And this week Ric is in....

Quite a change from Atlanta. They tell me the week before I got here it was rather nice, but the snow and cold arrived just in time for me. Humm there seems to be a pattern going on here... This a shot from the classroom facility. Very flat here, you can see for a very long distance. As a hint they have a very large mall here, at one time the largest in the world I'm told.

Where is Ric?

I'm haveing a great time in _____. Weather is nice and the view from my hotel is great compared to what it was on the west coast a little while ago. Here is a picture of the nice view from the window. Can you guess where I am? (Karen, Stacy and Monty, you can't guess!!)

Fire in the West

I've been out here in Irvine CA teaching this week with the wild fires raging around the area. I haven't been closer then 3-4 miles from the fires so not a big threat to me from the fire it self. However the smoke and ash from these fires is everywhere. This is a shot as I left my hotel yesterday and that is not morning clouds, that is smoke you see between the buildings. Fortunately I'm inside for the vast majority of the day and the air conditioning systems seem to filter out most of the smoke. I can still smell smoke inside, but not like out side. My eyes still sting sometimes when I'm out side.

100,000

Back when I was a kid, a car turning over 100,000 miles was a big deal. The odometer on most cars back then didn't even show 100,000. Today it's pretty common for a car to "roll over" as we used to say. I was able to catch it happening on my car the other day. Still a cool thing to see.

Summer Safety Tip: Vinyl Siding and Gas Grills

I suppose this happens to folks now and then, we forget to turn off the gas grill after cooking up some burgers for the family. Just be sure your grill isn't close to the vinyl like we see here. Fortunately for this person (who will remain nameless) the job to fix the siding cost about $30 at the local home depot and about 3 hours of time.

In Normandy

While here in Amsterdam I took a side trip this last week end to Normandy where the liberation of Europe started on June 6th 1944. I visited Pointe-Du-Hoc where the US Rangers climbed 100 foot cliffs to neutralizer an observation point which could have brought down devastating artillery fire on the landing beaches of Omaha and Utah. I also visited the Omaha beach where the US 1st and 28th divisions landed and suffered the worst casualties of the day. And I saw the US cemetery behind Omaha beach. I've read about the landings and battles across Europe for years, so this was a great event for me.

Too early!

This morning at 6:33 my alarm starts blaring... Now, this is my second night in this hotel, yesterday morning nothing happened, and I did not touch the alarm clock.
This is not the first time this happened to me. So I'm suspecting a conspiracy. Or is the cleaning staff punishing me for not leaving a tip yesterday?