On the way to Midnight

It is funny what happens to me when I am trying to get to sleep. I have to mention that I was dragging all day, that I was looking forward to studying the backs of my eyelids all day. And then when it came to it, all of a sudden I was looking at midnight. Not what I had envisioned earlier in the day. The kids got to bed around 8:30, which is pretty good, and I had decided not to watch Sports Center as I have been disappointed in the hockey coverage, and frustrated with all the other stuff they cover instead. My prospects for an "early" bed time appeared to be good.
To catch the results, I looked up the score online. OK, got that the Coyotes lost. Fine. Somehow that led to Wikipedia. I think I was curious about who/what an octagon girl was (Arianny Celeste)? Now I know. huh. Interesting, and there is a lot out there that means a whole lot to people that I have no idea exists.
Which leads me to my next search: the USS Alabama. Yeah I see the link too. Obviously my search leads (yeah leads, there is more) with the 5th ship to be christened the AL (BB-60). "Obviously" because I passed by it many times when we would drive to New Orleans from the Heart of Dixie - Montgomery. I got caught in catching up on its history, as part of a screen for various fast carrier groups. A fast light battleship? I did not catch that, so maybe I need to go back and read some more. Anyway, turns out, the AL was decommissioned at Naval Station Seattle. (Seattle?) Apparently she then spent some time at the Bremerton ship yard "in reserve", alongside the Mighty Mo I suppose. The Navy let her go in the '60's, and she was towed to Mobile Bay, where we saw her often - on the drive to NO.
So that lead to looking at all the Naval stations in the Puget Sound - because there are many and it is interesting where they pop up. In the process I find that Bangor and Bremerton (along with Keyport and such) are now referred to as: Navy Base Kitsap. So, that leads to looking up what is at Bangor now. SSBN's, SSGN's, and an SSN actually. About eleven boats in all. As for Bremerton, there is a carrier home ported there. That surprises me, I guess because I thought the only ships in the Bremerton harbor were on their way to the scrap pile. Au contrer mon frer. CVN-74, Stennis a Nimitz class carrier, operates out of Bremerton. That and two SSN's! I guess I thought all that stuff went over to Everett.
At this point, I am knee deep in all this cool stuff, just begging me to go further. I mean, who flies off the Stennis? And a Marine squadron? do they always fly with Navy Wings? It's two anchors come from the Forrestal? Why could I have not found this stuff out in the morning, to get me out of bed? Glance at the clock...just because, I mean, it should be like 9PM or something. Ha! Midnight!? OK. Guess all that cool stuff is going to have to wait. Good on ya Sean for recognizing that waking for the kids is more of a priority.
Keelie was the first up today. Good for her, as she does not need to get into school clothes or anything like that. She also did not give us a completely restful night.-bonus points- Riles was up next, and ready to eat, only took a little coaxing to get into school clothes. Ethan was less than enthusiastic about the whole process. Actually passed on eating breakfast, but was fine pulling out toys to play with instead of getting dressed. The kids made it to school on time, none the less, no issues, other than Ethan had an unorthodox breakfast. I was off to the pool to get in my hour of swimming. Hopefully there will be another break in the rain this afternoon, so that I can go for a ride and not get wet.

Spring Travel

I watched a duck land on the pond this morning. Man, those guys come in hot sometimes. It is contrasted with the geese, who land mostly flaps down, and nearly stalling out. And then, the geese usually land in a large gaggle, whereas the ducks land individually. Pretty cool on many different levels, and lots to watch. For my purposes, I'll focus on the hot landing ducks. Last night, I think one of the ducks was piloting our plane. Well, we had a dramatic stop. I don't know maybe I'm painting the wrong picture. Anyway, it was no emergency issue, I think it all had to do with the runway we used. The main runway ( 3/21) is being worked on, so we landed on 7/25, which is shorter. Also, landing that way (7), we run out going away from the terminal. So, I think the pilot wanted to keep the taxiing as short as possible. So, we hit the ground, and put on the brakes. I think we used less than half the runway. We were in an Airbus 319, so midsized plane. I have been in a C-5 (much bigger plane) that performed a similar maneuver. In other words, I have been through this before, and not concerned. The only discomfort was that Ethan, sound asleep, was falling in his chair - no longer comfortable, due to the quick deceleration. Riles had a better seating position, and was unaffected. Funny thing was that he woke for a moment, and then lights out again. We had to wake them up after all the passengers got off and I got my chair. Fun, and awesome that the kids fly so well.
We were flying because we had gone to Vail, to participate in a fund raiser for the Adaptive Ski Team. There are plenty of activities provided for the kids to do, under supervision, its really cool, and opens up opportunities for Sarah and myself. With all the skiing Ethan has done, I did think we could handle a little skiing ourselves unassisted. Apparently standing up on skis is harder than I remember. That and what looked like cat track, had areas of more steep than he was ready for. And we had a cascading effect, where fear, fatigue, and frustration added up and took over. Thankfully, Vail is used to this sort of thing, and there were plenty of employees on the hill, who stopped by to help us out. He made it up the hill on the chairlift, and cruising the cat track quite easily so I was impressed. His command of the snowplow, however, was not enough to overcome some of the pitches. So, that ended our ski adventure, and next year, we will sign him(and Rileigh) up for classes. That left us with activities other than skiing. We swam in the pool, and played on a nice playground city park. They also had a movie night, and a Disney party. Sarah and I had dinners and socializing with NBC higher ups, and other benefactor types.
We were not scheduled to leave Denver until 9pm. And because we can't think ahead all that well, we played that day by ear. Which meant out of the hotel by noon (a challenge for us any day), then to the playground again, then into Denver where we decided to try out the aquarium. Add to the fun, we got stuck in traffic as the I-25, I-70 interchange was closed due to an accident. Raise the level with a little of Keelie needing to eat, no water, and she had spilled a little on herself =uncomfortable baby, uncomfortable family (stressed Dad).
It is cool to see how well the kids travel. I get a little unnerved as we mingle in crowds, and Ethan likes to play hide and seek, but all in all, they do what we say, and we have fun.
The comments were: "It is good to be home" "I like VailDenver (its what they call it), there is lots of cool snow."
I'm ready to stay home for a while, but that is not to be.