I just took a Covid test at home. I am negative. The bad news is I can't visit my dad as I have a

[applegrove]

novel cough and would fail the questionnaire we do every time we enter the nursing home. Damn. There is a private small craft airport, across two rivers, out the window from just outside his room. We watch and try to identify the planes going by. He used to do that during WWII when he was a tween. The local military airport near his home had an example of every kind of war plane in WWII, including the German ones, as Ottawa was a training center for soldiers to be able to identify a plane from the sound alone. My dad as a kid could get them almost all right. He and his friends would buy pop from a mile away and then sell it to the soldiers doing their tour of listening at aircraft. Anyhow, at the Gatineau Airport across two rivers from him in his nursing home, there is usually a biplane, Cessna and we know a Spitfire is kept there. We went to an airshow there a decade ago when Dad was more mobile. Today there was an early fighter jet he could not identify and a helicopter. I will miss not looking out the window with him tomorrow and hope my cough goes away asap.

[Skittles]

1. I know the feeling

my brother died in hospice out of state last May and I was not able to visit him....I Skype-called with him but he was severely autistic and I was never sure he actually knew who I was, he seemed confused

[Old Crank]

2. Hey Applegrove! Get better soon.

Was that base Rockcliff? If so I lived there from 57-65.

[applegrove]

3. Yes. When he was a kid. It is a flying club now. And not

doing that well. The airport he sees planes flying out of now is the Gatineau Airport. They are much bigger. The Rockcliffe airbase has been decommissioned as a military base. The houses sat empty for 30 or 40 years. They are just about to build a huge development there. And in between the houses and the Rockcliffe Airport is the Aviation Museum that has some interesting planes. Across the River in what used to be known as Hull is Gatineau. That is where the old fashioned planes fly out of. I took Dad to an airshow there and they were so great. When I said dad needed an accessible parking space they flagged us to get the best parking spot at the front. I guess they thought he might be a veteran himself.

[Old Crank]

4. I was a kid also then

Left at the end of 8th grade. Father had emphysema and we moved to Arizona. I have seen aerials of the old base and there is nothing left of the housing. My school, Viscount Alexander, is gone. We were on Bishop Blvd.
My old grade school friend has some Irises that he transported from there to BC where he is now living. Lots of memories from the old base.
If you or your dad are on Facebook there is a Happy Rockcliffe group. I would send you the link but I'm in their, FB, jail for 3 days.
Lots of old pictures, even some predating WWII.

[Old Crank]

5. Here is

The Facebook group's name:

I seem to be out of jail, for a bit at least....

https://www.facebook.com/groups/2379461223

[applegrove]

7. Dad grew up west of the Rockcliffe base. We had a babysitter

whose husband was in the military so they lived on the base. We visited her there.

[applegrove]

11. Funny story. My Aunt was meeting her boyfriend a pilot at the RockcliffAir base. He was flying in

from Halifax. My mom and dad were engaged and she was working in Halifax as an Navy medical intern. Because some VIP was being flown into Ottawa mom got a seat on the plane. So when my Aunt went to pick up her boyfriend, her future sister-in-law was there too.

[Kali]

6. you are such a good daughter

hope you feel well very soon so you can go visit your Dad.

[applegrove]

8. Thanks Kali.

[demigoddess]

12. sounds like fun! my hubby thinks I am crazy because I can hear a jet

braking, coming in for a landing. (military brat here)

[applegrove]

13. I was once horse riding on a farm south of Ottawa. I looked up and there was a stealth fighter

jet above me and the horse. It was touring around and had a stop in Ottawa. It was quiet. Ottawa International Airport is in the South of Ottawa.