When it blows, it blows

I just spent the weekend helping the Hobie fleet in Syracuse run their annual regatta.  This was the 33rd hosting of this event.  What a blast it was.

Saturday was looking like a great day.  Winds were good and solid (out of the east though).  We got all 3 fleets started and I then went down below to fire up my laptop to see what the weather radar was showing as there was a threat of thunderstorms.

Oh Crap were my first words.  Actually, it was worse than that, but this is a family channel.  We could see this really tight line of t-storms headed toward us.  All we had time to do was to get this race in the books and then wait out the storms.  It took a bit, but the storm did hit and then it rained for about 7 hours.

Sunday was a beautiful clear day with the winds blowing 30 knots out of the west.  The air temp was about 50F, so there was a significant wind chill.  But, what a great day for the heavy air sailors.

Lots of great pics here.

A friend of mine sent me this video of the Milky Way rising.  Now, this is cool!  Make sure you watch it in full screen.

Another one in the bag

The nights events went off without a hitch.  If there was one, Broder's team covered it pretty well.  If you watched the event, penalties were the key part of winning our losing.  The winners took home a pretty good check.  Results and some video are here.

I've got all the pictures uploaded.  This link will show the gallery you've seen before.  This link is a pretty cool slide show of the same event.

I'm off (back) to Syracuse now to the annual MadCatter Hobie Cat race where I am the race officer.  Fleet 204 puts on an amazing show as well.

Show Time

I got the T-Mobile thing sorted out.  Funny, they don't like a Canadian to pay by credit card.  So, I had to go to a CVS, buy a T-Mobile phone card and deposit that in my account.  But, that isn't the account for the actual phone.  

I then have to log in and move the money.  I'm so glad this was simple.

The guy at T-Mobile was surprised when I told him I was able to do this in London in about 90 seconds.

Pictures will be here.

T-Mobile - buying a SIM card

How hard can this be???

90 seconds .. in and out of a T-Mobile store.  New SIM card in hand.

This morning, I try to activate it.  Hmm... they didn't give me the activation number.

AND, the only way to get one is to walk back into the store.  

It only took an hour on the phone with them, and 4 separate people to figure it out.  The last lady was more than helpful, but could not help me get on line remotely.  I have to go back to the store.

Nascar - wow, that is a show

So, I go from it being quiet and working on job hunting, to getting an invite to come down to Charlotte, NC to be part of the Nascar Pit Crew Challenge.  I was able to manage a trip down here, and make it to Syracuse for the annual Madcatter Hobie Cat regatta this weekend.

I drove down to Syracuse on Tuesday and stayed with some good friends, Tom and Sue.  With a flight out today at 6am, via Washington and into Charlotte, I made it to the arena by 1pm to work with Jimmy, James and Andy.

The show times all 4 parts of a pit crews job.  Gas, Jacking, Front and Rear wheel change.  Once that is all done, you get to push the car about 100 yards.

Very cool show!  If you are in the US, you can watch it live Thursday on Speed.  I am not sure what they are showing in Canada.  

With all the travel I did yesterday and today, I only managed a few hours sleep.  As I am writing this, I'm listening to the weather channel that is describing the ongoing Tornado outbreak that is going on.  Ron and team, I hope your safe and have grabbed some great pictures.

It has been a while - since the last post

It has been pretty quiet for the past month.  Other than getting some skiing in out west, I have been focusing on getting my resume up to date.

However, last week, the timing bug raised its head and I jumped on the train to head over to Montreal to work with my friend Ted on some timing equipment.  We wanted to do some testing on a newer technology from our friends across the pond.  (Note to all:  Via rail from Toronto to Montreal all is great.  Although they do provide Internet, there is only 1 thing worse that no internet, and that is some internet.  I used my Telus Air Card which was really good.  No less then 10 people walked by me to ask how come my internet was actually working).

So, in front of his his house, we set up a few computers and the Line Scan camera.  The line scan camera is the one we use at World Cup ski races both in Lake Louise and Austria.  The beauty of this is it allows us to make some tests with equipment we trust to the newer technologies.  

This was a 'chip' or wireless product.  So, that means we need to lay down or tape some wires down on the road (a big antenna actually).  In the middle, we put down some pink tape that would allow us to determine exactly were the middle of the line is (or the start/finish line).  

After about 3 hours of setting up the finish line, it looked great, until....   I could hear this rather large truck climbing up the hill.  Wait, I know that sound.  Oh no... it couldn't be.  Yep, this is spring in Montreal and the street cleaner was headed our way.  With Ted no where to be found I knew we were in trouble as there was about an 80% chance this guy only spoke french.  Well, we got lucky and he made the turn to the left just below us.  We could hear him rumbling around the streets, but never headed our way.  Lucky us.

I would then ride be the finish while Ted and Andy captured the results on a laptop.  Now, Ted's house is above Montreal and so the slope goes from left to right in the picture.  This means I had to blow down the road, hammer on the breaks, then turn around and climb back up the hill.  

A few dozen of those will get your heart rate going.  In the picture above, it is key to note that the background is NOT moving while I am.  Some of you might have to think about that for awhile.

Spring skiing - wow

Today was our last day and it went out with a bang.  

The sun was shining, the wind was calm and the snow was amazing.  

After ducking in at 11:45 to make sure we get the seats we want on Westjet (you need to book your seats 24 hours in advance), we decided to detour to the bakery (again).  

Just as I am sitting down with some goulash (and a chocolate croissant-how did that happen), I bumped into an old friend and his family, Robert Huter, one of the owners of Mount St. Louis Moonstone.  I've know Robert since I was the patrol leader their back in the mid 80's.  

We had a great lunch with them and even skied a few runs with them after lunch.  

Today, we even ran into our first lift line (almost 6 minutes).  Wow, that was painful.  :)

I did ski Gowabuna - impressive run with Volkswagens for bumps (but they were soft).  Carolyn and I did some really high speed cruising runs on the back side until they kicked us out.  Then, back over to the front side until they kicked us out of there.    

A great way to end the season.  I recommend this place highly.

The last of the photos are now being uploaded to the gallery.