Personal: Happy 2nd Birthday!

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

While the birthday and associated celebrations happend a month ago, this post will talk about the very interesting turn of events leading up to the second birthday celebration. So, because of COVID, we weren’t able to celebrate my son’s birth or his first birthday with family and friends. It was just a small at home celebration with the three of us. However, with the second birthday, with things opening up and all of our close friends vaccinated and boosted (except for the kids under 5 – a risk we were continuously evaluating), we decided to have a get together.

My son’s birthday falls in april and its usually touch and go in terms of the weather. To minimize COVID risk, we wanted an indoor+outoor facility. We called several places and none of them were available on the dates we wanted. After a lot of search we found a perfect place but it was quite a drive (about 45 minutes to the east) out of town in a remote area. After much deliberation we decided it was too far out and reserved a picnic area in the park instead. All we could do now was hope for good weather. My brother’s family and my brother in law’s family were flying in for the birthday celebration and my folks were here already. They were all plannning to stay at our place so it was going to be a full house for a couple of days.

We started prepping for the birthday party. I reserved a tent and chairs to shade the party guests from the elements. We started ordering birthday supplies made arrangements for cake, food etc. We had positive RSVPs from most of the people we had invited. Everything was going well! Except, as the d-day drew closer, we realized the weather was going to be nasty. With rain, thunderstorms and 40 degree temperature predicted, we figured that everyone was going to be miserable. Well, we had no option but to march on and hope that people showed up.

The birthday party was on Saturday and my brothers family arrived on the thursday evening. After dinner, over drinks, we were discussing what the situation will be on Saturday given the weather. We discussed the possibility of shifting the birthday celebration to our home. With 40+ invited guests, I was strongly against it given it will be a mad house with kids runnng around and no room for people to breathe. My brother asked about trying to find a banquet hall to set it up indoors. Just 2 days before the event I thought it was impossible to get anything. However, my brother, being my brother was relentless. He started calling hotel and banquet halls in the area – at midnight! – to see if they had availability. Couple of them actually picked up and asked to call in the am.

Next morning, he continued his pursuit while we drove an hour north to pick up the tent and chairs. On the way back we got a call from one of the hotels saying they had the availability and we could go take a look at the hall – so we did! We liked it and, even though, we got the tent and chairs, we had the park reserved (after paying a fee), we decided that we should hold the party indoors. We booked the space, updated the invite and informed everyone that it was now in a indoor space owing to the weather. Luckily, all but one family decided to show up. We were worried about the party being a coivd spreader but luckily, it was not. In hind sight it was a good decision to hold the party indoors. The weather was cold and wet outside. People, especially the kids, would have been miserable if we had continued with our original plan. Overall, the event was a success. Our son had a blast and looked like every one of the guests did too. Even though we overspent a bit and double booked a few things, we were glad that we were able to celebrate and everyone had a good time. All in all, an eventful and fun birthday! Here is a snap from the event showing the hastily put up decorations 🙂

Hastily put together decoration for a transportation themed birthday

Personal: Happy New Year!

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

It’s been a while since I posted. Pacific Northwest weather has been, well, to put it mildly, bad. For the past two months its been raining or snowing or both. Apparently there is this phenomenon called atomospheric rivers that has been dumping moisture to our area. That has effectively ruled out both my hobbies. I did manage to keep myself current by doing touch and goes on the one-off relatively dry days we saw during this timeframe. There were one or two partly cloudy nights that I could have leveraged to do some astrophotography but given that I have a new mount that I haven’t taken out for a test run, I decided against it. I want enough clear-night time to be able to play around and make sure I understand the working of the mount well, and be okay to have the night not produce useful data. So, the plan is simple, just wait and twiddle thumbs till better weather arrives. I could be doing other things, like updating this blog, which I haven’t done in a while or upload the video I did of trying to re-grease my old mount but I’ve been lazy!! Well, that’s not really true 🙂 . With the holidays and omicron, we did not send our son to day care for the past three weeks and having him home keeps us on our toes all day leaving me with little energy to do anything but watch TV! Prior to that, it was work that was keeping me busy. Anyway, hoping to get caught up on all of that soon.

The purpose of this post, just like last year is to reflect on the past year and list out the things I am thankful for. First off, Happy New Year. This has been another tough year for everyone with the pandemic still very much on everyones mind and a yearning for normalcy that may never come. I will not get into the details of how this past year panned out for me as there were both ups and downs but will just list out the things that I am thankful for.

I’m thankful for my health and my family’s health. I’m thankful for a job where I like my boss and my team. I’m thankful for my wonderfully patient (well, most times) wife. I’m thankful for finally getting permanent residency in the United States. I have been in the US for more than 12 years, I have earned two masters degrees here, have a house, pay my taxes, spend considerable amount of money on my hobbies but yet the system is such that, based on the country you were born in, the wait time to get permanent residency could be up to a few decades if not more. Without green card, there was this cloud of uncertainity hanging over my head where my stay in the US was tied to my employer (same thing for my wife). If anything had happened on that front, we would have had 60 days to find a new job or ship out back to our home country. Permanent residency doesn’t change my life on a day to day basis but just removes that cloud of uncertainity. I’m also thankful that both my brother’s family and my wife’s brothers family were able to visit us during the summer. Finally, thankful that my parents who got COVID despite being fully vaccinated, got only mild symptoms and have subsequently tested negative and have fully recovered.

I was hoping 2021 would have a couple of more things that I could be thankful/happy for but unfortunately they did not materialize 1. my folks or my wife’s folks meeting their grandson, 2. a holiday trip that we had planned to meet my brother but had to canceled last minute due to omicron scare and the weather. I’m hoping in 2022 that will change. Hoping that covid receedes and we can travel and meet/get together with our loved ones more often. On that hopeful note, I’ll sign off!

Here’s wishing everyeone a wonderful and healthy 2022!

Personal: What a day!

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

Couple of weeks ago, I had a pretty interesting 24 hours. Before getting into it, here is some background: Last year I bought into an LLC that affords it members a dark sky site and a piece of land to pursue astronomy. I will get into the details of that exciting part in a later blog. Suffice it to say that I am a member of Goldendale Sky Village (GSV) and I’m in the process of (hopefully) building a remote observatory. I had hired a contractor to install a concrete pier towards that goal. Goldendale sky village is a LLC formed by like minded astronomy enthusiasts who purchased a piece of land in Eastern Washington to pursue their hobby. I too enthusiastically bought into the venture and have 5000 sqft of land for my personal use. I don’t own the land but can use it in any way I like for my hobby.

Last year, I got the plot cleared and this year was working on getting a pier installed. It is towards this goal that I had to drive there. I had built a template and secured J-bolts to attach to the pier. The plan was to go there in the middle of the night and early AM the contractor would pour concrete (about 30 minutes worth of effort). My presence was there to ensure that the J-bolts and pier plate template are level and aligned to the celestial north. I wouldn’t need to worry about it if i was getting a custom plate machined for my mount and the J-bolts but I wanted to have the option of using Dan’s Pier top plates. These are custom built pier top plates with adapters to switch out and replace for any mount type. Having these would make my pier (and potentially future observatory) mount and future proof. Those plates are a bit expensive and they have a long lead time. I could not order them in time to use directly for concrete pouring. So I built the template, with the hopes that in case my pier top is not aligned to the north or my template was off, I could still use custom machined plates. My neighbor at GSV kindly offered to machine one for me in case I need to go that route.

Any way, I digress. My plan was to reach GSV before sunrise to make sure I got the polar alignment marked out and hope was to leave GSV around 7:30 am so that I could reach home around 10 and be able to get to work. I left from home at 2:00 am to reach GSV just before sunrise. I also had a doctor appointment in the afternoon which I thought I could comfortable make it to. Well, hehe 🙂 . After getting the concrete poured, I left for home hurriedly. Half hour on the road from GSV, I got engine temperature hot warning. The indicator was yellow, meaning I could still drive but cautiously. Within a couple of minutes it turned red and there was smoke from the front of my car!!! I had to stop on the side of the road, wait for a while for engine to cool down and check whats going on. To my surprise, there was hardly any coolant! I did not have AAA with this car as we hardly use it after our son was born. Its a 2010 mini cooper so no place to put a car seat 😐 . To top it all off, I was in an area with no cellphone coverage. I knew that I won’t have cellphone coverage for another 30 miles. So after waiting for a while for the engine to cool down, I decided the only option was to drive to an area of cellphone coverage and get a tow vehicle. Oh, did I mention that I dropped my cellphone on gravel early in the am? It was causing the screen to flicker wildly making it unusable after 30 sec to 1 minute of activity … Calling the tow companies would be fun. It was for the same reason that I couldn’t call to cancel or reschedule my dr. appointment (the timing of these appointments is critical for my FAA medical certificate – I can write another blog about those stories 🙂 ). But first things first, I had to get to cellphone coverage area.

So the next 30 miles took me close to 2 hours as the car was getting hot if my speed went over 20 miles an hour. It was annoying the hell out of other drivers on a singe lane highway. I tried to drive as close to the shoulder as possible with my hazard lights on so that they could overtake me but, you know, there are some drivers who just get pissed off no matter what ¯\_(ツ)_/¯. Anyway, after driving for what felt like hours, just as I got to an area with cellphone coverage (that was the first life saving moment of the day), the car wouldn’t start. The day was getting hotter too so the engine wasn’t cooling enough. With my broken cellphone, I couldn’t browse the web to be able to find towing companies in the vicinity so I called my wife, explained my situation and had her call the towing companies. No one was available. She called 4 of them and all had one excuse or the other and could not be bothered to help out. I was just 5 miles from the town center!

Assuming that no one was ready to help out, I thought my best bet was to abandon the car, walk the 5 miles to town and talk to one of the towing companies. If that did not work, either stay the night in a motel or see if any of my friends could come pick me up. I was talking to my wife discussing what to do and how to go about things when she asked if there is anyone from GSV that could help me out. I’m like ofcourse, I should have thought of that!!! One of my fellow villagers also had concrete poured in the morning and he was gracious enough to let me go first because I had to go to the dr. appointment. Welll so much for that 🙂 . Anyway, I did not have his contact information but we are all a part of a slack group. I called him on slack right away! This was my second life saving moment of the day. He not only picked up but was about to leave from GSV back to Seattle area after finishing up his lunch. I asked if he could pick me up and he kindly offered to do so. Since I was fully vaccinated and he too was, it was not a concern to sit in close proximity with each other. I would have worn a mask if he insisted or if he wasn’t vaccinated but since we were both vaccinated, it did not come to that.

After about an hour, his car pulled up behind mine, I just picked all the valuable stuff from the car and hopped on to his. After an uneventful journey where we talked at length about our life and background and interest in astronomy, I reached home at around 4:30pm. He also gave me tips, suggestions and pointers on what kind of a mount to go for as I am in the market for a new mount (more about that in a subsequent blog). I owe him a big one for being the life saver on that day! I was up from 1:00 am the previous night and survived only on a protien shake, cashew cookie bar. So first thing I did after getting home was had breakfast+lunch+dinner combined then a nice hot shower. I was totally exhausted but stayed up till late evening so as to not got to bed at an odd hour.

It was a very long, very tiring and an eventful day. One that I’m sure I will reminisce at a later point in time! Oh btw, I did call the state troopers in Yakima county to let them know that I had left my (my wife’s) car on the highway and plan to pick it up in the next day or two. I owe another friend a huge one for helping me with it and spending money on an accessory that he did not immediately need. I will try to cover that adventure (well, it wasn’t an adventure as such but an experience) in the next blog. Until then, stay safe!

Personal: Family time!

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

I know its been more than a month since I posted anything on my blog. There’s a lot that has happened and I’ve been a bit busy and a bit lazy and hence the delay. I have tons of things to write about but we will see how many I will actually get to. This post though is about family. After almost 15 months since my son was born, my brothers family and my wife’s brothers family visited us for back to back weeks. Our son, for the first time, was able to meet his uncles and aunts face to face rather than over video calls. While the two weeks of family visit was fun and flew by very fast, it was off to a rocky start. Our son fell sick just before my brother arrived and the whole week he wasn’t his usual self. While he was still very active and had a lot of fun, he was less so than usual. He had lost his appetite as well making us all a bit worried. Luckily, he started feeling better and eating much better the following week.

My brother and his wife drove all the way from bay area to meet their nephew. Given the challenges with changing climate and forest fires, there were several raging all along the western part of United States with a potential to blocking their route. Anyway, they decided to take the risk and drive up. My brother had a week off and he was eager to meet my son. While the trip would have been awesome if my son was feeling 100%, but nevertheless I think they had fun. I know my son and enjoyed their company. My wife and I were happy to meet with our family. During the week, we did a few outdoor things whenever my son was feeling up to it including a few trips to the park. All in all, it was a fun visit.

With no break, the day after my brother left, my brother in law and his family arrived. They flew in from southern California and have a 3 year old daughter. My son had fully recovered so he was is usual self and while he is too young to play with other toddlers or kids, I think having people other than us at home, especially since he hasn’t had a regular social life given, you know, covid, was a good experience for him. My brother in laws daughter had a good time as well. She got to go to the aquarium, and a kind of theme park for kids (Remlinger farms) which she thoroughly enjoyed. We too enjoyed having my brother in law and his family over.

It was really great to have family over, especially after a year in isolation due to covid. However, we needed a week to recover from the back to back family visits 🙂 . Also, my wife had a bunch of work deadlines that got her stressed during the family visit and she had to get stuff done with late nights for couple of weeks after the visit. I was in the process of switching jobs so I had a bit free time on my hands making it easier for my wife to get work done. Given my free time, I could have spent some time updating my blog post but I got a bit lazy so didn’t spend the time.

Anyway, it was really good to see family. I wish they were closer so we could meet more often and my son could get to know them better as he grows up.

Personal: Yay! N!=1

Posted on by AstroPilotDad

We did it! We made it a trend! Well, not really a trend but as I said in my previous post, I choose to call it that 🙂 ! I’m talking about the hike we did this past weekend. It was hike number two for us. Yes, we did the same hike that we did last time, we did it with the same set of friends as last time but the weather was much nicer and we did it in less time because – experience 😛 .

Anyway, to be honest, we need to do a lot more of outdoor activity that we currently do. While we take our son for walks almost every day (rain or shine), we need to be a lot more deliberate about enjoying the nice weather out there. This will only last a short while before either the gray PNW skies take over or there is smoke all over the place due to forest fires, which, unfortunately, has been happening quite a lot. There is an undeniable beauty to the pacific northwest summers but if this trend continues, it will be harder and harder to find those perfect summer days.

On a lighter note, I can confidently say that our hike was not a singular event. If it happend more than once, you can extrapolate it to say that its likely to happen 🙂 just like, if we find evidence of second genisis, we can confidently say that life is all pervasive throughout the universe. That doesnt mean if we dont find the evidence, there isn’t life elsewhere. I am firmly on the camp that there is life and that too of bizzare (of the kind that we can’t imagine because for most part our thoughts and imagination are bounded by the life we see on this planet) nature out there. It is like we can’t imagine what fourth dimension of space looks like. We can use analogies and extrpolate from imaginnig what living beings in an imaginary two dimensional world will experience when someone from third dimension shows up but its not the same. We cannot imagine a fourth dimension of space. Anyway, I digress 🙂 .

I think the point I was trying to make with this post is COVID has thrown a wrench in everyones life and I don’t think normal as we knew it prior to the pandemic is every going to come back. What we all can do is bring some normalcy and routine in our lives by doing things that make us feel in control of the situation. Even without COVID, our lifestyle was expected to change because of our kid but we want to make sure we were deliberate in keeping doings things we wanted to do. With COVID its become exponentially harder but the hikes (n=2 or rather n=!1) are a step in that direction for us as a family. For me personally though, my wife has been very supportive, allowing me to engage in my hobbies of flying and amateur astronomy, for which I am eternally grateful!

WOW! This post went from our decipline in outdoor activities to life out there in the universe to 4th dimension of space before coming back to the pandemic. What random thoughts go in this tiny brain of mine 🙂 Anywhoo, for anyone interested, Here is an interesting video on what life in 2d might look like:

Until next time!