Yes, I’ve been really busy, with work, W in high school, J in middle school, being assistant scoutmaster to J’s patrol, being Ad Altare Dei counselor again, blah blah blah.
Quickly, and in summary, then:
After the Cooper Canyon Backpacking trip in September, the Troop had another glider campout at Llano, CA.
It was W’s second time gliding, but unfortunately, his glider didn’t have controls for him to try out, so he merely rode. It was J’s first glider campout. Again, this time, I didn’t fly.
Flickr albums for the glider campout are here and here.
In November and December, for W’s and my third year and J’s first year, we rode with the cycling merit badge group.
J was doing the merit badge, while W and I were along for the rides. It was pretty enjoyable for me for most of the rides, until we got to the 50 mile ride from Malibu to Port Hueneme. The first year we did it, the road got washed out, so we rode up through the hills above Malibu, which was the most painful ride I’ve ever done. We skipped the 50 mile ride last year, since J wasn’t with us, but this year, we rode with him and the rest of the class on the 50 mile ride. This time, it was raining hard for most of the ride up to Oxnard, and then we faced insanely strong headwinds. On the other hand, the ride back was quick and dry. (The photo above is from one of our 25 mile rides, along the LA River.)
Finally, the troop also did another Joshua Tree Rock Climbing campout. Again, it was W’s second time and J’s first, and W also did fine service at this campout (as well as at Cooper Canyon) teaching some of the new scouts and getting them a rank advancement.
I watched J do his climbs with relative ease. Unfortunately, W and the other experienced scouts and dads were at another location doing some advanced climbs. I heard second-hand from some dads who came back that W managed some really impressive climbs that some of the dads had themselves given up on. The Flickr album for this campout is here.
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In December, I organized and led about 60 scouts in the Space Exploration Merit Badge class. The merit badge also requires that the scouts build and fly, twice, a model rocket. I arranged bulk purchases of model rockets for all of the scouts, and we built many of the rockets at the end of the class. I also arranged to fly on January 14 with the Rocketry Organization of California, but we got rained out. I have us rescheduled for February, but if that doesn’t work out, we’ll fly with the Southern California Rocket Association.
W, J, and I actually flew with them this past Sunday (1/15), to check out their procedures and their launch range. I think they’ll be a fine alternative if we get rained out with ROC again, albeit in a much small launch range and with a smaller hosting organization.
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My workload is getting heavier and heavier, which is probably the biggest reason I haven’t been writing. I keep getting things added to my to-do list for Solar Probe, but I still have data analysis to do for SuperTIGER, ACE, and STEREO. No point in going over the details here.
I went to the AGU meeting in San Francisco for the first time since 2013, and basically I presented a somewhat enhanced version of a poster I presented at the ICRC in the Hague. Not great, but at least I’m getting back into the science, after spending a lot of time doing GSE support and development.
Because I made my hotel reservation late, I wound up unable to get my usual Parc 55 reservation close to Moscone Center, and I ended up at the Argonaut near Fisherman’s Wharf. I had to ride the cable cars daily to the conference, which is fun the first two or three times. The Argonaut itself, however, is a very, very nice hotel with a nautical theme, and I’m glad I had the opportunity to stay there. It’s now my favorite hotel in San Francisco.
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With W in high school and J in middle school, and both at different institutions, the boys now have no overlapping extended vacations except summer and the week between Christmas and New Year’s day. So, this Christmas vacation, we went to Cancun, from the day after Christmas to New Year’s Day. (W served at the altar at Mass on Christmas morning, so we didn’t bother with Midnight Mass or the Children’s Mass (which we’ve never been to in Glendora, anyway).)
We stayed at the Fiesta Americana Grand Coral Beach resort, which is the same place we stayed at in February 2014. We decided not to revisit Chichen Itzá, but we did take a day to visit Tulum (archaeological site) and Xel Ha (a water park). The boys wanted to visit Tulum because it’s a site in one of the Assassin’s Creed games. And at Xel Ha, W and I went on a Sea Trek excursion (scuba “diving” without real scuba gear), while Hsuan and J did a little snorkeling.
W, J, and I went jet skiing, and J and I also tried a 2 man kayak, but I cut the trip short when my back got too sore and tired. (Some kayaks have better back support.) We enjoyed the restaurants as usual, but this time, we also visited Le Basilic, the resort’s French restaurant, and had an exquisite meal that, for once, Hsuan gushed about even more than I did. We also enjoyed their New Year’s Eve festivities.
Otherwise, we spent the vacation sleeping, eating, drinking, and relaxing in the pool or at the beach. We ended up being very familiar faces to the bartender at the pool bar closest to our room.
I put up a Flickr album of our vacation.
(BTW, most of my albums are Friends and Family only. If you want access, e-mail me.)