Flightless!

Who says penguins are flightless! This little penguin rather enjoys jetting around various parts of the civilized world. I grew up in little single engine airplanes and have flown literally hundreds of hours in low and slow flying aircraft. But this, this was different. I had never been in a helicopter before. I finally had the opportunity to take a ride with a scenic view of the Kennedy Space Center. Frankly I wouldn’t have cared if the view had been of a garbage dump; the opportunity to ride in a helicopter was enough for me to say yes and plunk down about $11 a minute. The take off was gentle and really took me by surprise. There was a slight increase in noise, a very slight vibration. We levitated up, rotated and floated over the hedge and the street (it was really quite magic and I am pretty jaded.) Within seconds we were a couple hundred feet in the air, passing over buildings and out over the Indian River. We went east along a causeway, climbing to about 3400 feet, turned north for a spectacular view of the Space Center including the shuttle launch pads and three mile long shuttle landing strip. We could see cruise ships docked in the harbor 20 miles away (great day for flying.) We turned back toward the mainland and worked our way back south reaching speeds of nearly 150 miles per hour (the red line speed for the little chopper.) We came in low and fast over the waters edge with the tops of the pine trees swaying below us, leveled out and settled even more gently then we had ascended into a landing zone barely larger then an SUV. It was wonderful. Daddy needs to win the Power-Ball so I can travel like this all the time. This is what flying was suppose to be like.

TR

Swimwear

Penguins don’t have much of an issue with swimwear, it just happens. I am amazed by the fuss that humans make. There seems to be great confusion about how much swimwear should reveal. The same men that ogle to no end women in the tiniest bikinis; are the same men that wear the baggiest trunks they can find and sneer at any man that wears a swimsuit that gives any hint of the gender of the wearer. Of course with a penguin it takes an MRI to tell our gender from the outside. For years zoo keepers relied on waiting for mating season and then labeling as female all of the penguins with muddy foot prints on their backs, but that method is proving to be only about 95% effective (imagine the surprise.) If humans would just grow water resistant feathers, or loose some of their weird hang-ups about gender this would all be so much easier.

TR

So Many Beaches

So Many Beaches, so little time.

TR

The Secret to Living Here

Merit commented that the secret to living here was being someplace else at least once a month. I saw this sign in a shop window in Daytona Beach last week and though what a sensible philosphy. This shop must be run by the same people who ran the shoe store in Italy that I bought a pair of boots at; I went back about three times to find them open.

Live, Love, Enjoy!

TR and DG

Penguin in a Beer Wasteland

Warning to all hop consumers, Daytona Beach is a real beer wasteland. The German's wouldn't use this stuff to wash a dog dish out with. The bartender had no idea what a "Seattle Manhattan" was, bourbon wasteland as well. What is a bird to do?

TR

Tough Assignmnet

We are checked in and ready for the weeks work. If you have to put in a 70 hour week, this is not a bad place to do it.

TR

Back to Work

We are headed out to work as a trainer on a week long training. Six days, 10 and 12 hours a day. Lots of stress and strain with new people struggling with a very challenging project for a whole week. One compensating factor is that the training is at a very nice hotel, on the beach in Daytona Beach where the predicted high on Saturday is 87 degrees. It snowed here last weekend!

We are uncertain of internet access during the 10 day trip, so please bear with us, postings will follow when we have access.

TR and DG

Great Buildings Are Everywhere

This is the new building at the Denver Art Museum. The art cetner is just around the corner from the Mint and in the shadow the the mile high Capital. It is connected to the old building that can best be described as a modern interperation of a mid-evil castle. The museum has a very nice collection of modern art, asian art, and native american art. It is very worth the visit. There are new loft style condos for sale next to the new buildings, but the winters are so cold in Denver.

TR

Wouldn’t it be easier if they fit in his pocket?

We were driving home the other afternoon when we spotted this trailer filled with life size critters. Now we know all about taking your special little friends with you as you travel, but a whole trailer full going down the road at 65 miles an hour is a bit much. Wouldn’t it be easier if he had pocket sized versions to travel with?

TR

Plush

One thing about hanging out with a bunch of lawyers is they tend to choose nice hotels. The conference organizers put a picture of the wrong hotel in the conference brochure, either that or held the conference at the wrong hotel, but it was Plush.

DG

Denver Pale Ale

There is more then one way to make it through a board meeting.

TR

My Wings Hurt

It took 28 hours to fly from Denver to Lexington, Kentucky. We could have driven it faster and gotten more sleep. It rained in Chicago; that is all it takes to upset the entire air traffic control system across the middle of the country. We checked in at Denver just after noon on Friday expecting to be home in bed in time to watch the late news. Within minutes the signs showed that the flight would be delayed (customer service didn't make an announcment until about two hours after the original departure time.) The flight was then delayed again; visits to the friendly customer service agents (more like agents of the underworld) and calls to customer service yielded nothing more then "it rained in Chicago, your flight has been delayed." Finally about 3 hours behind schedule we boarded the plane and taxied out, only to have the captan come on and tells us that the plane was broken and the cabin crew was "expiring" (I was starting to know how they feel!) We returned to the gate. Ten minutes later they decided that the plane might take a couple of hours to fix, and the flight attendents (there for your safety, like the paper band around the toilet seat in a cheap motel) had been on duty for 15 hours and were no longer legal to take off on another flight. Cell calls and long waits at the customer no-service desk rendered news that the flight had not been cancelled, but delayed, the 3:15 PM flight would depart at 6:00 AM. Shuttle off 20 miles to the convient "hotel" provided by the airline (stylyish in 1975, the last time it was redecorated) with instructions to be back at the airport for a 4:00 AM check in. Alarm set for 3:00 AM, taxi reserved for 3:30 AM(the "hotel" shuttle could not get me to the airport for the required check in at 4:00 AM, the desk warned my that by 4:30 the airport would be a "nuthouse" with all of the delays and cancelations. We finally leave Denver at 6:37 AM bound for the airport that puts the "dis" in disfunctional, O'Hare. If there are clouds in the sky or heaven forbid it rains sometime in the past 36 hours within 30 miles of the place, O'Hare becomes a huge waiting room for thousands of hot, cranky passengers and a parking lot for lots of pretty airplanes. At this point Airline A handed me off to Airline U; I guess they had heard enough of me. We were booked on a 10:26 AM departure (better then airline A's 8:10 PM flight that is nearly allways 2-3 hours late.) The 10:26 AM rapidly became the 12:12 PM, then the 12:34 PM, then the 1:45 PM, then the 1:46 PM, then we finally boarded, taxied out and waited for 50 minutes to take off (without air-conditioning; the APU failed and the flight crew decided that it was to risky to try to offload the passengers, the risk of un-armed revolt was far too high.) We finally arrived home about 28 hours after first checking in at Denver, we could have driven it faster and gotten more sleep.

More later, Denver was fun but my wings hurt.

TR

Herding the Sheep!

This is not what it looked like on the nature chanel. Annebele the duck with flags coming out of her legs decided that she would organize a little sheep herding. She has tried a couple of things and today things, well sheep that is, just seemed to pile up like cars on a foggy freeway. Maybe it is the Asian origin of the flock, is this how they herd sheep in China?

TR

So what is happening?

I have been hanging out at home, resting up for the next trip. We are headed to Denver next week for a few days. That will be fun and different. Did anyone hear the NPR story about the dogs being used in Australia to protect the nesting penguins from foxes. Apparently foxes just live penguins, but not in a good way. The dogs are on loan from a free range chicken farm and have been very sucessful at protecting the nesting area. The only problem seems to be that the dogs get bored after a week or two and swim back to the mainland.

TR

Passing the Oil Refinery

DooWayne, yes that was the name on his “business” card rescued us to get this trip on the road. We went to leave for West Virginia last week and the electrical system in Big Red went dead. How dead? The trunk wouldn’t close, that’s right, the trunk won’t close without electric power. Doo had several extra holes in his face with metal sticking through them (extra car parts?) and jeans hanging down extra low all the way around. And, he knew how to clean the corrosion off of the little $2 part that kept Big Red from starting. His magic worked, things came back to life and we were off.

I can tell when we are getting to close to the West Virginia boarder when I can smell the oil refinery that startles the state line. I just love the smell of an oil refinery in the morning, reminds me of sunrise in the Bahamas, but that is a very long story.

TR

I am so excited!

Confirmation of airline tickets to visit Uncle Bert and Someone just arrived in my email box! Oh the stories we will have to tell.

TR

Fog and a Spring Thaw

We awoke to a dense fog this morning, and DG and I had a 90 mile drive down into the mountains. Everything went well, we arrived on time, safe and sound. The fog was a wonderful sign. It was foggy because it had warmed up and all of the snow and most of the ice melted off for the first time in about three weeks. By noon the fog had cleared making the drive home much easier. This picture was taken on the way back to the office this afternoon.

Stay warm,

TR

Thinking Warm Thoughts on another cold winter morning

I have had enough of winter. I know, I know, I should like the cold. But I have lived inside for so many years that the cold really bothers me. Snow is nice for a day or so, then the novilty wears off and I am ready for it to be nice again. Snow and cold don't remind me of home, the smell of hot plastic does for some reason.

So on mornings like this I remember the wonderful places I have been . . . the beach in Florida, California, Georgia, South Carolina, sunny days in Italy, Greece, London in August for their three days of summer. And I dream of places I will go this summer.

STAY WARM! Spring has to arrive some day.

TR

To Flashy?

I think it would be just right. A car that would draw the respect that a world traveler expects. A level of comfort and elegance fit for a flightless fowl. If only I could pick the right numbers.

TR

I’ll Never Be Bloggless Again!

Now I can read bloggs anyplace, I’ll never be stranded, unable to read about my featherless friends. And the screen and keyboard are just my size, you should see me dancing across the key-pad sending email at the speed of snails.

It does not appear that Blogger will let me log in to read the bloggs that require log in, or to post an update; we will continue to work on that.

So, after a couple of years of resisting the “crackberry” temptation, how does on get lured in? Mobile maps and directions, live mobile weather including animated radar, and syncing to the home and office computer based calendars so that we are never without the file that runs our lives (currently booking into October.) We went paperless on calendars this year for the first time. One down-side of this is that when you leave the computer, you leave the calendar. This little joy plugs into the computer and downloads the calendar, syncing the computer and device. I even like the way that it displays a seven day calendar better then the way that Outlook does.

Onward to read bloggs,

TR