April 1999

April 29, 1999

It is our 4th wedding anniversary today! We went out for dinner!
Today I went to Hillsborough County for a meeting, Chitester may be farming me out to the County again, this time for 7 to 12 months! I will be acting as the Director of their pavement maintenence program.

April 25, 1999

Denise had a good time at her surprise birthday party yesterday, Amy had sent a book, Denise’s parents came up and several of Denise’s co workers came over.

Today Denise and Nathan entered the St. Anthony’s Triathlon!!! The pictures below are of Denise and Nate, and Chuck and Theresa Loiselle, then Denise half way through her 26 mile run (after their 1 mile swim and before their 6 mile run!). Last Nate as he is finishing! He beat his mom by 10 minutes, Denise beat her last year’s time by an hour!!!

April 18, 1999

I will let Donald have the floor:

   Hi everyone, and John go ahead and put this on the web page.
   Not much new to report from the West Coast.  The weather certainly
changed quickly, though.  Last week we were in the normal wet winter pattern
with most mornings in the low 30’s.  All of a sudden a gigantic high
pressure system covered the western part of the country and this week we
have had clear days that reached into the low 90’s.
   The kids are fine.  Stephen is having a great time playing with his
friends in a large fort that they built in the back yard.  He has never
spent so much time outside.  Last week he was trying to get his mom to let
them have a bonfire.  Stephanie is looking forward to debate camp this
summer and applying to college next fall.  The big news for her is her new
car.  We found a nice ’95 Ford Contour and I bought it because Stephanie
isn’t legally able to.  She is making monthly payments to me and should have
it paid off by next August.  She is very proud of it and is taking good care
of it.  She plans to keep it through college.
   My big news is about hang-gliding again.  With the weather better I’ve
been able to get in a few good lessons flying my Vision Mk-IV.  Yesterday I
started flying off the 300-ft. level, which, like flying off each
incremental level was very exciting.  The higher altitude gives you a nicer
view and more time to perform maneuvers and even look down on the spectators
and other pilots as you fly over them.  I should have 2 or 3 more lessons to
get my Hang 2 rating and then lessons will be over and I will be flying off
the 600-ft. and 1700-ft. levels getting practice towards my Hang 3.  I have
sent John a photo which shows the state park where I fly now.  He should be
putting it on the web site.
   I told John in a phone call today that I have 3 long-term hang-gliding
goals.  One is to fly over Yosemite valley.  When you reach Hang 4 you can
fly there, and even though there are no thermals it should be a nice glide
(a ‘sledder’ in HG parlance).  The second goal is to reach 10,000 ft. on
thermals.  This seems high but it is not terribly unusual, my instructors
often fly 14,000 – 16,000 feet.  The world record is over 30,000 feet with a
foot-launched glider.  The third goal is to get 100 miles on a cross-country
flight.  The world record is around 700 miles flown along the western
canyons from west-Texas.  I have no idea if I’ll reach these goals but if I
continue at the rate I’m going I could reach them within a couple of years.
I hope I have the time to continue this sport, I’m having fun and have met
some nice people.

All for now,
   Don

A site in Florida where you can fly:
http://www.wallaby.com


   This is a photo over the gliding site where I fly now, although I’ve
never been this high.  The site is called Ed Levin Park.  At the bottom of
the picture you can see eight or ten (tiny-looking) gliders.  This is where
I set up my glider for the lessons I take.  To the right of the gliders is
the landing zone.

Don

Picture Attachments:

April 15,1999

We ran the 5K race in Tampa last night, then went out for pizza. Nathan came in in 23 minutes (fastest in our group!), Denise in 33minutes (second fastest woman), and I came in in 40 minutes, the same as last year.

April 13, 1999

We were having so much trouble with Denise’s computer crashing while we were playing “Lords of the Realm” that I decided to FDISK it and reformat it. Guess what, it crashes every time I try to load either WINDOWS 98 or WINDOWS 95 – with SUWIN causing an application error (General Protection Fault)! I am on my 4th fdisk (varying between 2 and 4meg each time). Anyone have any ideas? (Other than get a new hard drive!). I am now in the middle of a surface scan to see if any sector is bad…. No luck, am going to try NT instead. THAT WORKED!

Nathan earned an extra $40 Sunday so he bought us the game “Civilization: Call to Power”. It looks quite complicated!

Tomorrow is the big race for the office We have a 5K race downtown then pizza afterwords!

April 11, 1999

This morning we slept in, then went to IHOP for breakfast…how decadent!

We have our plane tickets for the big shindig in New Hampshire this August. We will be arriving in Manchester Saturday, August 7 at 11:27AM on US Air flight 3756 for the party that night. We will stay with Denise’s sister Anne for a few days but have no fixed plans from there, other than a flight back on Friday, August 20 at 6AM. We want to see and do everything, and sit still and do nothing. Somewhere in between is where we will end up I guess!

Amy says she and Darren got inline rollerskates! She also has had a rental car for three weeks, hers had been in two accidents–not with her in it though, thank goodness. She has a new Palm Pilot III and loves it! She has a map of the city on it, her shopping list, etc. Now Denise wants one for her birthday. Guess they do have their place!

My sister Sue has her hands full with dogs, pigs, chickens, beef cattle,…….and a wedding next Saturday, and Al off to help a cousin who had his back broken. The cousin walked into his silo and the corn which had formed a crust broke free and fell on him.

April 10, 1999

We had anticipated going out in the boat this weekend but Denise decided she wanted to start getting ready for the 3.1 mile run this Wednesday. She ran 3.5 miles last night after work (with me beside her on a bike) then we both biked it (total 7 miles for me). Then today (Saturday) Denise, Nate and I went for a 27 mile bike ride. We stopped in Clearwater at Roger Bansemer’s art show. Really nice! You can check out Roger’s home page by using the link on the left. Denise left for a party with her friends so Nate and I will have a game of “Lords of the Realm”.
The two doctors wanted a center cockpit, electric winches, and all the amenities, not a racer cruiser like ours! So, we keep Flight Deck for a while longer!

April 8,1999 .

Hope everybody had a great Easter. We have been busy, out on the boat at every opportunity. Denise heard about a couple of doctors who want a boat. They are coming tonight to look over Flight Deck.

Denise has been working hard, she has put in 46 hours this week so far (in three days!). I cannot keep up that pace! I have been in court testifying for our client. What a rush! The opponent attorney set five mental traps for me and even tried to get my testimony striken! He did a good job for his client but I OUTSMARTED HIM AND SURVIVED!

Thanks for the e-mail and well wishes!
Happy birthday Karen Groom!