Category Archives: 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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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!!

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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??!!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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

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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!

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July 7, 2015 · 23:32

Panorama: Seattle Aquarium

Seattle is a most wonderful place to visit. Among its many other charms (Space Needle, Pike Place Market, Museum of Flight, Pacific Science Center, EMP Museum, and Safeco Field, to name but a few) are the Seattle Aquarium. Otters, otters, otters!

2005_08_16 Panorama (Seattle Aquarium)

This panorama comes from six images of 2592 x 1944 pixels (5 megapixels each) combined into an image of 10031 x 1644 pixels (16.4 megapixels).

Yes, it was grey and gloomy the majority of the time we were there. The tourist board can talk all they want about how it’s not really like that, but you couldn’t tell by us. It’s okay, we liked it just fine. Can’t wait to go back.

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July 6, 2015 · 21:38

Duke Gardens Flowers

In April we were in North Carolina and visited Duke Gardens. I had the opportunity to wander for an hour or so and did what I do best at such times. I could have wandered for another two or three hours, just in the main gardens alone, where these pictures were taken.

Now I get to share.

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