Saturday, May 10, 2008

Temporal Concurrence

Temporal Concurrence is when things happen at the same time. I'm sure you can think of endless examples, but here's one you may or may not have heard before: the Weather-out-the-Window(tm) forecast for this morning showed today to be the first nice, dry day all week. Normally this is automatically considered to be flying weather, but here's where the temporal concurrence comes in. See, the weather that keeps me from flying during the week is also the weather that causes the grass to grow, and to add insult to injury, keeps me from mowing it. Believe it or don't, but 'mowing weather' outranks 'flying weather.'

You can't get a really early start on the mowing without rankling the neighbors, and besides, the indentured servant doesn't roll out all that early either. Mowing was done by mid-morning, but a survey of the estate showed that the annual clover (and related felons) invasion was well under way. Drat. Nothing for it but to proceed to the local Tractor Supply Center for a big jug of the appropriate fertilizer/herbicide mix, known in the vernacular as Weed & Feed. Which, of course, they did not have. They did have the weed killer as a standalone, though, and never having really been fully in love with the idea of encouraging the grass to actually grow, you know... faster, I decided that the killing agent sans 'Feed' would suffice.

Co-pilot Egg rode along to provide company, but hard on the heels of the mowing and all, she was hungry and wanted fed. That taken care of, the afternoon fairly glittered before me, but an accidental channel-checking trap in the form of Pole Day for the Greatest Spectacle in Racing, in HD to boot, ended up costing me a few hours on the sofa.

Short story long, 'twas 1830 before I decided enough was enough and given the horrible forecast for tomorrow, thought it prudent to get a little flying in while I still could. Ever cognizant of the onerous OPEC yoke, I opted for a leisurely low fuel consumption ride down the length of river that I hope one day to traverse in the kayak. It looks like the water levels are good and high (well, they would be, wouldn't they, after a week of rain) and will allow for a minimum of portage.

The winds were 7 knots at a 90 degree crosswind, but that didn't seem to make much difference to the landing: a nice one-wheel greaser. Wrong wheel, truth be told, but it's the thought that counts. Good piloting technique would have had the upwind leg as the first to touch down for a crosswind landing, but I somehow managed to reverse that. Meh, whatever.

Taxi back directions were "...off the runway at Alpha 4, Alpha to Alpha 3 to Bravo, point-eight off the runway." I'm having trouble getting used to this new verbose way of things, and it showed in my read back: "Left on Alpha 4, uh, Alpha 3, ramp, home." Or something even less intelligible. I'm not quite sure. Needs practice, it does.

And, as mentioned before, rain in the offing for tomorrow. As in: the rain will be washing offing all that herbicide I spent so much time applying today.

Meh, whatever.

1 comment:

  1. Fly first, mow later.

    This falls in the same category as whether to eat what you like most on your plate, first or last. Me, I eat the best stuff first. After all, at worst, I could drop dead in the middle of the meal. Or, I may simply be replete before getting to the what I like most. Why not fill up on your favorite, rather than keep it for later? It may not be there when you want it.

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