We went on our vacation a couple weeks ago and had a great time despite being dominated by a poison ivy breakout from an unmentionable place.  Among the many things we did while on vacation, we went back to one of our Air Force homes at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Tucson, Arizona.  What can I say?  I loved that place so much but was only able to stay there for 16 months before being moved to RAF Bentwaters in England.  Davis-Monthan AFB is a great base to be stationed as they are a training base for A-10 pilots.  I was a weapons systems mechanic when I was there.  I worked on MAU-40/MAU-50 bomb racks, triple ejector racks (TERS), and LAU-117, LAU-88 missile launchers, and AIM-9 launchers.  Lets not forget the massive powerful GAU-8/A Avenger Cannon, gatling gun.

This gun system is an amazing piece of machinery that I have torn down to the smallest piece and put back together again.  This gun system is an ugly monster though when it jams up and I have been involved in a number of them as well.  Although I worked on the A-10 at three different bases (Davis-Monthan, RAF Bentwaters, and Eielson AFB), it was Davis-Monthan where I got my start.  People affectionately refer to this great base as DM.  Amazingly I still have a remote connection to this base even today as I continue to work in a system program office (SPO) for a different weapons system that occasionally requires parts to be pulled from the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) at Davis-Monthan AFB.

My wife and I have some wonderful memories of this base and my oldest son was born here just prior to the start of the Gulf War.  Of course we had to make a point to come out to the base and take some pictures.  The above A-10 is one of the planes that was there when I was there.  We did not have a lot of time to stay because we had to be somewhere that evening but it was a great time.  The weather was cooler than normal and only hit 93 degrees one time during our entire vacation.  This is almost unheard of for Southern Arizona this time of year.  During our combined trip we took 722 pictures and during our Tucson portion I took 266 photos.  Although most of the pictures are uploaded onto the Flickr site, some 60+ did not make it on their server and I am not sure which ones that did not make it.  All of them did however make it onto my Windows Live site located here.  It is very time consuming to go through more than 700 pictures to verify all the photos especially when many of them are very similar.  I hope you enjoy the vacation photos as much as I did taking them.  Again, I had a bad poison ivy break out as you can see in some of the photos.  It was still a good time despite that.

It has taken me hours to apply exif tags to 700+ photos taken on our New Mexico and Arizona vacation.  Many of them are not very good quality or have any meaning to anyone but us so be patient with them.  I am currently uploading the first group to Windows Live.  Just click on this link to see them.  Since there are so many it will take a while for all of them to show up.  Later I will upload the high resolution photos to Flickr as well.  I must say that I am falling in love with Windows Live with all the tools they have.  I think many people have not given Microsoft their due on the ‘coolness’ of Windows Live and all they have.  I can say this as a Facebook, Myspace, Flickr, and virtually every other social networking site.  I have begun posting my blog posts at both my domain http://paulmccord.net and on my Windows Live page at http://k5glh.spaces.live.com/.  With this Windows Live Writer that I am using, it makes it real easy to post to more than one blog and I love it.

This morning I went to the doctor again about my second poison ivy outbreak.  This time we changed doctors.  This doctor is the son of a coworker and seems pretty nice.  I guess I will try to go back to work tomorrow for the first time since May 21st.  I sure wish this poison ivy would go away before I go back.  I know it was from my bed sheets because I slept with a T-shirt on every night for four weeks and the day I came home from vacation I did not and got poison ivy all over my chest.  We through the blankets and sheets in the garbage and bought new ones.  Sure, washing them MAY have worked but I have had this rash for four weeks and I m TIRED of it. 

It sure seems strange now that we are back.  After spending a week in the desert, we come home and it just looks different.  Everything is so much greener here.  That is not to say the desert is not very pretty.  If you have never been to the desert Southwest then you need to go because it is so unique.  We love it very much and even lived in Tucson and Phoenix both for two years respectively.  My mom was born and raised in Las Cruces, New Mexico and that has to be one of the prettiest places you will ever see.  I am in awe every time I go there.  We spent most of the time in Deming, about 60 miles West of Las Cruces.  We had a great time there visiting with family that I have not seen in 21 years.  What a great time we had even with the worst case of poison ivy man has ever known.  I may upload a couple photos of how bad it really was.  As bad as the pictures look, that was not as bad as it got.  You know it is bad if I went to the emergency room 60 miles away.

I hope you enjoy the photos.  They are not my best work by any means.  Like I said, many will mean nothing to anyone but us so you can ignore those. If you have trouble viewing them, the please let me know. 

There is something in this house that still has poison ivy on it and I am afraid to touch anything.  My wife just washed down this desk thoroughly but I am starting to get another outbreak and I cannot afford it.  I have been off work for three days before I went on vacation and now I cannot afford to take off again.  Today we will have to go through this house and clean everything to prevent this poison ivy from spreading.  I am already going to have to throw away a pair of shoes that I was wearing when I cut a tree down at my dad’s house.  I walked right through all the poison ivy while wearing them.

You would think that after being awake for more than 24 hours yesterday that I would be able to sleep soundly.  Last night I had to take an Ambien and two Benedryl pills and I still had a hard time falling asleep.  This morning I have a pounding head ache and itching all over.  God, I think I need your help on this one.

I also had a great opportunity to see my brother in-law at Fort Bliss in El Paso, Texas today.  He was gracious and we enjoyed seeing him.  As with the rest of the family the worst part was not having enough time to have a quality visit.  Ernie, we truly enjoyed seeing you today and we love you for taking such good care of my sister.  I could go on and on but since my son Jordan wants to get on the computer, I will conclude with a big thank you to God for giving me such a wonderful family.  To think that I almost let a terrible poison ivy outbreak convince me not to go on this vacation.  Thanks to my wonderful wife for snapping me back to reality and going anyway. 

Again, thank you family for the warm welcome,

Paul

My family and I are vacationing in New Mexico for the last week.  After my graduation last Saturday we decided to go see some family in New Mexico this week.  I am currently in Deming, about 82 miles from the Arizona border on I-10 and about 60 miles West of Las Cruces.  We are going to go to Las Cruces tomorrow morning and possibly to see my brother in-law in El Paso if we get time. 

He is in training at Fort Bliss and that would be an extra treat though it is an hour drive farther.  We went to Tucson, Arizona yesterday and took some photos and went sight seeing.  When I first joined the Air Force it was Davis-Monthan AFB in Tucson that was my first and favorite base.  In the above photo we were on the descent from the Organ Mountains in our approach to the great city of Las Cruces.  This was a very nice visit.

We really loved living there for two years until being moved to RAF Bentwaters in 1991 and then to Saudi Arabia.  We have been having a good time here and hope to have a safe trip home on Friday.  My oldest son is still at home watching the house while we are gone.

Below is a photo of the Texas Canyon in Wilcox, Arizona.  The very rocky surface of this mountain makes this a tourist spot along the Interstate 10 freeway on the road to Tucson.  I have been there many times with my parents and this time it was with my own family.  There are boulders here that are larger than houses but it is so amazing that they found themselves in this condition.

I hope you enjoy my photos the way I enjoyed taking them.  I have taken 600 pictures though I have only uploaded a few.  As I get more time, I will upload more photos when I get back to Oklahoma City.  Thanks for stopping by.

Since my vacation time has reached the use or lose point, I took off today on this first day of Spring.  The world is a better place today or at least I can pretend.  I sure wish my advisor would write me back and tell me that my paper is great as is and that no other work is needed.  I know… I can dream on this first day of Spring.  As I am watching television posting this message, Little House on the Prairie is coming on.  Now this is not a program that I would typically watch but it does have a strange nostalgia attached to it.  I remember going to visit my grandparents in New Mexico as a kid and my tough Grandpa Taylor would be watching this show.  It was so ironic that he would be watching this because I saw him as such a tough, strong guy.  He died in 1980 and I still miss him today.

Also my mom was always into Westerns and so seeing one reminds me of her.  My mom’s favorite place in the world was Tucson, Arizona.  She would love to go see “Old Tucson Studios” where many cowboy shows were made including several from John Wayne.  Since we always went there as a child, that was my first choice in bases when I joined the Air Force.  I filled out my “dream sheet” and selected Davis-Monthan AFB as my first choice and they gave it to me.  That was where my wife and I had our first home and where my oldest son was born.  The only negative thing about living in Arizona was that it was way too hot in the summer time.  I distinctively remember the absence of this euphoric Spring time feeling when I was there.  Spring was not distinctive because it never got cold.  Spring was almost a downer because it was a reminder of the 150+ days over 100 degrees that was coming.  When I was there, it was fall that I really loved because I knew cooler days were on the way.

Despite the heat, I have great memories of the desert Southwest from living there as well as childhood memories.  I still have many family members that live in Southern New Mexico in Deming, and Las Cruces.  It is rare that we have Springtime, a day off, and nothing pressing to do.  I may just go out and take some Springtime pictures today.  But first my wife and I are going to go to the International House of Pancakes (IHOP) for breakfast in Bricktown OKC.  We are going to spend time together and be thankful to God for making this such a wonderful day and blessing us so much.  My son is back home and life is great.  It would not do God justice to fail to give him credit for the blessings that we have been fortunate to enjoy.

As I post this, my television is being covered by the rumbling sound of jet engines from nearby Tinker AFB.  Even on my day off I can hear my work.  The Air Force has been part of my life for more than 20 years.  Actually if you count the time my dad worked at Tinker AFB as a child, I have been around the Air Force my entire life.  Our home is just about a mile and a half off the end of their northwest runway so we often have airplanes flying over our house that are so loud that we cannot even hear the television.  To many people that would be something to complain about.  To us it is just another blessing to see how God has blessed us with a stable job that we can live a decent life.  The Air Force has been and will continue to be a part of our lives.