LHookins

Many years ago I kept a dream journal. I'd record my dreams before I got out of bed in the morning. No particular reason, just that someone had suggested it and I thought I'd give it a try. One night I dreamed that my best and oldest friend (I'd known him since the 6th grade) showed up at my door after a few years of not hearing from him. The next day he showed up in person. Coincidence? That was one of a dozen such dreams in the month I was keeping the journal. Try it some time and see for yourself. It's not easy, but it's a worthwhile experience. Hook

Actually, it would be a slight decrease over normal operations flying with a full passenger load. 🙂 I think that was the point that Noel-the-birdman was trying to make. The airlines are losing a LOT of money by flying empty. The upside is that it might be easier to get upgraded to first class. 😄 Hook

I definitely remember Echo. It was very visible. One night I was outside with binoculars looking at a very clear Mars. Suddenly I saw the ISS pass in front of the planet. A "wow" moment that I wasn't expecting. Hook

A funny thing is, the "middle school" jokes are common across cultures. I was collecting a bunch that I remembered and was discussing them with a coworker from India. He knew all the same jokes, and had heard them all in middle school! 40 yards to the outhouse by Willie Makit. Illustrated by Betty Dont. Hook

Major Hoople, Gordo, Mutt & Jeff. Many more. Hook

https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/mark-twain-liked-cats-better-people-180965265/ Hook

Doggy can sing, but he can't carry a tune. 🙂 Hook

This is the significant bit of information that make the rest make sense. This should be understood by both XPlane users and non-XPlane users, but for different reasons. Sorry 'bout that. Hook

I get the impression that you haven't done much actual solo flight. Nothing wrong with that considering your intentions about flying. How many true solo hours to you have? Actual solo flight is the only time when the feelings pilots are talking about in this thread actually occur. Hook

Dogs lick us because they love us. Cats lick us because they're evaluating us as a food source. Hook

"You'll never see a motorcycle parked in front of a psychiatrist's office." 😄 Hook PS. If the doctor rides one, it's parked in back. H.

The worst static I ever experienced was in an office where I worked. If you scrubbed your feet on the carpet first, you could generate a 1/2 inch spark if you approached a grounded object. Approach with a key or something, and even then your wrist would jump. An engineer in the office said that represented 50,000 volts. I was carrying a phone cord to an outlet, fingers not near the socket on the cord, when a static discharge killed the modem and computer on the other end of the cord. A coworker berated me highly for it, but later had the same thing happen to him. Karma at its best. We tried everything to get rid of the static, even bringing in a professional, without effect. We finally got rid of it by spraying the entire carpet with undiluted Downey fabric softener. Hook

After thinking about it a bit, I've never heard anyone actually say "Happy Holidays." It's only on seasonal greeting cards and such. I've seen it on cards as far back as I can remember, some time in the 50's and remember asking my mother what it was. Possibly it is to make a generic greeting card instead of individual ones for each religion and sell more cards that way? Hm. My Catholic coworker from the Pentagon who first told me the "felicitous Winter Solstice" greeting in the 70's had a Jewish wife. He used to joke about having a Star of David on their Hannukah bush. 😄 Hook

I couldn't get it from the NYTimes (somehow I'd reached my non-subscriber page view limit) but there were many other references available in a search. Wikipedia has a good article. Reminds me of the Flying Spaghetti Monster and Dihydrogen Monoxide (it's the chief component of acid rain!) Hook

I took an hour and 20 minute break from all things electronic this morning. Our power was out. Many thanks to the electric company for getting it restored so quickly on Christmas day. My son is working today as well, food service in the health care industry. I'll bet he has a more fun time at work than the electric company guys. 🙂 I usually enjoyed working on Christmas day and New Years eve. We'll have Christmas morning on Monday. To Martin, remember, this too shall pass. (inside joke for this particular infection). Been there, done that. Hook

A felicitous generic Winter solstice to all who celebrate. Merry Christmas from Texas! Hook

Mars: One small step for a billionaire, one giant leap for mankind. 😄 Hook

I've been really lucky that in the last few years I remember a lot of my dreams. As I got older, dreams became more complex and interesting, and there are a lot of repeating locations. Some dreams even reference earlier dreams from some time ago. Occasionally I even dream about airplanes. 😄 The last one had a particularly realistic C-172 cockpit. It's been far too long since I had a dream where I could fly. Without an airplane, that is. Hook

Am I the only one who wants to try this now? 😄 Hook

With the proper back story, any flight can be considered realistic. 😄 South Carolina had to charter an aircraft to do that. In this particular case it was a helicopter, but a Cessna 172 or a Cub would have worked as well. With a little imagination you can come up with a reason to fly anything from and to anywhere. Hook

Let us know how this works out if you could. I'm in the same situation... I need a year worth of updates. I know how it *should* work, but I want to hear from someone who has actually been through the process. Thanks. Hook

I currently have six cats. When they're not up eating or running around they sleep in the same spot for days or weeks at a time. For some reason, this summer they all prefer to stay outside all the time. This never happened before. I prefer adult cats to kittens. We've also been feeding a stray. After five years, yesterday was the first time he let me pet him! 😄 Hook

Ploughing through the trough of that thought was tough though. Hook

Perfect! Geek humor. Gotta love it. And Lorby's right. It wouldn't look near as good pre-fix or in-fix as it does post-fix. 😄😄 Hook

That... was incredible. Pro tip: wait for the advertisement at the beginning to finish. My wife liked the music. She came in to see what it was. Apparently (if I can guess the Norwegian language in the credits) it was written for this video. "Pining for the fjords." 😄 Hook