I had to get my first tank of gas in my bike today. The main ran out at about 135 miles, and I had at least a 5 mile reserve (before I found a gas station). So, at 140 miles, I put in 2.865 gallons of gas, giving me 48.8 MPG.
I'm sure I'm not the most efficient at shifting yet, so I think I can get that to 55 with more experience. Still, much better than the 13 MPG my truck is getting!
My flight home last night from DC was on one of Frontier's brand new Airbus 320s. While they didn't have any onboard TV this week, that was not the problem I'm talking about! We had to make an emergency landing in St. Louis because of cabin pressurization problems.
We were wondering if the oxygen masks were going to deploy, or if our eardrums were going to burst! Apparently, the cabin pressure kept climbing after the pressurization controller failed. The captain said it got to 9000 feet of pressure, and the the masks wouldn't have deployed until it reached 14,000 feet. I don't know what the standard pressure is for a normal flight.
The pilot was very professional and got us information quickly and had the plane on the ground in 15 minutes. I can only imagine the coordination that had to happen to get us down that fast! After a 30 minute repair and an hour of paperwork, we safely finished the flight back to Denver.
I still don't really like takeoffs in this new plane. It feels like the plane is a little soft or shifty in the tail.
May the road rise with you.
Happy St. Patrick's Day! I found several wonderful Irish blessings here today: http://islandireland.com/Pages/folk/sets/bless.html.
We watched Patriot Games on Saturday (sans kids), and watched Riverdance this morning. We tried in vain to find a copy of The Quiet Man, but nobody carries it anymore! What's the deal with that? It's one of the most classic Irish movies to watch on St. Patrick's Day, IMO! We ordered from Amazon but won't get it until Friday.
A funny side note: The kids won't watch Darby O'Gill and the Little People, because the Banshee scares them. I think it's fun to see Sean Connery early in his career!
We're planning to have Corned Beef and Cabbage and Irish soda bread (sans caraway) for dinner tonight. Caileigh has been taking Irish dance from McTeggart Irish Dance studio (http://www.mcteggart.com/) for a few months now, but wasn't quite ready to march in the St. Patrick's parade in Denver on Saturday with her troupe.
May your day be touched by a bit of Irish luck, brightened by a song in your heart, and warmed by the smiles of the people you love.
A friend sent me the following, and I totally agree. The recent decision by Orwellian, er, California judges frightens the living daylights out of me. An extremely dangerous precedence to be setting:
A California Court of Appeal recently decided that homeschooling is illegal in California unless the parent is a certified teacher. This was a decision made in secrecy under the guise of juvenile protection. It was a result of one specific family accused of abusing the system - whether they were are not I don't know - however the three presiding judges decided that all home schooling in the state going forward would be illegal.
When you consider this along with the November 2005 ruling Fields v. Palmdale School District, you have a government that says they can, and will, take your children for six hours a day and teach them whatever they want, and we as parents have no legal right to participate in or influence their education.
I don't need to go into how this effects us in other states. We need to fight this no matter what state you're in. Whether you deal directly with home schooling in your family or not, this is an egregious attack on our liberties. Please visit the links in this email to educate yourself on the issue. If you have a fast internet connection, listen to Dr. Dobson and his guests on today's show where they explain the issue in detail.
Finally, please sign this petition at the Home School Legal Defense Association's web site. If accepted, it will limit the scope of this decision to just the one family initially involved in the case rather than punishing the 200,000 home schooling families in California. They also want signatures from those outside California to show the outrage extends beyond their state.
Please forward this email to others, and lets put a stop to this nonsense.
