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Showing posts from January 8, 2006

100 and Done! (Countries that is...)

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We are back! This last trip brought the total countries visited to 100! It is a crazy milestone. It is difficult, time-consuming and can be (IS) expensive. After I got back from Antarctica in 2007, I started thinking about it. After 2010 I was thinking about it more (as I moved from NY to Georgia) and in 2014 it had become a real goal. Between Angie and I we have been to 109 Countries. We are tied at 100 countries each. We have 9 countries different in our lists. For example, I have been to San Marino. She has not. She has been to Israel. I have not, yet. There has been some fun competition in this area. That's why we had to establish rules. 1.) Must be listed (as a country) with the US State Department 2.) Being in an airport doesn't count. You have to get through immigration somehow and not in a DMZ or a no-mans-land 3.) A passport stamp is not required. I have been to Canada, Paraguay, and Uruguay without getting my passport stamped. There are friendly borders in many places...
It is windy tonight as a front comes through. Today I went to the Marathon NY hamfest. I got there at 5:30 AM, stayed 'til noon. I sold most of my stuff and brought back less than I went with. I had a long talk with the guy who gets to clean out labs at Cornell; he has some nice stuff. I am now having a special sale on adhesive tapes of all kinds. It was good to catch up with the guys. My brother is back in Tanzania this week. I thought of a quote tonight. "If you or I lived in paradise, would you or I recognize it as paradise?" If this was the theme of a speech, the title of the speech would be "Lost from before your eyes." Life is good. Drive fast. Your mileage may vary. All standard disclaimers apply. This is what we train for.
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Weird, Wild, stuff, as they used to say in the old days. I hope it is not copyrighted. This is a pic of the (best we can figure) of a reflection of the moon in the jeep. It had absolutely freaked Bonnie and I out. We were having a fine day day and we saw a weird "glow" from around the jeep. It looked like a cell phone or some "LED encrusted electronic bling"... It was the moon. This one UFO confirmed and explained in Berkshire NY. Take a close look at the pic. Lighten it up; see if you can see the jeep. I have not tried, but in person it was clear it was not the same color as most stuff you see on the farm at night.
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Franklin and Denise are in from Texas this weekend. There isn't much snow on the ground so we can get around back in the woods with the jeep and the tractor pretty well. I am getting firewood still, although it gets processed in the barn since I don't want to have to dig it out of the snow if we get a storm. I am getting noticeably more capable with my exercises. I am getting stronger in leg and arm as well as cardio. Once I run for half an hour I don't want to stop. Watching TV while I run on the treadmill I enjoy "Monarch of the Glen"(BBC). It is somewhat confusing why that show or why I like the show, but I do. It is basically a soap opera. Maybe that the show does not have the commercial intervals as American TV makes the difference. American TV is getting even more commericals. I think the longest stretch is 8 minutes of program these days. I am taking my Ham radio test to upgrade to "Amateur Extra" on January 30th. You get more frequency bands on ...