A Cold Past Week

Hello friends and Hivers. We are in Spring according to the calendar but for here it's like Mother Nature is saying not so fast. Much of this past week has been cold,windy and even rainy at times. Well staying indoors is a good choice when these conditions present themselves. A good part of the week I have had no choice and have had to work in the elements.

Above are some shots I took on Sunday on my return trip to my son's basketball practice out of town. It was a cold day with temperatures right at freezing. There was some snow flurries here and there but nothing too much and nothing accumulated on the ground.

There was a lot to see on the trip up but I really had no time to capture any of it because we got off to a bit of late start. Most of what I saw was farms, ranches and quite a few abandoned houses and buildings. The first photo is an old abandon school house that my son captured. This was very interesting because I have only seen much smaller ones. I guess the population in the area at the time warranted a school bigger than a one room school.

From what a read about it through Google Lens it was built sometime in late 1880's. It apparently was closed over 50 years ago. Now it stands in the middle of a cornfield, older pictures show other buildings and green grass surrounding it. At least it still standing showing a mysterious past to those passing by it.

The next thing I saw was some old rusty transportation out front of a business. I don't know if it's the age of these vehicles or the rust they have accumulated that is more appealing to me. Perhaps a little of both as it's neat to see things from the distant past. Very common thing to see in these small towns that are often located in the middle of nowhere.

It was a busy week at work this week. We had two inbound passenger missions, both were B-737 aircraft. The temperatures all week ranged from 32°F (0° C) to 50°F (10°C) with the crazy wind. Throwing bags gets the blood pumping and makes you sort of forget about the cold. Being in the truck or in the belly of the aircraft at least it shields you from the weather and wind some.

Thursday we had to process cargo for a mission going out. It was another annoying windy day and I spent much of it out in the elements. I had the task of inspecting all the cargo to ensure it all was air worthy. What you see is 15 pieces of cargo that will get uploaded onto a C-17 aircraft in the near future. Glad it's in the past and there's no more flapping papers trying to get away from my clip board.

Friday was grueling day as I spent almost all of it outdoors. I definitely felt the weather today and was actually cold from head to toe. Our first activity was to load up one of our aircraft loaders onto a low-boy trailer. It is being sent out to be used at another location that needs the equipment temporarily to sustain some airlift requirements. It will be sent back to us in a few days. The timing wasn't the best as we could definitely use it as we have 14 pallets to load out soon.

We have two of these 25K aircraft loaders and one 60K aircraft loader. The 25K loaders can hold 3 pallets while the 60K loader can hold 6 pallets. The other 25K loader can not be used because it's in non-use status so were stuck with just the 60K loader.

The rest of my work day involved loading up pallets and taking some of them over to aircraft loading ramp to offload. Pallets had to be pre-positioned there so there readily available to load the C-17 when it arrives. It was a needed process to do so we don't keep the C-17 past it's scheduled ground time. We got 8 of the 14 pallets transported over there. We also used two forklifts to carry two pallets. The remaining 6 will be loaded on the 60k loader the day of the airlift prior to aircraft arrival.

Once I was off work I felt drained and tired. I got home was sitting on couch and was still feeling the chill so I covered with a blanket. After about 45 minutes of sitting and watching television I decided to go lay down in my bed and take a nap. I fell asleep quickly and it was about 6:00 p.m. and I woke up about 3:00 a.m. Alright not quite a nap, I went to bed pretty early, haha.

Well today I have to go on another road trip. My son has an All star game to play in. Time to get ready for that and I will be on the road in about 60 minutes which will be about 8:00 a.m. here. I will be back home sometime in the evening.

Thanks for stopping by I really appreciate it. Please take care, stay safe,and enjoy the rest of your weekend. Until next time!