Saturday, July 12, 2008

Busy Skies and Boogie Men

The Redding skies are busy. Water Bombers, helicopters, spotter planes and birds swoop and drop their loads on the wildfires today.

Looking up from Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

From Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Helicopter. Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Bird. Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Droppings. Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

All the above happened in less than 10 minutes. Including the bird. Even with my little 3X optical zoom, the planes were so close at times that I could get a picture like the following.

Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

" Bogy at 12 O'clock, captain." Screen writers always seemed to put that line in the script for war movies I couldn't resist finding the origin of Bogy. It seems there were some 14th century pirates who lived in Ujung Pandang, on the Kalimantan Kumai River, who were called the Bugis. The were so frightening and savage when they would attack British ships, the sailors that survived would come back to England with scary stories of the Bogy's, or Bogy Men. What we now call, "Boogie Men."

These same sailors would be served their meals on square wooden planks while on board the ships, and that's where we get,
"Square Meal!"
Not to be confused with, "Square Deal", which came from the Egyptians. If you look closely at a hieroglyph of a Pharaoh sitting in judgment, you will notice he is sitting on a, "square", like carpenters and masons use. He will also be holding a blue feather, from which we get. "True Blue." This is not to be confused with, "Blue Blood", that refers to the rich who would eat with silver utensils and plates. The silver absorbed into their bodies would give a blue tint to their blood. The rich were far less likely to fall victim to the prevalent diseases that plagued the peasants who ate and cooked with leaded pots and plates. A common practice among the wealthy was to place a silver spoon in their baby's mouth to kill off germs. That's right, you guessed it, "Born with a silver spoon". When I was a baby, it was still customary to have a "Baby Spoon" made of silver. This would help prevent childhood illnesses. Today, people use plastic and wonder why their baby has ear infections, allergies and other maladies.

Meanwhile, back to the fires.

Keswick Dam Road 7/11/08

Planes over the fire. 7/11/08

If you go to the following site, your cursor will be on fire!
http://www.flamingcursor.com/

Today I started several projects and though I haven't completed all of them, I am happy with those that are done.

Finally, a picture of one of my favorite places in Redding...

Redding Library 7/11/08

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