Tired, but happy

I've spent the past two days in Delaware! It was fun and informative,but I missed my family. My company does business development classes yearly, and this year I did business communications. I thought It might be basic stuff I'd know, but it wasn't just the basics. The class was really good, and I learned quite a bit and resolved to do things to improve my skills.

It had been years since I'd flown anywhere. The last time I flew very far was 1996, when I returned from New York. I was thinking that was the last time I'd flown, but I forgot a short hop to Oregon in 2000. I don't think I'd ever flown much at night, so this was different and cool.

Things I saw on the way out include the inevitable tops of clouds (which are still fascinating to me even though they're always about the same as bottoms of clouds) and Chicago from 35,000 feet at night. I have to say, Chicago lit up at night is pretty amazing from the sky. It's absolutely huge.

On the way back we had to divert around a thunderstorm, and although I saw no dark clouds (good job diverting, Mr. Pilot guy!), I did see cloud columns that seemed to go up forever given the limited view of my airplane window. We also flew over the contrail of another aircraft. Naturally, the other plane wasn't anywhere to be seen (good job controlling, air traffic control!) but the single contrail was an impressive sight from only a few hundred feet above. I'm used to seeing them way up in the sky from the ground. It was different to see it up close. The second leg of that flight saw us making our own contrails at 36,000 feet.

The only problem with going all the way to Delaware for training from the Sacramento area is the brutal travel. On Wednesday I had a 1:00 PM flight out of Sacramento, and arrived in Delaware about 11:30 PM. I'd lost 3 hours to time zones, so that wasn't so terrible. Delta was good--just a one and a half hour layover in Salt Lake City and on to Delaware. Once there the shuttle was a bit wild. Part of it wasn't really his fault; I notified the ground transportation desk and had to wait until about 12:00 AM for the shuttle to show.

Then a big family coming back from Costa Rica boarded along with one other gentleman. The big family from Costa Rica was first to be let off. They lived in Greenville. Their home was very impressive. That shouldn't be a surprise. Two driveways down was the house of a president of a major financial company. I'm trying to recall which (I was exhausted). Ameri Bank Corp. or something like that. I should have tried to remember better, but the next house was Joe Biden's. You can see his mother's residence from the street, but his house is evidently down a longer driveway. Usually there are secret service posted there, but evidently he was out of town, because that night there weren't any. I thought perhaps the family was yanking my chain, but on googling it and seeing some pictures, they weren't. They really live just a few lots from Joe Biden. I don't think Senators or even vice presidents are rock stars, but it was fun to see a notable residence in passing.

The company put all out of towners up at the Sheraton Suites Hotel. It was tremendous. I can't say enough about the hotel. It may have been chosen simply for location, as it was near the office where we did the class, but the hotel itself was very plesant. The staff was great, and the beds and bathrooms were excellent.

I met a bunch of coworkers from other locations I'd have never met in person otherwise, and it was fantastic. One of them is also a big fan of novels, and we chatted quite a bit. They were all friendly and fun to work with. It was nice to put names with faces, and I hope I entertained and enlightened them as much as they did me.

My boss's boss's boss was also in the class, and he is a riot. No courtesy laughs were required when he cracked a joke; it was genuinely funny. I'd met him several times before, but normally he's very occupied by the business at hand. Seeing him in a setting where he could relax a bit was quite different. He has a great sense of humor and the time he could devote to chatting he did very happily. He seems to enjoy people and has a very quick wit.

Coming home last night was a bear. I came back on Northwest Airlines and had tried to schedule the latest reasonable flight so as not to miss much of the end of class. I should have flown Delta again with a couple of my coworkers, but I didn't know. Oh, well. We had some takeoff delays on the last part of the journey. Actual flight time was about 7 hours, but door to door was about 13. That left me really ready to be off the sardine tins they call aircraft.

Note: I think I prefer the Airbuss A320 to the Boeing 757. Maybe it was the Northwest seats compared to the Delta seats, but I felt like I had more room. The airbus also felt more modern.

I'm glad I went for the class, and doubly glad to be back with my family. Today we're going to celebrate after some yard work. I also need to get a nap in. I woke up at my normal time this morning after sleeping only 5 hours or so. I guess my body is that routinized (let me tell you, it didn't like the jet lag or the time difference in DE!). Still, going back to one's regular schedule is an effective way to combat jet lag, and I was only gone two days (three, really, with all the travel, but only two calendar days in Delaware). I should be able to catch up on sleep and go back to normal quickly.

They kept me busy in Delaware, but I still really missed my family. My greatest joy in life is them, and I often take for granted the comfort of knowing Bubbles is sleeping nearby and Spawn is playing in her room. They're everything to me, and being apart just isn't easy. It's good to be home.

New Fishtank!

We finally did it. Spawn has wanted a pet and she loves fish, so it was time to get a fish tank. So, we went to get one last night. We got an incredible deal, buying the entire thing for less than half of the listed cost. Spawn is delighted, of course.

Note: I deleted the pictures during a clean up of an album. Oops. However, you can see the setup before the disaster in a later post.

Free at last!

It's a good evening. I'm tired, I'm sore, but it's good.

The first weekend of April we spent up with family. We stayed at my older brother's (Dangerdad) and enjoyed an incredibly well-planned birthday party for one of our nieces. It was a Jedi party, as she's crazy into Star Wars right now. It was tremendous fun.

Afterward, when all the kiddos were off for a fun little excursion to Grandma's house, my brother, Bubbles and I went out to a range area. We put holes in targets for a while, and I was gratified to see both the rifle that I'd fixed and cleaned and Bubbles' pistol working very well. Many targets were blasted, and Bubbles demonstrated she's a better shot than I am. I can still keep it on paper most of the time, but she's better. I need practice.

This morning I went to court and had a contract recognized and entered into court records to resolve a matter between a younger brother (not Dangerdad, our families are close). Due to the contract, I can't say more than that, but the process did cost me my relationship with my parents and my youngest brother, who sided with the opposing party. I'll probably never understand why, but my family is safe, and shielded from hostility, and that's what really matters to me.

This evening, after I'd gotten home from work, we planted two maple trees in the front yard. Just yesterday we had a massive ash tree removed from the front (and another from the back). One of the maples needed to go fairly close to the site of the ash, and I encountered some of the biggest roots I've had to deal with in any yard work. I can still swing an axe, and axes still work on roots. I'm going to have blisters, but I think it will have been worth it. I hope that little maple does okay. It has significant cleared space, and once it establishes itself it may be able to wrap around the old dead roots and gain nutrients from them as they decay. I hope so anyway. I may simply be displaying my horticultural naivete.

Here's to a good week and hoping for more to come. Well, maybe with a bit less stress.

Sunday Morning

We have late church this year, so Munch (a.k.a. Spawn) and I get to spend the morning together while Bubbles sleeps.

This morning we did a lot of good talking, and also built Lego ships. Spawn was very excited when I first showed her Legos a month or two back. She immediately wanted to design monster shooting ships. I should have captured our first effort, but it was a rush job and not very aesthetically pleasing.

These are better.



The one on the far left is the prison ship where we keep captured monsters. The smaller one in the middle is my ship she insisted I build so I could capture monsters with her. The one she's holding is her rebuilt model we did today with super uber monster shooters on the sides.

We were playing with the new ships and I let the new monsters know they were going to jail and would never come out again. Spawn promptly said, "You're going to jail forever, and you'll have to pee in a bucket!"

Ready for Next Weekend

Next weekend we get to go visit my brother and his family. The cousins all like to play together, and so do my bro and I. We'll take a range trip. I cleaned and oiled everything today. When you haven't done the monthly cleanings you should, it adds up to a lot of work!

I didn't find a lot on removing the rear sight on a Ruger 10 22 rifle online, and I had to replace mine as it was broken. One forum mentioned these are not robust sights and the guy growing up had to replace his 2-3 times a year when they hunted for small game.

All it takes is a hammer, a nail set and little fear. I padded a vise and carefully tightened it down to keep from marring the barrel, then set to work with the hammer and nail set. It did come out, with more application of force than I'd figured. The hard part was setting the new one carefully into place, as I naturally didn't want to break that. If it's not perfect, it's close.

I also got around to cleaning the 10 22 rotary magazine. Mine had jammed and wasn't working properly. A video helped out.



While I'm at it, I'm going to post this one for when I want to pull and clean the bolt.


Also for reference, full field strip (Replaced the defunct video on 01/25/2014 with a working one.  And I cleaned today):


I haven't yet been brave enough to pull the trigger group, but it looks easy, and my bolt could probably use cleaning.

Penguin Pee

IMing is fun.

Bubbles: Spawn's telling a story about a baby penguin that sat on her daddy's hand and peed.

Monkey: I'll be sure not to let her sit on my hand.

Bubbles: haha

Omnipotent

We were teaching Spawn "How Firm a Foundation" tonight. I realized she didn't know the word "Omnipotent" yet.

"Omnipotent is a new word for you, isn't it?" I asked.

"Uh-huh," she affirmed.

"It means all powerful. God is omnipotent, which means He can do anything."

The awed Spawn promptly asked, "Even backward somersaults?"