March goes out with a splat

It was feeling a lot like Spring on Tuesday, warm and sunny, as Roger and I got out for an afternoon of Tennis. It was a little too blustery for me, so we just batted the ball around, instead of trying to play our usual sets. It felt good to get out and swing a racket around in my usual wild uncontrolled manner. Then the reality of the Winter - Spring transition set in, and we got half a foot of snow on Wednesday, which pretty much ruled out the usual Thursday bike ride after work - too much goop still on the trails, and just a little too cold, at 40 degrees. So I wandered into the Buck Center for a half hour of riding on the exercise bike, and make good use of the water facilities. It's always a treat, to sit out in their jacuzzi, catching big soft snowflakes on my tongue. I found myself wondering how our G1000/TwinStar instructor was faring, on his flight back from Toronto.

I've posted a bunch of March photos at our Picasaweb photo gallery...

The story this week about the Littleton man biking along the Platte River was just a little too scary and close to home. He was on the same path I like to ride downtown, and came upon a 60 pound rock that some really stupid and malicious teenagers had dragged out into the middle of the path. The rock was just into the shadow of the Belleview Ave bridge, so he never saw it. He hit it squarely, and it stopped his bike cold, breaking the frame, and throwing him over the handlebars onto the concrete path. I think he survived with a broken collarbone and a scratched helmet. The article I read quoted him as saying he's biked thousands of miles, all around the world, and never seen anything like this. I guess this may be a sign that I need to get myself a biking helmet. I'd been thinking I would get one, as soon as I dared to venture up into the mountain biking territories, where the trails are steep and rocky, and it would be more necessary. But it seems I may already need one, even for those nice flat bike paths around town.

Ground School

On the lighter side, I attended an all day ground school at the flying club today. It was a nice rainy day - perfect for ground school. The morning was dedicated to the new G1000 glass instrument panel that we're starting to see in our new planes. I mentioned to the instructor that I'd been playing with the G1000 glass panel in the Microsoft Flight Simulator X software that I gave myself for Christmas last year, so then he went and appointed me the official simulator pilot, and had me demo the capabilities -- with his help, and the kibitzing of the 25 other students in the class. Man, was that a humbling experience, having all my instrument flying skills laid bare in front of all those other pilots and instructors.

The afternoon was dedicated to learning about the newest plane in our fleet, a Diamond DA-42 Twin Star, which has two turbocharged *diesel* engines, and a G1000 panel. I'm hoping to expand my skills, and include a checkout in the DA-42 in this year's list of fun things to do. The instructor mentioned that he was looking for a rider/student to share expenses for a flight to Toronto later in the week. That would've added perhaps 15 hours of multi-engine, G1000, TwinStar time to my logbook. I was so very tempted, but couldn't convince myself to go for it.

Back to Biking

It's finally warmed up enough to melt most of the snow around here. I've ventured out for a few walks, and more recently bike rides, and am looking forward to more of them throughout the year. Yesterday afternoon was the first ride of the year with "the guys" from work. They all go mountain biking on other days, so they're in much better shape, and I really struggle to keep up with them. I was so worn out by the time we got to the Chatfield dam, I had to skip it and head for the finish line instead. The after-ride dinner at the Platte River Bar and Grille capped it off nicely, with awesome fish tacos and fun company.

K's kidney function is down to around 15-20% these days. We're scheduled to attend a couple of kidney-related classes in a few weeks - one about dialysis, and the other about transplants. The good news, if there is any, is that she's been told she's a universal recipient, so she can accept a kidney from almost anyone.

St Paddy's Weekend

Spring is definitely 'round the corner. Ken and I went for a long overdue walk yesterday morning. It was a beautiful sunny day that started out a bit cool and warmed up nicely by the time we were done. The pic is of a new house being constructed where Windermere St meets the Highline Canal. We covered about six miles in a couple of hours, ending up at "The Egg and I" in Highlands Ranch. K and Freddie met us there for an awesome breakfast, then gave us a welcome ride home. I spent the rest of the afternoon hacking away at two arctic willows in our front yard, both of which had grown way too large. I took them all the way to the ground, and in the process, gave myself a nasty blister on my thumb from squeezing those clippers just a few hundred times too many.

Saturday night, I was careful to wear some green to our neighbor's St. Patrick's Day dinner/poker party with their extended family. She made corned beef, cabbage, potatoes - all delicious! Then they taught us greenhorns how to play Texas Hold 'Em. I generally don't gamble, but this was mostly a social event, so I went along with it, anteing up the $10 each, for a stake of chips. I went through my entire stake in practically no time, or so it seemed. Interestingly enough, K went bust on the same hand - when the nephew discovered he had a flush and bet his entire stake. I was clueless and thought he was bluffing, so I went all-in with my remaining pittance, and that was that. It was a good reminder of why I don't gamble (the clueless part).

Ken and I bounced back this morning, and got out for a bike ride around our usual 15 mile loop, Lee Gulch to C-470 to the Platte River trail to downtown Littleton and home. We saw a little snow still in the shadows, but not much, and the trail was clear all the way. We stopped for breakfast at Panera Bread in Aspen Grove. You're probably getting a sense of my general approach to outings - I like "destination" walks and rides :-)

The Shack

We launched our first Atlas V of the year on Thursday - with 5 separate payloads! See the writeup on spaceflightnow. It was the first time I can remember having multiple satellites - there were five of them, plus a sixth "mass simulator" (a big do-nothing brick that weighs the same as a satellite) which could've been a satellite, but no one signed up for that slot. The satellites were released one at a time, over a 40 minute period, so we had to wait extra long this time, until we knew for sure that we'd had a successful flight.

Ken and I walked on Friday, rode bikes on Saturday, and walked again on Monday. It felt really good to get out, and the weather was cooperative, too. We were disappointed yesterday to find that Tony's Deli at Mineral and Broadway had closed, but we enjoyed our lunches at the nearby sports bar "The Shack" instead - great burgers! Sad news - we learned Sunday that a dead fox was found in our neighbor's front yard. The police had come and bagged it, in preparation for animal control to remove it during the week. We looked in the bag, and it was our dear friend the fox who had visited our deck. We think she was probably hit by a car. So sad. We'll have a difficult time breaking our habit of occasionally checking our deck for another delightful visit from this friend.