For the birds

I had airfield duty all day yesterday with the Sandhill Soaring Club. It was a rough start to the morning after playing the Cats show at Top of the Park the night before, but it ended up being a great day. Unfortunately, I was the only actual crew member who showed up, so it was a long day, but the rest of the club pitched in and made up for it. Becuase it was such a nice day, there were people lined up for instruction, so I didn’t get a chance to sneak a flight in. But as we were putting away the ships for the day, one of the commercial-rated pilots in the club offered me a ride. So we took the last glider that was still out, the ASK-13 two-seater, got an aerotow to 2900 feet, and went hunting for what little thermals there were left at the end of the day. The highlight of the day was when we spotted a group of five buzzards thermalling over a sod farm just north of the airfield. We headed over to them and caught the same lift that they were in, putting us up a few hundred feet from our starting altitude. We circled a few times with the birds, coming withing twenty feet of them a few times, and they put up with us for a bit and then went off to find a different piece of the sky. About that time, Freddy, in his high-performance ship joined us in the thermal, passed us close enough to wave a few times, and then overtook us on the left, dropping his right wing into a seventy-degree dive across our path. He dropped like a rock for about 1200 feet and then pulled it back, popping right back up to 3000 feet. What a hotdog.
A great closer to a perfect day. And I can’t wait to get up in the air again.

Loopback

We left early this morning to beat the traffic out of town, and now that we’re in Ohio, I have a cell signal again (which is how I’m writing this right now.) Yesterday was spent sightseeing on Yale campus in New Haven. As Ben said, “It’s like the Law Quad, but bigger… and it keeps going.” The campus is beautiful, and the architecture is breathtaking. But like all things on this trip, we just didn’t have a lot of time to admire it for long. Lunch yesterday was at TexiCali, a little taco shop on campus and home of the Three Pound Burrito (which I did not attempt.) Then, back to the house for dinner… grilled steaks, steamed veggies, and scalloped potatoes. It all made for a delicious, relaxing evening. At least, until the lunch burritos bit back…
So, we’re on the way home now, tired and scruffy, but happy. It was a good trip… good food, good sights, good company. But next time I’m out there, I’d better get my freakin Gilatto (did I spell that right, guys?) … and my New York City hotdog, dammit!

Dewpoint

Saturday brought lots of rain, cold, and just generally cruddy weather. So we spent the morning playing Gauntlet on the PS2, followed by breakfast at a “diner” in Stamford. (Ugh. $9 omelette.) After breakfast was a driving tour of some of the more upscale homes in the Stamford/Greenwich area. What strikes me about the residential areas (besides the sheer opulence of some of the houses) is that everything is set into old-growth woods. It’s something that isn’t seen in Michigan very often, and has a lot to do with the fact that the terrain is too rocky to have been farmed or cleared.
Lunch on Saturday was in Stamford at “Asiana”, which ended up being a delicious combination of Thai, Chinese, and Japanese foods. We followed that up with a trip to Stu Leonard’s to pick up some drink for the evening (which, in Connecticut is only sold until 8pm Mon-Sat).
Saturday night began with an outing to see “Finding Nemo”. Pixar has absolutely and completely outdone themselves again. This was definitely one of the best movies I’ve seen in a long time. Even though the theater was packed to insanity with small children, the movie had a surprising amount of humour for adults. The encore of the night, a showing of “Strange Brew” back at the house, was not as non-sequiteur as it may seem. The trailer for the new Disney animated movie ends with a couple of Moose doing Bob and Doug McKenzie impressions. Hence the need to explain the joke to the east-coasters, hence a viewing of “Strange Brew”.

Whirlwind tour of NYC

After a late start (noon), we hopped the train from Stamford to Grand Central. Unfortunately, I didn’t take any pictures of Grand Central… I just couldn’t figure out a good way to do it without a wide-angle lens. The rest of the day was spent cruising one branch of the NYPL, Rockefeller Center, Central Park, Times Square, and ending at the site of the Towers. The picture above is of the cross made by the fallen steel beams, with the mural painted onto the construction screening that covers the entire building behind it.

After almost two years, “the hole” look basically like a another big construction project. But the surroundings really tell the tale. Some of the buildings still bear the very deep scars of the collapse, and the mood of the area is noticeably reverent.
UPDATE: I was having a difficult time orienting myself (which is nothing unusual in this city), but I found a really good page with maps of the area around the WTC, here.

The day was basically an overload of experiences, and I have lots more to write about, and many more pictures that I’ll upload to the gallery. I just wanted to get something down tonight, as my body and brain drift off to a much-needed sleep.

Off to Connecticut

Matt got to my place at 8:30 this morning, and after driving out to Metro to pick up the rental car, we headed out to CT for the weekend. This is my “good morning” face, sans coffee and breakfast.

UPDATE: Now at Ben and Chet’s house in CT. (That’s a long 10-hour drive!) Shot the bull, played some PS2, busted out the tech toys. (T68 phone plus S200 camera plus Powerbook equals geekfun) Now, time for bed… off to see NYC tomorrow!

New digital camera

My new Canon S200 arrived this afternoon just in time for my trip to CT. I was actually pretty happy with my old Olympus C2020Z, but I wanted something small enough to toss in a pocket. Also, the old cam had a serial interface. The new one is USB, which ROCKS!

The pic above compares the sizes of my pager to the camera. Nice!

(And I wonder why b2 crops the image instead of resizing?)

New photo gallery!

Rockin! I just installed Gallery as my new Photo Album. There are a couple features that I’d like that aren’t there yet. (Like resizing original image on upload.) But many more that I do like.

Also, made some code changes to b2 so that I can access and edit a two-post version of the site while I’m on the road… keeping my wireless data usage low.

Taking off for Connecticut tomorrow, but I’ll be blogging as I go!

Go Chicks!

I just read that Natalie Maines of the Dixie Chicks wore a shirt bearing the letters F.U.T.K. at the Country Music Awards on May 21st. The Chicks have been in a spat with Toby Keith (of “The Angry American” fame… the first in a string of progressively worse “patriotic” country songs that are now wildly popular with the gun-slingin’, flat-bed drivin’, beer chuggin’, red blooded American segment of the population) … ever since they publicly stated that they disagreed with the message and tone of his song. The crowd answered with a chorus of boos, but I say, Go Chicks! It makes me feel relieved that there are some elements of the popular entertainment industry who will not simply follow the herd and dare to state an opinion even when it means that sales may drop. Incidentally, Bruce Springsteen (who I believe made the most patriotic and stirring post-9/11 album, “The Rising”), voiced his support for the Chicks and others who have the courage to stand up and question the government and its policies.

Also of interest, I see that the Senate has launched an inquiry into the real nature of Iraq’s WMD programs, and whether and to what extent the Bush administration embellished, extended, and possibly improvised the case for war.

ABB 2004! Anybody But Bush 2004

EMS quote of the week

Last night we got called for a woman having a headache. When asking about her medical history, the conversation between the attending medic and the patient went like this:
Patient: “I have clots in my legs.”
Medic: “Did you ever have surgery for it?”
Patient: “Yeah, they put some filter or something in.”
Medic: “Is it a Greenfield Filter?”
Patient: “I don’t know what color it is, Ma’am.”
The medic and I looked at each other, blinked, and managed to hold it together.

All this for the low, low cost of an $800 ambulance ride.

wedding bells

Pete and Allison got hitched on saturday. Congrats!