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Showing posts from November, 2014

Road Trip

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I am back from my most recent roadtrip. I loaded up the Tesla and started letting the hands-off Full Self Drive (FSD) supervised take me to points North. First stopping in a campground in Tennesee and up to Pittsburgh for the CIDM Convex Conference (which was the best conference in years). There was a celebration of the 20 years of DITA XML. I was an earlier adopter. My presentation went well and I semi-stealth launched wisdomino. I demo'd some extra cool software we developed and will be selling in weeks to come. It's truely game changing. Of course, there will be much more than that to come. After that it was on to Franklin, PA. to meet with some colleagues in the mining division and onto the farm stopping in Olean NY for the night. I am pretty sure it was the first time I had driven across the entire Allegany National Forest. I ended up driving through the very dark forest expanse during a night time thunderstorm. Although I normally trust the Tesla FSD on the Interstat...
Anthony Powell's movie from Antarctica premieres on the big screens today in many US cities. It is debuting in Atlanta on Dec 12th. We will go see it, of course. Anthony is/was a colleague of mine on the Ice. We shared the same job. We did not work together in the same shop at the same time, but the same job different times. The movie trailer hit some nerves to be sure. It will all be very familiar to me. I will be able to name the mountains in the film, know what it is like to ride in all of those specific helos, and know the warmth of Big Red (the issued red parka) Movie Website The Youtube original short Youtube short
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We had a nice relaxing weekend even though it was a bit rainy and cold. I was in Columbus Ohio for a day or so. I drove by the restaurant I worked at many many years ago. The building is now a Pawn Shop. Being there in winter reminded me what it was like, cold. One of the neighbors houses burned the other day. The news said the resident barely escaped. I snapped the pic of the truck tires at a traffic light. I dont think the driver knew he had a flat even though he was carrying 6 large rooftop HVAC units. I didn't have the opportunity to warn him.
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Angie and I flew down to Florida for the day last Saturday. Visited with my Sister and Mom. We had the opportunity to visit the Galeon, San Pelayo from Spain. Much like visiting a cool rare plane. It is an artifact of travel! There is much going on as always. Angie and I also met with Jay Hakes an expert energy/information expert. I read his most recent book coming back from Europe last week. He is a refreshing voice saying that good policy requires thought. Also, we took a stand-up comedy class. We learned and laughed at the same time! We lit our first fire in the fireplace this week in Duluth. Nevertheless, the first fire of the year in Duluth is a lot different than that first fire in Berkshire. Plans for Ohio currently.
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We have a new kitty named Grace. Current animal count, 1 kitten.
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I am back from Bavaria. The pretzels (and other food) are good to be sure! I contested my real estate tax increase for the house in Duluth and I got an overall reduction. It pays to engage on these matters.