Say What?

Years ago I had a pet Cockatiel named Coocoo. She was a Cockatiel that Noy and I had bought when we first moved to Huron, South Dakota in the summer of 1983. This story takes place a couple years later. It was in April of '85 and one of the first warm days of the year. I was at work when I got a phone call from Noy. She was panicked because she had set the birdcage out on the deck and the wind had knocked it over and Coocoo got out. I raced home to find Coocoo still in the area, perched on a power line by our apartment. There was no way she was going to come back to me. The winds were blowing hard from the south and a cold front was bringing some very strong thunderstorms toward us. I remember seeing her fly from the power line and getting caught up in the winds which quickly took her out of sight. I felt so helpless as I really loved that little bird. I couldn't stand the thought of losing her, especially with the violent weather that was approaching. The storm was so sev...

I ended up taking back the Gateway mp3 player because it offered no way to specify the order the songs were played in. I went to Bestbuy and purchase an MPIO but it too wouldn't let me organize the tracks. I settled on the iRiver 512mb, flash media mp3 player. I'm very happy with it. It's nice and small and with my music compressed at 64kps, I can get over 8 hours of music on it. And yes, I can organize the songs. So, it's nice to be jammin' to some good tunes on the road. Last year toward the end of my riding season I was seeing some beautiful Fall colors out on my rides. I remember wishing I'd had a camera along and then I got the idea that it might be fun to be able to snap some photos along the way and upload them to the net and incorporate them into my blog. I found this nifty little camera online and ordered it. It works really well at 1.3mp and it's so small. I got some disappointing news yesterday from the American Association of Stained Glass ...

I've got the all-night shift tonight and a few hours to kill before I'm due back in the control room. I had a good ride last night and was able to get in 50 miles after work before the sun went down. It was pretty nice out with the sun shining and 42 degrees but my toes got a bit numb toward the end of the ride. I rode for an hour and fifty minutes tonight before work on my trainer in the basement. I really want to be able to start getting in some long rides early in the season this year with hopes of doing the trip to Babbitt toward the early part of July while I've still got the longest days to work with. That's going to be about 240 so I'll need every bit of daylight I can get. I went out today and picked up a new mp3 player for my rides. I got the Gateway 310 with 256mb of flash storage. I paid $135 for it and figured that was a good price. The Apple Ipod with 4gb of space is nice for $250 but it's larger than I'd like and the battery isn't replace...

I got to work Chenny's plane tonight about an hour ago as he left Sioux Falls, SD for Andrews Air Force Base. He's somewhere around Chicago as I write this. I only had to move one aircraft for him. I offered him direct routing to save some time but it was declined. I imagine they're on a schedule and want to stay with it. We've been working pretty steady on the lamp for Don and Dorothy. I've got quite a bit of work left to do but it's nice to finally be making some progress. I went to J. Ring Glass Studios last Friday to try and find some better green for the leaves but I wasn't very successful. I bought a couple sheets which will work okay but not as nicely as I'd hoped. Green is probably the most difficult color for me to find. The color is okay but I'm just worried it doesn't have enough life/depth. I suppose I shouldn't worry too much because it's the same green I used in my Laburnum and I'm very happy with how it turned out. ...

I finally began work on a lamp last week for my uncle Don and aunt Dorothy. I'd been putting this project off for quite a while as I just hadn't been up to it. I'm making an 18" Tulip, Tiffany reproduction lamp for them. I began with the tulip flowers first...I got them cut from the sheets of glass and Tammy has begun to grind them to size. I hope to get some more done tomorrow as it's going to be snowing here all day so I won't be tempted to be out on my bike. I'm usually winding down my stained glass projects this time of year because when the weather turns warm I spend as little time as possible indoors...anyway, not this year...I really need to get this lamp done in the next few weeks though. Don is making a violin for Rachel and we're doing a lamp for them in return. I've got a friend at work who wants me to do some glass work for his home but I seriously doubt I'll get to it this year. We also have the window to do for the prayer chapel at...

I've been able to get my bike out on the road 4 times in the past week. It's such a good feeling to be out there and with all the training I've been doing in the basement the past 2 months, I'm actually in pretty good shape. Most of my rides have only been 30 miles but I was able to put in 50 on Saturday. It's odd to be out there with still so much snow on the ground. The temp has been in the upper 30s to lower 40s so it's not too bad. Snow is moving in tomorrow afternoon—another 3 inches so I'm going to try and get out early for 40 miles. We've got a home appraiser coming by at 1:00 tomorrow so I need to be back before he gets there. This should be the last time we'll need to refinance. I still haven't put my new Mavic Ksyrium wheels on my bike. I think I'll wait until the roads are nicer.