More "Pics from above"

I have been exceedingly busy lately which makes for sporadic posting.
Here are some pics from my flying days.

This first pic is prior to an evening flight to Bay Bridge airport. The tall chap on the left, Robert Bachofner from Holland, was my flight instructor. It is very typical of foreigners to come to the US to get their instructor rating. They will then instruct for awhile to rack up flight time while also gaining a better grasp of the English language. He had a fairly heavy Dutch accent that I can still hear in my head today. The other two are simply friends along for the ride. The plane is a Piper Cherokee Warrior.

For this next picture, I was on my long cross country flight which is required to get your private pilots license. I was enroute to Norfolk International when I snapped this looking out into the Atlantic Ocean. The little finger of land you see is Cape Henry right on the northern tip of Virginia Beach. Notice the heavy ship traffic. I had just passed over the Chesapeake Bay Bridge tunnel which is a section of Rt. 13 that goes under the water to allow ships to pass over the top of the road.

until next time...

We're Number One

Someone mentioned the other day that their blog stats show me as their number one visitor. He said, "You visit my blog way more than anyone else does." I explained to him why that is. I started thinking about it and wondered if there are others out there that think I have nothing better to do than visit their blog 5 times a day. I think maybe I should explain lest you think I am emotionally disturbed.

• We have one computer and my wife visits many of the same blogs I do.

• Secondly, I use Firefox. It has this wonderful feature called "tabs". It also has this other neat little feature. If you save all your blogs in a sub-folder under bookmarks, you can click the link at the bottom called "Open in tabs". It will then open every blog listed in that folder in it's own tab. Often, as they are loading, I will be closing them as fast as they open because they were not updated...shame on you.

I will now try to explain how I have my favorite blogs book marked. I have three folders.

1. The first one is simply called "Blogs". These are the blogs that I open at least twice a day. I get them loading while I start the coffee pot in the morning. I also check them when I get home from work. There are currently 17 blogs in this folder. If you are in this folder I must enjoy reading your blog and you update fairly frequently.
2. The second folder is called "Infrequent Blogs". These blogs get loaded about twice a week or whenever I have some spare time. There are currently 60 blogs listed in this folder so it takes some time to load. This folder is a jumble of misc. blogs. It is mostly for blogs I enjoy but the posts are very sporadic. Some of the blogs are there simply because I happen to know these folks and like to be in the know.
3. There is a third folder called "Dumb Blogs". These blogs get loaded about once every two weeks. It currently holds around sixteen bookmarks. They are mostly blogs of people I know but the content doesn't really interest me too much or they are filled with intentional mispellings. It uhpeers it is now kewl 2 c how pourly u ken spell a werd widout making it cumpleetly unrekugnizeuble. Don't get me wrong, I am very forgiving of misspelled words as I do it myself often but to intentionally misspell is just plain silly and will get your blog placed in my "Dumb Blogs" folder.

So you see, I am not emotionally disturbed after all. If you assume my wife has some of the same bookmarks in her folders. It is quite possible your blog could get loaded 4-6 times per day on my computer. Take it as a compliment; you have made it to the top of the heap in my bookmarks.

Ladies Night Out

Tonight my wife left me at home with three children. Is it just me or is the level of bickering always much higher when the lady of the house is absent? My wife is out on the town for "Ladies Night Out". The ladies in our church who wish to participate divide up into groups of around 5 or 6 and they pick an evening to do something. Is this idea only suitable for women? Would men benefit from something like this? Maybe men have their day out when they go to work.
What do women talk about at these things?
Maybe I would prefer to remain ignorant.

Nothing To Read...How boring

I am currently in a state of booklessness. I like to read. Especially right before I go to sleep. I need something to distract my mind from the days activities. If I don't read something, I will lay there for hours thinking about setting trusses the next day or whatever else happens to be pressing. Also, I don't enjoy reading books I have read within the past decade. Sometimes I'll start a book, get through about two chapters, and notice I already read it...arghh...I will then carelessly toss it back on the shelf and start looking for something else.

I need something to read...any suggestions?

Snip, Snip, Oops

I don't really like getting my hair cut. I place it somewhere between preparing for tax season and having my fingernails pulled out with a pliers. It is just plain down stressful. I'm not even sure I can put into words the feelings associated with having my hair cut. Here is a quick list of reasons why I despise haircuts:

1. It is a bit uncomfortable for me to let a stranger pry around on my head. You might say I feel that it is going way past a friendly handshake.
2. There is the uncertainty as to the outcome of said haircut. It is as varied as the individual with the clippers and their current frame of mind.
   
3. It is expensive. I figure they are pulling around $83.70 an hour and I think maybe I'm in the wrong line of work.
4. I end up all itchy and cranky.
5. Some of the clipper wielding strangers feel it their duty to strike up a conversation to ease the tension. They might say, "How's the weather outside?" I say, "Nice." Awkward silence ensues They say,"Do you want to keep your sideburns?" I reply, "Uhhh, sure, why not" awkward silence and so on and so forth
   
   I went in to get a haircut last night and I was ushered back to "the chair" and sat down. It was at this point that I became witness to some lady having a fit over what had been done to her hair. I caught something about it being all chopped. Well, the lady that was going to cut my hair went over and tried to fix whatever mistake the other lady had made. Soon I saw the chopper lady coming my way to try to redeem herself. Let me interject this tidbit of wisdom, you can always tell when someone makes a mistake cutting your hair...there is this odd sound then they immediately rub the ruined spot as if that will somehow magically replace the hair they just deleted. Suffice it to say, my hair was shortened and I'm cutting my own hair from now on.