FOOTBALL AND LOCKHEED
Friday morning I got the Methodist church open and helped take some of the large collection of deer horns and hunting implements to decorate the Fellowship Hall for the Library fund raiser that had Dr. Stanley McGowen demonstrate how blind people like himself can go deer hunting using computers so that the blind hunter can pull the trigger when the scope is on the live deer and he can harvest his own animal.
I left the competent team decorating and went up to Sue's house to help update her virus protection and load Open Office so that she can read the MS Word documents that she gets from Mary Kay headquarters. Her computer runs slow and I ran out of time so I wasn't able to test it but I think I got it loaded. I got home in time to nap for an hour before I drove to Fort Worth. Mark, Kathy and I ate at BooRays in Weatherford then got on the I-30 parking lot to drive to the new Cowboy stadium in Arlington. It started sprinkling rain. I was glad I was wearing my new black cowboy hat. Kathy and Mark had her pink umbrella. We had to wait in a long line to buy tickets. While waiting Diana and Logan Levisay from Stephenville came by so we got to see them. They sat on the other side of the stadium from us rooting for Aledo. Friends had reserved seats on the 40 yard line and we walked all the way around the stadium to get there. Great seats with the huge TV screen by tilting out heads up. It helped with the replay of interesting plays. The game was a great show by two good high school teams. Stephenville had twice the statistics and when the game was finished tied 20-20 and it was 10 p.m. Mark said we had to get up early so we left while the overtime game was played. There are TV screens all over the place so we watched as we left to see Stephenville kick a field goal, leading 23-20. We got to the car and could hear the crowd but didn't know what was happening until we found a local station broadcasting the game and heard that Aledo scored a touchdown to win 26-23. And we were ahead of all the traffic and got home at the speed limit even with the light rain. When we sat down the roof was open and light mist falling. We saw the roof close. It was still chilly because the ends are open to the breeze.
This morning we ate breakfast drove to Kathy's mother's apartment to pick up Ashley, Ross and Mary. Mark drove us into the parking lot and we all went to the security gate where a guard took our driving licenses and prepared plastic ID cards with our name good for the date. Mark then drove us into the area and from the south end of the mile long factory to the north end where his F-16 project to rebuild two old F-16s for Pakistan was going on with overtime workers. They let us climb up on the stands to look at the work after we went through a FOD (Foriegn Object D?) that requires you to take all jewelry, my shirt pocket stuff and put them in a container until we got back. Mark knows all the people working for him. You could tell they respected him.
We then drove down the flight run station line but could only peek through the partially open doors to see his first Pakistan production F-16 that is going through flight tests with another scheduled for Monday. F-35s were also there. When we first got there there was low clouds but we saw at least six F-16 from the National Guard take off as they get their weekend training from the old Carswell side of the runway. Mark then drove back to the south end of the plant. He went in and brought out an eight passenger electric cart, loaded us all in and drove inside the plant. Starting at the south end where incoming parts are received we saw the construction of the parts. When I worked there many years ago that part of the plant was metal working tools that carved parts out of aluminum. There are still some computer driven machines doing that but the largest change was the enormous addition of carbon fiber plastic parts that are laid up in clean rooms and cured in enormous autoclaves. The new F-22 and F-35 planes are largely fiber plastic airplanes. However we saw the internal metal parts being assembled as we drove north. Crossing the Fifty foot aisle, where we stopped and looked at the display of photographs depicting the history of General Dynamics and Lockheed. I was impressed by an unmanned aircraft that was flown in 1916 showing that there isn't anything new. We then continued up the production line with F-16s on one side and the F-35s on the other. The F-22 line was being removed because production has completed on it.
Mark then took us over across 820 to his office building 500 that was built over 20 years ago when there was concern about electromagnetic stealing of information. The building is lined with lead, the entry is a maze with the ceiling formed of cones to make an anechoic chamber all to prevent electromagnetic waves from leaking from the building. Cell phones didn't work until they installed repeater stations recently. At the guard station we were informed that we could not go into Mark's office. He went up and brought down an F-16 model that all of the Pakistani officials got during their ceremony. Kathy thought Mark needed one and arranged to get one for him for his birthday which is Monday.
We then went back to Mary's apartment in order to pick up Ashley and Ross' BD gift and then drove to Mi Cocina on Hulen to eat Mexican food. Mark opened their gift of a movie he wanted. I had given him Glenn Beck's latest book. We then drove back to Mary's apartment where Kathy put one candle on the special Neapolitan bunt cake she had cooked. It was three layers of vanilla, peppermint and chocolate iced with chocolate icing. Mark blew the candle out. Ashley took photos and we parted company. I left for home under the cloud cover listening to another football game this time with A&M ahead of Baylor at the half with the Baylor announcers saying that Baylor was a second half team and had come from behind in two games to win. I listened to the game all the way home. I got there just as the game finished and Baylor wasn't able to come back. So all of my Aggie family was happy. Texas Tech beat OU who had clobbered A&M so what can we expect next week?
I am still behind on my column, Flame and will study for SS tomorrow morning. Good planning on my part. But it was a great couple of days and a real nostalgic trip for me.
Friday morning I got the Methodist church open and helped take some of the large collection of deer horns and hunting implements to decorate the Fellowship Hall for the Library fund raiser that had Dr. Stanley McGowen demonstrate how blind people like himself can go deer hunting using computers so that the blind hunter can pull the trigger when the scope is on the live deer and he can harvest his own animal.
I left the competent team decorating and went up to Sue's house to help update her virus protection and load Open Office so that she can read the MS Word documents that she gets from Mary Kay headquarters. Her computer runs slow and I ran out of time so I wasn't able to test it but I think I got it loaded. I got home in time to nap for an hour before I drove to Fort Worth. Mark, Kathy and I ate at BooRays in Weatherford then got on the I-30 parking lot to drive to the new Cowboy stadium in Arlington. It started sprinkling rain. I was glad I was wearing my new black cowboy hat. Kathy and Mark had her pink umbrella. We had to wait in a long line to buy tickets. While waiting Diana and Logan Levisay from Stephenville came by so we got to see them. They sat on the other side of the stadium from us rooting for Aledo. Friends had reserved seats on the 40 yard line and we walked all the way around the stadium to get there. Great seats with the huge TV screen by tilting out heads up. It helped with the replay of interesting plays. The game was a great show by two good high school teams. Stephenville had twice the statistics and when the game was finished tied 20-20 and it was 10 p.m. Mark said we had to get up early so we left while the overtime game was played. There are TV screens all over the place so we watched as we left to see Stephenville kick a field goal, leading 23-20. We got to the car and could hear the crowd but didn't know what was happening until we found a local station broadcasting the game and heard that Aledo scored a touchdown to win 26-23. And we were ahead of all the traffic and got home at the speed limit even with the light rain. When we sat down the roof was open and light mist falling. We saw the roof close. It was still chilly because the ends are open to the breeze.
This morning we ate breakfast drove to Kathy's mother's apartment to pick up Ashley, Ross and Mary. Mark drove us into the parking lot and we all went to the security gate where a guard took our driving licenses and prepared plastic ID cards with our name good for the date. Mark then drove us into the area and from the south end of the mile long factory to the north end where his F-16 project to rebuild two old F-16s for Pakistan was going on with overtime workers. They let us climb up on the stands to look at the work after we went through a FOD (Foriegn Object D?) that requires you to take all jewelry, my shirt pocket stuff and put them in a container until we got back. Mark knows all the people working for him. You could tell they respected him.
We then drove down the flight run station line but could only peek through the partially open doors to see his first Pakistan production F-16 that is going through flight tests with another scheduled for Monday. F-35s were also there. When we first got there there was low clouds but we saw at least six F-16 from the National Guard take off as they get their weekend training from the old Carswell side of the runway. Mark then drove back to the south end of the plant. He went in and brought out an eight passenger electric cart, loaded us all in and drove inside the plant. Starting at the south end where incoming parts are received we saw the construction of the parts. When I worked there many years ago that part of the plant was metal working tools that carved parts out of aluminum. There are still some computer driven machines doing that but the largest change was the enormous addition of carbon fiber plastic parts that are laid up in clean rooms and cured in enormous autoclaves. The new F-22 and F-35 planes are largely fiber plastic airplanes. However we saw the internal metal parts being assembled as we drove north. Crossing the Fifty foot aisle, where we stopped and looked at the display of photographs depicting the history of General Dynamics and Lockheed. I was impressed by an unmanned aircraft that was flown in 1916 showing that there isn't anything new. We then continued up the production line with F-16s on one side and the F-35s on the other. The F-22 line was being removed because production has completed on it.
Mark then took us over across 820 to his office building 500 that was built over 20 years ago when there was concern about electromagnetic stealing of information. The building is lined with lead, the entry is a maze with the ceiling formed of cones to make an anechoic chamber all to prevent electromagnetic waves from leaking from the building. Cell phones didn't work until they installed repeater stations recently. At the guard station we were informed that we could not go into Mark's office. He went up and brought down an F-16 model that all of the Pakistani officials got during their ceremony. Kathy thought Mark needed one and arranged to get one for him for his birthday which is Monday.
We then went back to Mary's apartment in order to pick up Ashley and Ross' BD gift and then drove to Mi Cocina on Hulen to eat Mexican food. Mark opened their gift of a movie he wanted. I had given him Glenn Beck's latest book. We then drove back to Mary's apartment where Kathy put one candle on the special Neapolitan bunt cake she had cooked. It was three layers of vanilla, peppermint and chocolate iced with chocolate icing. Mark blew the candle out. Ashley took photos and we parted company. I left for home under the cloud cover listening to another football game this time with A&M ahead of Baylor at the half with the Baylor announcers saying that Baylor was a second half team and had come from behind in two games to win. I listened to the game all the way home. I got there just as the game finished and Baylor wasn't able to come back. So all of my Aggie family was happy. Texas Tech beat OU who had clobbered A&M so what can we expect next week?
I am still behind on my column, Flame and will study for SS tomorrow morning. Good planning on my part. But it was a great couple of days and a real nostalgic trip for me.
posted by Dr. Rodenberger at 8:28 PM
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