Month: July 2005

First night in the new house

Vicki and I spent our first night in the new house. We’re not moved in or anything, but since we had to be out of the old house yesterday for a few potential buyers to tour it, we decided to just come over here and make a night of it. That’s also a good way to make sure the old house stays presentable. It’s just delightful to wake up in this big new bed in this bright and sunny room, with the birds singing outside of our window (and our birds downstairs singing back to them).

Buddy is a little out of sorts, but that’s at least partially because we forgot to bring his food.

About the only drawback is the fact that the TV is back at the old house, so I have to follow the Tour via the cyclingnews.com web site, and there are no three prong plug sockets downstairs so I have to run the laptop off of batteries if I want to sit down with the birds. Not that I want to leave this bed any time soon.

As I turn into the Grammar Police

In the article AOPA Online – House bill could terminate flight service station modernization, AOPA President Phil Boyer is quoted as saying

“It’s incredulous that in an atmosphere of concerns for FAA funding, more business-like air traffic operations — and wise use of taxpayers dollars — that Congress even considered, much less accepted, this amendment”

I wrote to AOPA this morning and said

I find it simply INCREDIBLE that a person whose position requires clear and accurate communication would misuse the word “incredulous” so badly. I am simply INCREDULOUS at this misuse of the language.

AOPA’s response was great:

Paul: Thanks for pointing out your incredulity with our incredible web site article.

I promise: We’ll do gooder next time, irregardless of the grammer problems we’re having it with.

😉

JM

Jeff Myers
EVP Communications
AOPA

Some more thoughts about Vinokourov and Hincape

I’ve been thinking more about who will lead the Discovery team next year. Obviously for the Discovery team, the consideration isn’t about what’s best for American cycling, it’s about what’s the best use of their advertising dollar and which will get them the most press. But US Postal and now Discovery have been doubly blessed by having an American team lead by an American rider who is winning, and winning big in the biggest race in the sport. A lot of American sponsors have come and gone because they weren’t able to field a winning team or because their wins weren’t being done by an American.

If it came down to having an American rider leading but not winning, or having an non-American rider leading and winning, I don’t think either of those is going to be good for American cycling or Discovery. So I think they’ve got to go with Hincape and hope that in the next two weeks he proves himself capable of leading and winning.

A tale of two super domestiques

This time of year, I’m majorly enthralled by the Tour de France. I’m going to presume to explain a few things about professional cycle racing even though I’ve only been following it avidly for 7 years now (and a little less avidly back when one of the riders in the peleton was a guy I’d shared tips on preventing penile frostbite with). Some of this might be laughably wrong to people who are really into the sport, but it should be close enough for the rest of you.
Continue reading “A tale of two super domestiques”

Drool

Garmin 396 GPS with XM Weather (Americas) – Sporty’s Pilot Shop

When the Garmin 296 came out, I said that all it really needed was XM Satellite weather and approach plates, and it would be the perfect electronic flight bag (EFB). Since EFBs start at about $4,000, they are so far out of my reach as to be laughable. But now they’ve done it – they’ve combined the Garmin 296 with built-in XM Satellite weather (and you can listen to XM Satellite stations with an audio jack on the unit), and it’s just about perfect.

I seriously wish I flew enough to justify this beast. But since all I really do is a few 2 hour flights every month, I should probably just keep drooling and keep the credit cards locked away.