August 2005

Today I am taking some well deserved (if I do say so myself) comp time and enjoying a relaxing day off. While I thoroughly love my job, there’s something very special about being home without obligation while your peers are working dutifully at their desks. So I slept in until 8:30 or so, watched “Designing Women”, “The Golden Girls” and “The Nanny” on Lifetime. I know, the picture is not complete with bon-bons and a housecoat, but I settled for pop-tarts and naked. I’m not a huge fan of “Designing Women” or “The Nanny”, but I do love “The Golden Girls”. I truly believe it will go down as one of the best sitcoms in the history of television. It did get a little ridiculous towards the end of the run, and yes The Golden Palace is a little painful to watch, but the first five seasons or so were spectactular.

Actually, I’ve been quite productive this morning and I’m finding the whole affair quite surprising. Earl and I are going camping this afternoon and he left me a small, quaint “honey do” list on the kitchen table. I’ve gone beyond what was required of me and have collapsed (in a good way) the camper, packed up the Jeep and purchased some supplies we keep saying we’re going to buy for the camper but never do. (Any excuse to go shopping is fine by me.)

Yesterday Earl had business to tend to in Buffalo, but he took the time to stop by the Apple store and pick up a couple of the new Mighty Mice. I use a mouse on my PowerBook when I’m working at my desk and I must say that I love my new Mighty Mouse. I’ve kept it in single button mode, because the whole two button mouse paradigm is so “Windows” but I’m loving the little scroll wheel and the side buttons to make OS X’s Exposé pop up. A nice little addition to the Mac line-up.

Now I need to get back to my chores so that we’re already for our camping adventure at Hillside. I’ve even remembered to pack the Sony digital camera so I can take some pictures!

It’s amazing what a little extra sleep can do.

Tonight I had the opportunity to do something I haven’t done in a long time. Dad and I went flying together.

My father has been a private pilot for a long time. I’ve complained about flying in the past, but those complaints are limited to flying the commercial airlines, mainly because they herd you like cattle through a shoot. I also have another beef, no pun intended, about flying commercially. I don’t know the pilot. And I can’t trust a pilot I don’t know.

I’ve been flying with my father since I was six months old. My grandfather was a private pilot, so we’d fly with him, and then my dad became a pilot in his late 20s. Where most people have blood flowing through their veins, my father has aviation fuel.

When I was growing up, we started off flying in the pilot’s association’s Cessna 150 (which is still going this day, I might add) and then a Piper Tomahawk. Later in the early 1980s, my grandfather and father bought a 1940 Piper J5-A that my dad stripped down to the metal and rebuilt. He had that for several years, before building the plane you see in the picture, his Acrosport.

The Acrosport is a lot of fun to fly in, but it’s not for the faint of heart. It’s open cockpit, so you get to wear all the Snoopy gear. I had the honor of wearing my grandfather’s pilot gear tonight. The passenger’s seat has the ominous warning: “PASSENGER WARNING: THIS HOME-BUILT AIRPLANE IS EXPERIMENTAL AND THEREFORE DOES NOT MEET FAA SAFETY REGULATIONS”. Who cares. It’s rare that I feel that free as when I’m sitting in the passenger’s seat of my father’s airplane. Just be sure to sit low in the seat so the wind doesn’t blow your sunglasses off!

Right after take off, the engine backfired a little bit and did a little sputter thing, just as we were banking to the right. My father straightened the plane to the horizon and it stopped. Another quick bank to the right to make sure it didn’t do it again, then a zip around 180 degrees to buzz (that means fly really low and fast) my sister and Earl, who were standing along the airfield watching us, both waving. Did the sputter worry me? Absolutely not. I was in the capable hands of my father, so that meant there was nothing to worry about. He’s been in worse situations and has never had even a close call. Nothing to fear.

The rest of the flight was awesome. We flew eight or nine miles to the west of my hometown to fly along the eastern shore of Lake Ontario a little bit before heading back home. I wasn’t ready to take the controls to fly yet, though Dad would have let me. I used to fly occasionally with the club instructor or my dad when I was younger, given the controls of the Cessna or the Apache. And I’m eager to try my hands at a Cessna 150 or 172, but not his Acrosport. Not yet.

Afterwards, we had a wonderful meal with my Dad, his girlfriend Karen and my sister Jennifer. Great conversation, delicious food and a flight down memory lane.

A wonderful evening.

You can click on the picture above for more pictures from the flight.

For the past couple of days, I’ve been messing around in the music studio here at home, doing some club style mixing and basically just getting to know my equipment better. (I know the last part of that sentence sounds rather racy, but I’m too lazy to fix it.) I’ve been ripping CDs left and right into my PowerBook, doing some music purchasing on iTunes and updating my vinyl collection through ebay purchases. Plus, there’s this thing called LimeWire…

Anyways, I’m in the mood to do some spinning in a club again. I’m not really looking for a full-time, every weekend type of gig, but something that lets my creative juices flow and allows me to pump up a crowd for a Saturday night once in a while.

There’s a chance that I’ll be spinning in Buffalo next month at a Buffalo Bears Night. The regular DJ is unable to work that night, so I’ve been approached about stepping in. The trouble? “Buddies” is moving to “Buddies II” and it might not be ready for the bar night. If there’s no bar, then I would guess they probably won’t need a DJ that night. I’m keeping my fingers crossed that the bar will be done so I can spin. I’m really, really excited about the prospect of spinning, especially for a bunch of bears in a city that hasn’t heard me DJ before. I spin best for those outside of the club bunny/twinkie circuit. Plus, it’s Rodeo Night so there’s room for a country tune or four.

Last month Earl and I ventured to Jones Pond to go camping, and of course there’s a “party barn” at the campgrounds, complete with a state of the art sound and lighting system. I heard a couple of songs there that I really liked, including “Don’t Cha” by The Pussycat Dolls and this techno version of “Waiting For A Star To Fall” by Boy Meets Girl. This weekend we’re going to another campground, this time Hillside Campground, where I’m sure we’ll hear another mix of music.

I have to admit I’m not a big fan of the videos. First of all, it’s nearly impossible to beat mix a video into a set and secondly, I’d rather watch the bare chested dancers sweating and strutting on the dance floor than watch a video of some fabricated pop star. Call me crazy, but I like my entertainment to be three dimensional.