On our fall vacation to Destin, Florida last October Annette and I decided to stop in nearby Valparaiso Florida to visit the Air Force Armament Museum.

The Air Force Armament Museum is a military aviation museum adjacent to Eglin Air Force Base in Valparaiso, Florida, dedicated to the display of Air Force armament. It is supported by the private, non-profit Air Force Armament Museum Foundation.

The Air Force Armament Museum is the only museum in the world dedicated to the collection, preservation and exhibition of artifacts and memorabilia associated with Air Force Armament and its platforms of delivery. There are over twenty-nine different aircraft that have found a home at the Air Force Armament Museum including an AC-130, B-17, B-25, B-52, P-51, A-10, F-15, F-16, F-100, F-101, and many other aircraft from the WWII era to the present. There are also several hundred pieces of armament to include a gun collection, bombs, bomblets, and missiles.

The museum was conceived and approved in 1974 but there was no suitable structure available on Eglin Air Force Base until 1976. In the spring of that year, an old Enlisted Club facility became available, and the Armament Museum became a reality. To help fund and perpetuate this Museum, the Air Force Armament Museum Foundation (AFAMF), a philanthropic non-profit organization, was established.

From 1976 through 1981, the artifact collection grew, and the Museum averaged 80,000 visitors per year. But, in 1981, the building housing the Museum collection was condemned, and the Museum closed that October.

The Air Force Armament Museum Foundation (AFAMF) then began what became a lengthy effort to find a new home for the Armament Museum. After a slow start, funding efforts began in 1984. By mid-1985, $1.2 million in private and corporate donations had been raised and construction of a new 28,000 square foot Museum was underway and in November of the same year, the new Museum was deeded to the United States Air Force and opened to the public.

Admittance to the Museum is free of charge and the Museum is open every day and most Federal Holidays. Over two million people have now visited and enjoyed this Museum. Numerous significant, military-related ceremonies such as promotions, reenlistments, retirements, and meetings occur within the Museum each month. Visits by school, church and veterans' groups are now almost daily occurrences and the Armament Museum has become an important educational, cultural, and social landmark.

Driving onto the grounds of the Air Force Armament Museum, visitors first notice the array of numerous aircraft on display. The fastest plane ever built, the SR-71 Blackbird is the centerpiece flanked by numerous planes from World War II, Korean, Vietnam and Gulf War eras. The Air Force Armament Museum is located on the Emerald Coast of the Florida Panhandle. It is on Highway 85 South, seven miles north of Fort Walton Beach. The museum is open Sunday through Saturday from 9:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. Central Time. Tours are self-guided. Photography is permitted and encouraged.

These photos with Topaz and Dynamic Auto Painter Pro effects were taken in October. I shot in RAW with my Nikon D750 camera and used Corel AfterShot Pro to convert the files. Then I used Topaz Denoise, Corel PaintShop Pro, and Luminar AI to further adjust and enhance the files in post processing. Finally, I used Dynamic Auto Painter Pro to add the Re-Acrylic painterly effects. I hope you enjoy!

Yes, I'm back with a very odd situation. I cannot type a message in Gmail. When I start to type, the first few letters do not appear. Ahead of the cursor are miscellaneous words and letters. Deleting, starting in a different location or with a different font makes no difference.

I can type just fine in the subject line, and I can type anywhere else - word processor, Quicken, UHH, etc. I connected the wired keyboard to different USB ports, but that made no difference. I was able to send an email by typing the message in WordPerfect and pasting it into the email.

I just tried it again, and "At home" appeared after the cursor. I don't recall typing those words recently.

I just typed, "I want to find a way to make this work." This is what I got: "t to find a way to make this work.on And in"

I can reply to an email, but I cannot type one of my own.

It might have been DirectTV. They installed a dish antenna on my roof several years ago. I got poor reception and often the image would "dissolve" on the screen. Whenever it rained the signal was constantly poor. I kept calling and was told they weren't responsible for the weather. I would explain the image problems and they would remotely reset my system and the problems continued. Then, one day a workman on my property noticed that the dish was mounted too low on my steep roof and was only partially seeing the sky. I called and was told that I would have to pay $100.00 for a service call.

In a much earlier time period, I had a business. Our phone service was with Verizon but there was an unspecified service charge on our bill. I finally noticed it and called Verizon to inquire about the charge and was told it was an ATT charge. I called ATT and, after a long inquiry, was told it was a charge for two toll-free numbers. I didn't know we had toll free numbers and asked what the numbers were, and they told me. I asked how long I had those numbers and was told it had been five years. I asked how I happened to get those numbers and they couldn't or wouldn't tell me.

I explained that I was the business owner and had never authorized those numbers and that I wanted a refund.

$178.00 per month for about five years would amount to $10,680. They told me I could get a refund for three months and that was all I could get. I insisted on talking to a person with more authority and worked my way up the chain of command. I got nowhere. In fact, the higher up I went, the ruder the people were. At least I got a little refund and stopped the money bleed. I did file a complaint with the appropriate government agencies, such as the FCC, but they didn't do anything to help me.

You can now see why I hate ATT and will never do business with them.

On Wednesday I took the new Hasselblad with a roll of Ektar 100 out to the river to see what the Hasse would do with my favorite local mountain. I got the roll developed that afternoon by TCR and came home with the negs to do the scanning. Ever since then I've been working to clean up the dust spots. (That's why I don't like scanning!) I found a spot where I could get some foreground interest in the frame for Cany143.

The resulting TIFF is 201 mg. Sort of large, no?

I think this camera is a keeper. It's easy to use and gives pretty nice results. What do you think?

There's something I’d like to say, but it would probably be rather useless, cuz this whole discussion has been rather lame, so I s’pose I’ll just keep quiet, cuz it might start another useless argument. Bottom line, use what works for you. Different people have different likes, so just cuz you prefer one brand doesn’t mean it’s the best, neither does it mean that others have no right to prefer a different brand. To each his own

P. S. If everyone would use the same brand, the other camera companies would go out of business and then there’d be no more competition and then what? Camera technology wouldn’t advance nearly as fast anymore

On Wednesday I took the new Hasselblad with a roll of Ektar 100 out to the river to see what the Hasse would do with my favorite local mountain. I got the roll developed that afternoon by TCR and came home with the negs to do the scanning. Ever since then I've been working to clean up the dust spots. (That's why I don't like scanning!) I found a spot where I could get some foreground interest in the frame for Cany143.

The resulting TIFF is 201 mg. Sort of large, no?

I think this camera is a keeper. It's easy to use and gives pretty nice results. What do you think?