Great Flight Today

A friend of mine needed to get to Tofino, B.C. today. It's a hundred miles or so up the coast of Vancouver Island. He had meetings for a school board he sits on, and usually gets a float plane to fly him there out of Vancouver. This time of year no one does the flight, however, so he very subtly asked if I knew anyone who might possibly be able to get him out there... etc. I am indebted to this person as a real mentor in non-profit affairs, so I was very glad to repay part of the total by doing this for him.

It turned out to be one of the most spectacular flights I've ever done.

We left Seattle for Victoria at 11. When we landed, I called customs without even shutting down the engine; I knew it was likely we'd be cleared through without a visit from an agent. Sure enough, it all happened in about 45 seconds, and we took off again and headed down around the south end of the island, over Victoria, and away to the remote west.

We stayed at 1,500 feet the whole way - just under the cloud deck, and we could smell the ocean. We got to Tofino about 1:15, and got out and met the local dog Clay, talked to a mechanic working on an old Beaver. He told us they had water problems, and we should go pee in the bushes. We did, I left my friend standing on the tarmac, and I got under way. Home by 3:15.

Pics below. What a spectacular flight.

Maybe 40 miles south of Tofino, this lighthouse stood out like true civilization.
click pic

This is a massive snow shower on the ocean. The dark thing on the right is, of course, the propeller.
click pic

Nothing between here and Japan.
click pic

Just spot after spot like this.
click pic

Lacking Subtlety

I was just at Thriftway, picking up a wedge of Forme d'aumbert and a promiscuous little bottle of red for dinner at a friend's tonight.

In the next line over from me is a woman in her 40s who looked like she'd just had a chemical peel, or a dermabrasion. But like it went a layer deeper than it should have done. It looked like if you just touched her face ever so gently, she might scream out.

There's a guy in line behind me. Salesman 55 year old looking guy in a plaid sport coat (yes, really) and a tag around his neck like he worked someplace where you needed tags. And out of the blue he looks over at this woman and says, loud enough for her to hear him 12 feet away, "Radiation poisoning?"

I froze. He must know her. He must.

"Wh-what?" she said back at him, kind of looking at her groceries but kind of looking scared.

"Radiation?" and he chuckled like it was a pretty good joke. "It just looks like you got too close to the microwave!"

What on earth is wrong with people?

She was quickly moving things about now. Trying to hide in her busy-ness.
"I have sunlight sensitivity."

"Ha! So you actually saw some? It's been pretty rainy lately."

"Yes. Uh... it doesn't take much. Just a little sun. I'm allergic." Paying quickly now. Trying to leave.

"Yeah, my eyes are like that if I stare at the sun. Huh huh - or it's a hangover."

I don't know. I just don't know.

I know movies are a matter of personal tastes, but...

Don't you just hate it when a preview compels you to rent a movie that turns out to be rotten?

When Ebert and Roper give it 'two thumbs up' on the cover...and it sucks.

When you get through the first half thinking, "well, it's got to get better - no movie can be this bad, right?" so you watch the whole thing... and it just remains bad to the end?

Well, I hate that too. And this movie is all those things. But worse.
click pic

Ridding the beach of a plague of seagulls.
click pic

Big wood.
click pic

N300VV
click pic