Roblog

We've been on our return flight aircraft now for more than two hours, but we have yet to leave the ground. There is a problem with the weather radar that they have not been able to resolve. They're now trying to replace the entire radar system. If that works, we should be in the air in about an hour. If not, we'll all have to get on another plane which would add at least another hour delay.

Thankfully, we have no connection to miss, this being our last leg. As long as I get home before the twins go to bed, I'll be happy.

We did finally get off the ground just at 1:00 PM GST - a full three hours late.

My trip to India was last week, and I intend to add some details about the trip here - but later. I fell ill upon my return, and am still working on getting better. On top of that, it is very busy at the office, so I haven't had any time to myself for a couple weeks.

I will take the time to say that it was a good trip, both on a professional and personal level. Several people have asked me how it compared to what I expected. Honestly, I didn't have any preconceptions and therefore no expectations. I think that helped me enjoy the trip since I just tried to soak it all in.

I have finally been able to record the notes I took during my recent trip to Bangalore, India. It was my first overseas trip, so I wanted to keep notes so I could capture the sights and feelings of the visit.

I have put the correct date and time on the entries (all Central Daylight Time), although I entered them after the fact. Below is a list of the entries so that you don't have to wade through the rest of the blog to find them.

• April 25, 4:10 PM CDT: Leaving Houston
• April 25, 5:50 PM CDT: Flying to Frankfurt
• April 26, 1:35 AM CDT: Almost to Frankfurt
• April 26, 3:25 AM CDT: On to Bangalore
• April 26, 7:50 AM CDT: Sleepy
• April 26, 12:15 PM CDT: Arriving at Bangalore
• April 26, 2:50 PM CDT: Bangalore!
• April 26, 9:40 PM CDT: First Morning in Bangalore
• April 27, 12:12 PM CDT: Busy First Day
• April 28, 1:27 PM CDT: Long Second Day
• April 29, 1:45 PM CDT: My Last Night in India
• April 30, 9:50 AM CDT: Shopping Results
• April 30, 9:50 PM CDT: Final Day Details
• May 1, 4:50 AM CDT: Plane Problems in Frankfurt
• May 1, 5:00 PM CDT: Arriving at Houston

We had our three main trees pruned yesterday. We were worried that the large Silver Maple in the backyard would have to be removed, but the tree pruners thought it was worth a shot to try to trim it back.

At any rate, the trees in the front look much better. I've got some animations that contrast the before and after pictures of the trees. Click on them for a larger version of the animation.

I guess my 1992 Saturn SL is worth at least $1000 dollars now. The clutch was failing on it, and we seriously debated whether or not to fix it. The dealer quoted $1600 to fix the clutch, and that was just too much to spend on the aging car. But most other options to replace the car were much more expensive.

So we decided to drop it off at a local mechanic, whose wife works at the school my wife used to work at, and his shop fixed it for $999.44. It can now take me back and forth to the bus stop, as well as the occasional trip all the way into work. But since it does not have any air conditioning, that is something I don't like to do between May and October here in Houston.

It does shift nicely now. It was almost comic how I had to shift it before, since I often had to use a great deal of force to get it into any gear. Once when Donna drove it, it actually got stuck in second gear, so she drove it in second home from the store.

I've got some new pictures uploaded to my website. You can find them here: The Reid Twins: Mar - Apr 2004

It took me a while to get these uploaded because I had to tweak the program that uploads my pictures to account for a change in the way I was recording the picture collections in the database. Now I should be back to easy uploading.

This is my 100th entry in my weblog. It took me 11 months to get this far, which is about 1 entry every 3 days. That is about the right pace, I think. It also serves as a good title for this entry, as there is no connecting thread to the notes I am about to post.