Tuesday, August 7th, 2007
I just placed a phone call to the local Agway to pre-order my wood pellets for the year.
Every year, (I have been doing this for two years now) I like to get my pellets in August. I always think I am beating the rush. I guess I am, but there are quite a few people ahead of me this year. The lady on the phone told me that there were three truck loads to be delivered before me. I am thinking, “Ok, like three pickup truck loads?” No, three tractor trailer truck loads. There are twenty two tons on each truck. That’s a lot. I am going to get my delivery after those go out to the other people who pre-ordered.
I ordered three tons on discount, because it is before the season. The price goes up after the season starts and the demand is higher. I paid $199.99 per ton with a $30 delivery charge. That’s not bad. I only ordered one ton last year and kept finding myself at various stores buying bags of pellets. I didn’t want to run out this year.
The pellets I am going to get are made out of hardwood saw dust and come from Pennsylvania. It is recycled from the lumber mill. Apparently, this is the good stuff. I was advised that the softwood clogs up the stove, which reminds me that I have to clean my stove out for the season. They say that you should do that after every one ton of pellets burned. Hmmm…maybe I will write a post about how to clean your pellet stove.
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Friday, July 6th, 2007
Laura and I decided to go on a little trip. Well, actually, Laura’s sister Kim was getting married, so the trip was important. The marriage was to take place in Punta Cana, Dominican Republic.
I took so many photos during this trip that I decided I am going to break them up into a bunch of little posts. The reason for this is to give some information. Before we left for this trip, we had so many questions. Now, we have some answers. I just hope I can remember everything.
Anyway, the first part of the trip to Punta Cana was the airplane ride from Stewart International Airport (SWF) to Philadelphia International Airport (PHL). The second part of getting there was the airplane ride from Philadelphia to Punta Cana Airport (PUJ).
Now, I know there aren’t too many people out there who care about our airplane ride, but I did see some pretty neat things. Here are some photos and descriptions below…
This photo is of our takeoff from Stewart. We took off on runway 27 heading West. We took off in a Dash 8 Turboprop. The flight was pretty short getting to Philadelphia, but I had my camera ready in my hand. I was a bit leary of the turboprop, but I really liked it once we were on. Those props are pretty damn strong. The plane has nice pull for takeoff.
After we had some altitude, we passed over Walden, NY. I remember this town, because during one of my flights, I passed over and asked what that cute little town on the river was.
After passing over the Shawangunk Ridge, I spotted Joseph Y Resnick Airport in Ellenville, NY. I just thought that was a pretty cool photo.
Remember the trip Laura and I took almost to Frost Valley? Along the way on that trip, we saw the Rondout Reservoir. Here is a photo of it from the air.
We also saw the Neversink Reservoir from the air as well.
This is really cool. I have been waiting to post this photo the whole trip. It is the first time I ever saw live wind turbines (from the air and from the ground). Towards the right, there was a whole row of them, but the second photo didn’t come out that great. I think this was in Pennsylvania somewhere.
This photo was taken during our approach to Philadelphia Airport. I am not sure of the runway, but the final approach went over the river.
We took off from Philadelphia on an Airbus 320a. This was a pretty good plane. It is smaller than some other jetliners but flew very well. After leaving Philadelphia, almost the whole flight was over the Atlantic Ocean, so there wan’t much point of taking photos of nothing. We had to re-route three times due to the weather. We didn’t hit much turbulence. The photo above is one over Punta Cana (inland a bit). I kept seeing these sticks coming out of the ground and later realized they were palm trees. Also, I saw a bunch of white animals that I learned were goats. Punta Cana is a different place.
I brought my laptop on this trip and hoped to use it. The first time I had a little time to take it out and turn it on was while waiting for our flight out of Stewart. I thought I connected to the internet, but was brought to a page asking for about $7 to use their internet access. I turned the computer off a little agitated. I thought airports had good internet, not something I was going to have to pay almost $7 to use for about ten minutes. Oh well.
We landed without incident in Punta Cana to only be welcomed by a blast of hot air…
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Saturday, March 31st, 2007
Hours - 33.6
The conditions were confirmed for me at the end of the lesson when Yigal told me to tie down the airplane with all three ropes. Breezy? Maybe.
This lesson was scheduled for 3 hours. I was supposed to go up for a cross country with Yigal for two hours and then practice solo for the last one. Well, let’s just say that plan didn’t work out.
I called the “Oh so accurate” weather briefers. Ummm, 8 knots of wind at 3,000ft. Good! Great day for a cross country to East Stroudsburg, PA. It was only 49.4 nautical miles away, but we would fly more than 50.
On the way to the runway, while taxiing, we waved to another guy and took a picture of his plane.
We started talking on the radio and agreed to fly in formation with him after takeoff for a few good shots. Most were blurry, but one came out good.
It was good to get some nice shots. It was important for me to get some pictures during this lesson because I have virtually no photo archive of anything that I am doing.
I had everything set up fine…the VOR, the frequencies…everything except the GPS. I wanted to fly by only VOR this time, just for practice. The GPS is very helpful, but there may be too much of a reliance on it. Well, I made it to the VOR station and changed course, just like I was supposed to.
I continue on past Port Jervis and kept with the Delaware River and passed by some beautiful land. I never knew it was this nice in Pennsylvania. I always just dismissed the state. I have no idea why.
Anyway, Yigal started asking me when I would know when I was at the airport. I told him I was aware of where I was because of the river features. There was a zig zag in the river and I was looking at it on the map as well as out the window. Also, I would see the airport. A lot of them are visible from 20 miles away. Well, as it turns out, the river feature I was looking at turned out to be the wrong one. Also, the airport was like someone’s driveway, surrounded by houses. I had no idea that it was that small. I flew right over it. Yigal kept trying to give me hints, like, “Oh, look at that big break in the mountian where the river runs through it” and “Check out that bridge.” I kept wondering what the heck he was talking about because the airport was nowhere in sight.
I was lost.
There were a few options. I could use ATC for radar vectoring, which is embarassing, especially when you are flying right over the airport or you could use your navigation equipment. I decided to use the two VOR instruments to locate where I was. I did find an airport and thought it was the one, but it had big “X’s” on the runway. Also, the runway direction was off. Finally, I found the little, tiny runway, hidden down in the woods. I could almost see Stewart from where I was, 50 miles away, but couldn’t see the airport I was right on top of. I decided to descend for a landing on the 30ft wide runway.
Oh, I almost forgot to tell you, the weather briefing was wrong. The wind and turbulence up there were horrible. A few times, I thought the plane was going to go vertical. My altitude was going from 4,500 to 4,900 to 3,900 in a matter of minutes. It was crazy. The turbulence over the airport was bad too.
We flew the pattern to come in for a landing. I was on final approach and doing ok. The trees were right under me, but that wasn’t a big concern. I came in for my landing and the wind took me all over the place. Yigal had to take over and land. That pretty much sucked. He wanted me to land at this airport, so I took off again for another one. This time, there was just no way…we were running out of runway. We made a go-around for another try. Success…I finally did it. If I was alone, I would’ve just flown back to Orange County without landing.
With that done, We took off to head back home. I did my stuff after a little tif with the Allentown ATC guy. I asked him to repeat something and he told me to listen up next time. If I ever meet him in person, I would like to have a short chat. From about 20 miles away, I saw MGJ and flew toward it, getting bounced around the whole time.
I came in for an easy landing on runway 3 at Orange County. Oh so smooth, until at the last second an unexpected gust took me to the right. Yigal landed the plane. I taxied back and felt like crap.
I have to say that I am getting very tired. I mean literally. I think the pollen in the air is making me sleepy. I need a few weeks off just to get motivated again.
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Thursday, February 8th, 2007
I just have to write these things. Usually, when I am out to dinner with more than one person, I bring up the funniest things that have ever happened in my life. I know this sounds strange, and you may be asking, “Jay, how do you remember such things?” Well, let me tell you…I have been thinking of these events since I was about 17 years old. I have them in perfect order in my head, from #5 to #1. I giggle even thinking of them.
Let me first give you a little background into those involved. I have two best friends. One I like much more than the other, but I won’t tell you which one. Just kidding, I thought that would be funny to make them wonder. But seriously, one is much better looking than the other. Anyway, there is Rob and there is Craig. To sum up their personalities is this; they are both waiting for the big one…the lotto, the settlement, the hot stock pick…the big one. I suppose we are all waiting for the big one.
Rob is a very special person. He is the kind of guy who likes to give you a hug. There is no one person on the planet that I play off of better. I remember a trip once where we were driving to Atlanta. We were in Pennsylvania and just passed the exit for Phillipsburg/Bloomsbury. We both thought those two words were kind of funny and continued to say, “Phillipsburg/Bloomsbury” with a female English accent well into Virginia. He would say it and then I would say it. Very funny and got funnier as time went on.
Rob and I used to help Craig out sometimes with his tree service. At the end of each day, Craig would profess to us that he was never going to have us work together again. He would be all pissed off that we joked around all day and that the customer watched as we made asses out of ourselves. Then, we would give him a hug and ask what time he wanted us ready for work the next day. 7:00…just like every morning. Then yet again, I would show up at 7:00 and we would hop in the truck to roll down to Rob’s driveway and honk because he was still in bed. Those were the good old days. Even today when I call Rob, there really is only a window of about 3 minutes where we are serious. After that, we are back to the regular old us.
Craig is also a very special person. He is the kind of guy who likes to get hugs. Rob gives ‘em and Craig gets ‘em. Who knows.
Craig is the guy who thinks he is serious. He really does. Of course, being around us, this lasts for only a few minutes. He could be rescuing people off a sinking ship when Rob and I would show up. A few moments later, Craig would be floating on his back laughing so deeply that breathing would be difficult. People would be diving off the boat and Craig would be trying to stay afloat. Our chemistry is remarkable.
Craig is a teacher. He likes to offer all sorts of information about all sorts of stuff. In general, his brain holds a good chunk of knowledge. At times though, I would ask him about something that he knows absolutely nothing about. If speaking to the average layman, his offering of information would be completely believable…but to me, not so much. I would question him about it for a while and then we would both come to the conclusion that he knows absolutely nothing about what he is talking about. He would start laughing and I would start laughing and then…the hug. Rob got us into the hugs.
Well, back to the reason for this post. There are 5 distinct things that happened in my life that are funnier than all the rest. These are the only stories that anyone will actually let me finish. In the days of cutting each other off before we finish our sentences, this is pretty special. I have narrowed the stories down, refined them and discussed them. I finally decided that these are the ones. Unfortunately, for those involved, I am usually the cause of the humor, not the recipient. I am hoping that these stories become my legacy. I know that is not the highest of goals, but it’s mine.
One day in July, Rob and I were hanging out on the corner of the street. We knew this as “Sunset.” My house was about 30 feet away. Rob lived two houses down the street and Craig lived one up. We were all neighbors all of our lives. The corner was the intersection of Hickory Drive and Sunset Drive. More things have happened at this intersection than I would care to discuss…motorcycles, quads, basketball, cops, love, hate, tears, sweat and blood. Meet me at Sunset became a common term for us.
Many times, I would be working on my car in my driveway and Craig would be working on his. I had a Camaro and he had a Barracuda. This particular day, Rob walked up the road and I was in my driveway, like usual, working on my car. Craig was inside doing who knows what. We talked for a little while and decided to give Craig a call. I picked up the phone and dialed. I could hear the phone ringing in his house. He answered and I told him to come out…we were just chilling in my driveway. He agreed and hung up. For some reason, Craig always took a while to come out of his house. It’s almost like he was eating a gourmet meal or something. I can imagine it this way: I would call and Craig would answer the phone. We would discuss meeting outside. He would agree and begin to finish his meal. He would have four more conversations with three more people. Then, he would remove his bib with the lobster picture on it. He would go to the bathroom, shave, slick back his hair, put on some cologne, boots a belt and then go outside. I, on the other hand, just get up and walk outside. To each their own, I suppose.
Rob and I got a little bored waiting for Craig, so we headed for the corner. The whole reason we wanted him to come out is because we had a fresh shipment of bottle rockets. I did mention it was July, right? About 15 minutes went by and Rob and I were getting extremely itchy to light these things off. We already burned as many leaves as we could and were getting bored when Rob came up with an idea. We would lay some bottle rockets on the ground, facing up the street. They would shoot horizontally about 100 feet and explode right in front of Craig’s house. This would be too much for him to resist and he would finally get the heck outside.
We started lighting a few off. As expected, they flew straight up the road and made a big bang right where we wanted them to. Where the heck was he? Who knows…we just kept lighting them and they kept exploding. After a little while, we forget that he was even coming outside…but right at that moment…it happened. Picture this in slow motion…Rob and I laughing at something stupid, slapping our knees, when I light off the next bottle rocket. WHOOOSH…straight up the road. 25 feet…50 feet…75 feet…still going. At that very moment, we both look up to see a hint of the color black and two white dots. The black was the knee of Craig’s favorite pair of Z Cavarichis and the white were the big tongues of his white Nike hightops. A little further…we notice the purple of Craig’s IOU sweatshirt (tucked in) and the black of his belt. His pants were tucked into his socks and his hair was glistening in the sunlight. No wonder he took so long. He was getting all gussied up.
The bottle rocket was inching up the street. Craig was in a great mood…he was almost dancing across his yard and making his way onto the road…the same road the bottle rocket was blazing up. “NOOOOOOOOOO!!!…,” we yelled. Poor Craig was oblivious. All he wanted to do is to hang out with his best friends. The rocket was red glare and Craig was skipping in the air. I even thought I heard him singing a soft lullaby. Closer…slowly…WHOOOSH. Craig made one step onto the road when the bottle rocket made a slight turn to the right. These things are very unpredictable, you know. Craig looked up and said, “Hey, what’s up gu….” when the rocket tore a little bit more to the right and headed straight for poor Craig’s head. Craig saw this and stared straight at the rocket coming right at him. I think I even saw his eyes go crossed as it got closer. “WHOA…!!!” he yelled as he tried to move his head with a bob and a weave. He did a good job, but not good enough. WHOOOSH…SLICE…right across the left side of Craig’s neck. Suddenly, the rocket exploded. Luckily it was a few feet in back of Craig. He whipped his hand up to hold his neck and starts yelling. Rob and I just stared at each other. Craig walked slowly down to us, still holding his hand to his neck. He arrived and just gives us this look…one of disappointment. He removed his hand from his neck and I could almost hear the pee dribbling down Rob’s leg. We both burst out laughing. Craig had a red stripe across the whole side of his neck. I know this might not sound funny, but it wasn’t a bad injury. Just thinking of the shock Craig just had was funny enough. One minute he was dancing across his front lawn and the next, he was all shook up, when all he wanted to do was show us his new Cavarichis. We all broke out in laughter and continued to shoot off the bottle rockets. No harm done, but one funny ass event.
The moral of this story…don’t wear Z Cavarichis.
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