Wednesday, April 21, 2010

On Being Young

I thought to jot a thousand words on being young.  And about my sweet granddaughter, Katy, who is nine.  And about her sweet great-grandfather, Bill Flaherty, who will be ninety  February next.  But perhaps the picture will suffice.

Newt

7 comments:

  1. Which one is the child, again? Could be a toss up. Great picture!
    Kathy

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  2. Oh my goodness. This is a classic. They both look pretty happy about being tossed about like rag dolls. I assume that is you hiding to the right in the blue shirt. Its a good thing she has you two, Scott and his mother because I am not on speaking terms with wild rides. Did it have a loop?! ...shiver...
    This is definitely one for the scrap book!
    -Krissy

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  3. This coaster is Kumba, which has you upside down - count them - SEVEN times. The ride is amazing and fast. There is some information on it here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kumba_%28roller_coaster%29

    And that is not even the big coaster at Busch Gardens. That would be SheiKra, which starts with a 200-foot vertical drop - ninety degrees - and goes immediately into an Immelman turn, which is a complete inversion, followed by a 180-degree roll - all at 60 mph. SheiKra is outstanding. See here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/SheiKra

    For an animation of an Immelman turn, see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immelmann_turn

    Your grandfather rode Kumba and SheiKra TWICE.

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  4. The granddaughter sure looks like her mother, and Boy,have you aged!!!
    Gifham

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  5. Aged, my ass! I have developed wisdom. Entirely different thing.

    N

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  6. Grandpa is really not grandpa at all, but a 25 year old who has been hanging upside down on Kumba too long.

    Seriously, great pic!

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  7. Ah, to 25 again, if only for a two-minute ride. We should all be so lucky.

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