First things first: the new Austin-Bergstrom airport opens today! Good-bye Mueller! You know, it makes me kind of sad, the last time I flew into there last June, it didn't really occur to me that the much ballyhooed New Airport would be opening before I would return. I think I would have been a little more reflective if I'd thought about it much. My first trip - 10 years ago now, I feel so old - was to Austin. I remember waiting at Pittsburgh - the old terminal, which I don't remember well - for the 737, in USAir's ghastly old orange and yellow colors, to arrive. It was delayed in Philadelphia and I was 7, so I'm sure I was bouncing off the walls, waiting for my ride in the big jet. *a tear wells up in my eye* I sure do have a lot of memories from there over the years: Ma throwing the Starbucks coffee up in the air, a dozen scary landings (the noise abatement turn will live in me forever), even scarier rides from the airport on I-35, clearing the seafood gumbo through security (it was in a styrofoam cooler duct-taped shut, kinda like a bomb), the flooded-out bathroom, knowing just where to meet my uncle - in the bar. I wonder if that nice gray-haired bartender who was always there will go to work at Bergstrom.... An unofficial site and the City of Austin's site.
The school year is winding down fast. My math and English finals are finished and speech and chemistry are next week. After that, it's just about all finished. Hard to believe! Last day of school in the Warren County School District is June 8, 1999. I've started to get a new collection of airliner photos ready for the gallery. It's really been too long since the last update. Don't expect the new exhibition up too soon, but it ought to be along in a reasonable length of time. Also, once school lets out, I'm thinking I may do a total site redesign. I've had this format for a year and a half now, so maybe it's time for version 3.0. Comments?
Well, here it is, the new web site, version 3. As far as style goes, it's a pretty radical departure from the old version, but that's what I was aiming for. It has a little bit more...ummm...personality than the previous version, but my only hope is that it doesn't go overboard into the realm of tacky (how suitable that I am worrying about this while typing in this, the most extreme page in the new design). I tried to create a nice impact. I would really appreciate it if you would tell me how I've done. The Aviation page, by the way, is not done. It has been the hardest to find appropriate art for - and is also the largest section on the page - so you'll have to wait on it. I'm thinking of doing something with frames for it, but I haven't decided on anything yet. And the hot pink in the Music section is probably only a temporary measure, as well (although I do find it rather ironic).
As you may have concluded, this section here is a replacement for my "Welcome" table on the front page. I decided to spin it off into a separate page for reasons not only of aesthetics, but also becuase I wanted more space to free write on whatever I am thinking, ala Daniel's site [which, unhappily, been been defunct since autumn 2000].
No progress on new airliner photos for the gallery at the moment, I regret to say. I'll get on it soon. It is, of course, summer vacation now, so I certainly have plenty of free time to work on such things. One might even say that I have too much time and that I ought to get a job, but I don't think such talk ever got anyone anywhere.
I really do have some things to do this summer, anyway. My summer reading load for AP English next year (Brit lit *shudders*) is quite heavy, about 750 pages or so I would conservatively estimate. Three books: Marquand's The Late George Apley, Shakespeare's Othello, and Joyce's Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. And, of course, there is a substantial writing assignment to go along with the reading. And since Mrs. Morgan gave us a summer assignment for AP U.S. History last summer, I have no reason to expect she'll do anything different for AP European History this summer. I'll be checking my mail. And I do have some independent reading I would like to do as well. For three summers now I have promised myself that I would read the Bible the whole way through. This may be the summer. I have a thick illustrated history of Canada that I would like to read, and several other books as well. And I still haven't finished Stick and Rudder or Lord of the Flies. There's no excuse for either failure.
Looking at my calendar, I am confronted by the fact that I now have less than one year until graduation. That isn't really that scary to me, but it ought to be since I have only a tenuous idea where I want to go and what I want to do when I get there. This summer I simply must visit some colleges, refine my list.
Explore my site, please, and see some of the new things I've put in. Not too many things, but enough to be worth poking around a little bit. And, for the last time, I would love any comments on the new design. Evan.
This is the first day of summer, right, or is it tomorrow? I don't remember and I don't have a calendar in front of me. It is Father's Day, though. Father's Day is one of those sappy Hallmark Holidays. The problem with Father's Day is that you're supposed to buy something for your Dad, but that's way harder than buying something for your Mom. I can just go into Pier 1, buy some $20 bauble and she'll love it and I'll feel good. Unless you want to go the tie route, you're probably gonna spend a lot of time coming up with ideas that aren't lame for the old man. I think that's why advertisers hawk Father's Day more than Mother's Day - most people don't have a clue what to get. I've seen ads for shirts, golf clubs, steaks, stereos.... Who the hell buys meat off the TV, anyway?
I've been trying to figure out vacation plans. Normally, I'd have a little pile of airline tickets on my desk by April, but this year was a little different. I'm really looking for somewhere north of Warren after last year's two weeks of BBQing my bod down south. I really hate hot weather, which puts me in a minority around here. Dad wants to go to Newfoundland or Maine or New Brunswick (BTW, where was Old Brunswick?) or somewhere like that, which has potential. For my part, I'd like to go back to Montréal, reconnoiter a little bit, especially the university, now on my list.
Speaking of Montréal, I was browsing through some photos there the other day. There's some pretty cool spots there I'd forgotten about. Here are a few of my favorites: the city at night, Place des Arts, Bank of Montréal HQ, Old Montréal, and the Mary-Queen-of-the-World Church. And here is a web cam from 1000 de la Gauchetière Ouest, the tall building (the tallest in Montréal, in fact) in the last picture, down onto the church and the rest of the downtown.
I've got some new airliner photos scanned in, but I haven't bothered to get them indexed or uploaded yet. Sometime this week I might get around to doing it. It's a surprising amount of work to do that, actually.
I got my report card last week. It isn't too bad, all said, though there are a few more Bs than I like to see. I have no idea how my GPA and class rank have changed, though. When I go in in coming weeks to drop off my physical form and get my schedule and parking permit, I'll look into it.
That's my story this week. Catch you later. Evan
I've been looking at the calendar all day, but I still cannot believe that June is almost over. I've been such a slouch so far. I haven't gotten any of my plans even started yet. No vacation plans, no reading done, nothing. What have I been doing with myself? I can't imagine.
As expected, I got a letter from Mrs. Morgan today with my European History reading assignment. I lucked out and she gave me a light one, though: War and Peace. :-) I think, with about 2000 pages of literature piled up on my desk now, I had better not consider waiting until the last two weeks of August to start reading them like I did last summer. I only had The Jungle and Born on the Fourth of July to read then, and I read the latter in an afternoon on the couch in my room without even getting up. But that is the price of academic achievment, I suppose. I ought to go to the park to read, so I can (a) be outside and getting some fresh air and sun and (b) be away from tempting distractions like my stereo and my computer. And the refridgerator.
Speaking of academic achievment, I received a catalogue and application to Harvard today. I nearly filled my pants when I looked at it. Eighteen bloody pages! My McGill application that I got the other day was like one page. No essays or listings of class activities or clubs or secret societies or virginity status. All they give a damn about is your record and scores on the boards. I'm sure an application to work at Los Alamos is shorter than eighteen pages. "Have you ever visited China?" "Do you own a little red book?" "Fill in the blank: 'E=m_2'"
The thing is, I don't really even want to go to Harvard, no matter how good it is. It seems the sort of place that wouldn't be much fun if you couldn't afford to fly off skiing in Vermont by helicopter with "the boys" or whatever else goes on. I've never cared much for rich kids (or rich grown ups for that matter) and I have little or no desire to spend four years feeling second class.
I've often entertained the thought of applying just to see if I could get in, but then I'd be in a nasty corner. If I were accepted, I'd probably end up having to go becuase Mom and Dad would freak out that I'd rather not go to "the best." And if I weren't accepted, then I'd feel unworthy or stupid or something like that. And like I'd wasted thirty-six fucking hours filling out the application only to be let down....
But I think I'll hang onto it just in case....
Yay! It's Canada Day! Actually, it isn't, a posted this two days early, but most people reading this will probably be doing so well into the 132nd year of Confederation. I've actually been reading my big thick book on Canadian history. I'm not very far into it, but it's been interesting so far. There was a whole big section on Indian trading that was pretty cool. There's this big perception that the "noble savages" basically were like "You white man - change firerod for beaver pelts? Make peace with Mohawk people?" Of course, like everything else we believe about Indians, that's a bunch of BS.
The natives were, first of all, totally mystified by the attraction the beaver pelts held for the Europeans. What they actually were, until well into the 1800s, were "coat beaver," which meant beaver the Indians had already made clothes out of. This made the fir easier to make hats out of becuase, except for the Russians, hatmakers didn't know how to make felt out of the "parchment beavers." So the Indians thought they'd stumbled on a pretty good racket, crazy Frenchmen falling all over themselves to carry off their old duds.
Secondly, the Indians quicky became demanding consumers. Says the book: "The Governor and Committee directed their men in the bay to monitor Indian reactions to company goods closely, and, when asked, the Indians only too willingly gave them an earful of complaints. The native people also learned the advantages of comparison shopping as a trading ploy."
Anyhow, I've added a new Canada-centric page to my site that you may wish to check out. Nothing but a lot of links, but I'm rather pleased with it anyhow. I also updated my Airliner Photos about a week back, in case you haven't seen that yet.
I figured out the other day that my summer reading assignment works out to be 33 pages/day, seven days a week, until I go back to school, which amounts to a lot heavier load than I had when I was in school. I'd better get busy.
I was in the bookstore the other day, looking for reading material (I got a Buffalo Sabres hat instead, but what the hell). I teased Dad about a tatoo magazine he was reading and he sarcastically suggested, in an embarassingly loud voice, that I go read the Backstreet Boys magazines and leave him alone. Anyway that got me thinking about what exactly creeps me out so much about the BSB, when it hit me that one of them looks just like the sinister Mr. Wint, the gay henchman of Blofeld in Diamonds are Forever, who was blown up at the end by 007. It's really creepy. See what I mean:
OK, enough with that now. I'm gonna get into trouble going on like that. You never know what kind of psycho fans might be reading.... There are a lot of teeny boppers out there who could kick my ass, sorry to say.
Actually, if I'm not mistaken, there's a new James Bond movie coming out this November. I'm looking forward to that. Anyhow, until I write again, Evan
Summer must finally have rotted my brain, becuase I really can't think of any "Thoughts" to share this week. That's pretty pathetic, actually, especially since it's been a particularly fertile week in news, Hillary carpetbagging in my backyard, unbelievable heat and humidity, power outages, our national holiday, serial killers, near-Air Canada strike, new tariffs on Australian lamb meat, Pennsylvania executing someone (it's been so long I'd forgotten we even had a death penalty), and no doubt a lot of other things I've already forgotten about as well.
Since I'm an airhead now, I ought to just point out some of the updated pages so you can think for me, but I've been tinkering around for a couple days now, so I've sort of forgotten all of the things I've done. The one page that I can point out is my Travel page, which now reflects my travel plans. Yay! To give a little more detail, I'm flying to Montréal on August 18th, hanging out there until the 21st, flying straight onward to Halifax, and then returning back to Toronto by way of Dorval on the 24th. Should be fun. I'm also working on plans for Chicago '99 in September, too. I'm already excited about that. I love Chicago!
Until next week (or so), Evan.
Long time, no write. I have been updating the page, though. In particular, I've done something rather cool with the Shocking Tell-All that I think you should see. [Alas, the Shocking Tell-All is no longer a part of the site. But it was cool. -Evan] That picture of me was taken by my friend Kurt when I was up on the roof of the lean-to on my garage, all the further I was really interested in going. Kurt went all the way to the second storey roof of my house. I don't like climbing too much. For someone who loves aviation so much, I'm kinda sheepish about heights. Not really frightened, but I would just as soon be on the ground than on a roof or some such. It doesn't bother me when I'm flying, though. I guess it is probably the result of one too many nightmares about scaling high, sheer surfaces (if I had a dollar for every dream I've had about climbing Kinzua Dam, I would be telling this to a therapist and not you). But I digress.
It's been a pretty quiet couple of weeks since I wrote in here last. I am sooo behind on my reading schedule that I'm starting to go into denial about it and deliberately getting behind even more. I'm so bummed about the AP Euro book in particular. But I guess it will be worth it. I got my score back for my AP U.S. History exam a few weeks back. I got a 5, which is the best you can do. That means "Highest Recommendation" or something like that. I'm not really sure. I'll stack that with my 800 Verbal on the SAT on my shelf of ultimately meaningless moments of academic fanfare. Gosh, mixed metaphor alert!. Make that a 790.
Actually, the most interesting thing lately has been the moustace I am growing. It's just a temporary thing; I'll hack it off when I go for my senior picture here in a week or so. Mostly I just wanted to see if I could actually swing it. The jury is still out. Actually, though, it has been rather broadening. Here are a few of the things I have learned:
- People make fun of you. Even people who look way shabbier than you do.
- You shouldn't lick you upper lip anymore. It doesn't taste very good...
- ...unless you've got food in there, which seems to be a bigger problem than you would expect with even a seedy chocolate milk stain like I have.
- Having one reduces your chances of cutting yourself shaving dramatically.
Now you know. Next time I post here, I will probably add a number 5: It sucks when you finally have to shave it off. Evan
It certainly has been a long time since I've updated here, and I apologize to the two or fewer of you who actually care. Sowwy.
Summer is going far too fast. People keep saying, "So, did you have a good summer?" or "Well, I guess summer is over, huh?" No, no, no! There's still almost three weeks of summer left. And I'm planning to make the most of them.
My Canada trip is next week. We're going to go up to Toronto the night before (Tuesday) and stay at the airport Sheraton so that we can avoid the serious rush hour crush on the QEW Wednesday morning. That's prudent, I guess, but if I had known that was the plan I would have booked us on an earlier flight to Montréal than the 10:00. Air Canada has a service called Rapidair between Toronto and Montréal that amounts to hourly or half-hourly service all day long. I suppose if we appear at the check-in at 8:00, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, they might just put us on an earlier flight. No reason why not...that I know of. But it is an airline....
Toronto traffic is pretty intense. There is really only one freeway from one end of the city to the other, the Macdonald-Cartier Expressway, or, more simply, the 401. Experts say that the 401 is the second most congested road in North America after the Santa Monica. From around Yonge St. clear out towards Oshawa in the east, there are 16 lanes of traffic, which is one damn wide swath of concrete. The Gardiner Expressway - the eastern end of the QEW that runs along the lake through downtown - is sort of an interesting road. It reminds me of Lakeshore Drive in Chicago, which is a real experience. The Gardiner is sort of stupid, though, in that it doesn't go anywhere. It just sort of ends abruptly. If the Ontario government would turn it into a throughway, it would probably relieve the 401 a little bit, but maybe they want to keep it relatively uncongested. Whatever the scheme, being the fourth largest metropolis in North America, Toronto could use some better roads.
I've been reading War and Peace. I just started, but I'm pleased with my progress so far. I'm not going to panic on it, even though time is running down. It is a little bit dull, but readable anyway and a little bit amusing in spots. I think I am going to get some of my buddies together some night and try to tie a policeman to a bear for fun. At my arraignment, I'll blame it on Tolstoy. Authorities will then censor the book just like they have The Basketball Diaries and pretend they're helping to cure society's ills. Between that, posting the Ten Commandments on every street corner, and otherwise inflitrating religious opinions into schools, we'd be well on our way to ending all our shooting sprees of late, don't you think?
Well, enough with such gloomy subjects. I'm going on vacation! I'm working on a little vacation page that you can use to keep track of me while I'm away, so check back for that on Tuesday. In the mean time, I was at the Cleveland Airport on Monday dropping my uncle off and snapped a few pictures, which I plan on putting online before I leave. Tomorrow? And, of course, I will certainly be bringing back some pictures from Canada, which I'm sure won't be limited only to airliners.
Until I update again, Evan.
Just so you all know: tomorrow. Wow. Only 180 more Commonwealth of Pennsylvania-mandated days of public education left to go.
I'm not really excited to go back, which is the way of it some years. Last year I was ready to go back. This year.... I wish I had finished my AP Euro book. Actually, I think that's the least of it. I always get really depressed around the middle of September and stay that way most of the way through October and into November sometimes. I think it's a seasonal-affective thing (going from 15 hours of sunlight down to about 8, leaves falling off the trees, runny nose, my first scratchy throat, readjustment to school). I'm so not looking forward to facing it again this year. On the up-side, nothing cures my autumn blues quite like a snow storm (how sick is that), and the Farmer's Almanac says we're supposed to get a big, early winter.
Plus, there's the factor mentioned in the first paragraph: I'm almost free! I'm sick of Warren, I'm sick of high school, and I'm looking forward to getting out of both very much. I've got a university I really like in mind, and there's considerable comfort in the knowledge that, if I work hard now, I can be there in 365 days.
I visited McGill when I was in Montréal a week and a half ago; got the official tour and everything. Really, I'm only more interested now. The campus is splendid and old, with real ivy covered buildings and everything. There are a lot of new monstrosities too, but the Lower Campus mostly has the Oxbridge thing going. Some highlights:
- The student services building is the William Shatner Student Centre. He's actually an alumnus!
- The Physics Library, one of the Macdonald science buildings, was the building where Rutherford discovered the alpha particle and developed the Rutherford Model of the atom (for those of you who did worse than I did in Chemistry, that marked the beginning of the modern era in atomic theory).
- The statue of James McGill walking in the snow, which probably looks more authentic in January. The student guide said that people put flags and cigarettes in his hand.
- The Gates of Love onto Sherbrooke St. They are called the Roddick Gates, after their wealthy benefactor, but the student guide was from the Laurentians and had a serious Québécois accent, so there was a pretty hilarious moment of misunderstanding from his all-anglo tour group.
- The guide also reassured me that I could write all my papers in French. Tres bien, if they'll take Frére Jacques as my senior thesis.
I'll hold out on the rest of my trip details until I get my pictures back and have a chance to get them scanned in and put online. Translation: next weekend.
As a landmark in the history of this web page, my web counter on the Index page passed 10,000 yesterday. Actually, I was the number 10,000, which was a pretty far-out coincidence. Technically speaking, I ought to have been number 10,055, since my web counter didn't add all the visitors who came while I was in Canada to the total (I changed the file name so I could have the vacation web-cam page). I was so filled with excitement and pride that I went to Burger King.
Wish me luck tomorrow, and for the next 180 days following. Evan.
(Oh P.S., to the individual who sent me the two page email explaining why DIA is better than O'Hare, and why I am too stupid to know anything about airports whatsoever, Je m'en branle, chameau! See, I do know some French!)
Tomorrow is the dreaded 9-9-99 that all the computer nerds are worked up about. I don't know why we are paying attention to them, they are the ones that messed this all up in the first place. My physics teacher explained the problem to us, and I must say it all sounds very dubious. Apparently, there is a school of thought that more computers could be affected by this than by the Year 2000 thing (I'm sick of hearing it called "Y2K").
Anyway, I'm back in action. This was, for the record, just about the easiest Back-to-School transition I've ever had, or at least since school started being stressful (middle school). I just sort of sailed into it, learned my schedule immediatly, and now I'm in the loop and it doesn't seem so bad. Knock on wood, of course. My schedule, FYI:
First Semester Second Semester 1. Latin IV / Mr. Hopwood
1. Latin IV / Mr. Hopwood
2. Guidance Office aide
2. Constitutional Law / Mrs. Morgan
3. AP European History / Mrs. Morgan
3. AP European History / Mrs. Morgan
4. Physical Education / Mr. Phillips
4. Study Hall
5. Physics / Mr. Becker
5. Physics / Mr. Becker
6. Study Hall
6. U.S. Military History / Mr. Barlow
7. AP Politics & Government / Mr. Baxter
7. AP Politics & Government / Mr. Baxter
8. AP English / Mrs. Weigel
8. AP English / Mrs. Weigel
Anyway, I'm sure you were all really interested in that. Oh, well, I felt like putting it in. Sue me. Really, though, school has been pretty good so far. I'm enjoying it, which will make it go more quickly anyhow. My reignited fondness for certain people is making my desire to get off to college as fast as possible seem less...desirous, but I'm sure that I will be ready to take the plunge when the time comes, no matter what. Already, friends of mine are making their plans, applying, deciding where they want to spend four years...scary.
New airliner photos up. Actually, they've been up for a couple of days now. There are a few good ones from Canada in there. Check 'em out. I've got a full two megs (my AOL allowance) on now, so enjoy. Arrangements have been made for my fourth annual Chicago trip with Dad, September 23-26. As I did last year, I fully expect to return with a huge load of airliner photos, though I'm hoping I can skip a repeat of the part where we were stranded at O'Hare Sunday night becuase of a storm. It was cute the first time, but I think it would be a little anticlimactic to do it again.
Other web site updates: a panorama photo of Warren has been added to the map page, which you should have a look at as it is rather good, as well as a major addition to the spotting page.
I also uploaded a few pictures from my Canadian vacation last month. They are pretty good. I don't feel like writing about the trip now, or, most likely, at any point in the future (sorry; maybe I'll warm up to it), so these may have to suffice as a travelogue:
City of Halifax This is a view across the Halifax Harbor (the second largest in the world) to the city of Dartmouth on the other side, taken from the Citadel on the hill. Notice the warships; Halifax is the base of operations for the Canadian Atlantic fleet.
Bay of Fundy Here is the Bay of Fundy, specifically the Minas Basin, home of the world's highest tides (around 50 feet in places). This picture was taken at about half tide, but you can see how much higher they come.
Peggy's Cove Lighthouse This is the world's most famous lighthouse. The Swissair 111 crash last year occured right off the coast here. A memorial service was held two weeks after we left.
Warning sign on Lighthouse In the U.S., this sign would say "Danger: Keep off rocks. $350 fine."
Me at Peggy's Cove And here I am (smiling broadly). Peggy's Cove is so perfectly quaint, just as if it was painted by some kitschy artist. That's what keeps the tourists coming.
Saint John, New Brunswick This is Saint John from about six miles away.
OK, one last Thought is that I should get off the computer and write my essay for English (see above). Until next week.... Evan
The good news is that I have a major case of "I told you so" over the latest news about the 737s. The bad news is that I'm getting on board one next week.
I've never really cared for 737s, and not just becuase they are the most uncomfortable jet out there. They've just always struck me as somewhat poorly designed. Ever noticed the way the wings wag at low speed on the first and second generation models? They have to land with quite a bit of power too (DC-9s and some other aircraft idle off before flaring). The lateral stability in those things is so precarious anyway, the last thing they need is a rudder problem. The Next Generation models - -600 through -900 - have a brand new wing and enlarged vertical stabilizer, which does make them far more steady (I've flown the -700, so I can speak from some experience here). But I still don't like them.
I was also just watching a program on The History Channel about all the planes and boats that have disappeared - sometimes without a trace - over the Great Lakes over the years. I don't want you to think I'm getting neurotic, but I am flying between Buffalo and Chicago, which puts me over at least two of them. Yikes.... Anyway, next Thursday, if you hear that United 1707 has crashed, don't expect any more updates.
OK, I'm being macarbe, I admit. I'm not really afraid to fly - never have been - but one can't help pondering these things. As far as ways to kick the bucket go, plane crash doesn't sound too bad compared to lung cancer or tetanus, but I'd rather hold off until a slightly riper age than 17.
Let's change the subject. I am indeed going to Chicago again, which is great. Aside from the Carp Classic, I'm hoping to get in a visit to the University of Chicago (I visited Northwestern last year). If there are any Rockefellows reading this who would like to tour me around, that'd be great. French accent preferred. :-)
Heh heh, that wasn't nice. Besides not having a cool accent, I'm guessing that my Chicago tour guide won't tell the group where all the brothels and heroin houses (piquettes) in the area are located, which, yes, the McGill guy did.
Well, this time I've got to go and write a History essay. Damn school, huh? :-) Evan
I'm back! Actually, I was back Sunday night since, unlike last year, I was not stranded at O'Hare, an experience I highly recommend. Our flight was delayed for over an hour, though, since the plane was stuck in some dumb midwestern place (I think it was Cedar Rapids). Like every flight I've ever been on into or out of Buffalo, it was completely full, disproportionately with camera-toting Japanese tourists dreaming of the water running over the hill (yeah, that's sarcasm, I've never understood the allure of Niagara Falls and probably never will). But it was also fast - like an hour from wheels up to wheels down, so I wasn' really that late getting home afterall. The outbound flight was nearly two, but the resturn was faster for several reasons:
- Faster airplane. The 727 is, aside from the obvious and irrelevent exception of the Concorde, the fastest narrowbody aircraft, and second fastest subsonic airliner overall (the 747 is faster). 737s, on the other hand, are one of the slowest, and we were delayed by ATC, too.
- Prevailing winds. We were flying east. Duh.
- Hot rod pilot. See my new quotation on the front page and its explanation.
- More direct routing.
The last bullet point deserves some elaboration. On the way to Chicago, we sat in the plane on the runway in Buffalo for like 20 minutes before taking off because of some air traffic control hiccup in Cleveland. That was a bummer. And once we were under way, our speed was limited becuase of congestion, too. And we took a way northerly route, which was actually really cool. We took off from the airport and flew out over downtown, across the Niagara River (with The Falls visible just to the north), and along the southern tip of Lake Ontario (along the QEW). We covered the distance from the Canadian border to Hamilton in like two minutes. It's the most interminable segment of the drive to Toronto, so I was sort of impressed by that. It was a rather overcast day, so I couldn't see Toronto across the lake like I could have if it had been a little bit clearer. We kept flying northwest for a long time, across a major hunk of Lake Huron and into Michigan, over Michigan and across the Great Lake of the same name, and then down into Chicago, landing without delay. It was a really out-of-the-way route, being sent that far up into Canada, but there was quite a bit to see, so I didn't mind. I've never been west of Hamilton in Canada before, so it was all foreign territory to me. On the return flight, however, we hugged the northern shore of Lake Erie pretty closely, except around Detroit, where we got the hell out of the way of all the traffic there.
Heading west on Thursday, I actually saw something really cool from the air just east of Motown. It was Northwest DC-10 climbing out from Metro airport. It was heading due east, the totally opposite direction of our plane, and about five thousand or so feet below us. Anyway, it looked like it was going about 1,000 MPH becuase of the combined speed of our two aircraft. And so close! I'd never seen anything like that before.
Chicago was good, as usual. The weather was quite nice, especially on Sunday (the day we left, of course). Dad did terrible in the Carp Classic, but it was becuase he got a miserable peg, just awful. We made a quick jaunt down to see the University of Chicago, though I didn't get a formal tour. I'm really not interested anymore, I've got to say. It's way far south, past the reach of the El (so getting anywhere would be a nightmare), and in the middle of a total slum. The area it is actually in, Hyde Park, is sort of a cool academic area, but it's a tiny island in the middle of some really scary territory. Unlike Evanston (home of Northwestern), this really isn't the sort of place I'd feel great about walking around after dark, which is pretty early much of the year in Chicago. The campus doesn't have much charm to it, either. Anyway, if Hyde Park looks miserable compared to Evanston, I can assure you it looks really bad compared to downtown Montréal. So, to make a long story short, McGill is still in a convincing lead. I'd still like to live in Chicago someday, just cause I think it's a neat place, but I'd rather wait until I have $$$ and can live in a real place (the area along Lincoln Park is really, really nice). I don't think I want to be a student there.
On Friday, there was a big movie crew about a block down the river from where we were fishing, filming Rocky & Bullwinkle, the new movie version with/produced by Robert De Niro. I walked down and squoze my way past the security detail and watched for a while. They weren't really doing too much, but they were setting up for a pretty big stunt. Basically all I saw was an inflatable Bullwinkle sitting in a turquoise Chrysler Sebring convertible (they had a Rocky balloon around somewhere too). I was told by the set assistant sent over to keep an eye on us gawkers and the people wanting to get through on bikes (they had a big hunk of the Riverwalk closed off) that it is going to be a live action/animated movie, so I assume the Halloween props are to take the place on the film until the cartoons can be inserted ala Roger Rabbit. Anyway, I took a picture (probably verboten), which I will be sure to post when I get it back. They did a couple takes with these two James Bond bimbo-looking villains (think two African-American Xena Onatopps) sneaking around, then I got bored and left (my attention span is generally low). Later on that evening, after I was gone, they catapulted the Sebring into the Chicago River. The footage was on the 11:00 news and a picture was in the Tribune the next day (I'll scan that in too when I get the chance). Anyway, although I think it is a stupid idea for a movie (though not half as stupid as the recent Dudley Do-Right), I guess I'll have to go and see it now.
Anyway, this here narrative is about the only update to the site I have at the moment. My O'Hare airliner photos will be coming online sometime this weekend, so you can all be waiting for that with bated breath. I think I have a couple good ones. There are a few other things I'm going to post this week when I get time, so be on the lookout. Bye now. Evan
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