retrofocus ramblings.

I’ve grown up and spent the majority of my life in Massachusetts. My state has a pretty strong bond with the sea. The nautical history of the nation was in large measure written by sailors from the Commonwealth. There are even some very popular beaches and magical spots along the seashore in my home state. The ocean is a constant presence, but one that I don’t give much mind to.
I am not, as you say a seaman. I SCUBA dive, and I admire the water in it’s change of hue and interaction with the sun. All that, I really wouldn’t call myself a student if the sea. It’s just there.
Lucky I have been to have had the chance beginning when I was 5 to visit the Southern sandbar known as Florida. I’ve explored this state and know many of it’s nooks, crannies and oddities. I feel a comfort level in Florida – it is very familiar to me.
Walking along the wide stretch of sand known as Cocoa Beach I was struck by the sea. As I walked I was greeted by a number of different emotions, but most if all I felt the sea and admired it’s lure as the Sunday multitudes flocked to the sea’s very edge.
There is a tug I feel in the very fibers of me for the sea. Some is likely nostalga, yes, watching all the kids and their buckets of sandy mud it’s easy to get pulled back in time. Idle summer days spent at the waters edge. Going to the beach is always something. Today, though, I acknowledged a deeper tug that I share with all those at the beach. There is a clensing power to the crashing of the waves on the beach. A magical tempo of the tidal shifts that seems to be a hearbeat for the very earth itself. You can stand in the path of a crashing wave and ever so slightly alter it’s flow, but again and again the tide just keeps coming.
A goodly number of us humans are just drawn to the water’s edge. For all the many diverse reasons to go, there is something deep that resonates in me when I’m there.
There is a presence to the sea. It can be felt.

…and the temperature of Florida’s Atlantic surf was none to hard to take today. Amazing feeling.

On the second leg I also kept a few notes.

– KCPC
122.8 KCPC Unicom / CTAF
119.2 Myrtle Beach Approach ( clearence pickup )
127.4 Myrtle Beach
135.8 Charleston Approach
118.45 Beaufort Approach
125.3 Savanah Approach
120.4 Savanah
126.75 Jacksonville Approach
118.0 Jacksonville
118.85 Daytona Approach
127.07 Daytona
132.65 Orlando Approach
122.97 Merritt Island CTAF Unicom
– KCOI

The following are from the flight notes I made on the first leg of my IFR flight from Norwood MA to Merritt Island FL on Friday morning April 17, 2009. I may have missed a few frequency changes at the start. Wheels up at 07:14.

NOT TO BE USED FOR NAVIGATION

121.8 KOWD ground
126.0 KOWD tower
119.0 Boston Departure ( climb out to 8,000′ )
135.4 Boston
119.45 Providence Approach
118.0 New York Approach ( alt change 8,000′ to 6,000′ )
135.9 New York
124.55 New York
124.15 New Jersey – Maguire Approach
124.6 Atlantic City Approach
132.42 Dover DE Approach
127.95 Pax River Approach
126.05 Norfolk Approach
125.2 Norfolk
119.45 Norfolk
123.85 Washington Center
123.7 Seymore Approach
135.75 Wilmington Approach ( alt change 6,000′ to 4,000′ )
119.2 Myrtle Beach Approach
122.8 KCPC Unicom Frequency

Despite publish date, majority of this post written on 4-15-2009:

This morning I woke up early and rented an airless paint sprayer. Then I proceeded to fight with the balky beastie and try and throw 10 gallons of dark gray latex paint on the old warehouse walls.
Since it was my first outing with such a machine I was laying it on far too thick on the first wall. Not good. Motored through a goodly portion of the first 5 gallon bucket before I knew it. Oooops. Tough to see in a bucket of dark gray paint how the levels are.
Despite the trials, and the machine acting up, ( an easy wack with the hammer did good ) I just managed to get the whole place painted before 2 p.m.
I’ll say this about using a commercial sprayer – it’s fast. Do proper prep, masking and setup and you can really move paint in a hurry.
No matter what, when all said and done, I learned at least the basics of a new skill and the studio is painted now a dark grey. All good in my book.

And it did actually turn out to be somewhat fun!

This is a first. There are 365 front page above the fold pictures in the Boston Globe each year. On Saturday April 11, 2009 that picture was taken by me. In this case I made the image while at the behest of a commercial client who, in turn, distributed a small sub-set of images to the local media. AP also requested to use the picture. Off it went. Pretty amazing, although it all pales to what the photo shows. Amazing technology and skill at the BWH and darn fine people too. Just a cool lucky thing all around.