fire and rain

I'm still getting over a bit of sunburn from the airshow. My face was used to the sun from work all summer, so it's not to bad. What is too bad is that the oil pumps in the gulf had to get shut off for a hurricane or something. And gas is skyrocketing like it is lighter than air or something. hmm... So now I will most assuredly be riding my bike everywhere. In the rain. Because the hurricane has reached W. Lafayette. I think I will havemy routene down for this semester in about 15 weeks.

Blue Angels

Saturday was super! I got to see the Blue Angels perform live for the first time. It was soooo sweet. Ross and I went down to Mount Comfort and met up with Eric, Mr. Filson, Greg and Brad. We saw a MIG-17, 4 yaks, 2 Mustangs, 2 B-25s (including the only B-25J still flying), a P-38, a B-17, a PBY (very ugly but really cool flying boat), and a bunch of aerobatics performers. We also saw David and June Whitla and David showed us some sketches he made of some aircraft. Excellent work. The Aeroshell flight team put on a great show and the Blue Angels really capped it off well. They started off with their C-130 (Fat Albert) doing a jet assisted takeoff that was almost aewsome. Pics are on Ross's blog.

Seminole

Although the NCAA would call this plane a racial slur against the Seminole indians, I prefer to think of it as a really sweet hunk of metal. I got to fly it today, and it gave me a few more firsts:
first time to start a multi-engine plane
first landing and takeoff in one
and first time to sit in the back seat of a non-jet aircraft.

For this class we have two students go with an instructor and I got selected to be the first one to fly. Woo-Hoo Baby! So I got it started and taxied out with not to much trouble, and then I was like "Are you going to do a demonstration takeoff?" and my instructor was like "You're the pilot, you do it." So I got this HUGE knot in my stomach that was like "You are so going to screw up Josh." But it went all right. (You could have guessed that by realizing that I am still alive to write this.) So my time was great. I got to do four landings and five takeoffs and steep turns and slow flight and stalls and fun stuff like that. But after a good bit I had to switch to the back seat and let the other guy fly. I gave the controll of the plane to my instructor and started to climb over the seat when he put the plane into a zero-g dive and started banking all over. It was great! After I finally got tured right side up and into my seat, my instructor turned around and was laughing at me. I think it was the best part of his day. (Besides the part where neither of us killed him. That part was good too.)

Jet Pilot

Today I buzzed Chicago O'Hare at 480 knots (mach .75) AND I landed a B727-100 for the first time ever. I did pretty bad, but I stayed on the runway. I also started my last three classes, ordered a book from ebay (half price of any bookstore on campus), and found out that I have another packet I have to get. Oh and I have another paper to write this semester. Plus a group project and a book to read. So I'm going to get started on the book now. (~:

Busy already!

I already have two papers, one worksheet and and a ton of memory items to do for homework. Oh, and a reading assingment too. And I havent even been to three of my classes yet. But for now I'm going to play wallyball. toodles.

Fun Weekend

I just got out of my first three classes. One sounds easy and the other two sound hard. really hard. My schedule got screwed up so now I two flight classes at the same time. But other than that everthing is pretty good.
Last Saturday was a blast! We mountain biked for a few hours and introduced a few newbies to the great sport. Then we headed over to Ross's lake and tubed all afternoon. It was the best weekend of the the whole summer. I didn't get home until 9 ish so I had to postpone moving up until Sunday afternoon. So far I found out that I forgot to bring my bike lock and my trash can. I'm also missing some money I'd left in my room. I can't remember if I hid it before I left or if I took it home with me. It wasn't much so I'm not worried.
Books and supplements are going to cost me a ton this semester. My management book is looking at $105 used if they have any left. I think I will have a really cool sim partner. At least I did before they screwed my schedule. I don't know who my flight partner is yet though.

That's all for now folks.

Humming in the Drizzle

I got to work on the deck job today! It drizzled most of the morning. We decided that since it wasn't rain we couldn't sing, so we had to settle for humming in the drizzle. We dug some great holes for 6x6 fence posts. With 6x6's this fence will be able to hold back a charging bull or a communist army or five tornadoes and a hurricane. School starts in one week.

State Fair

Stacey and I went to the fair last night. It was a lot of fun. I can home and got so much sleep that I actually felt tired when I woke up. It was nice to be able to feel anything. Then this evening my worst nightmare of working at Sam's came true. A very apologetic lady tossed a wine bottle onto the belt and it tipped right off and broke all over the floor and me. It was horrible. Fortunately I was wearing my last pair of clean jeans and they were rather old (my Dad's) so I turned them into shorts. My best tennis shoes will probably never smell the same though. oh well. School starts in 10 days.

10 Tips for being a better Sam's customer:

1. Put your stuff on the belt.
no really. It's not just for decoration.
2. If I am standing by my register and the sing says "open" I would be happy to let you come to my line.
you don't need to ask. It's what I paid to do. really.
3. You don't have to tell me what is in your cart. I'm not blind.
Three cases of water are not too hard to spot.
4. Yes, I do have to switch carts. Company policy
I don't really mind the workout that much either.
5. When I say "hi", don't say "fine". I'm not going to ask how you are doing until you've been through my line enough times for me to get to know you and care about how your day was.
6. No, I can't keep it in the same cart.
really
7. If I catch you trying to steal something I will not be happy.
or kind. it's loosers like you who forced the policy mentioned in #4
8. Believe me. Moving your kid to another cart is a lot easier than me putting six cases of gatorade back in your first cart.
9. You only get three cases of beer. That's it. No matter how many friends you are having over.
10. If I rifle through your stuff to see if there are any ipods or dvds in there it is not because you look like a criminal. I do it to everybody. with the possible exception of people

Another one:

Proverb

One should not keep a chocolate-chip granola bar in one's tool pouch when working in 100+ degree weather.

I love bees

I am really starting to identify with their lifestyle. I wanted to post on a ton of stuff last week, but I was so tired that I went to bed instead. Thank God for Sunday's! Today I only almost died twice at work. Starting to cut back. School starts on the 22nd, so I will probably post a lot more after that. I want to do a big post on some stuff I've learned in the last two years. Not academic but spiritual, so maybe it won't be boring.