Chapter 16: San Jose State University

MONDAY, JANUARY 7, 2008 Back to School

Spring division was all Aeronautic core courses. We chose the Avionics option. We weren't going to run an airport or an airline. Avionics was mega heavy on technical classes. We had another 51 units to complete. Most of the classes had a lab. CS 49 and CMPE 46 were computer science and we blew the labs away in one night. We set a new schedule for ourselves. We studied two classes on Monday, challenged the classes on Tuesday, then did the lab on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. If we finished on Thursday we had Friday free for FUN! Then we would fly somewhere eight hours away. Sleep, eat, and fly back to San Jose. Repeat next week with new classes. Luckily all of the labs were open, with no instruction except the syllabus. We made it by finals in June; we had completed the 51 units. We all maintained our 4.0 GPA.

Every so often we would have a sunny day or two. It was great. The weather people were predicting a more normal spring this year. The growing season would be short but long enough to at least get one crop in most growing regions of the northern hemisphere. That was really great news. We were expecting bad weather for at least five years.

Back Home in Graton

Things were going well at home.

Mat found four F-16Ds and twelve F-16Cs and had them moved to Sonoma County.

Joe contacted the model builder that had built the first cockpit/seat. He was quoted a price of unis 1,000.00 for each cockpit/seat. Mat and Nowell convinced Nancy that was a good deal. They ordered twelve cockpit/seats.

Tiger and Squeaker had trained all thirty cats to swim. They all could swim the length of the pool. They could all climb out with the ladder. Tiger met with Carol. It took eight sessions but he now only misses his friend.

Teddy's got a special write up in the Press Democrat about their unique menu and their special hostess. Tuffy was pissed. He is a host. Nancy gave in and she hired all three for six days a week. As a team they were awesome.

Analy High School was buzzing. They had full enrollment in their Aeronautics department. Nowell started an aircraft mechanics program. Analy received two donated Cessnas.

Dad became the west county bike trail manager. They had bike trails planned and under construction all the way to Bodega Bay and Jenner. They followed the North Pacific Coast Rail Road right of way from Tomales to Occidental. The Food and Home Corps rebuilt the Brown's Canyon Trestle and put a two-bike wide deck on the railroad grade. The grade from Freestone to Occidental was two percent. The bridge opening was covered by CNN.

Sally's Creamery moved across the street to the Old Apple Co-op warehouse. She needed the room.

Ying did the promised piece on San Francisco Zoo. She got an Emmy for it. She also did a piece on the smart cats. She pointed out it was Tiger that found the problem at San Francisco Zoo.

Tiger did a great job on accommodations and trip planning. I did not have to do it. He arranged it so we helped get other communities to start their own squadrons. UNASA was very happy for the good publicity. By spring break UNASA had eight squadrons formed.

Carol and Robert Maytag had a great two weeks in Little River. Carol was a great help to the Olafsons.