Post from Josh:
Well, the Eldorado served me well. But I never really liked it. Now I have a car that I like! This car just about shouts “luxury!” when you look at it. My wonderful dad loaned me the money, and I am now the proud owner (well, not yet) of a 1989 Lincoln Town Car.
This car is so comfortable I can’t even really explain it. The leather seats are huge, and it just glides down the road on it’s airshocks. It’s so quiet that when you shut the door, all the noise of the city just goes away, even pesky 18 wheelers and harleys are only a whisper.
The trunk is quite huge. It’s begging for subwoofers. But that will come later.
I am quite pleased. People even report getting 25MPG on the highway!
Author: Matt (Page 17 of 23)
Post from Josh:
So, after five years of successful employment by the U.S. Coast Guard, I am now faced with writing a resume. It shouldn’t be too hard, except for the three pages I’ll need for the experience section. Where do I put “performed search and rescue missions often at night and in rain/60 knot winds as a helicopter flight mechanic”? But now that knowledge and experience will have to find use elsewhere.
The Coast Guard has found me unfit for flight duties due to the trouble I have had with my back. It has been a long process (and a lesson in patience), but the official word is out. I will be medically retired from the C.G. in a few months. Unfortunately, in the C.G. you can’t remain on active duty in an aviation rating if you can’t fly. And since the vibration of military helicopters is unacceptable for someone with a back such as mine, I can’t stay in.
So I guess I will be looking for a job soon. I plan on moving to Colorado, to rejoin my wonderful family once again, and also to enjoy the beauty of the mountains. I couldn’t live here in Florida for very long. It’s flat and hot and humid. And crowded. But I have the memory of going to Pikes Peak with my family to keep me going. I can almost still smell the air.
Anyway, back to the story. I am going to try and continue my career in aviation, but if that fails I will at least remain in the electronics field. I am hoping to find a job as an avionics technician or maybe avionics and instrument repair. I have found that fixing complex things is what I most enjoy.
So off I go to write my resume. Anyone want to buy Coast Guard uniforms?
The warning order has been issued. Josh’s cheese is about to be moved. Significantly!
If this makes no sense to you… shame on you. Go buy the book and read it. It’s a classic.
If you’ve followed the MistyCastle adventures you know that Josh developed some serious problems with his back several years ago. This was a result of an injury while on duty and (making a long story short) subsequent poor care by the Coast Guard’s medical community. Josh has been grounded since last summer, unable to fulfill his duties as a aircrew member.
He learned this week that the medical boards have decided to “medically retire” him and he will be separated from the Coast Guard within the next 30-60 days. He has improved quite a bit but not enough to fly around in helicopters that vibrate like crazy. I’ve flown in my fair share of military choppers and I can assure you they all vibrate pretty bad.
So…. Josh is moving his cheese to Colorado. He will stay with us until he finds a new job and housing. Stay tuned for further news.
I have managed to blow a number of excellent photo opportunities lately. I spotted a choice astronomical shot a month or so ago when the full moon was rising over the ridge behind our house. The atmosphere was just right for a “moon dog” and I took half a dozen or so shots from a tripod. I was anxious to get them developed but it was the beginning of the roll so I waited. A few weeks ago we had a stray cat wander through the back yard and I let Abby out to chase it away. The cat went into one of those classic “halloween” poses and stood it’s ground. Abby wasn’t too sure about that and we ended up with a standoff. I grabbed the camera and got a number of good shots of the cat with it’s back all arched up and fur all fluffed out. A little earlier I had taken the camera over to Garden of the Gods park when Ronda and I went for a walk and took some very nice shots of the rock formations.
I was glad to have the stray cat come along as it allowed me to finish up the roll. Or so I thought… I first became suspicious that all was not well when I realized the frame counter was reading 28. Then, much to my dismay, when I started rolling the film back it released almost immediately.
Lesson learned… better to waste that first frame to be sure the winder is engaged.
Today I got another opportunity. Ronda spotted a beautiful bird in our backyard tree. I’ve never seen one before, it’s yellow with a red head and black/white wings. Ronda looked it up in our bird book… it’s called a Western Tanager. Apparently, it is only this colorful in the spring during mating season. I managed to take some shots of it but the lighting was marginal and my history of taking “bird shots” is also marginal. But we’ll see…
Ahhhh…. finally a little time for some pleasure reading! The evenings this past week have felt a little strange. I keep thinking I should be working on homework. The weekend is here and I am looking forward to relaxing and not thinking about schoolwork.
We have decided to get a sprinkler system put in. You only get two chances per week to water your grass around here and with both of us working it becomes a bit of a challenge. I thought they might ease the watering restrictions since we’ve had a great winter for snow up in the mountains. But, alas, no such luck. Growing grass here requires diligent watering since the soil is quite rocky. We found out last year that if you miss your watering day it’s pretty tough on the grass.
These systems have a timer on them so they come on automatically early in the morning on your designated watering day. The guy should get started on it this weekend.
Final exam is this weekend. I’m actually looking forward to it because it means being done with yet another class. It sure does get old always having homework to worry about. This will complete the fourth course out of ten courses required for my degree. I still have two GIS classes to take, although both will be more of an independent study rather than lecture. One is a Lab class which involves an in-depth hands-on with a GIS software application and the other is the “Project”. A Masters level project that represents your combined knowledge and ability to apply it to a real world problem. You get a whole semester to complete the Project and you have to present it and defend it at the end. Then there are four electives to get out of the way. I have been looking at a Systems Development and Implemetation track that is offered by the Business Dept. It would fit in well with my background and you also get a “certificate” which would look good on the resume. I have decided to take this summer off from school and then hit it hard again next year. If I really buckle down and take two classes per semester next year I could actually finish everything up the following year and graduate in Spring of 2007. Sounds like a long ways away….
The Colorado Roasters website has been languishing lately as all my time has been devoted to schoolwork. It did benefit from my term project this semester though. I used my GIS software to create a “Roaster Locator” and linked it to my site. It displays a map of Colorado and allows you to input your zip code (Colorado only) and a search radius. When executed the search zooms the map to your coordinates and displays the coffee roasters that are located within your search radius. It’s a little crude but I plan to spiff it up as time permits. You can look at it here: http://www.coloradoroasters.com
Spring has definitely sprung here in Colorado. I managed to get out and rake up our rather small back yard on Saturday and throw down some grass seed. It needs it bad. The winter was not kind to it. Well, actually… it was the dog that was not kind to it. There are plenty of other places in the back yard that do not qualify as “yard” since much of it is singularly lacking in “grass”. Certainly a much more desirable place for the dog to do her “business”. But nooo…… she has to do it right on the grass.
Today we got both vehicles washed up. The first “real” wash job since last fall. It’s nice to see there really is a shine underneath that winter road film. We have ended up switching vehicles. Ronda now drives the furthest so she takes the Caddy which get surprisingly good gas mileage. I will start riding a bike to work pretty soon which gets even better gas mileage. I will enjoy pedaling past the 7-11 and smiling at the pumps. 😉
Halfway done with the Spring Term. Got through my midterm a few weeks ago. It was a nuisance. Ruined an entire weekend. Still don’t have a grade back yet but I think it will be good. I will need to get started on my term project pretty soon. Blasted classes….. seems like every one has had a term project!
We’ve had a number of guests through here in the past month. I was hoping to get some film developed before I wrote anything but that doesn’t seem to be happening very fast. Michael Ginn stopped on his way to Arizona early in March and we had a nice visit with him. That was the week prior to starting my new job so I had the flexibility of spending some time with him in the middle of the week. The weather cooperated so Michael and I went for a short hike over by Cheyenne Mountain. Then Ronda’s brother Terry and his family came out for the weekend on a rather impromptu visit. It was good to see everyone and once again we were blessed with some very springlike weather so off we went out into the woods and wore everyone out stomping around the mountains. It was a short but sweet visit. Then Michael stopped again for an overnighter on his way back from Arizona. It’s been nice to have the company.
