Well it was a highly productive weekend. I didn’t do all that much but did spend a good portion of it cleaning and getting stuff fixed up. It’s spring (not that you can tell) and that means spring cleaning right? Well I got stuck into it with a mountain of chores and updates around the apartment. Cleaning, replacing, fixing, doing stuff I have been putting off for ages.

I had a couple of good finds though over the weekend. When at the local thrift store looking for a cheap throwaway backpack (which if anyone in Seattle wants to donate me a backpack they no longer want.. thanks!) I found this

That is an old Australian Army Diggers Hat (not sure what they are actually called) like my Grandfather had. I found it for a whole $5!!! Just $5, are you kidding me! That is unclaimed bounty right there! I wouldn’t get one back home for that price at all. I would be lucky if the badge was $5. So thank you very much USA!

I got some new sheets for my bed, tidied up the closet, did a lot of chores like scrubbing etc, I also trashed the herb garden as they were all dead and I will try and replant them when I get back from Aus. Cleaned up the storage closet a bit as well (while restocking the drinks in the fridge). All in all pretty productive.

Of course I spent some of my weekend at Paine Field (what did you expect) and although I didn’t get one of the aircraft I was after I did get a new one that will be on my new hunting list (once it’s painted) but this one was a major hit:

That is a US Navy E-6 Mercury. Also known as a TACMO or Take Charge and Move Out (love it when their acronyms make less sense than the name!). It did a missed approach while I was waiting for the dreamlifter to depart yesterday and it was such an awesome score. I was listening into LiveATC and then all of a sudden I hear a half transmission with the word “heavy” in it. That usually means a 747 or 767 or 787 but there was definately none of those around today the only thing scheduled was the Dreamlifter and I was looking at it. So it came a bit closer and again I couldn’t make out the call sign I thought I heard “Sentry” but I don’t think that was it. By the time it came close enough for me to tell in the lens what it was, I was excited. 4 engines, no upper deck means something that doens’t usually come to Everett! SCORE!

I have only ever seen an E-6 once before and that was at Aviation Nation so was pretty excited by the capture. It did one missed approach and she was gone. Flash in the pan catch! Next weekend will be pretty quiet but I did ground myself prior to my trip, so I will suffer the travel bug.