The Shot Heard ‘Round The Basketball World

I was a student at Indiana University during its roundball glory days. Coach Robert Montgomery Knight roamed the sidelines in a plaid jacket, and it seemed there was never a college basketball discussion that didn’t include a mention of the Hoosiers. Granted, I’ve never quite forgiven Coach Knight for winning a national title the year before I enrolled and the year after I graduated … but there was an NIT title in that span of 1976-1980 that at least gave me a taste of that basketball glory. I’m still among those fans who think Bob Knight pretty much hung the moon … 10 feet above the playing surface.

But when I moved away from Indiana, it became increasingly difficult to follow the Hoosiers. Odd that some places didn’t understand the value of Hoosier basketball, but there you go. Living now in Florida, where the Gators have shown some basketball prowess but football is still king, it’s difficult sometimes to find even a box score in the Florida Times-Union, let alone be able to catch a game on television. The Hoosiers’ troubles over the past few years had relegated them to the back of the sports section, and only merited a mention when they played a nationally-ranked team.

So while watching the last of the Ohio State game on ESPN Saturday, and the up-next was undefeated Indiana against undefeated and #1-ranked Kentucky … well I knew what the rest of MY afternoon would be like. Christmas lights all hung, I settled onto the couch for what would arguably be one of the great games in college basketball history.

If you follow college basketball, you already know that the final score was 73-72 Indiana on a buzzer-beating three-pointer by Christian Watford. By that time, Andie was home from work and I was grilling steaks for dinner, a benefit of living in Florida in December. She thought I was just pacing, and in a way, I was. So many times through the Kelvin Sampson era IU basketball had become difficult to watch, and the program had served up a lot of disappointment over the years since Coach Knight was let go. I fiercely wanted the Hoosiers to win, but knew that Kentucky was ranked #1 for a reason. Down two with 5.6 seconds to play and the ball, it was certainly not a foregone conclusion.

But Indiana fans know that down 2 and 5.6 seconds to play is an opportunity. And Watford took advantage.

As a student at IU, I think I had the opportunity to be in Assembly Hall only once. My part-time job at the local radio station in Bedford, where I grew up, was to insert the local commercials into Indiana basketball games. So my path to Hoosier fandom came from being on campus during the week, and listening to Don Fisher call play-by-play … as he still does … on the Indiana University Basketball Network. The game I attended was Indiana vs Notre Dame. The Irish were heavily favored … and they never led in the game. That’s the kind of Indiana Basketball I was accustomed to. I do recall missing hearing Don call the game for me … but that’s another post.

So Saturday’s victory was special. The students pouring onto the court after the fantastic finish, which nearly left Dickey V speechless, was the result of years of pent-up frustration triggered by a three-point nothing-but-net shot with 0.0 showing on the clock. I felt like if I could have jumped through the TV screen to join them, I’d have been out there in that sea of red.

In the big scheme of things, a mid-season basketball win seems like a small thing. But for Hoosier fans who have waited for this moment, it was special. And honestly, we all knew it was just a matter of time.

After all, as the players and coaches said after the game … “It’s Indiana.”

–scene–

Technorati Tags: Indiana Basketball

The Rest Of The Airshow

As is often the case, the focus of the local media coverage of the NAS Jacksonville Airshow this weekend was on the Blue Angels. That’s appropriate, given the celebration this year of the 100th anniversary of the birth of Naval Aviation, and the spectacular show the Blues fly. On my “bucket list” is an opportunity to strap into the back seat of an F/A-18 Hornet and merrily lose my lunch pulling multiple “G’s” … one of the ultimate “E-Ticket” rides. About the only thing that would rival it would be a $200,000 sub-orbital flight with Virgin Galactic, or one of the other commercial spaceflight companies that will be coming along in the next few years.

That photo, BTW, is of the first-ever landing of an airplane on the deck of a ship … a Curtiss Pusher landing on the U.S.S. Pennsylvania in 1911.

But sometimes overlooked are the other performers that fly at airshows like NAS, or the Sky and Sea Spectacular out at the beach, or hundreds of other airshows around the country. The Blues are the big draw, or course, and an opportunity to see them should not be missed. But neither should the rest.

I accepted an invitation from some good friends at the Chamber of Commerce to attend Friday’s practice show. Driving out to NAS on a chilly, breezy, grey morning, I crossed the Buckman Bridge hoping the weather would lift enough to allow the performers to fly. As I topped the bridge, could see the edge of the weather pushing to the east, and I knew that we’d see some great flying.

And we did. I enjoyed very much watching the demonstrations by an F-4 Phantom, an airplane we were told by the show announcer would be ending its life as a target drone in a live-fire exercise. A real shame, really, because the thunder it created as it pulled up from the runway in full afterburner showed there is still a lot of life left in the Vietnam-era supersonic fighter. Also impressive was the A-10 Thunderbolt, … the “Warthog” which found new life in the “shooting gallery” of the first Gulf war, and will continue to fly for decades to come in close-air support.  “The Horsemen” flew formation aerobatics in a pair of P-51s, perhaps the most-recognizable airplane from WWII. No ballet is more elegantly choreographed.

But as a (admittedly not current) GA pilot,  the small airplanes and the pilots who fly them, are equally impressive. 

The show opened with a routine flown by Skip Stewart in his Prometheus biplane, a modified Pitts S-2S which is something of a cross between a Ferrari and a muscle car. Stewart executed a quarter snap roll immediately after his wheels left the ground and gave us a low pass past airshow center in a knife-edge configuration … a testament to the abilities of both the airplane and the pilot.  Here, he’s about to cut the second of two ribbons suspended between two poles about 30 feet off the ground with the horizontal stabilizer of the airplane, which at this attitude becomes the vertical stabilizer. The picture really doesn’t do it justice.

Also flying in the morning was three-time National Aerobatic Champion Patty Wagstaff. Patty is an inductee in both the National Aerobatics Hall of Fame and the International Aerospace Hall of Fame. Her Extra 300S airplane spends as much time upside down as right side up, at least when it’s flying. I’ve had the pleasure of meeting Patty at a couple of aviation events, though she probably wouldn’t know me from Adam’s cat. At one point, one of the other spectators watching Patty fly said “I’d never get into that airplane.” My response was “I’d fly with her any day, any time,” and I meant it.

Unfortunately, I had to leave the base around noon to get back to the deadline work that was piling up in my inbox for Friday.

The Blue Angels deserve the accolades they receive. They are a among the most elite pilots flying anywhere, and what they can accomplish in those jets is a thing of beauty. But just as impressive is the caliber of pilots and acts that fly at airshows around the country every year. We’re fortunate that they came to perform here.

–Scene–

Technorati Tags: Airshows,Jacksonville,NAS

 

AirVenture

I’m in Wisconsin. “What in the world are you doing in Wisconsin?”, I hear you ask. Well, here at the end of the day, I’m enjoying a Rocky Patel 1990 and getting set for a long day tomorrow, the first full day of the AirVenture show at Oshkosh. Nearly every type of airplane … heck flying machine … is represented here this week. For anybody with even a passing interest in aviation, Oshkosh in late July is the place to be.

Except maybe for the mosquitoes. But that’s partly what the cigar is for.

Today was pretty much a ‘look around and see what’s out there’ day. Not everything has arrived just yet. Late the week, Boeing’s Dreamliner … the new, all composite airliner Boeing has been working on for years will be stopping by. The Wittman Field (KOSH) runway will be taxed by the appearance of the airplane, but it handled an Airbus A380 a couple of years ago, so I imagine they’ve well figured out that they can get the Dreamliner in and out of here. Still in all … it’ll be fun to watch.

I spent part of my day today talking to a guy who is here with his 15-year-old nephew who flew here in a 1946 Ercoupe. This is an airplane of which I have been a fan for a long time. Paul Kern, the father of an old girlfriend,  had one. Paul was one of my early flying influences, and who showed me the path that would eventually lead to my earing a pilot’s license. Paul’s was a “newer” 1966 Alon Aircoupe with “Factory 3” controls. In the airplane I saw today, the ailerons are coupled to the rudders, eliminating the need for rudder pedals. It was designed shortly after the war to be an “everyman’s airplane” … easy and inexpensive to fly. But like so many of those ideas, it never quite panned out to what it should have been. I recall an afternoon with Paul in the Alon in which we flew from Bedford down to a little town called Sunrise in southern Indiana. His daughter, whom I was dating at the time, was on a church-sponsored canoe trip on the Ohio River, and we did a couple of lazy overflights of their encampment before heading back home. I’d love to be able to fly one again, but then, there are a lot of airplanes that fall into that category.

Being here in Oshkosh always gives me that feeling. There are few sensations that are like being in command of an airplane, no matter how small. Coming here, being around the airplanes and the airplane people, it touches a place that nothing else really can.

So, I’m in Oshkosh. I’m here to work, and work we will. But there is also a camaraderie, a feeling of belonging, something unique about what it represents. It feels right to be here.

This may be a rare, quiet moment this week. I’ve not written enough about anything. That needs to change. And this seemed to be a much better place to start than any.

–scene–

Pelicans

I love to photograph pelicans. I don’t know why. Maybe it’s because something so big and ungainly and be so graceful in flight and photogenic when they’re not. Here are some captures I got at the marina today.

At the fish cleaning station waiting for a handout.

On the beach below the fish cleaning station … waiting for a handout.

 

Ready for his closeup.

I’d always heard they could do this, but never had seen it before.

 

Always fascinating. Next time … boats.

–scene–

Winding Things Down

Two weeks post-election and the reality that it’s over is really sinking in. The week has been pretty busy, getting back into the routine of my regular work, along with finally getting back to the JCCI Jobs Study and my first Chamber event since since election day. Downtown Council moved a meeting to lunch this week, and that was a great way to get back into things with the Chamber of Commerce.

So, too busy this week to give the election much thought. With a major project for Aero-News getting the April 1st content ready to post, and then the severe weather down in Lakeland which disrupted the Sun ‘n Fun Airshow (thanks to Nate Calvin for the photo), the end of the week was even busier than the beginning. But today was Saturday, and it was time to really winding it down.

The day started well enough. The first Saturday of each month, Neptune Beach Vice-Mayor (and our neighbor down the street) Kara Tucker gets a bunch of people together to clean up the street that runs behind my house. I’d heard them several times on a Saturday morning while sitting on my back porch drinking coffee and reading the paper. A few months ago, I realized these people were cleaning up the street BEHIND MY HOUSE, and I should be out there helping. So that was this morning’s project, picking up trash along about a mile of Florida Boulevard. It usually takes less than an hour, and we all wind up with a big bag of trash. Then, it’s off to Beach Diner for breakfast, and usually good conversation about politics. Everyone who was helping this morning is a member of our Republican club, and breakfast conversation was about the runoff in the Mayor’s race, as well as a couple of the At-Large City Council races still to be decided.

I’ve likened this to being on a roller coaster. We all clack-clack-clacked up to the top of the hill, and election day was like the long drop from the top. Now, those in run-off contests are clack-clack-clacking up the hill once again. I’d have been thrilled to be one of them, but  not to be.

After breakfast, I realized that I hadn’t mowed the grass almost since I opened the campaign account last fall. But before I could mow, I had to move the campaign signs I had pulled up and brought back to the house. Not only did I have to move signs to be able to mow the grass, I had to move signs to be able to unearth the mower from the garage. That’s where it started. I turned over a big trash can and started piling in the coroplast signs that had encouraged people to vote for me. Signs dealt with, i gassed up the mower and pulled the chord. Low and behold, it started on the 2nd pull.

Grass mowed, I looked around for another project to check off the list. And then, I looked at my poor car.

I’ve practically lived in that car for the past 6 months, and it was full of stuff. Campaign stuff and empty PET bottles and coffee cups and other detritus. So, I decided it was the day to clean out the car. I filled up three plastic grocery bags with just trash, and tossed I don’t know how many empty water and green tea bottles into the recycling. It was when I got to the trunk, and found an entire unopened box of rack cards that It kind of hit home. I knew they were back there, but it was kind of difficult to pick up that box, as well as the open box that I’d been doling out rack cards from all campaign, and just toss them in the trash with the signs.

I still have the final financial report to do, and a bunch of stuff in the office that I can also get rid of. I’ll keep one of each piece just to have them here.

Tomorrow, after breakfast with the usual Sunday breakfast bunch, I’ve got a project to do at the marina. The AM/FM radio on the boat got jarred loose when i was out last weekend … and I need to get that put back together. And … my bike will be finished tomorrow, so I’ll be able to pick that up at the bike shop. Getting it back in shape will only cost me about a third of what I paid for it in the first place. But with the bike back, and time to ride it, I’m determined to get myself back into something resembling shape this summer.

That means eating less, too. Wish me luck.

–scene–

Back To The Beach

The sign kind of says it all. Resume normal safe operations. So that’s what I did. Saturday, I got Party Quirks off the rack for the first time since July. Yeah … I said July. Running for office was a pretty all-consuming endeavor, and the boat was moved to the back burner. So with perfect weather on Saturday, I got out the SPF50 sunscreen  and headed to the marina. As an aside, the guys at the marina were great about letting me put a campaign sign up where it could be seen from the ferry parking lot … but I digress.

I went first out to the ocean, which is always therapeutic for me. I don’t know what it is about the ocean, but when I need it, I need it. The ocean was very calm Saturday. There was about a 2-3 foot swell running, but it was a very long swell … not choppy at all. So it was just about perfect for a quick nip offshore. Next order of business is to buy a new fishing license and go see if I can find something besides a few whiting or little sharks. I’d  like to be able to bring home to eat.

From the ocean, it was back up the St Johns to the Trout river, where I’d actually never been before. The old GPS I had did not give me good accurate depth information, and in fact didn’t even show most of the ICW. The new Garmin I bought last year has much more accurate charts installed, along with depths at mean low tide. I’d been as far up the Trout river as the zoo dock (BTW … if you go to the zoo by boat, I hear you get in for free), but never beyond the little fixed road bridge and railroad swing bridge that are the entrance to the main part of the tributary. Beyond those bridges are structures ranging from ramshackle old river sheds to new McMansions and riverfront condos. Some of those are in the shadow of the bridge which carries I-95 over the Trout river … the famed “Trout river bridge” that is so often a traffic bottleneck. Or, at least it was when I was commuting to town every day and listening to the radio. With a 10 or 15 step commute to the coffee pot and then to the screen porch to work in the morning, the radio has become a far less important part of my day. That’s actually a little sad, as it was such a big part of my life for so long, but lives change.

I love to shoot old boathouses. Like old barns, old boathouses have a character to them, a personality.  Weather-worn, they are in some ways like a wise, old man. They have seen sun and storms, boats of all varieties, who knows how many owners. Perhaps only one … having been in a family for generations. Or maybe dozens. All I know is that if I’m shooting an old boat house, I’m on my boat, and that’s pretty much a good thing no matter what.

The good news is on the river or the ICW, there are plenty of old boat houses to shoot. And I hope to be shooting a lot more in the coming months.

Heck, I hope to be on the boat a lot more in the coming months. She’s sat for months, just waiting for me to come around and pay some attention again. Thank goodness she’s patient.

Party Quirks was covered in a non-too-fine layer of dust, and grime when she came out of the barn. The washing she got at the end of the day made her look pretty again.

Of course, the St Johns is a working river. The Port of Jacksonville will be an economic engine for Northeast Florida for years to come. These container cranes always remind me of something out of Star Wars. They look like the skeletons of the Imperial Walkers. But they represent jobs and commerce and taxes, and I hope there will be more like them in the years to come.

I’m sure my writing is a bit rusty. But it is time to resume normal safe operation. Bring the boat back up on plane and see where we want to go. I’m hopeful that there will be more flying in my future as well. I would not have not run for City Council for anything in the world. It was a fabulous experience. For some, the roller coaster is starting to clack-clack-clack back up to the top of the hill. I’d have been honored to be sitting in that front car. But for now, standing on the sidelines, it’s time to return to life at the continent’s edge. I know that I’m stronger for the experience, and that in its self makes it worthwhile.

It’s good to be home

–scene–

Well, That Was Fun

It was a hell of a ride, but I won’t be a member of the Jacksonville City Council this coming term. But “Life’s a Beach” will be back. I’m going to re-vamp the look over the next few days and get back to writing. I hope at least a few of the folks who followed the blog before will come back again.  Tomorrow, it’s out to the river and maybe the ocean if the seas are calm enough. Camera in tow, I’ll bring back some photos. And I’ll start to cook again, but healthier.

I would not have missed the opportunity of running for city council for the world. And who’s to say I won’t do it again someday. But for now, it’s back to life at the continent’s edge.

Honey … I’m home …..

–scene–

On Hiatus

Well, it’s pretty obvious that I’ve had very little time to keep up with “Life’s a Beach”, and here is the reason why.

Along with all my other writing, for Aero-News.net and The Jacksonville Observer, I’ve decided to throw my hat into the ring for The Jacksonville City Council, At-large, Group 2.

And with that, some things have fallen by the wayside. “Life’s a Beach”, unfortunately, has been one of those.

Is this the end of the blog? Well, I’m not deleting it, but regular updates are just no longer possible. I’ll be keeping a campaign blog, and there is a campaign website as well as a Facebook presence. And I do still have to work for a living.

Thanks to everyone who came to read this even occasionally. I’ve loved doing it, and may be able to get back to it again sometime. But for now, we’ll not say “goodbye,” but rather “so long for a while.” We all have that special friend who we haven’t seen for months or years, and with whom we can pick up the phone and re-connect like it was yesterday. I hope that’s the case for “Life’s a Beach.”

We’ll see you on the campaign trail …

–scene–

Auf Wiedersehen, Wes Skiles

I was shocked to hear the news today that Wes Skiles had died diving off the coast of Florida … doing what he loved.

There’s little I can add to what’s already been written by those who knew him better than me. When I worked for Jacksonville’s Public Broadcasting station, I met Wes on a couple of occasions as he worked on “Water’s Journey”. But it was on a winter dive trip to the Bahamas that I got watch this professional diver and videographer work.

Most Florida divers are at least familiar with Capt. Slate, who run one of the best little dive operations in the Florida Keys … Captain Slate’s Atlantis Dive Center. (you can send me the check later, Slate.) If you’re not, you probably should be. And for vacation every year, Slate gets together a bunch of his friends, mostly dive industry professionals, and they charter the 104’ Aqua Cat live-aboard dive boat sailing out of Nassau. Andie and I got to go one year, thanks to my cousin Mike who works in the biz. Wes was also on that trip.

We talked some shop. Wes spent a good deal of his surface interval time tinkering with the lights and housings for the HiDef cameras he’d brought on the trip. I remember Wes getting in the water, and watching the deckhands gingerly hand Wes the cameras overboard … cameras and gear which cost more than the kids working the deck probably made in a dozen seasons.

But Wes in the water was a joy to watch. He was such a professional. On a night dive, Wes and his lights lit up the reef like day, and seeing him come around the coral formations was like watching a scene from “The Abyss” … or maybe an underwater version of “Close Encounters”.

On the shark dive, with 50 or 60 reef sharks, untold numbers of yellowtails and amberjacks swarming around what is affectionately known as a ‘chumsicle’, Wes was in the middle of it … kicking that slow, measured frog kick that cave divers use to avoid stirring up silt in an underwater overhead environment, but which, once you learn it, just seems natural.

Cave diving is just flat dangerous. Wes had spent more time in Florida’s aquifer than probably anyone. His footage of that amazing, mostly unseen world in “Water’s Journey” and elsewhere is breathtaking, and one of his photos is on the cover of the August National Geographic. For him to lose his life in an open-water dive in the usually calm waters off Florida is probably more shocking than to think that he’s gone. But every diver knows, or should, that every time you strap on the tank and start towards the bottom, you’re in a hostile environment that can be very unforgiving.

Sometimes we’re privileged to have our lives touched by very special people. Wes was that kind of person. I wish I’d have had an opportunity to know him better. He was the rare person who took his passions in life, in Wes’ case diving and videography, and became one of the best in the world. And I know I’m the richer for having made his acquaintance.

Auf Wiedersehen, Wes.

–scene–

Technorati Tags: Scuba Diving,Photography,Videography,Auf Wiedersehen

Time Lapse

This is fun. It’ll be a very short post, but I’ve let the blog languish for so long that I doubt anybody’s paying attention anymore anyway.

Mom’s night blooming Cerius was blooming again tonight. I finally figured out the time-lapse function on my camera, and this is the result …

OK … apparently you have to click on it to get the animation effect in a new window. Not sure why that is. I can see the animation in every editor. Give it a minute to let all the animation frames load.

Anyway, this was shot taking a frame every 30 seconds over the course of about half an hour. You don’t realize how quickly the flower opens until you see it like that. Sorry about the shifting light, but I had to put a flashlight on it … just at the fringe so it didn’t way overexpose … and holding it stead was, well, impossible.

I’m off to Wisconsin Friday for AirVenture at Oshkosh. I’ll try to update a few times from there, and the blog will hopefully pick up shortly after that. I’ve let it languish too long, and it’s time to write again.

Technorati Tags: Photography,Time Lapse,Beach Living