Archive for July, 2005
I’ve got nothing
So yeah. I don’t really have anything much to say lately.
I’ve been so stressed out lately from all the work I’ve been doing that I think I’m getting more gray hair. Lovely.
Side note: I got a hair cut today.
Oh yeah. And I traded my bicycle for a compaq iPaq, which I then turned around and sold on ebay. So basically I sold my bike on ebay, but in a roundabout way that involved way less shipping troubles.
I’ll write more later when I’ve got more free time.
Flying
Well, last night we went flying again…
Shane, Jarred, Zach and I all flew down to Dallas and circled the downtown area from about 1000 feet. I got a couple of photos and some video with my camera but it’s too dark to really make out much in the pictures. It was really cool, but I wish we could go during the daytime so we could actually see stuff on the ground.
After we got bored of flying around, we landed at the Addison airport, got a courtesy car and went out to eat at the local Two Rows Restaurant.
Shane tried to be friendly to the (ugly) waitress and asked her if she wanted to go flying with him sometime. She said she was too scared but I bet she was just using her fear of flying as an excuse or something. At any rate, it was kinda funny. She couldn’t figure out why we had flown to Addison when we could have just driven for a fraction of the cost since it’s only an hour away. Hah. Silly people. Because flying is more fun!
Shane decided he wanted to sit in the back of the plane on the flight home so I got stuck at the controls again, which was nice.
It took me a couple minutes to get the feel of the plane again (hey I’ve only flown once before) but after that it was smooth sailing. Jarred sat in the co-pilot seat and helped navigate and keep track of other airplanes and the radio. Every now and then he’d give me a tip on what to do next, and when we got back to Sherman, we split the landing process about 50/50 since it was kind of windy and I’m still not that experienced.
Other than that, it was a fairly un-eventful night. I got home at around 12:30 (I was scared I wouldn’t get back till 2:00 or something). When I woke up at 7:00 this morning I was kind of tired but a cup of coffee and some breakfast perked me up.
That’s all for now. Stay tuned for more exciting (or at least they’re exciting to me) adventures!!
Arkansas and Ebay
Well, quite a bit has happened since I last posted about the fourth of July.
For starters, as of the 10th, I have officially known my girlfriend for a year. Crazy huh?
Oh yeah, and this past weekend I went and visited my family in Arkansas, which was cool. My little brother Samuel has really grown up! I can’t believe how much bigger and stronger he’s gotten. Man, it really used to stink, growing up with 5 sisters and not having a brother to play with. Samuel was always too little to do anything with so I always just kind of did my own thing. But now he’s all grown up and he’s almost as big as I am! We wrestled and he beat me. I couldn’t believe it. Too bad they don’t live closer to me anymore. I think he and I would have a grand ol’ time.
Well, at any rate. ‘Nuff of my rambling.
This evening, Shane and Jared want to go flying again. I’m going to get Zach or Corban to go along and we’re going to fly around Dallas and see what it looks like from the sky at night. I’ll let you all know how it goes.
On a side note, I am liquidating some of my assets on ebay (although I know none of you really care):
1. Tippmann 98 Custom Paintball Gun
2. Tokico High Performance Front Shocks for an 81-85 RX-7
And here are some recent purchases of mine (I’ve been saving up for these for a long time):
1. Denon AVR-2105 Home theater receiver with Dolby Digital EX, DTS-ES, and Pro Logic IIx
2. JBL SCS160SI 7 piece Home Theater Surround Sound Speaker System
3. Coleman 9279F127 12 x 7 Montana 5-Person Tent
Fourth of July
I bought fireworks.
I shot fireworks.
I ate food.
I hung out with friends.
And it was good.
yup.
Thomas the Pilot
Well, I’m pleased to let you know that I have yet another exciting adventure to tell you about.
I have never flown in a small plane, but my entire life I have always wanted to be a pilot. I dabbled some in flight sims as a child but my interest faded once I got a job in the computer industry at the ripe old age of 13.
However…
Last night Shane and Jarred, two of my pilot friends, informed me that they were going to make flight to Oklahoma City and back.
No real reason whatsoever. They just wanted to fly somewhere! Of course, I was all for it, and about an hour and a half later we were all sitting at a TGIF restaurant in Oklahoma City at midnight. Crazy, huh?
We just went to Oklahoma City, ate at a plain ol’ restaurant, and flew back.
Such is the life of pilots, I suppose.
At any rate, they let me fly the plane the entire trip back to Texas. Yup. I taxied the plane out to the runway and took off. After climbing to about 4500 feet, I leveled off and maintained the appropriate heading according to the GPS. (Keep in mind that this was all at night so I had to fly almost entirely by the instruments in the cockpit). About half way to Sherman, we decided to make a pit stop at some little rinky dink airstrip in Oklahoma (I don’t even remember the town), so I landed the plane there. After we were finished there, I took off again and flew to Sherman, where I landed at the Grayson County airport. Of course, by then it was like 3:00 AM. Good thing I’m a night owl.
I took some pictures of the adventure and posted them on my photo blog.
http://tommychapin.blogspot.com
Now I just need to fly in the day time. Maybe I’ll even get some video of it or something.