Riding around town

We trailered the bike down here and I've been itching to go somewhere. We forgot to pick up bagels at the store on Friday, so I said I'd go get some yesterday. Brian's favorite is Einstein Brothers - which is about 40 minutes away - longer if you get a little lost and take the long way!

Tif and Tina were going to do some shopping and Brian was working, so I took the bike out for a ride. Ended up spending about 3 hours out. Went and got bagels, then stopped at Trader Joe's and got some coffee and carb-free chocolate. Then stopped at Eegee's for a Hot Pastrami sandwich and a lemon eggee. Yum. There was no place to sit inside, so I just sat outside on the sidewalk, back up against the building, eating my sandwich and slurping down the eegee. It was pretty warm out, but there was a little breeze. Very cool. After getting some snow at home I have no problem sitting in the shade in almost 90 degree weather, sucking on an eegee to stay cool. AZ is great. :)

Then rode back towards home, got stuck in some traffic (something was going on) and turned around and took another long way home.

All in all - a great drive, warm weather, good food. A fun time. I'm very glad we brought the bike!

Watching the "boys" come home

Friday a squad of A-10s returned from Afghanistan. Brian was working so was there, and then Tif, Kian and I went over to see them return as well. It was pretty cool. We hung out in the hanger for a while and then went out to the line and watched them fly in, come down the airstrip and pull into their individual spots. There weren't *tons* of people there, but probably a good 50 or so. Mostly family members and friends.

It was very cool watching them fly in and then come down the line and pull into their spots. Basically a big carport kind of thing - structure with canvas over the top and about 1/2 way up the sides. Each plan has a spot and the family and friends of each pilot were waiting where they park. These guys had been deployed for 6 months I believe. A few things that stuck with me:

• They've been deploy for 6 months and have done a ton of sorties, dropping quite a few bombs, strafing runs, etc. They have hit targets in the hundreds. They fly in support of ground troops. They had the stats up on the board. In any case - lots of action, and yet we never hear that there is a war going on in Afghanistan. All we here from the Main Stream Media is how we pulled out of Afghanistan to go to an un-just war in Iraq. Well there is a war going on in Afghanistan and we have folks over there fighting it every day.
  
• I'm feeling my age. We hung out for a while with some of the wives waiting for their husbands to fly back. All "women" that Tif knows. There is Tif and Kian talking to all these wives and their children. They all look like kids to me. Girls with their kids, waiting for their boys to return home from war. Boys who have been over there fighting for us, protecting our country. Missing 6 months of their child's first year. And they'll be going back. And its just what they do. I'm impressed by all these kids do for us (both the young men and women), and saddened by how little we do for them as a country.
  
• It was very cool to watch them pull up. They have to sit in their planes *forever*, ok - maybe 5 minutes, while the ground guys get the plane all set. During this they are giving thumbs up, mouthing "I love you" to their wives / girl-friends, waving to their kids, etc. Then finally they climb off the plane, run over and hug/kiss their wives (who they haven't seen for a long time), then hug their moms - who cling to them, then their dads, then shake hands with all their friends. It was very touching.
  
• The noise of the plane has a rectangle on it, with a dragon, and silhouettes of bombs, rockets and other things. This represents bombs dropped, strafing runs, etc.

It was all very cool, and I'm glad I went.

The grief I take ;)

Stopped to pick up new cell phone batteries for Tina and Jaime on my way into work. Took Tina's phone so that I could make sure the battery was correct. I was riding the bike. Went into the store and there was a woman waiting around and all the customers were in the back. Eventually the clerk came out.

C: Can I help you?
M: I glance towards the woman.
W: I'm already being helped.
M: Can I get two batteries for this cell phone?
W: *You* carry a *pink* cell phone?
M: It's my wive's.
W: laughesJust harassing you... surprised to see you with a pink cell phone.
M: Yeah - its my wife's.
W: I know, but its just funny with you riding up on a Harley and all.
M: Well I told her I'd stop and pick up a battery for her and my daughter.
W: Yeah, no problem. There's no way *my* husband would do that for me. I just had to give you grief. It just looked funny.

People just don't expect you to flip out a pink cell phone when you're riding a Harley and all dressed in leathers and everything. :)

Its been a while since I read Paul Graham. I read his essay on How To Do Philosophy and passed it along to Jaimer, because she is loving logic in school right now. I then looked to see what else he had written that I had missed... Gee, guess its been a while, there is quite a bit. But I read Holding a Program in Ones Head because it looked similar to Great Hackers. As always, he gets it:

The weakest point in big companies is that they don't let individual programmers do great work.

and

Good programmers manage to get a lot done anyway. But often it requires practically an act of rebellion against the organizations that employ them.

How true... I'm feeling that a lot lately.

FamilyWatchDog

FamilyWatchDog is a public site that uses google maps to show known sex offenders in your neighborhood. Put in your address and colored boxes show up in your area. Click on a box and it shows the person's name, convictions, alias, etc.

It feels just like you'd think

Yesterday we went up to the Golden Dog Park because they had a Colorado Greyhound Adoption picnic. Yes... we have a new dog. 'Nuff said. :)

Anyway, Tina and I took the bike up and it was a nice ride, spent an hour or so checking out the dogs and stuff. Kind of like a bike rally for dogs, i.e., food, vendors, activities. Tina bought some stuff and we had a good time. But it was *really* windy.

Coming back we were doing 70 on a particular road, with the stereo blaring, wind pounding us, and kind of just hanging on and going for it. Up ahead there was a lot of home construction and you could see the sand just *blowing* across the road. All we could do was hit the throttle and go for it. We'd never been through one before and yeah, it feels just like you'd think. Like going through a sand blaster.

But actually - it was kind of fun. Going fast, music up loud, bike rumbling, zipping through the sand - we just laughed and then I yelled and we were out of it and down the road. Hit another one, which wasn't as bad; and then we were home.

Nice warm fall day - it was good to be alive, on a bike, with my babe. :)

The Coz

Jaime and I hate a Daddy/Daughter day today. We went to Jack Quinn's for lunch. It was really good. Had Guinness and Corn Beef & Cabbage. Yum. Then we went to the Pikes Peak Center and saw Bill Cosby. He was awesome. And we had 4th row seats so that was very cool too. It was like sitting around with a grandpa and listening to really funny stories.

It was fun to get downtown early, walk somewhere for lunch and then catch a great show. We are going to a number of other shows as we got tickets to Broadway in Colorado Springs. We'll see how much I like Musicals... but I have great hopes. I think it will be a fun time with Jaimer.

Yet another thing VMS did right

For Geeks - a story on why VAX/VMS base time is 17-Nov-1858 and why it won't have any problems until 31-Dec-9999, unlike Unix which is going to have issues in 2032.