| June 30th |
Having found the rear tyre on the
mountain bike
flat again, I gave up and put a new tube on it, and threw the old one away. I think the patch gets
screwed up as the tyre inflates or something, as this really isn't the first time I've fixed a
puncture. The old tube had 2 other repairs on it already, for example.
I spoke the other guy in the hangar about the door, and he explained that they were supposed to be
getting it's annual inspection done so they can fly it to Wisconsin at the end of July. He managed to
get their plane out by moving mine to the back of the hangar, so now it's just my
Rans
and Ken's car in there :o) At least I can get my plane out until the door's fixed :o) |
|
|
| June 29th |
The people called about the hangar at
the airfield,
and said that it was going to take 2 people, so they're aiming to be there next week. It's a shame,
as the past few days haven't been too windy, so I could fly if I could get the plane out of the hangar
:o|
I decided to go for a ride on the
mountain bike,
but the rear tyre was flat. Again. I took everything apart to find that the patch seems to have
pinched, so it wasn't over the hole anymore. I put a bigger patch on it, and made a mental note to
buy another one of these super-dooper puncture resistant innertubes - of course the hole is on the
thin sidewall, rather than the thick main part :o( |
|
|
| June 28th |
I called about the hangar at
the airfield,
to be told that they'd had a problem with the lift (the doors are 16' tall), and that they'd be there
tomorrow. So, I decided to fix the puncture in the
mountain bike's
rear tyre. I thought I'd probably screwed up the repair I made
last year,
but no, it was a different hole entirely. |
|
|
| June 27th |
The hangar company were supposed to show up and fix the door, but didn't call me
to get in. After work, I went to
the airfield
and sure enough, the door wasn't fixed :o( On the way home, I spent what seems like my whole month's
salary on groceries and a tank of gas at Safeways. Hmmm. |
|
|
| June 26th |
I almost severed my fingertip fitting a manual camchain tensioner to the
KLX
when the spanner I was using to remove a nut slipped :o) It's funny, as I wear one of those latex
gloves so it's a quicker cleanup job, and as I finished what I was doing, it slowly filled up with
blood.
Undeterred, I changed the oil in the
Subaru.
It's all fun, fun, fun here, I can tell you :o) |
|
|
| June 25th |
I'd been asked to spend the day at the
SPCA,
as they were short of staff, so that took up most of Sunday.
When I got home I watched the outstanding
MotoGP
race, and the first
WSB
race from Misano.
Speed TV
were too busy showing repeats of some car race to show race 2 - that'll be Tuesday :o(
I also spent a little time on
World of Warcraft
before bed. |
|
|
| June 24th |
As usual, I started the day at the
SPCA,
then went home and collapsed because of the 111F heat. I spent a little while playing
World of Warcraft
in the evening, then went to bed. |
|
|
| June 22nd |
I went to
the airfield
and to get the
Rans
out, only to find one of the hangar doors is jammed :o( I managed to use another door as a slide
hammer to open it, but it didn't get any better. I squeezed the Rans out, and did 30 minutes, all the
time stressing about closing the doors again. I landed, put the plane away and ended up using a ratchet
tie down to drag the door closed while I was kicking at it. Not a great ending to a >100F day, I can
tell you. |
|
|
| June 20th |
After my connection problems (it's better, but not great), I've lost a whole week of
playing
World of Warcraft.
This means that Wowtard and Sixtoes are several levels ahead of me, so I had a marathon session that saw
me playing until 2am, and gain 4 levels on Ptraci (now level 28). Now I need to concentrate on Piggles
(level 26) for a while :o) |
|
|
| June 18th |
I moped around the house, vacuuming and even cutting the grass to kill time before
the
MotoGP
race. What a disastrous start, with several top riders biffed off. While I'm not a fan, I thought
this
was perhaps poetic justice. |
|
|
| June 17th |
As usual, I started the day at the
SPCA.
We were quite busy, adopting out six (I think) dogs. As I was leaving, Mike called me to say he was in
Roseville, so I met him and Vince for a late lunch / early dinner, then went to Debbie's to pick up
Chloe.
It's nice to have her back, even though she's put on a lot of weight - she was 75lbs! I'll have to
walk that off her, along with giving her less to eat, and fewer treats.
My internet connection's been playing up since I got back, meaning that I can't play
World of Warcraft :o( |
|
|
| June 16th |
I checked out and headed home. After another bone-crunching landing, I picked up
all my junk and drove home. Note to travellers: The TSA don't like screwdrivers in your
checked luggage - both ways they had a good shuffle through my bag :o| |
|
|
| June 15th |
I had no work to do, so I went and hung out in Boulder with John. I got to inspect
his new Harley (hmmm...), and we managed to get the frame for his Triton inspected, meaning that he can
register it in his name now. After a while we went to have dinner with George and Rich at Rich's
enormous new house in Aurora. After dinner, we entertained ourselves recreating
this
- it really does work, as 8 litres of Diet Coke (tm) and a few packs of Mentos (tm) proved :o) |
|
|
| June 14th |
I took apart our equipment in the cage without too much stress, then took it to
UPS to ship back to San Jose. I told the ass clown there that a number of servers were going to be
heavy, but he didn't seem to listen. He put them all in one box, which we then couldn't lift onto
the scales. After he'd thrown a little tantrum (and I was thinking whether I should go and find a
Fedex), we split it into 2 boxes - still too heavy for the scales. His manager intervened, and we got
it into 4 boxes and finally shipped.
Working at UPS doesn't look too hard to me.
I then went and met John and his latest squeeze in Boulder for dinner. Driving back, there was an
accident on the freeway. I know this, because after an hour, I crawled past a sign saying that there
was an accident, and to expect delays. Really? Eventually we passed the 7 police cars clearing up the
flares after the accident, and I noted that none of them thought to direct traffic. Still, I eventually
got back to the hotel. |
|
|
| June 13th |
I flew to Denver to take apart our no-longer-needed datacentre there. After
a landing that made me feel better about my landings, we staggered out of the terminal to find that
the inter-terminal train was broken. Eventually they got that working, and I got the trainee at
the car rental place. Great. Still, after going to a different La Quinta hotel than I'm used to
(there are now 2 within a mile of each other), I managed to meet George for a late dinner, and
everything worked out OK. |
|
|
| June 11th |
I got all keyed up to watch the
MotoGP
race, but there wasn't one. Oh well, lots of other stuff to catch up on... |
|
|
| June 10th |
As usual, I went to the
SPCA
for most of the day, then in the evening went to the stock car races in Roseville to watch
Scott try his hand in the spectator race. Now, this is 15 laps, at roughly 15 seconds a lap,
but when somebody spins off or crashes, they get everybody realigned and restart the race in
line astern. Scott didn't crash once, but several of the other "spectator racers" did, meaning
that the line was rejigged several times, and they put the guys who were running in the series
in front. So, for the final race to the line, he started in 6th, with a couple of guys who'd
already crashed infront of him. He finished the race 3rd, out of (I think) 10. In the
regular races, if you spin, you start again at the back, even if it wasn't your fault. I think
that without the crashes and the subsequent rearranging, he might have made 2nd or even won.
The guy who came 2nd crashed on the straight on the last lap, and crossed the line going
backwards in a car that had to be towed off the track :o)
We were just commenting on how it looked like the races would be finished early (they have to
finish by 10pm) when there was an almighty crash and it took 15 minutes to drag off several
cars and clean the track :o) |
|
|
| June 9th |
Today was
Chloe's
annual cardiologist visit, for her
pacemaker
checkup. She's doing fine, and even though the pacemaker beats her heart about 70% of the
time, the battery is looking good for about 6 more years. |
|
|
| June 8th |
After work, I went to
the airfield
and hopped in the
Rans
for a quick flight. I did the "positive hitting the ground" thing, and that seemed to work
OK for me. More practice, I think :o) |
|
|
| June 6th |
After checking the weather with the Automated Weather Observation Station
((916) 645-0698), I went to
the airfield
and watched the windsock blow from 7 to 20 or so mph. Oh well, the
Rans
needed fuel anyway :o) |
|
|
| June 5th |
I went to
the airfield
and took the
Rans
out for a little while. After another sucky landing, I decided to try just putting the
front wheels down, rather than a proper 3 pointer. I used to do this a lot in the
Thruster,
as when we put the aerofoil struts on, I couldn't get it to touch down either. That
worked a lot better, so I think I'll try doing some of those - I reckon with the 3 pointers,
my landing speed is higher than the take-off speed, meaning that it'll get airborne again
with very little provocation. With a wheelie landing, I'm forcably holding the thing
on the ground until it's slow enough not to want to take off again. I wish I'd tried this
last year
:o) |
|
|
| June 4th |
I kicked around the garden for most of the morning, just killing time
until I could watch the
MotoGP.
What a race! That was probably one of the best races I've seen, and I think it was interesting
to see that Michael Schumacher was there - that's what overtaking
looks like :o) I'm glad that the winner won, as it means that there are currently 5 or 6 guys
who stand a chance of winning, and one of them is my personal favourite, Valentino Rossi.
Nicky Hayden's coming across as more fun, too, so I'd be happy to see him win. Maybe next
year though, as I'd like Rossi to have won every single 990cc MotoGP championship :o) |
|
|
| June 3rd |
One of the things about going to the quacks' is that they then send you
to other places for tests, so I didn't eat or drink anything other than water from Friday
evening, and went for the first round of blood-letting on Saturday morning.
Why is it that everybody before me takes half an hour, and I take less than 5 minutes? It
seems to be like that everywhere. Anyways...
I then went to the
SPCA
for the rest of the day, and spent a few hours in the evening playing
World of Warcraft. I have a Warlock that I'm trying to get a Succubus as a minion for - the
Voidwalker and Imp are OK, but they don't look as cool :o) |
|
|
| June 1st |
I went to a doctor for my first check up in 8 years, and it appears
that I only have 50 years to live. 60 tops. That's the last time I go to see a doctor,
as up until then, I was immortal :o)
I also scooted over to
the airfield
and finished fixing the
prop.
I'll wait for everything to be totally set and dry before I try flying it - call me
paranoid :o) |
|