Caution! Wake Turbulence!

Here is a picture of N794UA which, if you are a close reader of my blog, was the plane I spotted on my recent trip Indianapolis. It just so happens this was the plane operating UA 248, my flight home to O'Hare on Wednesday! Wow! Even I think I'm a nerd for keeping track of this kind of stuff, but this is where it pays off.

My Thanksgiving trip was pretty good. I ate a lot and spent a lot of time with my family. This year we went to dinner at the Baranko's on Friday which was really nice.

Nothing overly eventful happened other than me drinking too much with Chuck one night and my parents not being very happy with me the next day.

N204UA 777-222/ER was my ORD-DEN aircraft

I left O'Hare this morning at 8 am. The weather was bad, but there were no unscheduled delays.

I'm amazed by how busy O'Hare and the airspace is around it can be. Case in point: our plane was told to depart from Rwy 27L. This is a westbound runway that is intersected about halfway down by 23L/14R. Arrivals were coming in on 14R and I was listening to arrivals on 14R being weaved in with departures on 27L. Its no wonder this airport's runways are getting reconfigured. Its amazing that this airport is able to function with stuff happening like this.

Our landing at DEN was extra special for me personally. We were cleared for a visual approach to 35R. They were also landing aircraft on 34R, 35L, and 35R. These runways are all parallel and I think DEN is the only airport in the country that is able to support landings like this. Out my window I saw a United 737 and a Frontier A319 landing to the left. It was very cool. A United 767 landing in front of us at ATC was warning our captian about wake turbuelnce. Funny to hear a 777 being warned about wake turbulence from a 767.

Anyway that was my book report from the airport. I'm flying again in about two weeks and this time Mr T is flying with me on Frontier. Hurrah!

My Life in Pictures

I decided to play the little game MC played on his blog the other day. The game goes like this:

Do a Google image search of the following and post the first (or favorite) result for each:

• The name of the town where you were born
• The name of the town where you live now
• Your name
• Your grandmother's name (just pick one)
• Your favorite food
• Your favorite drink
• Your favorite song
• Your favorite smell

Here goes:

Crown Point, Indiana

Crown Point is the county seat of Lake County, Indiana. This is the old courthouse which now houses a bunch of junky craft stores and the John Dillinger museum. Lake County's claim to fame is not its proximity to Chicago, but rather that the famed mobster escaped from the jail in this buidling.

Denver, Colorado

I am very fortunate to live in the "Mile High City," Denver, Colorado. Its a bit more pictoresque than Crown Point, don't you think? This is a good shot looking west towards downtown with the mountains behind it. Look all the way to the right of the picture and locate the light colored skyscraper. My apt is just a few blocks to the east of it.

Uhh...

Apparently I wrote a book in 1957 and it is now on tape.

Linda Ronstadt?

I guess maybe Lou rhymes with the blue in "Blue Bayou"

Pho

Mmmm. I love pho so much. This looks like pho with rare steak and meatballs, which is my 2nd favorite kind of pho. I like rare steak with brisket the best. I think I'll see if Lenny wants Pho for dinner tonight. Its tasty and cheap!!

Manhattan

A manhattan is bourbon, sweet vermouth and a cherry. This picture is showing it served "up," but I prefer it on the rocks. The best way to unwind after work is a comfortable chair, a manhattan, and some good music.

You Make Lovin' Fun

Ok, so this is really just a Christine song but I thought this was a great picture from the "Rumours" era.

Oil Refineries

There is nothing like the putrid stench of an oil refinery to make me feel like I'm home again.

Angeleyes

Right now I'm listening to ABBA's Voulez-Vous album. This is another 70s classic that I love. Surely it is ABBA's disco album, but its so much more than that to me. I can remember being a teenager in a time when everyone was listening to Pearl Jam and Stone Temple Pilots when they rocked out in their bedroom at night. Young MU, however, was different. He sat in his room trying to imagine the scene of a perfomance film for the whole album. The costumes where pretty much like what you see above, but the stage was very much like the dance floor of the supper club in "The Great Muppet Caper."

I like this album now because I can appreciate the arrangements in the songs, the power of Agnetha & Frida's voices and how wonderful they sound together. I miss having groups like this around. I love power pop with boys and girls singing on top of lush, panoramic arrangements with good pop hooks. I guess maybe the notion of such a thing is a bit antiquated but I'd buy it.

Just don't stop thinking about my Angeleyes....

Set Love Free

I've just spent some time really studying the Wright Amendment. For those of you who aren't total dorks like me, I'll explain a little bit about it. This is a piece of Federal legislation that restricts commercial flights of over more than 56 seats from flying from Dallas Love Field to any state that is not touching Texas (with three exceptions). If you want to fly from (to) Texas to (from) anywhere that matters, (sorry Gulf states) you have to use Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and presumably fly American Airlines who operates 84% of the flights from this airport. AA is the largest airline in the world and has no competition at D/FW--Braniff is out of buisness and Delta left a few years ago.

Opponents say this legislation artifically restricts competion. There are tons of bad things that result from restricting competitions. Mainly, D/FW and AA have no incentive to operate as efficently as they possibly could.

Proponents say airlines can move to D/FW and not deal with the restrictions at DAL. That's harder for smaller companies to do when landing fees and other associated costs are kept artifically high due to anti-competitve legislation. Southwest is the principle private entity in favor of the repeal of Wright. AA and D/FW are whining that a repeal will help Southwest create a monopoly at DAL. Gee, that's an interesting argument considering they are enjoying a monopoly set up by the US goverment!!

There's something else I don't get. The proponents say that if airlines are allowed to fly out of DAL airlines will gradually vacate DFW because DAL is closer to the flying public. Yet, the two airports are only 7 miles apart? What's up with THAT?

Lenny has always complained that airfare from Denver to San Antonio is pretty high. With Southwest moving into Denver in Januaury, I assumed fares would come down. They haven't because a flight from DEN to SAT on WN would require a trip through DAL. And, you guessed it, Colorado is outside the list of states accessible from DAL.

Why can't we lift restrictions and let the airlines duke it out on their own? The flying public will reward who can get them from point A to point B even if it means driving an extra 7 miles to the airport. Get real people.

Texas gets more annoying by the second.

Anyway as Madonna says...

If you don't like my attitude, then f-off
Just go to Texas
Isn't that where they golf?

Here are some links:

Anti-Wright: www.setlovefree.com

Pro-Wright: www.wrightalert.com

Rumours

In my warped reality, I actually think that I am missing from this picture. Its fall and that means time to listen to Rumours. I've been listening to it non stop. I could write something inspired about each one of the songs on this record but I won't. I don't want to over do it after being away from blogging for so long.

I will say that "You Make Lovin' Fun" is probably my most favorite song EVER. I've always thought this song is kind of like me. It starts out in a minor key with sort of ominous feeling. You're really not sure what you're getting into, it sounds cool but you're nervous. As you listen you realize that its not that bad--pretty awesome in fact. Then you get to the chorus and its full of bright harmonies, soaring voclas, and lush wonderful keyboards. All you gotta do is get to know the song and you'll see how great it is.

I heard the original version of "Silver Springs" on KBCO yesterday when I was filling up on gas. As you may or may not know, this song was originally supposed to be included on Rumours but was cut at the last minute because of limitations on the number of songs that could be on vynil records. It ended up being the B side to Lindsey's "Go Your Own Way" and I think Stevie was pretty pissed about that for many years. As for me, I have always liked that song, but I always felt like the live version from "The Dance" was more emotionally powerful. I still think that, but yesterday I really listened and I got a feel for how great the the original version song actually is. Sometimes it seems like you almost get a more rich listening experience out of old songs when you hear them on the radio. I think they were engineered when more people had lower quality speakers so you hear more things that might blend together more on a new stereo. Anyway, I could hear the harmonies more clearly and the piano and guitar parts sounded much better together. I get a chill every single time I hear that song.

~ I'll follow you down 'til the sound of my voice will haunt you
You'll never get away from the sound of the woman that loved you.... ~

How true her words were....


In other news, Lenny and I are throwing a birthday open house for Matt. I'm pretty excited about it. We're going to have a crowd in my little apartment I think but it should be fine. Chuck is flying in which means it will be that much more drunken.

That's about it for now. I know there's more, but I haven't been keeping in touch with my free flowing blogging style lately. I promise I'll be better here shortly.