Thin Air

Just another day on the job at 9,900 feet.



Roadless area of Gunnison National Forest, Colorado

Life is Beautiful...and work isn't so bad

I got settled into my new project and the view from my "office" is pretty nice.



It snowed above 8,000 ft. last Friday and it's 25 degrees this morning.
Oh, what shall I do today?
Hike?
Bike?
Run?
Whatever, there's cold beer and a hot tub at the end of the day.

Today

'nuff said

How much is a Ba-zillion?

A Billion? Hmmmm, let's see...

If you sat down to count from one to one billion, you would be counting for 95 years.

A tightly-packed stack of new $1,000 bills totaling $1 billion would be 63 miles high. In comparison, jet planes fly at 30,000 - 40,000 feet (5.7 - 7.7 miles high).

About a billion minutes ago, the Roman Empire was in full swing. (One billion minutes is about 1,900 years.)

A billion is a difficult number to comprehend, but one advertising agency did a good job of putting that figure into some perspective in one of it's releases..

A. A billion seconds ago it was 1959.
B. A billion minutes ago Jesus was alive.
C. A billion hours ago our ancestors were living in the Stone Age.
D. A billion days ago no-one walked on the earth on two feet.
E. A billion dollars ago was only 8 hours and 20 minutes,
at the rate our government is spending it.


While this thought is still fresh in our mind...
Consider New Orleans.... with some simple division and a little sarcasm…

Louisiana Senator, Mary Landrieu (D) asked Congress for 250 BILLION DOLLARS to rebuild New Orleans. What does this number mean?

A. If you are one of the 484,674 residents of New Orleans (every man, woman, and child) you each get $516,528.
B. Or... if you have one of the 188,251 homes in New Orleans, your home gets $1,329,787.
C. Or... if you are a family of four... your family gets $2,066,012.

How much is $700 Billion?

My idea to finance the Bailout

Let the oil companies step in and put up a loan to Wall Street.
I'm not an economist and I tend to see things rather simply. Like most men.

There are 5 big American oil companies out there that have billions in equity and revenue.

2007 Equity
Shell (Royal Dutch Shell), - $124 Billion
ExxonMobil, - $122 Billion
BP - $93.6 Billion
ConocoPhillips - $89 Billion
Chevron - $77 Billion

Total --- $505.6 Billion

And you know these numbers will be much higher for 2008.

Let these guys offer a low interest loan and handle the whole deal. Leave the Federal Government (read as all of us) out of it.
I don't think it would effect the price at the pump so it's a win for us and the oil companies. We get indirectly involved by already having paid at the pump the past 3 years and these oil companies can get their profit from their loan to Wall Street instead of us. Heck, the price at the pump may even drop a bit...maybe.

Where's the down side? Seriously?

Autumn off season

Ah yes, here it is the first day of Autumn and my off-season starts today. Well, I think I really started a couple weeks ago but now I have a plan. A very loose plan but a plan none the less.
I've not done any structured training or racing since IM Canada. Just staying active and doing whatever I feel like doing.



My running needs work. No secret here. I've griped about my weak running a few times and now is the time to curb my whimpering a bit and do something about it. So for the next few months I'll be running and mountain biking and if I happen to be near a pool somewhere, I may throw in a little swim or water running. Oh sure, I'll be doing some strength training and yoga along the way too.
What do I mean "if I happen to be near a pool...?"
Well, I have a new work assignment coming up for the next 2 months and it's in a remotely populated area in NW Colorado. Lots of dry, rocky terrain. Perfect for running and mountain biking. If it snows, I may even ski a bit.
Imagine those scenes from the Rocky IV movie where Rock gets sent to Siberia for training before his fight with Ivan Drago (Dolf Lundgren).
Keep it simple but keep it quality.



Well, I gotta pack up the truck, load up my dog, spend my paycheck on a tank of diesel, and head west.
Hi yo!