BLOGS FOR JULY 2011

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Week ending Sunday, July 31th, 2011
Still hot, but rode 250 miles today anyway!

Wow, what a fun and LOOOOONG ride today in Maryland. I met up with some new friends at a Hardley Dealership and we basically rode every twisty road they had in MD. We even stopped by not one but two DAMs, had some great food and basically just got to know everyone.

I stayed behind the front leader even through he didn't know the topology that well either. We made sure not to ride past our limits and dragged a "little" knee, haha. Not that much really, because you have to careful on all those really bind and decreasing radius turns. Either way we really had a great time but I am completely SPENT. I think I must have lost about 5lbs sweating so much. Even though the air was somewhat tolerable and cooler than the heat, it was still really hot.

I think we ran into a couple of rude drives today but that is to be expected. At the peak we had about 25-30 riders with us of all levels and different bikes. Someone else had a CBR1000RR but it was a 2008 model. He really liked my 20011 CBR1000RR REPSOL version and I got a lot of nice compliments on the bike and wearing ALL of my racing gear. Hey if you're gonna have fun you really need to wear the right equipment. It'd be like playing football without a helmet if you know what I mean.

The week has been going really well. I got a lot of work done at the office and just have a few minor things to button up tomorrow. Also since I haven't found a new Church yet so I have been watching Pastor Bob's services online. I suppose if you can't find a Church then I suppose I can help the Church come to me :) It's been working out well because I know Pastor Bob and really like how he explains the message in a way that everyone can understand. Not his own spin on things, just God's word which I really enjoy.

I'm really happy that we'll have football this year. Was really worried about that but now that everything has been settled I'll be able to watch the Buccaneer games here in VA!

Not sure what else to add here. No MotoGP racing this weekend so I suppose I had to add my own sort of GP race myself, haha :) Hope you all have a great weekend and talk to you next Sunday after my flight with the new Instructor! Woot!

B.

Week ending Sunday, July 24th, 2011
Too hot to really do much, but veg!

Ok so one of the things I miss most about San Diego, aside from so many things to do, is always great weather. It didn't rain that much in SD but hey when it did, we really needed it and it cleaned up the air a tad. Out here in VA the weather is really just odd. It seems that when it's cold, it's very cold and when it's hot, it's REALLY hot. The temps have been hovering around 100 degrees over this past week. So hot I couldn't even ride the CBR without sweating like crazy. That's not really the best way to show up to work, haha.

This weekend is the Laguna Seca MotoGP race. It starts in about 1.5 hours so I am going to watch it online with my MotoGP pass. That way I don't have to watch the silly commercials and miss some of the great action that comes with being able to watch the entire race online. The quality is pretty good and though it wasn't cheap, it was definitely worth it. Got my fingers crossed that Nicky can pull something out. Those Ducs are so far behind the Japanese bikes that it's no wonder the guy can't get a break other than a hand-me-down 3rd place. Not his fault, that is for sure. Even Rossi is having a hard time on them. Fix the bike, it isn't the riders.

Since I haven't found a great Church out here yet I have been watching Pastor Bob's messages online as well. I know I should like a technology geek (and I sort of am) but hey, I know and trust Pastor Bob and I always like that he gives us God's word directly from the Bible with no "man's" spin on it. God always wanted us to interpret it ourselves to some degree but that depends on each individual not one man saying "This is 'really' what it says..." Definitely great to see the same people online that I used to sit next to for years.

Some goods new is that my birth certificate finally arrived this week. I'll take it to my Flight Instructor on Tuesday and then she'll give me the name of the Physician I need to see to get my physical completed. Once all that is done and the finally ground class happens a week from Tuesday then every weekend I'll be flying around the VA and WVA area getting my license completed :) That's something I've been looking forward to for a long time.

I'm getting adjusted to VA, slowly -- but I definitely miss hanging out with my friends. I will probably be flying back sometime in the next month or so to check out a few things and say hi to my friends. It will be good to get there while the weather is still great! My Niece has a new job in SD as well so I am sure it's great for her to get back home as well.

Hope you all have a great rest of your week. Be good and GO HAYDEN!!!

Week ending Sunday, July 17th, 2011
Quiet Week. I like those...

Not a lot going on this week so this will be a short blog. Work has been keeping me pretty busy and of course I still have "Ground" school on Tuesday and Thursday nights. One thing is definitely true what the instructor said "About 70-80 percent of the people in each class drop out..." So far that's about right on target.

And I don't even understand why they drop out if they've already paid for the class. Heck, I'm not the biggest fan of sitting in classes all day but you have to learn this stuff and you can't be a pilot without doing the work and flying the hours, ya know? Anyway, the class is fine and all I am waiting for right now is a copy of my birth certificate -- which I cannot find! I had to order it online. When I have that I can get my physical and start flying with the CFI. YAY!

This weekend I had a bunch of stuff to take care of and I want to upgrade my PC to Windows 7 x64 (I am running x32). No matter how I do this I will lose most of the data on my hard drive. I have to figure out how to migrate the applications because I lost most of the installation disks. BOO. So far no luck there either but I am trying.

Since I haven't found a good Church here I am back to watching Pastor Bob's services online. It's not the same as being there but in my case, given the distance, it's really not so bad.

Ok I am making some dinner and then going to relax and watch some TV adn some MotoGP races!!!! Hope you all had a great and BLESSED week and stay out of trouble! :)

B.

Week ending Sunday, July 10th, 2011
Good news this week!

So I had mentioned that I have been taking ground school as a pretext to getting back into a plane for the first time in a very long time. Over here at AV-ED I mentioned the kind of Instructor I wanted and I got a good one. She is an Assistant CFI and has a lot of experience. In addition she is also patient, which is a big bonus. Anyway she asked me for my flight logs.

"Uhhh, I had tossed them out years ago thinking I'd never flay again". "Well", she said "Maybe you can contact the flight school if they are still around and see if the records are still there...". So I contacted Sunrise Aviation at John Wayne Airport. They were still around and I am sure that that flight school I attended over at MCAS El Toro was gone (it was, of course). Anyway the owner said that he didn't think they kept records back that far and even so, very little chance of the same instructor who gave me the lessons would still be around.

Later that day I got an email and he said "Wow. Not only did I not think we had your records, we do. And on top of that the instructor you had is STILL here and she'll be happy to sign off on your flights!" So they emailed me copies of all the flight logs and the instructor signed it all. How cool is that? It means that instead of having to take 40-60 flight hours again I can probably do in now 20-30 hours. That's great because it saves a lot of cash on the school.

There is still a lot that I have to learn here. There are "Special Flight Restriction Areas" (SFRA) in the VA area. Not only is DC here but not far up the road is Camp David and if you've watched the news, F-15s have had to "escort" four small private planes away from Camp David. All I'd like to do are short flights to the beach, away from DC and a couple of cross country flights to Florida and California. Maybe even up to Boston if the weather is good.

The last couple of weeks I've been studying my books and after this week's blog entry is complete I have to get back to the books and study some more then I will start taking some online "pre-test" to see how I am doing. I'm really excited about doing this. I quit taking lessons due to the cost and then I got into music so I had put this on the back burner but now I have the time and resources to start doing it again.

Hopefully I'll find a new Church home here (so far my luck has been bad) but there's a place for me, I am sure. Also, I'd like to try and help others as much as I can. I want to but again it's hard to find a niche. I am sponsoring a child in Bolivia so that's a good start but I'd also like to focus here at home. There are plenty of people who need help and I should be using my time for that.

Everything else is ok. Work is going well and my boss has been in San Diego for the last week. I am sure he is having a great time in my "stomping grounds" lol. I definitely miss San Diego, the rides up to Palomar Mountain, the Beach, the Gas Lamp and some of the best Sushi in the world. Maybe I can use some of my vacation time to get back there :)

That's it for now have a great, safe and happy rest of your weekend!

B.

Week ending Sunday, July 3rd, 2011
Love those long weekends!

I'm so glad that it's a long weekend because really, I needed it. Work has been extremely busy and to say that I like what I do is an understatement. It keeps me busy, keeps me thinking and it's not a job or career but more like FUN! Who can complain about that?

This weekend I got the last part of my furniture which I've been waiting for about six weeks now. This furniture wasn't worth what I paid for it but it LOOKS ok for now. It damages quite easily and they still need to replace the drawer that was broken when they installed the bed. On the plus side I have a lot more drawers to throw stuff in there and get the room looking decent and presentable.

On Sunday (today) I got to go play golf at Algonkian again. I actually like the course because it's challenging and there's plenty of difficulty to make it a learning experience. I shot a 90 which isn't too bad. I am getting better and fixing my aim. When I stopped playing a lot (racing, bands, etc) I really lost my touch. That's not to say I've play bad. Last year I logged an 80 at Encinitas Ranch with Jason -- and he was there to see that score, lol. That's about as good as you can do as an amateur. Anything in the 70s and you're approaching the pro level.

I'll keep working on my golf game but as I do that I am searching for a flight instructor. I started ground school this week which can be boring at times. The only thing that really annoys me is that while we have a new instructor he has a lot of flight experience. That's fine but he knows that I already have over 30 hours of flight time but he only talks to the two new flyers who have about 20 hours combined. Then he finds out that I know a lot about airplanes so he can't really throw me off when he quizzes us. I think that probably annoys him. Ah well, I am going to work really hard to get this license done so I can even fly myself around for work too, haha.

A new show that I found which is the "Glee" audition who which I really like but man they are so mean to the kids. I know that it's rough in Hollywood and you have to be able to throw your laundry out in front of everyone. There are just some things about people that we (as viewers) don't need to do. The good part is it got me listening to music I wouldn't normally listen to. It also makes me want to pick up my guitar and play a little bit.

Other than that, everything is going great. I really have no complaints other than being a little sick to my stomach. At least the headaches are going away. I have no complains there either. Life is good, God is taking good care of me and I just need to find a Church that I can fit in to. I have to hear God's word from the Bible and not the twisted version that often times "man" does on their own.

Hope you had a great weekend too and Happy 4th!

B.