I baked the pumpkin pie.
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A large anti-war rally was scheduled yesterday. I joined the festivities, but on the opposing side. Smash has this photo . He added, The protestors may have had hundreds of people and dozens of messages, but this is how KFMB chose to end their brief segment on the event. That, my friends, is what I call "stealing the media." The anti-war protesters – well, primarily, their message was anti-Bush. They were so wrapped up in hating the president that logical, rational arguments were almost non-existent. They wanted to “Impeach Bush” and “Dump Bush”. Their signs noted in a-hundred-and-one ways that they thought he was stupid. They also claimed that “Bush Lied, thousands died”, demonstrating their originality, and that Bush was a racist because of Katrina. There were also attacks on religion, i.e. “those fascists, Pat Robertson and friends that want to make the USA a police state”. A few also mentioned the war. One of the most memorable characters carried a sign saying that
Stuck on Stupid
Do you ever have the feeling that the news media is arrogant and even not on our side? Did you ever notice they seem to ask stupid questions that are not about the story, but more about them? Check out this news conference discussing the emergency preparations in New Orleans where General Honore slapped down a reporter that was "Stuck on Stupid". Male reporter: General, a little bit more about why that's happening this time, though, and did not have that last time... Honore: You are stuck on stupid. I'm not going to answer that question. We are going to deal with Rita. This is public information that people are depending on the government to put out. The audio file and the transcript can be found here . And the video can be found here .
Cross-country Flying
One of the requirements for pilot training is to make a solo cross-country flight with a round trip greater than 150 miles. The plane I had been flying, a Cessna 172 with a 160 HP engine was temporarily down for maintenance so I decided to use the club’s Cessna 150. I knew that the 150 would be a bit slower but I thought it would still easily do the job. On the outbound leg I noticed a fire in the mountains to the east. I advised the Ramona tower and was informed that the air tankers were already working the fire. My flight was from San Diego to Apple Valley and had to cross over mountains that were more than 6000 feet high. I chose 8500 feet as a cruising altitude. This would give me ample altitude should I encounter any downdrafts. The 150 climbed its’ heart out and finally reached 8500 feet just in time to cross over the mountains. Over the mountains I met a UAL 737. I rocked my wings vigorously to let him know that I did not want to land at LAX. Then it was an easy descent
Our Brush With Fame
Today President Bush gave a speech at a Naval base in Coronado, CA commemorating sixty years since victory over Japan in WWII. He arrived yesterday. We had heard that protesters would be trying to make his life miserable. We met at a principal intersection in Coronado for an Operantion Thank You rally. We had flags and signs saying things like, " Thank You US Military" and other similar thoughts. Since a large part of the traffic was military Personnel and employees on their way home, the reception was great . The military personnel appreciate it. One car even drove by displaying a license plate reading in part, "POW". We thanked him profusely. While we were there a large black SUV turned left in front of us. The rear window opened and none other than Donald Rumsfeld leaned out, waved and said thank you - to us.
Inside 9/11
We watched the National Geographic special, Inside 9/11 . It was two separate 2 hour programs telling the story of what and how it came to happen. I think it told the story very well and I reccommend it highly.
History of Civilization
Curmogeonly & Skeptical has a good explanation on the history of civilization .
Golf
My brother-in-law, Mike is an avid golfer. I never caught the bug. I tried it once, about 45 years ago. I recall a quotation to the effect that golf is a way to spoil a perfectly good walk in the country. Since I enjoyed exploring the woodlands I understand the essence of that quotation. Now, I understand the true reasons even better. See below.
We Listed our House
Our house had been in escrow early in July, but alas, it was not to be. The market has changed here in San Diego and completed sales are taking a lot longer that earlier in the year. We have finally surrendered and have listed the house for sale with a real estate agent. Today was the first open house. We as owners were banished during the event. It might be scary for a buyer to actually meet a seller. Therefore we went driving. Late summer is monsoon season in San diego county with the tropical moisture being drawn northward from the gulf of California. The conditions frequently produce thunderstorm over the mountains. This has been happening for the past two or three weeks. We drove to the mountains to experience the thunderstorms and were sorely disappointed. The storms appeared to be somewhere near the Colorado river and produced mostly overcast conditions with a light sprinkle.
Passed Written Test
Yesterday I took and passed the FAA written knowledge test for airplane single engine, land, ASEL.
Return to San Diego
With our business finished in Reno we returned to San Diego. We stopped along the way at Devils Postpile National Monument near the Mammoth Mountain ski area. The monument is the result of a basalt lava eruption from Mammoth Mountain about 100,000 years ago to form a layer about 400 feet deep. Then about 10.000 years ago a glacier caused the stone to bend as you see in the photo. The area has some beautiful streams and campsites. We may return for an extended stay. We arrived in San Diego Friday PM.
Try, Try Again
We set out again for Reno. This time the T-bird behaved as we had hoped. It even seemed to enjoy the exercize. It was running better when we arrived than when we left San Diego. We stopped for fuel at a truck stop near Victorville. I checked the fluids and while adding a quart of oil noticed that gasoline was leaking from the rear. I suspect that the many years of sitting allowed the rubber fill connection to rot away. We managed to get further down the road without any problem. We no longer filled the tank completely.
Off to Reno
We left for Reno this afternoon. We didn't get very far. I purchased a 1968 Ford Thunderbird as a possible "project car" and intend to ferry the car to Reno, where I have garage space and tools for its restoration. My chauffer, Dianne, thought she could drive all 550 mile on her tip-toes. Her tip toe muscles gave out before she traveled ten miles and since it was rush hour, we had a crisis on our hands. We managed to avert citations for cars broken down along side the freeway. I had to backtrack, and then disconnect the toad before setting out for the rescue. I arrived just as a freeway service patrol was placing a red ticket on the radio antenna. We decided to wait and try again in the morning.
Cautious Optimism
Our house in in escrow. After about two months ofholding open houses we have received and accepted an offer for the sale of our house. The escrow is scheduled to close by the end of September, or sooner.
Porpoises
Dianne insisted that I take her out for dinner tonight. OK, OK we went to the beach to watch the sunset. Guess what? With the typical San Diego weather pattern the beach was overcast and there was no chance of seeing the sun. We did, however, see a school of porpoises just off shore. They even surfed, alongside the surfers. I lived on the beach for many years and have spent a lot of other time on the beach. I think this was the first time I had seen porpoises at a San Diego beach.
I am posting excerpts from an email from a friend that recently moved from San Diego to the DC area. It shows her observations on life in a different world. I notice people here, on base, talk a lot about their gardens, which plants are in bloom, and how we need rain . They are not pedestrian friendly, definitely not pedestrian friendly. one woman stopped to allow me to walk from the store to the parking lot and the car behind her started to go around her and just about hit me. I had some profane words for car no. II Californians are in for a shock when dealing with east coast traffic. Slow as heck drivers. the I-95 is the main artery going N and S. Everyone is going N in a.m. into DC. It starts to back up a good 25 miles south of DC. I see the gridlock/parking lot from my on ramp. I-95 is only a 3 lane interstate and it is ugly with all the big rigs. there are yield signs getting onto the freeways, scary!! there is the HOV lanes with 2 lanes for 3 or more they open and c
Bikers and Frogmen
Today I was invaded by bikers and alien frogmen. My cousin needed to run an errand and asked me to watch her kids for the duration. They immediately demanded, and I obliged, to explore our garage. Therein they found all manor of strange and curious things to explore. My Yamaha motorcycle was ridden for "miles". Trevor began dis-assembling boxes of diving equipment. He tried on numerous items and selected certain things for a trip to our local pool. Holly spent time moving boxes around the garage using othe hand truck. She soon became bored with the garage and demanded to explore our upstairs. I reminded her that both kids had th go in or both had to stay in the garage and Trevor wasn't ready to yield his treasure. Eventually she prevailed and the exploration zone changed. New treasures were found, but none so exciting as those in the garage. Eventually Mom returned and we all went to the pool. The frogman had to take all his equipment.
Solo
Today was the day! I Soloed in the Cessna 172. I had three takeoffs and about a dozen landings. I don't think I can log all the landings.
Aviation
I have been taking flying lessons. It's something I have wanted to do for a long time. I am licensed as a glider pilot and as a hot air balloon pilot, although I have not been active in either for about 8 years, but I have not flown airplanes. I now have the time and since we live two miles from the airport I ran out of excuses. I had started before we left for Florida last fall, but stopped because I could not reach any rational plateau before we left. The typical San Diego weather for the month of June is overcast with a heavy marine cloud layer thay may or may not burn off before mid to late afternoon. Some days it never clears up and the airplanes stay on the ground. I have reached the stage where it was time for a cross country flight along with the flight planning. Yesterday we had a glorious clear sky. It even matched the scheduling between me and my flight instructor. Since we had room, Dianne came along as a passenger. The flight was about 40 minutes each way an
Day by Day
For your viewing pleasure I have added the "Day by Day" cartoon to this blog. It was an exercize in copying and pasting into the existing html and not destroying the entire thing.
Cuyamaca Wild Flowers
The heavy rains of last winter have produced a bounty of wild flowers. Thursday we drove out to Cuyamaca Rancho State Park to tour the area. It had been heavily damaged by the wild fires a year and a half ago. This was the first time I had passed through the park since the fires. We could see that a lot of trees had been heavily damaged from fire and many near the road were marked for removal. We went to see the wild flowers. See photos below.
British Doctors Seek to Ban Kitchen Knives
This story in the Scotsman tells that the doctors have discovered that kitchen knives were used in 50 % of all stabbings. http://news.scotsman.com/index.cfm?id=579102005 Does this explain English food? Or, has someone poisoned their water?
Italian Cooking
We live in a great community. One of the amenities is a monthly cooking class. Last night we attended a class on San Francisco style Italian. The dishes consisted of cioppino (supposedly, cioppino was first created in San Fran), a spinach-artichoke dip, and a bread pudding made with sourdough bread. Dianne wants to try it, but first she must be able to pronounce the words. No, it's not capuccino, or capriccio. She must be a distant cousin of the President.
Midwestern Visitors
Some of you already know. I grew up in Wisconsin. Occasionally we get visitors from the old country, especially when they need a vacation. They always want to go to the beach. We always try to accommodate their wishes. They want to brag back home about their California tan. These visitors sunned themselves on the beach near Ft Bragg, CA. HT San Diego UT.
Good bye Pesky
After we returned home and after my surgery our 14 year-old cat, Penelope, developed what was diagnosed as liver cancer. The vet gave her one week to live. That was about a month ago. She kept hanging in there and she insisted on inspecting any guests we might have had. This past Thursday she had taken a turn for the worse. We had decided that the end was near. The plan was to take her to the vet the next morning. We awoke to discover that she had expired during the night. She will be missed.
Win Ben Stein's Money
Saturday: we attended a Ray Lucia financial seminar. Ray is a San Diego financial advisor who has developed a nationally broadcast radio talk show. We have often listened to his show until Clear Channel sold the station. We believe that his advise is sound. He talks about a system he calls “Buckets of Money” and has a book by that name. If you can catch the show, do so. Along with Ray was Ben Stein of the “Win Ben Stein’s Money” TV show. We went to see Ben. Among other things, Ben was trained as an economist. One of Ben’s beginning remarks was a story about his sister who was an exercise nut. She had called him to tell him which exercise she had done this day. She then asked him what he had done recently. He replied that he did the same exercise he did every day. When he first got out of bed he did one deep knee bend and thanked God that he lived in the United States of America, the greatest land on earth. It brought a tear to our eyes. Thanks Ben.
Student Opinion
Direct your attention to the following cartoons. They were first place winners in a school "writing" contest. This was drawn by a fifth grade girl. How do you suppose a fifth grader came up with such an idea? She suggests electric cars. Where do you suppose the electricity might come from? Next: This was drawn by an eighth grader. It was about the Donna Frye campaign for mayor of San Diego. She was a write-in candidate and per the city charter, technically not eligible to participate in the election. In addition, like the voters in Florida in 2000, the voters were incapable of also marking an "X" in the box. In my opinion both of the cartoons indicate how the kids minds are being poisoned by their teachers. Never let the facts get in the way of your arguement. Update I included pictures with this post. They were there immidiately after I posted them. I see from the large blank spaces that they are no longer present. It is apparent that Blogger has managed to
Would a NASCAR fan accept this?
Would a NASCAR fan accept this ? Judge orders a Wisconsin woman to choose between 90 days in jail or to give up her Packers season tickets.
Where have I been?
It’s now over five weeks since I had my belly sliced open. I have been home over four and am healing nicely. The Doc said that by six weeks after the surgery the wound strength would be at about 90% of normal and 95% in another month. Posting has been extremely light. I haven’t felt very inspired for writing anything. It seems that encountering new scenery facilitated something to say. Perhaps this blog will evolve into something beyond a travelogue. When I first came home I slept a lot. Now I manage to usually stay awake for most of the day. We have been busy handling things that had been neglected in the preceding four months. We’ve been preparing our taxes and getting ready to sell our house. A large part of our efforts has been devoted to getting rid of clutter and putting some things in storage. We took advantage today of a neighborhood-wide garage sale. It’s a peculiar sensation to be able to walk in a straight line completely across a room without stopping. I may grow
Let Me Entertain You
Here are two fun time wasters. http://www.shockhaber.com/zzzzzzzzzzzzzzz.htm and http://members.chello.nl/rwestdorp/maukie1.swf
Surgery
After a stop at a local doctor (for a cash ectomy) I went to the emergency room Thursday evening. Surgery was scheduled for Friday am. Dianne began to feel better. What began as laproscopic surgery quickly proceeded to the conventional type. Judging from the size of the incision it looks like a carving knife may have been required. The first day following recovery was spent in the ICU. The nurse changed the dressing. Dianne was given smelling salts. The surgeon’s dressing was gauze, covered by a large rubberized adhesive sheet. Kind of like a RV with a rubber roof. She replaced it with something called “Montgomery strips”. The plastic strips are perforated, much like for insertion into a ring binder. Safety pins were placed in the holes. One strip was securely taped on each side of the wound. The dressing was then inserted and the package was secured with rubber bands laced across the safety pins. The whole thing is durable and very easy to change the dressing. I was transf
On the Way Home
Saturday. To quote a line in a C & W song, (Mac Davis, I think) ‘Happiness is Lubbock, Texas in the rear view mirror.’ The road carried us west across west Texas and the Permian Basin. I think that Permian refers to a geologic era. The basin supplied much of our military’s petroleum needs during WW II. The area is so flat that highway expansion joints are prominent terrain features. The sights consisted of agriculture (cotton and peanuts) and oil fields. We were on our way to Guadalupe Mountains National Park. Guadalupe Peak is the high point of Texas. We (I) wanted to reach the top of another states high point. The highway incidentally also passed Carlsbad Caverns National Park. We stopped and toured the cavern. It was really spectacular. They encouraged us to take pictures, but due to the lack of light we met only marginal success. It’s an odd phenomenon of nature that sunlight seldom penetrates through 750 feet of limestone. We camped for the night in a Guadalupe NP campground.
Jackson
We stopped in Jackson, MS to visit our friends Walter, Laura, and their kids, Walt and Peyton. It was a great visit. Walter showed us around the town. We saw beautiful areas and squalor. On to the Dallas area where we again visited our friends John and Cindy and our former neighbors Dave and Angela. We noticed that Spring has arrived. The trees are beginning to awaken from the Winter. But, don't be fooled. We woke up this morning to find frost on the car. The current stop is Lubbock where we hope to take care of some business.
On The Road Again
Bike Week ’05 is now history. We’re on our way home. With two days travel, we have reached Jackson MS. It seems that we have been gone far too long. Dianne is so impatient to get home that even she might be willing to drive. We were parked in a field at the west end of the Daytona Speedway. What a ‘bargain’, only $200 to dry camp, (grin). It still beats other options. I think every other RV park is sold out, - and the price is even higher. Bike Week seems to cover all of central Florida. I have heard that Bike Week brings somewhere near 750,000 motorcycle riders to the area. Compare that to the NASCAR event last month, which drew about 250,000 race fans. The traffic is horrendous, but can be mostly avoided by those that know the city. That doesn’t include me yet. I was last in Daytona in 1964. That year I rode in a 100 mile road race at the speedway. I didn’t get involved in any partying. I don’t even know if Daytona was about partying as much then as it is now. Racing was superb. We a
Miserable Weather
We're here in Daytona waiting for Bike week, beginning this Saturday. We have been suffering through clear skies and warm weather. All the while we see reports of people enjoying the snow in the Northeast. See the report by Scott Ott, below. AccuWeather: Beautiful Snowstorm Delights East Coast by Scott Ott (2005-03-01) -- A spectacular snowstorm has created a winter wonderland in the eastern United States, delighting people of all ages, according to AccuWeather meterologist Joe Sobel. The storm , which draped the landscape in a blanket of shimmering white, has already been blamed for countless hours of joyful play which will live in the memories of children for years. "Millions of adults stayed home to enjoy time with family and escape the drudgery of their dead-end jobs," Mr. Sobel said. "Folks who work in the snow removal industry are enjoying boom times, with many earning overtime pay that will help to send children to college and generally f
Exploring the Islands
Yesterday we drove into South Carolina – barely. It was barely enough to carve another notch on our steering wheel (States that we have visited). It may be only a “qualified” notch because we only drove the car and not the RV. We wanted to see Hilton Head Island (just north of the Georgia State line). The island oozes wealth and exclusiveness. It was a rare community that didn’t have controlled, gated access. It has beautiful beaches. Access points are frequent, but it is nearly impossible to find a place to park. Consequently, I didn’t find the beaches convenient to those of us in the masses. It was likewise, too far to walk or bicycle. It was sort of like Laguna Beach or Malibu, but with less parking. There is only one road leading to or from the island. I can only imagine how traffic might be in the event of a hurricane evacuation. Driving south, back into Georgia, we passed through Savannah again, and onto Tybee Island. Parking is still at a premium and controlled by me
Weather Report
I have been noticing the weather around the country. I'm sorry for the folks in SanDiego that I am not there to counteract the forces of my cousin Libby. The rain will not last forever. The will return to Wisconsin -- eventually. It's not raining here.
Georgia on My Mind
We have a couple of weeks before Bike Week at Daytona. To pass the time we decided to explore Georgia. We are currently staying in a RV park situated on McIntosh Lake, approximately midway between Savannah and Florida. Yesterday we visited Darien, GA, a small nearby town. Darien is the home of a shrimp boat fleet, and sometimes the shipping of timber. Today we visited Savannah, the oldest city in Georgia. We mostly explored the historic area. Until about 25 years ago, it was one of those decrepit decaying downtowns that were awaiting the wrecking ball. Now it has been largely restored and is densely populated with restaurants and galleries and other such touristy shops. It also includes a large number of restored homes of prominent early community leaders. It sort of resembles the Gas Lamp District in San Diego with houses except that it is significantly larger. We took one of the shuttle bus tours to get an overview. It wasn’t until we were leaving the historic district that we realiz
