Leaving on a Jet Plane

Well - today is the day. I'm a little nervous...but I'm a bit of a nervous nelly anyway. Picking up the random stuff around the house. The flight to NJ will suck, and then I have to hang there for awhile before I go cross country. Got book, got iPod.

I'm taking a digital camera as well as the 4x5, so I should be able to post some pics.

So, goodbye, farewell, auf wiedersehen.

Closer Still

The virtual packing competition with Trigirl40 continues. I bought the last of my supplies tonight (socks and ls t-shirts) tonight. Washed the few clothes I need that weren't clean. I've had some stuff in the suitcase for a few days now....

Last night was the big show at school. Funny as usual. I don't think we had backing tracks when I was a kid. And yes, I have it all on video.

Got my pants in. I need to get my pic taken in full power ranger gear. I look pretty silly, but it is safer.Wife is threatening to take away credit card. Might be wise.

So really all I have left to do is pack and gather up the stuff around the house. Download playlist to ipod. Not bad. Packing is going to be a pain tho because of the variable weather. We'll be out early to get good light, so the temps will be cool, and then get warmer. This is all compounded by the fact that I have to helicopter into the canyon and can't take too much.

Here is a photo of the camera I use. Apologies to the dude I stole the photo from.



This is going to be quite an experience for me. Besides my folks, there is a photog that is acting as guide and is also shooting with the same camera. He's bringing along another friend. I've barely shot in years, and now I'm doing it with published landscape dudes. Well, hope I get something good.

Biking, motorcycling, and every other hobby I have is put on hold for a bit.

And so it begins

For the most part, I'm one of those "the chase is better than the catch" guys. Whatever I do, I relish the prep. The getting ready, getting "the stuff", finally doing it. Then I'm done, time to move on. (Fortunatly, this doesn't apply to everything). I'm a list maker, a planer. Ok, lets face it, I'm anal.

So, tonight I pulled down the suitcase for my trip on Saturday.

Sure, I don't leave until Saturday, but I've got a lot of stuff to get together. Taking an extra suitcase for the couple of day excursion. Got the carry on pack, too. I've got a couple of coats for my parents sitting in a chair. There you go! I need someplace to put them! Might as well pack them. Need the suitcase for that, and I needed to go in the attic anyway to put away the camping gear.

See how easy that was?

I'm going to have to do a bit of laundry this week for the trip. I don't really know what to take with me. The weather is going to be up and down. Also, when we helicopter down into the canyon, most of my allowed weight will be in camera gear. Meh, who needs clothes on an Indian reservation? Maybe I need some of Annnnnnnnn's magic skin stuff to prevent chafing.

I'm thinking tomorrow will be a motorcycle day with my new robogloves. Pants on order.

The time is neigh

First - Richard, no, you don't go very far when your motorcycle is on a work stand. It is similar to a trainer tho. It is indeed a device which allows you to torture yourself. In this case it makes it easier for me to work on the motorcycle.

Got some new blingy motorcycle gloves. Now I look even more like a Power Ranger! I should shoot a pic. Still need some pants tho.

Yeah, so Friday was a school event. You know, how is it I can overcome hating crowds when I'm being pushed around at a concert, but stick me in a crowded school and I'm about to crawl out of my skin! But I managed and its all good.

Saturday morning brought "the ride". Again I find myself gearing up at an hour I'd rather not be. Don't get me wrong, despite my bitching, I love it or I wouldn't be doing it.
And Saturday, I geared up for sure. I added clothes about 6 times. Shorts, knee warmers, long sleeve jersey, heavier socks, long finger gloves, undershirt and a coat. So, by the time we met up with Annn, I was warm. I ditched the coat at Annn's car, thanks! Honestly, the rest of the gear, I was fine. Richard says I'm old, he might be right.

So, as usual Diane takes off fast. That's hard for me to do, I usually have to warm up some. It was a great ride. Annnnn decided she was going to lead and she took off. We had quite a pace going. I think she was up front for most of the ride. At the very end I know she was behind me, but that didn't last long. All these kids can ride, it really is fun.

Saturday brought F1 qualifying, with Ferrari at the front, but things looking good for Hamilton to be the: 1st rookie to win the championship; 1st black to win the championship; and the youngest driver to win the championship. Sunday was the race. And what a race. Hamilton blew it, and then had some mechanical issues to help him move backward during the race. I say he blew it. This guy is 22. First year in F1. He is so phenominal that when he makes a true rookie mistake, everyone is floored.

I won't bore you, but it was a great race. Kimi Raikkonen came from a longshot third in points to win the season. He drives for Ferrari. It was great!

The rest of the weekend was spent with dull tasks like laundry and planning for my trip next weekend. More on that later.

Uneventful

Slow week, nice I suppose. Still trying to catch up on the stuff I didn't get done over the weekend. Excitement has amounted to getting the new dishwasher installed and getting the kitty fixed.

Well, that last one might not have been so good for kitty.

Old photo



How can you resist that?

No photos of the dishwasher, sorry.

Got to the gym the other day. Didn't push it, but felt ok. May go tomorrow. Gotta be ready for Diane and Richard. Hard to get back in the swing of things. Like Richard, I need to get the trainer back out.

Had a revelation this week. I'll start by saying its good I didn't get a motorcycle until I was older. I rode to work on Tuesday. One truism of riding is that you are invisible to cars. Another is, you are ageless. You are cool. You are (insert your fave classic cool guy here) Steve McQueen.
So I'm cruising down the road avoiding traffic. I pass (what I hope is)a High School busstop where a young lady has stepped out of the crowd trying to thumb a ride with me. I just waved and smiled in my helmet, behind my sunglasses, all of which hide my age. Girls do love what they perceive to be dangerous boys, don't they. If I had any confidence when I was young, this could have gotten me into a lot of trouble.

As it turns out, I had no confidence, no motorcycle and no money when I was young. Perhaps I still had a slightly dangerous look, but that's as far as it went. I don't think many Moms liked me, which worked in my favor.

Anyway, since I have nothing fantastic to say, I'll close with a photo of the sex machine. Don't hit me on your way to work tomorrow, riders are people, too!

Whew!

Mom is home. It has been quite hectic.

We had an outage at work on Friday. We weren't fully recovered until late Saturday. So, Friday night was spent shopping, packing, phone calling, driving to the airport phone calling, emailing and finally sort of sleeping.

Saturday brought good weather and taking off for camping. We were in cabins, so there was no tent to set up. Just all the cooking stuff. After a brief lunch we went for games. We didn't do so well. There were only 4 of us, so we had to do everything 4 times because of the tribe with 16 kids. So, that mean we had to carry the kids a bunch. I think the dads were as worn out as the kids.

Afterwards one of the worst things that could have happened, happened. Mom brought her a little coin from her trip. One of those angels in your pocket things. She lost it in the field during the games. Her eyes were all red and I could just see me having to pack up and go home. A bunch of people helped us look, but no luck. I told her that I just didn't think we were going to find it. I was working on a story about the luck whoever found it would have, but, then she found it. I was so relieved.

The night was the usual grilling and the secret ceremony. I'm afraid I can't share what goes on there. :-)

Back to a roaring campfire. Kids in bed around 10. Dads in bed around 11. We're the wuss tribe. One of the dads did bring a little something for me to slip into my coke. Whew. It was good. Sleep was ok. Temp was awesome, but my bunk was less than comfortable.

The morning brought me making eggs which go over well. Eggs, bacon, milk, juice, doughnuts, some sausage left over from dinner, hot chocolate, and coffee, glorious coffee.

Came home, started clean up, went for some new cds, and that's about it. Oh, and dropping the camera gear off. Wow, I have no idea how I'm going to carry it. Guess I'll manage.

Now back to real life. Gotta get the lawnmower tomorrow. Need some sleep. Need to purge all the bad food I've eaten out of my system. Need to exercise.

Tired.

Almost!

Mom comes home tomorrow night! Woo hoo! It hasn't been as bad as it could have been. We've had a lot to do. Last night Red Robin with some friends. Bed time was fine until 11 or so. Then stomach hurt. Sent her back. Around midnight, again. I told her she could stay in bed with me.

This morning she said her stomach still hurt some. So, trying to be a good parent I let her have about a quarter of a little metamucil cracker. Cleared things up. :-) I do think that was a little bit of the issue.

Tonight we were sad after mom called. No idea what sets it off. Then, I made the mistake of talking about summer camp. Bad call. I was just talking about how fun it could be to be away from parents. Oh well. I recovered. You know, I really don't want her to grow up, but I would like her to be a little less tied to us.

About have everything together for camping this weekend. Hopefully that will go ok. Only fear is that Mom comes home late tomorrow night and we're leaving Saturday morning. The camping itself is fine, but there won't have been any Mommy time. Guess we'll see.

And, now I have to get all my camera gear cleaned up for my trip. My folks are taking the gear out on Monday in their car. I'll get out there in 2 weeks. Should be interesting to say the least.

So much to do....