Morning Drive and Ride

This morning I had planned on joining a large group ride leaving from the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Cartersville, GA. About 50 or so riders were going to get together and ride the same 48-mile route as the Cartersville "Beautiful Backroads Century" with a stop at a convenience store at the halfway point. Rides like this are routinely scheduled on holidays, and someone decided that the day before Halloween was close enough to a holiday to use it as an excuse for a ride.

Nighttime flying

Last weekend we wanted to fly up to northern Kentucky to visit relatives. In order to make a Sunday morning departure a bit easier I decided to move the plane to a closer airport on Saturday evening. At the same time I thought it would be a good opportunity to get in some night landings.

FAA rules require me to have at least 3 night time landings in the past 90 days in order to carry passengers at night. As we all know, once is an accident and twice is coincidence. So obviously I will be infinitely safer after three repetitions than after two. Well, at least that's what the FAA believes.

Music in the Theater

Now that I have a nice home theater with a wonderful sound system, I like to use it for more than just watching movies. I don't have an extensive music collection: about 375 discs containing around 3400 tracks. But I really like what I have, and I find this music most enjoyable when it is being reproduced as accurately as possible. It is nice to be able to listen to a symphonic performance and feel as if I was there. It's great to listen to a jazz recording and be able to aurally place each instrument and voice. And of course I like the driving bass I hear from my collection of rock music.

The new road bike

Yes this one is actually new! After a year of using the Cannondale I decided that it is too big for me. Last August the local bike shop put all their 2010 models on clearance, so I purchased one. My new bike is a Specialized Allez Elite. It is a 20-speed with a "compact double" chainring (34/50) on the front and a 12-27 cassette on the back. I was a bit concerned going from the triple chainring that's on my Cannondale to a double, but after riding this new bike for awhile I like the double better. I can still climb all the same hills and I don't have any of the issues that a triple can cause while shifting.