This is the online journal of Charles Dowdell. www.theguysatwork.com charlesdowdell at gmail.com
Monday, October 11, 2021
We are back in Georgia this week. I gave an eulogy at my Father's memorial last week. I am very glad I was able. I will not be at the interment.
I made something I wanted to make for many years. It is simple and practical and there are no decent commercially available options. It is a spray paint can shaker. Very convienient, screwed to the side of one of my work benches.
Angie and I flew to South Carolina for fun. The little plane that landed after me has a tail number ending with "DE". That is for Dale Ernhardt. Look close and you can see the signature on the tail.
The Joro spider has made it's grand debute in our back yard. At first I confirmed the spiders were Joros with the University of Georgia. The first picture was confirmed as a juvenile female. The second picture I grabbed off the net showing what they're really like---large and very scarey. Their appearance is one thing, but there are other notable characteristics. The webs are large, deep and sticky. They are considered 3-D. They have facets of typical spiral webs all connected. The size is immense compared to other spiders around here in North Georgia. The web can easily span 10 or more feet. The filiments are incredibly strong and clingy. You find out how strong the filiments are when you walk into them. For additional amusement, the Joro's webs are often built at human face level. Yes, that's right. That big scarey spider in a large gooey web (built overnight) at face level just right for walking into. Great experience. These Joros are proliferating at a great rate. They are pretty much everywhere. I bought spray just for them. I have killed dozens and dozens.
Wikipedia I updated Wikipedia with my pic and the correction about the size of the webs.
To give you a better idea of the Joro webs and spiders, I took the first pic zoomed way in. You can see the web about 100 feet away with the naked eye. And the second pic is what I found in the middle. Just getting a pic of a spider web is difficult let alone from 100 feet away. The web traverses about 3 meters. Leaves get tangled in these webs they are so strong.
I havent blogged in awhile. No reason, just doing other things. Fall weather has been a great relief here in Duluth. The summer seemed hotter, more humid and had more bugs than usual. I have been flying more, logging simulated instrument time "under the hood" doing approaches. Instrument flying (IFR) is quite a bit different than VFR (Visual). As I was told many years ago: VFR flying is a lot more emotion and feeling whereas instrument flying is a lot more about thinking.
Last week with diamond chainsaw cuts. The window looked like this. This week with new entrance door. It felt good to get that completed. I make plans in my head and I am tormented/tortured until there're done. Often times it is years. The only way to get rid of it is to sell the property. The issue is the torture only starts again in a different place, different projects.
I really like this Youtube. It is especially nice watching the layers of emotion and facial expresions morph. We are all different... yet the same. Beautiful is most appropriate. We are herding animals no doubt. Lets get over it, whatever it is.
I was sitting in my office working this afternoon and a bright light shone through the window. It got my attention. In further investigation it was not the sun. It was the news that Cuomo had resigned. A great day for us all. The Cuomo crime family may be on the break up.
It is a shame that Cuomo gets to resign on sex abuse charges likley avoiding criminal charges, not only on the sexual abuse, but also manslaughter of nursing home patients and other crimes he has commited against people of Upstate NY. We can only hope that it is not some high-tech plea-deal or elitism that he will avoid investigations into indictment and conviction.
We won't miss you or the rest of your crime family.
I stopped an employee in the good Kroger awhile back. I said, "I had a question for you." and then I said, "I have seen you here in this store for over the 11 years that I have been coming here. How long have you been working here?"... he had an energetic response. "I love this place . Everything about it. The people, the managers. I have been working here over 30 years." I said, "Cool! Have a great day." He said, "have a great year!!"
We made a trip up to PA, NJ and the Farm in NY. We flew on a commercial plane for the first time in a year. No issues and not many surprises, some but not many. We rented a car in Philly and took it up to NY and back. The survey work is still not done on the farm. Almost funny, but not quite. I started on that in November 2020. They have now made 3 trips. The pins are still not set.
There is always something going on at my airport. Any of the events I go through in a week are generally nothing compared to a normal story of recent events in hanger flying. We hosted the 18 year old as he finished his flight to all lower 48 states in this piper cub. www.benflies.com
