Mike’s World

Yesterday the MSP airport had a open house to dedicate the new 17/35 runway that is going to open to traffic in a month. In the past the airport has had open houses, but nothing like this. they had everything from firetrucks, to snow blows, to runway paint machines, and even a B737-800 and a A319 on display (the B737 was open so you could go inside, but the A319 was all closed up).

It was great being able to walk on a runway. It is just amazing how big it is, I could not even make out the writing displaying the runway heading that was painted on. I also ran in to someone from work there, as well as someone I use to work with at NWA back in the day. What a great event. The airport got quite a bit of flack on spending the money on the event, but I would have easily been happy paying to attend.

Well, with my walking I have run in to one issue. Every day it gets darker and darker when I walk. Last week I went to the sporting goods store and got a “headlight”. Not the kind that goes on your car, but the kind that straps on your head. I had to make use of it last light. I got kind of a low end version, but it worked ok I think. I was able to see the trail, and I did not slip and fall anywhere.

This weekend I am spending my time inside, as it is just cold outside! The funny thing is that come March, the 40-50 degree lows will seem warm.

It has given me a nice opportunity to get the house all cleaned up, something I have put off for the last month or so. Yesterday I got everything all picked up, my trash is now overflowing, and today I need to vacuum and whatnot.

Only thing I am not sure about if its time to put the storm windows on. My house has the old style storm windows that require going out and hanging, twice a year (you guessed it, once in the winter, once in the spring) I think about replacing them with the aluminum storm windows. I think for now I will put it off another year.

The weather is starting to get to the point I like, Not to hot, not to cold. I do not mind any part of the year, except for the week during summer where it is 100 degree and dew point of 80. During the winter, I love the look (from inside) of a fresh snowfall across the back yard. The clean untouched sparkly look of fresh snow is great. During the summer, I love a nice dry sun. But right now I just love the weather. Nice cool evenings, warmish days, and very nice sunsets.

Nothing is better then getting out and watching a beautiful Orange sunset.

If you do not remember, on January 3rd 2004, a tiny rover named Spirit landed on Mars. On January 24th 2004, another tiny rover named Opportunity landed on mars. Each of these tiny devices, used to study rocks on mars, was scheduled to last 90 days, and the mission was designed around that time line. You would think such devices would last a month or two, being very mechanical devices running on batteries and solar power in a very foreign environment.

Amazingly enough, both devices are still up and running. Today Spirit will reach its 600th active day on mars (opportunity will reach day 579). Think of that for a second, a remote control robot being 35 million miles from us here on earth, running on unknown landscape for over a year and a half.

I think much credit is due to the NASA folks that have managed to make this happen. The media has stopped keeping track of the mars rovers, which I think is a disappointment, as I think it is an amazing story. Who would have ever thought these devices would still be up and running.

Well, today I made it to the Minnesota state fair. This is something I do almost every year, just because I have done it every year. I do not go for any special reason, but just to hang out and walk around, see things, etc.

This year the roseville park and ride was closed, so I had to find an alternate way to get to the fair. I caught a park and ride over by Hwy 35w and saint Anthony blvd. Overall the drive was not to bad, but I did run in to a bit of rush hour traffic. I got to the fair a bit late, at 10:15, but the friend I was going to hang out with was caught up at the ticket stand, so that was ok. Almost right away I noticed that less people where at the fair this year than other years, which I was not expecting. The weather has been so nice, it is very surprising to see that. First thing we did was make a quick trip around the grandstand, to see if anything interesting was for sale, then we went to some of the various arts, crafts and education buildings. It is amazing how much stuff is put up for competitions, especially the crafts as well as education projects. Also this year for the first time I went through the fine arts building. I have never been a art person, but some of the art displayed was quite good, and I would almost buy some of it. Other places we went throughout the day was the bazaar as well as heritage square.

We then went up to the pet center, and watched one of the pet surgery’s. I enjoy seeing the skill that the doctors have, and I am amazed that my sister has taken the inactivate to that. The one we watched was a female puppy dog.

We then ran across the MNDOT aviation booth. They had some real cool things setup. First thing was they had a display of the runway lighting systems used at airports, it was quite interesting. But I also found it interesting that they did not have the centerline lights on the display, they had all of the other approach and runway lights accounted for tho.

They also had a setup showing how the automated weather data is gathered. I found it interesting on how they measure visibility. They measure it based on how much light is reflected, not how much light is blocked between a light emitter and a light pickup.

It was then off to the space tower. My friend has never gone up in it before, so we had to do it! It was a bit cloudy when we went, but it was still cool. It was then time to hit the animal barns and the agriculture building. Nothing interesting in the agriculture building (no bee demonstrations or anything). First barn we went through was the horse barn, but it did not have any horses in it!!! I love the horse barn, and was very disappointed. We then went through the other barns (chicken, sheep, cow and pig). Its so cool seeing all the animals.

A rodeo was scheduled for today, so I decided to go ahead and get a ticket. Several years ago when we went to the fair with my father, we decided to see the rodeo. It was so enjoyable, I try to go see it every year if its on the day that I am at the fair.

The two other things I wanted to see was the public safety building, and the MNDOT building. I have walked around all day, and I had not even seen the public safety building (I thought it was up by heritage square). I stopped by the information booth to find they closed the building! I was not very happy…

Second was the MNDOT building. They had some interesting stats on things like what distractions cause car crashes, and what age groups are involved in crashes. They did not have any construction project info this year, which I found interesting. They also had bike trail maps, which I thought was cool.

Then it was off to the DNR building. I got a lake report for Big Boy Lake (lake the cabin is on), and I was happy to see that it was somewhat updated. I think the last one I got was updated in 1995, and this one was dated 2000. Overall I was not all that impressed with the DNR building this year. I do not know if I missed something, but I was not all that impressed with the DNR building this year. The only stuff I think the had was fish stuff. This, combined with the public safety building, I wonder if its due to state cutbacks or something.

It was then about time for the rodeo. This was the first state fair rodeo for the fair, so this was the first run all of the cowboys where doing. The action is always amazing at these things, and one of the cool shows they had was cute monkeys on sheep dogs herding rams. It was quite interesting. The bull riding was my favorite part, as it is every year.

The rodeo let out, then I went to go and find some dinner (fajitas) and one more trip on the space needle. The best part about going up at night is seeing the state capitol all light up. It was then time to leave, at about 9:30pm.

All in all, this was a very good fair, as it is every year. I love walking around, seeing all of the people trying to keep track of there kids, and seeing all of the displays and animals. For the most part it was a good day (did rain a bit) and was glad I could make it to the fair this year. With my sister out of the state, I was not sure if I was going to go this year. I am very glad that I found someone to go with and was able to make it to the fair once again this year.