Copper Fox

Rick Wasmund and his wife own and operate the Copper Fox Distillery in Sperryville, Virginia, about 10 miles east and about 2500 feet below the Skyline Drive. Rick thought he wanted to be a distiller so he visited every distillery he could get to in the United States and then went to Scotland, ending up with an internship at a distillery.  He came back and bought an existing distillery, moved it and put his mark on it.  Copper Fox malts and kilns all of their grains.  Malting is the process of allowing grain to start to sprout, under carefully controlled conditions - doing this converts the starch in the grain to maltose - hence malt whiskey.  It is the only distillery in the United States that hand malts it's own grain, all of the others buy it already malted.  They grain is dried in a wood fired kiln and smoked with apple and cherry wood (a lot of Scottish distillers use peat smoke.)  The operation is in an old apple cider mill and the fermentation tanks are stainless steel vats recycled from the previous tenant. The distilling side uses pot stills, with at least double distillation.  Rube Goldberg would be proud of the configuration of equipment. The staff is young and creative.  The product is aged onsite, in about 300 full size barrels (Kentucky put 1.2-million barrels of bourbon into aging in 2013.)  They experiment with hardwood chips in the barrels for color and flavor.  They offer a couple of single malts, a rye, white spirit with age it at home micro barrel kits, a corn based American whiskey that does not meet the legal definition to be labeled as bourbon because of the innovative aging, and recently introduced an Anise based gin.  I sampled the gin and one of the single malts and bought two of the single malts.  The one I have opened is the younger and less expensive of the two single malts.  It is smokey and very woody - very-very woody.  It has a little bite and might benefit from a more time in the barrel - but it is an interesting sip and I would recommend it.  I sampled the other single malt at the distillery - it is aged in used wine barrels and was significantly smoother - I have a bottle of that to open one day. Based on the sample it is very good. I am a fan of juniper based gin - so I skipped the gin. The tour is free, they offer up to three 1/2 ounce samples, and sell the products on site.  The bourbon like whiskey sold out, they are expecting a new release in August, I will need to make another trip out to try that. 

Rye

Catoctin Creek distillery in Purcellville, VA

This is one of the two distilleries that we visited this past weekend.  The idea, was hatched in traffic, while commuting from the far outer burbs into DC (a nasty commute on a good day.)  Hubby went to his wife with this great idea, and she told him to come back with a business plan.  He did, she read it and it was good, very good.  She is an engineer by trade and it shows.  The place is neat and orderly, with a place for everything clearly planned.  They make a rye, bottling two versions, a gin, and three brandies, pear, peach and grape.  I will sample the pear sometime soon.  The rye is aged a minimum of two years, with select barrels set aside for an extra year.  This bottle is the three year.  It is good rye, not my favorite spirit, but well made. It is smooth, with a smokey finish. The stills are a hybrid, pot-column still.  The mash is heated in the bottom like a pot still, then rises through a column still.  Very technical, in keeping with the character of the owners.  It is a modest operation producing something like 150 gallons of finished product a week.  They recently moved into downtown, into a building that housed a Buick Dealership for 70 years. They do a nice tour and have a very nice tasting room.  

Bear Video

I think I have made peace with YouTube, here is the bear video.  This was 250 feet from the hotel room we spent Saturday night in.

A night above the clouds

I spent most of the last 36 hours, sort of off the web.  We took a long weekend (not over yet) and went to the Skyline Drive and Shenandoah Valley area.  The trip was unstructured, with a few anchor points we wanted to see, along with whatever our paths crossed.  No hotel reservations were made.  Saturday we stopped at a hotel above the clouds in the mountains for lunch.  We asked, they had a room and plans were made for a night above the clouds.  We had time for the first of two distillery tours Saturday afternoon at Copper Fox.  Just before lunch we passed a small bear, eating along the stone wall on the side of the road, Saturday evening, 250 feet past our hotel we saw another young bear foraging (picture above, I have a nice video clip, blogger and I don't get along well enough for the video at the moment.) This morning there were two more bears, these mature adults, one crossed the road in front of us, and the other was climbing a rock face and munching on blackberries on the side of the road.  Amazing four bears in 24 hours. We left the National Park afternoon today and stopped for our second distillery tour of the weekend at Catocin Creek in Perceville, VA.  Interesting stuff, a classmate of mine asked me to partner with him on a distillery 15 years ago, I think I would have enjoyed it.  

I don't know who that man is in the pictures, remember DG is never appears on this blog.  

What is your favorite bird

Keeping backyard chickens is becoming quite fashionable in the USA. I would have a hard time keeping them in my backyard,  120 Sq ft of glass enclosed concrete on the third floor.  They do seem kind of simple minded,  maybe we should elect a few to Congress. 

Backyards

This is what your backyard might look like, if you had a few billion dollars and a full time staff of gardeners, can you imagine how fun it would be hiring the garden boys! I grew up with an unusual back yard. In the middle of World War II my Grandfather bought an 80 acre farm about 60 miles north of Detroit.  It was cheap, it was paid for shortly after the War, not the best farm land but he really didn't care.  He was looking for a place outside of the city to keep bees.  In the 1950's my parents moved to the farm, followed a couple of years later by my Grandparents.  I was born while my parents lived on the farm.  My Grandfather farmed a few acres of the farm for a few years, mostly tomatoes and strawberries. But for the most part it was his dream back yard.  30 acres of meadows and 50 acres of trees.  Eventually there were two homes, a pond and over 5 acres of grass to be mowed. My Grandfather's health failed when I was a teenager, and I assumed mowing duties, a riding mower and five acres to be cut all summer.  I hate mowing grass, I don't care if I ever have a back yard again, unless I can hire the lawn-boys.  

Happy Thanksgiving

I called my parents yesterday.  Mom answered the phone.  She thought it was Thanksgiving and wanted to know when I would be arriving.  I assured I would be there for Thanksgiving.

Fluffyness

Fluffy sheep are a recurring theme in my life.  We fell in love with the sight of a meadow full of sheep on a week in Yorkshire 7 years ago.  They appear so content and reassuring,  and properly cooked taste wonderful.  The US does not have enough sheep. We should start a campaign to expand sheep farming in the country.  I bet someone in DC would give me a grant for that.

Strawberry pie

I still have a pastry phobia. I am trying to overcome it by exposure.  In other words to get over it by making pastry until I feel comfortable. Hubby went shopping yesterday and brought home a huge box of tasty strawberries.  So I made a strawberry pie.  A basic butter pastry,  one quarter pound of butter,  tablespoon of sugar, pinch of salt, 1.25 cups of flour. Buzz it in the food processor.  Add a couple of tablespoons of cold water and roll it out.  Bake at 375 for 20 minutes.  For the glaze,  clean and chop about a cup of strawberries,  add half a cup of sugar, half a cup of rum, and a couple of tablespoons of corn starch. Cook over medium heat. Clean and half another 2 cups of strawberries and toss with powdered sugar. Chill the glaze and the pie shell. Mix the fresh strawberries in the glaze and fill the pie shell.

10 ways to reduce stress

1. Keep it all in perspective, if nothing ate you today, you had a good day
2. Laugh, there is humor in almost everything 
3. Use your vacation days, no one has ever sat on their deathbed and said, "I wish I had worked more." 
4. Get off the expressway, drive the back roads 
5. Do the important things first, put the rest in perspective
6. Decide what you will never do, and cross it off the list 
7.  Do your best and forget about trying to please others 
8. Don't worry about what other's think of you, most of the time they don't think about you
9. Tell the truth, it is easier then keeping track of the lies 
10. Love yourself 

If You've Seen One Fall

Back when I was in High School my parents and crazy cousin Bill and one of his wives, rented a plane a few to Niagara Falls for a weekend.  There are two sets of waterfalls at Niagara, nice ones on the American side, and spectacular ones on the Canadian side.  They landed in the US, looked at the American Falls and were headed for the bridge to Canada when Bill's wife of the day spied a shopping mall.  She suggested they stop and shop.  They said, well we haven't seen the Canadian falls, to which she said, if you've seen one fall, you've seen them all.  She didn't last long, as I recall she is the one who received a box of cow manure with divorcee papers attached for Christmas one year.  

This picture if of the smaller, upper falls at Lineville Falls in North Carolina.  The larger lower falls are behind me.  They are a steep half mile hike from the visitors center.  I did reasonably well, until the last 100 yards of the trail going back to the car, then there was the third fall, I stepped on something, tuned an ankle and went down in a heap.  Just superficial damages.  Onward! 

A little place in the mountains

We came to North Carolina to see a vacation house in the mountains.  What do you think?  A little large I fear. Anderson was not home. 

This is Biltmore, the Vanderbilt estate in Asheville.  It was built in the late 1800's. Very much an American Dowton Abbey.  It is owned by Anderson Cooper ' s mothers family. 

Local Brew

I am in Asheville North Carolina to look at a house.  It took three hours to drive the first 100 miles out of DC this morning.  The dinner beverage was made here in town.  Very good.  I really needed that after 9.5 hours behind the wheel. 

March to the beat of your drummer

I would love to be a musician,  but I can't read music.  I tried to learn for a couple of years.  I played the tuba in middle school.  But musical notes all look the same.  One step up or down the funny lines, they all look the same to my brain.  But they don't all sound the same.  I had to mark up the score, or I was hopeless.  Teaching music to the musically handicapped was how the band master described it. I don't known who was more relieved, him or I when I called it quits.

I do enjoy music, but perhaps to the beat of my personal drummer. 

Le Tour

I love riding bikes, and have developed a real love of watching professional cycle racing.  The Tour de France is the highlight of my summer, with most of the worlds best riders, spectacular scenery, and exciting competition. Someday I will stand on the side of a French road and watch 200 of the best of the best roll by. Yesterday's route was an unusual challenge with several segments on cobblestone roads.  The Tour rides on cobblestones every year, the finish in Paris is on a cobbled street.  The weather yesterday was rainy and miserable, even worse than my ride home from the office yesterday.  There were a lot of falls. Chris Froome, defending champion, (last year's winner) abandoned the race after numerous falls over two days.  The post race interviews were punctuated with  complaints about the cobblestone sections and calls to the organizers to not repeat the cobblestone sections - citing that Froome had been injured and had to withdraw.  They all seemed to miss one very important point, his falls and injuries happened on paved roads, not on the cobbles.  Many-many riders fell while racing on very wet and slippery streets.  Streets that were very difficult to ride on.  A few falls occurred on the cobbles, as always happens,  but for the most part the riders were cautious on the cobbles. What would have made yesterday safer, would not have been to bypass the challenge of the cobbles, but for the riders to agree to ride but not race in the very wet - very dangerous conditions.  Tradition is that the race goes on in all weather, they have ridden up mountains in the snow. But nothing stops the riders from all agreeing that they will not challenge one another today.  It happens, usually the day after a serious or fatal accident (yes people die in this race.) Why didn't the riders agree yesterday that it was too wet and dangerous to race, and agree to ride the course with caution and dignity leaving the racing for another day, on safer roads, with more riders healthy and able to participate.  I wish Froome a fast and complete recovery, but the cobbles were not the cause of his withdrawal from the race.

Boats

My crazy uncle owned a boat when I was growing up and a wild ride on the Lake Orion, if the boat would start, and if we could pump all of the water out was the highlight of a summer visit.  I've never owned a boat, a whole in the water into which you pour money.  My X refused to let me own one, I can swim, X couldn't, apparently I was not trusted.  When I lived in Hotterville, we were miles from water to boat on.  I keep looking at the Potomac and thinking I should own a boat someday.  Something small, and dry.  

Tarts

I have a pastry phobia, it is rooted in deep criticism of my early attempts. Mom could be quite critical when I had made a mess of her kitchen. For years I avoided making pastry, then for years I faked it with Pillsbury from the dairy case. Last summer I tired once, with the simple butter pastry, a couple of weeks ago I made a cherry pie, this week a blueberry tart.  I still have rolling fears, and need to vacuum the kitchen floor when I am finished - even if the floor is clean. This appears to have worked.  It came out of the mold easily and was nice a flaky. J liked it, but he had never met a pastry he didn't like. I need to find a more judgmental audience, but not mom.      

Lunch View

Once the Tour stage finished yesterday, it was time to get out of the house for a couple of hours - we went out for a walk and lunch.  Nice lunch, nothing spectacular, but a nice view.  The parking lot across the street and the marina are the Old Dominion Boat Club at the foot of King Street in Alexandria.  The boat club has been there 130  years.  There has been an ongoing debate with the city about drainage and access to the waterfront.  After a couple of decades of debate, they have reached an agreement to sell the property to the city, for a nice chunk of cash and a piece of waterfront property 500 feet south of the current location. They clubhouse and docks will be moving.  The old parking lot will be incorporated into an adjoining park and the city will fix a drainage problem that causes local flooding when heavy rain and high tide happen at the same time.  And the city will be able to open up a wonderful section of waterfront at the end of King Street.  When the city wants to buy property the question is not, can they buy it, but how much will they pay for it.  30 years ago a wise man taught me to negotiate not litigate this issue.  

Stop

Stop, don't go there, or stop, don't do that anymore.  I was riding to work the other morning and decided to take a picture of the fireworks set up for A Capital Fourth, and came up against a fence. down along the reflecting pond between the World War II memorial and the Lincoln Memorial, they have set up the fireworks, and the path is fenced off with a STOP.  

A comment on Facebook this morning brought me to one of my other favorite Stops, stop doing that.  Five and half years ago I accidentally left my alarm clock off one morning.  I woke up in a panic and then realized that I would make it to the office on time without being shaken from my slumber.  Over the next few days, I started leaving my clock off, and to my great surprise I was making it to the office on time.  And I was sleeping better and feeling better about waking up.  Last year I set my clock three or four times, when I had an especially early meeting or flight..  So, STOP alarming yourself awake each morning.  The world won't come to an end.  

Getting Noticed

Few things will get you noticed in Old Town Alexandria, we are so use to seeing politicians, power brokers and minor celebrities that they get bumped into without being noticed.  But the little boat at the end of the pier is getting noticed. I saw her yesterday evening on my bike ride home and went back this morning for a closer look and a picture.  She was built in 2007 and christened Mr Terrible, she changed hands a couple of years ago and was renamed Usher.  The registered owner is a holding company, you have to pay a fee to access the database that will tell you who owns the holding company, and I am not that curious.  She is about 150 feet long, cruises at 20 knots,  has a crew of about half a dozen and accommodates 10 or 12 guests in comfort. She is available for charter out of Florida and the Caribbean for $175,000, plus expenses, per week. I wonder how many gallons to the mile? It is a way to arrive in style and get noticed and I am due for a real vacation.   

Produce

Grain,  hops, water and yeast, not really produce. Even in a town where ketchup was classified as a vegetable for the school lunch program,  we play fast and loose with definitions.  There is a 20 page court opinion in this town on the definition of chicken.  But beer is not really produce.

Cherry Pie

We were at the farmers market this morning and the bear mentioned that he LOVES Cherry pie.  I have had never made one.  So I bought a bag of fresh cherries and looked for a recipe.  Step one is pit four cups of cherries.  The cherry pitter is in the other kitchen, so I did them by hand with a knife.  Really not bad, cut them around the outside from the stem to the stem, split in half and the pit comes out fairly easy.  The riper the cherries the easier the pit comes out.  Put them in a sauce pan, with a quarter cup of good brandy, check the quality of the brandy, no rubbish. heat over medium heat, as they come to a simmer they will release a great deal of liquid.  Stir in 1.5 cups of sugar and 4 tablespoons of cornstarch.  Let simmer for a few minutes,  The liquid will thicken into a nice sauce. Let this cool to about room temperature (30 minutes.)  For the pastry start with half a pound of cold butter.  I cut this into cubes and droped into the food processor.  Add 2.5 cups of all purpose flower, a tablespoon or two of sugar, and a generous pinch of salt.  Pulse the food processor to  blend, stop at a course texture - be careful not to over process.  While steadily processing add 4-6 tablespoons of cold water. The texture will change, though it won't form a ball.  Stop processing, over processing will result in tough pastry.  Turn out onto a work surface, press into a ball, divide roughly in half and put half in the refrigerator to stay cool.  Because this is a butter based crust, keeping it cool is critical.  Roll the bottom crust, line the pie plate. Fill the bottom crust with the cherry filling.  Roll out the top and crimp the edge.  I made four vent holes, but the bubble up comes where it comes.  Bake at 375-400 for 45 minutes.  It may boil over, I baked it on a cookie sheet lined with foil.  If I had known it was the easy, I would have done  this years ago.  

Remember When

Remember mechanical ice cube trays.  I grew up with these.  I didn't have an ice maker in the house until I bought my second house.  Would a teenager even know how to get ice out of one of these? Now this one is stainless steel,  how did we survive aluminum.  My mother would be shocked at the price,  $30.

Lunch

Lobster roll for lunch.  A nice treat.  There is a hole in the wall place across from AARP headquarters that does a nice lobster roll. It is hard to imagine,  but 100 years ago prisoners in Maine sued the department of corrections complaining about too much lobster.  Pennies short of $20 for a lobster lunch today. 

Ranting Ahead!

Okay, I have been trying to think of something entertaining, but the muses are on vacation (wish I was with them.) There are a couple of news stories from a couple of days ago that are bugging me, so here I go with a minor rant.

What is happening to our society? 

On Monday there were news reports of a major “rescue” – really an round up and arrest of teenage prostitutes, some as young as 13 in a couple of major American cities. The report was that most were runaways; at least half had never been reported missing by their families. What is wrong with our society when a life on the streets as a prostitute is preferable to a life at home, finishing middle school and high school? Why are officials excited about re-uniting these young people with families who either didn’t notice they were missing or couldn’t be bothered filing a police report? 

The second was a story about a couple in Texas who had a baby delivered by C-section while without health insurance and were billed about $50,000 by the hospital.  Why is acceptable in a country that spends as much on health care as a percentage of gross national product as the USA, fails to provide basic health insurance coverage to every citizen?  We spend more a percentage of gross national product on health care than England, Canada, France or Germany, and 20% of our population has no coverage. This is just not right.  

The news reporters hired a medical billing review service to look at the $50,000 bill, and reduced it by $30,000 by contesting charges for care that was never needed and by arguing for average cost of care charges – not charges that were 2-3 times the average for the area.  Medical billing is the Wild West. Why can’t we agree on what we will pay for treatment, tax incomes across the board to pay for it, cover everyone and run the profiteers out of the country? No American should face bankruptcy over necessary health care. 

What Makes You Happy

Find a way to do something everyday that you enjoy.  Life is too short to not enjoy yourself.  I keep being told that control is an illusion, but I try to do something that I can control for a few minutes each day. Color outside the lines, stretch the limits, enjoy the noise or the quiet, spend quality time with your favorite person - time alone, or join in the crowd.  Be the performance, or the audience.  Do what you want to do, and enjoy. 

The General

There was a running joke about George Washington slept here. In colonial times travelers generally found hospitality along the road and travel was slow so he slept a lot of places.  The steeple in the picture is the church in Alexandria Virginia that George Washington attended when he was staying in his townhouse a couple of blocks away.  Stop in for a tour and they will invite you to sit in the General's box. His house in Alexandria was torn down in the 1800's,  not uncommon. It was reproduced sometime in the past 50 years and is a private residence.  It is a common tour bus stop.  I don't think I would want to live there.  But what a nice neighborhood. 

Panda Horn

I commute by bicycle two or three days a week when the weather is nice.  It is about 11 miles each way.  It takes me about an hour each way.  Only 10 or 15 minutes more than riding the subway.  About 8 miles of it is on the Mount Vernon Trail. It is a well designed and maintained pedestrian and bike route that runs along the Potomac River.  It is technically a National Park.  The National Park Service posts a set of rules for cyclists.  On the list is the requirement that the bike have a bell or horn to warn pedestrians.  For a couple of years I had a simple bell, that no one seemed to hear.  We were in a bike shop a couple of weeks ago and Jay came up behind me squeaking the cutest horn, shaped like a Panda. People notice it and no doubt remember the fat middle aged man with the squeaky bear on his bike. 

Looking Good

So there she sits at the end of the car doing her makeup.  I don't know how women can do it.  Bump and rattle and they are sticking a pencil in their eye.  I would be blind and look like a clown if I tried that. 

Warm and Humid

Near 80 degrees with rain at 8:00 am. Welcome to summer in the swamp. I have been insanely busy in the office the past few days.  I keep reminding myself,  if it was easy,  they could hire someone cheap to do it.  I just wish I wasn't spending so much time cleaning up the mess. There are more productive things I could do.  But the mess must be cleaned up.  Failure is not an acceptable option. 

Hole in the ground or foundation

When you find yourself in the bottom of a hole, stop digging. 

Without a firm foundation,  great structures fail (just ask the guy's in Piza)

Which am I digging this week, a hole or a foundation? 

Incompetence

I had a nice "to-do" list for this afternoon in the office.  Then the emails started coming in.  A problem that I thought was resolved two weeks ago has not been, the person was told today that the simple solution we offered two weeks ago can't be done. She was told we can't do that, until you do what you can't do, despite the fact that we told you we could.  And that was the customer service department.  We are still making excuses for millions of dollars in new software that does not work after over a month.  My afternoon went down hill from there.  I spent three hours apologizing for screw ups by other departments that I have no control over and in one major case, don't even have a working contact in.  Then another issue with the same process, and another, and yet another.  Two people grossly overcharged, another undercharged in a way I can't understand (and all three work for the same national organization.) I finally did get someone to talk to me.  I told her "I understand why some departments contract with outside providers to do this work, I could cuss at an outside provider and not feel guilty about it." I didn't get anything done on my list. 

I need to change colognes, this one seems to be attracting morons. 

Farmers Markets

During the depression, my father's family started growing vegetables, and keeping bees to produce honey that they sold on the venerable eastern market in Detroit.  My father left high school during World War II to expand the family presence on the market (my grandfather was working 70 hours a week building Jeeps, my grandmother was working as a book keeper for a machine shop.)  Sometime in the 1950's the family stopped market gardening and shifted honey sales to wholesale.  Markets declined for 30-40 years and with them small family farms struggled. Over the past 10-15 years farmers markets and family farms have undergone a renascence. A google search will likely tell you where your nearest markets are.

Spring

I had my first visit of the season to the local farmers market this morning.  Local strawberries and asparagus are in and wonderful.  I grew up in the country and love markets. 

I made it through May with at least one posting a day. 

Let the ride continue

I continue to have fun on the ride.  Sometimes a worry that I will tire of the ride, and at times I really look forward to being home for a few days, but I am already planning the next travel cycle.  Work and fun have taken me so many fun and interesting places. Yet there are so many places left to go and things to do.  I enjoy the people, the places and the experiences along the way, what a fun ride. 

Waiting for the Train

Some days I spend a lot of time waiting for trains, some days I don't.  Metro has no idea what a schedule is or how to stick to one.  They may post a suggestion of a schedule online, but it is merely a suggestion.  The displays in the station give you some general idea of when a train might be coming, more or less, and maybe in the order they are posted.  When I was growing up my father told me, "never run after a street car or a woman, there will be another one along in a minute."  I now understand why my mother always turned blue when he said that, but he had a point.  I have learned to never run after a train, there will be another one along, sooner or later.  As for women, I never run after them.  

Third One This Month

Starting the third conference of the month. Everyone seems to want to hold conferences before the summer sets in.  This is six months of conferences in one month. Lots of listening and networking with my fellow wizards this month. 

Tourists

On the subway this morning, there was a flock of tourists.  You can spot them from a mile away, they are dressed in shorts and comfortable shirts at rush hour, they are drinking coffee in front of the NO FOOD OR DRINKS sign, carrying cameras, and they are talking.  One this morning was laughing, I don't know what was in her coffee cup, but "I'll have what she's having!"  On the DC subway if you are talking you are either a tourist, or the locals are double checking to make sure you are not crazy, the real nut cases have conversations on the subway, with themselves.  By this afternoon it was in the 90's and 90% humidity, the kind of weather where you can smell the tourists, you don't have to see them to know they are there.  Twice in my life I have lived in places that host a lot of tourists, 18 years in Disney World, and now almost 6 years in our nations capital.  I have a unique understanding of them. 

I love being a tourist.  I enjoy traveling and exploring new places.  When I am traveling, I look like it and I enjoy it. You'll know me when I visit your town, I will dress funny, carry a camera, and talk to strangers on public transit.  I do try not to smell like a tourist.  

Memorial Day 2014



 

 

The American Military Cemetery

at

Colleville-Sur-Mer

Normandy, France

 

 

Mr Tump's Building

The silver spire is the Chicago Trump tower. They are putting his name on it.  A good idea or a bad idea?  Most major buildings in Chicago don't have names on them. 

Much more crowded

 

So the flight from DC to Chicago that was 7 hours late leaving DC, ended up with less then one person per row, the return flight had no empty seats.  Typical flight, packed, on time and reasonably comfortable - luckily it is only 90 minutes flying time from Chicago to DC.  We are back, it was a good trip, Chicago never fails to amuse me.    

Views

There is a different view of the world from the air.  I grew up in little single engine airplanes, and photographed farms from the air to earn money as a teenager to buy a suitcase full of professional camera equipment.  So I am pretty good at finding things on the ground from the air.  When we finally left DC for Chicago on Wednesday I had an entire row to myself, so I slid over into the window seat and watched the world go buy.  For the first couple hundred miles it was all clouds, then it cleared.  From 39,000 feet, I could see farmland, small towns, cities, expressways linking them, and bodies of water.  Over northwester Ohio and norther eastern Indiana, we passed over a wind-farm , I had never seen one from the air before.  As we started the decent into Chicago more and more came into view.  At about 20,000 feet I can see cars moving on roads, boats moving on lakes, at 10,000 feet I could see parked cars.  At 4,000 feet I could see baseball players moving on the field.  1-5,000 feet is the average flying elevation for the little planes I grew up in.  I was use to seeing the world from that elevation.  Flight is magical, so much moving on the air seemingly so effortlessly.  I was sitting there looking down, one foot over to the left and it was nearly 8 miles down. If you stepped over the edge would you panic, or would you accept the inevitable and experience soaring? 

Then there were three

With a trip today to see the Milwaukee Art Museum,  DG has now been to 47 states.  Remaining to be visited are Idaho,  Wyoming,  and Hawaii.  DG has a few states advantage over Travel. He started traveling 40 years before being accompanied by the flightless water fowl.
So what is Wisconsin like? It is like Florida without the warmth, palm trees and reptiles. 

Not much I can add to that

Can't get off the ground

The windshield is overheating,  we are stuck at the gate.  The shortest trip of the month,  may take the longest. 

The delay is now 8 hours.  I am only 6 miles from home so far.  

Who Could Be Angry Looking At That Face

I spent the day bailing out idiots.  I am working on a major conference project, I have 60+ speakers that need to register using a discount code, and a new state of the art online registration system that does not have the plug-in to process a discount or coupon code.  Easy enough, call the toll free number and talk to the friendly operators, that after three weeks still can't figure out what to do because the new multi-million dollar software package won't process the discount code.  You would think after three weeks they would have learned the override procedure. Then after I should have left the office I get an email asking for a copy of my June report, that I filed in another new state of the art multi-million dollar software system, in June.  The request was to email the report, because the person who needed it, has not been trained in how to retrieve it from the online platform.  I could be be, very angry, then I see something cute.  This little cutie was in the row ahead of me a couple of weeks ago as I was wedged in the last row of coach, backed up to and across from the toilets, but who could be angry when he smiled at me? 

Tomorrow I am headed to Chicago to talk with the masters of one of the two useless software packages.  I will need to see cute things and think happy thoughts so I don't tell them what a bunk of idiots I think they are.  

Goldwater

Down the street from the hotel in Arizona was the Barry Goldwater memorial.  A nice bronze in a park filled with cactus. 

Sightings

We went out for a walk and spotted the duck tour comming out of the water at Gravelly Point. An interesting way to see the city.  Note that the water is unusually hiigh, the dock is under water.  It rained while I was in the dessert.