Category Archives: Travel

August 2, 2015 · 20:18

Burlington Waterfront

We took off this afternoon to head north to Burlington, Vermont. We met my brother and his wife for a lovely dinner, but had plenty of time before dinner to wander along Church Street and down to the Waterfront.

Church Street is one of the first in this country to be closed off to vehicular traffic and turned into a pedestrian shopping and entertainment area. It’s four blocks of all kinds of neat things, from the conventional (Starbucks and Ben & Jerry’s) to the odd and unique (tattoo parlors and yoga studios). There are also a wide variety of eating places of all sorts.

This weekend was the “Festival of Fools” and on every block we saw street performers such as magicians, jugglers, singers, and comedians. The festival coincided (I believe not coincidentally) with the annual dragon boat races on Lake Champlain. We had hoped to get there in time to see at least a couple of the races, but visiting with Mom and getting a late (but very good) lunch slowed us down enough to force us to miss them. On the other hand, it meant that there was parking available closer than Winooski, so that’s a good thing.

And, of course, I took pictures. It was a clear day with the Adirondack Mountains in New York clearly visible, row upon row across the lake. The folks out sailing and kayaking seemed to be having the most fun of all.

File Aug 02, 23 05 07

(Click on image to see it full sized.)

Leave a comment

Filed under Panorama, Photography, Travel

August 1, 2015 · 19:14

A Good Time Was Had By All

As I mentioned, yesterday was my mother’s 80th birthday. She’s had some recent medical issues (thus my current extended and unplanned trip to Vermont) so we had to celebrate at the facility where she’s receiving treatment, but celebrate we did!

01_IMG_9887 small

The facility was fantastic in helping us get the party arranged and letting us decorate a conference room.

02_File Aug 01, 21 26 22

My brother had a laptop and monitor set up to display a slideshow of family pictures, and a small DVD player let us show the 8mm family movies that we’ve transferred.

Two of my brothers were there, as well as The Long-Suffering Wife and my brother’s wife. One of my nieces was there with her kids and husband, one of Mom’s grandchildren was there from California, and several of Mom’s friends from town came. In addition, one of my brothers had come in from Texas for several days last week (even though he couldn’t stay for the party) as did one of my sisters from California (ditto).

03_File Aug 01, 21 27 04

Mom had her hair and makeup done and got duded up to make sure that everyone knew who the Birthday Girl was. We also brought in her dog, Lucy, who was very well behaved and sat on Mom’s lap through the whole affair. (For the record, Mom really was having a good time – she wasn’t nearly as horrified as this picture makes her look!)

04_File Aug 01, 21 28 09

Putting all of that high-tech equipment to good use, we usually had at least three Skype or FaceTime connections going so relatives across the country could say hello. We talked to our two daughters in California, my niece’s kids at the beach in California, and got a phone call from Mom’s brother in South Dakota.

Finally, my NASA Social experience came in handy as I was able to post pictures and events as they happened (more or less) on Twitter and FaceBook. This in turn got a dozen or so of Mom’s nieces from all over the country sending in stories to share and birthday greetings.

05_File Aug 01, 21 28 35My brother, Mark (on the left), and I gave Mom a tremendously touching and personal birthday present. For nearly forty years we’ve kept Mom confused about which of us likes apple pie and which of us likes cherry. (Our family has more than a few running practical jokes going.) Basically, no matter what Mom thinks is correct, we’ll claim it’s the opposite. Sometimes we’ll switch several times during an event like Thanksgiving.

For her 80th, we told her which is truly our favorite. I like apple, Mark likes cherry. (Really, really!) It’s easy to remember, because “A” comes before “C” and Paul was born before Mark, so “Apple” = “Paul” and “Cherry” = “Mark.” Simple! (Or is it the other way around, because “M” comes before “P“, so “Apple” = “Mark” and “Cherry” = “Paul?”)

06_IMG_9903 small

If Mom seems to be groping for the appropriate word here, it’s “bullshit!”

07_IMG_9905 smallOf course there was cake, and candles to be blown out. The coolest part of the whole day was when we sang “Happy Birthday” and Mom sang along. She may have problems speaking right now, but her singing is pretty darn good! Then we had candles to be blown out, perhaps with a bit more technological help.

08_IMG_9910 smallEven the little kids did a great job of making sure that Nana was smiling and enjoying herself. This is Rose and Bella, two of my niece’s daughters, doing either the Disney Princess or the Alien Monster look (could go either way) with Nana.

File Aug 01, 22 10 07

Mark was nice enough to take a picture which finally captured my true inner self. (Don’t say you weren’t warned.)

09_File Aug 01, 21 29 57

We’re sure than Mom slept really well last night, but she was in good spirits this morning, having apparently survived the ordeal. If nothing else, the day proved that she’s still got that “Mom look” and eye roll down pat. (But she’s grinning while she does it.)

Love you, Mom!

Leave a comment

Filed under Family, Photography, Travel

July 29, 2015 · 21:25

Center Pond

Yesterday I mentioned briefly that I had spent a most wonderful day with a dear friend from my high school days, Sandy Stocker, and she had taken me off to go kayaking. (Where “taken me off” might equal “here put on these shorts and hauled my butt out into the wilderness and only asked if I could swim when we had been out on the water for five minutes.” I can swim. Sort of.

Today let me briefly share some pictures from that most interesting day.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

That’s a really, really calm lake. Or pond. (What are the parameters that define the difference between a lake and a pond?) This is Center Pond in Newark, Vermont.

When they refer to the water as being “glass like,” this is the picture you’ll find in the dictionary.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Sandy led the way around the lake, having established that, in a pinch, I could backstroke my way to Hawaii. Thankfully, she never asked how I planned to do that from a pond twenty miles from the Canadian border.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

The loon which popped up about twenty feet from us. This is what you get from sitting still. (Very, very zen!) We had stopped at a spot where there are rocks sticking up out of the water, then ate lunch and chatted while staying in contact with the rock. Since we were being still and quiet, our presence didn’t spook the loon, so she came to us.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

It’s not that big of a lake (or pond) – but follow Sandy anyway. There are many good reasons to do this (the first of which is Sandy), but the fact that I have no wallet, no keys, and no cellphone also make good reasons.

Wait. Back up. “OH MY GOD, PAUL WAS WITHOUT HIS CELL PHONE?!!”. Yes, and I didn’t have my “good” cameras, either. Just my waterproof point-and shoot camera. And, yes, me being without either cameras or cellphone for an extended period while on vacation is one of the Seven Signs of the Apocalypse.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

Many areas of the pond are very shallow, waist-deep or less. Here’s the remains of an old rowboat, rotting away on the bottom.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

This! This is not a bad way to spend a couple of hours or a couple of days or a couple of months.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

See, I can go have fun on a spontaneous adventure! (I apparently can’t remember to bring my sunglasses, but that’s a different issue.)

The Long-Suffering Wife noted that it couldn’t have been a “real” adventure since I wasn’t wearing my “adventure hat.” She has a point, but I contend that a NASA hat can always be a de facto adventure hat at any time and without any prior notice. Because, you know, NASA!!

1 Comment

Filed under Photography, Travel

July 28, 2015 · 21:21

Hella Long Day

Had a most WONDERFUL day off kayaking with on of my best high school friends, who I hadn’t seen in over 41 years. It was almost like not a day had passed, except of course for my grey hair and wrinkles. SHE looked fantastic! 

Along the way I saw not one, but two loons on two different lakes, and heard a pair of them sounding off with that haunting, captivating cry of theirs for several minutes. That was the first time I had heard it in person, truly a special treat.

Then it was back to trying to make sense of things and sort things out at the family homestead.

Who knew that my mother was the sort of monster that stored all of her CDs and DVDs in random cases, with almost none of them stored correctly, i.e., with the correct media in the correct container.

Who does that??!!

3 Comments

Filed under Photography, Travel

July 27, 2015 · 12:28

Fury Without Sound

We had thunderstorms popping up all over northern New York and Vermont yesterday, with a 60% chance of getting them here. But we had nothing but sunshine and humidity throughout the day.

Finally as sunset got near, a few cumulus started building to our south and west, heading our way.

IMG_3865 small

IMG_9200 small

IMG_3863 small

IMG_9197 small

IMG_3861 small

 

After dark, I worked scanning pictures in my TV-less and internet-less abode, I kept the porch door open, listening for approaching thunder. I heard nothing and figured that we had been missed again. Apparently the weather gods had been talking to the television gods and the internet gods and conspiring against me.

But when I went to bed and turned off the lights, I found that the sky was repeatedly lighting up with cloud-to-cloud thunder, some of it quite bright. I ended up staying up another hour to watch, but never heard thunder at all. It wasn’t like it was noisy – out in the boonies of northern Vermont, outside the town, I could still here a train whistle from four or five miles away in the valley, and other odd sounds of the night were drifting by. But no thunder, no matter how close or how bright the flashes seemed.

Lots of fury – no sound to go with it.

We’ll just have to make do with what we have. This trip is getting very zen.

Leave a comment

Filed under Photography, Travel, Weather

July 25, 2015 · 11:06

The Woods Are Silent, Dark, And Deep

The classic Robert Frost poem has always been a favorite and its symbolism is particularly apt for this particular trip.

File Jul 25, 13 38 30

When I got up it was foggy, which was marvelous to wander through as I walked Mom’s dog.

File Jul 25, 13 39 19

All over the lawn were these small spider webs. They must work, there seemed to be quite a population of them. This was a large one, but I was fascinated to see some very small ones, set very close to the ground at the bottom of the grass leaves, covered in dew, glistening like silver.

File Jul 25, 13 40 05

Back in the woods it was very quiet, except for the odd bird sounding off. Some bird songs I recognized, the jays, mockingbirds, and robins, but many were new to me. My Boy Scout days are far, far behind me.

File Jul 25, 13 43 10

These woods are on Mom’s property behind her house. Here all of the houses except those right in town have a couple of acres like this. It’s the norm. In Los Angeles, I can’t even imagine what five acres like this would cost.

File Jul 25, 13 43 57

I know that there are deer living in these woods. I’ve seen them at dawn and dusk, usually eating the crab apples out in front. Of course, they’re also always popping out into the road and freezing while you’re driving. So far the brakes and my reflexes are winning.

One of these nights I hope to go out and just look at the stars here. It’s a really nice, dark sky – but tonight looks like more rain.

Patience.

2 Comments

Filed under Photography, Travel

July 24, 2015 · 12:31

Third Best Sunset From Mom’s House

Every place can have great sunsets, but some have them more often than others. Tahiti and Hawaii, for example.

But I’m not in Tahiti or Hawaii, so some of the best I’ve seen are from my Mom’s house in Vermont. She has a great view of

Last night was pretty good, but right off the top of my head I still wouldn’t rate it any better than the third best I’ve seen from that location. If that isn’t damning it with faint praise, I don’t know what is.

I’ll save the really good ones for some future post, mainly because I’m on the road here, those photos are on my system at home, and these photos are right there in the camera!

For the record, after only getting two hours of restless sleep on the plane Wednesday night and then being up to almost midnight on Thursday, I did NOT get up at 5:00 AM to look for a correspondingly stunning sunrise. Well, that, plus the fact that it was raining pretty well at the time.

I might still be a bit punchy & jet lagged. A bit.

1_20150723_IMG_9110 small2_20150723_IMG_9123 small3_20150723_IMG_9129 small4_20150723_IMG_9144 small5_20150723_IMG_3811 small6_20150723_IMG_3814 small7_20150723_IMG_3837 small

1 Comment

Filed under Family, Photography, Travel, Weather

July 20, 2015 · 23:17

Control Issues

In many ways, it would have been easier if I had just gotten a phone call that said, “Get on the next plane you can.” Then I would have been forgiven for simply casting aside most of my normal daily responsibilities and simply reacting. I might even have been expected to do that. Don’t think, just keep putting one foot in front of the other.

But in being asked to be there in a week and stay for an uncertain duration, my brain wants to somehow take that as a reprieve, a chance to retain some modicum of control. If I do this and that, then I can minimize the impact on my absence from the hangar for a couple of weeks. If I can get A, B, and C done, then I can minimize some of the impact at home on things I normally keep up on. Of course, with that “reprieve,” I can take on numerous additional tasks to prepare for the trip and be able to help more when I get there.

I can plan. I can make checklists and double check them. I can leave little yellow sticky notes all over the place. I can fool myself into believing that I’m on top of the situation.

Um, yeah, about that…

Again, in thinking about this as I write, letting my brain roam freely as my fingers roam across the keyboard, I realize that there are parallels in flight training. (I find that a lot if I go looking for it, and since flight training is a really good thing and an excellent model for situational awareness, multitasking, and planning, I like to think those skills can carry back over to daily life.)

When operating normally, the number one rule is to stay ahead of the plane. Wherever possible, anticipate what’s coming up next and be ready for it.

Travelling cross country? Know in advance during your planning phase what your route is, and where there are alternative places to land along the way if you get into trouble. If everything’s fine, know in advance where and when you need to throttle back and start descending. Have a list of the anticipated radio frequencies that you’re going to switch between as you travel, and as soon as you sign off from #1 and start talking to #2, load the expected frequency for #3 into the radio – as soon as you switch from #2 to #3, load #4, and so on. Know what your landmarks are or navigation points and know when to expect them.

Stay ahead of the plane.

But when things go catastrophically wrong, i.e., the engine quits or your fuel tanks are empty or you hit a bird or you’re getting ice on the wings… Then the number one rule changes.

Fly the plane!

You may want to find a way to get down and land ASAP. You may want to call for help. You may want to try to restart the engine or switch fuel tanks or something else. But while you’re busy doing that, you can lose control of the plane and turn a bad situation into a fatal one.

Don’t worry about anything else until you’re following rule #1 – fly the plane!

That’s the equivalent of being told to get on the next plane. You don’t have to worry about anything else – just fly the plane. Just react. Just keep moving.

But now, it’s like bad weather moving in when you’re flying. Those accidents don’t start off catastrophic, but they end up that way because they’re the result of a string of little errors that add up. Break the chain and the accident’s avoided.

Weather’s looking spotty? Divert to one of those alternatives you planned for. They’re looking spotty as well? Turn around and go back. But you need to get there and you’re pretty sure you’ll be OK? Famous last words. Now you’re in conditions you’re totally not prepared for but you’re going to press on anyway? Fine, but what happens when you get off course and start to run low on fuel? Worrying about the course and navigation and fuel and you don’t notice the ice on the wings, or the oil temperature rising? It’s okay, I’m in control, there are just a few issues to deal with.

Really?

One little thing at a time that add up, none of them critical by themselves, but in a string they’re a disaster.

So now I think that I’m maintaining some control by working like a demon to get days and days and weeks of stuff done in just four or five days. I won’t miss anything.

But if I do miss anything, I’ll have the tools I’ll need to handle them on the fly. I can do that because I’m connected via phone and computer and internet and finances and everything can be taken care of that way.

But if it turns out that small towns in Vermont don’t have 4G cell service and I find out that I won’t have internet access where I’m staying, well, that’s still okay because…

And if I find that something else is an issue then I’ve got a contingency plan, except that maybe there’s a problem there…

Somehow I’ll figure something out and just deal with it, which is great until…

Just. Fly. The. Plane.

Important to remember that.

2 Comments

Filed under Family, Flying, Paul, Travel

July 17, 2015 · 23:13

Curve Ball (And Trouble Therewith)

Too many crises, not enough neurons.

This will serve as a little “heads up” that things may get a bit squirrely around these parts over the next two or three weeks. I’ll be making a trip back to Vermont next Thursday, and as much as I love Vermont, the reasons for the trip are considerably less than delightful. One of those things we all have to deal with sooner or later, usually several times in our lives, but it’s never pleasant and it’s never something anyone’s really prepared for.

Anyway, time might be in very short supply and schedules might be changing and updating and tumbling sort of like those chaotic moons of Pluto. If given the chance I may slap together some “generic” draft blog posts with photos or whatever that I can post with a minimal amount of internet connectivity (parts of Vermont are not a bastion of high-speed access) and time. If something here seems out of context, sort of like the way the original “Serenity” episodes were shown, you’ll know that it’s one of those days.

In short, the next few weeks might be a bit short on space stuff and long articles and deep thoughts and long on “Oooh, look at this pretty picture!”

Like tonight, when I was thinking I had done everything I absolutely had to get done and I was this close to collapsing into bed – only to remember my site… So tonight you get to admire this picture of the North American XB-70 Valkyrie from the National Museum of the United States Air Force in Dayton, Ohio.

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

 

2 Comments

Filed under Family, Flying, Photography, Travel

July 9, 2015 · 23:16

Random Photo For July 9th

  • Random number between 1999 and 2015 = 2009
  • Random number between 1 and 12 = 8
  • Random number between 1 and 31 (or 30 or 28 or 29) = 8

IMG_1051 small

Friends, have I spoken to you about the annual wonderfulness that is “Worldcon”? I’m sure I have, but the short version is that is the “World Science Fiction Convention” and it’s generally the largest of the fan-run, old-school conventions.

Things like most of the Trek cons and the anime cons and the like are all professionally run as a profit-making venture. ComicCon in San Diego this weekend is expecting what, 130,000 attendees? 150,000?

On the other hand, “fannish” conventions are generally non-profits and run about 99.99% by volunteers. Worldcons typically run 5,000 to 9,000 attendees.

Worldcon moves location from year to year. This year it’s in Spokane, next year it’s in Kansas City, last year it was in London. In 2009 it was in Montreal, and so were we.

It was our second visit to Montreal – the first, in 2004, had been something of a disaster. Our rental car was broken into and our luggage and my briefcase were stolen. We spent the rest of the day dealing with the Montreal police and rental car companies who weren’t a credit to their city (to say the least), in part, I suspect, because we didn’t speak a word of French. We then spent the next several days back in Vermont cancelling credit cards, getting new ones issued, and dealing with a case of identity theft. Finally, in my briefcase were several full memory cards with the pictures from the first few days of the trip. That’s one of the reasons I’m now pretty obsessed with multiple copies and multiple backups of digital photo and video when I travel.

The 2009 trip was much better. We had a pretty good time in Montreal, the convention was pretty good, and I found the Montreal Convention Center to be full of architectural wonders to take pictures of. One was this humongous, four-story tall wall of colored glass panes that painted the entire inside of the convention center on that side in constant, shifting shades of pastels.

I’m a sucker for colorful and shiny. If it can be big and majestic on top of it, I’m sold.

Nicely done, Montreal!

Leave a comment

Filed under Photography, Science Fiction, Travel