Some of My Friends

I am having a terrible time getting photos placed where I want them. I hope no one is offended by placement of their photos. Each time I add a new photo, it is added at the top of the group. I have been attempting to add text, then add photos, to go with the text, and am having marginal success. In the photo to the left, is Shankar, who works in the laundry at Speicher. If you look to the right, you can see the tube which contains my "VIEW" from my room. I decided Shankar might enjoy having a "VIEW" in his room, so I gave the poster to him.

The photo to the left here, is my friend Singa, who adopted me into his family. When I first met Singa, he had been assigned to serve Ice Cream at the DFAC for the day. He told me he thought I looked like someone from Mongolia, because of my facial features, and my jewelry. I've not met anyone from Mongolia yet, but current theory suggests the Native Americans came across the Bering Strait, and probably many would have originated in Mongolia. I've been told I appear to be Native American. When I was taking pictures of my friends, he told me he had a present for me, and gave me a Buddhist Prayer Shawl his family had given him as he was preparing to leave home to go work in Iraq. I was speechless, to say the least. I think the camera with the photo of Singa and I must have been over-exposed to the XRay machine during one of my passes thru Security at one of the airports I passed through on the way home. There will be some other photos that have similar red coloration on the edges.

This is (from left to right) Ganesh, Leslie, Me (duh) and Tikka! Leslie works in the KBR mailroom at Cob Speicher, and Tikka and Ganesh assist her in the process of getting the mail to the KBR employees. Leslie and I worked together in JMMT, until she was able to transfer away from JMMT into the KBR mailroom, which is part of the HR department at Speicher. She is the only person I know who was able to get away from JMMT without having to quit KBR to do it. They pick up the KBR mail at the Post Office, and take it to the KBR mailroom, sort it all, and make a list of the KBR employees who have mail. The list is then disseminated to all the departments of KBR sopeople will know they need to come pick up their mail.

Sunset Sledders and Life

Here are two photos of me on my hang glider. These were shot about a week ago. I still don't have any photos of me flying my paraglider since I got back. The sun was to the west, and is what is causing the glare on the top picture. I set up a little better on the lower picture, to put the sun behind "Crazee Mike" who shot these pictures for me. This was the second time I have flown my hang glider since I got back from Iraq.
I finally got the chance to fly my paraglider this evening, after nearly fourteen months without flying it. I'm about four hang glider flights to one paraglider flight since I got back from Iraq. I still prefer my hang glider to my paraglider when conditions would work for either one of the two, but I definitely did enjoy the flight this evening. Conditions were light, and I only made about five turns, including the one onto final. It was getting pretty dim out when I landed. I managed to get some other pg people to take pity and give me a ride back up the hill. This was good, as my feet still haven't totally recovered from the punishment they received while I was working in the Cob Speicher Post Office on the asphalt floor that used to be a parking lot.

When I was packing my glider, I noticed I was not seeing very clearly, and discovered the lens on one side of my glasses had fallen out. Bummer, as I really didn't want to spend the money for a new eye exam, and new glasses just yet. I figure if I am going to spend the money for a new set of glasses, I should probably get my eyes checked, as it has been two years since I last had my eyes checked. Oh well, its only money.

Before I decided to leave Iraq, I was considering doing a vacation to go fly paragliders. I was considering Nepal, India, Sri Lanka, and Bali. The first three choices were because I know people who live in those countries. Part of KBR's contract with their employees includes vacations and an allowance for airfare on those vacations. The only one I took was the one they give everyone who puts in a full year. I was on vacation for the first ten days after I got back. Their contract states that if you don't use the vacations, you don't get paid for them either. I figured if I left, I'd probably never go back, and I needed the money, so I didn't go. Also, I wanted to start back to A&P school in January, and wanted to be able to accumulate as much cash as possible. If I had done the two vacations that I could have done, I would have had to stay until January 3 before coming home. I figured the expense part of the vacations, allowed for the pay and airfare allowance, and think I would have not been in as good of financial condition if I had stayed til January 3, as I am in now, even though I came home two weeks ago. There is a man I know who works for DHL whose home is Pokhara, Nepal, which is one of the premier paragliding sites in Nepal. In case you didn't know, DHL has the contract with the US Military to move the mail by air into and out of Iraq. I usually saw this guy every day, as he operated the X Ray machine used to check the outgoing mail for non-mailable items. Maybe in a couple of years, I'll get to go to some of these places. One of the groups from India has what I think is a cool web site. The club name is Temple Pilots Association. They came up with their name because most of the Hindu and Buddhist Temples are built on high places, and the Temple Pilots, like most of us involved in foot launched flight, like to fly to high places! Their web address is: http://www.templepilots.com/

I still don't have any "in air" photos of me. This evening didn't work, as it was very overcast, and very close to sunset when I launched. I also knew it was going to be too light for me to have much time in the air to be able to try the camera to see if it could find enough light to work. Maybe next time.

Flying in Utah

A group of us loaded our gliders onto Liz's 4Runner and headed North to Plymouth, Utah to join Matt and Cody to fly the Short Divide on Saturday November the first. Launch is at the top of the hill near the antenna above Liz's head.

Below is the view out into the valley from launch. Cody's truck is out of sight blocked by the ridge in the lower center of the photo, and is parked next to the LZ. The LZ is about the center of the right half of the picture. Matt (launching first) and Cody (launching last) both specked out, and the rest of us had somewhat shorter flights, but we all had a good time, enjoying the last of the 70 degree weather for a while, and the comraderie of good friends. Matt took several photos and did commentary on his blog at: http://mattsbigadventure.blogspot.com/ The small speck is Matt at about three thousand feet over the landing zone, and the photo after is Matt immediately after landing.

A good time was had by all.