h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I will be experiencing freedom this weekend as I get an *entire day to myself*

The oldest, broe jr, is house-sitting for his dad, the youngest and Mr B are going to the racetrack for the day to see the NASCAR trucks. Upon discovering that I would have the whole day to myself I was nearly frozen by the possibilities of how I could spend the day without having to consider anyone else's preferences, wants, or needs.

I could go to Main Street and browse in the shops to my heart's content.

I could go for a drive - VERY tempting - anywhere I like and stop as often, or not, as I like.

I could go to the pool and not have to worry about where my offspring are.

I could sit in my favorite chair and watch Star Trek all day without having to hear 'do we have to watch ANOTHER episode?!' in a whiny voice.

But, what I finally decided to do is go to visit one of my oldest friends. This wins bonus points because it involves a bit of a drive, and there's local brew and wine involved, as well as a live music venue! We've been friends for about 40 years, and we've not seen each other in about a year. SO EXCITED!!!

How was the VIP airshow experience?

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(Incidentally, a very rough work-in-progress entry has been created. I'll be polishing this, moving sentences around, writing linking sentences etc over the next few days. In the meantime, please continue the conversation here)

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Will do.

The air show was fabulous - a gorgeous day that every pilot loved. Demonstrations of our own rescue teams and American, air craft of every vintage ...

The "theme" was the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan - over 200 locations across Canada that trained over 131,000 air crew and staff for Canada, the UK, Australia and New Zealand (and later bought into by the US at the tail end)

So there were birds in the air from 1940 to about 6 weeks forward from now ...

Sounds wonderful

Indeed - so what did you get to do that others didn't? Was it because of your service background?

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Besides main industries and local mayors, etc, the Wing Commander personally invites the lead person of all service clubs in the area.

The President of our Wing of the Royal Canadian Air Force Association was unable to attend as he was caring for his wife (also our Secretary) following knee reconstruction surgery. So I attended in his place, being the 2nd Vice President, along with my wife who is the Assistant Membership Chairperson.

There was a large chalet tent with tables, chairs, two wet bars and nearly unlimited finger-foods, situated right up front and centre. With the blazing sun and the heat from the tarmac of the runways, decent seating and over-head cover is a real treat. "Ordinary" spectators bring their own chairs, over-head cover and beverages.

And while mingling with some of the folks, it didn't hurt that my wife and I are both ex-military. She served 8 years, I gave 21 years in the uniform as well as 16 more years on this same base as a contractor. I repaired their various radio systems and some navigation aids for a total of 37 years, while my wife, the cooked for all of us.

I think that airshow is exactly the sort of thing people on h2g2 would like to read about.

If you wanted to share your experience, would you consider doing a write up for ? Just say what you did, what was there and what you saw, and if you wanted you could even contribute a picture or two if you wanted? Just a thought. More people would read <./>ThePost</.> than the middle of a conversation.

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I may do that ... a precis of the BCATP as well as the runs of the Quinte International Air Show ...

My bride couldn't see well with the camera, so snapped off 278 photos - no more than 8 of feet and chairs.

Ok, I'm curious... as we were flirting with triple digits here in the midwest this weekend, what passes for "hot" in Canada? Did it get close to 80?

On the farenheit side of things, we were ambient of 88F and with humidity, felt on the order of 98F ...

That sounds like a *fantastic* day, Nick. I hope you have some memories of it to savor as time passes.

One last comment on the air show - media reports close to 80,000 folks attending over the two-day affair. In raw numbers, that is about the total population - every man, woman and child - in about a 20 mile radius. I would guess that atleast half, if not more, came from well beyond our local zone.

The collaborative entry has made it into Peer Review before the end of June - it is A87874528 - How To Experience a Sense of Freedom in Everyday Life – Peer Review conversation F48874?thread=8316362

Please have a read-through, subscribe to the Peer Review conversation and let me know what you want changed, added, tweaked etc.

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Bluebottle, thanks so much for putting this together!

It looks great at a glance, I'll have a more thorough read-through later when I have more time. I subscribed to the thread as well

Have to admit, I'm kind of excited at a contribution credit - it's been years since I've done anything meaningful around here. Thanks for the opportunity!