What Now

As promised, here is the picture of Josh, Steve, Amy, and Jon on the Goliath roller coaster!


WHAT I DID AT WORK TODAY

As I mentioned yesterday, I was going to have to climb on top of the SR-71 Blackbird today to apply a set of Air Force decals. I was hoping to get out of it because I'm scared of heights. My legs start to shake and I get sweaty. It's one of those panic attack kind of fears. I'm not a proud person, I'll admit that to anyone. So I get in this morning and immediately have to go out there because it's supposed to rain this afternoon. As I get to the plane, I realize it's not so far off of the ground, but it IS surrounded completely by asphalt. So if I fall, I'll probably have to have all kinds of things realigned. I climb up and get jelly-legs in about two seconds, but it's okay, because I had Kenny, the son of the curator and museum volunteer, up there to help me. Believe me, if I started to slip, he was going to be dragged off with me. So we get started, and the decal wouldn't stick. The metal was too cold. I had forgotten that the vinyl had temperature issues. So we at least got it applied, but decided to wait a while before peeling the protective front part off of it. We go on to the other side and apply the other decal, and this time it sticks because the sun has been shining on that side of the plane.

One problem we have with applying vinyl decals is that sometimes they get air bubbles behind them, and since you can't peel them up, you have to poke holes in them to let the air out. Since the Blackbird doesn't exactly have a great deal of foot room where the decal was located. So I climbed up on top of the plane and had to lie down on the "spine" of it to be able to reach. About the time I'm spread out up there like a poor man's pin up girl, about a dozen tour busses full of people drive past. I'm not in a position to really move for propriety's sake, so I just waved. Thank goodness I wasn't wearing a dress. Also, since the Blackbird is one of the things that the tourists take their group photos against, my backside is now in several family pictures. I'm sure they will be thrilled! : ) I did actually pose for the curator while I was up there. She was taking pictures of our progress for the Annual Report or some such thing, so I sat up and she took a very "Dr. Strangelove" photo of me as I rode the back of the plane. I think I dislocated my left hip getting off of it, though. Maybe girls are supposed to ride spy planes side-saddle or something.

At any rate, we got finished and it actually looks pretty good! I was proud. The only thing that sucks is that when the sun came out and heated up the skin of the blackbird, I burnt my hand and my elbow! Soon I will have the pictures to post on here. : )