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Well, it's been an interesting couple of weeks. In the past several days I have rolled off my current work assignment, and rolled onto a new one. Sold my car (then backed out of the deal), and bought a new car (then backed out of that deal too).

My new assignment has been very sketchy, but I believe today we may have turned the corner. Today was also the introduction of Compuware 2.0, the day Susan bought a new car and the day we have a meeting with our financial planner to receive a new comprehensive financial plan.

As a result of all the above, my fun factor has been pegged at zero the past several weeks.

Sad but true..

Today I finally scheduled a visit to see an Orthopedic Surgeon for my knee. I've been doing pretty well with a torn ACL for the past five years, but I've been having trouble recovering from a recent ski crash. I felt the tear in the knee when I landed, and I've had two bad relapses since. Since the crash, I've had to cut out all strenuous physical activity in an effort to rest \ recover the knee, and it's been really difficult for my state of mind. Even worse, the inactivity doesn't seem to be helping the problem. I am going to try re-introducing spinning next week and see how it does.

All the symptoms suggest it's a torn Meniscus.

I'm most worried that my knee condition will have an impact on my summer plans. I just know that any kind of an operable procedure will greatly reduce my activity for a minimum of six weeks recovery time.

I have absolute trust in the doctor I'll be seeing, he did my dad's knee and comes highly regarded from a friend that's in the profession. More to follow.

In the meantime, I'll keep working on my tan while Computer Programming.

Along these lines:

It's comforting to know this is one of 168 million websites (and counting).

Banff Film Festival

Last night I journeyed with my mom to the Banff Film Festival in Ann Arbor. There were approximately 8 short films presented. It was a one night venue that comes through town every year. The Michigan theatre was sold out, and the crowd was really into the event. In every film, regardless the sport, every big trick was met with cheers. Most of the films did a nice job of mixing thought provoking environmental issues and social conscience with adventure sports. The subjects examined were as diverse as rock climbing, telmark skiing, snow kiting, Mtn biking, and wildlife research.

There was just a wealth of new ideas covered in the films that I will explore further. It's going to take weeks for me to wrap my head around all of the people and places I discovered in some of these films.

Here are a couple of the films I really enjoyed:

Entropy
Norway, 2006, 11 minutes
Focus: Snowkiting

Searching for the Coast Wolves, Gudrun Pflueger
Germany, 2006, 52 minutes
Focus: Environment

King Lines: Es Pontas
USA, 2007, 13 minutes
Focus: Climbing

Trial & Error (Peoples Choice Award)
Canada, 2006, 8 minutes
Focus: Mountain Biking

What really made the evening special was the film Searching for the Coast Wolves, Gudrun Pflueger. At the very end of the film she announced that she was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, and was in the middle of a long and painful chemo therapy treatment.

This was particularly touching, as my mom was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor, and has been living successfully the past two years since her invasive surgical procedure to remove the tumor.

We both very much enjoyed the presentation, and spending the time together. We will most definitely do it again together next year.

Intro Video

First Rites of Spring

Tonight after work I washed my car in shorts and a t-shirt for the first time this spring. This is an annual event that brings me great joy. Last night it snowed 8 inches, and the morning commute was miserable with ice covered roads. Most of it had melted by the evening.

This was a difficult winter for my car and I, and probably it's last. Even with a winter tyre, we got stuck several times. My favorite was always after a difficult three hour commute home in rush hour, gridlock traffic in blizzard conditions, then getting stuck on the incline of my driveway, forcing me to dig the car out, clear the driveway and put the car in the garage so I'm not snowed in the next morning, and ready to do it again at 7:00am.

This happened more times this winter than I care to ever repeat. I've had a wonderful and long relationship with this car, but I'm afraid our time has come. I'm putting it up for sale this weekend.

As spring approaches all of my wintertime planning begins to kick into motion.

Today was a day filled with highs and lows. This afternoon I made a difficult call to a friend to tell him that I could not join him on a trip to the Outer Banks of North Carolina for a week of Kite boarding. I had already committed to the trip, but have decided to focus 100% of my attention this spring to Hang Glider training. I'm worried that I can not split my time and focus effectively between two new sports that I had planned to start in the month of April. I made a difficult decision to put kite boarding on hold and focus on Hang Gliding. If things go well, I will reevaluate the decision in July or August.

This afternoon I also arranged to meet with Tracy from Cloud 9 this weekend to set up an aggressive training plan, take measurements for a harness and order a glider that will be ready in time for the season.

Today is definitely the first day of my spring. There were big beautiful cloud streets all the way home from work. I called and reminisced about old times with fellow pilots, and talked eagerly about my plans for the summer.

Today was a good day overall.

In Memory of Lima Alpha

This week the buyer of LA called me asking questions about how to put back together the instrument panel. It's been over three years since we consummated the deal and this guy is still messsin' around with putting the plane back together. It upsets me to no end to know this plane has been relegated to the back of a hanger somewhere as part of somebody's toy collection. I never would have sold my plane to the gentleman if I would have known this would become the planes fate. I wonder if the plane will ever fly again.

Snowkites

Friday night on the way home from work I stopped to watch some snowkiters out on the lake. There was a beautiful sunset lighting the sky red and I was able to take a few shots in the final light.

There were some guys learning to fly a kite on a setup that was too big for the winds present. It was quite entertaining to watch one of the guys get pulled 20 feet across the lake harnessed in. The other guy augured his buddies kite straight into the ground at 50 mph. They were all getting a laugh out of it, so I guess no harm done.



After watching the activities Friday night, I decided to get out my training kite Saturday morning and give it a try in the winter conditions. After much coaxing, I convinced Susan to come out onto the lake to be my launch assistant. Wind was gusting to 30, and it was snowing quite hard. She was a trooper for about the first 30 minutes, but the cold was getting to her as she had to stand face first into the snow for a re-lite every time I crashed.

I convinced her to try it and she caught onto the idea of flying the power stroke pattern almost immediately, in very gusty conditions. She really seemed to enjoy it, but the cold got the best of her, and we had to close down the operation early due to inclement weather.

I'm kicking myself for not getting serious about this sooner, I've been playing with the training kite for a year now, saying I'll get serious once I can find time. Well the time is now. I'm going to meet with a local kite board shop owner this week and start making plans for the spring. It's truly a year around sport, and I believe it will complement my hang gliding plans quite nicely. On the days it's too windy to fly, it will be right for kiting. Early spring and late fall are also good times for kiteboarding, extending my 'play' season.

This is the year I get serious about kiteboarding.



My longest flight today was about four minutes. The smaller kites are extremely responsive in high winds..


Susan gettin' the hang..


Susan steerin' right, but goin' left..

Big Sky

Susan and I spent the week with the Godlewski family in Big Sky Montana. We try for a family ski trip every year, and this year was very much a success. Good snow, sunny weather, great location and an opportunity to explore the Yellowstone area while the crowds were down and the weather was mild.

I spent three days skiing, and two days with Susan and family exploring Yellowstone, both the west entrance via snow coach, and the North entrance by car, affording us many dramatic snow covered vistas and all kinds of wildlife encounters. You really can not appreciate the wildlife until you see it for yourself, it's truly a spectacular area.

On the way to the North entrance to the park, Susan and I had an opportunity to visit Bryan's land in Paradise Valley, just down the road from the park entrance and right on the Yellowstone River. His property is settled in a lightly developed neighborhood area, with beautiful mountain and river views all around. I really hope he will find a way to develop the property some day.

Highlights of the trip include spending time with the girls, and watching as they grow and develop into individuals. It's always so hard to part ways at the end of a visit, as our bond grows so quickly during the days we spend together.

Juliana spent one day learning on a snowboard, mastering the falling leaf technique by the end of the day. Kala was reluctant to get down the hill one day, and absolutely tearing it up the next.

Big Sky is a terrific ski hill. Absolutely no lift lines, varied terrain and a small village that has not been overdone. Bozeman disappointed me. I believe it once was an absolute hidden gem, however it was far more overdeveloped than what I was expecting.

This trip has complled me to upgrade my photo equipment and learn a thing or two about photography.

One of several bull elk at very close range. Even in 20 degree temps, they clearly preferred the shade over the sun. This guy briefly came out of the shadows and I took a quick shot.

Silver Gate Wyoming, at the North East entrance to Yellowstone, and the end of our drive through the park. There was an old Geo Tracker on tracks parked at the general store, the entire city looked closed.

Abiathan Peak at 10,928' in the background.

Family, with Big Sky in the background.

Totanka.

Vintage snow coach. I saw two of these broken down on the road. We rolled in an Econoline 350 on tracks.

Pronghorn.

Tourist with standard Buffalo shot. Park warning about many idiots have been gored trying to pet the big animals.

Thermal features.

Thermal features.

Thermal features..Old Faithful..Take that one off the life list.

Big Sky.

Peter mixin' it up in the woods.

Susan and Kala.

First year elk.

Julianna at Firehole falls.

Sittin' in the shade.

Bryan's property looking East through the valley.

Second time this year..

This is the second time this year I have fallen through the ice. This weekend was the annual Walled Lake Sno-Ball tourney. There was a total of four ball diamonds playing. The top layer of ice was melting, which left a three foot wide by six inch deep puddle around each of the bases. Highlight of the softball for me was watching a three hundred pounder slide into second, spraying a rooster tail of frozen slush behind him. I make it to the event most years. This year was relatively mild from a winter powersports perspective, it's usually quite an active day on the lake. In years past on this day I've seen helicopters land, planes on skis land, snowmobile races, two dudes in a Mercury Capri with the top down in ski goggles doing hot laps around the lake, and a host of kiteboarding, XC skiing and other winter activites all taking place at the same time on the lake in all directions.

After watching the softball for a while I walked accross the lake to Bruces house, near the shore the ice got soft and in I went. At that point I think I had an idea as to why there was less activity on the lake this year than usual.

Ice Bikes

Saturday Jimbo was kind enough to share his wrf450 with some friends as we tore it up around his lake on a small track he cleared. The bike had tons of grip one the ice, as I tested the lateral adhesion limits of the bike. I think a couple of studded crf50's would be a riot out there. We'd call it Jimbo's winter racing league.

Video montage complements of Jimbo. I really had it dialed in, right up to the point I tucked it into the corner.


JoeyB trying to execute a pass on Jimbo around the hairpin


Here I am marginally in control


Jimbo showing us how it done


One more

Tim's Birthday

This past weekend we celebrated Tim's birthday with a trip to the pistol range, then over to the 2008 International Motorcycle show. My shooting started off a little wild, but by the end of the session I was punchin' holes in the target. Highlight of the motorcycle show was the er.. 2007 Ducati Moto GP World Championship bike.

Desmodici!



Officer Stewie exerting his authority

Grand Canyon

Susan


Deep hole


Elk

First week of December Susan travelled to Scottsdale AZ for a work conference. While in the hotel, she ran into our dear friend Katinka Bryson. While Chris and Katinka live in Scottsdale, what are the chances of running into one of them in a city of 5 milllion?

Susan travelled to AZ early with her friend and coworker Maggie to explore the grand canyon.

Last Ride of 2007

Walled Lake looking South


Bruce's House

Today I pulled my bike out of the basement for the last ride of the year. With rain last night and cold temps this morning, I figured Walled Lake would have ice boat activity. The plan was to take a few pics of the boats racing, run across the lake, then do the small loop on the Novi lake shore single track.

My camera went dead after two pics so I don't have much to offer. There were as many as 30 boats racing on the lake. I dropped in on Bruce and Di for a bit and he managed to snap one off as I approached from the lake. As I continued my run across the lake I encountered a large open water hole just five feet in front of me. I slowly backed up and ran around the hole. The boats were racing within feet of the hole, they must have know it was there, but they weren't leaving much of a margin for safety. It was surprising to find the hole in the middle of the lake, as the ice was generally over a foot thick in most places.

I made my way across the lake and to the trail. My first epic wipe out was 10 feet after the trail head. There was hardly any snow on the ground, but the single track itself had a solid glaze of ice as far as I could see into the woods. I tried to stay off the ice, unsuccessfully.. I decided that would be it for the ride. I turned around and made it as far as the parking lot, where I encountered the classic pavement - ice - pavement combination, which threw me over the handlebars into a perfect three point slide for about 15 feet of parking lot\ice, at which point I met the next ice to pavement transition area, which then abruptly stopped my slide phase of the fall. While man and machine made it through without incident, I was carrying my camera in the zipper pocket near the small of my back, and as I cartwheeled, all I kept thinking was this is going to hurt. I managed to not come down on the camera, but decided that I need to find a better way to carry it from now, for my sake and for that of the life of the camera.

This is about the fourth year I told myself I would buy an ice boat, but once the lake freezes over, there are no longer any boats on the market. So I'm going to start looking in August next year.

Deck Upgrade

Tonight we took delivery of a new hot tub.

Having it wired tomorrow and hope to be in it by the weekend.

Whitewater Airshow combo

This past weekend I joined Ben Fradkin and friends for a weekend in WV for the Double Upper Gauley raft trip. We had a few eventful falls in the river, including one in a small box canyon, where I bounced off the walls of the canyon and the floor of the river before being spit out. After two more spills in the river, I was cold and exhausted, happy to be done with the river..

Saturday we traveled up to Columbus, for the P51 airshow, which included demonstrations from an f-16, f-15, the Thunderbirds and an f-22. The f-22 absolutely blew me away, it was doing manuvers that can not be classified as flying.

Great three day trip, I really enjoyed meeting Ben's friend Mike, and look forward to next year.

Labor Day 2007

Airtime


Mom and I on Ipperwash



Surfs Up



Susan and I traveled to St. Marys Ohio Saturday to see Joe Bonamassa headline the Riverside Bluesfest. Some of the best guitar work I've ever seen.

Sunday and Monday were spent with the family in Grand Bend Ontario, with a stop in Ipperwash. Great resort with a beautiful private beach.

New Horse in the Stable

Two weeks ago I rode a Sport 1000 for the first time at the Midwest Ducati rally. Absolutely loved the DS 2 valve motor and just felt at home on the bike.

Two days later, I won an auction for my very own sport thou, with an auction snipe with 2 seconds left on the auction.

This past weekend I road tripped down to Tennesee to pick it up, great trip overall right down to Deals Gap, 28 hours total down and back.

Here is a pre fix photo.

California Family Trip 2007

Had a great time in California, as always, visiting with family, playing tennis, surfing, and spending time with the girls.




It's a rental.


Surf's up..


Family.

Ranger

Well, it's been a while since my last post. As it turns out, I've decided to put the glider training on ice for a while, I just had too many distractions to start somthing new going into the summer months.

So for now, I will use this blog to post random thoughts and reflections as I make my way.

This week we lost our beloved Ranger. It became clear from his condition we had no choice. It went about as well as it could have, but it truly was a sad day. We will miss you buddy.

Training Day 1 - June 22, 2007

Training Day 1 - June 22, 2007
I took two flights this evening to 3300'. By the end of the second flight I was getting the hang of the controls. I was over controlling (and cross controlling) the glider, but by the end I was getting the hang of how to steer. At one point, I even heard Tracy say, OK, you never want to do that again, that's really dangerous..

By the end of the second flight I was flying most of the flight (but not the tow), and even landed the glider, came in completely sideways, heading right for the trees, Tracey pulled us out of trouble just in time.

Tracey and Lisa run a top notch operation, and have a wonderful home. I'm looking forward to joining the community.