Commercial Items Identified on my Commute

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I see a lot of interesting commercialitems on truck on I-75. When you make the commute many times you start to see the same items over and over again. Sometimes it is huge equipment tires, sometimes heavy equipment of different types. I see these huge blocks of aluminum going North. I think about what the mill must look like and where it is going. And how much aluminum foil a block like this will make. Using the Tesla Full Self-Driving (supervised) allows me to look for these things on the highway. The FSD also helps me through the crazy stop and goes. Easily over 70MPH and then sudden traffic at dead stops, frequently. I see accidents every trip. It is amazing there aren't more. A side note- aluminum foil has a shiny side and a dull side. The reason why is that the foil is folded as it goes through massive rollers. The shiny side is the side that faces the steel roller. The dull side faces itself - aluminum.
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I am back from Atlanta. We won the annual CIDM Rare Bird award in regards to our XML process development! The award is great, but feeling that you deserve it is the greatest part.

I am in the hospital waiting room in Binghamton. Bonnie is under general anesthisia for the sound wave lipotripsy to breakup the remaining large kidney stone. Hopefully it works. I am not sure how long it is going to take.

I haven't had a flying lesson this week. I will be going up this coming week. I have been studying the sectional charts looking for interesting cross-country trips. The plan is the same as it has been, to accomplish a first-solo this year. After that I haven't made any commitments, but the natural thing to do is the required cross-country solos, written exam, build hours, take a oral exam and check flight. It takes a minimum of 40 hours for the private pilot license. I will have many more than that most likely. Getting comfortable in the air is not as easy as it is for some folks, but man-o-man, I have come a long-long way in a short time. It is a great feeling to be in control and confident when you are landing a plane. I have a ways before I am consistantly confident there.

Since I have a decent internet connectivity here, blogger now accepts video and I have some files (since I am using my personal laptop) I am posting a short video I took last year on the ice. The guy on the right in the red parka is Allan Ashworth. They just named a Glacier after him. I was lucky enough to spend time with him.

I am also working on the Antarctica Ham Radio project as I sit here.

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