is, or was, Jimmy’s Stearman in the video, though I read at one point that someone else was flying it because he’d hung up his pilot wings a while back. I did see on Facebook that his family has already sold his float-equipped Cessna Caravan, N208JB. I wondered on the post if, when he called in to ATC, he responded with “208-Juliet-Bravo” or “208-Jimmy-Buffett.” The former is obviously more proper, but I like to think he’d occasionally have used the latter.
Buffett donated the Stearman and the Goose to the Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile, Alabama last year.
This page at BuffettWorld.com lists the planes Buffett owned over the years. I knew about several of them, and that the flying bug had maintained a firm grip on him for decades. I didn’t know that he was type-rated in the Falcons, nor did I know about the departure route. That last is pretty darned cool.
We spent the weekend visiting Middle Daughter at NSU’s Family Weekend. Friday night we went bowling, and I learned my arm and hand still aren’t quite recovered. Saturday we ate brunch at The Lift, played bingo, and watched the Riverhawks (1-9) get beaten up by the Northwest Missouri Bearcats (6-4). The Bearcats shut us out, the fifth time that’s happened this season. NSU had a few flashes of brilliance, but it looked like their offensive line just wasn’t up to the task at hand. NMSU really just outmuscled NSU. They went 9-14 on third down and 2-3 on fourth down conversions, including a 4th-and-14 conversion late in the game. NSU only managed 124 total offensive yards and never made it into the red zone.
Still, it was fun to watch a college football game. I did catch myself waiting for the instant replay a couple of times before I remembered we were watching it live. I may try to make it to a few more NSU games next season. Plus, Tulane will be back in Tulsa next year.
And Michigan won, so that was kind of like a birthday present.
Sunday we’re having everyone over for birthday cake and ice cream, then Monday we start getting things ready for the carpet install on Thursday. The sales guy claimed the crew could finish in 5-6 hours. We’ll see. The install crew will move the big stuff as they need to, but we need to empty out the bookshelves and pine chest and dressers so the crew can move them easily.
Saturday we’re on the way to Hawaii. I’m finally starting to get excited about the trip. Lots of stuff to do: Packing lists. Camera prep. All sorts of things.
The job hunt continues. I put an application in Wednesday, then had a phone screen early Thursday morning, so I’m cautiously hopeful about that gig. I didn’t hear from the college admissions gig this week, so I’ll contact them Monday just in case they forgot to call me.
Reading
I’ll have my tablet or my Kindle with me for the trip, so I’m going to get some reading done. I just haven’t decided what I’m going to read yet.
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