T’was my first flight out west, the co-pilot’s first line flight since training, a cabin packed including the company C.E.O (sampling the product) and the flight attendants are all wearing St. Patties Day lime green hair wigs. We’re 5 minutes prior and still no sign of the Gate Gourmet which could be critical since they have the mini liquor bottles and there’s a bachelor party onboard amid many other hopefuls. The other half of the crowd will likely snooze and conserve themselves for the “I Do” city. Fearless leader uses his operational authority to hold the flight for commissary. After all, he just finished making a very nice, long winded welcome PA going on about how nice the airline is… and how we have the most leg room and comfy leather upholstery and… The flightdeck crew can (will!) make the time up enroute. No pressure or anything 😉 Highball it! Las Vegas we are coming!
trail
The Washington and Old Dominion right of way is 100 feet by 45 miles. The trains stopped in 1968. Virginia Power strung towers and transmission lines while the NVRPA built the greenway. The length is paved for cyclists and a parallel utility road of crushed rock and sand serves as a bridle access. I used the dirt path for my exercise as it offers more cush, and to avoid mixing it up with the fast 2 wheeled traffic. Starting from mile marker 21 I followed this route to the Sully Rd. overpass just short of marker 24 before doubling back.
Google Earth Placemark
and the meek shall inherit…
Once proud mainline carrier, and in its second bankruptcy in so many years, US Airways has exhausted its ability to attract capital. In a last gasp it has secured financing from Wexford LLC and the Eastshore Group. These are corporate shell names for regional airlines, Chautauqua and Air Wisconsin which have each ponied up 125 million. One would hope that these two have first dibs on assets because their gamble could end up being only a noble contribution to US Air’s struggle. At their current rate of burn, and even though that’s a lot of dough, the 250 million equity commitment is a mere donation. Not likely that these regional carriers are buying their jobs just to hang on to feeder contracts. The evolution of the regional airline industry is amazing as they transform and influence more than anyone would have imagined. It wasn’t long ago when these carriers were known as “commuters”. Could it be that this is an epic David vs. Goliath transfer of the old guard industry shake up? Or, is it yet another string of naive investors in aviation with ego and money to lose?
go wifi
A hotel’s Business / Computer Center — the modern day equivalent of the public phone booth. People lined up outside the cubicle impatiently rapping on the glass door, “R U almost off?”. Don’t know about phone booth etiquette? Whatsa phone booth?
higher level of consciousness
I felt self conscious to strip down to my shorts and running shoes. I was still some distance from any actual beach and could be there was some local ordinance about being shirtless on the outside of the SPA. The sidewalks of Palm Beach are lined with Bling and paved with Palms. Jogging across the ICW drawbridge from West Palm, I was struck that every other brick and mortar is a Private Bank, Brokerage House (private), Yacht Sales or Exclusive Realtor’s Office. A Jaguar Showroom that I passed had massive plate glass windows though which I counted seven (7) Aston Martin Coupes and Convertibles. The other sub-six figure luxo cars inside and on the lot were mere filler. I moved to a less traveled side street of multi-million dollar Villas, also lined with Palms and each of them well manicured (otherwise the dayhelp’s Kia might be pelted with palm fronds or falling coconuts). Very Rich. I’m the only one on foot. Everybody else is in a creme color Bently wearing topsiders, off-white slacks, polo shirt and panama. Better keep my shirt on.
rides
Was killing time in Virginia yesterday morning and decided to visit Sterling BMW / MINI just up the road from my crashpad. I wanted to inspect the Mini Cooper close up so I put my butt in one and it was fiiiine. Sticker shock though. All of them are loaded up with leather and accessorie options bringing the base from 16K to 26K (!) Too much for that go-kart. B.O.U.R.Girl still lusts for the S2000, which is okay by me 🙂
old parts cache
Stayin’ alive. It should have been a paper weight by this time but the 7 year old desktop with a 300 mhz PII and running Win95 keeps on going. No longer supported by anyone, parts come from hand-me-down machines. For instance, the graphics card went tango uniform over the weekend but I was able to swap it out with a donor. Restored. B.O.U.R.Girl, without losing a beat, pointed next to the wood scars where desk meets careless chair. Hey! I’m the computer guy from upstairs! Don’t look at me!
praise
No. 1 daughter, undergoing some kind of stress test assignment hazing, was nervous. Afraid that she might be singled out or embarrassed in some way. She was tasked with going to a Sunday Church that was not of her own choosing and one that was somewhat foreign (way different). “Listen, if you happen to get up before the group DO NOT let the grand master of ceremonies place the palm of his hand on your forehead. You will go down..”, I advised preying on the butterflies. “For sure don’t give out your contact info — recruiters will soon be making rounds. How ’bout a little donation!
a-okay
Went lights out just before my face hit the keyboard. I was a tad concerned for the non-bootable hardrive challenge — as I was running out ideas. The issues:
- normal boot – no chance
- last known good logon – no go
- safe mode w/without prompt – no go
- Recovery Console wanted admin password – huh?
- XP OEM disc clean install would wipe all – poor choice
Need a wizard. Support desk? Must sleep… Zzzzzzzzzzz.
A Google search in the morining AM sparked the idea to remove the HDD and slave it on another XP machine . Bingo. Data salvaged. The day saved, the faulty OS can now be overwritten, departitioned, formatted, folded, spindled, or mutilated! Now if I can only coax Norton Security to come back to life 😮
coming to a plasma screen near you
From the list of things to-do someday (like today): Preserve 9 hours of HOME MOVIES to save for posterity or until the popular world again changes media type (which ever comes first). The general belief is that analog tapes will eventually begin to decay, not to mention that VHS players may go dinosaur in the near future. Remember 45’s? LP records? 8-track? the floppy disc? Planned obsolescence. 16mm –> 8mm –> Super 8mm –> Betamax –> VHS –> VHS-C –> CD –> DVD. What comes after DVD? Luckily, we still have a functional VCR which when connected inline with a DV Cam functions like a Video Capture card. The digital stream will output via FireWire to a PC hardrive. Next step will be to edit the raw footage (or who in heck could stay awake watching them?) and burn to DVDs. I’ll put a man on it…