Grounded

When I wasn’t spending quality time with the family, including celebrating my mother’s birthday, I was out doing yard work: the first in a long, long time. I do my best thinking when I’m mowing the lawn. Given enough grass to cut, I could figure out a way to rule the world. 🙂

Anyhow, during the many times I paused to empty the mower bag, I stopped and took in the beauty that is fall in North Carolina. It was a stunningly beautiful day, with a crystal blue sky providing a backdrop for trees bursting with brilliant fall colors. Perfect day for flying, I thought to myself as I imagined the view from Up There. Every now and then, my jealous ears would hear the sound of a plane passing overhead. At times I got a glimpse of it: the biplane was out again. Lucky bastard.

It made me realize that flying is one of those things I was really set to do, but never let get off the ground. Without debating why I’ve delayed it, I reaffirmed my desire to one day get my wings. I really, really, really do. Like anything.

But our current situation doesn’t allow for it. Flying is an expensive hobby, one that most certainly isn’t in our budget at the present time. I would have to get a substantial raise in order to even think about it. The odds of that happening anytime soon, however, are pretty slim. And that’s where the conflict sets in. It’s one I’ll have to solve or go nuts trying.

Given the desire, there isn’t anything I can’t accomplish. I can be amazingly focused on topics that engage me: the PBX thing, for instance. I feel the same push to climb into the cockpit; to eat, sleep, and breathe flying. The competitive spirit in me has been roused by my officemate Greg, who recently began his lessons.

I cannot let go of any more of my dreams. It has to happen, and I have to figure out a way for it to happen. But until that magic puzzle piece falls into place, the closest I’m going to get to the runway is Observation Park. And that sucks.

“Old Nole” Turns 200 Today

The original “Old Nole,” my Honda Accord EX, will hit 200,000 miles today. This is a car so popular that twelve years after its debut, it still ranked #17 on the list of most stolen cars.

I bought the car from my dad, who gave it its name. Mr. Old Nole‘s vanity plate has long since been removed from his Honda, but the name has stuck.

The window gaskets are loose and there are pockmarks on the mirrors, but overall it is still running strong.

What a great ride. Thanks, Old Nole, for getting me where I am today.

Deep Thoughts

A community lives and dies on the willingness of its citizens to become involved.

Happy Halloween!

Its Halloween today. Unlike previous, I don’t really have a lot planned for this Halloween. Sad, actually.

Oh sure. There’s the smoke machine, and the lighted skulls. And the creepy music. But that’s all been done before. I don’t have anything original this time around, other than the cheap scarecrow.

I never got around to building my Flying Crank Ghost, nor did I build a fog chiller like I wanted. That was just due to the busy weekends we’ve been spending; lots of them out of town.

I hope my Halloween reputation isn’t slipping!

Flashes Of Brilliance

Here’s something to spook you on the eve of Halloween. Medical science is at a loss to explain why flashing LEDs drastically improve healing.

Yes, LEDs similar to those in the plastic skull I’ll be using to scare the heck out of the neighborhood kids have been shown to produce almost miraculous healing.

It reminds me of the Indian shaman who recently went an entire year without eating, subsisting only on water and the sun’s rays. He attracted the attention of NASA, who funded a study to determine how the guy could do this. I wonder what kind of energy light really provides our bodies?

Maybe its time to trade in my CRT monitor for one of those LED flat-panels, huh?

Deep Thoughts

A journey does not end until you’ve washed the clothes that you wore on it.

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Need … Sleep

Smitty kept us up all night last night with her continual jumping on the bed. We don’t normally let her sleep there, but made a BAD decision when we got back to let her up for one night when we got back into town. Ever since, she’s tried to stake out a place on our crowded bed, only to get booted.

Well, last night she didn’t get the message and kept getting booted. And WE didn’t get the message and thus kept booting her, rather than putting her up somewhere and getting some sleep.

We won’t make the same mistake tonight, though. See y’all in the morning!

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Batten Down The Solar Hatches, Arrrrrrrgh!

The Earth is getting pummeled today by a giant solar storm, the third-largest ever recorded. If this blog ceases to be updated for the rest of the day, you’ll know why.

Maybe some day we’ll find a way to harness this incredible electromagnetic energy that’s now considered a nusiance. But enough about my weblog…

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Fun with Meta Tags

I was looking at the page source for the website of They Might Be Giants. Here are the Meta tags which describe their site:

meta NAME=”description” content=”They Might be Giants are a band of rockers responsible for creating numerous songs about dead presidents and disembodied heads… but in a nice way. Both band leader’s names are JOHN and everyone else is named DAN.”

meta NAME=”keywords” content=”rock, rockers, malcolm in the middle, birdhouse in your soul, tmbg, they might be giants, monkeys, president heads, mink car, factory showroom, flood, ana ng, free mp3, mp3, download mp3, download, porn stars, anti-gravity boots, guitar, guitars, johns, flansburgh, linnell, band of dans, shooting gallery, taft, roosevelt, nixon, accordian, ecards, e-cards, streaming music, music, radio, modern rock, pop music, pop stars, eclectic music, alternative music, hornblow, hornblow group, chopping block”

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