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Clouds Within A Cloud

While sitting in the car while Janet was in a grocery store, I watched the clouds forming just prior to sunset. There seemed to be different types of clouds forming within the majority of dark clouds and catching the last rays of the sun as it settled behind hills and homes of the surrounding landscape. The backlighting of the trees also caught my attention so I grabbed my cellphone and snapped off a few shots before the sun set behind the hillside and distant mountains as darkness prevailed.

(The last time I saw a scene similar to this it was 2012 and was caused by those forest fires that resulted in so much damage to the west side of Colorado Springs and many - including us - being evacuated from our homes. Certainly not the case this evening .)

Jim

05/15/26 11:16 AM

#17151

Mark Schweickart

Jim - This definitely looks like a a scary fire situation. So glad it wasn't.

05/15/26 07:30 PM

#17152

Jim: Is there another form of snowfall other than preciperatory? Just checking,

05/15/26 07:46 PM

#17153

Mike McL,

Hmmmmm.... Maybe an avalanche?

Jim

05/16/26 12:45 PM

#17154

Mike,

My all-time favorite form of frozen precipitation is graupel (sometimes spelled groppel) which is quite common here in Colorado. It is a form of frozen, small snow pellets - not flakes and not really hail - like small, BB- sized , soft, white snow drops. So far this strange winter (yes, I never say winter here is over until at least June) we had none of these.

Jim

05/16/26 05:53 PM

#17155

Joseph D. McCarthy

I just received an Email concerning a Reunion that I wish I could attend, unfortunately I will be packing for my drive the next day to Columbus. Besides Aquinas, I imagine there will be people from St. Mary's. St. Joseph's and Ready to ame a few schools.

05/16/26 05:55 PM

#17156

Joseph D. McCarthy

If anyone wants I can forward the original email.

Joe

05/17/26 11:02 AM

#17157

Donna Kelley (Velazquez)

Stunning photo of the clouds, Jim!

05/17/26 12:53 PM

#17158

Donna,

Thanks! Nature provides the drama and cellphones are often around to capture it!

Jim

05/18/26 09:23 PM

#17159

well gee I'm usually so quiet and shy but I'll see if i can come up with something.

hmmmmmm.

I've probably mentioned this before but my single story concrete block home has a shaded back porch that faces north, across a concrete deck on one side and a swimming pool and shaded garden on the other, and ilove sitting on the porch and knowing that home, meaning ohio, is out there, though I can't see it visually but my heart picks it up via invisible long distance vibes, otherwise known as heart strings.

I really do love sitting out there looking due north toward what will always be home.

05/19/26 09:40 AM

#17160

Copy that, Jim.

05/21/26 09:00 AM

#17161

here we are in our twilight years, living through an era of historic governmental corruption, rotting from the top down. Sad.

05/21/26 12:16 PM

#17162

Jim: that does sound sooo cool! Like a mega other worldly globular snow blob attack, like being transplanted to another planet. wow.

In the meantime I'm humbled. I just read up on the career of Kathleen Parker, a former coworker of mine at the orlando sentinel, who has become a pulitzer prize winning writer for the washington post.

way to go, kathleen.

anyway guess i better shut up for a while and just focus on being humble. I suppose it's good for me but it doesn't feel so hot.

05/22/26 10:28 PM

#17163

After Major Smith's arrival we were all feeling a sense of releif. A sense of calm and normalcy.

I was getting to know him more than most others in our troop because I flew as his co-pilot in the C&C (Command and Control ship) almost every time he flew. (remember, I had asked out of the Scout platoon on my return from my stateside leave) I also flew often with our XO - Captain Bud Beauchamp (another good guy). Not so much with our Operations Officer, whos name I cannot even remember.

Major Smith and I were sort of forming a freindship, or more like older brother - younger brother. I think he was thirty one and I was twenty one. We just sort of clicked.

Then something quite unexpected happened. President Nixon ordered us into Cambodia.

This will no doubt bring about a mixed reaction from some of you - - (Kent State riots for example).

For us, having flown over a year along that southern Cambodian border, and seeing enormous build-up of NVA (North Viet Nam Army), and our monitoring of their large night-time troop flow into Viet Nam from just across that border, this was more than welcome news. Prior to this, we could not enter and engage those troops, no matter how obvious and threatening their positions were. At times we could see several companies (hundreds of men in khacki uniforms, and troop trucks parked in rows) practicing drill in the open fields less than a few hunded yards inside their border. And there were a few times whne we got into live fire exchanges with them that pulled us across the border, and we had to break off the contact and fly back across the border and leave them behind. Frustrating!

Oddly, two nights before that scheduled incursion, I was called into the Major's "hooch" (about three cottages down the walkway from mine). Major Smith sat me down with Captain Beauchmp around a table (his hooch was more roomy and furnished than ours).

He began to lay out an explanation of what was about to happen in two days. In addition to the shock of this news, I was stunned that I was included in this briefing, Honestly, I was one of about 35 officers and Warrant Officers in our Troop, and I probably ranked about 25th in senority.

TBC

05/23/26 08:22 PM

#17164

I think God is looking out for all of you. I had a contunuing portion about Major Smith all typed out and lost it. Then I found it again - then lost it again. I think it was God's way of telling me to shorten it.

05/23/26 09:28 PM

#17165

So, 2 nights later we were all awakened at 4:00 am and summoned to the "Operations Hooch" - a place with heavy bunker protection, and fitted out inside more like an office. Among other things (desks, file cabinets, and pilot and aircraft schedules) it contained our Troop radio desk (manned 24 hours a day by an enlisted man trained as a radio operator), and a couple of huge wall maps of the entire "Delta" region.

Once inside Major Smith delivered the plans for the Incursion into Cambodia. For the first time we would be carrying out this mission as a whole squadron (all 4 Troops together out of one refueling location). It was going to be little (here-to-for quiet) Moc Hoa ("muck wha"). Muc Hoa was very close to the area known as "The Parrot's Beak", a part of south east Cambodia that forms a sharp point with it's heavy concentration of NVA regullars

It was also apparent that one troop was being "punished" with the most dangerous section of the mission. You could feel the collective sigh of relief that it was them and not us.

As we were dispersing I asked Major Smith about the roll of "our ship" in the mission. He explained that he would be using a different co-pilot in that first day - a day that was expected to be the riskiest and most intense. He was assigning me to sit with our radioman for the entire day - something about needing a person (Me) with more overall experience than just a radioman if something unusual happened.

I was upset, but I knew his real intensions. He was sparing me the risk of exposure, but without really saying so. I have felt both gratitude and disappointment for having missed out on that historical day.

We were given a few hours go back to sleep - if you could - for a while before takeoff.

A "normal" day at Moc Hoa. One fixed wing landing srip, 4 refueling hoses, and my usual "Lunch crowd" -often selling fruit, french bread (sometimes with spiders inside) and tall bottles of (re-filled) coke. And buying cigarettes or chewing gum.

A small part of the "OPS" (Operations) hooch interior - not that night.

05/24/26 10:29 AM

#17166

Dave:

Yikes,

I've said it before.You've got some riviting memories and a gift for relating them clearly.

We've talked about this but not for a while: forgive me, my memory is fuzzy, how far along are you with this memoir? Is itj just for your own mental health and enjoyment or are you shopping around for a publisher?

From what I recall seeing you surely have the material and the ability.

I'd offer to help but if you've got God chipping in with his opinion I'm substantially outranked. Only got as far as an E-5, as I dimly recall.

05/24/26 04:02 PM

#17167

Mike,

I've looked at some writing and publishing websites including REEDSY. (which is free), ATTICUS, LIVING WRITER etc. And I've just seen LACUNA for the first time.

And Scrivener is way too complicated!

In case any of our readers have any exxperience with these (or others), feel free to share your experience.

But I have a ways to go yet with the text itself.

05/24/26 04:38 PM

#17168

That first day went very rorugh, especially for one of our sisiter Troops. They had their first team of Scout pilots (the Loachs) shot down and killed before noon, and other Troops had some serious damage to their ships. I was told it was also chaos with the heavy load of air traffic - 4 sets of 5 ships coming and going and trying to share just 4 refueling hoses, and manage all the landing and taking off from this one little airfield. They had set up a makeshift control tower on the back of a truck to try and manage all this, but it was only just so helpful.

I should be greatful to have avoided it.

------------------

After that first day in Cambodia, most of the North Vietnames Regulars pulled back from the border. They had all heard the 21 mile limit that Nixon had put on us and had retreated to approximately that distance back from the border over night.

-----------------

NOTE: This will no doubt remind some of the current anger we feel about Trump and Iran. My recollection was that if the students at Kent State could have seen the large, blatant encampments, and heard the pleading comments from the local ARVN (our allies) to get after these NVA (enemy) troops, there would have been a very different attitude towards this incursion.

--------------

There were exemptions of NVA holdouts here and there, and we continued to seek them out in the following days. I had returned to flying with Major Smith as his co-pilot and our "partnership" resumed. We were flying into Cambodia from different locations on that border, from Moc Hoa all the way west, from Sa Dec, to Cau Lahn, to Chow Duc - alll familiar refueling bases we had worked out of before. Things slowed down to (almost) normal within a few days.

TBC

05/26/26 11:37 AM

#17169

Is artificial intelligence that much of a threat that the pope had to send out that warning?

05/26/26 12:50 PM

#17170

Mike,

I am the least "techie" person on earth. But from what I can gather, the Pope's warning is valid. It looks as if un-checked AI has huge potential for good AND evil.

05/26/26 02:09 PM

#17171

nerd word for the day. just ran across it, never saw it before, but perked right up because I knew enough german to recognize welt, which in german means "world."

An Umwelt (plural: Umwelten) is the specific, subjective perceptual world experienced by a particular organism. Derived from the German word for "environment" or "surroundings", it describes how an animal's unique sensory capabilities—and what it considers significant—shape its reality, even when sharing a physical space with others.

05/26/26 02:42 PM

#17172

Michael Boulware

A lot of our people have been asking about Friday , Julty 24 plans for the day before our reunion. We are going to have a before the reunion party at Woodlands Backyard, 668 Grandview Ave, just north of the freeway. The owner is a Watterson backer and is setting aside a section of his restaurant so we can talk to each other without shouting. He is providing a free bowling machine. There is ample parking and a great menu. Plan to meet there at 4 o'clock. He has been told that we should be out of there by 8, he doesn't care if we stay longer. There is no need to make a reservation; just show up with a smile. That's Friday, July 24, 4 o'clock , at Woodlands Backyard in Grandview.

05/26/26 04:16 PM

#17173

Please forgive me if I have posted this before. we were on the subject of snow and it reminded me of a favorite poem by robert frost. love it so much i know it by heart. it's about snow,yes -- but it's also about something much deeper. The line that compares melting snow to a disappearing snake, and the fact that the very last word - well, has the last word - is a clue to what's really on his mind.

It's called "First Snow"

Robert Frost

1874 –

1963

Always the same, when on a fated night

At last the gathered snow lets down as white

As may be in dark woods, and with a song

It shall not make again all winter long

Of hissing on the yet uncovered ground,

I almost stumble looking up and round,

As one who overtaken by the end

Gives up his errand, and lets death descend

Upon him where he is, with nothing done

To evil, no important triumph won,

More than if life had never been begun.

Yet all the precedent is on my side:

I know that winter death has never tried

The earth but it has failed: the snow may heap

In long storms an undrifted four feet deep

As measured against maple, birch, and oak,

It cannot check the peeper’s silver croak;

And I shall see the snow all go down hill

In water of a slender April rill

That flashes tail through last year’s withered brake

And dead weeds, like a disappearing snake.

Nothing will be left white but here a birch,

And there a clump of houses with a church.

05/27/26 12:45 AM

#17174