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Showing posts from June 27, 2010

Upper Peninsula Michigan and Auction Win Outcomes

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I was up in Wisconsin and the UP (upper peninsula) in Michigan. It was a lot of driving after launching/landing in Appleton WI. I got an item off the bucket list by driving across the "Mighty Mac". Altough it was built in the late '50s. It is still the longest suspension span in the Northern hemisphere. It is a crazy long bridge with a crazy long suspension span. It was good to see the bridge in context of the seemingly endless forests of Northern Wisconsin and Michigan. The culture in the two haves of Michigan are noticibly different as you might expect. Great time meeting with folks both in WI and MI. The tractor I won in auction, seems to have paid off. This time I beat the odds. It was a really good deal. I have the "no-key, non-running, may have hydraulic problems, unknown hours" -auction win, running well with minimal cost and time. I have some more tweaks, maintenance and minor fixes but the major risks are gone.
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I have an apartment in Duluth. What a great deal. It is a 1050 Sq feet with a wood burning fireplace in between the den and living room, washer, dryer, exercise room, gated community, swimming pool all for 713.00 a month. I chickened out on buying a place on the lake right away. There appeared to be good deals in this market, but I still have to learn more. I snapped this on a 777 aircraft the other day. Some people will bring anything on as a "carry on."
I was woke up last night about 1:00 AM. There appeared to be a party going on in the room next door. It wasn't totally loud. There wasn't any banging on the walls or anything. But it did wake me up and I didn't really get back to sleep for the rest of the night. When I went down for breakfast I noticed a "do not disturb" sign on my neighbors door. I was thinking these folks don't need that. So, I took it with me.
Here is a poem, sent to me, worthy of repeating. "Designed to Fly" by Ellen Waterston After ten hours of trying the instructor undid my fingers, peeled them one by one off the joystick. "You don't need to hold the plane in the air," he advised. "It's designed to fly. vA hint of aileron, a touch of rudder, is all that is required." I looked at him like I'd seen God. Those props and struts he mentioned, they too, I realized, all contrived. I grew dizzy from the elevation from looking so far down at the surmise: the airspeed of faith underlies everything. Lives are designed to fly.
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I drove down to Florida over the weekend to visit with my Mom and Sister. I purposely retraced some of the roads I used a long time ago. I rode my KZ400 motorcycle to Florida alone 30 years ago (almost to the day). The roads looked a lot the way I remembered them. Although there were more fancy houses and Dollar General stores. The roads commonly had that "go on forever" look and drove into the vanishing point of tall trees. And yes, I did get a speeding ticket from a local sheriff.