Powerchute Landing

My grandpa is the coolest guy. He teaches himself everything, and then excels at it. His latest is teaching himself how to pilot a powerchute. He's an instructor now.

This is a powerchute:



He took me up last week and it was awesome. Click the image above to be taken to the gallery. We saw moose and purdy country.

Below is a video of our landing:





- BuddhaDave

By the way, above the windshield, that's a shotgun rack. He drives with his feet and picks off coyotes. Apparently you get money for it or something from Fish and Game.

Up, Up, and Away

I generally like airports.

I like the smell. I'm inside Phoenix Skyharbor airport right now waiting for a plane to take me to Salt Lake City, Utah. From there a tiny plane with propellers will take me to Pocatello, Idaho. The airport is in the middle of a wheat field and all you can see is the tops of yellow grain as the plan slants down for landing.

I wish this was a vacation trip. I wish this had been planned out in advance and not thrown together in a day. I wish this was pleasure, not business. I wish my brother was still alive.

My youngest brother Seth was killed in a car crash early Sunday morning. He was hit head on by another vehicle as he returned from a date. His birthday was next month.

This is my first funeral in a decade. The last family member I lost was my great-grandmother and she was near a hundred years old. This is a lot different.

Right now it's so far away. I'm so far away. I expect that as I move closer to home, so will the grief to my heart. I've kept it off so far, but I can't run forever.

I remember the day he came home for the first time. I was six. He was so precious and new. I kissed his cheek so hard and long it left a fading red mark on the round of his face. He was so new.

Most of me hopes it's an open casket. I still can't say funeral. I'm using the term "service" and other terms that are at a safe distance. I hope it's an open casket so I can see him one more time. Last time was Christmas. I've been eight hundred and sixty miles away for five years. He grew up while I was gone. I didn't even get to know him.

Don't wait to tell people how you feel. Don't wait to be honest and true. Don't wait to spend time with them. Don't be afraid. In an instant my brother was gone forever. That's all it takes. Don't be afraid.

- Dave

Lizard Acres, Hidden Treasures

Click title to view all geocaching pictures, up to two pages!

As we made plans to head to Home Depot I thought it'd be fun to see if there were any geocaches close by. As it happens there was!

After getting some cinderblocks to upgrade our awesome DVD case, a lattice for flowers, a humming bird feeder, doggy and kitty food, we headed to YC's Mongolian BBQ for dinner and to let it cool down. Dinner was awesome, as always, and there were lots of leftovers. There was a French family in line behind us and one guy was their spokesman. They'd ask him some questions, he'd ask the Sauce Man, and then he'd translate back complete with hand motions.

We parked ol' Mitzy at a nearby park and unloaded out bikes. I had just gotten a handlebar mount for my GPS receiver and I was happy to get to use it.

Our area of searchingness (it's in the dictionary, I swear) is called Lizard Acres and it's a stretch of water collection area where apparently lots of toads and lizards like to hang out. And crickets, cuz they have to eat something, ya know.

Oh yeah, another cool thing is it's a bit of an art project too, as there are tons of big old iron critters and plant life all over the area. You'll be walking along and bam! An iron lizard will get ya!


No, I am not 12

There's metal cacti and turtles and the entrance is pretty cool:











It was dark by the time we got there, which the cache hider actually recommended. It was a lot cooler. I bought a new flashlight at Home Depot (with a fifteen foot drop rating! Just in case...) and the batteries I got weren't charged up so we had to take my hefty Maglight from behind the seat. We searched around for really only a few minutes before finding the cache:



This is what it looks like without the flash, which is how we saw it. Keep in mind the tin is fully hidden inside the mouth, it just looks fun this way:



Isn't he cute?



I would like to thank the lovely Hyd for helping:



Hidden well inside the turtle's mouth was a painted Altoids tin kept in place by a hefty harddrive magnet. If you've never played with one, they are tiny and powerful. The cache also included:



I don't have any coins or trinkets to leave yet, but soon I will! There's a shop online that will make custom geocoins for you, which you can see in the above pictures. I signed the log and documented the find:



Tomorrow we're gonna head out and find some more, and also look for places to stash some. I have a few good ideas already, I think hiding will be just as fun as seeking.

G'night!

- BuddhaDave

The Goodbye Spam

Braut was lecturing Fran as though she were a rather small seminar. The last refuge, in this Fordized world, of personal dignity. Fran, for once in her life, wanted to go to bed.

Oh, they can be charming; they kiss the hand, they remember your birthday, they send flowers. He had scarcely finished when she volleyed, "Oh, its too utterly impossible!" He wasn't going to encourage Fran by giving her an example! "Why, of course we have been, and we'll go on being so!" Well, anyway, I picked out Willy didn't I? No one since he had left Zenith had shown so comforting an interest in him.

Here a few weeks back, when we were in Vienna, I picked up Martin and waded through it. They look insignificant and fuzzy, like Professor Braut, or dry and spindling. They are a funny mix lot, but all speak English, and I wanted to meet different kinds. Asia and Africa do not think that human life, and the sweetness of human life, matter. Isn't it worthwhile really knowing ONE European city? But just now he seemed sufficiently afraid of getting mixed up.

A drink or two, and a jolly bunch do loosen me up. I do love you for wanting to produce something individual and lasting. As a matter of fact, it was probably a good thing.

There was, at table and over coffee in the drawing-room, ever so much more conversation. Kurt looked at them miserably, as though he was wondering what he could do to reconcile them. The Baroness was a slim, slight girl with beautiful ankles and curly shingled hair. He tried to remember just where she had got this admirable dissertation on feminism. He wasn't going to encourage Fran by giving her an example, either!

She said affectionately, "Yes, more motors darling!" I wish I hadn't given up thirty years to motor-cars. My guess is that it all comes from the tradition that Europeans started a hundred years ago. He stroked her hair. He said, more tenderly and intimately than for a long while, "I was beastly." But I get so very much tired of having my good Theodor make love to every woman he meets!

She must feel that his work, or his beautiful lack of work, is more important than she is.

But we'll put it off, the way we've BEEN putting it off, if we wait till tomorrow. And I have done the job that was first at hand. I don't pretend to know everything, even about autos. We were going out to see Brandenburg tomorrow.

Taken from a spam message I got today. Slightly re-arranged but nothing added or removed.

- BuddhaDave

Enjoy

Buck 65 - Devil's Eyes