The highlight of the week was definitely the visit from Shawn, Tara, Sarah and Megan...

They stopped by on their way to Orlando and spent Saturday evening and Sunday morning.  On Saturday, we went to Cedar River Seafood for dinner, then did a quick evening tour of downtown and ended the evening with a stop at Cold Stone Creamery.  On Sunday, Jeanie made us a yummy breakfast and then we all went to the beach for a few hours.  The ocean was as smooth as a lake, so Jeanie finally got to try out her SwimWays Spring Floats.  They were really cool.  The weather was just perfect - blue skies with a gentle breeze and a water temperature just cool enough to be refreshing.  The new tires on the Durango seemed to do just fine in the sand.  I'm glad I went with the 31's rather than the P235's - they just give that little extra bit of confidence.  We stopped at Harris Teeter on the way home to pick up some lunch meat and rolls and had a a nice lunch at home.  Then it was time for them to load up and head south.  It was great seeing them and I hope they stop by on their way back north.  Maybe they will have time for an aerial tour of the island.

Jeanie spent the remainder of the week recovering from her sinus surgery.  I spent the remainder of the week working and providing modest support to Jeanie's recovery.  She did a good job of not over-doing and doing her sinus irrigation regularly.  She is recovering nicely.

On Saturday morning, I attended the first formal board of directors meeting for the Friends of Fernandina Beach Senior Squadron and then spent a couple of hours at the Squadron trailer helping one of the other members renew his Mission Scanner and Mission Observer qualifications.

I guess two things in life that really illustrate the passing of time and the brevity of life are the passing of famous persons and seeing children grow.  We knew Sarah before she was even born.  It seems like only yesterday... yet here she is, an almost grown young woman - and a really sweet and lovely one.  And then there was the passing of four notable celebrities - Ed McMahon, Farrah Fawcett, Michael Jackson, and Billy Mays.  It's sobering that the latter two were my age.  The time goes by so swiftly.  I wish I could impress upon the young people I care about just how quickly time passes.  As a child, we spend so much time wishing we could speed up time.  Then we get to the point where we wish we could slow it down.  Finally, we get to the point where we wish we could turn it back.  The truly blessed recognize that each moment is precious, savor it, and enjoy it in the present.

Yesterday was two months living the pescatarian lifestyle...

I must admit, I am starting to have some meat thoughts.  Nothing uncontrollable, but there nonetheless.  I wonder if there is a meat eaters anonymous?

The most significant event of the week was Jeanie's sinus surgery on Friday.

Monday and Wednesday were spent working.

Tuesday, I took a day of vacation, and it was a day of highs and lows, literally and figuratively.  I started out Tuesday flying a CAP Mission Pilot training mission which was great and my literal and figurative high. We flew up just over the St. Mary's river into Georgia and first flew an expanding square search pattern using the US-17 bridge as our starting point.  On the way back, we flew a practice ELT search.  This was particularly interesting, as it was the first time I had ever experienced an ELT search using the old DF equipment rather than the Becker.

The low was then going to buy four new tires for the Durango, which was very traumatic and my literal and figurative low.  Things started out okay.  I had done research the night before, and had narrowed down my options to two - either Michelin LTX or Bridgestone Dueler A/T Revo.  After talking with the salesman, I selected the Michelins.  As to size, I thought my only option was to stick with what was already mounted.  The salesman indicated that I could either go with the size we currently had, or a slightly smaller tire.  He said that the advantages of the smaller tires were that they we less expensive, and would yield slightly better gas mileage.  The disadvantages of the smaller tires were that they wouldn't fill up the wheel wells like the 31's, would cause the truck to lose a little bit of ground clearance, and would be a mismatch with the spare, although that wouldn't be any more of an issue than driving with a "donut spare."  I thought I was clear that I wanted to stay with what we had, but apparently, there was mis-communication between the salesman and me, and they ended up installing the P235/75R/15 tires rather than the 31X10.5-15 that were on the vehicle. The salesman offered to swap them, but I was tired and didn't want to wait another 30-45 minutes and the fact that the 235's were $186 cheaper (t0tal) was enticing. The other issue with going to a smaller tire was that it caused the speedometer to read "slow" by about five miles per hour at 65 MPH.  Not a big deal, but for some reason, it really bugged me.  It also seemed to me that a tire with a larger diameter would get better gas mileage, not worse.  I did some online research, and while it indicated that in city driving, the smaller tire would yield better mileage, on the highway, the larger tire should get better mileage.  Can you say "Buyer's Remorse?"  Fortunately, Discount Tire is an upstanding company, and when I called to tell the salesman how unhappy I was, he offered to replace them with the larger tires.  I told him I'd sleep on it, and let him know in the morning.

I did, and on Wednesday morning, I was still unhappy, so I got up early and was at the store when it opened.  They were very nice, and replaced the tires without a fuss.  As to the mileage question, the Durango has a trip computer in the overhead console that includes a readout of instantaneous miles per gallon.  On the way to the tire store (with the 235's still on) it showed 19 MPG at an indicated 63 MPH turning 1950 RPM.  On the way home, it showed 18 MPH at 60 MPH turning 1850 RPM.  Go figure.  My guess is that even though the almost two extra inches in diameter improve the mileage, the one extra inch of width creates enough extra rolling resistance to negatively impact the mileage.  It still doesn't totally make sense to me, as I had always thought that fuel usage was mostly a function of engine speed when the load was relatively constant - thus, lower RPM should equate to higher gas mileage.  Oh well, at least the 31's "look right," the speedometer shows the correct speed, and maybe that extra inch of width will keep us from getting stuck in the sand.

On Thursday, I took another vacation day so I could do my Civil Air Patrol (CAP) Search and Rescue (SAR) Mission Pilot (MP) checkride.  The oral and practical portions of the checkride went well, and as a result, I am now an official CAP SAR MP.  Even though we started at 9:00 AM and the oral portion of the checkride was only about an hour and the practical was only about an hour and a half, between having to wait for some weather to pass, and having to do all of the paperwork, I spent the better part of the day getting through the process.

Friday, as noted earlier, was Jeanie's surgery.  Because Jeanie's parents were here, I was able to attend the annual meeting of the flying club, for which I am very grateful.  The meeting was well attended and I was reelected to serve on the board of directors.  The toughest part of the night was resisting the Sonny's Bar-B-Que that was served for dinner.  Fortunately, I was able to fill up on coleslaw, corn muffins and banana pudding.

Saturday was spent at home caring for Jeanie.

Sunday was Father's Day, and it was nice to have Dad Melvin here.  Jamie sent me a really cool card that was really sweet, and both Jamie and Robby called and I had nice conversations with both of them.  As noted in this post, Jimmy and Kimberly drove down for lunch and we had a nice visit and meal at Pepper's Mexican Grill.

Amazingly well actually...

Jeanie's sinus surgery went well on Friday.  It was an outpatient procedure, and we were back home by mid-afternoon.  She is having to sleep in the recliner, but she appears to be sleeping fairly well.  I am sleeping in our bedroom, with the door open, so I can hear call me if she needs anything.  Cali usually starts out in the bed with me, but then migrates to Jeanie's chair some time during the night.  Jeanie's pain has been manageable, and she's being very diligent about doing her nasal irrigation regularly, and changing her drip pad.  Other than sometimes wanting to do a bit too much, Jeanie has been a very good patient.  Her parents came over on Thursday, and having them here has been a real blessing.

Jeanie's brother and Kimberly drove down for a surprise father's day visit today, and Jeanie was feeling well enough for us all to go to lunch at Pepper's Mexican Grill on the island.  As usual, the food was yummy.  Jeanie, Momma, Dad, Diego and Cali are all taking naps at the moment, and now that I think about it, that sounds like a really good idea...

Worked at home all week.  Nothing special, other than it was nice to be home.

On Saturday, another CAP member (Brian) and I flew over to Suwannee County Airport (24J) in Live Oak to fly CAP Cadets.  Really nice little airport.  Beautiful runway with full length taxiway.  Nice hangars including a beautiful EAA combination meeting building / hangar that the EAA is nice enough to allow the CAP to use.  Was also national Young Eagles day, so quite a few folks there for Young Eagles rides.  There were six cadets scheduled, and it was to be my first time flying cadets.  Since Brian is instrument rated, we decided to have me fly over and for him to fly back -- just in case there was the fairly typical Florida afternoon weather.  We were wheels up by 0730 and landed by 0830.  The flight over was uneventful and pleasant, although the visibility was a bit hazy.  When we arrived, we learned that only two cadets had shown up.  There was one other member who had just transitioned from being a cadet to being a senior member.  He was eager to make some progress on his scanner rating, so we decided that Brian would fly the two cadets and I would work with the new senior member to make some progress on his MS SQTR.

While I was a little disappointed that I wouldn't get to fly cadets, I was really excited about about this young man's enthusiasm and preparedness.  In many ways, he reminded me of myself when I first joined the CAP.  It was a great opportunity to provide some "give back" for me and I was glad to do it.  By the end of the morning, we had made really good progress on his Mission Scanner SQTR.

The flight home was uneventful, but we were really glad we weren't headed any farther south, as there was a strong line of thunderstorms that would have made the trip uncomfortable at best and potentially impossible since we didn't have on-board weather in the aircraft we were flying.

Sunday - usual coffee at the airport, small crowd.  Ended up chatting with a number of the squadron members.  Then Jeanie and I went to Jacksonville to buy Dad Melvin's father's day gift.  After returning to this area, we went to Staples to buy regular and photo paper that were on-sale.  Between the rebates and Staples bucks from print cartridge recycling, we actually "made" money on the purchase.  When we walked into the store, there was a big display with paper and I just assumed that this was the paper that was on sale - you know what they say about when you assume... it makes an Ass out of U and Me.  The assistant manager was really nice nice about fact that I had grabbed the wrong paper that wasn't on-sale / rebate eligible.  I of course, felt like a dolt and apologized profusely, so I guess in this case, neither of us ended up being asses.

After we returned home, we watched "The Curious Case of Benjamin Button."

I've been wanting to get current again for night flying, but the weather hasn't been cooperative, and its so late before a landing counts for night currency (1 hour after sunset, which this time of year is around 9:30 PM) that I just haven't been able to accomplish it - at least not until tonight...

Around 8:00PM tonight, I noticed that they sky was clear and the winds were calm.  I had slept well last night, had arisen relatively late, and had even laid down for half an hour before dinner, so I was well rested.

So, I checked for TFRs, got an online weather briefing, scheduled the club plane, grabbed my flight bags, and headed off to the airport.

Long story short, it was a beautiful night to fly, and I was even relatively satisfied with my flying.  In fact, my landings were three of my smoother efforts.  As usual, I was a bit high on approach, and my turns to final were late, but overall, I was satisfied.  I didn't take any time to fly around and enjoy the night lights - just stayed in the pattern - but it was still quite enjoyable.

On Monday, I working until I accompanied Jeanie to her appointment with the ENT late in the afternoon.  He confirmed the recommendation of the other ENT that she undergo sinus surgery to hopefully resolve the recurrent sinus and ear infections she has been suffering.  He recommended a less radical procedure than the other surgeon, suggesting that the procedure be limited to opening up the passages that allow the sinus to drain properly, and repairing Jeanie's deviated septum.  This sounds much better than the much more aggressive procedure the other ENT was talking about that would have entailed the removal of actual sinus tissue.  Jeanie is scheduled to have the outpatient procedure week after next.  As I noted in this post, I got to fly on Monday which was a nice treat.

On Tuesday, I traveled to Dallas, Texas, leaving the house at 6:00 AM, to continue working on one of the two deals I am involved with.  Dinner on Wednesday was yummy, as I noted in this post.  I returned home on Thursday, arriving at the house around 10:00 PM.

One evening while I was out of town, I got the inspiration to search Facebook for some of my cousins that I haven't talked with for years.  I found and contacted three, and got responses back from two.  I also received another message from one of my childhood friends.  I really am enjoying this aspect of Facebook.

Friday morning, I got my hair cut, then spent the rest of the day on teleconferences.

On Saturday, I attended the monthly CAP general squadron meeting in the morning, then Jeanie and I drove to Jacksonville Beach to take my mother to lunch.  Mom was quite sweet, and we had a very pleasant visit with her.

Today, I did the usual Sunday morning coffee thing at the airport, then Jeanie, Diego, Cali and I drove to the beach and took a nice walk.  After returning home, Jeanie prepared a tasty dinner that included cooked cabbage, sweet potato casserole, and a meatless meatloaf, using red beans in place of the ground beef - it was quite tasty.  We both have continued to maintain our pescatarian lifestyle, although I am finding that my weight loss is starting to slow down.  I know I need to get back to exercising regularly, but so far, I have not been able to summon the will to get back on the regular exercise wagon.  I had hoped to fly tonight to get night current again, but it doesn't look like the weather will cooperate.

It looks like I will not have to travel out of town this week, which will be nice.

Tonight for dinner, I had the Salmon Diablo at Pappadeaux Seafood Kitchen. It was a seven ounce fillet of char-grilled salmon topped with crawfish, crabmeat & pico de gallo in a lemon garlic butter sauce. Instead of the dirty rice, I had mashed potatoes. It was absolutely delicious. Highly recommended!

I had an opportunity to shoot a few touch and goes yesterday early evening in the club plane. I hadn't been able to fly for the last few weeks, mostly due to inclement weather and then due to a lack of available aircraft. Fortunately, the club airplane's nose strut issue was resolved yesterday, and it was so pretty that I just couldn't resist.

After doing a couple of touch and goes, I spent a bit of time just flying around the area - something I don't typically do when I am alone in the a/c as I am usually focused on practicing maneuvers. But yesterday, I decided to just enjoy being one with the airplane and the sky - it was good for the soul...

Just as I pulled into our driveway, I realized that I had forgotten my sunglass clip-ons in the airplane. After dinner, Jeanie agreed to ride with me to the airport. We decided to take the puppies along for a ride. We arrived at the airport right as the sun was starting to set. I quickly found my clips on the floor of the aircraft. Since Cali was feeling better, and we were in the mood, we decided to go to Dairy Queen for a dipped cone for Jeanie and me to share, and a doggie cup for the puppies. Given that we were in the neighborhood, we decided to drive to Peter's Point and drive out on the beach. Once there, we decided to take a walk. It may have been my most perfect experience on a beach. There was just the right amount of breeze, the temperature was perfect, the skies were clear, the seas were calm, the puppies were well behaved, and I got to share it all with my best friend.

This past weekend was relatively quiet...

On Saturday, I worked in the morning and Jeanie had her weekly call with her mom.  In the afternoon, Jeanie and I took a walk through downtown and browsed the local bookstores.  We at lunch at a new Italian/Pizza restaurant on island OPS Pizza.  Jeanie had cheese ravioli which she thoroughly enjoyed and I had a slice of cheese pizza which was not bad, but not as good as Tony's.  So, we will go to OPS when we want Italian other than pizza, and Tony's when we want pizza or calzone.  I worked a little more in the evening and that was about it.

On Sunday, I was supposed to fly twice; once in the late morning just to knock the rust off me, and then at night to renew my night currency.  Unfortunately, it appears that a seal failed on the nose strut during another member's trip to Savannah on Friday, so the aircraft was grounded awaiting repair.  The airplane assigned to our CAP squadron was moved to another squadron over a month ago, and we still haven't been assigned a replacement.  The rental aircraft that the FBO used to rent reached its time for overhaul on its engine over a year ago, and because of the ongoing legal battle between them and the city, they elected to not overhaul the engine, so there is no rental aircraft available from the FBO.  So, I went to the coffee and whined about the fact that even though I live five miles from an airport with three open runways and an FBO, am a member of the Civil Air Patrol, and a member of the flying club, there still wasn't an airplane available to fly.  As a result of the whining, I did learn that the aircraft that had previously been limited to rental only by student pilots was now available for rental by licensed pilots, but it was too late for me to make arrangements to get checked out, and I really didn't want to pay $25 per hour more than the club plane, plus have to pay for the aircraft and an instructor for the checkout.  I guess if I get desperate, its good to know that there is an alternative other than having to drive to Jacksonville.

After I returned home (a little later than usual - around noon) Jeanie and I ate lunch, then we bathed Diego and clipped Cali's nails.  I then jury rigged a repair on one of Jeanie's rain gauges.  The original gauge had a plastic tube that had cracked from old age.  Jeanie found a replacement tube made of glass, but it was narrower than the original tube.  So, I cut off the old plastic tube flush with the base (a ceramic frog) and then used a piece of large heat shrink tubing as a shim between the glass tube and the old plastic tube.  The solution is close enough...  Speaking of heat shrink tubing, I finally got around to affixing Diego and Cali's new rabies and county license tags to their collars and then shrink wrapping the now four tags each (the others being their name tags and microchip tags) so that they don't jingle jangle as they walk.  Speaking of Cali, she appears to be feeling better.  She's still not quite 100%, but she's at least 80%.  She went back to not eating on Saturday morning, but Kimberly suggested we give her four fingers of Pepto-Bismol (i.e. dip your finger into a spoon of the pink liquid and then wipe your finger on the dog's tongue - four times) and that seems to have worked to settle Cali's stomach as she started eating again in the afternoon.

Later in the afternoon, we puttered around the yard a bit.  Before the last few weeks when it rained so much, the fig tree had started experiencing browning of new buds and yellowing of its leaves and the grapefruit had been dropping leaves and fruit.  I thought that the problem was a lack of iron in the soil or improper PH.  But, with all the rain, both trees really perked up and started growing beautiful new leaves.  So, it appears that the trees just weren't getting enough water during the county mandated limit of lawn watering only twice a week.  As such, it appears that we will have to supplement the water needs of the new fruit trees with at least one hand watering per week.

Jeanie made a lovely meal of boiled shrimp and lobster tail, along with corn-on-the-cob, broccoli and salad.  I added some links to the aviation page on Witsdom as well as updating some of the meta tags on the four different files that serve as the "index" page.  I watched the CAP ground handling video for the third time - this time so I could take the now mandated test.  I also accepted four friends invitations on Facebook that I had been sitting on the fence about.  Previously, I had been only accepting invitations from people I knew really well, or at least remembered really well.  I decided that I'd widen my circle a little bit, even if that means I will be a bit more selective (read less open) about what I post as updates.  We ended our nice, quiet weekend by watching a bit of TV.

Friday
The day started out with us taking Cali back to the Vet as she still wasn't doing well.  We started her back on Cetrine in the afternoon and she was better on Sat, Sun and Mon (good appetite, but no poop on Sun/Mon) By Tuesday, she was back to not doing so well.  Fortunately, eventually, she did get back to feeling well.

I Spent a good part of the day dealing with insurance - homeowner, umbrella, automobile, etc.  In general, I'm not really happy with our current independent insurance agency.  I guess I just got spoiled by our agent of twenty years in North Carolina, Jerry Teague.  The existing agency just doesn't provide a good level of service.  Forget being proactive, they don't even do a good job of following up on what we ask them to do.  As an example, when our address street number changed due to 911 changes in the county, we notified the agency of the change.  Apparently, they never properly processed the notification, since the new bills still had the old address on them.  Another issue was the lack of credit for wind mitigation last year - even after we sent them the report, then called to follow up to make sure they received it and acted on it.  It was only luck that we figured it out after getting a new quote from another company (Olympus) and overhearing another agent's comment about St. John's being cheaper than Olympus.  Had that not happened, we would have ended up overpaying over $800 for our homeowners insurance.

We had dinner at Pepper's on-island.   Jeanie had fish taco's - I didn't like the sauce.  I had seafood fajitas - they were delicious, although I would have preferred more peppers and onions.  The serving was enough for four people and included a fillet of fish, shrimp, scallops and fake crab in addition to the tortillas, guacamole, source cream, cheese, lettuce and pico-de-gallo.

Saturday
I gave blood to The Blood Alliance at a Fernandina Pirates Club blood drive at Murray's Grille.  While I do appreciate the fact that The Blood Alliance is quite convenient due to their frequent blood drives close to home, I do miss the way the American Red Cross made a point of recognizing each gallon milestone.  It turned out that this was my 9th donation, yet I would not have known had I not bothered to look it up on their web site.  While collecting gallon pins was never the primary motivation for donating, it was a nice gesture on the part of the ARC.  On the other hand, the BA has a Donor Awards program that appears to be quite cool.  You get points for each donation that you can then use to select various BA logo items from an online catalog.  The primary motivation is still to help others, and the secondary motivation is that I believe there are health benefits to draining a pint every few months, but getting a little pat on the back is nice too.

Speaking of the Pirates Club, why is it that pirates are so celebrated in our culture?  Think about it... pirates were murdering thieves who raped and pillaged.  No one would think of celebrating the current crop of Somali pirates.  Why so then the pirates of yore, who in many ways were much worse than those of today?

In the afternoon, we watched a bunch of "Rescue Me" episodes.  I found them to be  funnier and not as mean as last year.  Jeanie baked banana nut bread and muffins which were yummy.  One of my coworkers with whom I had spent the better part of last year working with on my last deal called to tell me about his first flying lesson.  I was really excited to hear how excited he was, and I hope that he continues on through obtaining his certificate.  We ate the fajita leftovers for lunch.  For dinner, we had a real oven baked potato (not wrapped in foil) for dinner.  Baking the potato in an oven (as opposed to a microwave) without foil results in such a nice fluffy potato, with just the right amount of bite to the skin.

Sunday
I did the usual morning coffee thing at the airport.  I then returned home, picked up Jeanie, and headed back on-island so we could have Calzone at Tony's.  We spent the bulk of the afternoon driving around and looked at houses and neighborhoods.  On the way home, we went to Lowes to get three pyramid shaped trellises for the back yard.

Monday
We spent most of the day working in the flower bed in the back yard.  The primary focus was getting the trellises installed and pulling some of the dollar weed out of the primary bed.  The reason we installed three trellises is that we have three Carolina Jasmine bushes that we had severely cut back because they had gotten out of control.  Each jasmine will now have a trellis that it can climb on, but that will allow us to keep the bushes under control.  As an aside, the fig and grapefruit trees we planted at the end of March are doing really well.  A few weeks earlier, I had noticed that the leaves were yellowing and buds were browning.  I had thought that the problem was either poor soil, improper PH or a lack of iron, but it now appears that the problem must have been insufficient water since the only thing that has changed in the last few weeks is that it has rained every day.

In the late afternoon, we watched WALL-E which we both thought was really cute.

After dinner, I burned the new live ColdPlay CD for Jeanie.  The CD is available as a free download (zip file with MP3's) as "a thank you to our fans" at this link.  I also created the new Aviation / Flying page on Witsdom.

It's been a whole month, and I still haven't eaten the flesh of anything other than fish or shellfish...

In fact, I've even found myself seeking to avoid fish and shellfish.  I think in the last month, I've had more meatless days than the rest of my entire life put together.  At one point, I went an entire week without eating any flesh.

Probably my biggest temptation so far was a week ago, when someone brought some deer sausage to the Sunday coffee at the airport.  A couple of pancakes proved to be a satisfying substitute.  I also have found myself thinking about those wonderful ribs and beans I had in the Memphis airport, but, as with many things, I think that the memory might now have more appeal than were I to actually be sitting face to face with a half rack.

I can't say that this change in eating habits has resulted in any drastic mystical change in how I feel physically.  It's not like all of a sudden I have boundless energy or a new spring in my step.  It is nice however, to not have reason to think about the miserable life and horrible death that the poor cow, pig, chicken, etc. suffered on its way to my dinner plate.  It has also been nice stepping on the scale each week.  Over the last month, I have lost a total of almost eight pounds.

Before you get too worried, no, I am not on my way to becoming some foaming at the mouth radical animal rights activist.  Just because, at the moment, I am choosing to not eat meat, does not mean that I have a problem with others doing so.  Might I at some point consider switching to free range eggs and milk to further reduce the animal suffering that I contribute to?  I might, but at the moment, I can live with consuming eggs and dairy products produced in factory farm environments.  Do I think about the environmental impact of factory fishing?  Yes, but at the moment, I feel that I am at least somewhat contributing to the solution by limiting how much seafood I consume.  Last week when I was at the SAR EVAL, I was given a box lunch that consisted of a ham and cheese sandwich on a croissant.  I was fortunate that I had packed a PB&J sandwich so it wasn't an issue, but had I not had an alternative, I would have just pulled the ham off and eaten a cheese sandwich - although I probably would have thought that the sandwich had been "tainted" by its contact with the ham.

As with many things in my life, I still expect that at some point I will go back to eating meat, and this period will just become another "phase" I went through.  But, who knows?

Cali has had a rough few days, which means Jeanie and I have had a rough few days...

Monday night, Cali threw up after dinner.  She does that on occasion, so we didn't worry too much.  Yesterday, she wouldn't eat, and starting having diarrhea.  She was also listless and just didn't seem to feel well.  By the afternoon, the diarrhea looked like strawberry preserves.  At that point, thank goodness, Jeanie got worried and suggested that we take Cali to the vet.  I quickly begged off of the work teleconference I was participating in and we drove to the vet.

The vet's first concern was that Cali had Hemorrhagic GastroEnteritis (HGE).  She performed a blood test and ruled this out.  Cali's temperature was also normal.  The working theory was that either Cali was reacting to the steroid she had been prescribed the previous week when she went to the vet after coughing white foam, or she had a bacterial infection.  The vet gave Cali some subcutaneous fluids and prescribed an antibiotic and some medicine to treat the nausea/diarrhea.  She also suggested that we stop the steroid after one more dose.  Per the vet's instructions, we purchased some plain yogurt (for the probiotics) and some cottage cheese.  Cali refused everything we offered her.  Jeanie ended up staying up with her until 3:00 AM, at which point Jeanie came to bed, and I awoke and came into the office.

By yesterday mid-day, Cali had started eating some and seemed to be feeling better.  We found that one teaspoon of yogurt, one teaspoon of cottage cheese and two teaspoons of rice cooked in chicken broth made a good meal for Cali.  Right before bedtime, Jeanie noticed that Cali had broken out in a rash over most of her belly.  We gave her 1/2 an antihistamine and decided to call the vet in the morning.

So, this morning, we called the vet and reported that the rash had subsided, and that Cali was eating well and seemed to be feeling better.  The vet suggested that we stop all medications, and continue feeding her the mixture described above.  Everything seemed to be progressing well until this evening, when Cali wouldn't eat her dinner.  About an hour later, she started throwing up.  She wouldn't vomit very much, and it was clear, but she vomited a number of times.  After a couple of hours and much discussion, Jeanie and I decided to give Cali a nausea/diarrhea pill.  After a couple more hours and a couple more pukes (in my lap) Cali seemed to start responding to the medication.  She hasn't thrown up for a few hours now, but I'm still concerned.  Jeanie and Cali are asleep, so hopefully when Cali gets up tomorrow, she will have an appetite.  Either way, we will make another call to the vet, as my Internet research seems to indicate that there still might be a bacterial issue in which case I would think we need to resume the antibiotic.  I also think the vet should have suggested waiting another day before we started feeding Cali again.

When Sam passed away, I swore I'd never have another dog.  I do get great joy from Diego and Cali, but I can't stand the thought of having to go through the pain of eventually losing them.  Now I'm starting to think I should have stuck to my convictions.

I spent a fair amount of time in the latter part of February creating two new sites for the CAP squadron...

One day I happed to check the old site and realized that it had vanished.   The squadron commander had asked me many months ago to create a new site, and I had looked at a number of options, but I had never gotten around to actually selecting authoring or content management software or picking a hosting company.  Obviously, the lack of any site created a sense of urgency.  Since we needed something fast and easy, I simplified my criteria.  I decided on Google Sites because it was fast, easy, had good functionality, was free, and could be managed by more than just me.  It also incorporated Google Calendar.

I ended up creating two sites - one public, one just for members.  Access for members is controlled by Gmail account IDs - another benefit as I don't have to manage the ID administration; Gmail allows the user to do that for themselves.  All I have to do is add the ID to the access list once the user sets up their ID and lets me know what it is.

The sites won't be winning any awards, but they get the basic job of offering a presence accomplished easily and inexpensively.

No, not me, not yet, at least, not acutely...

I guess, from one perspective, we are all dying, at least those of us who are beyond our teens or early twenties.  Up until then, our bodies are creating more cells than are being lost to normal cell attrition.  Maybe it's even later than teens or early twenties; I guess there is some period during which the rate of cell creation and loss are balanced.  But at some point, we start losing more than we create.  From my perspective, at that point, whenever it is, we truly start dying.  But, that's not really the point of this particular entry.

The point of this entry is to recognize that today, at 11:00 AM Eastern time, a memorial service will be held for Kevin Hoffman, a former coworker and peer.  Kevin is the first person I can think of who was basically the same age as me with whom I had a personal relationship that has passed away due to natural causes.  To be fair, Kevin lived a hard life, and from what I understand, the last few years were especially hard lived.  This no doubt hastened his passing, but, are not many of us helping to crack open the door a bit for the grim reaper - either by smoking or being overweight, or whatever?

Unfortunately, I will not be able to attend the service, as it is being held in the Duke Chapel - a fitting location, as Kevin was a Duke graduate and dedicated Duke fan.  There will be a reception following the service, and I imagine it will have a "Big Chill" feel to it.  Kevin was part of DataFlow at the height of the "As The Disk Spins" period - that part of the company's history that saw a group of intelligent, motivated mostly twenty-somethings working hard, playing hard, and loving hard.  An environment that had as much drama as any soap opera.

Hopefully, this will be an isolated instance, and it will be many years before the passing of well known peers becomes a regular occurrence.  But, I do believe today marks a milestone in my life.

Last weekend was predominately aviation oriented...

Last Thursday, I received a call from the Civil Air Patrol squadron commander asking if I could make myself available to participate in the Florida Wing SAR EVAL (Search and Rescue Evaluation) the following day (Friday).  I replied that I could not on Friday, as I had to work, but I could on Saturday.  Nick called back a bit later to inform me that Wing indicated that there was a need for one aircrew from our squadron, but there was a wrinkle: we would need to be in Ormond Beach (KOMN) by 7:30 AM, and we would have to drive, as the airplane assigned to our squadron had been moved to another squadron on the other side of the state a few weeks earlier.  The idea of having to drive two and a half hours to arrive at 0730 was not super appealing, but I agreed as I knew we were needed.  After thinking about the situation for a bit, it occurred to me that Nick and I are both members of the flying club, so I checked ScheduleMaster and saw that the club plane was available all day and suggested to Nick that we fly the club plane down and back.

I awoke on Saturday at 4:00 AM so that I had enough time to shower and get a weather briefing before heading to the airport.  I arrived at the airport at 0530 so I could have the pre-flight completed by 0600.  Nick and Frank arrived about 0545, and we were wheels up by 0615.  We decided that I would fly the leg down to KOMN.  Nick flew right seat so that I could show him how to use the GPS and autopilot, and so he could play with the GPS some.  The flight down took a little over an hour due to headwinds which allowed us to arrive at the mission staging area right on time at 0730.  We got checked in and participated in the general briefing for the day.  Around 1000, Nick was directed to go to mission base to receive a mission briefing.  When Nick returned, we learned that we had been tasked with an ELT mission.  We decided that Nick would act as mission pilot, Frank would act as mission scanner (back seat) and I would act as mission observer (right seat).  The mission went really well.  Long story short, we were able to acquire the target fairly quickly, pinpoint the location and then direct the UDF team's vehicle right to the target.  While we were waiting for the UDF team to arrive, we also served as radio relay for a couple of other teams that were operating out of radio range of mission base.  Total time in the air for us was around three hours.  After going through the debrief, we enjoyed box lunches provided by CAP and then sat around for a couple more hours before being released to return home.  Because Nick had flown the mission, I was elected to fly the return trip home.  Since Frank had been in the back seat both for the flight down, and for the mission, Frank flew right seat on the way home.  Both Frank and Nick were career airline pilots and have thousands of flying hours.  I must admit, I could get spoiled having a professional pilot in the right seat when I fly somewhere.  Between the little tips they offered, and the fact that every time I went to search for the next frequency to tune the radio to, they had already entered it into the standby frequency, it made flying in and out of a class D airport under class C airspace much easier.

On Sunday, I did the usual coffee thing at the airport, then attended the flying club meeting, then helped wash the club plane.  For this wash, we used UltraLuster Waterless Wash.  The product was brought to us by one of the club members.  Even though it is sold through network marketing, something which I am very skeptical of, the product really was quite amazing.  It did a great job of removing the grime and bugs without a lot of scrubbing, and provided a smooth glossy finish without any buffing.  The process was as simple as pouring some product into the supplied refillable sprayer, spraying it on a small section, using a terry cloth to wipe off the dirt, waiting a few moments until a haze appeared, then using a microfiber cloth to wipe off the haze.

For the last two and a half weeks, Jeanie and I have been living the pescetarian lifestyle...

It all started on Thursday, April 23.  That was the night that Jeanie and I were both hammered by some sort of intestinal malady.  We didn't ever exhibit any respiratory symptoms, so we don't think it was the swine flu, but we both ran high fevers and had symptoms for days, so we don't think it was food poisoning.   Without getting too graphic, let's just say that it was good that we have two bathrooms in our house, and that we have reasonably sized plastic garbage cans that can be held (and used) while seated.  After the first day or so, we were able to tolerate crackers or toast.  For the first few days, for me at least, my diet was limited to toast and cream of wheat cereal.  The thought of eating any sort of meat was distasteful.  We have often talked about the morality of eating meat - both from the perspective of the individual animal and of the inefficiency as it relates to the food chain.  We have also discussed the health impact of eating meat.  Jamie has been a pescetarian for years.  So, Jeanie and I decided to give it a try.

The first week was easy, as neither of us was still feeling too great, and I was not traveling.  I was concerned about the second week, after I had started to regain my appetite, and was back on the road.  Long story short, I found it pretty easy to avoid eating any mammals or fowl, even though I was eating all of my meals at restaurants.  Jeanie often goes meatless for days when I am away, so it was simple for her.  For many of the days, I ate no flesh, and on those days when I did, it was usually only one meal.   Saying it that way: "eating flesh" is a little nauseating, isn't it?

Surprisingly to me, I have not sorely missed eating meat.  What I have found is that if all I eat for a meal is cooked American style vegetables, I do not feel satisfied.  However, if they are prepared in an Asian or Mexican style, especially if they are spicy, I am quite happy.  During the past two weeks, I have also tried to limit the amount of cookies, cakes and candy that I consume.  Not surprisingly, between eating very little the first few days that I was sick, and eating as I have described above since then, I have lost six pounds in the last two weeks.

I know for sure that I could not go pure vegan; at a minimum I'd have to continue to eat eggs and dairy.  I'll probably also continue to eat some seafood.  At some point, I'll probably tire of the whole experiment and go back to eating meat.  But, for the time being, I'm somewhat tickled to be following this new eating lifestyle.

I purchased a new headset on eBay from a vendor named Mafia Buys that works both with the cordless handset at home and with my Blackberry...

I got a Plantronics MX505 based on the recommendation of a co-worker.  The advantages are that it was moderately priced ($20 shipped), that it has enough volume that I can hear well even in a car, that it has a voice tube so the person on the other end can hear me well, that it has a mute and volume control on the cord, and that it is moderately comfortable.

On the disadvantages side, because of the voice tube, it is not convenient to carry it around all the time, the cord (as are all cords) is a hassle and gets in the way, it isn't totally comfortable for hours at a time, and it doesn't have a button anywhere to initiate or end a call.

I got checked out in another aircraft this week...

I hadn't expected to actually get checked out, I just thought I'd go up for an orientation with an instructor, but apparently, the practice I'd been doing in the 182 yielded additional benefit.  Speaks to one of those sayings from the old DataFlow days: "the definition of luck is when preparedness meets opportunity."

When we were told a number of months ago that our CAP squadron was going to become part of a group of units that would be included in a rotation of multiple aircraft including a C172, a C182 round dial, a C182 glass, and a Cessna 206, I made the time to complete the CAP aircraft questionnaire for the 206 in addition to the C182 round dial.  I also printed out a CAP Form 5 to have whenever I was ready for my abbreviated Form 5 for the 206.  I didn't end up flying the 206 when it was here a couple of months ago, but I did put the forms in my binder.  Here's are some links ( photo1 photo2 ) to photographs of the plane I flew.

I hadn't planned to fly the 206 when it was here last week, but one of the CAP instructor / check pilots encouraged me to do so.  So, I scheduled some time with one of the other instructor pilots, unaware that he had recently been promoted to check pilot.

Well, long story short, preparedness met opportunity, and I am now qualified to fly four CAP aircraft: C172P, C172S, C182 and U206.

In case you're wondering why it is a U206 instead of a C206, the designation is used to differentiate that this particular aircraft has the cargo door configuration rather than the more typical passenger configuration.  The aircraft is still set up for carrying passengers (co-pilot plus three in the back) it just has a big pair of cargo doors on the passenger side so that the aircraft could be easily reconfigured to haul cargo.

In terms of differences between the 206 and the 182, the 206 has a 500 pound greater gross weight (3600 pounds), two extra seats, and a higher horsepower engine (300HP).  I found that I had to be more aware of the rudder than in the 172 or 182 - not only on takeoff, but any time I changed power settings or pitch.  The pitch attitude needed to maintain best glide airspeed with full flaps and power off is steeper than the 182.  After takeoff, not only must the power be reduced to bring the manifold pressure into the green, but the prop must be brought back to bring the RPM into the green.  Because of the high RPM of the propeller at low pitch, the blade tips actually go supersonic, so the airplane is quite noisy at takeoff.  But, what was most surprising to me was that after about half an hour of flying the 206, I forgot that I was flying a 206 - it just became flying another airplane - and that was a WAY cool feeling.

The highlight of my day was learning and performing a 360° overhead approach (also referred to as a "low break").  In this maneuver, you start by passing over the runway threshold, on runway heading, level at pattern altitude.  This maneuver is often used by military aircraft, and varies a bit depending on the aircraft you are flying.  In the case of the 206, as soon as you cross the numbers, you then cut power and begin a moderately steep left hand descending turn.  If you execute the maneuver correctly, you end up rolling out back onto runway heading with just enough altitude left to drop flaps and then flare.  I didn't quite get it on my first attempt, but I got it on the second try and it was WAY COOL!  Here's a link to a YouTube video showing the maneuver performed in a Cirrus.

For the first time in my life, I actually paid for it...

No, not that!

Well, actually, some might argue that every man pays for it - one way or another.

But, I digress...

In this case, I am referring to sushi.

Tammy and Wendy (and Grayson and Murphy) came to visit last week.  It was wonderful having them here - I only wish the weather had been better for them.  Not that it was terrible, it was just a bit cool and breezy - not fantastic beach weather.

On Wednesday, Tammy and I went for an aerial tour of the island.  We had a great time, and I greased the landing.  I've figured out the trick to me making good landings - I just need a Murphy in the plane with me.  Wow, I just realized I never posted about our big flying trip last year before my surgery - gee, I'll have put that on the list...

Anyway, on their last night here, Tammy was in the mood for Sushi, Wendy wasn't in the mood to go out, Jeanie was willing to go anywhere as long as the restaurant had options other than bait, so we went to Fancy Sushi on the island.  It was very good.  In an interesting twist, we were each served a bowl of miso soup, and given  a hot appetizer, for which we were not charged.  Tammy ordered two rolls - a crispy roll which contained tempura shrimp that was okay (nothing wrong with the preparation or taste, just not something that "wowed" me) and a Green Dragon roll with eel and avocado that was quite good.  We both ordered a flying fish egg sushi, and I ordered a raw salmon roll that was quite good.  Jeanie ordered  vegetable udon which she enjoyed, and we took home an order of hibachi shrimp for Wendy which she enjoyed.

While it had been fun to be able to say that I had never paid for sushi out of my own pocket, it was more fun to have been able to take Tammy and Jeanie (and Wendy by proxy) out to a really enjoyable dinner.

There have always been many reasons why I don't post as often as I'd like to, but...

Now there's a new one: Facebook.

The problem Blogdom has compared with Facebook is that a Facebook post takes about 30 seconds.

The very fact that it is limited to about six lines limits the amount of time I can spend crafting an entry.  And, the nature of a Facebook entry is a quick status update, so, it is by definition, quick.

My Blogdom entries can take 20-30 minutes each, or even more.

The interface for making a Facebook entry is simple - whether I'm on my laptop or the Blackberry.  And the post is instantaneous.  With Blogdom, I must wait for the entry to not only post to the main page, but also to update all of the associated indexes on the blog.  And even though I can use the web interface to make an entry (either on the laptop or the Blackberry) I really prefer to make them using Windows Live Writer so I have an independent database of entries on my PC in addition to the HTML and proprietary database both of which reside on the server.

Oh well, I guess those that are really interested in more frequent updates will have to add me as a Facebook friend.

I ended up eating quite a bit of bait, err sushi, on my last business trip...

Turns out my co-worker Chip has a fondness for bait.  Chip is a lot of fun, and would probably make even haggis or chitlins palatable.

Week before last, we found a great little sushi restaurant across from the Pappas complex off of Northwest Hwy called Nori Sushi.  We ended up ordering four items, and even though neither of us is shy at the table, we couldn't finish it all.

This week, we discovered Sushi Awaji on Macarthur Blvd in Irving.  It is a buffet, and not only has a large selection of rolls and nigiri, but has a nice selection of sashimi and lots of cooked food including made to order udon.  Dinner was a bit pricey at $35 including tax and tip, but lunch was reasonable at $15 including tax and tip.  Yes, we ate there for dinner one night, and then went back for lunch the next day.

The whole sushi thing still has me a bit puzzled anyway.  Between the soy sauce and wasabi (Wasabi-joyu), any subtlety of the fish/rice/whatever is lost.  I tried eating some of the sashimi and sushi rolls without the wasabi-joyu, but I found that pretty boring.  I do enjoy the Gari (the sweet, pickled ginger).

I am by no means a sushi connoisseur; I enjoyed both restaurants, but Chip said Nori Sushi was much better.  Both seemed good to me.  I guess my palate  just isn't that sophisticated - which I guess I already knew given my experience with wine, whiskey and cigars (i.e. I can't tell a really great one from a good one and don't really care for any) .

I still occasionally think about the whole worms crawling through my brain thing when I eat raw fish, but it is a nice alternative to eating a heavy meal especially late at night, which happens all too often when working a deal.  I still doubt that I'd pick a sushi restaurant as a first choice if I were by myself or not having the cost of the meal reimbursed, but, when in a business setting, I'm finding that I actually do enjoy a meal of bait.  I've always envied dolphins, and that's all they eat, right?

The washing machine seems to have a knack for breaking at extremely inconvenient times...

This time, I was out of town in Dallas on business.

Based on the symptoms Jeanie described, it appeared to be another failure of the drive coupling just like what happened last February as documented in this post.

Well, it turns out that there is a Sears parts center less than five minutes from the IBM site I am working at, so on Wednesday, I ran over to the parts center and picked up another part# - 285753A.

This morning, I was fortunate that I had a lull in the action at work, so I went to replace the coupling.

The good news is that the clothes washer is once again working.  The bad news is that I made a few mistakes that created extra work, aggravation, and a sore back.

The mistakes included:

1.  I removed the screws at the top back of the control panel

which I shouldn't have.  The cover does need to be removed, but not these screws.

Only the screws on the bottom front (under the cover panel) need to be removed.

see the original post for the full sequence to remove the cabinet.

2. When you remove the hose from the tub to the pump, what appears to be just a little bit of water in the tub ends up being a LOT of water on the laundry room floor.  I'm not quite sure what the right answer would have been, as there isn't a lot of room between the bottom of the hose and the floor (maybe a garbage bag?) but a small catch pan didn't cut it.   Have lots of old towels available too.

3. It turned out the drive coupling was just fine.  My guess is that maybe the impeller in the drain pump got jammed as happened in November of 2003, as was documented in this post.  I didn't find a sock, but there was a lot of wet lint in the water on the laundry room floor - maybe that was enough to jam it.  It doesn't take much to jam the impeller on the drain pump.  Lesson learned is, before you remove the motor, check the drain pump to ensure it moves freely.

4.  I had a devil of a time getting the cabinet back on the washer.  Lesson learned was: when placing the cabinet back on the washer, the majority of the cabinet sits on TOP of the washing machine bottom frame member.  Only the very front of the cabinet slides under the frame.  In order to get the cabinet to align with the tabs on the top of the frame, you must tip the cabinet forward quite a bit (more than you would think) as you slide it back the last inch or two.

Lots to be grateful for...

I survived the IBM layoffs last week, which is truly a blessing. As much as I might sometimes bitch about my job, and there are definitely parts I don't like (being away from Jeanie so much being first and foremost), I can't imagine trying to find another job. And it's not just the economy right now... I can't imaging what else I could do. At least, I can't imagine anything that is realistic at my age. Not that I'm that old, but old enough that commercial pilot, astronaut, doctor or dentist aren't viable options any more.

Speaking of doctors, I got a "thumbs up" (sorry, I couldn't resist the pun) from my surgeon today. The MRI showed no recurrence of the schwannoma. The soreness that I sometimes feel in the second and third joints of my left index finger he attributed to mild tendinitis, and the discomfort that I sometimes feel in the back of my hand is apparently due to a small cyst - most likely from an old injury to my wrist. He said that the tendinitis could be treated with a cortisone shot, and any good hand surgeon could remove the cyst laparoscopically. Since neither issue is anything more than an occasional minor annoyance, I think I'll just let sleeping dogs lie. The other minor symptoms (some numbness in my palm, occasional minor muscle spasm / tremor at the base of the thumb, etc.) are apparently damage from the original biopsy. While I guess it is possible that I would have experienced these symptoms even if I had the tumor removed originally by Dr. Spinner, I still feel like I would have been much better off had I never had let the hand surgeon touch me. Oh well, such is life. In the greater scheme of things, relative to what might have been, I am incredibly fortunate. So, I'm done with the schwannoma thing until five years from now when I'll get another MRI just to double check...

Before I leave the subject of medical stuff, I must once again comment on what a fantastic experience I have had with the Mayo Clinic. The level of customer service is an order of magnitude beyond what I have experienced from any other medical provider. And it is not only the skill of the medical professionals - it is the entire experience. As an example, each floor of their parking deck is color coded to help you remember where you parked. And, as if that's not enough, right above the button at each elevator is a holder with color coded slips that say "you have parked in the (name of deck) parking deck on level (level number that you are actually on)" So, all you have to remember is to grab a slip and then remember where you put it! I also once again marveled at the fact that they had free wireless Internet access deployed throughout all of their buildings - waiting rooms, lobbies, cafeteria, etc. - and at how clean and organized everything was. And, waiting for hours and hours after your appointment time, even though you showed up early? Not at Mayo - at least not once in my experience over three different visits!

Since I was in the neighborhood, I treated myself to the St. Louis style ribs at Famous Dave's. Once again, they were delicious, although I wasn't blown away by the beans or cole slaw. The ribs were fall-off-the-bone tender with just the right amount of smokiness which was nicely complimented by the addition of a bit of their "sweet and zesty" BBQ sauce. Speaking of being blown away by the beans and cole slaw, while passing through the Memphis airport on Sunday on my way to Dallas, I had the pleasure of dining at Jim Neely's Interstate Barbecue. Not only were the beans possibly the most amazing I've ever had (just the right mix of sweet and BBQ with lots of shredded meat), the ribs and chopped pork were great also. The ribs and pork had a nice smoky character, and the sauce was a unique pungent tomato based affair.

Speaking of traveling, I'm back on the road working a new deal. I am not the lead, and it is requiring some adjustments on my part. It is an unusual engagement - sort of two deals in one. I was supposed to lead one part, and the guy that worked with me on the last deal was supposed to lead the other, but for a variety of reasons, he's leading both, and I'm helping on both. It is strange because it appears that I will have no direct customer contact on this engagement, which is unfortunate because that's the part I most enjoy, and what I feel I am best at. But, as I said earlier, I am grateful just to have a job, much less one that pays well and offers generous benefits.

Still speaking of traveling, I spent the last two nights in two different ExtendedStayHotels brand properties. Last night was an Extended Stay America, and tonight is a Homestead Studio Suites. Both were at least $20 less expensive than a Marriott or Hilton brand property. While definitely "no frills," both were clean and reasonably comfortable. While the full kitchens weren't a big deal for single night stays, for a longer stay, especially if with someone else, having a kitchen would further enhance the economy relative to a more "full service" property. The Extended Stay America was pure no frills - no lobby, and the desk was only staffed during the day. The Homestead was still pretty no frills - desk staffed only during the day - but it did have a "pantry" where you could purchase beverages and frozen food items on an honor system.

Well, still speaking of traveling, since I have to wake up to head back to Dallas in three and a half hours, I guess I should try to get a bit of sleep...

I got assigned to a new engagement on Friday, so my nose is back to the grindstone...

So much for me planning to catch up on some of my half-drafted posts and increase the frequency of my posting in general.

Yesterday was spent taking my mother to the hospital for back surgery.  She tolerated the surgery well, and tomorrow Jeanie and I will move her to a rehabilitation facility.  The timing was lousy, as I really needed to be in Dallas this week to get a good start on this new engagement - oh well.

In between the cracks today, I upgraded my Blackberry's OS software to version 4.5 and the Blackberry Desktop Manager software to version 4.7.  The OS update went fine, as did the BBDM software on my work laptop.  The upgrade on the home PC was an absolute nightmare that ended up me losing the ability to synchronize my address book and memos from Outlook to the Blackberry.  With LOTS of Googling, I was to finally able resolve the error and get the sync working again.  As a bit of "giveback," I posted the results of my discoveries on the Blackberry Support Community Forums here and on the BlackBerry Forums here.

Anyway, I guess I'd better call it a night, as tomorrow will be a long day.

As they say in the old joke, "...break time is over, back on your heads!"

About six weeks ago, I finally accepted that my old Dell P991 had about reached the end of it's useful life...

The problem was that even at the lowest brightness setting, the screen was too bright.  In addition, the letters was starting to look a bit fuzzy, and I was getting headaches after using it for extended periods.

It turns out that this brightness problem is well known.  Google "Dell P991 brightness" and you'll find a number of hits.  There are two well documented fixes for the issue.  One is to solder a new resistor onto the controller board, the other is to make a software adjustment to the monitor using a special cable and software.  Unfortunately, it appears that there are two different Sony chassis styles that were used in the P991, and the one that I have used a different controller board - for which I couldn't find a resistor fix - and didn't have the port to enable the software update.

So, I decided to break down and purchase a new wide screen LCD monitor.

After doing some research (online and dragging Jeanie across half of Jacksonville) I elected to purchase a 22" HP w2207h.  I liked the fact that it used "glossy" glass rather than the non-reflective glass, as I believe that the glossy glass offers a brighter, more vibrant, sharper image.  While in a high glare environment (like an office with florescent lights) a glossy screen might have so much glare as to be distracting, in my home office, this is not a factor.  I also liked the highly adjustable base (tilt and height), that it had both analog VGA (15 pin) and HDMI ports, and I thought that the ability to rotate the screen 90 degrees to use the monitor in portrait mode was a neat feature.  The fact that I could get it from the local Staples, and that it was on sale, sealed the deal.

It turned out that the local Staples was out of stock, but they were happy to order it for me.  Two days later I received it and hooked it up.

I liked the monitor pretty well, but even though the native resolution (1680 x 1050) had the best sharpness, the text was just a bit too small for me.  I tried a number of other resolutions, and while the text was larger, it also lost some of its sharpness due to the interpolation of the pixels.

Over the ensuring couple of weeks, as I have been known to do, I started second guessing my decision.  There had also been a 24" monitor that not only was 2" larger, it had a DVI port in addition to the VGA and HDMI ports, was capable of true 1080p (1920 x 1200) resolution (in case I ever wanted to use it as an HD monitor for TV), and was $20 cheaper!

So, I packed up the HP w2207h and took it back to Staples (they were "no hassle") in giving me a refund, and purchased an Acer P241w.

Long story short, after two weeks, I decided that I liked the HP better (it was sharper, more vibrant, had better contrast and had more even back lighting), so I boxed up the Acer, took it back to Staples (I didn't feel quite so bad, as the Acer had been a floor sample), and ordered another HP w2207h.

Interestingly, after loading the drivers for the screen, as well as installing the "HP My Display" utility and running the wizard, the display looks even better than I had remembered.  In fact, I am running the monitor in its native resolution and finding that I am no longer getting headaches  (see below for caveat).

The HP also has built-in speakers and a 2 port USB hub, but I am not using either of these features, as my desktop speakers are much better than the speakers in the monitor and I already have a USB hub convenient to my desk.

The one problem I ran into was that my KVM can't drive the monitor at it's native resolution.  The text looks fuzzy, and it wavers a bit.  So, for the moment, I am running the keyboard and mouse through the KVM, but I am manually switch the VGA cable between my primary home PC and my work laptop.  If I have to access my Linux server or the secondary home PC, I use the KVM and just deal with the issues - as I don't spend a lot of time viewing these systems.

All things considered, I am quite happy with the HP screen.

I'll be even happier after I break down and purchase a new KVM that can deal with the resolution...

It wasn't quite as dramatic as Captain Sullenberger's, but...

It was exciting enough for me.

We recently had a new rebuilt engine installed on the club airplane.  It is very important that the proper break-in procedures are followed to ensure that the oil consumption is minimized over the life of the engine, and that we have the best chance of the engine lasting its rated life.  It is also prudent that the first few hours be flown in close proximity to an airport, in case the engine fails - as that is most likely during the break-in period.

So, there I was flying laps around the island, when I noticed the attitude indicator was spinning.  Just like in the movies!  Fortunately, I wasn't.  I quickly deduced that the directional gyro had also ceased working - a clear indication of a vacuum system failure.

I must say, even though the failure wasn't really that big a deal, it was enough to unsettle me a bit.  I was glad that my first mechanical failure was relatively innocuous, as it gave me a bit of an appreciation for how even a minor issue can affect my thinking.   I think I will be better prepared to handle the next issue, even if it is more serious.

Since I was concerned that the failure might be indicative of something more serious - or at least the start of something that could cascade - I decided to head straight back and land.

The landing was just fine, and after talking with one of the other club board members and the A&P who services the aircraft, they assured me that I wouldn't cause any more damage by continuing to fly the airplane, so I took it back up to put another hour on the engine.

The following day, I flew the final of the first five hours, then flew the airplane to St. Marys to have the filter changed, cut open, and checked for the presence of metal.  While it is not uncommon for there to be a small amount of metal (from the seating of the rings) in the oil, more than a small amount can be an indication of potential issues.  Fortunately, there was no metal in the filter, which was good.  While they were checking the filter, they confirmed that the vacuum pump had in fact failed (I had hoped it was just that a line had come loose) and we had them order a new one.

Two days later, I flew the plane one more time up to St. Marys to get the vacuum pump replaced.

We are now past the critical stage of the engine break-in, although it will be a few more hours before we switch from the straight mineral oil to the standard ashless dispersant oil.

The good news is that the new engine is running great, and should provide us with at least ten years of faithful, trouble free service.

And strangely enough, I haven't been that busy with work...

Which would then make it even harder to understand why I haven't been posting.

The engagement I worked on most of last year (successfully) closed on New Year's Eve.  I spent a few weeks in January doing close-out work, and since then, I've actually taken some time off.

I've been busy spending time with Jeanie, doing a fair amount of flying, working on a new set of web sites for the CAP squadron, catching up on a bunch of training for work I hadn't been able to do last year and just generally letting my batteries recharge.

I did pass my Form 5 check ride, and have been able to fly over 5 hours in the 182.  Interestingly, all of it has been with instructors - which has turned out to be great, as in the last few weeks I have almost doubled the number of hours I have "under the hood" as I've started dipping a toe into the pursuit of getting an instrument rating.  I also got an hour in a G1000 "glass cockpit" C-182T.

For the CAP squadron web sites, I decided to use Google Sites, which is really cool.  I am also using Google Calendar, which has some really cool features.  One of the really nice features is that both use the same Google Account as Google Mail (Gmail) so I don't have to manage a bunch of user ID's - each squadron member can manage his own.  Another nice feature is that it's all free!

In addition to the above factors, I went with the Google Apps because they are easy to use, provide good functionality, and will allow the squadron to share the work of managing the sites rather than being dependent solely on me.

I figure it's only a matter of time before I get assigned to another engagement, but in the interim, I'll try to work through some of the backlog of half-completed posts I have in draft mode.

Yesterday, I received my High Performance Endorsement...

The Cessna 172 that had been assigned to our Civil Air Patrol squadron for the last few years was recently replaced with a C-182R.

This gave me the opportunity to fly with one of the Instructor Pilots and learn some new skills.

The C-182 can generally be considered to mostly just be a slightly larger, slightly heavier, slightly more powerful, slightly faster version of the 172.  It has greater fuel capacity, greater payload, and a higher horsepower engine (230 HP vs. 180 HP).

Technically, what makes it High Performance is that fact that the engine has more than 200 HP.

In addition to the differences noted above, there are two other primary differences between the C-172 and the C-182: the 182 has a controllable pitch propeller (also called a constant speed propeller)and cowl flaps.

In terms of differences in operation, the big differences relate to the controllable pitch propeller and the fact that the 182 is much more nose heavy than the 172.

The variable pitch propeller  means that there is one more knob to twiddle, and a different way of viewing engine power - via a new gauge: engine manifold pressure.  This page, and the pages following it, have a good description of the specifics.

In terms of flying differences, in addition to having to remember differences in airspeeds and having a few more items on the check lists, the one really big difference shows up after turning final till landing.  On the 182, if you pull the power all the way back, the airplane sinks noticeably.  Also, because the airplane is more nose heavy, it requires more nose up trim, and even with trim, you have to concentrate quite a bit more to keep the nose from dropping right before touch down.  Due to these factors, it is much more effective to maintain some power all the way through flare (which needs to be no more than a few feet above the ground) and touchdown.

All in all, the transition to the C-182 wasn't too tough.  Just different enough to be exciting - although I was glad to have an instructor in the aircraft during that first landing approach when the sink set in and it felt like the bottom was dropping out.

Given all the hours I spent sitting in the back of a 182 in my youth (lots of take-offs, not many landings) it has been a real kick to finally get to fly one.

Tomorrow, I will go for my Abbreviated Form 5 Check Ride, which, after I (hopefully) pass, will allow me to fly the CAP aircraft without having to be accompanied by an instructor.

It will also position me to get checked out in the C-206 which is supposed to show up at the squadron hangar on Saturday.

I had another first today - I got me some tail..

tailwheel time, that is.

I went to the Sunday coffee at the airport as I do most Sundays, but since no one was home, and I wasn't eager to get back home to start working, I loitered at the airport for a while.

My loitering included chatting with Keoki Gray for a while, which is always pleasant, and then driving over to the club hangar to put a fuel receipt in the log book.  When I got there, Patrick was just finishing up the debrief from a lesson with one of the club members.  After Ray left, Patrick and I started chatting, and next thing I knew, Patrick was asking if I'd like to go with him to Herlong to get some fuel.

Well, he didn't have to twist my arm much to take a ride in his beautiful orange and white Citabria (technically a Bellanca 7ECA).  The photo below isn't his aircraft, but it gives you an idea...

The flight over was beautiful.  The air was smooth as glass, the sky clear blue, and the visibility was great.  It was fun riding with Patrick, as he has lived here his whole life, and has been flying around here for almost thirty years.  It was really cool seeing all the landmarks he pointed out.  It was my first time flying in to Herlong, which appears to be a nice airport.

I tried to let Patrick allow me to pay for part of the gas, but he said that the Citabria burns so little fuel (six gallons per hour) and he saved so much by only having to pay the $3.30 a gallon at Herlong vs. the $4.75 at Fernandina, that in his mind, the flight had paid for itself.

The big surprise came when Patrick asked if I wanted to fly back.  I reminded him that I had never flown a tailwheel aircraft, but he was confident that I could do it, and I was confident in his instructional abilities, as I had flown with him before and found him to be a great instructor.  So, I climbed into the front seat, and off we went.

I found using a stick to  be very intuitive.  As I had read, the aircraft demanded more rudder work than a high wing Cessna does, but it wasn't problematic.  I was a bit nervous about the landing, as there was a bit of a cross wind, but it turned out to be a decent landing.  I think I actually like the landing attitude of a tail dragger better than a nose wheel aircraft.

To say that I was on cloud nine after the flight, would be a massive understatement.  It probably took at least two hours for me to return to earth after the landing.

As if that wasn't enough flying for the day, I ended up going back to the airport this evening to fly the club plane so I could do some night flying and get back to being night current.  The weather was still beautiful, and I actually remembered to take some time to just fly a bit and enjoy the night time scenery, rather than just racing through my three full stop landings.  As if the day wasn't great enough, my last landing was a real greaser.

And, all this was on top of flying Jeanie and Jamie to McRae the day before Christmas Eve to visit Jeanie's parents and then flying back on Christmas Eve.

It was really nice getting to see Jeanie's parents, although I didn't get to spend that much time with them as  I ended up having to work almost from the time we touched down until we went to bed on Tuesday.  I did get to spend a little time with them on Wednesday before we left.

I was glad that it was cool on Tuesday and Wednesday, as between Jeanie, Jamie, the dogs, overnight bags and some presents, we were right at the top of the weight and balance envelope when we took off.

Even though it would have been much cheaper to drive, the airplane really did show its value, as what would have been a boring round trip of seven hours of driving instead was an enjoyable three hours of flying.  Jamie even took a hand at the yoke on the way up to Georgia.  She seemed to enjoy it, although I didn't get the impression that she will be begging to take flying lessons in the future.

You'd think after having flown about four hours in the last five days, that I'd have had my fill for a while, but I am still so psyched about my flying today that I am seriously trying to figure out a way to be able to fly a CAP transport mission on Tuesday - if work will allow.

Get it?  It's a play on words...

Because my schwannoma is no more.

Two weeks ago, it was surgically removed.  The surgeon was able to remove all of the tumor and leave the nerve intact.  Another pathology analysis of the tumor confirmed that it was a benign Cellular Schwannoma.  The function of the hand is good, and I expect it to get better over time.  I also expect that some of the sensory stuff (nothing horrible, just annoying) will settle/resolve over time.  I think there will be some permanent stuff, but I believe this is mostly a result of the biopsy two years ago, not the surgery two weeks ago.  My guess is, had I been properly referred to a peripheral nerve surgeon initially - or even by the hand surgeon prior to him performing the biopsy - I would have been able to have had the tumor removed with no long term negative impact.  Nonetheless, all things considered, I feel quite fortunate.

I am limiting myself to only typing with one hand for a bit longer, which partially explains the lack of more detail in this post.

Hopefully, within another week or so, I will provide more detail on the surgery, as well as post some catch-up entries.

I spent the majority of last weekend at the local airport...

On Saturday, our Civil Air Patrol squadron hosted the Andrew Jackson HS Jr AFROTC Cadets.  The squadron flew six missions with 12 cadets.  We entertained their families, who were outstanding in their support of the kids.  We cooked dozens of burgers and hot dogs. 

One of our new squadron members, Judy McCoy, who happens to be the new director of the Amelia Island Museum of History, made a wonderful pitch, both for the AFJROTC program and for the museum, as a result, 20 of our visitors went for a tour of the museum.

The kids and the families seemed to have a great day.

The day started early for me, 0730, helping set up the two squadron tents in front of the trailer, clearing out and cleaning out the hangar and icing down the drinks.  Both our squadron safety officer and our deputy safety officer were unavailable on Saturday, so the unit commander asked if I was willing to step up and fill in, which I agreed to do.  This meant that I was responsible for conducting the unit safety briefing, the pre-flight safety briefings for all of the cadets, and ensuring the safety of the cadet movements to, around and from the aircraft on the flight line.

Most of the kids had never been in a small plane, and many had never been in a plane at all.   As I performed the pre-flight safety briefings many of the kids, despite the high school bravado, were obviously a bit nervous.  It was so gratifying to see those same faces after they stepped out of the aircraft after their rides.  To a one, you couldn't have wiped the grin off their face with a brush.

Most of the kids in this school come from (at least) economically challenged homes.  It felt really good to help to provide a fun day for them, and to maybe offer some of them a glimpse into a possibility for a promising future.

After all of the guests had departed, and we had cleaned and cleared up,  the unit commander flew the Craig unit's aircraft back to CRG, and I flew our unit's aircraft as chase plane, then flew the both of us back to 55J.

By the time we got the plane back in the hangar, it was around 1900 - definitely a long, but very rewarding, day.

On Sunday, I went out to the airport for our regular Sunday morning pancakes, coffee and conversation.  This was followed by the monthly flying club meeting.  After the meeting was finished, I flew with one of the local instructors, Keoki Gray, to get a sign-off to fly the club plane to and from grass strips.  The grass strip we used for the practice / checkout is the "grass strip" at 55J.  This "strip" is the section of grass two thirds of the way between runway 8/22 and taxiway Alpha, bordered by taxiways Bravo and Charlie.  It is two thirds of the way because the first third (next to taxiway Alpha) has three large drainage grates.  Depending on who you ask, it is between 1600 and 1800 feet.  All things considered, I did pretty well.  To make things more exciting, my last three (of the total five landings) were simulated engine out landings, with Keoki controlling the throttle.  This made it interesting, as rather than the standard "cut the throttle abeam the numbers," he would make throttle changes to varying degrees at various points.  Oh, did I mention there was a cross wind?  We flew for just over an hour, and by the end, I was soaked with sweat and ready to be done.

After I got my debrief and sign-off from Keoki, I got the airplane cleaned and put away, and headed home.

Jeanie and I had planned to go to Jacksonville to do some shopping at Costco, but Jeanie wasn't feeling well, so we just stayed home and talked.

As I was logging my flights, I noticed that my night currency had less than 30 days before it lapsed, so I decided that since the night was forecast to have beautiful weather and a full moon, that I would go back to the airport and renew my night currency with three takeoffs and landings to a full stop in the CAP airplane.

So, I headed back out to the airport around 1930.  By the time I had dropped off the recycling (it's on the way to the airport) and preflighted the airplane, it was o' dark thirty.  I ended up taking off right at 1 hour after official sunset, and made my three circuits.  My takeoffs and landings weren't horrible, but they weren't my best either.  My guess is that was due to being a bit tired, and having a cross wind - which is very unusual given I have three runways to choose from.  It was such a beautiful night, that I thought about leaving the pattern just to fly around and enjoy the view, but I decided I had had enough flying for one weekend (never thought I'd type those words) so I just did the three and called it a night.

All in all, it was a nice weekend.  The only thing that kept it from being great was that I didn't end up getting to spend much time with Jeanie.

I finally broke down and purchased a new UPS...

I had gotten spoiled by all of the $10 specials I had purchased over the years, but it had been many years since I last encountered a $10 special, and I just couldn't keep waiting.

I had lost two UPS units to failed batteries.

One died a sad and horrible death, wailing its death throws in a pitiful and irritating manner.  I had to unplug it just to stop the noise.  This was the UPS to which I had the DSL modem connected as well as the two phones in my office.  While I had just swapped out the UPS with a power strip, every time the lights would even flicker (which they do on occasion for no apparent reason) we'd lose Internet connectivity and have to wait for the modem to reset itself.  I'd also drop off any call I happened to be in the middle of.  While not life threatening, it was inconvenient.

The other UPS was the one my Linux server was connected to.  Again, each flicker of the lights would cause the server to hard crash - which isn't a pretty sight, even with a journaled file system.

So, when Staples ran a special a few weeks ago offering a CyberPower CP585LCD for only $49.99, I jumped on it.  In fact, I would have purchased two, but they only had one in stock.  I guess the fact that Hurricane Fay was bearing down on us might have added some urgency on my part, and explained why there was only one unit left in stock.

One turned out to be enough, as because the new UPS has better output than the one it replaced, I was able to consolidate two UPS' worth of load onto the new one.  This allowed me to cascade the two old UPS units it replaced to the Linux server and the telephony equipment in the office, so everything is now protected.

One other advantage of the new UPS is that it has much better management features and it came with new workstation management software (CyberPower PowerPanel Personal Edition) that has many more features than the old APC unit/software had.

From a value/price/performance perspective, I am quite impressed with CyberPower.

There are some things in life I just haven't been able to adjust to as the times change.  One of those is cotton swabs with paper or plastic sticks as opposed to the old fashioned wood (or is it wooden) sticks.

Fortunately, after some hunting, I was able to secure a new supply of Q-Tips with wood sticks.

Well, technically, not Q-Tips, since I believe these are no longer manufactured under this brand, but instead, Royal brand cotton swabs I purchased "buy it now" off of eBay.

So far, Jeanie and I are very pleased with them.  They were (relatively) reasonably priced - $15.74 including shipping for 4 boxes of 300 per box - and they appear to be good quality: solid sticks and adequate cotton at both ends.  This differs from the Drugstore.com brand that are more expensive - over $4 per box of 125 - and have spindly sticks with an inadequate amount of cotton, or the Q-Tips brand that are still the "gold standard" in terms of quality which can still be found on eBay but at outrageous prices.

We had a really nice labor day holiday weekend...

Our nephew and niece, Jay and Tricia, and their three sons, Tyler (8), Tanner (6) and Tripp (2), spent the weekend with us.

Friday

They arrived Friday evening.  Jeanie had prepared a delicious spaghetti dinner which we all thoroughly enjoyed after initially snacking on pigs-in-blankets - one of the favorites of the boys.

After dinner,  we all piled into the Durango and went downtown.  We parked between 3rd and 4th streets and walked down to the marina.

We then returned home and sat out on the lanai and talked.

We got a bit of unexpected excitement for the evening when Tripp locked himself in the bedroom.  I had to take the door knob off the door to get in.  At Jay and Tricia's suggestion I then turned the knob around so the lock was on the outside so he couldn't do it again.

Saturday

Jeanie cooked a sumptuous breakfast of link sausage, patty sausage, bacon, cheesy potato casserole, scrambled eggs and orange rolls.

After breakfast, we went to the beach.  It was so convenient being able to drive out onto the beach with all the "stuff" - five beach chairs, a beach umbrella, boogie boards, coolers, towels, etc.  The boys about wore me out between boogie boarding and body surfing.  The water temperature was quite nice - just a bit brisk when you first entered, but then quite comfortable.  We stayed until early afternoon and then headed back home.

While Tripp took a nap, we snacked on cold cuts, cheeses, crackers and fruit.

We headed back downtown for Mexican food for dinner at Pablo's and then walked back to the marina.

After our walk, we returned home and chatted.

Sunday

The morning started with another yummy breakfast.

I forewent the weekly gathering with the airport bums to give airplane rides / island tours to Tricia and Tanner, then to Jay and Tyler.  Then Tripp and I went for a short taxi.  It was hazy, but smooth.  Everyone seemed to enjoy their rides.

For lunch, I dropped the crew off at Whataburger and then went to AutoZone to get some automatic transmission fluid and power steering fluid for the Durango to see if the low fluid levels were the cause of the check engine light that had illuminated on the way home from the airport.  The wind knocked the transmission fluid bottle over and fluid spilled on the ground.  I spent more time than I would have liked cleaning up the mess.  I also got some on my still relatively new Dunham flying / deck shoes which was a bummer.  I finally made it back to Whataburger, just as everyone else was finishing, wolfed down my lunch, and off we went.  The good news was that the check engine light did end up going off.

After lunch, we went to the zoo.  We walked around some, rode the train, and went to the new water area.  We all had a lovely time.

As an aside, the check engine light illuminated again on the ride home.  I pulled off to check the fluid levels, but they were okay.  I was a bit nervous driving home, as we had elected to take the Heckscher route which is a bit deserted, but we made it home okay.

For dinner, we had  hot dogs, brats, hot Italian sausage, chili and baked beans.

After dinner, Jeanie installed the Pirates of the Caribbean online game on her laptop for the two older boys to play.

Once again, the adults sat around and talked.

Monday

I went flying with Tricia while Jeanie did breakfast with Jay and the boys.  We spent about an hour in the air, and had a blast.  I'm afraid I might have somehow slightly contributed to Tricia getting a little bit bitten by the general aviation bug.

Jeanie made Mexican food for lunch - taco meat, refried beans, tortillas, lettuce, tomato, home made guacamole.  As usual, it was delicious.

After lunch, we said our goodbyes and the kids headed home.

It was wonderful having the crowd here.  It was great spending time with all of them.

Epilog

Part 1 - We ended up taking the Durango to the dealer on Tuesday and learned that the problem was with a switch for the power steering that revved the engine when the steering was turned to full lock so the engine wouldn't stall.  That switch that probably cost all of $1 to manufacture set us back $200 between the diagnostic fee, the installation labor and the cost of the switch itself.

Part 2 - The Pirates of the Caribbean online game has turned into somewhat of an addiction for me.  In many ways, it reminds me of Diablo II, to which I also became somewhat addicted.  The big question now is going to be if I continue to just stay at the basic access (i.e. Free) level, or if I break down and start paying the monthly fee.  The issue is that I have advanced about as far as I can in quests, weapons and skills at the free level.  On the other hand, I am cheap.  And, if I don't break down and pay, I will likely get tired of the game soon, which will break the addiction.

So, here I sit at O'Hare...

I've been sitting here since 1:00 PM. My flight was supposed to leave at 1:25 PM. It is 3:25 PM, and I have no clue when we might actually depart.

On the plus side, at least I am sitting in the terminal - better than being stuck in the aircraft sitting on the apron.

On the minus side, while the day started out fairly well, from the time I actually headed off to the airport, it has increasingly sucked.

The problems began right as I started to drive to the airport. I made a wrong turn, which ended up causing me to lose about 15 minutes. Then I encountered brutal traffic on I-88. I had visions of missing another flight - no fun!

When I arrived at the terminal - exactly an hour before departure - I found that the line to check baggage at the counter was incredibly long. In my opinion, too long to allow me to get checked in and actually have me and the bag make the flight. So, I went outside to the curb side check-in. I ended up standing in line for 20 minutes, and thought they would tell me that I was too late to check in, or at least too late for my bag to make it. But, I got lucky and they checked my bag and gave me my boarding pass.

As I started my normal ritual of emptying my pockets in preparation for going through security, I realized I had forgotten to put my SOG Flash I combo blade knife and my Leatherman Micra in my suitcase. Given how late I was, and given the absence of a mailing station anywhere in sight, I had no choice but to throw them both away - $60 worth. I briefly thought of trying to sneak them through in my briefcase, but decided that the cost of the knives wasn't worth the potential consequences if I got caught.

I raced over to the gate - at the end of concourse C which was quite a hike. By the time I got there I was drenched in sweat. I had expected to see passengers already boarding, but such was not the case. It turned out that there was a mechanical problem and United was checking to see if they had a part. After about thirty minutes, they announced that they did in fact have the part, and the installation was estimated to take an hour and a half, but could take less.

I decided that I would take an hour to walk back to security and ask if there was a place to mail stuff and if so, if I would be allowed to rummage through the trash to try to find my knives.

The only two highlights of the trip both occurred at this point. As I was walking back towards security, I noticed the aircraft captain was walking right ahead of me. I sped up a bit and asked him when he was planning to get back to the aircraft figuring as long as I got back before him, the flight wouldn't leave without me. He told me about 30 minutes, and actually offered to write down my cell phone number and give me a call! I didn't take him up on the offer, but I was very impressed. The other high point was the TSA person I ended up talking with. He was very nice - telling me where I could find a place to mail the items, telling me he would allow me to rummage through the trash, and even offering to let me slip back through the security line to look for the stuff. Unfortunately, my only option for mailing was in the hotel on the airport, and I decided I didn't have enough time. So, I headed back to the gate. Sadly, the repairs ended up taking over two hours so I would have had enough time to recover my stuff.

Oh well, at least I am now on the plane headed home. On the plus side, I am sitting in seat 6F of an Airbus 319 which is a great seat. It is a bulkhead seat in economy plus that has an incredible amount of leg room and even has a cut out at the bottom of the bulkhead to allow me to place my small duffle bag. On the negative side, the seat behind me is occupied by a five year old boy who is kicking my seat and next to him is his 18 month old sister who is an ear shattering screamer.

I thought the worst of the day was behind me as I got off the airplane at Jacksonville around 7:30 PM, but one more unpleasant surprise still awaited me...

As I pulled my suitcase off of the baggage carrousel I noticed that it appeared that my bag had been opened. I was a little suspicious, but was extremely tired, so I decided I'd deal with whatever when I got home. After I got home, I opened to bag to see if anything was missing. Nothing was missing - in fact, there was something extra in the bag: a note from the TSA informing me that they had examined the contents of the bag. "No big deal" I thought; until I noticed the strong smell of lemons emanating from the bag. That's when I noticed that the bottle of Crema di Limoncello (technically Villa Massa Liquore de Limoni Crema)that had made it all the way from Italy to Chicago unscathed, had broken, and the contents had leaked all throughout the suitcase. I had made a point of having my shirts laundered just prior to returning home, and half of them were now soaked in the sticky liqueur, as were much of the other contents of the suitcase as well as the bag itself. Ironically, the half-empty bottle of regular Limoncello that I had brought for the team to sample in Chicago, as well as the full bottle of regular Limoncello that was the other half of the gift pack I had purchased for Jeanie was still intact. If a bottle had to break, I would have much preferred once of those, so Jeanie could have tasted the Crema. Jeanie was a trooper and helped me get stuff out of the bag and into the washer while I rinsed off various non-clothing items. I don’t know for sure that the opening of the bag by the TSA was the cause of the bottle ending up broken, but it sure does seem like that could be the case.

Any way you look at it, it was a personally expensive, stressful and frustrating trip, and I was glad that I was home and it was over.  There were two other highlights to the trip: 1. I was home with my sweetie, and 2. she did like the Limoncello.

I am still not happy about my mis-calculation, but...

First and foremost, I am looking at it as a relatively damage free learning experience, as well as somewhat of a wakeup call. I guess the only way you can really judge the edge of the envelope is to exceed it. I now have a better idea of just how far I can, and how far I am willing to, push the envelope; both as far as as it relates to travel planning, as well as to work/stress and my judgement / mental acuity.

In addition, I did get a bunch of work done, and while not fully caught up, I am much less behind.

And, I ended up with another first: my first upgrade on Northwest - which, according to the gate agent, is rarer than hen's teeth. Of course, since I am not much of a drinker, a first class upgrade is somewhat wasted on me, nonetheless, it was nice to have the extra room, especially on an Embraer 175, which is a regional jet, whose seats are relatively hard and cramped for a two hour flight. Plus, getting an upgrade made me feel a little bit special, which was especially nice given my emotional state.

I am now looking forward to taking Jeanie out for a nice dinner, and then going home to vegetate for the rest of the evening.

For the first time in my life, I missed a flight due to my own fault...

I am so upset with myself. I feel so stupid.

Sure, I have missed lots of flights due to weather, delays, whatever, but those were all due to circumstances outside of my control.

Today's miss was totally my fault. The bottom line was my poor planning / laziness / cutting things too close. As with most accidents, there was a chain of bad decisions that I made that ultimately led to the failure. Had any one of those links been different, I would have made the flight.

My scheduled departure time was 6:25 AM. I was flying out of South Bend, IN, which is a relatively small airport that has never been busy any time I've previously been there, so I figured arriving an hour prior to departure would be adequate - rather than the 90 minutes I usually give myself. I awoke at 4:30. I had showered, shaved and packed the night before, so I figured it would take 15 minutes to get from bed to the car. Instead, it took 30 minutes. Part of the reason I was slow getting out of the room is that I took time to check e-mail, but I didn't check in online because I didn't have a printer and I had a bag to check (neither of which would have prevented me from checking in). I should have driven straight to the airport knowing I was already 15 minutes behind schedule, but instead I decided to drive through McDonald's for breakfast, which took 10 minutes. Rather than double checking the drive time on Google Maps the night before, I assumed it would take 30 minutes. It was actually more like 45-50 minutes including actually walking to the terminal. I thought about trying to check in online on my BlackBerry while driving but decided not to. The reason this is significant is that had I checked in on-line, I could have showed up as late as only 15 minutes prior to the flight and still got on - although my luggage might now have. My flight showed as a Continental flight, so I went to the Continental counter and waited in line for 5 minutes before learning that it was actually a Northwest code share. By the time I got to the Northwest kiosk, it was 6:00 AM, and the flight had been closed five minutes earlier.

Had I changed any one of these decisions I would be boarding my flight for JAX right now rather than still being in transit to Detroit, where I will end up sitting for six hours.

I started really stressing out while driving to South Bend thinking I would miss my flight. I eventually calmed myself by telling myself that the worst that would happen is that I would miss my flight, and that wouldn't be the end of the world.

Well, obviously I was right - the world is still here, and at worst, this is an inconvenience and a disappointment that I lose 6 hours with my sweetie. To put a positive spin on things, it will give me some time (force me) to get caught up on the huge backlog of work I have.

I guess the months of 70 hour weeks are starting to take a toll. Last time I was this tired I was 15 years younger and ended up wrecking my car. I guess I had better make some adjustments before something worse happens than missing a flight and getting home 6 hours later than planned.

I know in the bigger scheme of things, missing the flight today is trivial, but oh, how I hate to screw up! I mean, I am supposed to be perfect, right? And even if not, I am never supposed to do something so dumb / slack as this.

No, I am not talking about the realization that I can enter the blog entry into the memo application while sitting in a coach seat at 30,000 feet (something I can't do with the laptop due to a lack of space) on my BB with the intent of simply pasting it into the web entry form while taxiing to the gate - although that is pretty cool...

No, I am talking about a real defining moment in my life - my first time tagged as a "senior citizen."

And no, I'm not talking about receiving an invitation to join AARP. I've been a proud card carrying member since long before I was technically eligible thanks to my dear wife being somewhat more chronologically advanced than I am.

Last week I was traveling on business in the Chattanooga, TN area. I was by myself, and decided to go to a Golden Corral for dinner. Long story short -
After reviewing my bill, I realized that I had just received my first unsolicited senior citizen discount. Did I go and protest? Heck no! Vain - not especially - I earned every grey hair on my head; cheap - absolutely - and proud of it.

Cool! Maybe I'll be a bit better about posting now that I have the BB posting option.

So, here I sit in the airport...

When it occurs to me that I could be blogging...

The BB has a browser and MT does have the ability to post direct via the browser.

Actually, now I'm on the plane and still blogging.

I'm keeping this short to see if it works...

Dramatic title, isn't it?   Sounds like something gory, no?  Fortunately, not.

After doing some work work and some personal paper work, I went to install the resistor (part number 279872) that Robby had hypothesized was causing our Kenmore 70 Series clothes dryer not to work.  The symptom was that nothing would happen when you pressed the "push to start" button.  Per the enclosed instructions, I cut the wires on both sides of the old resistor - which was blackened and nasty looking - and installed the new resistor.  Unfortunately, that didn't solve the problem.

After doing a few Google searches, I found a few pages that suggested that the problem might be with the "push to start" switch, or the thermal fuse (part number 3392519).  I used an ohm meter to check the switch, and even though it didn't ohm out exactly as I would have expected, that didn't seem to me to be the problem.  When I checked the thermal fuse with the ohm meter, it showed infinite resistance, which led me to believe the fuse was in fact blown.  I shorted the leads from each side of the fuse together, pressed the start button and behold, the dryer started! This led me to believe that the thermal fuse was in fact blown, and that installing a new one would fix the dryer.  Jeanie called the local Sears store and as expected they didn't have the part, but they referred us to the parts center in Jacksonville which did have the part and was willing to put one on hold for us.

Even though getting the dryer operational was a high priority, getting my hair cut was a higher priority given that I have a client meeting next week, and I was looking shaggy.

So, I headed off to the island to get my hair cut.  I went to the same place I've gotten my hair cut at since we moved here, but the guy who cuts my hair has cut back to only working Tuesday through Friday.  I didn't want to take the chance of having to head off again without getting a trim, so Michelle cut my hair.  She did an okay job - not as good as Kevin, but I've pretty much got the drill down, so I was able to guide her... clipper the sides with a number three guard, then blend up and onto the top, be careful not to get too short at the crown so my thinning spot doesn't get too obvious, then use a thinning shear right down the middle of the top to knock down that Klingon ridge.

Next, I went to donate blood.  The Blood Alliance had been nice enough to call yesterday to inform us that they would be in town today.  Unfortunately, the first tech who stuck me gave me the worst stick I have ever had.  It hurt quite a bit, and the bag wouldn't fill - even after another tech tried to adjust the needle - and hurt me more in the process.  I agreed to let them try the other arm, which worked out fine.  Good stick, quick fill of the bag.

I stopped by home to pick up Jeanie and we headed off to our friends at the Sears Home Central Parts and Repair Center, 3555-1 St. Johns Bluff, Jacksonville, FL 32246 (904) 998-6597.  The part was waiting for us as promised.

Since we were in the general area, and I hadn't seen Mom in a while, we stopped by to visit for an hour or so.  Mom was quite sweet and was doing okay physically, so it was a pleasant visit.

We then headed home and I replaced the thermal fuse.  I found the following web sites particularly helpful in diagnosing and resolving the issue: http://applianceguru.com/forum2/1505.html and http://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/showthread.php?t=5517 and http://www.applianceblog.com/mainforums/showthread.php?t=2527 which led to http://www.applianceaid.com/dryers.html

Jeanie was probably right in her observation that when you add the cost of the resistor, the shipping cost for it, the cost of the thermal fuse, gas to drive to/from Jacksonville and the money that she had to spend over three or four weeks to drive to the laundry mat and to pay for the use of their dryers, it probably would have been cheaper just to have called Sears and had them send over a technician to diagnose and fix the problem.  Oh well.  There was great value in giving me the opportunity to actually be able to feel like I was able to be given a challenge, identify the issue, and successfully effect resolution.  Something severely lacking at work lately...

Speaking of work, as an interesting aside, as of today,  I have had only one full day off in the last 56 days and have worked an average of 75 hours each week.  And that includes the week that I traveled to the Mayo clinic for evaluation of my schwannoma.

While on the one hand, I am quite grateful that I have a job, and one that pays well at that, and that doesn't involve extreme physical danger, discomfort or having to do something really disgusting.  One the other, it seems like there has to be a better way...

I am so tired...

The reason I haven't posted in over a month is that I have been working like a dog.

The last full day off I had was April 27.  That was 37 days ago.  I have been working an average of 70 hours a week, with last week clocking in at 95 hours.  Oh, and that 70 hours a week average... that includes being at the Mayo Clinic for two days.  Prior to last Saturday, I had been away from home for 20 days straight.

There must be a better way...

Jeanie and I spent a day and a half at Sun 'n Fun last week...

We loaded up the dogs and left around noon on Thursday.  Because we had the dogs and made the reservations relatively late, there were no hotels available in Lakeland, so our options were to stay either near Tampa or Orlando.  I elected to stay near Orlando, since it was on the way, rather than having to drive past Lakeland to Tampa and then double back to go to the show on Thursday.

The drive down was nice and uneventful.   It took about three and a half hours.

We ended up staying at a Hampton Inn in Clermont, which is on the west side of Orlando, about half an hour from Lakeland.  I like Hampton Inns.  We have stayed at quite a few, and in all but one situation a number of years ago, have been quite pleased.  In that one situation, the Hampton Inn had been "rebadged" from some other property and so it was not a typical Hampton configuration.  The thing I like about the Hampton Inns is that each one is the same - so you know exactly what to expect: decent sized inside rooms, complimentary wireless Internet access and hot breakfast, and moderate rates.

After taking our bags upstairs and getting the dogs settled, we headed off to Lakeland.

My plan had been to get to Sun 'n Fun right at 5:00 PM so we could get the "$5 after 5:00" tickets (as opposed to the $35 all day ones) and maximize our time before it got dark.  We ended up not getting there until almost 6:00 PM, but we still able to accomplish the primary objective which was to get a feel for the general layout so we could maximize our time on Friday.

We started out just walking around to get a general sense of where things were.  We ended up in the ultra-light area, and spent a fair amount of time watching a series of powered paragliders, trikes and powered parachutes fly circuits around the ultra-light runway.  Of the three types, I liked the powered parachutes the best.  They seemed to offer the best balance of comfort, safety and fun.  But, why would someone spend $15,000 - $20,000 for a powered parachute when for the same money, they could buy a used Cessna 150 or similar?

By the time we headed back to the car, it was well after dark, and I was extremely grateful that I had my Blackberry and Nav-4-All and that I had remembered to mark our parking spot before heading into the show.

We ended up stopping at a Hardees for dinner and by the time we got back to the hotel, it was almost 10:00 PM.  Upon entering the room, we noticed the message light was flashing, and were horrified to learn that there had been complaints about the dogs barking while we were gone.

The rest of the night was pretty miserable.  Between being upset about the complaints, and the dogs starting to bark every time they heard someone in the room next door or in the halls, we didn't sleep very well.

Next year, we will leave the dogs at home.

We arose at 6:00 AM on Friday so we could get to the show by 8:00 AM when the gates opened.  We fed and walked the dogs, then grabbed breakfast at the Hampton before heading off to Lakeland.  Jeanie had the bright idea to put the dogs in the bathroom and place pillows against the bottom of the bathroom door.  The thought was that in the bathroom, the dogs wouldn't hear quite as much room/hall noise which would hopefully prompt less barking, and if they did bark, it wouldn't be as easily heard - at least in the halls.

There are a number of routes to choose from between Clermont and Lakeland.  On Thursday, we had stayed on I-4 until exit 27 to avoid the toll road.  I decided to try the toll road thinking it might be faster; it was not.  For the relatively short distance we had to travel, we had to pay three $1 tolls, and for part of the way, the road was only two lane.

Next year, we will stay on I-4.

Once again, we didn't quite arrive as early as I had hoped, but it was still before 9:00 AM, when the vendors "opened."

We spent a fair amount of time walking through the LSA mall, which was situated right after the main entry gate.  It is amazing how many LSAs are now available.  Most seemed to have one of two designs - mini standard airplane (with high wing and low wing variants) or flying egg.  Most have almost no room for bags - definitely not enough room for dogs.  The one exception we found to that was the Jabiru.  We were amazed at the size of the luggage area in it.  There were a few sea plane LSAs; the SeaMax LSA amphibian was quite cool.

I can see the appeal of an LSA if you don't think you can pass your FAA physical, but  spending $80,000 - $140,000 for an LSA when one could buy a pretty nice Cessna or Piper for that much money is an interesting thought experiment.  Of course, with an LSA, you get a brand new airplane with all sorts of cool stuff in the panel, that you can work on yourself, that cruises faster, on 5-6 gallons per hour.

After getting our fill of LSAs, we went to browse the booths in the 4 hangars.  I spent a fair amount of time looking at ANR headsets.   I felt the David Clark X-11's  were the most comfortable although the ear seals could have been a bit thicker.  I also looked at flight bags - the Sporty's bags were too big.  I did like either the ASA AirClassics Flight Bag or the AirClassics Flight Bag Pro (couldn't tell because there was only one and I can't remember whether it was the standard or pro model).  We also looked at handheld radios.  The Icom A-6 seemed to have the best balance of size, features and price.  Ultimately, I didn't actually purchase anything, as I don't really have a compelling need for any new flying stuff.  One of these days, maybe I'll break down and treat myself to something I just want, rather than really need.

We did to rush a bit through the booths because there was so much to see and do and only one day to do it.  I would have liked more time to really compare the products I looked at.  I would also have liked to have spent some time at the Lowrance booth talking to someone about the Airmap family compared to the Garmin x96 family.  Not that I need (or plan to buy) a portable GPS - it just interests me.  Maybe next year...

After leaving the hangars, we walked around and looked at the production aircraft.

In the lustful dreams category, the Lopresti Fury was a strong contender.  The idea of a fast comfortable airplane that is just as happy being upside down as right side up is quite appealing to me.

We made time to visit the AOPA tent, where I voted for my two top issues facing general aviation.  My picks: the cost of flying and protecting our GA airports (from closure).  We picked up a few nice AOPA freebies - a couple of water bottle coozies and a couple of small ponchos.  Other than those, the only other freebies we picked up were a couple of XM Satellite Radio cloth bags and a 2008 Florida aeronautical chart and airport directory.  Jeanie complimented me on my restraint.

After picking up a couple of sandwiches and a soda, we walked to the airshow area and got a good spot for the airshow.  Jeanie had brought a picnic basket and an umbrella,  thankfully, so we had some shade from the burning sun and our bottoms stayed dry.  Thankfully, I had remembered to bring ear plugs as the piston planes were uncomfortably loud, and the jets were even louder.

Next year, we will bring chairs.

The airshow was great.  My favorites were the USAF Thunderbirds,  Matt Younkin's Beech 18 and Patty Wagstaff.

After the show, we walked over to the Warbirds area and marveled at the amazing aircraft.

For dinner - we both had pork butt on a stick.  It was quite good.

After dinner, we headed back over to the show area for the night airshow.  It was amazing -  especially the glider.  As if aerobatics isn't challenging enough, imagine doing them just feet above the ground.  Now imagine doing them at night.  Now imagine doing them with pyrotechnics shooting out of the wing tips!

To cap off an amazing day, we were treated to a truly spectacular fireworks display.   It was probably the best I've even seen live and in person.

We got back to the hotel well after 10:00 PM.  We didn't even bother listening to the messages.  Fortunately, the dogs were somewhat better behaved than the previous night.  I got some sleep - more than Jeanie.

Our original plan had been to stay in the hotel Saturday night also, but we decided to cut the trip short due to the stress I was feeling because of the dogs.

Hilton was very accommodating in changing the HHonors award from three nights to two.

I got up, and went down for breakfast and brought coffee and a danish up for Jeanie.

After getting quick showers, we packed up and headed back home.

On the way home, we went by Daytona Beach.  We drove past the race track and the airport and then drove to the beach.  We didn't actually go to the beach at Daytona, but instead decided to drive up A1A.  The drive was nice in that the road hugged the beach - no houses between the road and the ocean all the way to Ormond Beach.

We continued along A1A and went into St. Augustine to get some more of the glass flowers we had found last time we were there (with Andrew and Laura) and some more air plants (which hadn't been available last visit).

We arrived back home around 5:00 PM, already looking forward to next year's Sun 'n Fun, April 21-26, 2009.

The good news is that the system has been rock stable...

The bad news is that I haven't really seen any significant performance improvement.

I guess the system is processor, video or disk bound, with my bet being the processor.

As I said in an earlier post, I guess if I want more zoom, I'll just have to spring for a new system.

Given the cost and effort associated with a new system, I think I'll just keep muddling along with what I have for the time being.

When we moved here three years ago, it really did seem like Mayberry...

You know... a quiet, friendly, safe town.  The kind where you don't have to worry if you forget to lock your car door or house.  The kind were common sense tells you not to leave your GPS in the windshield mount, but where you don't think you have to remove the mount itself every night and clean the little suction cup circle off of the glass.

Well, it is still relatively quiet and friendly, but we definitely don't feel quite as safe.

Last Monday morning, Cali awakened us some time after 3:00 AM barking.  We heard what sounded like a large truck - something that will often cause Cali to bark.  Although it seemed a bit strange to have a large truck in the neighborhood at that hour, we thought nothing more of it and went back to sleep.  Cali awakened us again barking around 4:00 AM - this time because the doorbell rang.

When I opened the front door, I was greeted by a Sheriff's deputy apologizing for awakening us and also apologizing for having to inform us that the RAV4 had been broken into.

Apparently, there had been a series of burglaries of vehicles in the area, one of which had already been reported.  As the deputy was patrolling the neighborhood, he noticed our break-in.

The thief smashed the front passenger window and stole Jeanie's new GPS, along with some money she kept in the center console.  Interestingly, the car alarm didn't go off.  I later learned that the reason it didn't go off is that there isn't one!  While the vehicle is equipped with an engine immobilizer, there is no vehicle alarm.

Fortunately, Jeanie was able to find a company that had the window in stock and would even come to the house to perform the repair.  The insurance company was very nice and coordinated paying for the window repair, as well as arranging for Jeanie to meet with an adjuster to determine a settlement amount for the damage to the weather molding and to the leather on the passenger seat.  Unfortunately, insurance won't cover the loss of the GPS or the cash.

A pair of detectives came by the next day to follow up, but they told us that even though we had given them the serial number of the unit, they had no leads and thought it unlikely that we would ever see our GPS again.

Moral of the story?  Don't ever leave the mount affixed to the windshield, even if you are parked in your own driveway in Mayberry By The Sea...

I just added another gig of memory to my primary PC...

I purchased another 1GB stick of A-DATA DDR 400 from NewEgg.  This stick was $5 less expensive than the first one and was shipped free.  When everything else seems to be getting more expensive by the day, that was a nice surprise.

With the addition of the second stick (the maximum that the system can accommodate) that makes a matched pair for a total of 2GB.  While I was at it, I reconfigured the system to allow auto determination of memory frequency (it had been fixed at 100MHz) and configured 4-Way interleaving (it had been set to no interleaving).

The system seems a bit zippier, but I won't go so far as to say the change is startling.  I am also holding my breath a bit to see if it will be stable with the memory configuration changes.

I guess time will tell, but so far, it seems the investment was worth it.  I will say that I believe this is the limit of my investments in this particular system in seeking additional performance for my primary PC.  Next time I feel the need for (more) speed, I'm afraid I'll have to invest in a whole new system.

There I was innocently sitting in our monthly squadron meeting...

When the commander announced that our squadron's assigned airplane would be gone next week, having been volunteered to sit at Sun 'n Fun as one of two CAP aircraft on static display.  The plan was that the squadron would wash and wax the plane tomorrow, and then someone from the squadron would fly it down to Lakeland on Monday.  Because another squadron would be providing a lift back to the pilot, and the "lift" aircraft would already have two occupants, the pilot flying our aircraft down would have to fly into Sun 'n Fun alone.  From what I had read about flying into Sun 'n Fun, this was not a mission for the faint of heart, nor one who hadn't flown in before.  So, I resigned myself to not flying for the next week or so - at least not in the CAP aircraft.

Well, for better or worse, I ended up hanging around for a few minutes after the meeting ended.  During this time, the commander got a call requesting that the aircraft be delivered to KLAL today.  Guess who got nominated to fly the mission?  Far be it from me to turn down some free flying...  I checked the weather, and while it wasn't CAVU, it was VFR, as long as I didn't tarry, and didn't wander too far west too soon after take-off.  The forecast called for broken clouds, so I figured I would be able to get on top.  As usual, I requested, and received, VFR traffic advisories (flight following) from ATC - thank goodness I did!

Long story short, the entire trip was flown at 2,200 feet, bumpity bump, with prodigious amounts of vectoring by ATC to keep me away from thunderstorms and heavy precipitation.  Even though Lakeland is in central Florida, I ended up flying almost to the west coast of Florida before being able to head back to the southeast to get to KLAL.

The flight included a number of firsts for me - the aforementioned vectoring around weather, my first glimpse of lightning while piloting an aircraft, my first flight through rain (very brief and in case you are wondering, it is legal for a VFR pilot to fly through rain - as long as visibility and cloud clearance minimums are maintained), transit through Class Bravo airspace, and seeing people under canopy while flying an airplane.  The controller was nice enough to point these out to me at my 9 o'clock - I don't think he realized what a kick it was for me.  Nor did he probably realize what a kick it was for me to see Zephyrhills again from the air - even if it was while sitting in an airplane rather than in freefall or under canopy.

My landing at Lakeland wasn't bad - especially considering the brisk crosswind.

Even though the airplane that was supposed to ferry me home was supposed to be waiting on me, it didn't arrive until almost 5:00 pm.  Unfortunately, by the time it arrived, a solid line of thunderstorms had formed between us and home.  We ended up only being able to make it as far as Ormond Beach - the home of the two other CAP members.  The aircraft was one of CAP's new G1000 Cessna 182's.  It was so cool to watch the XM WX Satellite Weather™ high resolution weather in real time.

Since I wasn't keen on the idea of spending the night in a hotel, I ended up renting a car and driving the two and a half hours home.  One of the members was nice enough to drive me to Daytona to rent the car.  I must admit, given the brutal rain that I had to drive through for part of the trip home, I sure was glad that I was in a car rather than in a small aircraft.

I can't end the post without noting how great Flight Service and Air Traffic Control were today.  I know the FAA is taking a lot of heat lately, but I couldn't have asked for a more thorough weather briefing, nor better service from ATC.

Boy we did a lot of flying a couple of weeks ago...

The original plan was for Jeanie and I to fly the squadron airplane down to Daytona (KDAB) on March 25 and drop it off for its 100 hour, then rent a car and drive back home.  Our plan had been to explore Daytona Beach a bit, and then swing by St. Augustine on the way back.

The flight down was good.  The skies were clear and the ride was smooth - at least until we got close to Daytona.  We flew down at 5,500 feet.  As we neared Daytona, we encountered a few scattered clouds at around 4,500 feet that ended up not being a factor as just before I was about to request an altitude change to get below them, ATC directed me lower.  Once under the cloud layer, things got a bit bumpy.  Not horrible, but enough to be sometimes a bit uncomfortable.  I also had a few new experiences.  I got to play with the Squadron Commander's Garmin 296.  In many ways, it is nicer than the KLN 94 installed in the aircraft.  This was my first time flying into a Class Charlie airport without a seasoned pilot in the right seat.  It was also the first time that I had ATC vector me all the way to final, and the first time that I was asked to do a LAHSO (Land And Hold Short Operations) landing.  The LAHSO landing was no problem as I was landing on a 10,000 foot runway and the LAHSO length was 7,000 feet - 2,000 feet longer than the longest runway at 55J, and at least 5,000 feet longer than I needed.

Well, after I called in to close the mission with the flight release officer, he mentioned that there was a loaner aircraft that we could take back to 55J.  I didn't really want to, as I was looking forward to the drive with Jeanie, but, being the good squadron members that we are, we decided to yield to the greater good and fly the loaner back.

Before heading back, we walked over to the terminal to cancel the Hertz reservation, and also to get something to eat, as neither of us had eaten all day.  We split a Subway prime rib sub that was pretty good.

Once we got back to the maintenance facility, it took a while to actually leave, as I found a couple of issues with the floater during pre-flight that had to be addressed.  I also experienced a problem with the audio panel that turned out to be pilot error.  The problem was that I could receive and transmit on Com1, but could not switch to Com2, nor would the intercom work.  Apparently, as a safety factor, the radios are wired such that if the audio panel fails, the system automatically fails over to a direct connection between the pilot's headset and Com1.  In my case, the "failure" was that the audio panel had been turned off, and I didn't realize that I had to push the volume knob in to turn the panel on.  Fortunately, one of the mechanics was very nice when I asked him to take a look, and didn't call me a dumb-ass, but simply turned the panel on and wished us a good flight back.

The flight back was nice as well.  Although I didn't get to linger, I did get a glimpse of the St. Augustine Light Station and the fort at St. Augustine.

My landings were decent both at KDAB and at 55J.

I did come to gain a much greater appreciation of both the squadron's assigned aircraft and the club plane.  While safe, the floater definitely felt like it had been rode hard and put up wet many times in its life.  Not only did it tend to drop a wing while in flight, but the controls just felt "sloppy."

I also, not that I needed it, came away with a greater appreciation of just how lucky I am to be married to Jeanie.

Bob and Wendy arrived at the Jacksonville airport Thursday evening for their annual visit...

I arrived (back from a six-day business trip to The Netherlands) around 2:00 AM Friday morning.

The bad news was that from the time I embarked on my trip home, until I walked in the door at home - a trip that was literally "trains, planes and automobiles," -  26 hours had elapsed.  The good news was that the trip was so long and tiring, and the hour of my arrival so late, that I was able to go right to sleep, and never really suffered any jet lag.

Friday

The weather was somewhat cool and wet.   We didn't end up getting to go to the auction preview which was a bit of a disappointment, but not crushing.  Since the weather wasn't great, we spent the day just visiting with each other.

Saturday

The weather was once again somewhat cool and wet. 

We drove to Hugonot Park and rode around on the beach.  It was very windy, so we elected not to get out of the truck so we wouldn't get sandblasted.

On the way home we stopped by the BlockBuster and picked up Gone Baby Gone.  It was well written, acted, directed, etc., but it was vulgar (which is something coming from me) and depressing.

Sunday

The weather was absolutely beautiful: sunshine, blue skies, temperatures in the low 70's.  We overslept a bit due to the changeover to daylight saving time.  Even so, Bob and I arrived prior to the gates opening at the 13th annual Amelia Island Concours d'Elegance.  We were able to quickly locate the will-call tent and pick up the tickets I had purchased on-line.

As usual, the show had a dazzling array of amazing automobiles.  As usual, my favorites were the classic cars of the late 1920's early 1930's - especially the Duesenbergs, Auburns and Cords.

An unexpected treat for me was the Breitling aerobatic plane's performance.  Breitling has been a sponsor / exhibitor at each Concours I've been to, but this was the first year I saw them do an airshow.  It was quite long and really good.

Another unexpected treat for me was the 1970 Johnny Lightning race car, which brought back fond memories.

While Bob and I were enjoying the show, Jeanie and Wendy went shopping.  To each his (or her) own I guess...

Monday

All too soon, the visit was over and it was time to take Bob and Wendy to the airport so they could catch their early morning flight home.  It was really great having them here and we're already looking forward to their visit next year.

Wow, I've really gotten behind on my postings.  As of this moment, I have eleven half-finished drafts.  I don't even have a good excuse for not posting.  I haven't been that busy at work, and I haven't been that busy doing stuff at home.  Oh well, here's a start at catching up, beginning with a recap of the weekend of February 23/24...

Saturday

There were two big draws in town for us today: the 2nd Annual Amelia Island Chili Cook-off and Quilts By The Sea - The Eleventh Triennial Quilt Show by The Amelia Island Quilt Guild, Inc.  We started the day by going to the Farmer's market.  We then walked down Center Street to the Cook-off where we had our fill our chili.  There were a number of different variations, although they all were fairly conventional - meat, beans, cumin, etc.  I had hoped for something unusual or daring - maybe a seafood chili or a vegetarian chili.  I was also surprised that most of the offerings were pretty tame as far as spiciness was concerned.  After leaving the cook-off, which served as lunch for us, we went to the quilt show.  Some of the quilts were just amazing.  I marvel at the skill demonstrated by some of the quilt makers.  I did find a limitation to my new bifocals - in order to see the quilts well, I needed to stand at my "mid-vision-distance."  Unfortunately, the bifocals didn't do well at this distance so I ended up getting a headache.  I guess there are going to be some situations where the progressive lenses are superior to the bifocals.   After leaving the quilt show, we went to the Dairy Queen and then ate our cones while sitting in the truck on the beach at Sadler.

Sunday

We drove to Darien to shop and have lunch with Jim and Kim.  We ate at Skipper's Fish Camp.  It was okay, but moderately expensive for lunch.  The "Charlie's Chowder" was delicious - the "creamy, thick and chunky Seafood stew made with fish, crab meat and shrimp," had lots of seafood, and a bit of corn that added a delightful hint of sweetness.  Both Jeanie and I had Sweet Georgia Shrimp Platters - hers broiled, mine fried.  Both were okay with nice large shrimp.  The batter was a bit heavy both on the shrimp and the onion rings.  The coleslaw was strange - it had sweet pickle relish in a creamy based slaw.  It wasn't horrible, but it wasn't great either.  The hush puppies had too much garlic and weren't enjoyable.  Jeanie's shrimp were a bit spicy for her.  Jim had the whole crispy flounder - it had a really cool presentation, and he said it was quite tasty.  For the life of me, I can't remember what Kim had.

After lunch, we drove home (at least as far as Brunswick) via 17.  Turns out that the Brunswick / Golden Isles airport is right off of 17, so we made a stop and went into the terminal.  We were quite surprised to find a nice terminal and airport - interesting in that it is set up as a commercial terminal - complete with TSA security point, ticket counters, etc.,  but only one airline - Delta - as far as we could tell.  I had expected the airport to me more like St. Simons.

After leaving the airport, we decided to take I-95 home.  It was not as scenic, but got us home faster.

All in all, a very nice weekend.

A while ago, I listened to "Raising Atlantis" by Thomas Greanias.

After listening to it, I ended up signing up for an email list for Greanias' next book, "The Atlantis Prophesy."

Well, a couple of days ago I received an email announcing an "Atlantis Prophesy" contest.  Greanias, a former journalist, media executive and screenwriter, created a movie-like video trailer for this new book.  The gist of the contest was that the first 50 people to post the video trailer for the book on YouTube would get a signed, advanced copy of the book.

Well, I did, and I won!

Here's the trailer:

I was catching up on my reading on my last trip to The Netherlands a couple of weeks ago, and came upon this story written by Ray Bradbury...

It was published in the December 2007 issue of Plane & Pilot, although it was originally published in The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, October 1988.

I can't imagine what it must be like to have gone to war, fought, and survived, but I have to imagine that this story captures the reality for many who have...

You can read this moving short story on the web here.

Back on November 23, 2003, our Kenmore Series 80 washing machine died mid-load...

Well, it happened again yesterday, although with different symptoms.  This time, the tub drained, but the washer would not spin.  I could hear a noise like a motor running when the spin cycle was engaged, but the basket would not spin.  I tried running the wash cycle.  The tub filled with water, but when the agitator should have started agitating... nothing.

Fortunately, the link from my previous entry to Appliance Aid still was active, so I avoided a lot of hassle, as I would have first tipped the washer onto its side to try to access the motor had I not had this entry as a reference.

Jeanie helped me get the washer onto our hand truck and move the washer into the garage.  The pile of black "dust" on the floor where the washer had been did not appear to be a good sign.

After removing the cabinet,

Note: do NOT remove the screws shown in the first two pictures (the ones on the top back of the control panel) only remove the screws shown in the picture below (on the front bottom of the panel).

pump and motor, I was able to identify what appeared to be the problem: the rubber coupling between the motor and transmission was mangled, and the plastic drive pins on the motor and transmission drive plates were snapped off.

Jeanie jumped on the Internet and accessed the Sears Parts Direct web site.  I was pleasantly surprised that a search using the part number stamped on the drive plate - 62672 - actually came up with the proper replacement part# - 285753A.  I was even more surprised to learn that there was a Sears Parts Store in Jacksonville, and that they had the part in stock - although confirming that they had them in stock and finding out what their hours were was a two hour frustrating experience that involved multiple calls to the store, only to have our call answered by a fax machine, multiple calls to the Sears 800 number, and finally looking in the white pages and calling the Sears Sewing Center, which just happened to be located in the same building as the parts center.

Once we confirmed that our trip would not be for naught, Jeanie and I drove to Jacksonville and picked up the part.  Turns out they had quite a few, as this part apparently is prone to failure.  I did notice that the replacement part had a number of design features that were different than the original including a metal insert at the center of the drive plate and more robust drive pins.

Cleaning and installing the new parts was a fairly simple affair.  Fortunately, I had thought to take photographs as I disassembled the washer, so between the Appliance Aid site and the pictures, I was able to figure out what went where.

The good news is that the washer appears to be working correctly.  I much prefer the $16.57 in parts and a few hours of driving and manual labor to the thousand or so dollars that we would have spent on a new washer.

Other notes...

When placing the cabinet back on the washer, the majority of the cabinet sits on TOP of the washing machine bottom frame member.  Only the very front of the cabinet slides under the frame.  In order to get the cabinet to align with the tabs on the frame, you must tip the cabinet forward quite a bit as you slide it back the last inch or two.

It doesn't take much to jam the impeller on the drain pump.  Before pulling the motor to check the drive coupling, remove the impeller and check that it will spin freely.  Be aware that way may appear to be a small amount of water in the washing tub, turns into quite a lot on the laundry room floor.  Be prepared with a large bucket when you pull the hose that goes from the tub to the pump.

Post updated 4/10/09 to add lessons learned on that day.

Well, that's what it seemed like at first...

Symptoms were that keystrokes were getting lost - i.e. I'd type a word, but some of the letters vanished into the ether, and the mouse pointer was erratic and not all of the clicks were recognized.

At first, thought it was just batteries getting tired.

I changed the batteries on the keyboard, which was no big deal, and on the mouse, which is a major hassle since I forgot that the batteries go in the top rather than the bottom.  Why should this matter, you wonder?  Well, the tabs on the plastic piece that keeps the mouse ball in place are broken, so I have to keep it in place with tape.  The tape has to be carefully placed so as to not block the mouse hole.  Removing the tape leaves sticky residue from the tape which must be removed or my hand sticks to the mouse and the mouse sticks to the mouse pad.  As long as I had the ball out, I cleaned the rollers that track the mouse movement and tend to get gunky after a while.  As usual, I forgot that after removing the batteries, a connection with the base must be reestablished, and this is accomplished by pressing a button on the bottom of the mouse - a button that ends up being covered by the tape that holds the mouse ball retainer in place, so I had to remove the tape and reapply it.  At least after I did this, I thought to write a note to myself on the tape on the bottom of the mouse reminding me that to replace the batteries, I need only remove the top cover - not the tape.

Anyway, after doing all that, I still had the problem.

Turns out that the culprit wasn't the batteries, but the fact that I had placed my new Blackberry next to the wireless receiver and apparently, the Blackberry was creating interference.  I have noticed this when someone sets their blackberry too close to a Polycom conference call unit - you end up with an annoying hum or buzzing.

Moving the Blackberry down one shelf on the stand solved the problem.

While it was a bit of a hassle, and I probably ended up throwing away a set of AAA batteries that weren't quite dead (I did save the AA's), at least I now have a clean mouse and fresh batteries in both the mouse and keyboard.  As long as I don't forget and end up placing the Blackberry next to the receiver again, I should have a trouble free keyboard and mouse for a while now.

I've been working quite a bite lately, thus the lack of posts...

I am working two deals.  Leading the US portion of one, helping on the other.  The former is a global deal that is lead out of Europe, which means that my work day starts early since I am six hours behind the lead country - no, it doesn't literally start at 2:00 AM, they are more considerate than that, but because there are also team members in Asia-Pacific, it does mean that I often start at 6:00 AM in deference to the fact that it is night in the AP countries.  The bulk of my help on the other deal is in the form of writing proposal material, which I have been mostly doing in the evening.  Thus, the long days.

So, even though the weather was absolutely perfect on Saturday, I spent the entire day at home resting.  About the most exertion I had all day was putting the air chairs back up in the back yard.  A good portion of the rest of the day was spent asleep, between waking up late and taking a long nap mid-day.

On Sunday, I also slept later than normal, but did manage to make it to the airport coffee by 9:00 AM.  After I returned home, Jeanie and I ran a few errands and then went to lunch at "Your Place" on the Island.  I was in the mood for a good hamburger, so we first tried Baxters, but like many restaurants on the Island, during the off season, they are only open for dinner.  "Your Place" gets bonus points because even though they were "only" serving their brunch menu, when Jeanie asked if they would be willing to make us a hamburger anyway, they were more than happy to accommodate our wishes.  The patties were hand-made, thick, juicy and tasty.  They were served on a nicely toasted bun with fresh potato chips.  Prices were reasonable for a sit-down type restaurant at $5.95 for a regular burger and $6.95 for a cheese burger.  The brunch menu items ran about $10-12 and I was almost swayed by the seafood newburg crepes.  Service was excellent, as we were the only customers in the place - a testament to why most places are only open for dinner - especially on a Sunday - at this time of year.

After lunch, we headed off to find the beach you can drive and park on that we see from Heckscher Drive when we take the scenic "back back" route to Jacksonville.  The beach in question turned out to be Huguenot Memorial Park (other links).  It is a lovely beach.  It is clean and much of the sand is the really fine, soft variety.  We were impressed at the abundance of well placed trash cans and the general layout of the place.  There were even clean public restrooms and a snack bar that served hot food.  The Durango had no trouble navigating the terrain in 4WD, although I did get a bit nervous at one point when I ventured out almost too far onto the wet sand - but I kept the Durango moving and didn't try to make any sharp turns and we ended up being just fine.  You do have to be mindful of the tides, as the majority of the drive-on portion of the beach is under water at high tide.  As an added bonus, the beach is just a stone's throw from the Mayport Naval Base, and you get get a really good look at some of the ships anchored there.  The view was even better now that we keep a pair of binoculars in the truck all the time.  And as if all of that wasn't enough?  The price of admission?  Fifty cents a head!

Andrew, Laura and Hannah came to visit a couple of weekends ago...

Saturday:

They got an early start on Saturday so they could catch the 10:24 AM Skybus flight from Greensboro to St. Augustine.

Jeanie and I drove the Durango to St. Augustine to meet them.

We arrived at the St. Augustine airport a few minutes before the scheduled arrival, so we drove around the outside of the airport.  It was cool seeing the Galaxy Aviation FBO and FlyBy Cafe from the "other side."

I had been trying to figure out what Skybus would use as a terminal.  Since this is a regular commercial airline, I figured they would have to have TSA security, etc.  The solution?  A fabric Quonset hut as a terminal - an interesting approach.  Even though at first thought, it seemed to me that a fabric structure wouldn't be such a great idea in this part of the world, Andrew told me that he had spoken with someone, and the projected life of the structure was 20-30 years, and that it was more hurricane resistant than traditional hangar type structures.

Seeing the flight arrive, other than the fact that it was a brand new 737, was like stepping back in time.  After the plane taxied up, the ground crew rolled up large stairs front and back so the passengers could disembark.  Rather than walking into the terminal, the passengers walked directly from the apron through a chain link gate and gathered at a outside covered area to await their baggage.  The bags were quickly delivered right there on the sidewalk.

The weather was cool and wet, but not horrible.

Since it was after noon by the time we all got in the Durango, we decided to go straight to St. Augustine and eat.  We decided to have lunch at The Prince of Wales English Pub.  Lunch was yummy.  Jeanie and I shared a large Cottage Pie.  The Cottage Pie (otherwise known as Shepherd's Pie) consisted of "lean ground beef, onions, peas & carrots in a rich brown gravy topped with princely mashed potatoes & sharp cheddar cheese."  We were torn between the Cottage Pie and the Beef & Guinness Pie - my guess is either would have been great.  Laura also had the Cottage Pie and Andrew had the  Large Pub Salad topped with Coronation Chicken ("a combination of [chopped] chicken breast, mayo, red wine, apricot jam, white onions, curry & tomatoes") which was really tasty.

Andrew and I toured the Castillo de San Marcos National Monument, where we were recognized by the Spanish Soldier re-enactors that we had met at lunch.  After walking around, we watched the cannon firing which was pretty cool (and very loud).  The exhibits were nicer than the ones at Fort Clinch, and there was a great variety of canon, but Fort Clinch's big canons are nicer.

Cell phones make life so much easier.  Rather than having had to schedule a rendezvous time and location, we just agreed that after we had our fill of the fort, that we would call the girls.  We did so, and ended up meeting them on St. George street.  We walked down St. George street back to the car, and then drove around the city some.

We went to the Davenport Park and Hannah and Andrew rode the St. Augustine Carousel.

Then we drove to the St. Augustine Light Station.  We decided not to go up into the lighthouse, but walked around and went through the visitor center / gift shop.

By then it was starting to get dark, so we headed home.

Jeanie made a delicious salad for dinner, then we had the twelve layer chocolate cake she had bought last week at her parents for desert - oh my goodness!

Sunday:

The weather was beautiful - clear and crisp.

Andrew and I went for an aerial tour.  We spent about an hour aloft.  I got lucky and made a nice landing.  Jeanie, Laura and Hannah were at the airport as we taxied in.  Before putting the airplane back in the hangar, we put Hannah in the plane and taxied around a bit - she seemed to have a blast.  I got a kick out of Hannah getting to believe that she was "steering" the plane with the yoke, while I actually directed the plane with the rudder pedals.

After leaving the airport we went to lunch at Pablo's, then walked around downtown and the marina.

After lunch, we drove to the beach and walked and shelled.

We drove back to the house and dropped the girls off, the Andrew and I drove to JAX so Andrew could pick up a rental car so they could get back to St. Augustine for their flight home on Monday.

It took longer to get the car than Andrew or I expected, partly because Andrew had to get Avis to switch out the car after seeing that they had given him a Mustang, which, while it might have been fun to drive, wasn't suited to accommodating Laura, Hannah, and their luggage.  Eventually, we both returned home and I cooked steaks on the grill while Jeanie prepared the rest of the meal.

Monday:

I had a 7:00 AM work call.  They showered, then we visited a bit more and I helped Andrew take stuff to the rental car while Jeanie made take-out breakfast for them to eat on the drive to St. Augustine.

The Kagans left around 9:00 AM.

It was a lovely weekend and we look forward to their next visit.

I ordered a couple of these from Woot a few weeks ago.

Overall, I have to say I am disappointed.

On the plus side, the unit did charge quickly, and I had no problems pairing it either with the Blackberry or with my Lenovo T60P.  Well, I had no problems with the T60P once I had uninstalled the Bluetooth driver and installed the latest version - but I attribute that to the OS build that was supplied with the system when I received it, not with the headset.  As a hint, after you remove the old Bluetooth driver and reboot, you must press Function+F5 to get the system to activate the Bluetooth so the system will complete the rest of the installation.  As with many devices, you must cancel the Microsoft default driver installation, and manually run the updated driver installer.  You must be VERY patient with the new driver installation, as it installs a number of services / sub devices which take quite a while but don't provide progress bars to let you know that something is going on in the background.

Price was good - $6.95 each plus $5 shipping.  But, I guess you get what you pay for.

Shipping took a ridiculously long time.  Woot appeared to get the product out of their warehouse in a reasonable amount of time, but then the box just languished with the shipper.  All told, it took fourteen days to arrive.  Granted, I ordered it shortly before Christmas, so there was the Christmas rush, plus the New Year holiday, but still... I could tell from the tracking information that the box was just sitting in a "sortation" center.  In looking at the Woot forum entry for this item, it appears I was not alone.

Good thing I ordered two, as the first one broke within two days.

The earpiece isn't horrible, but it isn't comfortable either.  Without the ear stablizer hook, the unit wouldn't stay on my head, as the ear plug is quite large.  Because it doesn't fit snugly in my ear, there is some background noise which makes it difficult for me to hear, even with the volume on both the unit and the Blackberry turned up to maximum.

As an experiment, I tried to see if the earpiece from my Jabra headset would fit on the integrated ear piece.  It did, which helped both with the volume and the comfort.  I don't know if putting the Jabra earpiece on had any effect on the unit breaking, so I am not taking a chance with the other one, but if it did, that speaks to the overall (lack of) quality of the item in my opinion.

Another big issue is the constantly blinking blue led embedded into the headset.  During the day, it makes you look even more dorkish that you already do wearing a bluetooth headset.  At night, the light is bright enough to be downright distracting / annoying.

This is my second bad experience with Soyo.  When I built my first PC from components, I purchased a Soyo motherboard.  I had problems with it from day one, although I did finally get it working for the most part, only to have it die a year or so later (post warranty) due to faulty capacitors.

Even at $12 total, I would not recommend this headset.

PS. A few days after I wrote this (but before I got around to publishing it) I sent a note to Woot asking what my options were.  In part, I said:

I have taken a look at the Soyo web site (http://www.soyogroup.com) to see about getting warranty service.  Unforunately, Soyo appears to charge $5 for warranty service.  This seems quite unreasonable for a product for which I only paid $7.99 and which only worked for two days!  Not to mention, I will have to pay to ship it to them.  I have also read that generally speaking, Soyo warranty service leaves much to be desired.  I know my previous experience with Soyo was less than satisfactory – in fact I really struggled with whether to partake in this Woot because of that.  Guess I’m a slow learner.

I almost immediately received an automated response which in part read:

Your email to Woot Member Services has been received. This is an automated reply.

Your request has been assigned Case # XYZ.

As you might expect, we receive a fairly large volume of emails. This reply is sent from our case assignment system to indicate your position in the queue has been reserved. Our staff works Monday through Friday during normal business hours in an effort to keep response times under 1 business day. However, in recent peak times we have fallen behind-we thank you in advance for your patience as we work to improve our efficiency. Please be confident that we will respond and resolve your issue.

We have made recent moves to increase staff, cross-train for interdepartmental assistance, and improve case handling automation to serve all members better in the near future. For information on job openings in the Dallas area, visit: http://www.woot.com/Jobs.aspx

Thank you for your support,

Member Services

I found this to be pretty cool.  Quick response, set my expectations, and did some recruiting all at once.

I found it even cooler when a couple of days later, I received an email from Woot customer service apologizing for my difficulties and informing me that a replacement unit would be sent out to me at no charge within a few days.  I still haven't received a shipping notification much less the replacement unit, but I am hopeful.

I still won't say overall that this was a great purchasing experience, but Woot's handling of my email left me feeling much less negative.  I might be a bit more careful as to what I order (I was quite pleased with my other purchase from Woot) but I am fairly confident that I will do business with them again.

For the moment, I plan to stick with my old school wired Jabra headset for use with my Blackberry, and plan to use the Soyo headset for Skype / OneSuite IP telephony with my laptop, where I am likely to be in quieter environments (where the lack of volume shouldn't be as big an issue) and where I would appreciate not being tethered to the laptop by a wired headset.  Plus, if I use the Bluetooth headset, the purchase won't be totally for naught, and I won't have to buy an adapter to use my Jabra headset with the standard two jack (separate headphone and microphone) PC audio connections or continue to suffer with the uncomfortable cheapo headset/microphone I purchased in The Netherlands.

Last weekend was nice...

Saturday:

Jeanie spent a quiet day at home resting after a tiring week dealing with my mother.

I started the day by going to the monthly CAP squadron meeting.  Fortunately, there was no special training or events scheduled, so it was only an hour.

I Went home, changed, then went back on the island to donate blood.

In the evening, we watched the entire four hour presidential candidate debate which we both found very interesting and entertaining.

Sunday:

I Went to the Sunday coffee at the airport and spent a couple of hours chatting with the regulars. There was a relatively small crowd, but I found the time very enjoyable.

I came home and Jeanie fixed a yummy scrambled egg and cheese in a flat bread sandwich.

We took Cali and headed off to the beach for a forty minute walk.  We got to watch the para-motor pilots flying around which we always enjoy.  The weather was a bit brisk, but not too bad.  We then went to Center street and walked around for a while.  It was nice only having Cali, as unlike Diego, she is friendly with strangers and doesn't embarrass us.  We then went to the Dairy Queen, where Jeanie and I both ordered a double dipped cone.  Much to Cali's delight, the nice girls in the drive-in window gave her a small cup of DQ.  We drove onto the beach at the end of Sadler and ate our ice cream while we listened to the band playing at Sliders.  We then headed home, where Diego got to share some of Cali's DQ.

Since the weather was nice and my night currency was getting close to expiring, I decided to go do my three take-offs and landings.  I got to the airport a little after sunset, and by the time I had finished preflighting the aircraft, completing my CAP paperwork, getting my flight release, etc. I was good to go for my three trips around the circuit.  Technically, I had to only do two night landings, as I had just done a night landing less than a week ago, but I couldn't figure out how to do the three night take-offs but only do two night landings <grin>.  I was very pleased with my flying.  I performed one short field take-off and two normal take-offs.  Since the last time I had done night currency circuits, I had been high on all of my approaches, I decided to extend the downwind leg more than seemed "right."  This worked out well, as I was able to intercept the PAPI and fly the glideslope out at a much more comfortable distance and altitude, which allowed me to fly a much more stabilized approach.  For all three landings I used "normal" technique, but for the first two, I still ended up with reasonably short landing distances and reasonably smooth touch downs.  For the last landing, I allowed the roll-out to be relatively long so I could practice keeping the nose wheel off the ground as long as possible.  This worked out well, as it allowed me to get to a convenient turn-off point on the runway without having to do a lot of extra taxiing.

Jeanie and I started off the new year by taking a day trip to Cedar Key...

We headed off to the airport around 0930 and were wheels up at 1053.

I had planned our route to go from Fernandina Beach (55J) to Mayport (NRB) to NAS JAX (NIP) to Cecil (VQQ) then direct to the George T. Lewis Airport on Cedar Key (CDK).  I did this to avoid the JAX Class C airspace and the TFR over the Jacksonville Stadium and the restricted areas south of Cecil.  It turned out that the restricted areas were cold, so I could have gone direct from NIP to CDK, but I elected to stick with my VFR flight plan as filed.  The flight over was lovely.  The sky was clear and visibility was great at our cruising altitude of 4500 feet.  We did have a brisk headwind of approximately 20 knots which reduced our ground speed to about 85-90 knots.  The 129 knot trip took about 1:30 including pattern time.  I don't know why, but it seems every time we fly to an airport next to the ocean for one of these adventures, I am faced with a direct cross wind for landing.  This was no exception.  The combination of the slightly gusty 10 knot cross wind and 2,355 foot runway created some challenge for me, but we managed to land and get stopped (comfortably, without extreme braking) before the end of the runway on our first try, although it did take a small bounce or two to keep the wheels firmly planted on the runway.

I had read on Adventure Pilot.com  that if I made an inbound approach call on the CTAF (122.9), that more than likely Judy, of Judy's Cedar Key Airport Taxi, (Cell: 352-949-2127, Home: 352-543-5406, P.O. Box 326, Cedar Key, FL 32625) would respond back to ask if we would like a ride.  I did, she did, and I said we would.

By the time we landed, Judy was sitting on the ramp waiting for us.  The two mile or less ride from the airport to "town" was quick and reasonably priced at $10 total ($5 per person), and Judy was friendly and informative.

Judy drove us to Dock street, where Jeanie and I checked out the menus of the various restaurants.  We ended up selecting Frog's Landing Restaurant (420 Dock Street, Cedar Key, FL 32625, 352-543-9243).  We thoroughly enjoyed our selection.  The ambiance was nice, with a Florida Keys decor and Jimmy Buffet / Island type background music.  The food was wonderful.  Jeanie started with a cup of "Frog's Thick and Creamy Crab Bisque" which was delightful - true to its name, with loads of tender crab meat.  I had a cup of their soup of the day - a hearty gumbo which was also quite good.  For our entree, Jeanie and I split an order of Deviled Crab (2) and Fried Shrimp (6) with fries and slaw.  Ordering deviled crab can be a bit of a crap shoot since sometimes it is more devil than crab, but in this case, it was definitely more crab than devil.  The crab and shrimp were cooked just right, the fries were hot and crispy, and the coleslaw was light and creamy.

After lunch, we took a walking tour of the island.  The streets on the main portion of the island are laid out in a grid and logically named.  The east-west streets are numbered 1-8 starting at the south, and the north-south streets are lettered A-G starting at the east.  We ended up walking the length of Dock, 1st, 2nd (which appears to be the "main drag" and 3rd streets.  This gave us an opportunity to see many of the restaurants on the island, as well as to visit a number of shops, a grocery store and the city park with its tiny (we believe man-made) sand beach.  The island is small, and appears to be best suited either for a day trip such as ours, or if you're planning to stay a night or two, to those who want either a very laid back quiet vacation, or are avid fishermen or nature lovers.

As an experiment, we took Jeanie's new Garmin Nuvi 650 with us as we walked around Cedar Key.  I also played with the four different GPS/Mapping applications I have loaded on my Blackberry.  We were surprised and disappointed at the performance of the Garmin as a pedestrian GPS.  While it is wonderful in the car, we found it to be inadequate while walking around.  The main issues were that we couldn't find a zoom level that gave us enough of an overview while maintaining reasonable detail, and we couldn't scroll the map to display what we wanted to see.  On the other hand, the Blackberry worked surprising well.  Both the Garmin and the Blackberry had difficulty locating the GPS satellites.  I don't really understand why, as we were out in the open when we started trying to use them.  Both did eventually lock on (mostly).  The worst performer on the Blackberry was the Blackberry native mapping program.  It never did manage to get the GPS active.  Nav4All worked okay.  amAze GPS worked quite well, even noting some points of interest without having to go into POI search mode (which is good since its POI search is weak).  It did struggle a bit to maintain the lock on the GPS satellites and when it lost them, in terms of best overall functionality, I'd have to give the prize to Google Maps.  I believe that Google Maps supplements it's GPS guidance with guidance based on triangulation from cell phone towers.  It seemed to have the best control over map size and location, along with an uncanny ability to determine our location and direction of travel.  The one downside to using the Blackberry as a GPS device is that doing so gobbles up the battery.

Ended up back on Dock Street.  Jeanie was in the mood for a cup of coffee and something sweet.  We decided to try a different restaurant, just because.  We selected "Seabreeze On The Doc" (PO Box 520, Cedar Key, FL  32625).  Seabreeze is a two story establishment, with a bar on the ground floor and a restaurant on the second floor.  We elected to go up to the restaurant.  As with Frog's, the restaurant sits on pilings extending out into the bay.  Three sides of the dining area were floor to ceiling glass, which afforded just about everyone in the place a beautiful view.  We were seated next to the glass in the sunshine, which was fine with us as we were both a bit chilled.  We ended up splitting a scrumptious slice of Key Lime Pie.  The pie was just right, with that perfect blend of sweetness and tartness, complimented by the creaminess and sweetness of a fresh whipped cream topping.  The crust was a traditional graham cracker crumb crust, with just enough butter and sugar to hold it together, but not so much as to make it sticky or tough.

Even though from what I had read, the $10 taxi fare was "round trip," Jeanie and I decided to walk back to the airport so we could sight see a bit more.  I find that I notice so much more walking than I do riding.  I don't know if it is just an issue of the slower speed, or if I just pay more attention when walking.  As an aside, all told, we walked almost six miles during our visit.

Here are some photographs from the day: http://www.blogdom.org/gallery/view_album.php?page=2

For some more nice photos, check out Stuart Jewkes page here: http://www.pbase.com/stuwj/cedarkey

For our departure, we still had the direct cross wind, but the wind speed had increased.  Let's just say it was right at the limit of the demonstrated cross wind capability of the aircraft.  Even though the Cedar Key Visitor's Site (http://www.cedarkey.org) on its airport information section (http://www.cedarkey.org/island.html#airport) (gee, what a concept!) suggests departing on runway 5, I elected to use 23.  My logic was that given the strong cross wind, were I to drift away from the runway after lift-off, I'd rather drift over the open water than near houses, plus, the obstacles were lower and farther away using 23 than using 5.  I thought this was a better alternative, even if it meant taking off with the sun in my eyes and departing over open water.  I elected to perform a standard short field take-off.  As soon as I was airborne, I crabbed into the wind, and was able to maintain my heading on departure.  The sun was low on the horizon, and once we rotated and crabbed, it wasn't a factor.  We were fortunate in that right after we got into the plane, but before I started it, a Piper Cherokee came in for a landing.  I am not sure if the first approach was an intentional go-around, but I think it was.  I think the pilot chose to fly a low pass to get a feel for the conditions before committing to a landing.  His second approach was picture perfect, and he made an absolutely text book cross wind landing.  The fact that he was able to land with no apparent problems gave me more confidence that I would be able to take off without too much problem.

Although as best I could tell, my take-off was quite good (given the conditions if I do say so myself) I got a bit flustered.  The aircraft was always under control and I maintained proper airspeed, etc., but Jeanie said I was breathing pretty hard right after lift-off.  I definitely feel it was the most difficult take-off I have ever performed.  To top things off, shortly after take-off, Jeanie told me that my door wasn't closed.  It turned out that it was securely latched, but was not quite as tightly closed as normal - I guess I didn't slam it quite hard enough when I went to shut the door so there was a slight gap between the door and the seal.  Since it was secure, and given the conditions at Cedar Key, I elected to continue on.  Other than a very slight draft from the gap, there was no issue.

The old adage is "Aviate, Navigate, Communicate" and I guess I kept to the principle.  I managed to handle the airplane, and get myself pointed in the right direction.  My communication left a bit to be desired.  On three different occasions, I either entered the proper frequency into the stand-by frequency but then forgot to press the flip-flop button before transmitting, or I entered the frequency into one radio, but forgot that I had the other radio active.  In each case (once on CTAF, twice with ATC) the people on the frequency were very friendly and gently advised me of my error.  My communication wasn't all bad.  Once I got on the right frequency, I did manage to communicate properly and effectively.  I even filed our return VFR flight plan over the radio (a first for me), and switched from ATC to FSS to get a check on winds aloft (also a first).

I flew the same route (except reversed) home.  Other than a very brief period of mild turbulence on the way home, the ride was smooth.  Now traveling north east, and given the increase in wind velocity, we now were helped by an almost thirty knot tail wind.  For a good portion of the return flight, we had a ground speed of 134 knots at 7,500 feet.  Wheels up for the return portion was around 1730, so we got to enjoy a beautiful sunset (1745) out of the rear window as well as some lovely night flying.  Night landings always make me tense.  I just don't fly them as well as I think I should.  As a reminder, Jeanie isn't too keen on landings - day or night.  It has something to do with the fact that she's had lots of take-offs in small airplanes, but relatively few landings (since she tended to get out along the way).  Given that I had my sweetie as a passenger, I attempted to exude confidence in my approach and landing so as to not increase her apprehension.  Fortunately, the wind was right down runway 31 (which, strangely enough, given that it is the instrument runway, does not have VASI or PAPI).  I don't know if it was my exuding, or just dumb luck, but I made the best night landing I have ever made.  It would have even qualified as a real nice day landing.  Total time back was about an hour and a quarter.

All in all, it was an absolutely wonderful way to start the new year.

What a concept!

It took over two years to accomplish, and as you can see from the picture

it is quite a tight fit, but we finally made enough room in the garage to allow us to actually park a vehicle in it.

It is so tight that at least for the near term, parking will be a two person job.  The tolerances are just too tight for one person to do it by himself.  Jeanie is a better parker than I am, so she will eventually be able to do it on her own.  I'm not sure if I will be able to until we get some of the remaining furniture refinished, allowing us to make some more room to give some more clearance all around.

Jeanie and I had gotten close a couple of months ago, but hadn't quite made it.  We decided that since we needed to take the Christmas stuff back to the storage unit, it would be a good day to decide what we could also take from the garage to make enough room.  We also filled the garbage bin with empty boxes we had been hanging on to.  Between moving some stuff to the storage unit, getting ride of the boxes, and doing some consolidation on the other side of the garage, we made just enough room.

It sure does make me miss our old house in Cary with our giant attic storage area and three car garage.  Even with all the throwing away and giving away we did before we moved, this house just isn't large enough to hold all of our stuff.

The other side of the garage is now packed and stacked, and the storage unit is so full that you have to take stuff out of it to actually be able to walk in, but, I feel like this was a big accomplishment nonetheless.

The company changed its policy on cell phone reimbursement.

Used to be, you selected your carrier, plan and device.  You were personally liable for the monthly payment, and you had to pay for the device yourself.   On a monthly basis, you submitted a request for reimbursement for the actual business use charges up to the amount of the monthly cap that was set by each individual business unit. 

The new policy is that in order to not have to pay for the monthly service out of your pocket totally, you must participate in the company's corporate managed wireless plan.  The good news is that you don't have to pay for the charges out of your pocket and then submit an expense each month, you don't have to pay for the cellular device, and you are protected from being directly personally liable for charges - of course you are still liable to the company for any charges that are not consistent with policy.  The bad news is that the company decides which carrier to assign you to, and severely limits which devices you may select.  There is no provision, even as an exception, for someone to purchase their own device and then have it added as an authorized device to the company selected carrier / plan.

In my case, Sprint was selected as my carrier.  I have been a Verizon customer for years.  Long ago, I had convinced my entire family to switch to Verizon so we could enjoy in-network free calls.  Oh well.

And what of my Kyocera 7135 and all of the Palm applications I have come to depend on?  Sorry.  There were no Palm based devices offered as one of the devices I could select.  In fact, there were only three options offered to me when I went to the site to sign up - a low end Samsung phone with no camera (for those clients who do not allow phones on their sites), the Samsung Katana II, and the Motorola MotoRazr v9.

Long story short(er)... I whined to my manager, and he asked why I hadn't ordered a Blackberry.  I replied that it wasn't offered as an option.  My manager suggested I see if I could get on the Blackberry list.  After many emails and calls, the corporate program manager approved me having a Blackberry.  I ordered the one available option, the Blackberry 8830 World Edition.

On the plus side, having instant access to my email and calendar without having to do anything special is pretty cool.  My corporate plan has over four times as many monthly minutes as my old plan did and nights and weekend free minutes start at 6:00 pm; plus I have unlimited data.  The 8830 is pretty sexy - the 7135 was definitely old school dork.  I really like the trackball situated in the center of the device.  The fact that it lights up along with the rest of the keys is way cool.  I was able to configure the sync so that rather than syncing to my Notes Journal and Address Book, I sync (via usb) to my personal Outlook Notes and Address Book, just as I did with the Kyocera.  I elected to let the Blackberry wireless sync to my Notes task list, rather than to Outlook, as when I really assessed the situation, I acknowledged that I really didn't use my personal to-do list effectively on the PDA.  Having a fully featured mobile web browser is pretty neat too.  Although not as sweet as Jeanie's new Garmin Nuvi 650, the free (for the time being) Nav4All GPS application should be very helpful to me as I travel.  And if I don't like it, I can always use either the Blackberry Maps/GPS application, Google Maps Mobile or I can sign up for the Sprint Navigator for $9.95 per month.  Voice dialing, without having to do any training, while far from perfect, works better than I would have expected; my guess is it will do even better once I get accustomed to using it.  The level of customizability of the notifications (phone, reminders, mail, etc.) is quite amazing.  The leather holster, with it's hidden magnetic sensor, is quite nice.  Being able to charge the Blackberry from my laptop's USB port will eliminate one travel charger from my suitcase.

On the minus side, the size and proximity of the keys are just barely large enough to be usable with my short fat thumbs.  I find that I can't effectively type with the pads of my fingers - instead, I end up using the edges of my nails.  The screen seems smaller than the Kyocera - technically it is wider and shorter, but it "feels" smaller (5mm wide x 3.7mm high vs. 4.6mm x 4.7mm) The distance between the speaker and the microphone is much shorter than on my clamshell Kyocera, so I am concerned about how well callers will be able to hear me - although this may be less of an issue once the bluetooth headset that I ordered on Woot for $6.95 arrives.  No stylus support - although the keypad obviates the need for handwriting recognition (which I always struggled with) and the trackball handles cursor movement, there were some applications - especially some games - that worked really well with a stylus.  Plus, I could scroll a lot faster with the stylus than I can with the trackball.  I will have to purchase a new automobile adapter to power the Blackberry when I will be on extended trips in a car.  Limited memory - although I can (and have) added a micro-SD card (1GB) to the Blackberry, it can only be used to store files, not programs (unlike a Palm device), so I may find myself running into a memory limitation at some point.

And then of course, there are the applications on my Kyocera 7135 that don't have direct corollaries on the Blackberry:

• Co-Pilot
• Tide Tool
• Date Calculator
• AvantGo - see update below
• Support for Microsoft Office documents - you can view them as email attachments, but can't edit them
• Freeware in general

Co-Pilot

Search as I might, I have not been able to find anything even close.  Not for love or even money.  This one omission will force me to continue to have to keep the 7135 in the charger so I can throw it in my flight bag as I get ready to go out to the airport.  Fortunately, with the telephone portion turned off, the battery life on the 7135 goes from a day to a week.

Tides

I searched quite a bit, but could not find a tide prediction program for the Blackberry.  Many of the web sites that provide tide information on a PC based browser (such as www.accuweather.com) don't provide this functionality from a mobile browser, or don't provide the data in a format that is usable on the blackberry (such as www.noaa.gov).  I did finally find something that will allow me to make due:

Tide information for Fernandina: http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/locations/6122.html

Eastern US: http://www.mobilegeographics.com:81/zones/:America/New_York

or alternatively: http://www02.coconet.com:8080/locations/5474.html which seems a bit faster.

Both appear to be XTide servers.

As an aside, I found a good compendium of tide information and prediction tools: http://ocean.peterbrueggeman.com/tidepredict.html

Date Calculator

I don't use it very often - usually only after I donate blood and want to figure out what date is 56 days hence - but I do find the date calculator handy every now and then (it's also good for calculating when my passenger carrying night  currency will expire 90 days from my last three night landings).  There are a few date calculators that I have found, but I just can't justify spending $9.95 for such a little used specialized application.

AvantoGo

The browser on the Blackberry is pretty good, so much of the content that was available via AvantGo can be accessed by going directly to the appropriate web site.  An application that appears to have similar functionality is http://plusmo.com/homepage/home.shtml

Update: Turns out that AvantGo IS available for the Blackberry.  For more information, go to http://my.avantgo.com/rim/

Support for Microsoft Office Documents

My guess is that if I searched hard enough, and was willing to spend some money, I could find an application to address this issue, but it's not a big deal yet.

Freeware

There just doesn't seem to be nearly as much freeware available for the Blackberry as there was for the Palm.  This seems especially so for little utilities and games.  I guess folks figure if someone has a Blackberry, most likely it is being provided by the person's company, so they can afford to pony up some bucks to purchase these things.

Other Miscellaneous Thoughts

One other thought that surprised me... I never would have thought that I would have seen any value in having a camera built into a cell phone.  That is, not until my recent trip to The Netherlands (LINK).  It was really nice having a phone with a camera.  For the trip, had I not had one, I wouldn't have had any pictures of the trip, as I didn't take my regular camera which is bulky and somewhat broken.  In general though, the idea of having a camera at hand all of the time for impromptu picture taking is cool.  Too bad the Blackberry doesn't have one.

It seems like Wi-Fi capability would have been nice too, but with the EV-DO network speeds and unlimited data, and the relative scarcity of free access points, maybe that isn't such a big deal.

There's other stuff I might get around to playing with to enhance the functionality of the 8830 including:

• Beyond411. Info link.  Install link.
• Java Midlets.  http://midlet.org and http://www.javamobiles.com/midlets/  Depending on how well these work, they may somewhat mitigate the dearth of freeware.

Were I looking for a device to purchase myself, and I had to stay with Sprint, I'd consider the Treo™ 755p by Palm if I were intent on retaining my existing Palm apps, or if I was willing to consider switching over to Windows Mobile, either the IP-830W by Samsung® or the Mogul™ by HTC.

Of course, if I were in Europe, I'd have a huge array of choices.  While I was there earlier this month, I was amazed at the number of options available - especially if you were willing to pay full boat for an unlocked device.

Summary

While not perfect, the Blackberry 8830WE is pretty cool and I am having fun playing with it.  Throw in that the company is providing me with the device at no cost to me, giving me a boat load of minutes each month, and providing me with unlimited data access, and I am left with the thought that I am quite fortunate.

As I was working on the recap of my recent trip to The Netherlands, I discovered that the text of our 2001 trip to St. Thomas and Puerto Rico had vanished from Witsdom.  The index page was still there, as were the photographs, video and music; just the text page was missing.  I looked everywhere I could think of to recover it, but it was nowhere to be found.  This was a bit surprising since I actually had an archived backup of the entire web content of the server from 2003.

Fortunately, I still had the hard copy notes I had written while we were on the trip, so I re-typed them and recreated the page.

Not being one to be able to leave well enough alone, the fact that the audio controls on the page weren't working was more than I could bear.  The fact that I spent quite a bit of time reworking them so they would operate correctly on Internet Explorer or Firefox or Safari is silly since probably no one will ever view the page, but, at least I know it is right now.

Even though I kludged / brute forced the solution, I am pretty proud of it, as I wasn't able to find another reference that provided a solution for playing a randomly selected music file on a web page, in the background, that provided functioning controls in multiple browsers.

In case you're interested, here's the code:

<SCRIPT LANGUAGE="JavaScript">
   1:  
   2: <!------------HIDING
   3:  
   4: /*Script by Scott R Harrod  
   5:                 7/18/1997
   6:  http://members.aol.com/kirrak9/cyberbase.html
   7:  modified by David Sanders 11/21/1999 and 12/27/2007 with snippets from F. Permandi
   8:  http://www.permadi.com/tutorial/flashVars/
   9: */
  10:  
  11:    Play=new Array                                                                               
  12:    Play[0]="music/feelhi2.mid"         
  13:    Play[1]="music/hothothot.mid"
  14:    Play[2]="music/jama2.mid"
  15:    Play[3]="music/redredSD.mid"
  16:    var now=new Date()
  17:    var music=now.getSeconds()%4                                                
  18: // DONE HIDING-------->
  19:  
  20: document.write(
  21: '<OBJECT ID=Crescendo CLASSID="clsid:0FC6BF2B-E16A-11CF-AB2E-0080AD08A326" WIDTH="200" HEIGHT="55">\n'+
  22: '    <PARAM name="src"        VALUE="' + Play[music] + '">\n'+
  23: '    <PARAM name="autoplay"   VALUE="true">\n'+
  24: '    <PARAM name="controller" VALUE="true">\n'+
  25: '    <PARAM NAME="volume"     VALUE="100">\n'+
  26: '    <PARAM NAME="type"       VALUE="audio/x-mid">\n'+
  27: '<EMBED SRC="' + Play[music] + '"\n'+
  28: '    TYPE="audio/x-mid"\n'+
  29: '    WIDTH="200"\n'+
  30: '    HEIGHT="55"\n'+
  31: '    VOLUME="100"\n'+
  32: '    AUTOPLAY="true"\n'+ 
  33: '    CONTROLLER="true"\n'+
  34: '    ></EMBED>\n'+
  35: '</OBJECT>\n');
  36:  
</SCRIPT>

The first section (above the DONE HIDING) creates the array of possible selections, then chooses one.  The second section creates the code to generate an HTML object and an Embed statement using the selected file from above to activate the player, play the selected song, and display a small control console.  Both the Object and Embed are needed to provide cross-browser functionality.  Since a variable is being used in the Object and Embed statements, both statements must be generated using the javascript document.write function.

Wow, over a month with no posts.

Why?

Well, for the second half of November, I don't have an excuse.

For the first half of December, I have a decent excuse - I was away on business in The Netherlands.  Atypically for me, I did manage to to weave some personal time into the trip.  You can read about my trip at Witsdom.  Here's a direct link to the page.

Yeah, yeah, I know, the book is "Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance," but...

There is a satisfaction in getting things done on automobiles as well, even if you don't do it all yourself, although doing it yourself definitely provides some extra satisfaction.

Today, Jeanie and I replaced the rear liftgate lift struts on the Durango.  The Dodge dealer was going to charge $100 to do it, we did it for $62 in parts.  It was quite simple.  While Jeanie held up the liftgate, I removed the old lifts - one at a time - and replaced them with the new aftermarket gas struts from Advance Auto Parts.   I also replaced the wiper blades.  The nice folks at Advance Auto replaced the battery which was definitely on its last gasps.  Jeanie and I both love our local Dodge dealership's service department (Rick Keffer), and we do have them do oil changes and major service, but I just couldn't justify spending $125 to have them replace the battery when Advance Auto installed an exact replacement (750 cca, large case) for $75 or paying a $40 premium for the lift struts that took us all of ten minutes to replace.

Saturday was nice...

Jeanie, Cali and I left the house at 11:00am and drove into town.   The plan was to park downtown, walk to center street, go to the farmer's market, catch the Veteran's Day Parade, then go to the Art Fair.  Unfortunately, either we misinterpreted when the parade would go down Center street, or the parade started early.  We parked on Beech street because that was as close as we could get, then walked to Center street.  We ended up catching the tail end of the parade.  We missed the marching bands which was a disappointment for me, but did see the pirate ship, which reminded us that our planning wasn't so good, as in hindsight, we wouldn't have taken Cali and subjected her to the booms of the canons on the ship.

After the parade, we walked over to the farmer's market where we ended up purchasing a meatball stromboli, a spakakopita and a raspberry turnover from one of the baked goods vendors.  We found a bench in the shade on Center Street, and the three of us enjoyed our baked goods.

After brunch, we walked through the art fair.  Cali was very popular.  There were some nice pieces - especially some stained glass - but alas, it was all too rich for our budget.  We walked around the marina for a few minutes then walked back through the art fair and back to the car.

After leaving downtown, we drove to the Publix shopping center where there were two Florida Georgia Blood Alliance bloodmobiles and I gave blood while Jeanie and Cali did some window shopping.

After completing my donation, we drove down Sadler and got a dipped cone at Dairy Queen.  We then drove to the north end of the island and parked at the North End Park parking lot and tried to go for a walk on the beach but were blocked by the sand replenishment project's large pipes which ran the length of the beach for quite a distance in either direction.

After watching the replenishment folks work for a while, which was quite interesting, we drove to the north end of main beach, parked, and took a short stroll on the beach.

After our walk, we drove back past home and while Cali and I picked up Chick-Fil-A sandwiches for dinner, Jeanie picked up a movie at blockbuster.  We didn't end up watching the movie Saturday evening, but I'm sure we'll get to it later in the week.

Sunday was okay...

I went to the airport around nine for my weekly get-together with the regulars at the airport.  After sitting around the FBO and chatting for a while, I walked around the T-hangar area and chatted with some other folks.

Around 11:00am, I returned home and Jeanie and I ate a nice brunch of green salad with grilled chicken.

Neither Jeanie nor I slept well Saturday night, so after lunch we took a short nap.

After the nap, we decided to tackle the garage.  The goal was to clean and organize the garage to the point where we could make room to actually park the RAV-4 in the garage.  While we did make quite a bit of progress, we did not actually achieve our goal.  Had we had another hour or two of daylight and another hour or two of energy, we might have succeeded, although I am not sure as there is still about 7 1/2 pounds of "stuff" that we are trying to cram into a 5 pound sack.  We did end up with a number of items going into the round file and a number going into the Goodwill box which did help.   With a fresh start, we may be able to increase the efficiency of our storage scheme, or we may find some more nominees for relocation.  Even if that is not the case, by early next year, Jeanie will complete the refinishing of the bookcase headboard her dad made for us, as well as the refinishing of one of our old oak end tables.  Once we get those into the house, that should make enough room to start parking the RAV-4 in the garage.

Since we were both tired and neither of us was in the mood to cook, we drove to the new McDonalds in Yulee and went through the drive-thru.

One of the great values that Blogdom provides to me is that it serves as a repository for helpful tips and tricks that I have discovered along the way.  Unfortunately, my mind usually isn't sharp enough to remember the tip or trick, but fortunately, at least sometimes, it is sharp enough to remember that I had encountered the challenge previously, came up with a solution, and maybe even recorded the solution for posterity in a post.

Such was the case today.  I had received a Lotus Notes email at work with an animated GIF as an inline (or embedded) image.  To my knowledge, there is no easy way to save such an image from Notes as a GIF file - even saving it as a BMP is a bit of a challenge.  But, I figured I could forward the email to my personal email account, then extract the image from Outlook.  Ultimately, it turned out I was right, but I needed the trick captured in this post from 2004 to accomplish it.

And boy did I spent a lot of time in the air...

The weather for the last few days has just been glorious - crystal clear skies, comfortable temperatures on the ground and gentle breezes.

On Saturday, I rode as safety pilot for one of the CAP members doing instrument approaches.  We went up to Brunswick GA (SSI) and shot a couple of approaches, then returned home.  It was a little bumpy, but not bad, and the sky was clear and beautiful.

On Sunday, I flew the CAP 172 for a little over an hour.  It had been a while since I had spent an hour just focusing on proficiency, so I spent the time doing touch and goes, slow flight, steep turns, turns around a point, etc.  When I am doing that kind of flying I don't get to enjoy the scenery much, but I think it is important to regularly focus on the basics, and even if I don't get to look around much, I do enjoy the skills work.

After I landed, I noticed a couple of the flying club members pushing their airplane back into the hanger, so after I got the CAP plane back in the hangar, I walked over to chat.  As I was chatting with them, another flying club member who happens to have a hangar facing theirs walked up and mentioned that he was going to take his Citabria up for a spin, and asked if I wanted to go with.  Gee, twist my arm...  Turns out, he was literal in his offer to go up for a spin.  And a loop, and some rolls, and a half-Cuban, and some snap rolls, and...  To say I had a blast would be a massive understatement.  It had been years since I had ridden in an airplane doing aerobatics - back then it was also in a two person tandem airplane with a stick rather than a yoke; the main difference between that plane (a Super Decathlon) and this was that the Decathlon had a fully inverted fuel and oil system, a larger engine and a constant speed prop so it could do more "stuff" .  It was just as much fun as I had remembered.  For years, I have had a dream to one day own an aerobatic airplane and learn how to perform aerobatics - maybe some day...

As I was walking back to the truck, I happened upon our CAP squadron commander who was just getting ready to go up to do some proficiency flying in the CAP airplane.  He asked if I would like to go with.  "Sure," I said.  I quickly changed back into my CAP golf shirt, and off we went.  I hadn't gotten to do that much "sightseeing" on either of the day's earlier excursions, so I took the opportunity to fully enjoy the view while flying with Nick.

I guess this weekend was a good demonstration of that old definition of luck: when opportunity meets preparedness.  I definitely felt lucky this weekend.

On Friday, the Court decided to appoint Jeanie and me as Emergency Temporary Guardians for my mother...

I would have much preferred that the situation with my mother had not forced us to this point.  Other than the good karma of taking care of someone who can't care for herself, there is no upside to being a guardian - it takes lots of time, money and emotional capital.  Unfortunately, other than Jeanie and me, there is no one else to do it, and we were all but begged to take on this responsibility by the staff at the Assisted Living Facility where my mother resides.  It doesn't appear that this is going to be a short term need on my mother's part, so we told the attorney to proceed with pursuing permanent guardianship.  The attorney said that given my mother's condition, she was all but sure that the court would appoint permanent guardianship.  The temporary order is for sixty days, which should be sufficient time for the court to process the evaluation for permanent guardianship.  From what we understand, the process for permanent guardianship is much more involved.  It will require Jeanie and I to appear in court, along with my mother.  That will be no fun at all.

It turns out that there are a lot of responsibilities and regulations associated with being a guardian.  It is not as simple as "okay, look after your mother's needs."  There are all sorts of things that you "must do," and many things that can only be done with the court's approval.  Seems like along with the copies of the "Letters Of Emergency Temporary Guardianship" and the "Order Appointing Emergency Temporary Guardianship," either the Court or our attorney would have provided us with some sort of a booklet outlining the responsibilities and regulations associated with this.

Jeanie and I are both becoming increasingly disheartened with the lack of service in our service based economy.  It used to be that the people who undertook "helping" careers - people like doctors and lawyers - would make the effort to ensure that you had all of the information that you needed - proactively.  Now, they only give you the answers to the questions you ask, and then only begrudgingly and often incompletely.  If I knew all of the questions to ask, chances are I wouldn't have to be paying them hundreds of dollars an hour to help!

Fortunately, with a bit of Googling, I was able to find some pertinent information, in order of increasing detail / complexity:

Guardianship Basics - A Handbook for Guardians: http://www.rgllaw.us/GuardianshipBasics.pdf

Guardianship Basics - A Handbook for Guardians corrections: http://www.rgllaw.us/handbookcorrections.pdf

FLORIDA GUARDIANSHIP LAW AND INFORMATION: http://www.flcourts18.org/PDF/gurardianship_rev1-07.pdf

Florida Statutes - Chapter 744 - Guardianship: http://www.leg.state.fl.us/Statutes/index.cfm?App_mode=Display_Statute&URL=Ch0744/ch0744.htm

After having to jump through a number of hoops to get an appointment with a neurosurgeon in Jacksonville who specializes (or at least has an interest in) peripheral nerve tumors, Jeanie and I headed off this morning for my appointment.

In an attempt to be courteous and to help the doctor stay on schedule, we timed our departure such that we would arrive at the doctor's office a half-hour early, so we would have time to fill out all of the paperwork well before the time of the actual appointment.

We were standing at the check-in desk exactly thirty minutes prior to the appointment as planned.  It took about fifteen minutes to fill out the paperwork.

My appointment time came and went without any comment from the front desk person.

About fifteen minutes later, the front desk person informs us that there has been a scheduling "mix up" and the doctor is unavailable because he is in surgery - sorry.

I was so angry, I could spit.  Doctors routinely over-schedule so that they don't waste one minute of their precious time sitting around waiting on a patient - like they don't have plenty they could do to fill the time like review labs, return phone calls, etc.; they no absolutely no regard for the hours of their patients time that they waste forcing them to sit in crowded uncomfortable waiting rooms.  Some doctors now even charge you for the office visit if you don't cancel more than twenty-four hours in advance.

And what can we do when a doctor wastes our time forcing us to wait and wait and wait, or worse yet, doesn't even show up for our appointment?

Nothing!

Nah, you say, just go to a different doctor.  Yeah, right.  First off, the vast majority conduct themselves in exactly the same matter.  Second of all, while that might work for something like self-pay elective cosmetic surgery in a large city like New York or Chicago, the options are much more constrained when you're talking about an obscure sub-speciality in a third-tier metropolitan region.

It's days like this that sometimes make me wish I was more of a screamer.  I wouldn't want to scream at the front desk person - it wasn't her fault so she shouldn't have to be punished, but bottling up all of this anger isn't good for my health and well being.

As with most weeks, last week had its ups and downs.

My mother is not doing too well.  She is back in the hospital and is being handled by the hospital as an incompetent person.  Even though part of me rebels against the thought, since there really is no one else to do it, Jeanie and I have started the process of seeking guardianship.  Jeanie did a lot of work researching attorneys in the extended area, made lots of calls, and ended up finding what we believe will be a good attorney, skilled in these sorts of matters, right here in town.  We met with her early last week and had expected the papers to be filed this week.  Unfortunately, a recent (three weeks ago) Florida supreme court ruling now requires that even for emergency temporary guardianship, the alleged incompetent person must have an attorney to represent them and must have the guardianship petition personally read to them by the attorney prior to being accepted by the court for consideration.  It would have been nice had we known that before we got all dressed up and drove to Jacksonville to appear before the judge in his chambers.  At least, the judge was nice and since we had made the effort to appear, he "swore" us in his chambers and made sure that there were no disqualifying items (prior felony convictions or bankruptcy) that would prevent us from being able to act as guardians in the state of Florida.  This will hopefully save us from having to go back to Jacksonville - our attorney should be able to file/appear on our behalf.

Depending on how well the hospital can stabilize her, she may be able to go back to the assisted living facility where she is currently residing, or she may have to go to a nursing home.  Even if she can stay in an ALF, we may choose to move her back closer to here, as it just adds to the challenge of caring for her having her over an hour away.

The weekend was nice for the most part.

On Saturday, we went to breakfast at Miss Caroline's.  It was crowded, somewhat slow, and the food was fine, but relatively expensive given the total lack of presentation or inclusion of any side dishes.  I ordered eggs benedict and that's what I got - two English muffin halves, each topped with a piece of Canadian bacon and a poached egg, topped with Hollandaise sauce plopped on a plain white plate - nothing else.  Jeanie ordered pancakes and that's what she got, three pancakes plopped on a plain white plate.

After breakfast, we went downtown to the Amelia Cruizer's 11th Annual 8-Flags Car Show.  Before walking around the show, so we would still get a good selection, we stopped in at the Fernandina Farmer's Market where we picked up some fresh veggies and a small Myer's Lemon tree.  The car show was quite enjoyable.  The weather was lovely, and there were lots of interesting cars.  Jeanie and I both thought Bob Murphy would have enjoyed the show - it is sad that Wendy and Bob live so far away.

After spending an hour or two downtown, we headed home.  We spent the afternoon relaxing in the house.

Around five, I headed out to the airport for a CAP Search and Rescue Exercise (SAREX).  It was interesting because rather than the normal ELT search, we did a visual search.  I acted as Observer on our sortie.  It was more challenging than I had anticipated both because every time I had to turn my attention in to the cockpit to jot down a note or talk on the radio, I had to break off my visual search, and just because spending an extended period of time really looking for something in a systematic manner is tougher than you might expect.  The exercise really made me appreciate (at least in a small way) just what the folks looking for Steve Fossett went through.

After the SAREX, a number of us stayed around to do night proficiency flying.  I was very disappointed in my flying.  The night was absolutely beautiful - clear skies and no wind, so the experience should have been picture perfect - unfortunately, it was far from it.  Each of my approaches were quite high turning onto final.  On my second approach, everything seemed fine right up to touchdown, but at the last minute, the aircraft got squirrelly and I bounced and elected to go around.  I was slow retracting the first notch of flaps and let my airspeed get lower than I should have.  There was no major issue and the stall warning never sounded, but I think I made my copilot nervous which really upset me.  The three landings I made weren't horrible - I didn't pound the aircraft into the ground or land way long - but they weren't great either.  By now, I expect that especially in ideal conditions, every landing should be perfect.  I really need to focus - especially at night - on attitude flying.

On Sunday, I did my normal Sunday morning ritual of going to the airport to hang out.  There was a good crowd and I ended up staying for a couple of hours.   The time was pleasant, but I was still aggravated over my flying from the previous night.

Jeanie and I had planned to do some chores around the house - like planting the lemon tree, but Jeanie had a migraine, so we just spent a quiet afternoon and evening at home.

I had another "first" yesterday: I acted as Safety Pilot for an IFR rated pilot (one of the other CAP members) practicing IFR procedures.

Riding as safety pilot has to be one of the best deals going.  Basically, my job was to sit in the right seat and look out for other aircraft while the guy doing the flying (and all the real work) was under the hood.  So, in effect, I got to sightsee, learn about IFR procedures and observe a proficient IFR pilot actually performing IFR procedures - all for free!  Oh, and I even got to log the time!

Turns out, per FAA rules, in this particular situation, the safety pilot is considered a required crew member, and as such, is eligible to log the time.  In our circumstance, we decided that the guy doing the flying would be acting as Pilot In Command, so I was only able to log the time as Second In Command.  This was fine by me, as I had never flown with this person before, so I wouldn't have been comfortable taking the responsibility of being the PIC anyway, given that had we agreed that I would act as PIC, then I would have been liable for anything the guy flying did wrong - even something like busting airspace or an assigned altitude or course.

In the future, I may choose to accept the responsibility of acting as PIC, as this would be a good way to build PIC time, which I need to be able to become a CAP Mission Pilot or Cadet Orientation Pilot.  I believe I would feel comfortable doing this with the guy I flew with yesterday, as well as with a number of the other pilots I have flown with in the squadron.  Even if I don't act as PIC, it will still allow me to build my time in general, which can be helpful for other things I might want to do.  I guess I'd better get the word out that I am available...

Jeanie and I spent the better part of the day in Deland today...

I have wanted to fly to Deland for a while.  Now that Jeanie is also a CAP member, we took the opportunity to take a cross country proficiency trip to DeLand Municipal Airport-Sidney H Taylor Field. 

Even though I had looked up the airport on AirNav, I didn't know where to park and didn't want to waste a bunch of time taxiing around the airport.  I tried to call Unicom to get some directions, but got not answer.  So, I just ended up guessing about where to park.  We ended up parking part way between Skydive Deland, which was a big part of the draw for this particular destination airport (and close to where we exited the runway) and the FBO, which was at the far end of the taxi way.  I had a feeling that we had not parked in a public spot, so we started walking over towards the FBO to ask.  As we were walking, we noticed a flight instructor from what turned out to be Regional Airline Academy Inc, and decided to she if she could provide some information.  She was very nice and explained that the FBO indeed was at the end of the field, and that they no longer monitored Unicom.  She also mentioned that it would be fine to leave "our" airplane right where it was for a few hours (I got the impression that it was part of the flight school parking area).

So, after thanking her for the information, we walked back over to Skydive Deland.  Being back at a DZ was bittersweet for me.  I guess there is still a part of me that misses the days when I ate, slept and drank skydiving at the Franklin County Sport Parachute Center - now known as Carolina Sky Sports.  Jeanie wasn't plagued by any such melancholy.   The facilities at Skydive Deland were definitely a step up from what we were accustomed to (although in fairness, my guess is that so too is Carolina Sky Sports).  While we were happy to cram into a Cessna 182 or as a treat, a Beach D-18, the jumpers in Deland got to jump out of a Skyvan.  While most of the jumpers were kids who probably didn't have  a clue, there were a few gray hairs who probably appreciated the luxury of jumping a Skyvan.  Deland also sported a nice gear shop, a restaurant, large indoor packing areas, a nice spectator area and even a playground for the kids!  On the other hand, when we jumped, there were acres of open fields to land in, and other than the jump plane, no other aircraft for miles.  I can't imagine jumping at an airport with such a high volume of traffic - having to land next to or between active runways.  After watching a few loads land, we headed off for some lunch.

We had lunch at the "Airport Restaurant and Gin Mill."  Our other option was "The Perfect Spot" at Skydive Deland, but based on a few reviews on AirNav, we decided to go to the Gin Mill.  The Gin Mill had been voted the “Best Cheeseburgers in Central Florida.”  I wasn't that hungry, so Jeanie and I decided to share, which meant a hamburger cooked medium well (rather than a cheesburger cooked medium rare) and some onion rings.  Jeanie and I were both really pleasantly surprised.  The burger was hot, juicy, and delicious, as were the onion rings.  The service was excellent.  The server went above and beyond normal good service - she overheard Jeanie mention in conversation that after flying I typically was more thirsty than hungry, so she brought over a pitcher of diet coke so we wouldn't be left with empty glasses.

As an aside, as I was writing this entry, I stumbled across a cool new (to me) aviation oriented web site - one that has lots of reviews of airport restaurants - http://www.flyingflorida.com/index.html.  Their review of the Gin Mill is not consistent with our experience today, but their two reviews of the Fly-By Cafe in St. Augustine are consistent with my two experiences there.

After lunch, we headed back over to the DZ.  We had hoped to see some jumpers exit and watch some RW, but the only jumpers we could ever spot in freefall were tandem jumpers - due to being able to see the relatively large drogue chutes that they deploy to help stabilize the freefall.  We sat at the door of the packing room for a while reminiscing about all the parachutes we had packed so long ago, then decided it was time to head home.

As we walked around the airport, I was once again struck at how different the feel is at 55J compared to other municipal airports in this area.  Deland had a number of business on the airport property, lots of "T" hangars, and the few open hangars we walked by just felt "friendly."

The flights to and from were very nice.  Visibility was quite good, and the ride was smooth.  Time enroute was  about an hour each way.  Landings were good on both ends.  Beautiful weather, flying a nice airplane, a visit to a new airport, a good lunch and time spent with my best friend - what a great day.

I came across this word twice today: Once listening to NPR and once reading the Costco monthly magazine.  I don't get to listen to NPR that often, but I spent the day at a VMware seminar in Jacksonville (cool product, so-so seminar), so I got to listen to NPR on the way there and back.  Had I remembered to bring my Nomad, I would have listened to tunes, but I didn't.  If you smirked at the thought of reading the Costco magazine, you shouldn't; it has some really interesting articles usually.  I had no idea what the word meant, but given encountering its use twice in one day, I was motivated to look it up.  I am glad I did.

Links:

Merriam-Webster Online Dictionary with audio pronunciation

Dictionary.com

Well, sorta new...

It is new in that we just purchased it, but it isn't really new in that it is an exact replacement of our old kettle.  Technically, it is a replacement of a replacement of a warranty exchange of the kettle we purchased at least six years ago.

I am guessing that this one will last longer than the previous ones have because I think I've finally figured out what was causing the major reason that we would get a new one - slight leaking at the base.  My belief is that we were contributing to the problem by leaving water in the kettle most of the time.

We had looked at kettles costing twice as much as our Wal-Mart G.E. Chrome Electric Kettle 168950, but after reading reviews on many different models on-line, it didn't appear that any of the more expensive kettles functioned any better or lasted any longer, and some had serious design defects.  The way I look at it, we like the features, and even if (although it is unlikely) we had to replace it twice as often as a more expensive model, we'd still be better off after taking time value of money into account.

Speaking of on-line reviews, I added another first to my list today - my very own (other than on Blogdom) first on-line review.  You can read it here.

On Thursday, I flew my first solo CAP Transport mission...

Three of us (the unit commander Nick, the unit operations officer Mickey, and I) drove to Craig Municipal in Jacksonville where we picked up the Craig squadron's new Cessna 182 G1000 glass cockpit aircraft.  The glass cockpit is absolutely amazing.  The amount of information available is incredible.  Having real time weather and traffic is a huge plus.  I rode in the back seat so Nick and Mickey could hone their G1000 skills, both having been recently qualified in the aircraft.

The flight down to Daytona (KDAB) was smooth and uneventful.

After making sure that our aircraft was ready, Mickey and Nick headed off back to Craig, leaving me to fly our aircraft back to Fernandina by myself.  The reason we didn't take a fourth person is that due to weight and balance issues, CAP C172's and C182's can typically only carry three adults.

This was my first time ever acting as PIC departing from a class C airport.  Fortunately, I had flown into Daytona a month ago, and had flown right seat out of Daytona earlier this year, so I was at least familiar with the airport.  Still, I was a bit apprehensive - not from a safety concern, but from a concern that I would stumble on a procedural element.

Although I tried really hard to do everything right, I did make one stumble.  I started off properly, first listening to ATIS and writing down the information, then contacting Clearance Delivery to receive my initial instructions.  My stumble occurred when I went to contact Ground.  Rather than using the proper ground frequency, which I had previously written down, I used the Departure Control frequency which I had just written down from my communication with Clearance.  Departure was nice and gently corrected me.  The rest of my procedures - contacting Ground, taxiing, contacting Tower and departure were smooth.  I did learn two good lessons:

1. It is a good idea to slow down a bit,  double check what frequency I will be using, who I will be talking to, what I am going to say and what I expect to be told prior to each step.  That, and to take a breath...
2. The world doesn't end and there aren't hordes of people pointing and laughing at you if you make a minor mistake.

One of the nice things about departing from a class C airport is that there is no extra step needed to request flight following - at least there wasn't for me as Clearance Delivery offered this at initial contact.  The down side of this was that being in constant communication with ATC makes it difficult to contact Flight Service to activate your flight plan - if you remember, which I didn't until 1/2 way through the flight.  Once I realized I hadn't activated my flight plan, I requested a frequency change from Approach so could could contact FSS.

Other than the items above, the trip was really nice.  There were some scattered puffy clouds near Daytona, but they diminished as I traveled north.  The air was smooth and the temperature was lovely.

I made a well planned approach into Fernandina and capped it off with a nice smooth landing.

What more can you ask for?

When we bought our house, there was a swing set in the back yard.  The swings themselves were nasty - dirty plastic strap seats that weren't large enough to be comfortable for an adult hanging from rusty worn chains.  The structure from which they hung was a passable, sturdy wooden affair.

For years, we have had a couple of Hanging Cradle Chairs (aka Air Chairs) that I had purchased from Overstock.com sitting in their bags wishing we would use them.  Well today, they got their wish, although it took a bit of work - and some of my skin and blood, and three trips to Lowes - to get them up.

The loss of skin and shedding of blood occurred during the removal of the old swings.  The swing's chains were attached to eye bolts at the top of the structure via quick links.  The quick links were extremely rusted, so I decided to sever them with bolt cutters.  Unfortunately, while cutting the last one, the backs of both of my hands slid across the edge of the aluminum ladder upon which I was standing and quicker than you can say "Ginsu..."  Fortunately, the damage to the left pinky and ring fingers and right middle finger was relatively minor - no gushing blood, just some "flapage" and "seepage."

The Air Chairs hang from two ropes that are designed to affix to a central point above the chair.  The foot rest hangs from a single rope also intended to attach to the same central point.  I had decided that I would attach a length of chain slightly longer than the distance between the two eye bolts previously used to suspend each swing, and then attach the Air Chair to the center of the chain.  As with the old setup, I would use quick links to connect the chain to the eye bolt.  I then would use a quick link to go from the middle of each chain to a swivel, to which I would then tie the ropes.

So, we drove to Lowes to purchase the required hardware.  The old quick links were 3/8" and when I looked at the working load, they were more than adequate.  So, I bought two 36" lengths of 2/0 chain, two swivels, and four 3/8" quick links.  I only needed four quick links rather than six since I was able to salvage two, which I believe are stainless, from the old swings.  I decided to go with galvanized rather than stainless because the stainless steel hardware would have been three times as expensive.

When we got home and I tried to attach the first quick link to the eye bolt, the gap in the quick link was just too small to go over the eye bolt.

So, back we went to Lowes to exchange the four 3/8" eye bolts for four 1/4" eye bolts (the next size up).

We got home and things seemed to be going fine - the quick link fit over the eye bolt, and the chain fit over the quick link.  At least, that's how it was for the first three quick links.  Unfortunately, the threads on the fourth quick link had a just slightly larger diameter than the other three, and the chain would not fit over them.  So, back to Lowes we went to exchange that quick link.

I must admit that by the time we got the chairs hung - which required quite a bit of adjusting to get them just the right height - high enough to be able to swing, but low enough to be able to get in - I was a bit grumpy.  Sometimes it just seems that even what should be the simplest things end up being a hassle.

Anyway, Jeanie really likes her new Air Chairs, so that makes me happy.

I guess we have a leak in the roof.

Last night I stayed up to watch a DVR'd episode of the new Flash Gordon series on SciFi.  The DVR is being flaky again, so we are trying to watch everything we've recorded before we trade it out for the umpteenth time. I guess it ended around 11:45pm.  When I walked over to the front door to make sure it was locked, I noticed some water on the floor.  It rained fairly heavily for the last few days, but this didn't appear to just be a bit of water I had tracked in after my walk yesterday in which I (and my favorite walking shoes) ended up quite soaked, even though I had taken a rain coat.

After doing some searching, I realized that water was dripping on the dining room table, and the tablecloth was soaked.  Thank goodness Jeanie had a plastic coated table pad underneath the tablecloth or the finish on the dining room table would be ruined.  The water was dripping from the lighting fixture which hangs from the middle of the ceiling.  I removed the cloth and pad from the table, moved the table and chairs away from the center of the room, and dried off them, and the floor, off.  I then went to the garage and got some plastic sheeting and a bucket.  I ended up bringing the eight foot folding ladder into the house and resting the fixture on top of it so that I could move it from being directly underneath where the water was dripping from, which was near the junction box in the ceiling.  I was a bit concerned about the possibility of the ceiling coming down as I could see wet lines at the drywall joints on either side of the hole for the junction box, which seemed to me to indicate that there was water on the top side of that entire sheet.

I then went up into the attic to see if I could locate the source of the leak, but was unable to get to the area over the dining room.

I sent an email to a number of acquaintances in the CAP unit and the flying club asking for references for a roofer / handyman.  So far, I don't have any good leads, but fortunately, it looks like the rain is done for a while.  Also fortunately, it appears that the leak is minor, as there only ended up being a few cups of water in the bucket this morning.

Hopefully, it won't end up being too major a hassle...

Jeanie and I had a nice weekend.  It actually started on Friday, as I took the day off.  We were supposed to be away all of this week because I had planned to take vacation, but work had something else in mind.

Jeanie and I had planned to go to Orlando for the week.  Our plans included visiting Universal Studios and the Kennedy Space Center.

But, I had a nagging feeling that work might intrude, and after reading about Universal, Jeanie thought that she would rather defer spending the money in favor of saving for a more exotic vacation spot.

It turned out to be a good decision, as I received a call Friday afternoon informing me that I needed to work today.  Hopefully, it will only be today and at worst 1/2 of tomorrow, and then we will be free to play the rest of the week.

Instead of going away, we had decided that since this area is such popular vacation spot and people travel long distances and spend lots of money just to get here and stay here, why not take advantage of what's right here.  We had also decided that since we would be eating out for every meal were we away, that we would do more eating out and less cooking in.

In that spirit, on Friday we went to T-Ray's.  If you didn't know that it was a restaurant, you wouldn't ever find it since from the exterior, it appears to be an old run-down gas station.  I am not sure, but they may still in fact sell gas, in which case I guess it is an old run-down gas station.  There are maybe half a dozen tables plus a small counter, and at best, the ambiance might be considered "rustic."  Anyway, I had never eaten there, and I had been told that they made the best burgers on the island.  They definitely appeared to have a loyal local clientele.  Even though they had a number of interesting items on the menu, Jeanie and I both ordered a burger and fries.  Jeanie said her burger was good, other than being a bit greasy.  I thought mine was just okay.  It wasn't that there was anything wrong with the burger, it just wasn't great; my biggest issue being the relatively thin meat patty which had no character.  We both agreed that the "steak fry" style fries were great - hot, crisp on the outside, soft on the inside, and quite tasty but not greasy.  I'm not sure I'll be running back to T-Ray's any time soon, but it was cool to experience an historic island eatery, and I wouldn't resist if someone else suggested we go there to eat.  After returning home, Jeanie put another coat of Tung Oil on the hope chest and end table she has been refinishing; I kept her company and provided commentary from the cheap seats.  Neither Jeanie nor I can remember what else we did on Friday, other than I had to do some work late in the afternoon - even though it was a day off.

On Saturday we went to lunch at Cedar River Seafood.  Jeanie had the fried catfish and I had the fried shrimp.  The catfish was good.  The shrimp were fantastic.  I do believe that Cedar River has the best fried shrimp on the planet.  They are lightly breaded and cooked "just right."  By that I mean they are fully cooked, but just, so they come out tender and tasty, as opposed to so many places that overcook the shrimp and end up with them being tough and rubbery.  Neither Jeanie nor I can remember what else we did Saturday afternoon, so it must not have been too exciting.  Saturday evening, we watched "Wild Hogs."

On Sunday I went to the weekly airport gathering.   Every Sunday morning, a bunch of pilots gather at the local airport to, as I like to say, eat junk, drink coffee and tell lies.  When first started going over two years ago, the junk was donuts either provided by the FBO or brought by one or more of the participants.  For the last few months, the junk has been fresh pancakes cooked by (mostly) either Dave Bishop, the president of the flying club, or Keoki Gray, our resident aeronautical renaissance man (aerobatic pilot par excellence, flight instructor extraordinare, A&P mechanic, ...).  Even though you would think that the talk is about flying and past glories or at least exploits, more often than not, the reality is that the talk revolves around the stupid things that the city government does related to their mismanagement of the airport.  I really would rather the discussion be about flying, as I would enjoy that, whereas the talk of the politics often ends up bring me down.  After I got home, Jeanie mentioned that she was in the mood for Mexican food, so we headed off to Pepper's Mexican Grill.  Jeanie got her usual combination of a hard taco and a chile relleno and I got the beef chimichanga.  Both meals were yummy.  We had planned to go to the Harry Potter movie after lunch, but we realized that we didn't have quite enough time to make it to Jacksonville, so we headed home, which turned out to be a good decision as I needed to make use of the facilities and was a bit tired.  Actually, it turned out that I was quite tired as I ended up taking a nap for a couple of hours, waking up just in time (which for the record, is 75 minutes) to get to the 5:00 PM showing of Harry Potter.  I don't know how families can afford to go out to the movies any more.  For just the two of us, going to a Sunday matinee, and splitting one large soda and one box of candy, the cost was $25!  I guess that's one reason why we don't go out to the movies very often.  I guess because the movie has been out for a while, there were very few people in the theatre; we got really good seats, and no one talked or had their cell phone ring.

I didn't note it each day, but I have been walking every day at least once for an hour, sometimes twice for an hour.  I still walk either at sunrise or sunset because it is still hot.  Being able to enjoy the sunrise / sunset is a nice added bonus.  "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" is keeping me really motivated to walk.  I am concerned that I won't be as motivated with the next book and I only have about three more walks left with Harry.  I have finally starting losing a bit of weight which is nice, since I was very frustrated that after I started walking, I actually gained a few pounds.  I am not quite sure why this happens, but it does every time I start walking again after falling off the wagon for more than a few days.  I don't think it is because I instantly add muscle - my guess it is due to fluid retention as a result of muscle inflammation as my body initially reacts to the sudden increase in use.

I was walking yesterday evening and noticed a beautiful large yellow butterfly sitting atop a bottlebrush tree and decided to pause and enjoy the journey and take a closer look.

As I neared the tree, I also saw a large number of the most amazing looking bugs feeding on the bottlebrush flowers.  I thought that they were so cool that I called Jeanie on the cell and urged her to come over to take a look, which she and Cali did.

After getting home, I set about trying to figure out what the bug was.  It took a number of iterations of Googling, but I did finally figured out that it was a Polka-dot Wasp Moth (also known as the Oleander Moth), which is the adult stage of the Oleander Caterpillar.  Although it would appear that many (most?) consider this insect to be a pest, and I guess I would if I had lots of oleander bushes, I think it is really beautiful, both at rest, and in flight.

Here are some other sites with pictures and information if you are interested: http://creatures.ifas.ufl.edu/orn/ole_cpillar.htm, http://www.floridanature.org/species.asp?species=Syntomeida_epilais#photos, and http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/pdffiles/IN/IN13500.pdf

In my searching, I found a site which I thought was really cool.  The site is What's That Bug?  In addition to the great information and photographs, I found it nice that this site considers bugs to be more than just nasty things that need to be eliminated.  And, if you see a bug that you can't identify, and you can't figure it out using their photos and search engine, just snap a photo and send it to them, and they will do their best to help identify it for you.  It has a number of good Oleander Moth photos, and addition to other cool moth photos here.

I had fallen off the walking wagon for a quite a few weeks, but I've been back on for seven days in a row now.

I've been walking once a day for an hour at a time, motivated by listening to the new Harry Potter book; that, and the fact that I've gained five pounds since I stopped walking.

I started walking early in the morning, but then switched to the hour right before sunset.  It needs to be early or late given that it is still quite hot during the day.  Most of what I read suggests that walking in the morning is better as it is supposed to give you more energy during the day because it revs up your metabolism first thing and then it stays revved up during the day.  These same experts also suggest that walking in the evening can lead to sleep problems - again because the body gets revved up.  My experience has been that if I walk in the morning, I am tired all day, and if I walk in the evening, I sleep better than if I hadn't walked.

Jeanie and I were trying to decide what to do yesterday.  There were a number of things that needed to be done around the house so one thought was to stay home and do chores.  The skies were relatively clear, so another thought was to go flying.  What we ended up doing was to do a beach day.

We now keep our two beach chairs in the Durango full time.  Jeanie did a fantastic job of quickly putting together a picnic including sandwiches, fruit, cheese and drinks.  She also threw the new auger style beach umbrella holder and new beach umbrella into the Durango.  I grabbed my new Legendary Pro Slick 42" body board and some sunscreen and off we went.

It is really nice having a four wheel drive vehicle and living in an area where you can drive on the beach.  It just makes going to the beach so much more pleasant when you don't have to lug all of your stuff from a parking lot to the beach.

We ended up driving down to Burney Park at American Beach.  The beach tends to be a bit flatter and wider on the southern portion of the island, and it is usually a bit less crowded.

As an unexpected extra bonus, there were two guys just getting ready to fly their powered paragliders.  So, we parked near them so we could watch them finish their preparations and then take off.  Given our backgrounds as skydivers, Jeanie and I both thought that paragliding seemed like a cool idea.  While there are a number of pluses that I can see with the idea of having a paraglider, the cost, $6,000 - $9,000, was a disappointing surprise.  For the cost of two high end powered paragliders, Jeanie and I could buy a used two seat airplane!  Granted, paragliders can be launched just about anywhere, don't require hangars or tie-downs or annual inspections, but still!

Anyway, back to the beach...

Jeanie spent her afternoon sitting beneath the umbrella reading.  I split my time between reading a flying magazine and frolicking in the water.  Between the shade of the umbrella and the breeze off of the water, the air temperature was very pleasant.  The water temperature was just perfect - not too cool, not too warm.  The surf was decent and I got a few good rides.  Unfortunately, when I start by laying on the board, I just can't get moving well enough to catch the waves, so I was limited to standing in water no deeper than my neck so I could push off of the bottom to get going. 

Our timing worked out really well.  When we arrived, there was still about an hour before low tide, so we were able to park reasonably near the water and not have to move the whole time.  We were able to spend a few hours enjoying the beautiful weather and lovely beach.  After watching the paragliders come in for a tippy toe landing, we decided to pack up and call it a wonderful day.

One final treat (well technically, two) was that on the way home, we got to see two tortoises ambling along the side of the road.  It was the first time Jeanie or I had seen a tortoise on the island, although we have seen a number of turtles. 

Now that it has been a week or so since I installed the upgrades, it seems appropriate to provide a performance update...

Overall, I am pleased with the upgrades.  In general, the performance of the machine seems crisper.

Of particular note, rendering of web pages (regardless of browser) results in significantly less time spent with the processor pegged at 100%.

By far the biggest improvement is in the performance of Quicken.  Prior to the upgrade, I spent great amounts of time waiting on Quicken as it "refreshed data."  Now, the screen updates after a new entry have no significant noticeable delays.

I won't say the machine "screams," but it does at least "hum" along.

And speaking on "hum" (or technically, the lack thereof) it's nice not to have to endure the occasional screeching noise that the old video card sometimes made (thankfully for relatively short periods).

Jeanie and I had a lovely day trip to St. Simons Island yesterday.

When we started the drive, the weather was a bit "iffy," but as the day progressed, the weather improved.

We started out going to our island to have breakfast, but unfortunately, the restaurant we had in mind (Miss Carolynn's) was closed for the holiday.  So, we stopped by the Kofe Haus and grabbed cups of their delicious coffee and a pastry to take the edge off while we headed off towards St. Simons.  We ended up eating breakfast at the Cracker Barrel at Exit 3 and then proceeded north.

Our first stop was at the Visitor's Center which is near the southern end of the island near Neptune Park.  The Visitor's Center was clean and attractive with friendly attentive staff.

We then headed up to the north end of the island to visit Christ Church, Frederica and walked around the grave yard (one of Jeanie's favorite pastimes).  Unfortunately, the church itself wasn't open to visitors (it is only open 2pm - 5pm) so we didn't get to see the inside.  Also unfortunately, I wasn't feeling too well, suffering from a bit of stomach upset and a moderate headache.

We then headed back down to the south end of the island (note, this is all of a twelve mile drive from one end to the other) to see what else there was to see.  We went to the light house and walked around and read the signs, but decided to defer the guided tour and climb up the lighthouse till another day.

We then went to the downtown area and walked around, partially just to tour and partially to find a place to eat and have a drink.  We didn't find any place that suit our fancy, and I remembered seeing a few other restaurants farther down Ocean Drive, so we headed off.  Those restaurants turned out to not be what we had in mind either, so we headed back toward downtown.  I dropped Jeanie off at a restaurant named Mullet Bay and I headed over to the quick stop to buy myself some Excedrin.  I have found that nothing is as effective in relieving the symptoms of a headache for me as Excedrin.  It turned out that the Menu at Mullet Bay had some interesting possibilities, so we decided to eat there.  What Jeanie had really wanted was a fried shrimp appetizer with remoulade sauce.  What got her in the mood for this was a sample we had tasted at one of the restaurants downtown.  Unfortunately, when we had gone into that restaurant, it looked a bit sleazy, the service was slow, and the only offered the shrimp as a full meal.  While Mullet Bay had some shrimp appetizers, they didn't have a fried shrimp appetizer on the menu.  Usually, I am the shy one who doesn't make special requests and Jeanie is the one who isn't hesitant.  For some reason, on this particular day, we switched roles.  I told the waitress that what Jeanie really wanted was a fried shrimp appetizer.  The waitress informed us that while there wasn't one on the menu, they did in fact offer one, although not with a remoulade sauce.  I wasn't that hungry, so we ended up ordering the shrimp and a Vidalia onion rings appetizer, which came with a spicy horseradish dipping sauce for us to share.  Jeanie had also asked for some ranch dressing as a dip.  When the food arrived, I had another inspiration - I suggested trying to mix the horseradish dipping sauce with the ranch dressing.  It turned out to be very similar to the remoulade sauce at the other place and was quite tasty!

I should mention that there was one other thing that Jeanie was in the mood for - a fruity tropical frozen adult beverage.  What Jeanie really wanted was a banana daiquiri like we had on our honeymoon in  Jamaica - one made with real bananas and ice cream.  Unfortunately, all the restaurant could offer was either a peach or banana drink made with Island Breeze mix.  I lobbied for the banana and Jeanie demurred.  Sadly, Jeanie wasn't too crazy about the drink, but happily, I was.  Between the Excedrin, the food and the drink, by the end of lunch I was feeling much better.

After lunch, with Jeanie at the wheel, we headed off to visit the local airport - Malcolm Mc Kinnon Airport (KSSI).  I had been to the airport once on a recent night cross country, but had never been in the terminal/FBO building.  It is a very nice facility with both a Hertz and Avis rental counter, a pilot briefing room, a pilot rest lounge, clean bathrooms and even a small pilot store.

After I got my fill of the airport, we realized that it was now after 2:00pm so we headed back up to Christ Church.  Not only did we get to see the inside of the church, but we got a wonderful tour / history from the docent.

After leaving the church, we decided to go visit neighboring Sea Island, but we didn't get very far as we didn't realize until we got there that visitors and sightseers are not permitted as the entire island is accessible only to homeowners, club members and guests of the resort.

By this time we were both ready to head home, so we did.

Overall, we had a lovely day.

I was very taken with St. Simons.  I found it to be much more of what I think Fernandina should be.  I found the downtown area to be more inviting than downtown Fernandina and found the island itself to be more accessible, attractive and interesting.  St. Simons appears to embrace visitors, yet doesn't seem "tacky" like some tourist destinations can be.  Fernandina on the other hand seems to resent visitors (and airplanes) and seems determined to hold on to its blue collar mill town heritage - even if it kills it.  Jeanie felt that downtown Fernandina was more quaint, cleaner and had a better selection of interesting / good restaurants and bars, although she did agree that the island was lovely and hospitable.

PS. As a note, I had trouble deciding which site to use for the main St. Simons link at the top of the entry, as none of them were exactly what I was looking for.  Other sites that also seemed interesting included http://www.gacoast.com/ssi.html which I think is the best of the general sites, http://www.saintsimons.com/ which is not very pretty, but seems to have good content, http://www.explorestsimonsisland.com/ and http://www.stsimonsguide.com/ which both seem like they may be a bit ad biased, and http://www.world66.com/northamerica/unitedstates/georgia/stsimonsisland which is has good short summary information, but a bit light on detailed content.

Yes fans, that's right!  I am now an official Civil Air Patrol Transport Mission Pilot.

One of the things I found interesting when I started jumpmastering and instructing skydiving was how many people dropped out of the sport once they got off of student status.

I think the reason was that while they were students, they had a series of goals that were perceived as attainable and were incremental enough that they could be achieved reasonably quickly.  But, once they reached the major milestone of getting off of student status, either they dropped out because they had been hanging in just to reach the major goal, or because the next major goal - an "A" license, was too nebulous and too big a leap.

What, you may ask, does any of this have to do with me being a CAP TMP?

I think CAP is very smart in that they offer a large number of areas in which you can achieve qualifications.  Each qualification also has incremental steps and a methodology for tracking your progress to help keep you motivated.

So, even though it will probably be another couple of years before I can qualify as a Mission Pilot or Cadet Orientation Pilot, there are still other areas that I am working on, and, I already have a few "tick marks" on my Mission Pilot SQTR, with more to come I'm sure.

After having had a private pilot's license for twenty-five years, I finally flew in Class C airspace...

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to fly the CAP airplane down to Daytona Beach to drop it off for its 100 hour inspection.

Daytona is Class C airspace.  Back when I first got my license, such a concept didn't exist.  Of course, there were airports with control towers, but the airspace classification system as we currently know it didn't exist.  I did make a couple of landings / take-offs into Charleston, which was a reasonably large airport, but for the most part, I flew out of small airports with no tower / approach / etc.

Even when I resumed flying a few years ago, I did my flying out of pilot controlled airfields.

I did finally fly into a Class D airport a few months ago (St. Augustine), but I still hadn't flown into an airport with regularly scheduled major airline traffic.

On the one hand it wasn't that big a deal, on the other, it was quite interesting.

The bulk of the trip down was very routine.  I had filed my VFR flight plan on DUAT, and shortly after take-off, I had activated it and had contacted JAX approach for VFR flight following.

For the majority of the trip, the sky was clear, visibility was good, and the ride was smooth.

We started seeing a little build-up right around our altitude (3500 feet) as we neared Daytona, but nothing we couldn't easily navigate around.  As we got closer to DAB, the clouds got closer to each other.  Not so close that we couldn't get through, but close enough to have to dodge...

Things didn't get really interesting until we got close to Daytona.  When I had checked the weather, the reported conditions around DAB were 3 miles visibility with smoke, improving to 6 by the time of our anticipated arrival.  Well, let's just say that there was more smoke than anticipated and even though I was quite close to the airport, and it's a pretty big airport, I couldn't see it.

Fortunately, I had a very experienced pilot as a co-pilot.  He flew for the Air Force for twenty-seven years and then for an airline for another fifteen.

Even though we were flying VFR, he had dialed in the frequency of the ILS approach on the NAV.

Between his coaching and the GPS, when I rolled out onto final, it turned out I was right on track, at least according to the ILS - it took me at least fifteen seconds before I could actually see the runway.

I learned a number of good lessons along the way:

1. Make use of HIWAS or TWEB enroute to check for weather.  You can tune to a nearby VOR on the NAV radio and still listen/talk to ATC. Availability is indicated by a dark circle with a light H (HIWAS) or T (TWEB) in it in the VOR information box.
2. Listen to EFAS (Flight Watch) on 122.0 enroute.
3. Don't fly right along the beach.  So does everyone else, which makes traffic avoidance more interesting.  Better to slide over a mile or so to either side...
4. When ATC informs you that there is traffic in the area, switch on your landing light.  Don't forget to turn it off after the traffic passes.
5. Turn on your landing light within ten miles of your destination - even if it is daytime.
6. Even if you are not IFR qualified, it is interesting and potentially helpful to know (and tune in) the frequencies for the ILS for the runways in use at your destination.  You can either get this information from an approach plate, or from your GPS.
7. When approach tells you to join the base leg for a runway, they mean to do it far out (~5 miles or more), not like you are flying the pattern at your local little airport.
8. Which means, take a look at the airport diagram as soon as you hear from ATIS what the active runway is, then look at the GPS to get an idea of where you are going to want to go when you get told how they want you to approach.
9. Make sure you know, before you take off, where on the airport you need to end up at.  Once you know which runway you are going to be landing on, figure out whether you need to exit the runway to the left or right (if there are taxiways on both sides) based on where you need to get to.  Once you are off the runway and switch to ground, you can figure out exactly how to get there, but if you are on the wrong side of the runway to start, it's a pain to get across.
10. While on the base leg, get configured for landing.  After turning final is not the time to realize you need to slow down, etc.  Of course, sometimes you don't have the luxury of loafing in, but at the same time, you need to get configured for whatever you need to make a stabilized approach.
11. If you really are having trouble figuring out where you are and/or where you need to go, ask ATC for vectors.

Since I was already ordering stuff from Newegg (the new hard drive for the backup PC) I finally decided to break down and order some upgrades for the main PC.  Nothing earth shaking, but enough to provide a reasonable - for the price - improvement in performance.

The upgrades included:

An A-DATA 1GB 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400 (PC 3200) Desktop Memory Model ADBGC1A16 - Retail to replace the existing 512 MB (2 x 128MB) of PC2100 DDR memory.

An Intel Pentium 4 2.8 Northwood 2.8GHz Socket 478 Processor Model RK80532PE072512 - OEM to replace the existing 2.2 GHz Celeron processor.

and

A BFG Tech BFGR5500OC GeForce FX 5500 128MB DDR AGP 4X/8X Video Card - Retail to replace the existing 32MB MX-400 NVidia card.

Total bill (after a $35 dollar rebate for the video card) came to less than $140.00.  Much cheaper than I could get a new PC for, and none of the hassle of having to reinstall all of the software that would have come with a new PC.  If I were to get motivated, I could reduce the cost of the upgrade even more by selling the old processor and video card on Ebay - although I doubt I'll get that motivated - more likely they will just gather dust along with all the other bits I have stashed in my parts bins.

Most amazing of all to me, all three upgrades installed without a hitch.  I decided to retain the existing processor heat sink, but I did take the time to scrape off the gunk from the bottom of the old heat sink and to use a liberal glop of new heat sink compound.  I did actually take the precaution of wearing a grounding wrist strap for the installation of the processor and memory.  I elected to remove both of the old DIMMs and just go with the new memory, as I didn't want to slow down overall memory access by leaving one of the old chips in.  I actually did read the directions first before installing the video card, which guided me to remove the old video driver prior to installing the new card, then canceling the Windows new hardware wizard and running the install from the supplied CD.

The machine still won't be blazing, and won't be beefy enough to run any games made in the last couple of years, but it definitely does handle my mundane daily chores with a bit more zip.

One of the hard drives on the new Vista machine is near death.  The drive is generating all sorts of errors when you try to read from it.  The drive in question is not new to the machine; I have had it for years - I estimate it has run for ~30,000 hours.  This drive, as with all of the drives other than the new system drive are just used to back up data from our main home PC.  I decided to purchase a new drive to replace the one that is almost dead.

The replacement drive I ended up with is a 400GB Samsung 3.5" HD403LJ SATA 3.0 drive from Newegg costing around $85.00.  Not to date myself, but I can remember when a 15MB (yes, Megabyte!) drive weighed over fifty pounds, was the size of a file cabinet drawer and cost thousands of dollars.

My thought was that I will use it to replace both the 180GB drive that is failing, as well as a 200GB drive which also has many hours on it.  I'll set the 200 gig drive aside to use as a replacement when one of my other 200's dies.

My first question was whether to partition the 400GB into two 200GB partitions.  I decided to leave it all as one big partition.

The format went fine, and the configuration of the drive as a shared drive seemed to work fine.  I could see the drive from the other home computer.  I could map it to a drive letter.  But when I tried to access it, I received an access denied error.

Long story short, to get it to work, I ended up having to modify the security settings on the shared drive to match one of the other drives in the system.  This required creating two new Users groups and a new Everyone group.  Quite the royal pain.  Seems like Micro$oft would have created a nice little wizard to help users with this task.  Oh well, it appears to be working now.

As an aside, I did also find a number of nice utilities that can read the S.M.A.R.T. data on the disk drives.  For the XP machine, I went with HD Tune and for the Vista machine, HDDlife.  Both were free and I like HD Tune better, but it didn't run on Vista.  HDDlife is okay, but the free version is quite crippled.  I also installed SpeedFan on the XP machine in preparation for some future upgrades.  More on that in the next few days...

The weather over the last few days has been so beautiful.  Monday and Tuesday were especially nice - the haze seeming to have gone elsewhere for a while.  Unfortunately, I had to work, so though I wished to break my earthly bonds, grounded I stayed.

Work has really sucked this week.  Actually, it has really sucked for a while, but it really sucked this week.

Today, I could stand no more.  Even though a bit of the haze has crept back, the skies are clearer than they have been of late.  Of course, mid-day is brutally hot, but the evenings are tolerable.

So, I decided I deserved a break.  Plus, depending on my work obligations and other factors, I may get to fly the CAP plane down to Daytona for its 100 hour inspection on Sunday night.  If so, I will have at least one rider, which meant that I needed to refresh my night currency.

As an aside, I think I will try not to let my currency lapse again.  I was a few weeks out of date, which meant that either I had to do the required three takeoffs and landings by myself or with an instructor.  It seems strange to me that the FAA considers it safer for me to go up by myself, than to go up with another pilot, one who might even be night current.  But, such are the rules, so, next time, I'll try to get back up at night prior to the ninety days so I can go up with someone in the right seat.

Anyway, so, off I went this evening for a nice flight up to Brunswick Georgia.

Flying at night, with the moon about half full, and the skies clear, is absolutely beautiful.

Other than doing circuits around the pattern for night currency, it has been a long time - like over twenty years - since I had actually flown somewhere at night.

I remembered how pretty it is, but honestly, I had forgotten how hard it is!

Everything seems harder.  It is harder to keep the wings level as - especially when flying along the coast line - there isn't really a horizon to sight along the wings with.  Landing is much harder.  I don't know exactly why - the runway is lighted and has all sorts of lighting cues along with specialized vertical guidance lighting (PAPI or VASI depending on the runway).  It is probably mostly a mental thing, but still... Taxiing around the airport - even one you are very familiar with, let alone one you've only been to one before - is on the verge of unnerving.  And navigating?  All I have to say is: thank God for GPS!

The local newspaper published a photograph I took, so that makes me a published photographer, right?

There was a change of command in our CAP squadron and I got volunteered to press the shutter a few times on the outgoing commander's digital camera.  One of the pictures was submitted to the local paper, and got published in the "Community Scrapbook" section.

Guess I should go update my resume...

When the Linux server was revived, one of the things that I didn't get working was the UPS signaling.  I kept getting a message that the getty was respawning too rapidly and I couldn't figure out how to fix it, so I just disabled the entry in /etc/inittab.

I decided to play with it a bit today, and I partially fixed it - at least it's back to functioning the way it used to, which wasn't quite right, but close enough.  The not quite right part is that if I call powstatd as part of the boot process (i.e. from /etc/rc.d/rc3.d) as soon as I log in, the sytem shuts down as if the UPS were sending a low battery signal.  However, if I run powstatd manually after logging in, it runs fine.  My guess is that this is a bug in powstatd, but I don't have the interest to install the latest version right now, and it really doesn't matter, since once the system shuts down if the battery goes low, I have to manually power it back on, so I just restart the UPS daemon after I do so.

As to the specifics of the problem, the initial symptom was that the console would generate the following message:

INIT: Id "S0" respawning too fast: disabled for 5 minutes

This appeared to be a problem with how the serial port was configured, so I tried a whole bunch of different settings for S0 in /etc/inittab with no luck.  I searched through /etc/gettydefs and tried calling different stanzas in /etc/inittab with no luck.

I thought maybe there was a problem with the physical port not reporting its UART correctly, so I tried running the setserial command with various parameters with no luck.

Somehow, it finally occurred to me to see if maybe the problem was that even though there is only one serial port on the back of the system, that it was configured as Com1 rather than Com0, and maybe I should change the line in /etc/inittab from:

S0:2345:respawn:/sbin/uugetty ttyS0 F38400

to

S1:2345:respawn:/sbin/uugetty ttyS1 F38400

That fixed the respawning message, but still didn't get the powstatd running correctly.

I did some more digging, and discovered that I also had to modify /etc/powstatd.conf from:

# Watch /dev/ttyS0
watch ttyS0

to

# Watch /dev/ttyS1
watch ttyS1

I still haven't fixed the locale error message when httpd starts, nor have I fixed Xwindows, but I am happy now that the UPS signaling is working again.

Almost a week to the day that I started my annual CAP Form5 renewal, I finally finished...

The good news is that I "passed," and the good news is that my back is doing well enough that I felt comfortable about piloting an airplane.  I must admit, I was a little tentative about how comfortable I would be, so I made a point of getting into the airplane this morning and doing a "dry run" just to make sure that I could do all the movements and reach all the things I need to reach without problems.  Only after I satisfied myself that I'd be okay, did I commit to taking the check flight this afternoon.  I did make a point of being careful doing certain things like opening the hangar doors, and for other things, I solicited help - whether by asking for help pulling the aircraft out of the hanger (something I would normally do by myself) or by using a ladder to check the fuel tanks (rather than just climbing up on the strut).

The check pilot who did my Form5 is a really nice guy, and a really good check pilot.  He had me to perform the required maneuvers and ensured that they were done to the appropriate standards, but he also spent some time giving me some tips to make me a better pilot.

I try to make every flight a learning experience, and it is even better when you have a skilled pilot/instructor to enhance that learning experience.

In terms of the specifics today, we did soft field take offs and landings, short field take offs and landings, a power off landing, a slip to landing (high approach) with abort and go-around, slow flight, power off and on stalls, steep turns, S turns across a road and some hood work including recovery from unusual attitudes.

It was nice getting up in the air - especially since it was my first day out of the house since last Sunday.

Once upon a time the title would have been Mom, Momma and Me, but such is life...

Anyway, Mother (my mother) isn't doing very well.  She had been released from the hospital, but within a couple of days, the ALF had decided she needed to go back.  Same problems - not eating or drinking and apparently not taking her medications.  She was released from the hospital again yesterday and is now back at the ALF, but in a different section than she had been in previously - one which provides a higher level of care.  I don't really know anything about this new area, but Jeanie is on her way over to get as much of the story as she can.

Jeanie really is a saint.

It appears as if Mother has just given up on life.  I can't say that I blame her.  She has alienated everyone who has ever cared about her and has long suffered with various ailments.  Nonetheless, it is sad.

Momma (Jeanie's Mom) is at home and doing somewhat better.  She is still in quite a bit of pain and still finding that the nights are particularly difficult.

Jeanie is torn between feeling like she needs to be here taking care of me, running to Jax Beach to see what's up with Mother, and wanting to go to her parents to help with her Mom and take some of the burden off of her father.

I keep trying to encourage Jeanie to just go to her parents, but...

Jeanie really is hard headed.

Fortunately, Jeanie's parents do have support from their church and from at least one local relative, and they do have a visiting nurse and physical therapist who come by during the day.  Unfortunately, at night, it's just Dad.

And me?  I am doing better, but not great. I am no longer cringing in pain - in fact I haven't even taken any pain medication or muscle relaxers today.  But, I am still uncomfortable, and avoid certain movements lest I find myself back doing that cringing thing.  And I can relate to Momma Melvin - the nights are definitely the worst.  I have not slept well since Saturday.  I just can't seem to stay comfortable at night.  Laying on either side or my stomach quickly becomes extremely uncomfortable, but staying on my back is maddening.  I've tried placing a pillow under my knees in the bed, heat, laying on the couch on my back with an extra cushion under my legs, tying a rolled up towel around my waist, ...  No matter what, I just can't stay comfortable for more than an hour or two.  And it doesn't seem to matter what combination or quantity of medications I take right before I go to bed.

During the day, I can stay reasonably comfortable sitting in my old green recliner with a large memory foam pillow and a small memory foam back wedge behind me.  Jeanie suggested I try sleeping in the recliner tonight; it might be worth trying...

It has been a while since my back "went out," so I guess I should be grateful that things were good for so long...

Nonetheless, an aching back is a real pain.

In the past, it seems like I have had some warning that "an attack" was immanent.  Not this time.

There I was Sunday morning, all ready to do my annual Form 5 renewal.  I had even walked over to the FBO and drank a few sips of coffee and chatted for a bit.  Everything seemed fine.  I got in the truck to grab my flight bags which were sitting in the front passenger seat and when I turned to get out of the truck...ping!

It was like a string in my back had been plucked. 

I tried to stretch and loosen up but I knew in my heart that I was headed down hill fast.

I suffered through the oral part of the review, but when it was time to fly, I had to tell the reviewer that I just wasn't up to it.  I was so disappointed.  It is so hard to get all of the elements - plane available and working, my schedule, the reviewer's schedule, the weather - all aligned.  But, sometimes, such is life.

I'm not really surprised that my back acted up.  The last few weeks have been very stressful.

We had a major deliverable due at work that should have taken a month to finish, but for which we were given one week.

Towards the end of the week above, we received a call from the ALF (Assisted Living Facility) where my mother resides asking us to come take her to the hospital because she had stopped eating, drinking and taking her medication and was refusing to allow an ambulance to take her to the hospital.  It was very interesting to be sitting in an emergency department room on  a Saturday afternoon/evening trying to deal with my mother while simultaneously making escalation calls because of challenges at work and a looming client deliverable deadline.

The following week, Jeanie's mom had back surgery, so Jeanie went to her folks house to help out.  That turned out to be a good decision as her mom's recovery did not go smoothly.

As I was driving to the airport a few days later at ~6:00 am, Jeanie called to let me know that her mom was having complications and had to be taken to the local emergency room.  The local ER doctor was an absolute ass, and Jeanie and her dad ended up having to have her Mom transported back to Macon to be seen by her surgeon.  We talked about whether I needed to cancel my business trip, but Jeanie encouraged me to go, so I did.

I did have a nice afternoon - other than worrying about Momma Melvin.  I went for a visit to my old high school, The Storm King School.  I got to walk around the campus and revel in old memories.  I even got to walk through the dorm I lived in junior and senior years and see my old rooms.  I also got to meet and chat with a number of folks at the school including the new head of school, development director and chairman of the board of trustees.

The business trip was for a leadership seminar which was interesting.

Because I wasn't sure exactly when the seminar would end, I had scheduled a late (~7 pm getting me home around midnight) flight home.  It turned out that the seminar ended a bit early, so I was able to change to an earlier (~4 pm) flight.  Unfortunately, the earlier flight ended up having a weight and balance issue and Delta was begging for volunteers.  Since Jeanie was still away, I decided to be a nice guy and volunteer to give up my place - even though it meant not being able to fly home until ~10 am the following morning.  Delta did give me a $400 travel voucher along with a hotel voucher and a dinner voucher.

The hotel - a Wyndham Garden Inn near the Laguardia airport - was the worst hotel I have had the displeasure of staying at in a long time.  It isn't near any restaurants or stores, the service at the hotel restaurant was abysmal and the air conditioner in the room was so loud that it kept awakening me all night.  The dinner voucher was for $7 - which doesn't go very far in the New York area!

Then, to top it all off, my ~10 am flight ended up being canceled and I didn't end up getting home until ~6:30 pm, and that's only because I thought to call the Delta medallion desk and pitch a fit and get booked on another flight after my morning flight had gotten delayed for the second time.

I guess it really isn't surprising that my back would "pop" with all the other stress, then sitting in the horrid chairs in the waiting area in the airport for eight hours, and then sitting in the miserable seat of a regional jet for three hours, and then having the stress of having my Form 5.

I am definitely not suffering as much today (Wednesday) as I was on Sunday.  I am grateful that we happened to have the necessary medications - anti-inflammatory, muscle relaxant and pain reliever on-hand.  I used a cold pack for the first few days to stop the muscle spasms, and have used heat for the last day to get the muscles to loosen up.

Jeanie's Mom is doing better.  Compared to what she has been through, my back pain is insignificant.  Or to look at it another way, given how bad my back has hurt, I can't imagine how much she has suffered.  But, hopefully she will continue to feel better, and will get to go home at the end of the week. 

Speaking of crappy weeks, Jeanie sure has had her share of them lately between helping me deal with my mom, then going to her parents and getting very little sleep because her mom was having so much trouble, then having to rush her mom to the emergency room, then having to drive to Macon, then having to drive her parents to the rehabilitation center in Savannah, then having to drive home on Sunday and deal with me.

The good news is that my deal has been in a slow period, so I can afford to be down.  The sad part is that the deal is in a slow period, and the weather has been beautiful, so I could have been having some fun.

Hopefully, things will trend up from here all around for everyone...

It's been almost six months, but we're finally back up!

That title could (should?) also be viewed as advice...

I ended up purchasing a replacement motherboard on eBay.  It seemed a bit silly to purchase a six year old motherboard with a 400Mhz AMD K6-2 processor, but I didn't want to take a chance that there would be a problem with the OS loading.

I didn't count on one of the drives dying in the interim.

The good news was that I had a backup.  The bad news was that it was two years old.

Fortunately, the server had two drives - one for the system directories, and one for the two primary user directories.  The drive that died was the system drive.

So, I was able to get the system back up with the Mondo Rescue bootable backup CDs, then install the old "data" drive.

It took some tinkering to get things working - subtle things that drive you crazy like the fact that the backup's network configuration had a different default gateway than the router I now use.

One of these days I'll need to break down and buy a new server and build a new software environment from scratch, but, for the time being, we're back online!

Flying, that is.  Night flying to be exact.

Yesterday, I finally got current for night operations.

I had been trying to find a time to schedule flying with an instructor at night, but I just never could seem to work it out.  So, since I can legally fly by myself at night, I decided to ease back into the darkness on my own.

Jeanie and I went out for a sight seeing flight in the late afternoon.  We had been interested in looking at some of the new local developments from the air.  Google Earth is great, but it can't keep up with a rapidly developing area like around here.  So, off we went too look around, being careful to stay under JAX's class C veil.

After we had finished our sight seeing.  I dropped Jeanie off so she could run some errands, and parked the plane on the ramp.  I guess all the flying I've been doing lately paid off - it was the smoothest landing I've ever made.

I waited until about a half hour after sunset to take back off.  At that point, it wasn't yet totally dark, but it wasn't day either.  That way, my first couple of landings allowed me to acclimate to the night time environment.  After making a couple of full darkness landings, I decided to take a tour of the island.  This was the first time that I had ever flown right at the ocean at night.  It was an interesting experience.  Although there are additional inherent dangers associated with night flying - especially near open water - it is wonderful.  Things are so different at night.  The lights are pretty, the stars are bright, and typically, the air is very smooth.  All in all, it makes for a very serene experience.

As far as the actual flying is concerned,  I had remembered that the actual touch down is a little more challenging, due to the challenges with depth perception at night, but I had forgotten how much more challenging making the correct approach into the airport to enter the pattern is; especially at an airport with three intersecting lighted runways!

There was one other highlight to the evening.  Years ago, Jamie had given me this really cool, really small flashlight. 

For years I had kept it stuffed away in a drawer.  When I started flying again, I threw it in my flight bag.  Turns out, it is a perfect little flashlight for cockpit use while night flying.  It is not too bright, and a yellowish color, so it doesn't ruin night vision.  The little clip on the back allows it to clip conveniently to my shirt pocket, which it is just right for reading checklists.

I don't anticipate that we'll intentionally do much night flying, but it is nice to know that if we end up going someplace and leaving later than initially planned, that I can legally complete the flight under the cover of darkness - at least for the next 90 days.

I got to check off another item on my list of things I'd like to do list...

I always thought it would be so cool to pilot a Cessna 182. I've wanted to fly one since I regularly started jumping out of them in 1977.

Yesterday, only thirty years (give or take) later, I finally got to do it.

Our Civil Air Patrol squadron ended up with a loaner C-182 a few weeks ago. One of the nearby squadrons had just gotten a new glass cockpit aircraft, and we had been without our aircraft for quite a while due to an extended 100 hour, so our squadron commander arranged to allow us to borrow the other squadron's "other" airplane - a C-182.

I had been wanting to fly it since it arrived, but I just couldn't work out the scheduling.

Yesterday, the stars finally aligned.

I was out at the airport because the Collings Foundation bombers were due to arrive at the local airport. The bombers - a B17 and a B24 - are going to be here for the weekend. As part of the event, our CAP squadron set up our aircraft on static display and also set up a tent with some promotional materials so we could