One year, I even went out and got a bunch of goodies for mine.  Lights for at night, a rear view mirror (that sucks), a new seat that was supposedly gonna be comfortable, and even a trip computer!  Cool little thing.  Displays your speed, but also can show you trip miles, total miles, average speed, and probably the barometric pressure in Beijing, China.

So I dusted it off, cobwebs and all.  Yes, there were a couple of those.  It was kept in the basement, remember.  That’s where I keep our pet spiders.  But I digress.  So yeah, slightly less dirty now, I also pumped up the tires.  My tire pump sucks, too.  It’s small and, well, probably not cheap.  Something you should be able to attach to the bike and take along in case you live near the tack factory.  But it’s little fold out piece that you’re supposed to step on for stability while you pump broke off years ago while trying to inflate the snowblower’s tires.  And the pressure gauge is whack.  On the one hand, it’s got this little flip out mirror so you can read the thing while you frantically pump away.  But also, it’s about as small as a Cracker Jack compass and impossible to read without the mirror since it’s printed backward so the only way you can read it is in a mirror.  Mainly though, it’s just busted.  The pressure jumps up to the “your tire is flat” position on the dial the first time you pump, then it really doesn’t move from there.  So I went by how the tire felt.  Of course, that means that it’s way over inflated and I’m just a tack away from an explosion heard in Albuquerque.

This bike has, like, 189 speeds.  Okay 21 – I counted sprockets.  It has gear shifters on both sides of the handlebars.   As I set out down the newly paved street in front of my house, I had to spend some time remembering how to shift the damn thing.  You know, like which way made it harder or easier to peddle.  Good to know.  All it lacks to have the full complexity of an 18-wheeler is a backup beeper.  Hmm.  Bet I could find one of those somewhere, too.  I also had to learn – the hard way – not to shift too fast on the front gears else the chain will come flying off the sprocket.  So I got to reacquaint myself with resetting a chain and just how oily they are.

Beyond all the pre-ride bumpiness, the actual ride itself was awesome!  You can really go A LOT farther on a bike in the same amount of time as you’d get going for a walk, lol.  Before I knew it, I was over at our recently opened Costco store where I learned from a manager hanging out in the parking lot that it costs $50/year to be a member.  They have a gas station where you can buy gas for, well, less than at the PDQ.  Might be worth the price  of membership right there!  Anyway he invited me back to shop the store without buying anything to compare to Sam’s where I already have a membership.  I’ll do that, but in the mean time it was back to the ride.

Costco is at the southern edge of a vast network of biking and hiking trails that exist along Airport road on the west side of Middleton.  It took almost no time at all to get to the trail from my house, and then before I knew it, I was way out by Capitol Ice, our indoor ice skating place.  I had no idea the trails went all the way out there!  I explored all the little branch trails, too.  I was facinated to find out where all these trails led!

After turning around at Capitol Ice, I basically just headed straight home.  The odometer read a total mileage for the trip of 7.3 miles.  Not bad for a first jaunt.  Wonder how many calories that equates to?  I rode the bike all the way around back of the house and up to the steps on my back deck.  Hopped off, grabbed the bike to carry it up the stairs, and took that first step.  Holy crap, what happened to my legs!  I about landed right on my face!  Sea legs from a bike?  OMG.  It wasn’t that bad, and mostly it was just climbing stairs, but it was just really surprising.

And yes, I knew what I was in for the next morning – which it is right now as I type.  SORE ASS BONES.

Ouch!  Can no one come up with a seat that doesn’t do that to your ass?  We can drop robots safely onto Mars (sometimes,) but can’t figure out how to cushion the newbie bike rider’s ass.

Just a beautiful summer morning as the Sun became the brightest Christmas Tree topper, lol.

My daughter and commented on that on the ride home.  Previous episodes center around biblical or spiritual pursuits – The Holy Grail, the Arc of the Covenant, sacred Indian stones…  This episode has a different twist and an entirely new cast of villains.

The theater was packed.  Sold out, or really close to it.  We usually make our way to the center of the upper rows of seats, but not this time.  The center section was well filled out by the time we had gotten our popcorn and Skittles.  But the show was playing on the “Ultrascreen” so even the side sections have an amazing view.  A big audience always amplifies the funny or exciting parts too, adding to the thrill and fun of it all.

As usual, I ate way too much popcorn and will need to forgo eating for the next week, but this time anyway, it turned out to be a pretty good trade off – high adventure for extreme caloric binging.  lol.  Good thing the home Gym is up and running again after the basement has dried out.

There were some solos that just blew me (us! – all the parents, family & friends) away!

One of the girls sang KT Tunstall’s Suddenly I See and was totally awesome!

Then one of the 7th Grade boys, so that would be 13 years old, Sang Chris Brown’s With You and absolutely NAILED it.  The 7th Grade girls (and probably the 8th Grade girls, too) went absolutely WILD!  I’m sitting there thinking give that kid four more years and he’ll be the next David Archuleta!

Kudos to the Choir teacher.  Under her guidance, a lot of these kids are developing magnificent talent!

Well for the third morning in a row, my internet radio station, Girls Rock Radio, started buffering badly (sorry, that’s geek speak for stuttering) and this time it showed no sign of letting up.  Later I was to learn that there was a major fiber optic cable cut down in Chicago that messed up internet access for the entire upper midwest.

Frustrated, I just felt like escaping it all for a while.  What with the money just pouring in these days (L.O.A. , I figured I deserved the get away.  Now, my daughter saw Maid of Honor on Mothers’ Day with her Mom.  I wanted to see it, too, but since they went together, I was left to find another way.  Voila.

I was left wanting more.

It’s a timeless tale (not giving anything away here) of a boy and a girl.  Girl finds another guy to marry, and boy suddenly realizes he can’t live without her.  The previews looked pretty funny.  And the flick was funny!  I really do recommend it.  Lots of it filmed in stunning locations in Scotland.  Michelle Monaghan is really very lovely, and they couldn’t have picked a better male lead than Patrick Dempsey what with his “McDreamy” persona from Grey’s Anatomy.  It all just worked.

And yet I was left wanting more.  Not from the film – it was brilliant – but rather from my own real life!

I think you’re entitled to a a glimpse into my life prior to this blog, too. At least I suspect that you, dear reader, at least have some passing interest in who this guy whose blog you’re reading is. That will show up elsewhere as another biography page you can read rather than as a part of the main stream of conscious thought.

So let’s get on with the show…

Participate if it pleases you.
djMot

I went out to the airport at 5:45pm and didn’t have long to wait. A plane coming in from the ENE was just who I thought it was. He turned to fly parallel to the runway, then turned on base leg, then final, and before I knew it, he was taxing to the bench outside the pilot’s lounge where I was waiting. He hopped out and we chatted about where we’d go fly.

Basically, we decided to take off from Morey, and take a southerly course around the south of Madison and see if the air traffic controllers would let us do a practice ILS approach to the Madison airport. Then we’d head west and play out there before returning to Morey.

So off we went. We pretty much flew right over my house immediately after takeoff. I got a pic looking down my street, but not including my house since we were pretty much right over it! As we attained about 2000ft, Jim radioed Madison and requested the practice approach. Madison’s airport is pretty good sized with lots of commercial, private, and Air National Guard traffic. Things were quiet this evening though, and the controller was very accommodating and friendly. We were directed to 3000ft and vectored into Runway 36 – the main runway. We just flew a low approach down to a few hundred feet, then set full power and climbed out to 2500 turning west bound headed back over toward and out beyond Middleton.

For me that’s when the fun started. Jim said, “Okay, feet on the petals, take the yoke, the airplane’s yours.” He let me fly well out past Middleton, and we did lots of turns. I fly a simulator right here on my computer, but nothing compares to doing it for real! Because of the hours I’ve spent on the sim, I pretty much knew what I needed to do, and found it quite a challenge to keep everything coordinated – bank angle, turn coordination, altitude. The one thing the simulator can’t give you is the feel of the aircraft. Nothing compares to that! The plane felt so totally comfortable. It was as effortless as driving a car, but it was cruising through the air, which adds an entirely new dimension to the sensation of being in motion. And of course there are a few more things to keep track of. God it’s hard to explain. All I know is that it was totally AWESOME. I highly recommend it – go take an introductory flight!

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