First of the Week

It was a good weekend. Saturday included the jaunt all 'round Merrill Field, looking at the airplanes (see previous posts for pics & description). Yesterday was a buying day, and included things for me such as office accessories & new software, so I had things to play with.

This morning started on a somewhat lower note, as I was greeting upon arrival by news that a tenant's commode had been flushing - hard - since Friday night or Saturday morning. It's hard to say how many thousands of gallons of water literally went down the drain while they dithered & worried.

No one called.

This morning, when they finally let me know, I whipped out my trusty Leatherman & turned off the water flow at the fixture. They were astonished - astonished! - to find out that the building manager is on call 24/7. Who knew? I mean, besides everyone else on the property.

To top it off, I had plumbers in the building all weekend on another project, who could have done the same thing 48 hours sooner, plus effected repairs to the worn out valve.

Grrr.

However, I am determined that the remainder of the day shall be a good one, and won't let one example of sheepdom ruin my morning. Most of the folks here can think for themselves, and that's a good thing.

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Since I spent Saturday thinking about aviation, this morning's FAA report caught my eye. There were 91 aviation accidents (read plane crashes) in 2010, which is down from the year before. Sadly, 11 of those combined for a total of 19 fatalities, and that's up.

One of the speakers at the weekend aviators' get-together was a fellow who pancaked his Cessna into the tundra last year - but walked away from it. He was lucky, and admits it. He talked about what went wrong, and that's always a good thing for others to hear.

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The Anchorage Daily News, which is nothing if not late to the party, has noticed that "TSA methods [are] intrusive, fruitless, expensive."  Really.  Ya think?