Of curtains, blimps, and seaplanes

[jeriendhal]

Tracy likes the curtains on the windows. We've been lacking anything since we got the new windows in, and with a streetlamp at eye level to our room some 15 feet away, that's made sleeping just a tad difficult. Last night was nice and dark however.

Babysat my dad on Saturday again. I made a comment about seeing the Goodyear blimp careening over Columbia on Friday [1] and he mentioned that he took a ride in a Navy blimp once, when he was working in the FCC's investigation arm (most likely a K-Class sub hunter, which were used extensively by the Navy up until the sixties). He also claimed to have ridden a PBY Catalina up and down the Mexican coast, looking for illegal radio transmitters on passing ships (ah, the days before cell phones, when unliscensed wireless communications were illegal), and pissing off the sheriff of Reno, NV while looking into radios used in gambling schemes. Anyway, it's damned interesting stuff. I wish I knew why my father decided to start telling me all of this now, when we both know he's living on borrowed time, rather than earlier when I'd have more time appreciate and discuss it with him.

Sigh.

[1] Literally careening. It was bouncing up and down between 500 and thousand feet, doing sudden tight turns and figure eights over Route 29 at the 5 pm rush hour, causing no end of headaches from drivers gawking at it. I couldn't figure it out. The nearest stadium was 20 miles up the road in Baltimore, and the day was perfectly clear and calm, so it couldn't have been affected by high winds or anything.

Comments

[jvowles.livejournal.com]

Duh, it was Preakness weekend. That's why the blimp was in the area. :)

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Ack. Pass me the stupid hat. And that's after listening to 98 Rock's Live from the Preakness show. The blimp was probably doing a shakedown to make sure everything was functional.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Hmm... Your father's choice isn't between now and earlier, is it?

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Well, "earlier" isn't an option now, but it was in the past. "Now" is almost certainly a safer option than "later" at this point.

The thing is, my father is not the most talkative man in the world (seems to be a common trait. I'm rather taciturn myself, and my son is only just starting to form sentences at age 3). He was forced into retirement when I was around eight or so, so he's been retired for most of my life.[1] But with all the free time he had, he never choose to tell any stories about his life to me, even stuff that he knew had to be interesting, like the blimp and catalina stories. I only knew he worked in the FCC's investigation arm because he had a "True Detectives" magazine stuck in the bottom of his sock drawer that had a picture of him showing off an elaborate portable radio rig that someone smuggled onto a horse racing track to transmit results.

Can't blaming him for being the person that he is, but it's still frustrating.

[1] He left the FCC in the late seventies, mostly because his technical knowledge was confined to vaccuum tubes and early transistors, and things were moving into the Digital Age. That and he wasn't good at playing office politics.

[kd5mdk.livejournal.com]

Unlicensed radio communications are still prohibited, except from type-accredited devices. AFAIK, which includes the test I passed.

[jeriendhal.livejournal.com]

Very true. But I imagine the investigation arm of the FCC has considerably less to investigate (or not, given the theft of of phone numbers snatched from the air), considering that any yahoo with a cellphone can report the horse track results as they happen, as opposed to carrying around a transmitter under your overcoat like the one my dad showed off.