Traffic Jam

We are driving home from LA right now. thw trip has been uneventful and things have been flowing fine.

until we got on 152. we got ober the mountain ok. but at BELLS STATION, stop and go traffic began. that's a couuple miles east of casa de fruta

The Sad Saga of a Cheap Airplane Toy

Tomorrow is the Regatta. I need a boat. I'm thinking something airplane themed, due to my recent airline adventures.

We went to BigLots! and found a cheap plane. It cost $1.99. There were other planes that looked better, but they were $3.99. We bought the cheap one. It had a spring loaded laucher. You put the springy pole through a hole in the fuselage, then pulled the trigger and it would lauch.

Once it was paid for, I opened it. It was far cheaper than I imagined it could possible be. The fuselage was a thin layer of plastic over nothing. The nose had foam to protect it during rough landings. Underneath the foam was nothing. The wings were thick paper scotch taped on. So was the tail.

I shot my hand a couple of times in the car. It didn't hurt, so I shot RKCP from close range. I wanted it to go a little farther, so I extended my arm and took aim.

I have bad aim. RKCP's window was open.

The plane soared majestically into traffic.

Now what am I going to do for a boat?

Catch

I'm not much of an athlete. I played some soccer in high school, and sat on the bench during baseball as a kid. Is it genetic? Probably not. I think it would be neat if my kids weren't completely inept like I was (am?). One of the large factors must be that we don't do athletic stuff very often.

SKGP and I were just playing catch with a tennis ball. At the beginning of the game, her throws were pretty wild and her catches more based on random chance. Then she caught one in an eye, and she became much less aggresive in her catches.

Then we turned it into a game. We'd count each catch that didn't end up on the ground, and see how high we could go.

5 was the record for quite a while. Then we broke 10, and 15, and hit 19. Our final round made it to 29. As we played, I could see her skills improving; her competitive spirit is strong.

The Boy still needs work on his concentration, but I guess that's understandable since he's two.

So, that's my 10 minutes of sports for the year.

Pretty, Pretty Princess

Alas, I am not the pretty, pretty princess today.

I had the bracelet, the necklace, the ring, and both earrings. And the crown. That's all you need to win. But I also had the dreaded Black Ring.

My opponent had everything but the crown.

If she landed on the Black Ring square, I'd be victorious. If I landed on the Put One Back square, I'd win.

She landed on the Crown square, stole what was rightfully mine, and became the Pretty Pretty Princess.

Now, we're going to see who is Sorry!

Update: I lost at Sorry! too. Zero for two against a 5 year old. I'm losing my edge.

The Morning After

Here's what the plane looks like right now. It's sitting on the grass near the runway.

There was a police type car and a truck nearby. 

Right and Wrong

Since we started flying and I've discovered more about the amazing program that is Google Earth, I've been carrying along my GPS.

After a trip, I can download the info into Google Earth and see exactly where I went. That can be useful in the real estate business.

In this exhibit, the blue line is the landing from a trip to Sacramento earlier this week.

The red line is last night's return to earth. I must have had the GPS in my pocket when walking back to the terminal, so you don't get to see our meanderings. 

Plane Crash

We had a meeting in Coalinga with the city manager and the city planner to discuss our projects. To make sure that we had the right team, we brought our two engineers and our planner.

To make life easier, we chartered a plane. We've been doing this quite a bit the past several weeks, since the driving to our far flung projects has been hard.

For our 5:30 meeting, we were picked up at South County Airport at 4. Both the engineers live in Hollister, so we made things easier on them and hopped to the Hollister Airport to get them. Since there were five of us, we picked Steve to be our "co-pilot" for the flight. He got to sit in front and wear the headphones. The flight south was uneventful, if a bit bumpy; we had more turbulence than we preferred.

The City of Coalinga has no taxi service. To get from the Coalinga Airport to City Hall, we had to get a taxi from Lemoore, some 30+ miles distant. When we landed, the taxi was there and took us into town. Eric, the taxi driver (and owner of the company), lives in Coalinga, so he told us some of the restaurants to check out, something we are constantly trying to learn.

We sent the taxi back to the airport for Adam, the pilot, so he could get some food and not have to sit at the warm airport for 4 hours with nothing to do.

At the meeting, the City Manager was unable to attend. But we discussed many important topics to our project with the planner, and all in all, had a very productive meeting.

After a quick dinner at the local Chinese restaurant, we attended the Council meeting. They denied a project from a local developer. They raised the water fees, after a very good presentation on why it was necessary. Other normal City matters were worked on.

Our taxi was waiting for us after the meeting, which ran until around 9 PM. We climbed back aboard and took off. On this leg, Michael the Planner was "co-pilot".

As we came into the Hollister valley, the fog was beginning to thicken up, but was still manageable. As we came in for our approach, the landing was a bit rough -- the rear hit the tarmac harder than previous landings. We taxied in and let our engineers go.

Adam was concerned about the weather -- his radio was reporting that the airports up the peninsula were getting pretty foggy. This is bad for us, as it would require an instrument landing and South County Airport in San Martin doesn't have the necessary stuff to allow that. We would have to go up to Reid-Hillview in San Jose, and grab a ride to our cars.

I called home to Gilroy, and Dad called home to Morgan Hill to get a weather report. Our wives at opposite ends of the valley (and the airport in between) reported mostly clear. That is, they could see lights in the valley. We let the engineers go home, rather than bumming a ride into San Martin from them.

We taxied out. Before hopping on the runway for takeoff, Adam spent several minutes flipping through his book of airports looking for the information on South County.

He gunned it, and we took off.

As we approached San Martin, the weather looked good, so we could land. Dad and I discussed the colors of the lights on the runway -- blue at the near end; red at the far. The wheels came down. We were lined up and ready to go.

As we touched down, there were a series of bad crunching noises, and we were crashing. We swerved back and forth, but not around (I think). We slid for a while and came to a stop.

Wow, that's got to be the most uneventful written account of a plane crash. Really, it was terribly exciting, and not in a good way. I was in a plane crash.

Adam yelled for us to get out. I unbuckled and hopped up and Dad told me to open the door. There is a pin in the lever which must be removed, but I couldn't get it. I tried a few times, but I was a little freaked out. Adam came back and got it open. The door dropped open and hit the ground. Normally, the door turns into a couple stairs that you walk down, but it fell open level to the ground. The landing gear had collapsed. I think the left propeller was bent. The left half of the plane, which is the only side I looked at, looked crunched up.

We all got out. It didn't blow up.

We all got out. We milled about. The fire engines didn't come. I was in a plane crash and no one noticed -- Did it really happen? In TV world, there would have been flashing lights.

I went back into the cabin and got my stuff. I couldn't find Dad's coat. I turned on the lights, but still couldn't find it. The inside of the cabin was a mess. Cushions were strewn about, granola bars were scattered. Dad went in and got his coat.

Adam called Peter, the owner of the plane. Adam was upset. He thought his career was over.

After a while, we walked to our cars. We were at the far end of the runway, so we had to walk pretty far -- runways are long. We walked through the grass because I didn't want a plane to land on me. I got stickers in my socks.

We milled by our cars. I scheduled a meeting on Monday to talk about the Greenhills Lakes Specific Plan. Eventually Adam came. As he was walking up, I heard him leaving a voice mail for his wife saying that he crashed but everyone was ok.

Dad gave me a hug.

We got in our cars. Michael was going to take Adam to the San Jose Airport to rent a car to go to his home in Mill Valley.

The plane is sitting on the grass near the runway. I guess that tomorrow morning Adam is going to come back and tell someone that we crashed. He said that the FAA (or whoever) would probably want to talk to us.

I'm a member of the bent wing club. I think that's pilot humor. I'm a member and you aren't. Well, you are Dad, but I'll bet no one else who ever reads this is.

I drove home. I hugged RCP. I gave the kids a kiss. They are both sleeping in SKGP's bed; they are cute. Gramzilla is here and she doesn't know I was in a crash.

I was home before 11 PM. If we'd been driving, I'd be home in a half hour. We had time to crash a plane and still get home early.

This is surreal. I was in a plane crash.

Happy Mother's Day

It's Mother's Day! Hooray!

RCP began the morning with a fine breakfast from the kids, with a little help from me. A balanced meal of coffee, Corn Pops cereal, and raisin toast with liberally applied butter. In bed!

Then, we got her out of bed and started her to work. At 11:30, we had brunch guests arriving. So, we cleaned and chopped. Luckily, as a Mother's Day treat, I had let her do most of the preparations the night before.

Nana, Granddad, and Aunt Mycki arrived promptly. DMP and Rebecca came a bit later, but pretty much on time, by the DMP clock.

We grazed on cheese and crackers, mimosas and champagne. For brunch, we used our dining room table from the third time, and our china for the seventh.

Granddad tooks the kids for a ride in the little red wagon, and let them play with the hose, which they enjoyed immensly.

The posse packed up and headed from DMP's new house. He's gotten braver since my prior post, and we actually went inside (without permission!). It is almost done, and it looks very nice. He's got a great view of a neighborhood park and pool that is going to make his place worth more than the neighbors.

Granddad and Nana generously offered their Sharks tickets for tonight; this is game 5 of the second round of playoffs, so its a very important and exciting game. Aunt Mycki volunteered to watch the kids and put them to bed at our place, so we actually get to go. Yippee! 

The Back Yard In Bloom

I took this photo last week of the hill in the back yard. We haven't had the chance to landscape yet. Right now, it is awash in wildflowers. It looks very nice, if a bit overgrown. In a couple weeks, its going to turn brown and thorny, which means it is weed whacker time.

The front yard landscaping is actually going to happen. Our guy will be starting this Thursday, and he expects to be done within two weeks. 

Blinded

In the PaceHouse 2.0, there is a set of large windows above another set of large windows. The top of the top windows is about 18 feet above the floor.

RCP had received the blinds intended for these windows, and was eager to install them.

She found that Home Depot in Morgan Hill rented scaffolding (for only $26 per day). A couple weeks back, I measured the components and confirmed that they'd fit in the van.

After lunch, I took out all the seats in the van, and headed to Morgan Hill. I rented the scaffolding and loaded it (and miraculously, it did fit). They guy didn't know anything, but they gave me some directions with the rental paperwork.

Once I arrived home, we discovered that the directions had nothing to do with the stuff we had. After a few minutes of fretting, we started putting pieces together in a reasonably logical way. Behold, the scaffold was built. We didn't figure out many of the parts, including the wheels and some braces and the security handrails, but we had a tall tower that seemed mostly stable.

Like a monkey, RCP climbed to the top and began her work.

A little time and not too much cursing later, the first two blinds were installed. With working remote control!

We man-handled the scaffolding over to the next two windows -- the wheels would have been nice for this maneuver, but we didn't break anything in the room or ourselves.

A little more cursing and time, and the final blinds were up.

The kids climbed to the lower level for a picture, we broke the pieces back down, loaded them in the car, and dropped the whole mess off at Home Depot. By 5 PM. Amazing.

The results were immediate. The room, which gets pretty warm from all the sun, cooled noticeably.

Car Troubles

My car is having a bad month.

One morning, I went out to find that I had a flat tire. Yes, I'm the type of wuss that calls AAA to change a simple tire. And I'm not ashamed. It took the dude a bunch of effort and two jacks to get the tire off, and he had real equipment. It would have taken me hours.

I locked my keys in the car. I was in Selma for a council meeting. Selma is two and a half hours from home. Luckily, I noticed my empty pocket before the meeting started, rather than in the middle of the night. It took the AAA guy more than a half hour to open the door. He was bewildered why it was so hard.

After the council meeting (now the middle of the night), the car wouldn't start. I think I had left my computer running off of the cigatette adapter; I had assumed the PC would go to sleep. The City Manager and another kind soul jumped it (which, of course, was harder than anyone expected). I made it home without further incident.

The car had problems starting for the next couple days, but it always managed. I finally got the chance to take it in, and I needed a new battery.

I'm really enjoying not having a car payment, so I hope that the burgandy beast will survive for another good long while. We have a yard to build. 

Ring

I've got a wedding ring. Again. Finally.

I lost my wedding ring in 2004. It was in my pocket when I was moving some stuff in the old house, and it disappeared. Or something like that. We didn't find it in the move. Sadness.

This year, I became motivated to replace it. We went to Joe Escobar Diamonds with RCP's version and asked for a replacement.

The first ring that came back was completely wrong. So was the second.

The third ring was right.

I had them engrave it with our wedding date.

I also wanted it to have continuity to the wedding ceremony. The best strategy was to shave a small (microscopic) amount off of RCP's ring and have that melted onto the new ring.

I picked it up yesterday, and I'm happy. It's big and shiny. Now, I have to get used to wearing a ring again.

Eureka

EJP has discovered his penis.

My First Flight

I drove a plane for the first time last week.

It's probably not called driving, but what do I know? The real pilot let me take the yoke. I wagged the wings a bit, but mostly didn't do anything interesting. My passengers probably would not have looked favorably on more entertaining maneuvers.

On that flight, coming home from Phoenix, I learned a bunch about the mechanics of flying. It was very interesting and enjoyable. I might see about taking some flying lessons, so I can fly for real. It has real appeal to the geek in me -- lots of buttons to push and thinking to do.

I was crying, Mom

I was crying, Mom.

When were you crying? I dont know.

Why were you crying? I don't know.

I was crying because I wanted you, Mom.

Miss Esperanza told me "Shhh!"

Was it rest time? Yes.

Were you making noise? Some of my friends were making noise too.

Mom, tomorrow, you tell Miss Esperanza not to tell me "Shhh", ok? I didn't like it.

That's A Good Hole

DMP dug his first hole.

We had a tree that needed planting. DMP was here, and we started digging. The soil around here is very thick clay, which is a real headache to scrape through. But he used pick-axe, shovel, and muscles to make a large hole.

That's a good hole.

Froggie

There's a frog on our bedroom window. It's small and cute. And its attached to our window.

That kind of thing didn't happen in San Jose. Well, except for the opossum.