30
June: - Friday:
Today is the last day of the month - so Mr. Bill left at 06:45 a.m. to get the oil changed and the tires rotated on the Toyota Mini-Van so that we can go to Annapolis next week to deliver two boats (but not the trailer) to our friend Mr. Bruce... - ALSO _ Mr. Bill worked on Ms. May's 'land-clearing-project, which is still only about 30% complete... When I finish this 'land-clearning-project' (and larger) we'll have space for Ms. May's Orchid House - which we're going to build / model after the construction of the 'pump-water-softener-well' house (as noted below on this web-page (see the Wednesday, 7th June part) )..
Late June: - we hear-tell, now, but one never knows that - a certain couple - friends of ours, fly from the New England area, through Atlanta, to somewhere in the Mid-West... - They get 'stuck' in Atlanta, due to air-line 'problems' and get a fancy-hotel-room for the night....- Then later that week, they fly BACK from a certain place in the mid-west, again, through Atlanta, back to New England - and they get STUCK AGAIN, in Atlanta for an evening of entertainment, not very damn much food, and other such 'happenings' due to weather, airlines, etc. etc. etc. etc. -
THEN they rent this truck - damned near get washed-down the river in New England due to flooding, then the truck overheats, - takes them a couple hours to get the truck-people to replace something - they go another 30 minutes, truck overheats again, they wait some more for some more truck people - get stuck with yet another hotel room - and they haven't even gotten out of New England (yet) - MAYBE we'll hear from them over the weekend and they will have gotten to where they were going with a 'bit less trouble' than they've had so-far??? - we will all 'pray' for them!
well - this week (Sunday-night (25th) through Wednesday (29th) I was in / at my Sister's in Austin, Texas, to help her out with this, that, the other, some visiting, some house-cleaning, some erranding (is that really a word?) some getting wasp-bites (so she didn't have to get them) - and some various and sundry other things... I also got to drive her new Volvo 70 station wagon and then a 'version 60' of the Volvo sedan (while her station-wagon was in for service. - Volvo makes a nice car but the (outside) mirrors are too small - other than that it's not bad - especially since I was driving around Austin for 3-6 hours a day in her car. Also got to visit for a while with my old Hong-Kong-Motorola friend Mr. Bob. He's doing quite well (most of us 'ex-Motorolans' are) - in his new role as web-page-designer and sales guru... - It was great to be back in Austin - a place I frequented a LOT while I worked for Motorola, but haven't been there in YEARS. They have a BRANDY-NEW Airport in Austin, now - further from things but a lot nicer than the old one!
Today is the last day of the month - so Mr. Bill left at 06:45 a.m. to get the oil changed and the tires rotated on the Toyota Mini-Van so that we can go to Annapolis next week to deliver two boats (but not the trailer) to our friend Mr. Bruce... - ALSO _ Mr. Bill worked on Ms. May's 'land-clearing-project, which is still only about 30% complete... When I finish this 'land-clearning-project' (and larger) we'll have space for Ms. May's Orchid House - which we're going to build / model after the construction of the 'pump-water-softener-well' house (as noted below on this web-page (see the Wednesday, 7th June part) )..
Late June: - we hear-tell, now, but one never knows that - a certain couple - friends of ours, fly from the New England area, through Atlanta, to somewhere in the Mid-West... - They get 'stuck' in Atlanta, due to air-line 'problems' and get a fancy-hotel-room for the night....- Then later that week, they fly BACK from a certain place in the mid-west, again, through Atlanta, back to New England - and they get STUCK AGAIN, in Atlanta for an evening of entertainment, not very damn much food, and other such 'happenings' due to weather, airlines, etc. etc. etc. etc. -
THEN they rent this truck - damned near get washed-down the river in New England due to flooding, then the truck overheats, - takes them a couple hours to get the truck-people to replace something - they go another 30 minutes, truck overheats again, they wait some more for some more truck people - get stuck with yet another hotel room - and they haven't even gotten out of New England (yet) - MAYBE we'll hear from them over the weekend and they will have gotten to where they were going with a 'bit less trouble' than they've had so-far??? - we will all 'pray' for them!
well - this week (Sunday-night (25th) through Wednesday (29th) I was in / at my Sister's in Austin, Texas, to help her out with this, that, the other, some visiting, some house-cleaning, some erranding (is that really a word?) some getting wasp-bites (so she didn't have to get them) - and some various and sundry other things... I also got to drive her new Volvo 70 station wagon and then a 'version 60' of the Volvo sedan (while her station-wagon was in for service. - Volvo makes a nice car but the (outside) mirrors are too small - other than that it's not bad - especially since I was driving around Austin for 3-6 hours a day in her car. Also got to visit for a while with my old Hong-Kong-Motorola friend Mr. Bob. He's doing quite well (most of us 'ex-Motorolans' are) - in his new role as web-page-designer and sales guru... - It was great to be back in Austin - a place I frequented a LOT while I worked for Motorola, but haven't been there in YEARS. They have a BRANDY-NEW Airport in Austin, now - further from things but a lot nicer than the old one!
18
June; - Sunday:
- Mr. Bill visits the "Florida Ridge" hang-gliding center near the southwest corner of Lake Okeechobee. He manages 4 flights before high-winds and the Tug-pilot (from Fort Myers, Florida) takes off for his "Father's Day Activities". The location, the area, and the staff are all very nice... The 'center' of the above picture (where the blue, vertical, pole is) is 'about' east - the left-end is 'about' north, and the (white) hangar on the right end is 'about' south). The location is 'about' 1/2 way between Clewiston and La Belle, Florida - just south of the Okeechobee Canal that we went through in our jet-boat about 3 summers ago in our 'epic journey' from Stuart to Ft. Myers Beach.
Just as an 'aside' - the drive from Stuart to Florida Ridge flight-park is 'about' 100 minutes - 'about' 100 miles - 'about' 1 hour less than the drive to Quest Air in Groveland, Florida. Though all of the drive (from Stuart) to Florida Ridge is on 2-lane roads - they are very wide, very lightly-travelled, but the pavement is sometimes very rough.
So - We can save about an hour each way to 'commute' to/from Florida Ridge.
Further - this drive is primarily through the south-Florida sugar-cane-fields. This is a HUGE area (over 1,000 square miles) and it is FLAT FLAT FLAT FLAT FLAT - there's just nothing to see for miles in all 360 directions. Only an inch of rain here makes a huge difference but the area is so HUGE that it never rains over the whole area all at once - we're talking over 70 miles in any given direction. When driving here you get a sense of how huge the sugar-cane-growing industry is, here in Florida and how much land they own and use. On the other hand - most of the land is 'boggy' and/or 'wet' - which is why they grow sugar cane here. The land isn't much good for anything else, and if / when the Lake Okeechobee / Everglades restoration project is complete in another 30-50 years - this area will be a lot different. Many say, now, that the levee that encloses Lake Okeechobee (about 35 miles in diameter) is likely to break in the next big hurricane, and this levee not only protects much of the population who live in the area, but it is what makes the use of the land, here, available to the sugar-cane industry.
When flying hang gliders here, you see almost no tree over 30 feet high, and virtually no small lakes; like in / around Quest-Air in Groveland. There is almost no place you can't land - though if you land north of the canal - it's a 30-50 minute drive due east or west to get across the canal to do a pick-up. Again, from up in the air - you get a sense for how FLAT FLAT FLAT the area is - it's amazing to see nothing, natural, that is more than 1-2 feet higher than anything else in the area. When looking at a map you see that virtually everything south of Lake Okeechobee is 'a flood plain' and it was created, 100s, even 1,000s of years ago and it's long-term development is what creates this flat-flood-plain area is a result of that natural process.
17 June; Saturday: -
Ms. May and Ms. Lily walked the board-walk out on Cape Cod, in Massachusettes, where Ms. May went to visit Ms. Lily & Mr. John before they move to Kansas City - a LONG way to move. -
Mr Bill spent part of the day at Quest-Air until about 2pm but never got to fly - not enough 'lift' for anything of significant value. So then he drove home the 'long-way' - (almost six hours in the mini-van) but got to see a lot of south-west-Florida flat-lands! - and it is FLAT FLAT FLAT...
15 June; Thursday: - Today is mid-month - it's also 'Pay your Estimated (US-Income) Taxes' day - just for the record, in case anyone has forgotten. It's also Mr. Bill's catching-up on paperwork EARLY in the morning and Yard-Trimming day (if I don't trim them now, some hurricane will trim them later). And re-making some hurricane shutters, and so-on and so-forth... LOTS of things to do ...
BUT all that is of no-consequence to our readers - so here's some things of greater interest...
Ms. Siew Mei - ready to be 're-cycled' (this red-bin is where Mr. Bill keeps his re-cycled paper before it goes out to the re-cycle bin)... AND for those of you who really want the 'web-experience' - click here for a surprise...
Wednesday, 7th June:
Well - after about 2 1/2 years - and talking and planning and discussing and planning and talking and procrastinating - Mr. Bill FINALLY built a little roof over the pump, well, water-softener, and other such things to shield them from the sun and the elements... THOUGH it is not FINISHED, YET, it will be, soon. Ms. May wants to put palm-fronds on top for a 'rustic' / 'native' look.... - We'll have to see if we can find enough palm fronds? AND, my sister wants to know "Where's the Pina Coladas?" - the Answer is that they are in the blue-tank (we make 80 gallons at once and sell them after the hurricane goes through... - ??? - AND YOU THOUGHT that the blue tank was for water-pressure - that's what you get for thinking!
BUT - It's better, now, than it was...
New waterwheel at Westminster Woods - built by a resident - installed by the maintenance staff - now if we can just get some rain, it'll go round and round!
Well - Today is Friday, 2 June, 2006 - the year is passing rapidly and we have been doing a LOT of things so far this year.
The FIRST thing, is, I guess, that we're still learning how to Hang-Glide and that that 'skill-set-development' is definitely progressing well. May and I have both had our 'near-one-hour' in the air days, and learning to 'thermal' is a new and interesting thing...
We helped-out at the "World Championships" in Groveland, Florida from about 17 to about 28 May, and some Germans built a 'big' ....wmv file (about 55
megabytes - takes a while to download - don't try this on dial-up)
Anyway - if you have the time to both download and to view - this is a really great file. It gives you a "sense" of what Hang-Gliding looks and feels like from "in-the-air" digital video - as well as what it's like to launch 50 to 100 gliders an hour from the ground-view (if you go to 07:06 (7 minutes / 6 seconds) into the video - Mr. Bill is evident for a second or two in red-shorts). Also has some very very good footage / clips on landings.
Give the link a try if you have high-speed-internet-connectivity and Windows Media Player: click here for 55 megabyte Windows Movie File (...wmv)
Secondly - we are now well into SUMMER in Stuart, and it is HOT HOT HOT during the days - still coolish at night. So Mr. Bill and Ms. May tend to spend the early mornings doing 'yard-things' in the coolness, then the rest of the day in the shade of the porch or the coolness of the house with the air-conditioning turned on.
Our Toyota mini-van is now almost 5 months old and we love it a lot...
our YARD is not looking any better (but on the other hand it doesn't look much worse, either).
the new HURRICANE season is upon us soon - we hope to avoid the BIG ONES this year but who knows?
and - Ms. May's pottery continues to grow and get more beautiful as does her gardening, and such.
Went to visit Mom in Jacksonville on 31 May - and had meetings and such on 1-2 June, and things are going well there... Mom's cat Ms. Mango is pictured here.
AND _ Mr. Bill 'forgot' some pictures from last month's time at Quest Air...
May in the Quest Kayak on the Quest Lake
May and Bill on the edge of the Quest Lake - where we swim & cool-off after working in the Hot Field doing launchings
Frank (the Dad) and Paul (the son) - part of the Quest-Air Field-Crew - and very fine field crew they are, too. Additionally Mr. Paul has just done his first tow as a 'tug-pilot' during one evening at the competition. You'll notice Mr. Frank is holding a 'Suzuki fine tuning tool' - something that is NOT used on the tow-tugs...
Ms. May enjoying more of the 'alternative fun' activities - what to do when the weather doesn't cooperate with our 'stage' in our 'learning-curve' so we have trouble flying 8-12 hours a day - sometimes we find time to do something else?
- Mr. Bill visits the "Florida Ridge" hang-gliding center near the southwest corner of Lake Okeechobee. He manages 4 flights before high-winds and the Tug-pilot (from Fort Myers, Florida) takes off for his "Father's Day Activities". The location, the area, and the staff are all very nice... The 'center' of the above picture (where the blue, vertical, pole is) is 'about' east - the left-end is 'about' north, and the (white) hangar on the right end is 'about' south). The location is 'about' 1/2 way between Clewiston and La Belle, Florida - just south of the Okeechobee Canal that we went through in our jet-boat about 3 summers ago in our 'epic journey' from Stuart to Ft. Myers Beach.
Just as an 'aside' - the drive from Stuart to Florida Ridge flight-park is 'about' 100 minutes - 'about' 100 miles - 'about' 1 hour less than the drive to Quest Air in Groveland, Florida. Though all of the drive (from Stuart) to Florida Ridge is on 2-lane roads - they are very wide, very lightly-travelled, but the pavement is sometimes very rough.
So - We can save about an hour each way to 'commute' to/from Florida Ridge.
Further - this drive is primarily through the south-Florida sugar-cane-fields. This is a HUGE area (over 1,000 square miles) and it is FLAT FLAT FLAT FLAT FLAT - there's just nothing to see for miles in all 360 directions. Only an inch of rain here makes a huge difference but the area is so HUGE that it never rains over the whole area all at once - we're talking over 70 miles in any given direction. When driving here you get a sense of how huge the sugar-cane-growing industry is, here in Florida and how much land they own and use. On the other hand - most of the land is 'boggy' and/or 'wet' - which is why they grow sugar cane here. The land isn't much good for anything else, and if / when the Lake Okeechobee / Everglades restoration project is complete in another 30-50 years - this area will be a lot different. Many say, now, that the levee that encloses Lake Okeechobee (about 35 miles in diameter) is likely to break in the next big hurricane, and this levee not only protects much of the population who live in the area, but it is what makes the use of the land, here, available to the sugar-cane industry.
When flying hang gliders here, you see almost no tree over 30 feet high, and virtually no small lakes; like in / around Quest-Air in Groveland. There is almost no place you can't land - though if you land north of the canal - it's a 30-50 minute drive due east or west to get across the canal to do a pick-up. Again, from up in the air - you get a sense for how FLAT FLAT FLAT the area is - it's amazing to see nothing, natural, that is more than 1-2 feet higher than anything else in the area. When looking at a map you see that virtually everything south of Lake Okeechobee is 'a flood plain' and it was created, 100s, even 1,000s of years ago and it's long-term development is what creates this flat-flood-plain area is a result of that natural process.
17 June; Saturday: -
Ms. May and Ms. Lily walked the board-walk out on Cape Cod, in Massachusettes, where Ms. May went to visit Ms. Lily & Mr. John before they move to Kansas City - a LONG way to move. -
Mr Bill spent part of the day at Quest-Air until about 2pm but never got to fly - not enough 'lift' for anything of significant value. So then he drove home the 'long-way' - (almost six hours in the mini-van) but got to see a lot of south-west-Florida flat-lands! - and it is FLAT FLAT FLAT...
15 June; Thursday: - Today is mid-month - it's also 'Pay your Estimated (US-Income) Taxes' day - just for the record, in case anyone has forgotten. It's also Mr. Bill's catching-up on paperwork EARLY in the morning and Yard-Trimming day (if I don't trim them now, some hurricane will trim them later). And re-making some hurricane shutters, and so-on and so-forth... LOTS of things to do ...
BUT all that is of no-consequence to our readers - so here's some things of greater interest...
Ms. Siew Mei - ready to be 're-cycled' (this red-bin is where Mr. Bill keeps his re-cycled paper before it goes out to the re-cycle bin)... AND for those of you who really want the 'web-experience' - click here for a surprise...
Wednesday, 7th June:
Well - after about 2 1/2 years - and talking and planning and discussing and planning and talking and procrastinating - Mr. Bill FINALLY built a little roof over the pump, well, water-softener, and other such things to shield them from the sun and the elements... THOUGH it is not FINISHED, YET, it will be, soon. Ms. May wants to put palm-fronds on top for a 'rustic' / 'native' look.... - We'll have to see if we can find enough palm fronds? AND, my sister wants to know "Where's the Pina Coladas?" - the Answer is that they are in the blue-tank (we make 80 gallons at once and sell them after the hurricane goes through... - ??? - AND YOU THOUGHT that the blue tank was for water-pressure - that's what you get for thinking!
BUT - It's better, now, than it was...
New waterwheel at Westminster Woods - built by a resident - installed by the maintenance staff - now if we can just get some rain, it'll go round and round!
Well - Today is Friday, 2 June, 2006 - the year is passing rapidly and we have been doing a LOT of things so far this year.
The FIRST thing, is, I guess, that we're still learning how to Hang-Glide and that that 'skill-set-development' is definitely progressing well. May and I have both had our 'near-one-hour' in the air days, and learning to 'thermal' is a new and interesting thing...
We helped-out at the "World Championships" in Groveland, Florida from about 17 to about 28 May, and some Germans built a 'big' ....wmv file (about 55
megabytes - takes a while to download - don't try this on dial-up)
Anyway - if you have the time to both download and to view - this is a really great file. It gives you a "sense" of what Hang-Gliding looks and feels like from "in-the-air" digital video - as well as what it's like to launch 50 to 100 gliders an hour from the ground-view (if you go to 07:06 (7 minutes / 6 seconds) into the video - Mr. Bill is evident for a second or two in red-shorts). Also has some very very good footage / clips on landings.
Give the link a try if you have high-speed-internet-connectivity and Windows Media Player: click here for 55 megabyte Windows Movie File (...wmv)
Secondly - we are now well into SUMMER in Stuart, and it is HOT HOT HOT during the days - still coolish at night. So Mr. Bill and Ms. May tend to spend the early mornings doing 'yard-things' in the coolness, then the rest of the day in the shade of the porch or the coolness of the house with the air-conditioning turned on.
Our Toyota mini-van is now almost 5 months old and we love it a lot...
our YARD is not looking any better (but on the other hand it doesn't look much worse, either).
the new HURRICANE season is upon us soon - we hope to avoid the BIG ONES this year but who knows?
and - Ms. May's pottery continues to grow and get more beautiful as does her gardening, and such.
Went to visit Mom in Jacksonville on 31 May - and had meetings and such on 1-2 June, and things are going well there... Mom's cat Ms. Mango is pictured here.
AND _ Mr. Bill 'forgot' some pictures from last month's time at Quest Air...
May in the Quest Kayak on the Quest Lake
May and Bill on the edge of the Quest Lake - where we swim & cool-off after working in the Hot Field doing launchings
Frank (the Dad) and Paul (the son) - part of the Quest-Air Field-Crew - and very fine field crew they are, too. Additionally Mr. Paul has just done his first tow as a 'tug-pilot' during one evening at the competition. You'll notice Mr. Frank is holding a 'Suzuki fine tuning tool' - something that is NOT used on the tow-tugs...
Ms. May enjoying more of the 'alternative fun' activities - what to do when the weather doesn't cooperate with our 'stage' in our 'learning-curve' so we have trouble flying 8-12 hours a day - sometimes we find time to do something else?