Category Archives: General

Administrative, General, Space

Still Off The Air

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I flew up to DC on Tuesday after checking out the house in Florida, and was at the Galloway Symposium all day yesterday, with two back-to-back receptions afterward, and didn’t get back to my room until midnight. It was a very useful day, but it was marred by texts from my realtor that someone had attempted to break into the patio door and damage it, and she has open houses scheduled this weekend. So this morning first thing I had to find a handyman to go check out the situation.

Today is getting caught up in emails this morning, then a meeting at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce where I’ll have meetings with some officials from the Dept of Commerce, then a late-afternoon flight back to California. So no blogging today (either).

Administrative, Business, General, Space, Technology and Society

Light Blogging

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I am in the last throes of getting the house on the market. Tomorrow is my last day in Florida (I hope), at least in terms of getting this house sold (I will come back for launches, but if I never go to south Florida again, I will have no regrets). Tomorrow night we fly to Denver, and back to LA on Tuesday. Then after a couple days of catching up at home I’m in Santa Monica for the Space Settlement Summit on Friday and Saturday, then on a plane to DC all week for COMSTAC and satellite servicing conference. So, probably still not a lot of blogging.

Things may be more lively after I get back from DC for a couple weeks, but then I’m off to Europe for a couple weeks. Anyway, life is not boring.

{Update late evening]

What the hell, let’s make this an open thread. Just be good.

General, Technology and Society

Local Crime

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Still working on the house in Florida. Went to a sports bar to watch the KidsLions (damn you autocorrect) game last night. When I got back to the house, my Dell notebook was missing. But not obviously anything else. They left the SSD, fortunately, which had the OS and my data on it. I’m sure they were disappointed that a $200 notebook with a bad battery was the most expensive electronics in the house. This morning, I noticed that the kitchen window was wide open, which was how they got in.

[Afternoon update, from my new computer]

For those asking, yes, I called the Sheriff’s department (we’re in an unincorporated part of Palm Beach County). They sent out a deputy who took some fingerprints off the window sill.

I went out to Best Buy this afternoon, and found a duplicate of the stolen machine, open box, for $160. Plus, as a bonus, unlike the previous one, its battery charges. So it was a blessing in disguise. I had to go through the pain of setting up Windows on it, but once I finished that, I booted into Linux from a USB SSD, and all is back to normal, with the additional ability to unplug it without losing it,

Administrative, General

Florida Weather

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Almost exactly a year ago, we flew to Florida to start to prep a house to sell. Instead, we had to prep it for a major hurricane. Fortunately (for us, not the west coast of the state), Irma’s track shifted to the west, and we didn’t get the brunt of it. A year later, we’re here again, this time in the last throes of renovation. But now Gordon just formed in the Keys, and we’re getting a washout here today in Palm Beach County, so no progress on the house today. Our major goal for the day is managing to get down to Plantation for dinner with Bob and Lou Poole (as in the Reason Foundation). Fortunately, things should be calming down by then for southeast Florida, and the storm will be moving off into the Gulf, where it may threaten the northern Gulf Coast.

Administrative, General

Back to Florida

I just realized that I forgot to publish this post on Tuesday morning.

On the plane, for what I hope is my last trip for the purpose of selling the house. Be good in comments.

[Friday-night update]

I’ve been living in the house while we’re fixing it up, but Patricia is flying in for the weekend, and we’re renting more comfortable quarters for a few days, on the beach in Gulfstream.

Administrative, General

Off The Air

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Heading back to California for a few days. I’ll be dropping the car at PBI, taking a shuttle to the West Palm Tri-Rail station, and then a couple-hour train ride to MIA for a flight back to LA this evening. So open thread, and play nicely.

[Friday-morning update]

Trip went fairly smoothly, other than tight connection between train and MIA that resulted in my having to check my carry on. But I scored a window seat, with empty center, and beautiful woman from Marina Del Rey in the aisle seat, so flight was quite pleasant. Unfortunately, I have to go back on Tuesday.

General, Technology and Society

Lake Okeechobee

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For a change of pace, and a break from the house renovation, I took a drive around it today. It didn’t seem much different than the last time I did it, over a decade ago. It’s an interesting lake, in that it has very few views of it from the road; you have to drive up toward it, park and climb the dike. One of the few (and best) is from the bridge at Canal Point. It’s not that big, but it’s big enough that you can’t see the shore over the horizon, so it’s kind of weird to look at an endless lake that’s not one of the Great Lakes.

[Monday-afternoon update]

The north side of the lake has a lot of cattle ranching. It was kind of funny to see a herd of cattle sharing the pasture with egrets. The white birds would follow the cattle around as they grazed. I wonder if there’s some symbiotic relationship there?