Link to Profile Semperoper, Dresden Sieg (auf dem Siegesäule), Berlin Brandenburg Tor, Berlin Skyline, Frankfurt am Main

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

A Fine Summertime Tradition


I just realized I always seem to wander off around this time of the year. Then the Partnerin asks me how my blog is doing, and I realize I haven't looked at it for a few weeks ... months perhaps ... and I start to feel guilty because I did have an occasional reader or two who might want to know why the stories stopped coming.

Well, at least I'm no Paul Harvey. Poor guy's wife died ... he's like 90-something years old, and was married to Angel for the last 28 years, so you can forgive him for taking a few months off. Well, maybe you and I can, but apparently he got a lot of cards, letters, and e-mails from people telling him how upset they were that he didn't share his loss with them, that "he owed them" after all their years of support and that he should open up and share his grief with them. No, I'm no Paul Harvey, gentle reader, and you are not those listeners, well intended as they may be, who seem to have a disproportionate sense of importance.

But just in case you are wondering, I've been up to nothing other than a lot of work, a bit of travelling and a bit of studying for a few professional certifications that I should have done years ago.

Yes, I'm with the same company I quit last year ... as I mentioned, just before I managed to get out the door, another department hired me. What was that line from the Godfather??? "Just when I thought I was out, they pull me back in," or something like that.

I wish I could say I hate the job. Sometimes I do, mostly because it involves a lot of work that I actually care about doing well. And unfortunately my new boss is a fairly decent guy. I don't work as fast as they might like (nobody really double checks my work, so I have to really set it aside and error-check later), but only because I actually seem to care for what I am doing. Go figure. I do sometimes come home after a 14-hour day and tell the Partnerin I want my life back, but then again what exactly was that going to be ????

Oh yeah, I was going to buy an airplane and fly around the world. Well, I bought an airplane, but I've only had it to England and around the Continent. I'm off to North America this week, but via Delta (good thing too, what with Lufthansa people going out on strike).

Yep, time again for that fine summer tradition, the Experimental Aircraft Association's Airventure 2008, affectionately known to those of us who have been making the trek to central Wisconsin for years as "Oshkosh." My Gosh, by Gosh, this will be my 21st Oshkosh out of the last 30 years ... how time, and Der Auslander, flies. Hope to get a few pics of the F-22 in action this year, and I will take another look at live versions of the three finalists in the "Which kit-aircraft am I going to build" sweepstakes, that is if I decide to not design and build my own (just because I'm an aerospace engineer doesn't mean I have to reinvent the wheel, does it?). I'm stuck between one of the following:

Van's Aircraft RV-7: Fast, a good traveller, and aerobatic to boot
Glasair Sportsman 2+2: A versatile workhorse for land, sea, and air.
Zenair STOL-701: You can land this one in your back yard. Definitely fun.

Actually, I'm tempted to build both the RV-7 and the STOL-701 and have the best of all worlds ... the STOL is dirt-cheap and only takes 700 build-hours, so its not such a reach.

I know, I'm boring you again with airplane stuff. Sorry, but at least you don't have to live with me. The Partnerin has had her share, but she's moved up from passenger to navigator to co-pilot rather quickly, and starts her own lessons in a couple months. More on that, perhaps, later.

Now we're off to Oshkosh.