An Early Father's Day Present From M&M

I have the sweetest, smartest little girl in the world. M&M and The Queen were out shopping on Friday as they killed time before Niece Twig's high school graduation.

Somewhere in that sea of 1400 kids is my niece Twig

Amazingly enough, Twig was able to spot us in the crowd and wave to us. It was cute.

Anycrowd, The Queen and M&M picked me up at the office so we could all travel to American Airlines Center together for the graduation ceremony. As they arrived, I was handed a bag with small gift and card. The Queen advised me that M&M picked out both.

First, the gift.

M&M knows Daddy Hawk loves him some airplanes. She picked this one out especially for me, and she could not have done better. The Chance Vought F4U Corsair just happens to be one of my all time favorite aircraft from when I was growing up. The gull wings...the big radial engine...one of the fastest planes of its time...what's not to like? Now that I'm older and have actually flown planes, I know what's not to like. It's still a gorgeous aircraft though. Skipper sits on my desk here at the office now.

But wait...M&M also selected a card for Daddy Hawk. Before I show it to you, you have to know that M&M really did select this one. The Queen showed her a lot of cards, and M&M insisted that THIS card was the one she wanted to get me. Remember...she is still only two and a half years old.

Since she can't read yet, I feel safe in saying that she was thinking that the donkey with the googley eyes was funny.

So, there you have it. Father's Day came early for me. I couldn't be happier (well...short of M&M giving me a 1911...which will require her to have money of her own...which is a ways off). 

What Five?

Okay, before I start sipping my kool-aid to keep up with all the other kids on the block, I would like to take a moment to welcome some new followers to the fold. In fact, as of now, I've hit another arbitrary milestone with the addition of my 50th and 51st official followers. We The People of the self titled blog has the honor of being the 50th person to click the follower button. He was closely followed a day or so later by TOGBlog of The Old Geezer Blog. Welcome both of you. Don't bother trying to save me from myself. It hasn't worked yet. I'd admonish you from stealing my stuff, but there's not much to steal. So, why bother?

Now, a new meme has surfaced amongst the cool kids (notably Tam, Borepatch and several others) asking people what five firearms they would purchase if money and legality were no object. I am normally immune to this sort of thing; however, since I've published my gunnie wish list on a couple of ocassions, I really can't pass this one up.

So, without further adieu...

1) I am going to flatter/shamelessly steal Borepatch's idea with this one. He suggested obtaining a Browning M-2 .50 cal machine gun. Six of them actually nicely packaged in a North American P-51 Mustang. There is no doubt that the Mustang is a sexy beast; however, it is not my first choice in the warbird department. Not even first among the WWII birds of prey still in flying condition. My choice here is the brutally effective GAU-8/A Avenger 30mm Gatling-type cannon mounted to the Fairchild A-10 Thunderbolt. If former Dallas Cowboy defensive back (at 6 foot 4 inches and 250 pounds) and Air Force Academy graduate Chad Hennings can shoe horn himself into one, I know I can. Can you imagine throwing depleted uranium bullets over an inch thick at a rounds per minute rate faster than most small armies and flying gracefully (if not in the most sexy of machines) through the air with the greatest of ease...where do I sign up?

2) CoH Craig Harrison's L115A3 Long Range Rifle in .338 Lapua Magnum. As a student of history and one fascinated with snipers, I think having the rifle that made the shot currently holding the longest distance sniper kill record would be awesome.

3) Perhaps the only single rifle more awesome than CoH Harrison's rifle would be Simo Hayha's M28 Mosin-Nagant Rifle in 7.62x54R. To have the rifle that killed more enemies on the field of battle than any other rifle in recorded history...that would be both chilling and thrilling all at the same time.

4) Any single firearm personally owned and used by John Moses Browning. Does anything else even come close to approaching reliquery status in the gunnie world?

5) A one of a kind, deep blued, engraved, custom 1911 made to my specs by John Moses Browning himself. I know this one is bending the rules just a little bit since it involves rewriting the laws of time, space and nature and is not in the spirit of the meme given the fact that the gun itself does not currently exist...but, I think those are minor issues.

My list. My grail guns. Deal with it or make your own list.

Pavlov Would be Proud

Do you remember those hot, summer days when you were a kid? The days here in Texas seemed endless because, in fact, the sun never set until after your bedtime, and you weren't really sure it went down then either. It felt like you were living on Hell's back porch because the temperature got up to "Dante's Inferno staged inside the sun's corona" hot without even trying hard.


But, no matter how hot it was or how tired you were, there was always one thing that would make you come running. It was a sound that you could hear blocks away, and you'd go crazy trying to figure out which way it was coming and how many stops it would make before it got to your street. You'd also have to play "beat the clock" with your mom or dad if you had already spent your allowance to get a buck or two before it passed your house; and your parents, being the sick and twisted creatures that they were, would hold out until the last possible second when it was directly in front of your house headed for the neighbor's place. You'd run out the front door waving whatever cash you had scrounged, begged, borrowed or liberated from whatever source was handy hoping that the ice cream truck driver saw you before he made the turn and dropped out of sight up the next street.


The ice cream truck doesn't bring me running anymore as I much prefer a pint of Ben & Jerry's to offerings of your garden variety mobile ice cream vendor who in all probability was a child molester cruising for his next victim, but there is still one sound that brings me running outside like that pre-teen kid I used to be looking for another sugar fix. I heard it again yesterday while I was trying to multi task between real work, Netflix, cooking lunch and taking care of the Queen. I can't help myself. It's downright freakishly Pavlovian.

The sound that gets me every time is the sound of an airplane flying over head. But not just any airplane mind you. It has to be the sound of a big, fat radial engine to get me to come running out into the Texas heat like a 6' 4" radar dish turning every which way to find the source of the noise. I'm not talking about a little 7 or 9 cylinder radial that pulls some of the old biplanes around either. Don't get me wrong. Those are nice, too; but, if you want to see me slobbering like Snoopy waiting on a Scooby snack, it has to be one of the monster Pratt & Whitney radials that they used to hang off the front end of planes back in World War II.

Yesterday was a feast for the eyes and ears alike. As I mentioned, I was knee deep in several crucial tasks all at once when I heard the unmistakable sounds of big, beefy radials growling fairly low above my house. I tried to use a little will power, be a responsible adult and not go running outside with my tongue hanging out yelling "Airpane!!! Boss! De plane, de plane." I'm sure the neighbors find it amusing. The queen just rolls her eyes and sighs. But, I digress.

I ran out the office door into the backyard and looked towards the sound at which point I was briefly rewarded with having my retinas seared because the sound happened to be where the sun was in the sky at that point. Once I remembered to squint and raise a hand, I had the pleasure of seeing not one but four WWII vintage warbirds flying formation headed for points unknown. At least two of those glorious birds were North American AT-6's. One of the birds might have been a P-51 or a P-39 (neither of which has a radial engine, but both still make a lovely noise). I didn't get a good enough look before I lost sight of them behind the trees to say for sure. The last of the four was a smallish, twin engine that I had never seen before, but it didn't matter one bit because of the sounds made by those beautiful, throaty radial engines.

I am not entirely sure fortune smiled on me when the queen and I chose to live nearby to a modestly sized airport. One of these days, I know what's going to happen. I'll be in the middle of a conference call when one or more of those birds decides to make a pass over the house. It'll be interesting to see if the 12 year old boy hiding inside my older, wiser self wins the fight.