Short-Week Review from Maxwell

Tuesday, 5 March
Maxwell AFB FamCamp — Montgomery, Alabama
Temps: Lo 39F / Hi 71F (4C / 22C)

This review comes early since we will be leaving for greener pastures (so to speak) on Thursday.

If the first few days of March have anything in common, it’s that they were cold.  With a brisk breeze cutting to the bone, we really had no wish to go out and explore Montgomery and its environs.  Instead, we used the time to catch up on indoor projects at home, and Mui did some preventive maintenance on the steps outside when the temp sort of warmed up on Saturday.

Friday (March 1), we tested renting movies from iTunes.  Users can buy or rent.  In the latter case, you have 30 days to watch the movie and once you click the play button, you must finish watching within 24 hours before the download disappears in a virtual puff of smoke.  We rented Argo for $3.99; a good price for a recent award-winning movie … sure beats the price of theater tickets.  iTunes rentals look to be a good alternative to Netflix, which we subscribed to while we were living in a stix & bricks.  We have started a list of movies to download when we’re in campgrounds where we have free wi-fi to supplement our own internet data package. 

Saturday, I attempted to go for a walk around the lake near the campground.  The chill quickly drove me back home, but not before I captured a photo of the resident great blue heron in its breeding plumage.  How do I know?  Check out the lore (area between the base of the bill and the eyes) … it’s blue.

Sunday dawned overcast and we were resigned to another gloomy day.  But then, Mother Nature smiled on us.  By mid-morning, the sun was out and the sky was a brilliant blue.  Even though it was only about 48F (9C), we decided it was time to get out before cabin fever set in permanently.  The short stroll we embarked on turned into a 6½-mile (10½ km) walk around the perimeter of the Maxwell airfield.  A detour along the way uncovered an interesting marker that we would have otherwise missed.

Today’s military passenger terminal and base operations stand where
the hangar of the Wright Brothers’ flying school was once located.

Since it was Sunday, we didn’t expect to see any action on the runway, but we were wrong … and this time I was prepared to take pictures of the two C-130 Hercules being put through their paces.

With a day of sunshine and warm temps forecasted for Monday (the 4th), we knew we couldn’t waste it.  What to do?  We considered Selma, but decided we weren’t up to doing a 100-mile (160 km) roundtrip drive.  So, we hopped in the car and went to the Montgomery Zoo to get our “wildlife” fix.  We had a wonderful day; one that deserves a separate post (or two).

Parakeet Cove, a free-flight aviary, was our first stop at the Montgomery Zoo.

Moving on to the end of our day.  We wrapped up our zoo outing with dinner at John “Big Daddy” Bishop’s Dreamland BBQ, which has been serving ribs since 1958 under the slogan “Ain’t nothing like ‘em nowhere!”

Several of the murals decorating the walls of Dreamland BBQ were painted by
Roscoe Hall II, John "Big Daddy" Bishop's grandson; the mural on the bottom left
is of the original Dreamland location in Tuscaloosa, Alabama.

We can’t vouch for the ribs — I’m not a ribs person, so I got the chopped chicken plate; Mui forgot to order the ribs and got the chopped pork plate.  Both meats were pit-cooked and came with a side of Dreamland Sauce, which is “rumored to have moonshine as a key ingredient,” two sides, and the ubiquitous slice of Wonder bread.  It was a lot of food; half of my chopped chicken came home with us and made for tasty sandwich fixings today.  We topped off our meal with Dreamland’s signature dessert — banana pudding.  We were good and ordered the small portion of this yummy dessert; might have to get the double portion next time!

Mui’s chopped pork plate didn’t look much different from my chopped chicken …
just a different meat and coleslaw instead of mac & cheese.

And finally, today (the 5th).  It was the warmest day we’ve had since the beginning of the month, but it was overcast and gloomy all day.  And windy, too.  The high wind alert was on target and we felt the gusts rocking the Phaeton until shortly after 8:00p.  Mid-afternoon, a squall came through the area.  Short in duration, it dumped quite a bit of rain.  We happened to be inside at the time, but those who were caught unawares got a good soaking for sure.

We had a very full day in preparation for our move to a COE (Corps of Engineers) campground south of Montgomery on Thursday.  Mui shopped to fill the larder, and cooked a few meals to reduce the number of pots and pans that will need to be washed while we’re at a water/electric site.  I threw in a couple loads of laundry, and started processing photos for our zoo outing … blog post(s) coming soon.

Week in Review from Maxwell-Gunter

Thursday, 28 February
Maxwell AFB FamCamp — Montgomery, Alabama
Temps: Lo 34F (Forecasted) / Hi 54F (1C / 12C)

It feels like we just arrived at the Maxwell AFB  FamCamp this afternoon.  But that’s an illusion … we arrived a week ago today.  The week has gone by fast.  As a matter of fact, the month has flown by.  Of course, it doesn’t help that it’s a short month ;-)

An easy 204-mile (326 km) drive brought us to Montgomery on 21 February.  (We took the same route as the one we drove when we left here on January 31, so I’m recycling that map for this blog post — just switch the red and the green points.)

We called while we were still in Red Bay to make reservations at the FamCamp, and snagged a great site for our return stay — once again for two-weeks.

Last time, we were in site 61 … second row, third from the end;
nice, but we sure like site 69 better,

Site 69 is at the end of a five-site row; no neighbors on the passenger side, and we overlook an open field with a thicket of trees on the far side.  The adjacent site is closed for repairs, so for this week at least, no neighbors on that side either.  The rate for our pull-through FHU site is $20/night, but we’re getting the weekly rate — seven nights for the price of six.  Pretty darn good.

View of our site from the empty field across from us.
The brown building is the bathhouse, with the laundry at the far end.
The nice thing about the bathhouse is that it is not communal; each door leads
to a private bathroom/shower.  Great for long, hot showers ;-)

Top Left: view from our windshield shows the tent camping area in the distance,
with one of the two lakes just beyond.

Top Right: view from our door.

Bottom: the old section of the campground; mostly long-term campers;
difficult for big rigs to maneuver into those sites.

Every morning, flocks of birds fly out of the treeline to nibble at whatever they can find hidden in the grass and warm themselves in the early morning sunshine. There are American robins, mockingbirds, mourning doves, and red-shouldered blackbirds.  They’re all very skittish and scatter as soon as they sense motion.  I got a few photos, but I’ll have to work on my patience to get better ones.

Mourning Dove

American Robins

We’ve been busy since we arrived, but at a slower pace than usual.  We’re resting up from our whirlwind days in Red Bay, and taking care of chores when the mood strikes us.

Taking advantage of the mostly sunny days, Mui’s been up on the roof to spray it with 303 (UV protectant), and has also done some work on reorganizing the basement bays.  I’ve done a mountain of laundry, and some much needed cleaning.  And, of course, I finished processing a ton of photos to wrap up the posts for our Red Bay saga.

The weather has been quite nice.  Our temps have ranged from a low of 37F (3C) last night to a high of 69F (21C) on a couple of days.  There’s a front coming our way, so it will get a bit colder no doubt.

We’ve had plenty of rain — over 5 inches (127+ mm) in the time we’ve been here.  The hard rains (some with thunder and lightning) came overnight, leaving us with sunny — if cool — days.  Perfect weather for taking long walks.

As the ground has gotten a good soaking, strolling around the lakes has been out of the question.  Instead, I walked the flightline perimeter road, detouring to the air park on one occasion, and to the post office on another occasion.  About 3 miles (4.6 km) each time, with return ride to the campground courtesy of Mui.

This marker, located at the historic air park, honors a program, agreed to by Roosevelt and Churchill in 1941, which resulted in over 4,000 British and Commonwealth pilots being trained in the US by the US Army Air Corps; some at Maxwell Field.

Those of you who are regular readers will recall that I wrote about the historic air park here at Maxwell, which we explored when we were here in January (click for the post).  One of the tributes in the park is to the Wright Brothers.  Unfortunately, I couldn’t get a good shot of it then.  With the cooperation of the sun, I did a little better this time.

The plaque at the monument mentions the cooperation between the Wright Brothers
and the citizens of Alabama in establishing the nation’s first school of civil aviation in
1910.  It turns out that the site of that flying school later became Maxwell AFB.

If you look closely through the base of the monument, you can glimpse “Poopsie”,
which I wrote about in the post I linked to above.

A closer look at Orville in the cockpit.

Something new I found on one my walks — a Northrup T-38A “Talon.”  Actually, new is not the right word, since it was here the last time we stayed at the FamCamp, but it was being painted.  Located not far from the Maxwell Gate, it’s now on display again — all bright and shiny — an appropriate way to welcome visitors to the base.

Northrup T-38A "Talon": the aircraft chosen by the USAF in the mid-1950s to better
prepare student pilots for the latest tactical aircraft that were then coming into
service; first prototype flew on 10 April 1959.  This aircraft served at Edwards AFB in
California; it was dropped from the USAF inventory in April 1971.

My most recent walk took me in the opposite direction along the flightline perimeter road, past the two lakes nearby, and out to the end of the runway.  It turned out to be a walk with entertainment courtesy of the 908th Airlift Wing (USAF Reserve unit based here at Maxwell).  Unfortunately, I forgot to take my camera with me or I’d have some great shots to show you of a C-130 Hercules aircraft practicing touch-and-go landings and low fly-overs.

I may not have photos of the C-130 in action, but here are a couple of shots from my first walk
earlier in the week.  The C-130 Hercules on the left is taxiing into position to roll down the runway.

After the frequent dining-out we did in Red Bay, we’ve been eating at home again now that we’re on a more normal schedule.  Not as much fun perhaps, but definitely healthier meals.  That said, we didn’t say no when Maria and Nigel, whom we met at the Tiffin Allegro Service Center, suggested we get together for lunch in Montgomery.  Thinking that they were already on their way to Pensacola, we were pleasantly surprised to hear from them the night we arrived at Maxwell.  They were still camped at Gunter Hill COE, and we arranged to meet up for lunch on Saturday, the 23rd.

Always good to see friends again and chat about what we’ve all been up to.

Our first choice, an Italian restaurant in downtown Montgomery’s “The Alley” was closed for lunch.  So, we ended up at the Railyard Brewing Co. instead.  The music could have been toned down a bit; otherwise, we enjoyed the pub-like atmosphere.

The Railyard IPA & Cheddar, a beer-based soup garnished with fried onion rings, was good, but a bit salty for my taste.  However, I was very pleased with the Signature Burger I ordered; and Mui was very happy with his Smoked BBQ Bison Burger … both were served on a pretzel bun.  I believe Maria and Nigel were pleased with their choices as well … and we were all charmed by the presentation of the fries in tin pails.

Next time, we’ll try one of the brews; this time, we just enjoyed the food.

Our only real outing this week was today; and it was a short one.  We drove the 7 miles (11 km) to the Gunter Hill COE (Corps of Engineers) campground to check out the sites for a future stay … it’s just too close to Maxwell to be a feasible stop for us this time around as we need a place further south once we leave here.  We really liked what we saw and will make a point of staying at Gunter Hill at some point in our travels.

We were planning to go to Selma on Sunday, but just heard that Vice President and Mrs Biden will be there for the “crossing of the bridge” jubilee.  We’ve spent enough time in DC to know what that will do to the crowds … and the traffic, so we will probably shift our plans around.  Hmmm … I wonder if that means the Bidens will be flying into Maxwell?

Cold … in Vina

Friday, 1 February
Custom RV (aka Brannon Hutcheson) — Vina, Alabama
Temps: Lo 22F / Hi 41F (-5.5C / 5C)

(With the nearest Verizon tower at least six miles (10 km) from here, the internet is spotty; posting will be delayed until we get to the Tiffin Camp in Red Bay tomorrow.)

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How cold, you ask?  Well, it was 22F (-5.5C) when we woke up here in Vina, Alabama on the outskirts of Red Bay this morning.  By mid-morning, the temperature inside the service bay was showing 30F (-1C).

If the thermometer has inched up from there, I wouldn’t know.  I’ve taken refuge in the lounge at Custom RV — known to most Tiffinites as Brannon Hutcheson — and left Mui and Brannon to get things done in the cold service bay.  Nimbly moving about out there, they don’t look like they’re feeling the cold one bit.  As for me, cozily ensconced on the love seat, I’m getting a head start on this post.

My refuge for the day!

Since my last post from Maxwell AFB, we’ve weathered a storm moving in from the west, wreaking havoc in many parts of the US in one way or another; and we’ve traveled 204 miles (326 km) from Montgomery to the outskirts of Red Bay.

204 easy miles (326 km) brings us close to the Alabama / Mississippi border.
The inset shows our travels since leaving Virginia in early December.

Tuesday & Wednesday, 29-30 January

First the storm … which came through the Montgomery area on the 30th.

When we first heard the forecast for the storm, we considered leaving the FamCamp at Maxwell AFB a day early.  However, the size of the front and the fact it was coming in from the west made any move we might make moot.  So we prepared our “go-bag,” moved our departure day chores up to the 29th, and hunkered down to ride out the storm.

The only thing worth mentioning on the day leading up to the storm is the lunch we snuck in at the Texas Roadhouse when we went to pick up a y-valve (hose splitter) from Home Depot.  No photos, but I can tell you that the food was very good.  I’m not a ribs person, but Mui declared the falling-off-the-bone sample the chef brought to our table to be the best he’s eaten to date.

[collage from screenshots taken from the website]

The day of the storm dawned early with our weather radio going off around 5:30a to alert us to a tornado watch that later in the morning was upped to a tornado warning.  Ready to evacuate from the famcamp to one of the designated areas on base, we went about our day.  In the end, the storm was a non-event — for us.  We got non-stop drenching rain that was so heavy at times that the rat-a-tat-tat on the roof drowned out the sound of the TV.  We had some wind gusts during the day, but nothing of real concern.  The worst of the wind gusts came after the strong wind advisory was lifted at 6:00p.  They were few and far between, but when it blew, we felt like we were aboard a ship rocking and rolling on stormy seas.  By bedtime, all was calm.

Thursday, 31 January

On the last day of January, we woke up to sunshine and cold temperatures (36F [2C]).  We took our time getting ready to depart.  Shortly after 10:00a, we were pulling up to the ITT Office to top off our propane.  We didn’t need much (only 4 gallons [15 liters], as it turns out), but we wanted to leave with a full tank and the $3.59/gallon was a good price to take advantage of.

With only 4 gallons (15 liters) to purchase, the propane top-off is a quick affair.

By 10:30a, we were on I-65, heading north.  The drive was uneventful.  We made one stop near Birmingham to top off our diesel at Flying J ($3.81 with our RV Plus card) and grab a bite of lunch parked amongst the semis.  Then another 100 miles (120 km) put us at Custom RV on the outskirts of Red Bay.

The coach next to us is unoccupied, so we have the place to ourselves.

It was 3:30p, and the place was locked down tight.  A call to Brannon Hutcheson confirmed that we should back up to one of the bays and avail ourselves of the electricity and water hookups for our overnight stay.  We took him up on the electricity.  Since overnight temps were forecasted to dip into the low 20F range [minus 4-5C], we decided to use our onboard water rather than risk a hose connection.  We had a comfy night, with the rear propane furnace kicking in occasionally to keep us — and the wet bay — warm.

Our spot allows us to take advantage of the warming rays of the afternoon sun.

Back to today …

We were up early this morning for our 7:00a appointment.  After breakfast, we prepared the coach for its next move — a short u-turn into the service bay where Brannon quickly got to work on the list of things we wanted him to do for us.  I’ll cover all that in a separate post for our “Mods” page.

While Mui and Brannon went about business, I made use of the comfortable lounge.  With no internet connection to speak of (at least not via Verizon), I spent the day reading a book about the travails of a couple who travel north to the Greenland/Baffin Island area to over-winter.  Brrrr …. now what they experienced is cold!!!

I’ve made myself right at home in the lounge.

Just a few of the artifacts in the glass-top coffee table.
I meant to ask Brannon about them, but forgot to do so — next time.

Mui fixed lunch in the Phaeton and we dined in the lounge.

We’ll be spending one more night in the parking lot at Custom RV before moving the short distance to “Camp Tiffin” for some things we want to have looked at/fixed at the service center near the hospital plant where our Phaeton was born.  Our stay here is an indefinite one.  We’re hoping for a speedy discharge, but came prepared for a long stay — our next campground reservation is not until mid-March.  We’ll leave whenever the work is done.

(Brannon is working on getting a website up.  In the interim, you can reach him at 256-668-0973.  Even though I have yet to show you what he did for us, we join other Tiffinites in recommending him highly.)

Reflecting

Monday, 28 January
Maxwell AFB FamCamp — Montgomery, Alabama
Temps: Lo 55F / Hi 66F (13C / 19C)

At the risk of jinxing ourselves, I have to say that we’re still enjoying great weather here.  Sure, the nights dipped down to the mid-40F (7C) range over the weekend, but the days were fantastically warm and filled with sunshine and mostly blue skies.  In fact, we saw 72F (22C) yesterday, and it’s forecasted to go up to 79F (26C) tomorrow.

What follows after that isn’t looking good.  There’s some bad weather moving in from the west that is projected to bring severe weather to the area — heard the “T” word (tornado) on the news last night.  There are no active alerts for our area as yet.  Needless to say, we will be monitoring the weather closely.

The weekend found us walking and triking to take advantage of the nice days.  There’s a figure eight path that we follow around the two lakes; great for our morning exercise walk — as long as I don’t take my camera ;-)  I usually go back out that way in the afternoon to see what I can see and photograph.

The surprising thing — at least to us — is that every time we go out, we have the lake to ourselves.  In fact, the campground has been exceptionally quiet considering the number of rigs.  Mui’s guess is that most of the campers here at the FamCamp are probably students at one of the military schools on base.  They’re probably spending their free time studying.  Glad it’s not us ;-)

Not that we’re complaining mind you.  We’ve been using these quiet days to reflect — and I don’t mean the beautiful “double the pleasure” images the mirror-smooth lakes have been providing for our viewing pleasure.  Sitting on one of the benches on the peninsula that reaches out into the middle of lake #2 … staring across the calm water … the silence broken only by birds chirping unseen in the tangle of trees on the other side of the fence … watching the mallards take flight at the slightest disturbance — it’s hard not to reflect on our life on the road, and give thanks that we are here and not still chained to the nine-to-five routine.

Enough about all that … here are some images from our lakeside strolls this weekend.

Looking across lake #1 towards the old section of the FamCamp and the tent camping area.

a wide shot over lake #1 shows plenty of blue skies and great reflections.

There’s an egret in this reflection shot … can you see it?

A “shooting-from-the-hip” Great Egret photo.  this is the same bird that is on shore in
the previous photo … just so you know that it wasn’t a figment of my imagination.

This shot of a pied-billed grebe is my favorite from Saturday; it popped out of
the water to surprise me just as I was walking away.

I was photographing the two pairs of mallards strolling around the picnic area
when an interloper hopped into the scene.  Can you find the intruder?

Here we go again … a mallard intrudes into the scene causing one of the Canada geese
to turn its head just as I click the shutter!  And then they flew off, of course!

“Double the pleasure” in the golden light of Sunday morning.

this shot of an Eastern Bluebird is my favorite from Sunday.
There were quite a few of them flying about, but only this one stopped for a photo op.

Double-Crested Cormorants were a rare sight in Alabama just a few decades ago; the ban on DDT has led to the recovery of the population.  I never expected to see one here at Maxwell AFB.

The trees get in the way of the colorful sunsets, but here are a couple of shots to wrap up this post.

Hope you’re all enjoying your days on the road … we sure are; even when we’re not out exploring!

Things That Fly … Or Did At One Time!

Monday, 21 January
Maxwell AFB FamCamp — Montgomery, Alabama
Temps: Lo 35F / Hi 65F (1.5C / 18C)

Wow!  The days are flying by here at the Maxwell AFB Famcamp.  It’s not like we’ve been doing much of anything, and yet we’re already wrapping up day four at this campground.

(The image to the rights shows you what we’ve been waking up to here at Maxwell — frost!)

We’ve been spending our time mapping out the upcoming months and looking at our non-Phaeton adventures for next fall.  Airfare and hotel for Ottawa are in the can.  But that’s just the tip of the iceberg, and I have a long ways to go before I can consider those plans final.  There is a hint … other than the obvious reference to Ottawa … about part of our future plans in this paragraph ;-)  So, have fun guessing!

Back to what else we’ve been up to.  While I’ve been processing photos (I shoot Raw) and uploading them to my online galleries, Mui’s been trying out recipes — he concocted a shrimp and crab pizza, made tasty shrimp wraps with a remoulade dressing, grilled salmon fillets and artichokes, and baked a batch of cranberry bars.  All quite yummy!

Today Mui installed the replacement over-the-door motion sensor light we received from StarLights (original install post here); and shortened the chain on the rear mud flap on the coach so that it doesn’t drag when he’s maneuvering over less-than-smooth roads.

Sorry, no photos of any of the above, but I do have some to share from our outings around the base.

Although we’ve been waking up to cold temps, our days have been filled with sunshine, the temps quickly warming up to the mid- to high 60F range (18-20C), and staying there for quite a bit of the afternoon.  To take advantage of the nice days, we took our trikes out for a spin on Saturday and Sunday (Mui went out today, too).  With little vehicular traffic, we had the roads mostly to ourselves.

On Saturday’s ride, we did all of the red route and the small yellow circle, and meandered a bit around the commissary area — estimating about 8 miles (13 km) in all.

Our ride on Saturday was the productive one — photo wise — as we ended up exploring the small Air Park in the area around Chennault Circle.  Sunday’s trike ride held out a lot of promise on paper, but that’s all it turned out to be.  You see, the base’s fishing map shows two lakes and the Alabama River on the other side of River Road.  What the map doesn’t show is any warnings that access to that area is blocked.  Oh well; we got to see the prison (!) before coming home ;-) … and it was good exercise.

The sign is not a reference to Mui’s triking speed; there really are low flying
aircraft coming in for a landing at the runway to Mui’s right.

From our Saturday trike ride … if you don’t care for aircraft pictures, scroll past them.

The first thing we saw that had wings was this great blue heron taking off from the golf course.

This Sikorsky MH-53M 'Pave Low IV' Helicopter, painted and marked as it appeared in 2008,
has a rotor diameter of 72 feet (22m).  #785 most recently took US Special Ops personnel
into harm’s way in Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom, and led the final
MH-53 combat mission for Operation Iraqi Freedom before it was flown here.

The 27-year career of this Boeing B-52D "Stratofortress" started in 1956 and ended
after logging 14,204 flying hours.  It has a wing span of 185 feet (56 m), requiring me
to cross the street to get this shot.  The B-52 bombers have remained in operation
longer than any other bombers in US military history.

In addition to aircraft, there are a couple of memorials in the Air Park.

“Poopsie” is a North American B-25 Mitchell painted with the markings of an aircraft
that flew in the European Theater during WWII.

One of a series of identical officers' homes on Chennault Circle.

This North American F-86A "Sabre" is named "Chris Craft" for the plane flown by
Lt Charles G. Cleveland, USAF, who has been credited with five "kills" in Korea,
thus giving him the coveted status of "Ace."

This memorial is dedicated to 1Lt Karl W. Richter, who was killed in action in
North Vietnam; he is credited with being the youngest pilot (age 23) in the
Vietnam conflict to shoot down a MiG in air-to-air combat.

A granite plaque behind the statue is etched with the following words from A E Housman:
”Here dead lie we because we did not choose to live and shame the land from which we sprung.
Life, to be sure, is nothing much to lose; but young men think it is, and we were young men."

These four aircraft stand in a semicircle behind the Richter Memorial.
I found it interesting that the nose cone of each one was a different design.

Monument to Powered Flight — if not for the Wright Brothers where would we be today?
(sorry about the background clutter; I had no control over it.)

Monument to Powered Flight
"In tribute to the perseverance and achievements of the Wright Brothers and the
leadership and foresight of the Citizens of Montgomery, Alabama.  Together they
established the nation's first school of civil aviation in March 1910, launching
America on her journey to the stars.”

Prop & Wings: the symbol of the American Airman.  First worn by Aviation Cadets in 1917,
the tradition continued on in other commissioning programs.  It is now worn by all USAF
Academy, Reserve Officer Training Corps cadets, and Officer Training School trainees
who have met the challenges of the first phase of officer training.  All graduates of
OTS and ROTC lay their hands on the historic plaque at the base of the statue.

Ribbons of color
even though the trees block most of our sunset view, I couldn’t resist this photograph.

When I started to write this post this afternoon (the 21st), I didn’t think I was going to have any photos from today.  But then we went for a walk around Lake #1, and I found a few other things that fly to share with you.

Great Egret

Kildeer

Pair of Mallards

This is the same Great Blue Heron from a few days ago.
(Can you find the turtle that I was too far to see until I looked at the photo on my computer?)

And that wraps up the last few days here at the FamCamp.  Reading back through this post, I guess we have been doing quite a bit after all ;-)

I’ll be back when I have something new to write about.