My New Favorite Site(s)

Aside from my newfound enjoyment of finding old high school and college friends on Facebook thanks to Sabrina telling me I should try it, I have another new favorite website.


I have always liked aviation. I probably should have gone into it as a career. Even though I used to be scared to death as a child of flying, I love it. I think because of my fear, I immersed myself in it as much as possible. Using a scanner at the airport to watch planes and listen to the communication. Reading a blog of a former United captain. Understanding the elements of flight iteself.


I have long enjoyed looking at pictures on http://www.airliners.net/ When I am at the airport and I see a couple or a small group of people traveling together and they say their connecting gate, i.e. "F12", I find myself guessing where they are going and looking at the monitors to see how close I was. There is logic in this of course...time of day (dictates where remaining flights might be going), age, how they are dressed, etc. Of course, in the MSP terminal where I am so often, I kind of have figured out NWA (read: Delta) has arranged their gate patterns. Indianapolis mostly goes from the low C gates. Omaha, the low F gates (unless it is a CRJ or Embraer). West coast flights from the high Gs.


OK, not done with the story and just reread to this point. My geekiness is even scaring ME a little.


My new favorite site out of all of this is http://www.flightaware.com/ I find myself looking up all kinds of flights to see where they are, how much time they have left, etc. I look at airplanes going to busy places to see if they are doing loops to get in line for landing. On their home page, they have a time lapse quicktime of every flight over the US for 24 hours. I could watch it loop forever I think. The patters of east to west, flights incoming from Europe and then Europe bound is so neat to me. Quite possibly just to me.


Here are some images of my flight from Indy last night and then one from 10/9 from DTW to LGA with some holding circles in it. At least I think it is cool.

Detroit to LaGuardia with 2 loops to await congestion

Nice flight from Indianapolis to Minneapolis - had a great view of Chicago out my window and you can see why! Big turns going into MSP to come in from the west!

NO?

No surgery. How can that be? Is this doc a crackpot? How can the doc in 2002 be so adamant about it and I went AMA only to have it bleed out in September this year but this doc says I do not need surgery? It's not that I want the surgery. Frankly, I am a chicken shit and it really cramps my schedule.



Well, here is the deal. He saw the mastoiditis although he said it is not the whole mastoid. He thinks a little prednisone and more antibiotic (my gut it gonna be eaten away) should take care of it for now. He does want to see me in two weeks to be 100% sure, but at this point, he thinks we stay away from the knife. The best part of the visit was that Jessa got to witness deep ear suctioning for the first time. The look on my face combined with the sound and the fact that I plugged the suction tip 2 times!!! Having it done really sucks, literally, but I am used to it after having it done so many times in my life.

This just in....Rube Nation Tries a Honeycrisp....

This one day, The Rube calls me. He is shocked at how much the Honeycrisps were on his grocery bill. At this point, still no word on whether he likes them or not. The offer still stands to buy them from you at 1/2 price.

Looks like there is hope to go to Saskatoon yet!

I was reading a story on Lorrie Morgan having just filed bankruptcy to "reorganize her company". Turns out she is broke. What part of "do not spend more than you have" don't you understand Lorrie? I guess when she sang "Something in Red", she was talking about her bottom line. She says she needs to reorganize her company after her recent divorce from Sammy Kershaw. Don't Go Near The IRS Man, Sammy....don't worry about the water! The best part is that this is ex-hubby #5 for Morgan. Al is only through 2. That means we can have a wedding for Al in Saskatoon, then #4 in Moose Jaw and #5 in Winnipeg just to be different and experience a different province. Of course, all divorce celebrations to be held in Vegas.

Prior to being sidetracked on Al's future weddings, I thought about this a little deeper. Lorrie's "company" needs to be reorganized. Company? Look, your music stopped selling. The reorganization needs to be an effort to find a new line of work! In the sprirt of this though, I had a band once with some friends. I'd like to reorganize and try again. To offset my wage loss while I work on this little project, I will just file bankruptcy to protect my assets. Great plan!

The Cost of a Good Meal

We just returned from a weekend of pheasant hunting. We have enough birds for one meal. So, let's add this trip up.

• $110 non resident SD Small Game license
• $75 in fuel
• $50 Motel (Jake was so happy that we finally got to stay in a "M"otel instead of a "H"otel!)
• $80 for shells and what I will classify as hunting food from Fleet Farm
• $100 for dinner (treated the guy who let me hunt on his land) - at least he bought my 15 captain morgan's after dinner....like I needed THAT!
• $35 breakfast today

That adds up to $450.00! 3 birds makes it $150 a bird. I could have gone to a game farm 10 miles away and bought 56 pheasants all cleaned with no lead in them and frozen for that much money!

Obviously, this is worth so much more. Seeing Dozer (old man Black Lab) possibly on his last hunt. His hips are shot. If not for drugging him with doggie asprin and other hip stuff, he'd not be able to walk. BUT - he did hunt 1/2 of both days. Good for him. He was so happy out there.

Plus, this was Indy's first hunt. By the end of Saturday, he was completely off of the check cord and we never used the shock collar. He totally responded to the whistle which was new for me to try vs. the shock collar. He was completely in his element and instincts took over. For a 6 month old dog, he did wonderfully.

Add in that Jake got to ride in a combine with a 35' head that was picking beans and see how it all works. He was even in there when they did a moving dump into the hopper being pulled next to the combine. Then, later he was able to ride in the other big tractor that pulled the hopper and he got to DRIVE that. He said it was the most awesome thing EVER!

Now as I lick my own wounds from walking through the long grasses, falling over clumps of dirt and running in boots after partially dead pheasants, it is fun to look back on the fun we had as a family this weekend. Very cool. Even if it was $450!

You Have Died of Dysentery

Anyone who played Oregon Trail knows that line. My travel schedule lately has been similar to that of the 49ers on the Oregon Trail. Maybe not QUITE that bad but it has been a busy stretch of travel. It went something like this:

10/5 - 7 AM flight from MSP to SEA. Went early so I could drive the ~2 hours south near Olympia to see my grandma. Went to the Microsoft BI Conference which was really nice!

10/8 and 10/9 - redeye from SEA to DTW for 60 minutes and then DTW to LGA. Cross country.....wow. It is amazing was sudden, violent turbulence at about the 2 1/2 hour point will do to your sleep pattern.

10/10 - LAAAATE flight from LGA to MSP after a meeting in CT with a client.

10/11 - wake up at home, pretty sure it is CST but feel completely hungover.

10/13 - Fly to Omaha

10/14 - Fly back to MSP. Finally done until 10/27.

Fortunately, I experienced an unprecedented run of first class upgrades by going 6 for 6 on this list of flights. As a silver, I had my doubts on a few legs despite the odd hour flights. I was maning hoping for the redeye and obviously got it along with all others.

I really felt like I hit the point of traveling too much when a flight attendant recognized me from a flight last spring on last nights OMA-MSP flight. The scary part is that this leg was on Compass Airlines on a puddle jumper which I fly on very rarely.

How is the ear you ask?

Well, I had a CT Scan on Monday and tonight received a rather frantic call from my local Doc. He is calling in an "urgent" request to the ENT doc to get me in ASAP. So urgent that if I do not hear from them by noon Thursday, I am to call him to let him know.

You see, I have been diagnosed with Mastoiditis and while my cup size has increased, it has nothing to do with my man-boobs. My mastoid bone is fluid and potentially infection filled. Complications range from hearing loss to brain abcess and death. That is some range....

I know they will threaten surgery. I think I will probably comply this time as my ears have been worse than ever this round. I really hope they will postpone it until after my vacation (cruise) from 11/27-12/8 as the recovery is anywhere from 2-4 weeks at home and quite often requires a second surgery soon after the first.

More to come I suppose....