Here And There

Bermuda!

2011-07-30T13:38:00.001-04:00

We arrived safe and sound yesterday about noon after 8 days at sea. No storms or major issues. We sighted land at 5am after 6 days with nothing but water all around us. It is gorgeous here and we are enjoying getting cleaned up and r&r. Internet cafes are nonexistent and the whole island is on a national holiday through tomorrow so connectivity has been frustratingly lacking. I will fly home in the next day or two. More to come with pics when I return.

Castoff

2011-07-22T04:19:00.001-04:00

About ready to cast off for the dock. Should be about 5-7 days till Bermuda. No wind yet but should pickup offshore.

Baby birds! v2.0

2011-07-11T17:10:00.000-04:00

The nest has progressed well and we had our first chicks hatch two weeks from the day the first egg was laid. Two chicks were out by 10AM and the parents were pretty excited. The following day the third chick was born. We have kept waiting for the 4th egg to hatch but it looks like it was a dud. The three chicks have grown rapidly and both parents have been very busy feeding them. They are super cute and want to be fed constantly. I managed to get some decent pictures of the feeding, so without further ado here are the pics. Note the ridiculous development between day 17 and day 19:

More pictures are here. I'll keep taking pics as long as they stay in the nest (should be 2 weeks from hatching).

More bird neighbors

2011-07-04T14:17:00.000-04:00

We had robins try to build a nest by our juliet balcony back in April but shoed them away due to imminent door replacement construction. With the wrens fledged and gone we thought we were done with bird excitement for the season. Wrong.The robins came back and built their nest in a day. It was fun to watch them use the very corner of the balcony for their nest. This must be a regular site for them to nest as they seem unphased by the large glass door and awkward nest location. Over the next couple of days the female robin laid four eggs, one per day. This is a standard clutch size according to wikipedia. The last egg was laid on June 25 so we expect eggs to start hatching this Saturday July 9. Mama bird does not particularly like our presence though and often flies away screaming at us if we come close to the door. I don't have any pictures of mama bird yet since she doesn't like it when we get close to her on the nest. We'll see if I can find a way around this. In the meantime, here are pictures of the nest and eggs.

I'll take more pictures as the nest & family develops.

Away they go!

2011-06-07T15:39:00.000-04:00

After all of the drama our last couple of days with the chicks were quiet. They were starting to look like real birds and the mother wren started hanging around the nest. We thought that she was wary of our presence or our pizza box devices but then speculated that she was sticking around in case one of her chicks fell again or tried to fly from the nest.

On Wednesday, June 1, exactly 14 days old, the chicks fledged. It started in the morning with the mom hanging around the nest a lot and making a lot of noise. Lauren thought that she was encouraging the chicks to come out of the nest and turned out she was right. After Lauren left for work I opened the screen door and took down the crow shield. This was exactly what they needed since as I slid the screen closed one of the chicks hopped out onto the top of the nest. The rest of the chicks soon followed suit and their mom and dad became very excited and active- making a racket and flying between the nest and the tree. They even tried to lure the chicks to the tree by bringing big bugs right in front of the chicks and then flying to the nearby tree branch.

After much trepidation one of the chicks made a successful flight to the tree branch! The other chicks were less optimistic and jumped around on the top of the hanging basket, railing, and screen. After some mis-flights and one rescue by me all the chicks safely ended up in a thick bush on the ground floor below our window. The chicks were certainly not proficient fliers and had trouble gaining elevation on their flights. They also struggled learning what they could use as a perch. Regardless, it was amazing watching these little birds take flight for the first time. Nothing like a 30' fall to concrete to encourage a successful first flight. Despite a lack of agility in the air, they were all able to keep fairly level and flap their wings enough to at least significantly slow their decent.

I checked on the bush an hour later and the whole family had migrated to a tree about 20 feet away, though not all the chicks were able to fly up into the lowest branches. I went on a bike ride and when I returned the family was gone. By following the parents' song I located the family in thick bushes on the other side of the parking lot. I could only visually locate one chick but due to the racket the parents made on my approach I am sure the others were there as well. Another couple of hours later and the wrens were nowhere to be found. That evening Lauren came home to a very empty nest. We have not seen or heard 'our' wrens in the week since they fledged. We can only hope they are doing their bird thing in our back woods and the same mated-pair will come back next year to raise another brood of chicks.

The final pics of the wrens, with more here:

Downy drama

2011-05-29T17:09:00.000-04:00

The chicks are growing bigger every day and accumulating more flight feathers. It's been hot here so the chicks have been crowded and hot, resting with their beaks open on the nest opening. It's now Day 11 and there's been a flurry of activity with the nest recently.

Yesterday I rode my bike to the farmer's market in town. When I returned home I was putting away groceries when I saw a huge black crow land on the hanging basket and start eying the nest! I rushed over to the door and banged on the glass making the crow fly off to the adjacent tree and then away. I inspected the nest and found it quite disheveled with the chicks cowering in the far back corner of the nest cavity. I poked around and to my horror discovered only four of the six chicks remained in the nest! I looked around under the nest to see if one had fallen or if there were feathers indicating an altercation, but there was not a trace to be found. It is reasonable to suspect the crow somehow discovered the nest and made a nice snack out of a couple of the wren chicks. Despite this being a classic example of the circle of life, I endeavored to not let the crow capture any more of the chicks for the remainder of the afternoon. This meant I couldn't lose sight of the nest for >30 seconds.

I was quite successful at this for a couple of hours, but then was meeting a couple of new friends at a bar to watch the soccer Champions League final. I hadn't seen the crow for a couple of hours but I didn't want to leave the chicks to fend for themselves for the remainder of the afternoon. The logical solution was to protect the nest in my absence with an impermeable shield:

Made of 1 pizza box lid and 4 twistie ties, it's surprisingly rigid and would be a pain for a crow to move. I stayed around for a bit to make sure the parents still fed the chicks with the shield up and then took off to the bar.

Happy with my defense mechanism I thoroughly enjoyed the soccer match and returned home to find the shield in place and no more chicks missing. All was well until this morning.

Lauren got up for work and went to make her customary check of the chicks before breakfast. She called me quickly that one of the chicks had fallen out of the nest! It luckily hadn't fallen 3 stories to the concrete below, but was somewhat wedged between the black cast iron railing and the screen. It was hanging onto the screen for dear life but luckily appeared healthy. It was a precarious situation as we had to slide the screen in order to attempt to rescue the chick. We also couldn't reach the chick after opening the screen an arm's thickness, so again it was pizza box to the rescue! With the bottom half of the box I was able to reach the chick, scoop underneath it, get it in the box, and then Lauren grabbed it. With a little encouragement it was helped back into the nest and was no worse the wear. Needless to say, there was no time for photography during this escapade.

This episode realized our worst fear, that as the chicks get closer to fledging, they will crowd the nest and might fall out. Clearly the chicks needed some human intervention. With some string, twistie ties, and the other half of the pizza box we fashioned a CFAD (chick falling assist device):

With the leaf debris on top it should cushion and house any chick long enough that we can put it back in the nest. At this point our neighbors definitely think we're weird. Luckily the huge tree helps to block the nest or our well-engineered devices from the prying eyes of the public (or apartment management).

Phew, after all this drama we're hoping the chicks have a low-key last couple of days of development. The parents are feeding them basically non-stop, which is simply impressive. Also cool was we saw the female wren fly away with a white sack in her mouth. Lauren had a hunch about it and confirmed that it was a fecal sac, common for this family of birds. It helps ensure the nest remains fairly tidy. This should be the last week of the chicks in the nest, so a lot will be happening.

All that's left is to post pictures from the last couple of days. Again, more pictures are here:

Stay tuned for future updates.

Baby birds!

2011-05-26T10:27:00.000-04:00

About a month ago we purchased a hanging plant for our sliding door railing. We set it out on Thursday and the next morning found a pair of Carolina Wrens building a nest in it. They are really cute and mate for life. Over the next couple days they finished constructing the nest and soon laid 6 eggs in it. After sitting on them for just over two weeks, they all hatched last Thursday, 5/19.

The weather has gotten warm lately so there has been little reason for the mom to sit with the babies. Instead her and the dad are spending most of their time foraging for bugs and insects to feed the six chicks. We have enjoyed watching them from the couch about 4' away and have witnessed an abundance of worms, spiders, and beetles fed to the little mouths. When the parents are away we have opened the sliding doors to get up close and personal with the chicks and to check on their development. During this time I have been documenting their growth, which is amazingly fast. According to literature, they will start fledging (leaving the nest) next week already! It's been great fun watching them develop up so close to our living room. Enough talk, here are some pictures of the nest location and the chicks' development. (Fullsize & more pictures are here)

The hanging basket by our living room:

Feeding time:

Stay tuned for the next week of growth!

Feathered friend

2011-05-22T09:47:00.001-04:00

When we first moved into our apartment we heard strange animal noises from the woods behind the apartment complex. They occurred mostly at night and the early morning hours, but also occasionally during the day. Based on the calls Lauren suspected it was a Barred Owl which we confirmed by consulting our bird book. There were a couple of distinct individuals that we heard almost every day and morning. One night we even tried to track the owl. We didn't get very close, but due to some rough triangulation we determined it likely came from a swampy area immediately adjacent to the apartment complex.

One afternoon we were outside when an individual started vocalizing. We grabbed our binoculars and went trudging into the swamp to try and find the source. Of course once we entered the swamp the calls stopped. It had sounded very close, but we couldn't tell if it was super close, or more like 1/4 mile away. We had reached an impasse in the swamp due to a small brook when Lauren called out that she had managed to spot the owl! It sat unmoving in a tree not 100' from where we were and blended in perfectly with the mottled tree trunks. How Lauren managed to spot it is beyond me. Maybe she has an animal connection.

It was indeed a Barred Owl, and it looked amazing. I don't think I've ever seen an owl up close and personal before, and certainly not in the wild. When it looked at me my heart just stopped, it was so intense.

We huddled up under a nearby tree and watched the owl for about 45 minutes. I ran back to the apartment and grabbed my camera to try my hand at digiscoping. I don't have any tools to assist me, so it was a very precarious situation holding the camera precisely aligned with the binoculars and trying to manually focus the camera at the same time (since autofocus doesn't work so well through so many pieces of glass). Thankfully the owl didn't fly away or move during the whole ordeal. By the end I think the results were pretty decent.

Without binoculars (arrow points to owl):

Camera at full zoom:

Through Lauren's 10x binoculars:

What a difference the binoculars make! All in all a very chill large barred owl. We speculate it's a female due to her large size. We have continued to hear her and others in our back woods for the last month or so. Wildlife is so cool!

Step 3- Hot water heater

2011-05-20T19:21:00.000-04:00

Here's an easy one- turn down the temperature on your hot water heater. This reduces standby energy losses of keeping all of that water hot all of the time. It's also good to note that hot water above 120 degrees can cause instant burns. Why keep water warmer than you need it?

First you turn off the power to the electric water heater just in case you touch any electrical wires. Two screws later you have access to the upper element's thermostats.

Before:

After:

Simple repeat the process for the lower heating element. In this picture I only set it at 125, but a week later I moved it to 120 with no ill effects.

How much energy are we saving? Here's a quick ballpark number for the total standby losses:
EnergyGuide estimated cost per year= $411
My tank's energy factor = 0.92
Yearly standby losses ~= (1-0.92) * 411 = $33

I moved the thermostat from 140 to 120 (30% decrease from ~70 degree groundwater), so 0.3 * $33 = $9.90

This has a lot of assumptions, but is likely a fair order of magnitude calculation. Is $10/yr going to make you rich? Probably not, but it's FREE MONEY, and a significant savings considering the change costs $0 and can be done by anyone with a screwdriver. Nation-wide energy savings doesn't get easier than this.

Additionally, the calculation is based on cheap coal powered electricity (thanks Dominion), I'm not expecting prices to stay low into the future.

Step 2- Water

2011-05-06T06:57:00.001-04:00

I am always amazed by how little we pay for water and sewer. The national average is $2.72 per 1,000 gallons. It is such a privilege to have easy access to great quality water.

With such a low rate perhaps it should come as little surprised that our average use of water is staggering. The national average is 70 gallons of indoor water use PER PERSON per day: http://www.drinktap.org/consumerdnn/Home/WaterInformation/Conservation/WaterUseStatistics/tabid/85/Default.aspx.

70 gallons each! That's a lot of water! Why should we care about how much water we use? Basically we'll be in a world of hurt if we suck out too much fresh water from the ground. Levels in many places across the country are dangerously low as shown here. And we're affecting plants and animals by 'using' tons of water from lakes and rivers. And my favorite reason is because we don't own the planet and its resources. We should try to minimize our impact on it, especially when it is SO easy.

I'm doing a couple things to help reduce our water use. First was installing a high efficiency aerator in the bathroom sink. The existing aerator was 2.2 gallons per minute (GPM):

This is the standard US aerator. It regulates flow to 2.2 GPM, the maximum amount allowed by law. (The 2.2 GPM limit was created by Congress back in 1992, and was signed into law by Bush senior. Why hasn't this been updated in 19 years!?)

This is what the flow looks like. Gushing waterfall anyone?

There is no reason we need 2.2 GPM for bathroom hand washing. This amount of water is much better suited to a kitchen sink, if at all. A pair of pliers was all I needed to install the new one.

High efficiency 0.5 GPM aerator. Purchased from Greenfeet for ~$2.50 including shipping.

New improved flow. Plenty for hand washing, brushing teeth, etc.

Installation was a breeze and we're now saving 77% of our fresh water from our sink, with no loss of function. These high efficiency aerators have about the same payback as CFLs (less than a year). And similar to CFLs you can take them with you if move.

Next up was the kitchen sink.

Original sink- 2.0 GPM.

Strangely the kitchen sink had a more constrictive aerator than the bathroom sink. Goes to show how poorly thought-out this arrangement was. Our new aerator is courtesy of the City of Charlottesville:

New aerator- 1.5 GPM.

It has adjustable flow (spray or stream) with a max of 1.5 GPM. It also incorporates a swivel nozzle which is great for cleaning dishes & pots. 25% water savings in 10 minutes. We have fairly high water usage since we do all of our dishes by hand, so this will definitely have a good impact. The only problem is that the added swivel hardware makes it hard to fill up our Brita water filter jug. This is more the fault of a ridiculous low sink spout (future hardware upgrade?) than the aerator, but is worth noting.

Last was the shower head. I was surprised and impressed to see that the factory head has a flow of 1.5 GPM. This is great vs the standard 2.2 GPM!

Existing 1.5 GPM head.

Unfortunately the spray was not firm enough for our liking, so I installed a low-flow head (also from the City of Charlottesville).

Newly installed (used) 2.0 GPM shower head.

This is a 2.0 GPM head, so our water use will actually go UP. However, the original shower head had close to zero utility, so both the utility and our enjoyment will go up more dramatically.

Here were three changes that took about 20 minutes to install and a total cost of under $10. With an average lifespan of about 20 years, these fixtures will continue to produce savings long past they have earned back the initial cost. Do it for the cost savings, or the environment, but it makes sense any way you look at it.

A new home!

2011-04-27T14:54:00.001-04:00

On April 9 I moved to Williamsburg and into a new (to us) apartment with Lauren. It's on the third floor of the 3 story apartment building and faces W by NW. We've been busy unpacking, organizing our things, and buying furniture on craigslist.

The new apartment is also a good setting for energy/sustainability improvements. I don't think I can get to net-zero energy use quite yet (don't think I can put PV on the roof), but here are some of my first improvements to reduce our greenhouse gas emissions.

Step 1: Lighting

A personal favorite of mine is lighting. The first step is zero cost. It involves turning off any light that won't be used for 10 minutes or longer. Lauren and I are getting very good at this.

Second easiest thing is to install CFLs. They use 75% less power than incandescents. If you're looking for great bang-for-your-buck, look no further. Plus Virginia's electric utilities subsidize the costs of CFLs which means you can get 26W bulbs for <$2 each at places like Ace Hardware or Walmart. In our place, the bathroom three lamp vanity fixture was an obvious place to start:

This existing fixture with three incandescent bulbs uses 180W of power.
I unscrewed two of the lights and replaced the third with a CFL to make the new fixture:

Can you tell the difference? The new energy usage of one CFL= 23W. Estimated savings = $18.9 per year. (3hrs/day, $0.11/kwh) Can't beat that return on investment.

I also changed the bulbs in the ceiling fan above the dining room. We don't use this light often, but when we do we'll be saving 75% of the electricity cost. I also unscrewed two of the incandescents because we have plenty of light with just the two CFLs.

I've put CFLs in all of our floor/table lamps (the majority of the apartment's lighting) and the kitchen already has a large 1x4 fluorescent fixture (this may be the subject of a subsequent upgrade). The only place I'm using incandescents are in the storage closet and the front stairs. I don't want to worry about breaking a bulb in the storage room and we practically never use the stair light.

These upgrades took about 15 minutes and created immediately energy savings (aka negawatts). These lights will also last about 4 times as long as incandescents, reducing landfill waste.

Now to address the 2 legitimate complaints I've ever heard about CFLs:

They take a couple minutes to 'warm up'.
They light "doesn't look right".

1- Newer bulbs take 30 seconds to reach maximum light output. Is that really too long to wait? If you're doing surgery or something similar (applying makeup?), just turn on the light 30 seconds before you need it. Problem solved. I also typically install a higher equivalent wattage than the incandescent I'm replacing. Technically you can replace a 60W table lamp with a 13W CFL, but I'll use a 23W CFL to make sure I get enough light output.

2- Basically, yes the light often looks different. By buying better bulbs you can help remedy this problem. You can't get an identical product to the incandescent light bulb that also uses far less power.

The full story involves the issue of light quality. Whole textbooks have been written on this, so I can't do it justice. The basic story is that all light is not created equal. Light is made up of many individual components, separated by their wavelength. The human eye is INCREDIBLY good at adjusting to these differences and making everything seem relatively the same. A light bulb's Color Rendering Index (CRI) is a metric we invented that measures the ability of a certain light source to render colors on objects. The reference standard we use is an incandescent lightbulb, which has a CRI of 100. CFLs often have CRIs of 80 or so (Energy star requires >79). This means they don't render colors as well as incandescents. This site has some good graphs that help explain the physics of what's happening:
http://www.topbulb.com/find/cri.asp

You can buy CFLs with higher CRIs, but they cost more and aren't as readily available. They're often marketed as 'full spectrum'. Incidentally, higher color temperature CFLs often have higher CRIs as well.

Is this CRI issue a show-stopper? No. Is this good to know? Yes. If you're doing artwork or other very color-sensitive tasks, it might make sense to purchase higher CRI CFLs. Or use daylight.

The bottom line remains- CFLs are an easy way to save 75% of your lighting energy.

Lights out on March 26

2011-03-18T23:32:00.000-04:00

Do it for the Earth: http://www.earthhour.org/

And because the before/after pictures look cool:
2008
2009.

The art of ecomodding

2011-03-06T12:49:00.000-05:00

It's been way too long since my last post. I can blame work, life, etc etc. This the start of my attempts to post more often.

Last weekend I found a cool new website: http://ecomodder.com/. Here people talk and post about ways to improve their vehicle's fuel efficiency. There's some people with the latest hybrids, or handbuilt cars, but most people have regular cars that they just want to make more efficient. There are a whole range of people using the site. Some are able to use driving 'techniques' alone to increase their fuel economy by 50-70%. Others have fun adding/modifying their cars aerodynamics to squeeze out more gains. People are a whole range of crazy on the site but the forums seem quite active and genuinely helpful, so I signed up and entered my gas receipts since last May. There's a handy chart that tracks your MPG and compares it to the EPA baseline:

And more here: http://ecomodder.com/forum/em-fuel-log.php?vehicleid=4684
I like all the metrics that it spits out for you, including the dollars saved vs EPA baseline.

The biggest graph feature that jumped out at me was my precipitous drop in MPG in late November. This happens to match the start of cold temperatures in the Virginia area. I see two reasons for the drop: cars take longer to warm up and reach optimal operating temperature in cold weather. And I was driving to work more often (vs biking) with cold and snowy weather. The 3 mile commute is very inefficient since my car barely has time to warm up by the time I get to shut if off.

I'm starting to incorporate some of their driving style tips into my driving, so stay tuned for future MPG updates. I also plan to build and install upper grill dam in my car such as this.

Arrival & Recovery

2010-12-04T12:24:00.002-05:00

2.5 weeks ago I made it back to the States safe and sound after 48 hours of travel. I just put away my backpack and hiking boots today. Below is a summary of my time since landing.

The flights went well but I was beat when I landed in Dulles. I then had to find a cab to my car. No problem right? Wrong, it was a Muslim holiday so many driver's weren't working. Additionally Washington Flyer has legal monopoly at the airport. How they managed to grease the wheels to get this EXCLUSIVE deal at the airport is amazing. Their contract means that other cab companies are NOT ALLOWED to pick up passengers at the arrivals gate.

After waiting in a ridiculous line for half an hour I got fed up and called the taxi company that brought me to the airport. Their name is withheld to avoid prosecution. Bottom line they were able to pick me up but I had to be waiting at the departure gate. I made it back to my car and went to pay the cabbie only to find I only had Nepali rupees in my wallet. Fixed that with a quick debit purchase at Giant then got in my car to go. Turn the key, dead battery. I contemplated attempting a push-start of my car, but the thought of running my car through the grocery parking lot sounded a bit much. A kind gentleman accepted my request for a jump and I was soon on my way. It was thrilling and terrifying to leave the grocery store and break 35mph for the first time in a month. After a couple mind numbing hours on the road I eventually made it home and curled in my bed about 10PM. (Thanks to Nico for the awesome khata.)

I was up in the office by 8:30 the next morning.

Biking through town I felt like a stranger in my own town. I was amazed by the society we've built with modern conveniences: paved streets, traffic lights, computers, refrigerators, and most of all potable tap water. We are so truly privileged.

The first couple of days were especially rough with my body being very confused. I slept about 6 hours a night but adjusting to eating 3 round meals was a challenge. My gut struggled digesting meat, beans, and dairy for the first times in a month.

My sleeping pattern actually worsened after a couple days back. I found myself waking up at 4AM unable to continue my slumber. My body has gradually acquiesced to sleeping longer but after 2.5 weeks I still have trouble sleeping past 7. After getting 10 hours of sleep a night on the trail, 7 or 8 hours does not feel like enough. I would like to try getting back to the sunset-sunrise schedule of rest. It was glorious.

I went grocery shopping while seeing Lauren in Williamsburg and didn't think it would be an issue. After traversing 2 isles and handling at least 10 varieties and brands of PASTA I was thoroughly overwhelmed. I quickly grabbed the couple of items on my list and headed for the exit. To see so much food in one place with so many choices of every conceivable item! How can we complain about a society that provides so much?

As is always the case after travel- nothing has changed in Charlottesville. With 2 exceptions, 2rw hired another mechanical engineer, and Obama came to town to campaign for our democratic congressional candidate Mr. Perriello. Who then lost. And so the frustrating tug of war continues.

I feel almost accustomed to 'normal life' again. I'm back in the hum of modern life with the pressures of work and society. Always much to do and work occupying the majority of one's time.

I've downloaded my 800+ pictures and put a good sampling online with some descriptive headings. They can be seen here:
http://picasaweb.google.com/BucknellJay/Nepal

I would like to spend some time editing and compiling pictures that I took for the purpose of making HDR shots. Google 'HDR photography' and you'll see what they can look like.

I'd like to keep using this blog while I'm back but want to figure out how best to use it. I will likely start more frequent shorter posts and especially put out links that I find educational/helpful. Nepal was awesome and has rekindled my love for travel. The world is such a huge, diverse, and truly amazing place.

PS- Movember was awesome. $250 in a couple days from friends and family. Thanks to everyone!

http://us.movember.com/mospace/1287424/
PPS- Figured out how to post pictures and a slideshow in my blog today!

Flying and Kathmandu

2010-11-15T06:55:00.000-05:00

Yesterday was paragliding day in Pokhara. The day before we had met up with Dave's friend Charlie and his cousin Sarah who came up from India. They were also interested in getting airborne so the four of us signed up and signed all the legal paperwork (1 page double-spaced). We ended up going with the same company that does parahawking as they have a good reputation and are likely the best trained outfit in town. After a very bumpy ride up a hill we were suited up and strapped to our tandom pilots in under 3 minutes. We then received our instructions:
"When I say walk, start walking. When I say run, start running. Don't rush."

With that the wings were lifted off the ground and we took off one by one. I was the last to get going so had a preview of what to expect. Takeoff was super easy and literally involved walking and then a short jog. No running off a cliff required. My pilot was Illiad from Russia who has been a fighter pilot before turning to helicopters, small planes, and paragliding. Flying was very calm with the only noise the rushing of air by our ears. It was awesome soaring around this hillside cruising with black kites and vultures nearby. Apparently the thermals are so good you could normally stay up from 10AM-4PM without having to land. Our time was limited but sweet. Illiad offered me the controls after a while in the air and I managed to avoid the power lines and trees like a pro. We then cruised over to the lake hands-free, shifting our weight to steer. Illiad then offered a 'trick' and we dove into a huge spiralling corkscrew that made the blood rush to my head and my eyeballs try to pop out of my head. Must have been serious Gs and it was fun. Only downside was it made me get a bit dizzy. We landed a minute later with no problems and no puke. The weather was super cloudy the whole time we were in Pokhara so we didn't get any epic views of the mountains, but paragliding was still a ton of fun. I took my camera with me so managed to snap a good number of pictures during flight. I hope some of them turn out on the computer.

Today we caught our 7:30 bus back to Kathmandu. It was actually a nice bus and by far the most comfortable we've been on. Traffic was light so we only took 2 hours longer than anticipated (8). I had forgotten how crowded and dirty Kathmandu is. Glad I'm here for less than 24 hours. Some packing is left and maybe some shopping. Tonight we're off to taste the local chang beer and local hard alcohol. Certainly sad that my journey is ending. The 3 weeks have completely flown by. Dave & Nico and I are all still speaking to each other so I'd say the trip was a complete success.

Tomorrow AM I start my long flight home and have a nice overnight layover in Mumbai. Hopefully I'll make it back to VA on Thursday PM and my car will still be safely parked in the Giant parking lot. Stay tuned for final thoughts and a massive picture post as I figure out how to get 800+ pics online.

PS- I need to figure out how to turn off those annoying popup adds. Sorry about them.

Back in civilization

2010-11-13T04:22:00.000-05:00

Thanks to a tiny car this morning and Dave and I are back to civilized life in Pokhara. We met up with Nico and all is good. I still have a little head cold but am ok. Just checked into parahawking and apparently it is the THING to do in town. All booked out until the 16th. Darn. Guess that leaves normal paragliding for tomorrow. Have to say being back in a city really isn't very exciting. Hiking the mountains is much more fun. Definitely unexcited about getting back to Kathmandu and then leaving in a couple days. Boo urns. Gotta make the last few days count. Cheers.

2010-11-12T10:39:00.001-05:00

Yesterday made it over the Thorung La pass at 5416m! 1200m dwnhill-legs are tired.Spent tday in transit.13ppl in 1 jeep.Beni tnite, Pokara tmorrow.Updatebytxt.

High up

2010-11-09T18:46:00.000-05:00

At 4500m on random satellite Internet. Sick again which sucks a lot.
This country does not like me. Hoping azithro will kill it quick.
Maybe big day tmorrow over the throng la pass. Only 2 blisters so far
so feet are happy. Sleeping bag doesn't nearly meet up to its 20
degree rating. Good thing for thick blankets. A hot shower in a couple
days is sounding nice.

2010-11-04T22:53:00.001-04:00

Made it to kangsar last night. Elevation 3700m. Dave is hiking Nico down tday. We are all healthy. I am chillin for the day.

Day 10 in Nepal

2010-11-04T02:10:00.000-04:00

Internet! This has to be really quick. All is well and the hiking is amazing. Ridiculous views started yesterday. We are at elevation 3500m and only go up from here. We were all sick for a couple days but not we are healthy and moving well. Weather is sunny and gorgeous. Nights are very cold- sub freezing last night. Hope to be online again in about a week. All for now!
PS- 400 pictures taken,

2nd day

2010-10-27T13:43:00.000-04:00

Today was awesome. Spent most of it walking through basically the whole city. Took a walking tour to durbar square with some help from lonely planet. Really cool shrines and temples still very much in use. Then off to get hiking permits. They are expensive and I have no idea what the gov does with all the money. It is certainly not spent on city improvements. Then off across the whole city to pashinath. Saw a couple cremation ceremonies going on which was quite moving. Dave and I had never seen a dead person before. Wild. Had delicious food and are ready to get on the bus at 7Am tmorrow. Should be great! Toodles for now.

Day 2 in Nepal!

2010-10-26T23:40:00.000-04:00

I made it! Currently sitting here in Hotel Florid in the Thamel district of Kathmandu. The journey from Dulles was 30+ hours and quite exhausting. Arriving in Kathmandu I was completely overwhelmed by all the people, noise, and pollution. I made a new Nepali friend in the airport and we shared a taxi to Thamel. It was a tiny car with no seatbelt, tires with no tread, and a guy who kept shifting to 5th gear at 15mph. The streets are tiny and are choked with all manners of transport and the occasional wandering cow. The driver's wingman was continuously trying to sell me on his favorite hotel and on doing a guided trek with him as a guide.

We eventually made it into the heart of Thamel and I was ecstatic to find Nico sitting in the lobby on a computer! I had never met her before but thanks to the wonders of technology could tell it was her. Dave was right upstairs skinnier and hairier than ever before. They had just returned from 3 weeks trekking to the Everest base camp and had amazing epic stories. Many of them revolved about getting very sick at various times. We spent the afternoon eating and figuring out what we wanted to do in the coming weeks. I deteriorated pretty quickly in the evening and passed out on my bed at 9:30. I feel totally rejuvenated today after my first solid night's sleep in 3 days.

Tomorrow we're heading to the Annapurna region to start the Annapurna trek in Besi Sahar. We'll be on the trail for about 2.5 weeks. Internet access will likely be limited, but we may be surprised. I'm ready to escape this crowded city and trek through clean mountain air. We're off for a day of getting hiking permits and exploring the city. An early bus tomorrow AM will get us on our way. All for now.

2010-10-25T03:31:00.001-04:00

Yummy food last night. Taxi drama this am, but i made it to heathrow. Next stop mumbai.

2010-10-23T18:16:00.001-04:00

GSE interview went well. Off to dinner w bro.

My first blog

2010-10-23T10:43:00.000-04:00

My first blog has arrived. I am figuring how to work this blogger gizmo so bear with me if things don't look quite right.

I leave in 32 hours for Nepal! All packed up and ready to go. So excited to meet up with Dayan and his gf Nico in Kathmandu. The current plan is to probably hike the Annapurna circuit which will take about 20 days. I need to leave a solid day to try this near Pokhara:
http://parahawking.com/
http://www.youtube .com/watch?v=VZn _gliSMhQ

I just decided not to bring my water filter as apparently you have to use iodine after filtering anyway. Their water must be seriously dirty. I'll have periodic internet access while traveling but will try to update the blog while on the go and see if I can get pictures uploaded too.

I have an interview for Rotary's GSE program this afternoon up in Falls Church. It's an amazing opportunity to travel to the Philippines, experience their culture, and meet their business leaders.

Tonight be some sweet time hanging with the bro in DC and maybe seeing a Venezuelan film without subtitles. Time to get my foreign language brain working again! All for now.