Cop Car's Beat

Stop to appreciate the flowers

I took a while to get around to downloading these off of my HP camera that I use for close-up shots. First photo shows the frilly blossoms on our Dwarf Victor Crape Myrtle (Lagerstroemia Indica) planted in 2002.

The next photo is obviously of a daylily, but I believe that I mislabeled the photo. I don't recall what kind it is. I believe it was originally planted in 2010 or 2012, but it was moved to its current position earlier this year.

The next photo is a volunteer rose moss. My paternal grandmother grew some in a little patch near the house on her farm and I always loved them. I originally cast the seed several years ago and it has reseeded itself each year. The yellow seems to be hardier than the other colors as the other colors are not to be found, these days.

I started this post with crape myrtle photo and I'll end with a shot of the same bush from whence came the close-up, above, showing the non-dwarf crape myrtles behind it. The dwarf, from a nursery, was planted in 2002. The non-dwarf were on sale at a big box store at the end of the (selling) season that year or perhaps in 2003. I thought that both of the non-dwarfs were pinkish red; but, one of them was 1/2 white and 1/2 pinkish red. I'm pruning out the pinkish red canes to encourage the white, for contrast. One branch of the pinkish red layered itself, so there is a small bush (not visible, but behind the white) that I'm saving for Wonderful Granddaughter and Rachie, if they want it. If they don't, perhaps Jason and Tonya will wish to add it to the crape myrtles that they planted along their property line in the deep back

And then the roofing came off

For the past couple of months we've been coordinating with the home owner's association (HOA), identifying a contractor with whom to work, and trying to get the weather to cooperate in order to have the roofing materials replaced on our house. (Some of the process was addressed on June 12, 2016, as Another hectic week has gone by.)

At the time we built (1999), the covenant required that roofing in our HOA be wooden shake shingles. I fought it, at the time, because I consider such roofing to be a fire hazard; but, it wasn't until a couple of years after we moved in when the State of Kansas passed a law saying that homeowners could not be required to use wooden shake shingles. Yay! Since the roof has shown minor leakage over the past 15 months, we had a good incentive to get the roofing replaced. Yesterday, the new composition shingles were delivered - most of which were pre-positioned on the roof. Here's a photo of how the house looked last evening (most of the new shingles are on the back side of the house, out of range from the camera's point-of-view.) The second photo shows our cars, removed from the garage for the convenience of the roofers who would show up at 6:00am, today, and parked at a safe distance from the house.

 

By 8:30am, today, this is the progress the roofers had made. You may be able to see a white rectangle in the center of the front door in the photo on the left (below). That is the city permit for the work.

 

Those roofers are really going to earn their pay on this job. We've been having high temperatures and high humidity all summer, with extreme heat/humidity warnings from the National Weather Service for all of this past week. It is forecast to reach 104 degrees Fahrenheit, today, and about the same, tomorrow.

Photos for the rest of the process may be found at CC's Com Site.

Doc Flew!

 

July 17, 2016 9:13 AM 

It wasn’t easy, but B-29 Doc takes to Wichita skies

Read more here: http://www.kansas.com/news/business/aviation/article90144877.html#storylink=cpy

Please note that once the main video has been run, three additional videos (takeoff/landing, chat with crew, and first start of engine number 4 before it was installed into the airframe) are available by clicking on them.

Hopefully, the only political posting I'll make this year!

 

Note: Apologies for the G-S ad!

P-8 Poseidon at Farnborough International Air Show

Most, if not all of my blog friends, know that Hunky Husband spent his entire engineering and program management career with one or another Boeing company - just under 35 years' worth. He sent me the link to the following video. (Unbeknownst to him, I had also received the link from a military listing that I receive each morning; but, I was too busy, today, and deleted today's military listing email without reading any of it. HH gets more attention from me!)

We set a new high

And then came the flooding showed flooding in the drainage easement portion of our neighbor's and our back yards that took place in May of this year. At that time, the water achieved about (or within a few inches in depth) the same flood stage as in a couple of previous years since we moved here in late 1999.

Yesterday, we received another three inches of rain, raising the creek once again. This time, the flood height reached about 2.5 feet higher than in May, as best I can determine. Unfortunately, although I arose frequently during the night and early morning (knees kicking up on me, again!) it didn't occur to me to check how the creek was doing until Hunky Husband mentioned it to me at about 7:00am. At that time, the water was higher than we had ever before seen it; but, we could tell that the flood height had already ebbed at least six or eight inches.

For comparison to the previous flooding, here's a close-up of a 4x4 that is set in concrete - as it appeared when I finally looked out. The post appears in the upper left-hand corner of the view - in the foreground with respect to the trees. The top of the post is over 5.5 feet above ground level. I believe that the water level had peaked at above the top of the post.

Here is the same post as it appeared in May - with the waterline showing the peak water level. In the extreme foreground, the little tree had grown a few inches in the six weeks that elapsed between photos.

The water came within a few feet of our patio, this morning - more than half-way up into our non-drainage-easement back lawn. There is a good chance for more rain during the week.

More photos at: The great flood of July 3, 2016

Graphic stolen from Jean at The Misadventures of Widowhood

Clever branding

Dudette and Wichidude came over a week ago bringing Next Generation 1 and Next Generation 2 with them. We had a delightful time. Merriment was added by an item, that they had seen while shopping, and just had to buy for me. (This posting had to await arrival of a new battery for my old camera - the HP camera is the one that I use for close-up photography.)

Thank you Wichidude and Dudette - for thinking of me and for picking such a clever gift.

Googling the brand, I found a nutty review on You Tube (with guest appearance by a somewhat well-known physicist).

The reviewer tells us that The Fizzicist has a taste similar to Dr Pepper. I'm working up the nerve to try it. (I've drunk diet drinks for so many decades that I don't care for the taste of many sugar-sweetened drinks.)

First F-35B Landings in UK

From a posting by Brendan McGarry:

 

"Three F-35B made a transatlantic flight June 29, 2016, flying from MCAS Beaufort in South Carolina and landing at RAF Fairford in Gloucestershire, England. They were assisted by two KC-10’s, and refueled 15 times over the Atlantic."

 

"The trio — a single RAF F-35B and two U.S. Marine Corps F-35B aircraft — arrived in country for the upcoming Royal International Air Tattoo July 8-10 and the Farnborough International Air Show July 11-17. (The British plane, piloted by RAF Squadron Leader Hugh Nichols, touched down first.)"

 

Photo by Brian Burdett/U.S. Marine Corps