An odd concurence of things. Popular Science this month is a special 100th anniversary issue as December 17th is the 100th of the Wright Brothers first flight.

One article is about this guy who completely designed and built his own airplane from scratch, albeit using modern computer-aided design and carbon composite plastics. The very next article was on the F-22 Raptor, currently being built and tested out of Marietta GA about 2 hours down the road from where I live. In fact the Raptors are test-flown in what the article calls "rural Tennessee". Rural my foot. More Sundays than not I'm startled half out of my chair when those monumental booms rattle the entire house.

Both articles make me think of my dad. He'd be helping that guy build that airplane and he'd be the one sitting on the back porch waiting for the Raptors to go supersonic right over his head. And he'd stop and watch everytime the Air National Guard's C-130's roar overhead, which they do with astonishing regularity these days.

Nevermind that the Raptors weren't even a gleam in an engineer's eye when he died.

So I don't mind when the Raptors rattle the house. On the contrary, I cackle like a mad scientist who's just discovered Unobtainium.