San Marvelous

Visited San Marcos, my old college stomping grounds this past week. I had not been back since September so it really was nice to see everyone and the town again, I miss that town and its great location.

I think I covered everything I wanted to do: Sewell Park, Frisbee Dan, Pedal Power, bike ride (York Creek loops), Valentino's, The Square, coffee shop, and much more. I stayed with Joe my good ol' riding buddy. I also stopped by my old apartment at Hillside Ranch and visited with Keith. My room was empty since Sheila had just recently moved out so that was pretty weird.

After San Marcos I headed towards Waco to shred some singletrack at Cameron Park. The last time I had ridden here I ripped my knee apart so it was good to come back and not get hurt. That trail is amazing and is really taken care of by the locals. Afterwards, I checked out Eric's little love shack and then we both headed back to Htown for the weekend.

Time Off in Htown

I am actually writing this from my new temporary home in Dayton, TN; a.k.a. the birthplace of the mullet. I will do a BLOG on this little town later, trust me.

Returned to Houston about a week ago for some time off. I believe I worked 37 days out in the field last time, on both sides of the nation, and many hotel rooms. I have like 20 hotel shampoo bottles, and I am sure they will come in handy one day. Did a lot of geocaching with my new receiver when I was back home. Eric and I found some sweet ones really close to my neighborhood which made it easy on E's tender little legs.







Then on the following day, I took Kerri B. out on her first geocaching adventure. Let's just say she wants me more now than ever.



Brian has become quite fond of geocaching as well so we headed out with his brother and Eric for little night geocaching this most recent weekend. When you add in a backpack full of beer and no map of the actual geocache site things can get pretty crazy. I recall running down Louetta, Cypresswood, and really high weeds. Some how we found most of the caches we set out for, night caching is definitely the bomb.com! OH, Brian picked me up a Travel Bug that I will put in another cache in Tennessee or Alabama, this particular cache originated in Germany and needs to get to Paris. However, it will have to hang out in Tennessee for a little bit.

GEOCACHING - The official website

Other than geocaching I had tons of fun back home. Attempted to plant a tree for Josh's pops, went to a bonfire at Kent's house in already 90 degree temps. EWF was in full effect at Hojos... twice. Had a parking lot reunion party behind Diamond Shamrock, where Andrew busted some old school muzik out like Three 6 Mafia. Had some fun with the newly rebuilt 1971 Schwinn Stingray Deluxe, and of course I had some good quality time with Mama and Papa Pace.

Pics from Corning and Above

A bird's eye view...




From down the road...




I hate when the pilot does this...




What? It was bright...

Flower Children

Today, I worked from 4:30am to 7:30pm, but I enjoy the work so I say, bring it on!! I have pictures from around the area I am staying in, but am too lazy to post them right now so hold your horses. Today we landed near Bethel, NY which happens to be where the original Woodstock took place. The pilot and I really wanted to check this out, but work would not allow. I think I could see it from the air, but there are tons of open fields around here so it may have been wishful thinking. I find it crazy fascinating, all the people, music, brain enhancers, love, peace, and flowers. It's hard to imagine the lines of cars and people along those back roads, and on top of that performers like Hendrix and Joplin. Anyways, the area is beautiful and the pics you see from the event don't justify the surroundings. I think I may go to Wyoming for work next. If it happens to be near Jackson, WY, bringing the bike will be a must.

Red Carpet Treatment

Every time we pull into regional airports which are a little bigger than your small airports like Hooks in Houston, they have these red pieces of carpet that some planes will get. Usually it's the corporate jets carrying "VIPS" and yuppies. As you would probably guess, I am infactuated by this and really get upset when we don't receive one when the plane parks. One time, I walked over and got my own but that is just not the same is being greeted with one. However, a few days ago we were greeted with one, and on top of that there was another guy directing us in with those awesome orange cone lights. Man, I felt cool climbing out of Charlie Foxtrot Victor Zula Mike...

Corning, NY

Moved West to Corning, NY last week. Corning meaning Corningware, meaning the makers of Corning Glass. This town pretty much centers around the huge Glass company. I visited the museum the other day and came out pretty impressed, they had glass dating back to the Roman years and further. Corning is actually a really cool, laid back town. The main attraction besides the glass giant is Market St., which is the town's historical section. The street has a variety of interesting shops and nice restaurants. I stopped off at this great little sandwich shop yesterday and had a vegetarian sub. They had a rather large vegetarian selection so I thought I should check it out. Today, I stopped off at a thrift store and purchased a $2 brown leather belt. Next I had a beverage at Soul Full Cup, the town's little coffee shop. I may go back tonight and check out this banjo, fiddle, and guitar trio.

On the other hand, we have been working like crazy. I have gone up in the plane for almost 5 days in a row. Yesterday, we flew at 8am for 2 hours and then 5pm for 6 hours. The data is flowing in! I heard that after all of this New York work is done, I can go home for a break. I am really looking forward to this and trying to plan a few things to do as well as catch up on a few things. I have been out for a month now and usually after 30 days you start thinking about home more and more.

New York, to my surprise, is a beautiful part of the country. For some reason I pictured it to be all residential and ugly. Since the only car we have up here is someone's personal car, I really don't have a car I can use. Which really stinks cuz I am really stuck, but I guess I will try and save the company a little mula since I am leaving soon. Instead, I lace up the running shoes and go exploring. I have really found some cool spots and trails doing this. And to get to town or the grocery store I walk, which is starting to get a little old. Oh well, life could be worse.

One Billion Seconds

Q: When was 1,000,000,000 seconds ago?

A: Roughly 1974

Media

Seriously, they were analyzing the width and material of the plane's propeller. The pilot made an incredibly stupid mistake. I have spent a lot of time in a small plane lately and have seen how detailed the pilots get with the whereabouts of the plane and how the traffic controllers need to know where you are at all times, especially near large cities. Even without a GPS display the pilot should have known he should not be able to see the White House from the sky. So, real dumb mistake.

However, could the media have made this a bigger deal? The guy was in the restricted zone for only a few minutes and the media went on all day long. I even saw some CNN guy on the nightly news flying around in a 142 Cessna explaining how it rides. They explain where all the important people go in an evacuation, the president's location, and the barometric pressure. The media has us believing all kinds of stuff, this media coverage is the end of us!!

Kingston, NY

Nothing too exciting to report from the field. Kingston isn't the most exciting town, so all I have been doing is running through the woods and sitting in my hotel room. We have actually gotten in some good missions between bad weather. Actually, today I was running down some dirt roads and about a mile in, I run into 2 cops sleeping in their cars. I don't know what kind of crime they were fighting in the middle of the woods, but it scared the crap out of me. Yesterday we flew for 6 hours and today looks like it could be a 3-4 hour mission. During the flight yesterday, the veteran surveying pilot was training a new guy. He was fine but half the time they were talking about their "emergencies" in a plane. I may be comfortable flying and I am not one to think about crashing to my death (most of the time). But joking and laughing about their near death experiences wasn't music to my ears. However, I figured out I can stick one headphone in one ear and jam to my Ipod while still listening to the pilot and myself. That was music to my ears.

Anyways, I was counting up the days I have been out here and it looks like I will be hitting 30 in a few days. Maybe I will be heading home in a week or two for a few weeks off. I haven't had a "real" break yet from the field so I am looking forward to some time off. I plan on doing a whole lot of nothing at home, but hopefully some cycling around my old college stomping/riding grounds.

My new future goal of the week is to run the Houston Marathon in January, qualify for the Boston Marathon, and run that in April. I figure this would go perfect with field work since I can run and train in different places. The reality of it is... I have to finish the Houston in under 3 hours 10 minutes. That's about a 7:00 min mile! Ouch. But as my Mom says, "If there is a will, there is a way".

Mr. Puskar

I recently made a quick trip back to Texas for a funeral. Not exactly the best circumstances but I really wanted to make it back in support of Josh and his family. Mr. Puskar, as most of you know, had been battling cancer for some time and early Monday morning lost that battle. The funeral was put together very nicely, and many friends and family came which I am sure made a difference to the family.

The neighborhood will never be the same without Joe working in his yard or in the garage. It seemed every time you passed their house he would be there doing something. He always was the first to decorate his house for the holidays and the last to take it down. In fact, the one holiday I will miss having him around is Thanksgiving. Not because of the turkey, but because every Thanksgiving Day Joe would spend the majority of the day putting up Christmas lights. I don't know why I remember that but I do. I even got the chance to have him as baseball coach in 7th grade. It was also nice to stop by the Puskar's house when back home from college. He would always jump off the couch and greet me and liked to find out what was going on with my life. Then Josh and I would go out for the night and return being a little too loud upstairs playing video games or whatever, and every time Mr. Puskar would wake up and yell at us, you could almost guarantee it. Growing up in the neighborhood he always was watching out for us and the other youngsters. He did not like people speeding down Woodsboro Dr. I remember one time he chased one guy down with a shovel who was flying down the street. I happened to be riding down the street at the same time and Mr. Puskar was definitely sticking up for me. Let's just say I will never forget him running passed me on my bike with a shovel and neither will the idiot who was speeding down the road. He was good guy and will be missed.

This is pic of Joe and Barbara on the cruise we all went on in Janurary...

Grupo de Awesome 2

Taylor sent a "professional" picture done of us from the Empire State Building. I think Brian is trying to re-emphasize where we are, or it could be some secret love sign to Mona. Tourists to the max!

Fantasy Giro de Italia

I know most of you chumps perfer Fantasy Baseball or Basketball, but this is where it's at. You get to build a team of 15 riders and then use 9 of them on each stage, whether it be a mountian, sprint, or time trial stage. The riders are fighting for points as well as the overall lead. So there are many things going on at once, which makes it better than you could ever imagine!!! It's the first Grand Tour followed by the Tour de France, so let this be a learning curve for the Tour de France.

All interested parties please go here ===> Fantasy Giro de Italia

Do Not Disturb

What does this mean to you? Does it mean, come on in and clean or does it mean don't come in and clean? Well, in the Rama Inn (formerly Ramada Inn) in Kingston, NY it means come on in. I literally left for 10 minutes with the sign up to fax something at the front desk and come back to a clean room. It worked out nicely b/c I do like my room cleaned everyday since my Mom does not live here, but put the sign up when I am here in the morning. Usually they open the door, stick their head in, knock, and then say "room service". I mean they have seen me in my boxers a few times already. I think I may just sit at the door all morning with my pants down and moon them when they bust in, that will teach them! Well with my butt they may keep coming back...