Chazd's (Charles Dowdell's) News Burps

Soon it will be 2009. Aren't we supposed to be living on the moon by now, at least? I will be heading up to Rochester. I may be headed up to Canada to look at a firewood processor some guy has for sale too. I will be in Chicago the 9th through the 12th for work and then later in the month out in Ohio to pick up some new farm equipment. A neighbor had a house fire on Christmas. This guy is always doing something, from working on a boat to cars to outboards to minibikes. I would always check out his latest project as I drove by. Now he is busy sorting through and tearing down. I hope he replaces with something nicer looking than what he was living in. Either way it was clearly a tragedy for the family. I ran 5k yesterday in 23:30. That made me feel pretty good. I am on target for my fitness goal.

My truck can sure get dirty this time of year. In my neighborhood we used pulverized shale on the roads to aid traction. It really makes a mess.

Another Christmas has come and gone. I am looking for purpose. I cooked a 14 lb turkey in an old pressure cooker. What a way to go! Put your deep fryers away and get out the pressure cooker. It took an 1 hour and 15 minutes to absolutely cook the slightly frozen bird. The meat just fell off the bones. It was pretty unbelievable.

It is the day before the day before Christmas. I have my orange tree adorned nicely. Here is a great article about something that is basically mind-blowing for folks who don't work in nano-technology. We can see that there is a theme that these different technology trends really move fast without popular media noticing... up to a point. This one is one that will tip the scale of nano-technology becoming mainstream. It is genius on many levels, the technology itself, the metaphorical content, the extremes. The worlds smallest car. There are 60 carbon atoms per wheel! The Nanocar The turkeys took a walk by today.

I went to the Salvation Army the other night, both for donation and shopping. It was a refreshing experience around the holidays. It was illuminating seeing all the clothes and stuff that had been donated. There was a lot of stuff to be sure. It helped me remember and put in place all the excess of our society. People today get what they need not what they want. I know it doesn't always seem like that all the time, but the fact of the matter is that our society is very affluent and is excessive even at the Salvation Army. It was quite nice to see the efforts of folks trying to better themselves and the facilitation of goodwill without a single "Merry Christmas" or item of the commercial blitz that begets the normal holiday culture of which we are all immersed. Christmas in Antarctica helped me see the overload we are subjected to in our normal lives.

My website was down for a couple of days. My domain registration lapsed; Yikes! I had changed email addresses and I forgot I had a a different domain registrar than the hosting company and I didn't update my email address with the registrar. Well, after I got the name servers figured out it was back. It has been cold out. It got down to zero the other night. DJ and I went for walk in the full-moonlight the other evening. It was cold. We saw shooting stars. One looked like it was only a few thousand feet away! It looked more like fireworks than a shooting star. It was close! I guess shooting stars have to land somewhere; why not Berkshire? The flame went out before it hit the ground, but it wasn't that high up. Dress for the cold and it is a lot of fun outside this time of year. There is a lot to see and it helps keep you grounded on your natural environment. The mean rooster went for a ride recently. He was dubbed "Roto-Rooster". The idealic winter scene is the

Winter is here. It has been cold, windy and the days have been microscopically short. It is hard to be optimistic with shortening days, cold and holiday season pressure. It is what I do though. It has been said the difference between achievers and non-achievers is that the non-achievers see a setback as a permanent condition and the achiever has a much more optimistic outlook and believes the setback is temporary. I believe that fact to be true. If you were a wild animal and you had to choose between being an optimist and a pessimist which would you choose to increase your chances of survival? I turned in all the paperwork to become a Distinguished Toastmaster today. This is the highest level of achievement in the organization (well it used to be). Hopefully I can get up in the air this weekend. My last lesson was tough. I had a lot of wind shear and a nasty crosswind. It was bumpy and variable winds. I need to know how to fly in bad weather too. It helps understand why you don'

It has been a while. I must be slipping. I drove up to Rochester and back twice to ferry my Mom. Generally, the driving was terrible. I saw a few nasty accidents and I forgot to take photos. I am not sure what I was thinking. I had my camera. No excuses. I ran into my old friend Dave Schnsing at Wegmans and went out to visit his new farm in Macedon. They bought Maiers Mud Acres farm and we have software engineer turned farmer. They have apples, bakery, a road stand market and some nice fields. It looked like a lot of fun. It is definately something to keep your brain occupied. http://www.maiersmudacres.com/ Thanksgiving was quiet, nice and quiet. My flying occupies quite a bit of my thinking. It is such a positive activity. It is incredible to see the changes in myself. I see why people say, "it is the most fun you can have with your clothes on."