Monday, October 29th, 2007
Well, there may have been frost already in New York somewhere. This was our first frost, anyway.
I was looking at the weather forecast yesterday on Weather.com and there was a “Severe Weather Alert” for our town. I was wondering what it was…a hurricane, a tornado…a flood? No, it was a freezing alert telling people to bring their plants in. How nice of them. I wouldn’t say that the first frost is severe, but perhaps for gardeners it is.
I kind of like it. Around this time every year, I think of moving up to the middle of nowhere in Vermont. Poor Laura has to hear about my dreams of being a mountian man or a yuppie couple out of a L.L. Bean catalog. I don’t quite know why I would want to move where it’s colder than it is here. Maybe it’s because there is sort of a tranquility with the cold. People move slower and are less rude. When there is a snow storm, it seems like we are all on the same side. To me, that’s nice. It certainly is better than giving each other the finger as we drive around in the warm weather. Well, now that I think about it, I could probably give someone the finger in a snowstorm.
In other news, we are now almost at the end of Clergy Appreciation Month. I didn’t even know it was Clergy Appreciation Month. I had to hear it on the radio this morning. It would be nice if someone told me something once in a while.
You may have noticed in the past few years that there are holidays sprouting up all over the place. You can search your country’s holidays here. Basically, every day is a holiday. If you don’t see one on the previous website link, they just missed it, that’s all. I am thinking that some of these holidays are people and organizations just trying to promote themselves. If it sticks, it sticks. If not, then oh well.
I am declaring this decade dedicated to Jay.
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Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
…except the storm never happened.
Yesterday, Laura and I were getting ready to go for a walk. When we exited the house in an orderly fashion, we noticed something very peculiar above us. The sky was completely orange. This was very strange and kind of caught us off guard. I ran back inside to grab the camera. I had to get this on film…or whatever digital cameras catch things on.
Isn’t that weird?
We walked almost to the end of our road and saw a bolt of lightening. I turned around and Laura followed. People have been getting hit by lightening lately and I am trying to not be one of them. I really don’t want Laura to be one of them either.
We made it home with only a few drops of rain, but nothing more. We heard thunder, but apparently the storm traveled to the West of us, over the ridge.
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Wednesday, October 4th, 2006
This lesson was awesome. I got to fly the plane I really wanted to fly…a Cessna 172. This is a larger airplane than the Piper Cherokee I usually fly. There is more interior room and it has a high-wing configuration as compared to the low wing. The Cherokee had more power due to the engine modifications, so which is better is really up to the pilot.
We did more touch and goes today. The weather was good for it, so there were 3 other planes in the pattern. I did six take offs and landings. The touch and go teaches you a few important things…take offs, climbs, patterns, descent, turns, landings, runway management and communications. It also teaches you how to manage the cockpit with a passenger. Yigal likes to throw a lot at you when you are practicing. He was trying to distract me while I was flying to show me what is going to happen when I start flying with friends. He tried, but didn’t succeed. I am like an arrow heading towards its target (haha).
We had a lot of fun during this lesson. I like to keep things light and laugh. It helps me to learn. I also got to use my new headset. Wonderful!
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Sunday, September 10th, 2006
Well, browsing might be a better word for it. We couldn’t really hike because the trails up in back were very muddy from the rain the night before. It’s just as well, because we got to spend more time in front looking through the butteryfly gardens and at the animals.
What a surprise! This place was great. We have passed by a few times driving up the Connecticut border with New York, heading towards Sharon and Lakeville, but never gave it serious thought to go in. I guess we felt inspired this time. It is really kept up well because it is owned and run by the National Audubon Society. Believe it or not, we were the only ones on the entire property during this visit. Remarkable, because the weather was prefect and just about everything was in bloom. Did I mention the butterfly gardens? Here, take a look…
I mean, if you are into this kind of stuff, you can’t get much better than this. There was a pretty cool barn and a lake with a waterfall.
Also, there were a few habitats for animals in need of rehab. It kind of reminded me of Green Chimneys in Brewster.
All in all, it is a great place to walk around and unwind. I also think it is a great place to bring your…significant other.
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Sunday, August 20th, 2006
So I think I have been biten by the bug. When you actually sit in a small aircraft staring down a 5000 foot runway, you tend to lose your nerve a little. You wonder what you are doing and why the heck you are paying this much to put your life in the control of this small airplane.
With this said, the fear of takeoffs, flying and landings wears off very quickly. You soon have an addiction. This addiction has kept me up at night in half-sleeps dreaming of being up there looking at all my neighboring towns. Needless to say, I way very excited about today’s lesson.
The weather was a little iffy and I kept looking at the sky the whole drive over. I was very excited. I had to get this one in because I really want to start building up the minimum 40 hours it takes to take the practical private pilot’s exam. About a week ago, I purchased the Sporty’s Private Pilot Ground School, because the other half of flying is the education behind it. You will be facing a written exam before you know it. I learned a little about weather, but not much. The extent of my education at this point was, “Hey, it doesn’t look that windy at this particular moment, so let’s get up there.” The sky was cloudy and there was a strong breeze.
I showed up and Gary was standing outside with a friend. They were fixing his Coke machine right outside the hangar. I walked toward them and raised both arms like I was gliding. He looked at me and said it was way too windy and the visibility was only two miles. He said that we couldn’t go up. I accepted the instructor’s recommendation.
For the rest of the day, I had a very strong sense of “Cognitive Dissonance.” That’s basically the feeling you get when you made a choice and later on think that you made the wrong choice. I thought that since I would be taking these lessons on the weekends, and since he is closed on Saturdays and not open after 5:30PM during the week, it would take me about 4 years to get this license (really a certificate).
Now, overwhelmed by the feeling of my addiction and the new sense of urgency, I call the neighboring hangar, Freedom Air Flight School. They have 4 instructors, stay open until 8PM, while the season permits and are open both Saturdays and Sundays. I set up a lesson for August 23 at 8:30AM after calling and politely informing Gary of my choice.
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