Beach-Club
-
October 2006
updated:
Saturday, 28th October, 2006:
Today (Saturday) we drove to Ft. Lauderdale and bought two board-sails
- next time it BLOWS - we
can both go boardsailing and it will be FUN! We spent a couple of
hours this afternoon rigging, re-rigging, checking sizes, getting
'everything ready' - so we can go boardsailing when there is wind,
again... - Ms. Siew Mei helped a LOT with all this activity in the
yard. Ms. Siew Mei typically enjoys being where we both are - if
it's in the yard, then she's there, if it's in the house or the shop -
then she almost always comes to help and to supervise!
Well - the end of the month approaches, and it has been an
interesting week since our last update... Mr. Bill has
managed (on Monday, 23rd) to attempt some kiteboarding, but his
leading-edge bladder 'went dead' so he swam 50 minutes (dragging his
kite) then walked another 50 minutes - interesting - if tiring
day. So the kite was dead, so Tuesday went board sailing, instead
of kite-boarding - broke
a foot-strap but it were AWESOME til then... - Found some very fancy
(if $14.95 (each) can be fancy) ways to fix his leading-edge
kiteboard-bladder
- and it's fixed, now, but other strut-bladders are leaking - maybe
it's time to buy a new kite, huh? - the "Waroo 9 (square meter)" is
supposedly the 'thing' - and since it's probably $500 or less (and
others are $1,500 or more) then - maybe we'll buy a new Waroo (but
maybe we won't - maybe we'll just use the repaired, 3 year old Naish
10?)
Ms. May is making VERY TALL pottery, these days - and learning more and
more about how to make two pieces and then stick-them-together.
This is a major achievement for her... - she's doing VERY WELL with
this (new) technique, learning a lot and her stuff is very pretty!.
AND _ Ms. May is also becoming (rapidly) an Italian bread maker -
here's a picture of a loaf and some sandwiches...
Mr. Bill taught his second class in Landscape CAD - and he really likes
that - it's not only fun, but challenging, etc. but 'staying
ahead of the class' is a 'struggle' and I have to do all the
assignments, now but I have to 'get them right'!...
Friday was an EXCELLENT afternoon ( about an hour ) boardsailing on our
'new but had it several years' 6.0 sail - something Ms. May bought
years ago but it was too heavy for her - (see above; we bought some
board sails on Saturday)... - anyway - good time had by all, and Mr.
Bill offered some 'water-start' tips to a guy who was struggling...
AND we've been rollerblading, bunches, lately - just went, this
morning, with Ms. Kara, (one of Ms. May's pottery-friends) and had a
great-time on our 'loop' which is 'about' (according to Mr. Bill's GPS)
2.8 miles 'around' and very nice, smooth, surface, easy time
rollerblading, not very much car-traffic. Great exercise, but
there is / are some 'age'
showing on our 10-15 year old Rollerblades. We both need
'new-gear' -
perhaps sometime soon.
We're also talking about Orchid-house area(s) again - trying to figure
out what's the best 'mix' of sun, wind(protection), cold(protection),
construction cost, materials, hurricane resistance, etc. etc. etc. etc.
- ONE DAY we'll make a decision and move-forward with this.
LOTs happening - we'll report more, on-into-November and the Christmas
time arena.
updated: Thursday, 19th October, 2006:
Today - Mr. Bill ful-filled a
'piece' of a life-long dream to
teach college. Well - community college, anyway. -
Landscape CAD
software - and the 'real' software isn't, yet, on the school's
computer(s) but all that will happen soon enough... (We HOPE by next
class period - a week from today). The Landscape part of this
software runs as a 'macro-driver' foundation / add-on / add-in to
AutoCAD's basic CAD tool. Autodesk
is the parent company for AutoCAD software tools.
On a similar note, the newerestest version of Rhino3d
- beta-4 is now out
and as a NURBS CAD software tool this continues to be an extraordinary
piece of software. WISH there were more 'customers' out there who
needed / wanted me to work in this tool. It is really something
else. Their basic web-page is at http://www.rhino3d.com
and you can view their offering(s) there...
AND found out after the class was over that just one more
'video-production-organization' has switched from the PC-Windows
software world to the Macintosh world with "Final
Cut Studio / Final
Cut Pro" as their main video-editing tool. This helps the likes of
us who are very much - still - into both Macintosh and Unix.
FURTHER _ a shorter-term
dream happened when we watched "Over
the Hedge" - an
excellent
animated flick about animals who awake in the spring to find their
'forest' is now surrounded by 'suburbia' and how they deal with FOOD!..
- anyway - EXCELLENT movie - one you should definitely watch.
We get about half of our movies from Netflix,
which we really really like.
Dangerous sports: - we
got an e-mail from a friend who is a hang-glider-pilot... She and
her hubby (also a hang-glider pilot) decided they needed some 'quiet,
safe, serene' sport they could do together. So
they tried fishing (she caught everything (including her finger in a
fish-hook)), he caught nothing. Then they tried golf and she got
hit in the leg with a golf-ball going about 70
mph. I suggested collecting stuffed teddy bears
and cat-petting as 'low-impact / safe' sports, or kite-boarding if they
really have a 'death wish'. - I went kiteboarding this past Monday
(16th) and it was AWESOME wind for about 3 hours or so, and my new five-line-bar
is terrific, it
will be even more so when I REALLY learn to use all it's features &
new methodologies.
We also got an e-mail from people who claimed to 'be there' when we
were 'stranded' in Houston
airport (see sister-visit-story just below), but - as always - many
friends travel and are away from home almost as much as we
are. We shall not 'hold it against them' that they weren't
there. As my Dad frequently says when he telephones, "You're
always there, except when you're
not there!" - and I suspect he's right - but we are - decidedly
'not-here' a LOT - especially lately. BUT _ when / if this
teaching 'gig' takes off, I suspect we'll be here 'more'!''
More later - as the month winds-down... HOPE we get a
further chance to do some more hang-gliding before the month is over,
but I have to 'Be Here' for teaching things this coming Monday -
perhaps after next class on 26th October we'll get to go, again?!
On
/ during 10-15 October
(Tuesday -
thru - Sunday) we went to Austin,
Texas, to help-out my sister, Kathy. On the
'way-over' to
Austin we seem to have gotten short-circuited, first in Lake
Charles,
Lousiana for a couple of hours - then in Houston
(small
/ large images) for about 7 hours -
ultimately spending the night there (at our own expense) - then
arriving in Austin about 18 hours late at about 09:00 a.m. on Wednesday
the 11th...
These images were taken by my wunnerful sister, Ms. Kathy (with her
brandy-new Nikon D80 digital SLR with 18-150mm zoom-lens), and please
note the 'particularly impressive' hair-do on Mr. Bill. Only his
sister could capture such an interesting view, huh? The image of
the feline, is Ms. Zuni, who is a 'volunteer cat'. She doesn't
live with my sister, and May and I did not meet her, but - apparently -
Ms. Zuni (who now lives across the street) - is getting well acquainted
with my sister's Camera-Art. Ms. Zuni doesn't require a
'model release' - and Ms. Zuni helps my sister 'practice' her
'wild-life-following / hunting / stalking technique(s) I'm sure.
Our cat is convinced that all camera lenses are 'something to eat', and
acts accordingly. Apparently Ms. Zuni does not yet exhibit this
particular behaviour, perhaps someday soon!
While in Austin we did a LOT of things with / for / in support of
sisterly-type...
However, we also had a chance to spend an evening and dinner (terrific
lamb-chops) with Bob Smith and his wife Liz. Bob and Bill
worked together, closely, in Hong Kong for a few years mostly doing
web-site installation and development. Bob ( small
/ large
image ) is (like Bill) no longer a Motorolan, but loving it
still. Bob is still doing 'silicon-things' ( http://www.embedded-developer.com
) but most of his 'free-time' is spent photographying wildlife.
You can see some of Mr. Bob's work at his web-site, http://www.pbase.com/tdes22
...
be sure to check-out his pictures - they are STUNNING!..
Mr. Bill did a lot of running-around but found this 'terrific view' of
the Austin-area / Colorado River...
One of the things we did during late-September was go hang-gliding in
Groveland, again. While there we frequented (as we frequently do)
the 'RedWing Restaurant' - they were having a 'garage sale' of 'stuff'
they'd found in their 'storage area'... - we bought this 'shade-tent'
there for $5 and Mr. Bill put-it-up in our yard at home. Here's
an image of Ms. May in her 'shade-tent' - pretty slick stuff for $5 -
and I even made a small bag to hold it all!
You can read about / view images of our late September / early October
trip to Lookout Mountain Flight Park by clicking on this link to a
separate web-page:
Lookout Mountain Flight Park (trip) web-page
note at the VERY BOTTOM of this web-page is a still-picture and a very
short video in a text-link, - very interesting to view & see how we
did!
Mr. Bill 'supposedly' begins teaching at IRCC on Thursday, 19th
October; - we'll
see if this really happens - he's studying, now, to make sure
he's 'prepared'!...
Other than that - stay tuned - something interesting always happening
here...!!!
last updated: @
09:08 a.m. on Friday, 11
October,
2006 - revID: 1s
