Is it my imagination...

Is it my imagination...or the perfect weather. I'm not sure but the park seemed extra magical tonight.

At Caseys in Ann Arbor

Thanks to the geography gods for putting such a great place next to the amtrak  station.

Some rumors you just *hope* are true

From Gizmodo:

Bin Laden Killing Team May Have Used Night Vision Contact Lenses

Jesus Diaz — Christian at Military.com's Kit Up! has heard an interesting rumor on one of the technologies that Seal Team 6 used to kill Osama bin Laden: Night vision contact lenses! Holy pants, Batman.

    I heard a rumor that the Team guys who busted bin Laden might have been wearing "cat vision" contact lenses that literally give the wearer night vision for a limited time without having to wear the bulky, heavy NVGs.

  

Cool Gear: Living with Square

What is Square? It’s a solution to a problem I didn’t know I had. What it really is is a mini credit card reader that you hook up with the * free * software and once you jump though some hoops viola! You have your own personal credit card machine for your smart phone or tablet.

Check it out *here*  or find it in any app store (at least Android or ios ) but here is two things that amaze me:

1) Everyone that sees it thinks its cool.

2) No one has heard of it

So what do I do with it? So far I don’t know. I could see it would be a killer app for a small business. Or a garage sale. For now it’s just cool that I can take credit card  payments, and I have used it… for some people that owed me money. Some reimbursements for lunch, materials I purchased and more.

 

Still, it is largely a solution to a problem I did not know I even had.

A cool solution at that.

Catch a wave

Flipphotos never cease to amaze. This photo of a guy in the curl of a wave is just stunning.

A spider web catches the afternoon sun...

A spider web catches the afternoon sun...as Tanner reacts to a noise over her shoulder. The weather has been fantastic. I can't complain. Least about the weather.

Tanner tears it up at the office

Tanner: getting the job done!

Keeping up with the neighbors takes on a whole new meaning

Keeping up with the neighbors takes on a whole new meaning... when you consider that this is a corner of our neighbors garden...

And I am still chasing crabgrass and dandelions.

Wilfred : may just save the day *updated*

* Updated* I am an idiot ... try THURSDAY NIGHT at 10* 

Damn it.

Wednesday's child is full of woe, but  the new show "Wilfred" looks so funny it might just make my summer.
A simple premise: Elijah Wood sees Wilfred as a man in a dog costume, where everyone else sees him as a regular dog. Cue a man doing only stuff that a dog could get away with and hilarity ensues.

If this show lives up to half of its potential... it should make for some really funny stuff.

Here is hoping this Wednesday's child it full of entertainment. We will see . Tonight at 10.

*here* to check it out.

Happy first day of summer everyone!

It was a splendid summer morning and it seems as if nothing could go wrong…

(John Cheever)

I miss that feeling, a feeling I can only imagine as a distant memory from my youth or something from a Fitzgerald novel.

Here is a photo I dug up of my brother running over a sand dune on the Canadian side of lake Huron during the camping trips of my childhood.I took this photo , lets just say, at a very young age when summer was still magical. *sigh*

Stylus

Description of product is key.

 I found this at a local "mart" stores website. 

Stylus for Tablet PCs

Model#: HS-TABSTYLUS

For iPad, iPhone or other touchscreen device

Soft rubber tip

Omni-directional

Wait  - what?

Omni - directional ? 

Really?

Good to know. 

Hate to have an mono-directional stylus.

 

Somtimes you find the coolest things

I ran in to this classic 1966 Honda today.

I think I am in love.

To bad the girl sad no.

For a while now... I have been biding my time

For a while now...  I have been biding my time.

Trying to get a photo of this Herron.

It haunts the river close to where Tanner and I walk but with her less than stealthy approach I had all but given up getting a good shot of her.

Lately, however, I have noticed that she has taken a shine to the public side of the park. Apparently the fishing is good by this small waterfall. The drop varies by the water level but right now it is about 3 feet showing just how grand this bird is.

Slowly, I have been getting closer , Tanner in tow. But always she gets away before I can get a good shot.

Today I was close enough to get this shot before she had enough and flew off.

Amazing.

Anatomy of a Saturday

I find myself in a very dark place tonight.

When I was a child I was affraid of the dark.
Now somtimes I am afraid the darkness does not scare me enough.

There is nowhere safe.

The mosquitoes are bad this year.

There is nowhere safe.

They are everywhere.

An unrelenting unvanquishable seething force.

Almost invisible yet all pervasive whining blood sucking nuisance.

There is not one park, path, or place of shade where you are safe.

The mosquitoes are bad this year.

Thanks to Deepak Kul for the photo lend.

Top Mistakes of the day:

Top Mistakes of the day:

1)      Try and reason with the unreasonable. Seriously stop it.

2)      Let the dog have a green olive. Big mistake.

3)      Watch the move “Killers”. Seriously Ashton Kutcher, stop it.

4)      Give myself green olives

5)      Wait this late to post on the blog

Happy Flag Day

Today I took a flight with my good friend Ron.

Today I took a flight with my good friend Ron. This is a flight that was memorable for more reasons than I really care to go into today. Suffice it to say for now we were ferrying the plane to a small airport with a tree lined displaced runway.

The weather was cloudy, windy and colder than it was supposed to be.

On a base turn to final I was both a little high and, like my heart beat, a little fast.

Ron: “ I would use two notch of flaps”

Me:  “ I know it is windy.”

Watching my speed, decent rate and the crab against the quartering wind I could see the displacement on the runway. Dropping below the tree line the wind changed measurably.

Me: “ I am going the third notch”

 This had a familiar reassuring effect dropping my speed almost immediately and slightly pitching the nose down. I could feel my heartbeat steady and the plane came closer to the ground. The rudder pedals needed less of my attention allowing me to concentrate on the runway filling my windscreen. Pulling back at just the right time continues to be something I can never fully describe. I goosed her down and contact with the ground was as light as an angel’s breath on the back of my neck. The set of circumstance that lent me control gravity, speed and mass at the same time… brilliant.

Ron:  “Good Job”

Me: “That… was a good landing.”

Me, over the com : “Six two whiskey back taxiing on two seven …”

Thanks to Ron for all the help today, and over all the years I have been flying.

Nosey neighbor

These two little guys were really interested in my dealings this morning.

Cool Gear: The Hover Bike

Mark this day.
This is the day when cool gear has reached its pantheon.
What you see here is the hover bike. You can read more about it *here* but really this is all you need to know.
I want one. I want one. I want one.
When I saw it I… I wanted one. Later I thought about it I wanted it more. Much later I was still thinking about it… I wanted it more.
I goes over 170 mph, 10,000 feet and screams awesome.  Sure the Girl thinks I’m nuts but lets face it, I am. Hell I even kind of like the way she doesn’t even sugar coat it. The Hover bike is awesome. Sure its not out yet, but it will be. If not I will just make one. I am not kidding, I will have one.
Is this the future of travel? Maybe. I will I have one? Definitely.
PS: I thought about it some more: I want one.

Me thinks the gods might be angry

 Me thinks the gods might be angry after all.

Chile's volatile volcanoes.

Treehenge

Tanner looks down, as we approach 4 trees that I like to call Treehenge at a park near the house.
Really it is a misnomer of sorts as really it reminds me of four trees coming together for a meeting like stalwart solders caught in time in the moment of the approach from the four corners of the earth.

I am not sure why other then they are roughly in the N-S-E-W orientation. I am not sure how old they are or what kind of trees they are but I am sure they have seen a lot of things over the years making me wonder what they came together to discuss in the first place.

It was hot today and the sun may have been angry...

It was hot today and the sun may have been angry but no one can dispute it was spectacular sunset .

The sun

Lyle the legend

Just down the road from "camp" Lyle N has his "Pancake Lodge". He is a woodsman in every respect of the word and a local legend.  He is a logger/woodworker by trade but at 78 he is now a full time character. Here he is making us breakfast on his wood stove in a lodge he built himself from the forrest that was around us. Pancakes, bacon, real maple syrup, sausage ... yum.   We had to sign in his book but the food and the tall tales were priceless. Thanks Lyle!

You betcha!

Actual license plate we witnessed today.
You betcha!

Fishing day two.

Today was beautiful. 
Today was also brutal.
My trolling motor was stolen at the gas station. That was nice.
Then it was very nice weather, but practically fishless.
All we managed to catch today was a sunburn.
Still it was beautiful.

Fishing

Getting away isn't always what its cracked up to be. Catching nice size walleye while your friends look on in jealously pretty much is.

At the bridge.

At the bridge.

On the way up north.

Heading up to the UP to do a little fishing.