Posts from — August 2005

Hi. It’s been a while. Rest assured, I am alive and well. But my lack of presence online and an untimely email outage actually led my friend John to think I actually was dead.

I’m not. I’m alive. And busy. My last post was about my trip to the Oshkosh airshow. Since then, here’s what’s been goin’ on:

I passed the LEED accreditation exam, so now I am now a LEED accredited professional, or LEED A.P. If you want to talk about stormwater runoff management, or, say, innovative wastewater technologies, or perhaps the amount of operable windows you need for every 200 feet of perimeter space (space being defined by that zone within fifteen feet of the perimeter of the building envelope) to achieve a certain LEED credit, I’m your guy, for now. In actuality, studying for this exam was a great way to get myself immersed in all the myriad ways that sustainable design consultants have an impact on the building design process (and I guess is why my boss urged me to take the exam).

I went to Montreal to attend the fourth annual Radiance Workshop, a gathering of Radiance geeks that is always inspiring, and as the years go by becomes more of a reunion to boot. Discussing the new additions to Radiance code, seeing the many ways people are using this remarkable pile of code, sharing beers and stories, looking over the shoulder of my peers as they render/compile/tweak something, is something that every Radiance wonk needs to experience. Oh, and the smoked meat sandwiches still kick major ass (Brenda & I spend a long weekend in Montreal about six years ago and loved it).

Brenda and Emma arrived in Boulder a week and a half ago, and that was everything you’d expect it to be. Brenda & I did the jump-in-your-arms embrace like you see in the movies, and Emma — once she figured out that the three of us were back together, and she was not going into the car for another 10-hour jaunt — has settled right back into her routine and is happy as ever.

Earlier this week I entered a pact with the devil, buying a bike made out of aluminum, and I hate it. I plan on returning it, but the replacement bike that has my eye is another aluminum-framed bike, and worse, it has a carbon fiber rear triangle. But it is at least made in Italy, and it has skinny tires like a bike is supposed to have. More on this later.

My mom got a new knee yesterday, and the surgery went well. But talking to her and my sister after the surgery really brought home the separation, the mileage between us. As we roll on toward the holiday season I’m sure the miles will present more challenges.

We put an offer in on a townhouse here in Boulder last night. We’ll see how that goes. It’s likely to get busier around here pretty soon.

Well, I’m back. Been back, in fact. But I spent three great days at the greatest airshow & aviation event in the world (and then a day wondering just how in the hell we managed to screw up commercial air travel so wholly and completely).

— Seeing my New Jersey pilot pals again

— Warbirds, including a one-of-a-kind P-51B modified with a dual cockpit; five B-17s; a P-47; Corsairs; at least 25 Mustangs; a modified twin Beech bomber trainer; and several Sabrejets.

— Seaplane pilots corn roast dinner on the first night.

— Drunken stroll through the airport after dark, following aforementioned corn roast dinner (excellent hilarious pictures unpublishable).

— Homebuilts. It was in 2003 when I was first exposed to the amazing workmanship of the homebuilder community, and the possibilities of building your own airplane. This year was a confirmation that this is what I need to be doing, someday.

— F-15 flybys during Chuck Yeager’s lecture

— Chuck Yeager’s lecture, wherein he praised da president’s work on the so-called war against terror, “despite what the stupid Democrats say”; the derogatory comment getting a chillingly warm reception.

— Harrier demos. I get it. It goes straight up. But does it have to be so friggin’ loud?

— My flight(s) home, with the attendant standby cattlecalls, ridiculous TSA patdowns (Hey Chuck, when was the last time YOU flew commercial, anyway?!?) and unbelievable travel times.

— The realization that I am a lousy photographer of airshows. It’s actually pretty hard to get a lot of what I wish to document with a basic camera; planes are large and often fast, and both attributes make it difficult to capture certain scenes without special equipment. But I got a few winners, and I will post them soon.