It was a clear cold afternoon (ha! 45 degrees F - cold by Central Florida standards)

Blog from Florida Today is here. Additional flight info here.

A running log appears at online Florida Today.

The payload was a communication satellite for direct television broadcast.

Apparently a truck transporting 12 million bees to California to pollinate the state's almond crop crashed in Las Vegas during rush hour yesterday spilling honey and a swarm of pissed off bees.

Rather than try to round them up, they killed the bees with water from firehoses.

So now my question is: How is Blue Diamond going to pollinate its Almond crop? Will there be an almond shortage next year?

To recap the season, two summer sets were canceled due to lack of waves or thunderstorms. The Labor Day event was canceled because of Hurricane Frances. The September surfing was great before Hurricane Jeanne. October surfing was postponed until November because of damage to public parks and access to the beach. It seems like it's been feast or famine.

Full wet suits were in order Saturday as the ESA kids attacked 1-3 foot waves in cool weather by central Florida standards.

This fall I also followed high school swimming and diving competition. Satellite Beach was dominant this season. First it was conference, then district, followed by regional, and then to state finals in Gainesville.

I never mentioned it in my JE during the season. Slashdotters aren't really my target audience.

Surfing, high school swimming, and diving are not your normal spectator or television sports. These are individual sports. They are non-contact, non-violent, and do not have a professional venue to speak of. Hence, no helmets, no steroids, no lucrative professional contract to muddy the amateur competition.

So who is my audience? The athletes! I provide photo journalism coverage of the events in a non-commercial venue. Names are transcribed from heat sheets, newpaper box scores, or school publication to provide searchable keywords for Google, Yahoo and other search engines. Word of mouth works pretty good too!

High School wrestling season is starting up. Contact and dominance by leverage and strength; without violence.

Check out the website if you like true amatuer sports.

Tires are to a car, as ink cartridges are to an ink jet printer, or a fuser is to a laser printer. It's a consumable with a large price range, and the one you need is usually on the expensive end.

I had 36k miles (27 months) on the car and the tires were pretty bald with a few plugs from roofing nails that peppered the roads after Hurricane Jeanne. (I know you're not suppose to plug radials, but for $5/plug it was a cheap stop gap measure on bald tires.)

I needed 215/75SR16. Goodyear was the only manufacturer. After paying for stems, balancing, disposal fee, the damage was over $500. I declined several road hazard, aligment and several other options. I rotate my own tires every 5k miles. The wear was fairly even.

I got a mail in coupon for a $25 manufacturer rebate. I hope it is faster that Best Buy mail in rebates.

Here's survey: So what size tire do you use? How many miles do you normally get? Do you rotate your tires or pay someone to do it for you?

It's a full moon, so if you go to some secluded spot to view it don't forget to take protection.

No, not eye protection, you can look it directly without suffering permanent eye damage. I mean garlic, silver bullets and a wooden stake.

I spent Saturday night at friends' home. We lost power around 11pm before Jeanne's eye came ashore.

Their house is on the barrier island about 2 blocks from my condo.

Their patio was on the leeward side of the house. We went outside during the peak of the storm and watched transformers blow giving off a blue-gree hue to the skyline. Palm trees whipped against powerlines strumming them like guitar strings.

We didn't speak much. It reminded me of watching sparks and fireflies from a campfire.

By dawn the winds subsided and I walked back to my condo. The condo was fine, but if I had left my car in the carport, it would have been crushed.

We have been consuming meat from the freezer as it thawed; cooking on a butane BBQ grill. (all electric kitchen). Vegetables were heated in their cans.

This afternoon power was restored to my condo. My friends are still without. I have invited them over to enjoy a hot shower and a kitchen cooked meal.

Sometimes you don't miss things until you don't have them. Other things you realize how trivial they really are.

Another weekend of great waves and we have to leave the coast.

Thursday night's screenings were cancelled. The venue, DaKine Diegos Bamboo Theater, suffered major damage at the hands of Frances. Saturday night's VIP session lacked the food and spirits (most of the restaurants were still without electical power and potable water.)

Once again, I was the official photographer. There were several special guest:
Actor Michael Bailey Smith who played a vampire in Blood Shot; also appeared in MIB II, as well as other muscleman roles;
Actor/Producer/Writer (better known for his roll as Boss Hog, Sheriff Roscoe P. Coltrain on the Dukes of Hazard) James Best.
Distributor: Michael S. Broder.
Cinematographer Stephen Campbell.

Photos galleries of the MIFF are located at www.graftacs.com/miff04.html.

And just to show that I'm not camera shy...
Here's a photo of the Boss Hog and me..
and another of Micheal Bailey Smith and me..

I've posted several other galleries over the last month. They are listed in reverse cron order by category at graftacs.com.

The waves have been better for surfing (thanks to hurricanes) and the current amateur sport that I am shooting is high school swimming.

Thursday nights program was cancelled. The Bamboo Theater at DaKine Diego's in Satellite Beach was severely damaged. Some photos here.

Saturday evening's VIP session was moved from the Henegar Center to the Oaks Theaters.

Many of the sponsors (restaurants and hotels) are still closed.

The film program can been viewed at the MIFF web site

Last year, I was the unofficial paparazzi. My photos of last years event can be viewed here.

This is a lull between hurricanes. Ivan is on the docket for next week. I was blessed in Frances. My condo unit suffered literally no damage. However, the complex had damage to carports, clubhouse, roof and screens. See photos above.

Making lemonade out of lemons, I hung around and shot photos of the skim boarders and surfers as well as an angler on the getty who landed a 45 pound Goliath Grouper.

I struck up a conversation with another photographer. He had an accent. He was born in the Czech Republic and now lives in Munich, Germany. He was in Florida to provide training on medical equipment. He spoke excellent English.

His Canon camera's battery failed, so we exchanged email addresses. I told him I would send him links to my photos.

He told me he learned to surf off Portugal and now surfed the Isar River in Munich. "Do a google search of Munich River Surfing." He said. I did. It's pretty interesting.

He asked what other attractions were around the area. I told him about the Drop Zone at SkyDive Sebastian.

He had several friends that skydived in Florida. So we drove over to the Sebastian Airport.

At the Zoo Room Bar at the DropZone, we tipped a few beers. He drank Budweiser, I drank Corona.

Photos of the Drop Zone are here.

He asked questions for which I found myself having a hard time explaining.
Question 1. What do American do Low Carb diets?
Question 2. What is this news story about Kerry and Vietnam?
Question 3. Was not asked. I tried to explain why there were so many small Florida airports like Sebastian. The answer is that they were build in the 40's to train pilots during WWII.

So how would you explain 1 and 2?

And the $10,000 question: What do they call a New York Strip Steak in Germany.

Last Friday morning, I interviewed for a company position doing software test, integration and installation at different facility in town. I got the position and agreed to start Monday afternoon after I tidied up some loose ends.

Friday around 2pm, we got the word that Central Florida was included in the hurricane Charley storm path.

All computers were shutdown. Comuters in window offices were moved to the center of the building (like mine).

I had a ton of data to process before I went to my new position Monday. None of it go done, of course.

Fortunately, the brunt of Charley passed to the west of us.

Its going to be busy week trying to get up and running on the old job so I can start the new one.

I think best viewing will be 2am till dawn.

Here's a link from Florida Today.

Weather moved in around 2pm Sunday and the competition was delayed until lightning and heavy rains moved through.

Some of the best waves were during the delay. Several of the competitors used their surf boards like skim boards from the beach.

One particular guy, Caleb, was fun to watch. He caught a lot of air and really hammed it up for the camera. Here's a sample.

Other pics of him and the competition are here.

The Tri-Stix was invented by John who played in the foursome behinds us. Bob's father, who is in the plastics business, is the manufacturer of Tri-Stix. Small world!

The Tri-Stix is a three club carrier that keeps the clubs off the ground. It hangs from your bag when you in the cart. When you leave the cart, it carries three clubs. The six inch pin on the bottom keeps Tri-Stix upright while you play your shot. Tristix pictured here.

While I used a towel or balanced my club on the ball mark repair tool to keep the handle dry, Bob punched the Tri-Stix into the turf near his ball.

I remember once playing when the golf course was so wet the conditions were "cart path only" for electric golf carts. I was the odd man of a threesome. Several times I had to traverse the fairway to hit my ball, only to discover that once I was at the ball, I didn't have the right club. The Tri-Stix is made just for those occurrences. Carry club you want to use and one above and one below. Just in case.

Instead of playing "cart path golf" I could have played Tri-Stix golf!

And when I get old with arthritis, I won't have to stoop to pick up my wedge after putting out. I'll just use the ole Tri-Stix.

The website for the Tri-Stix is www.mstsports.com.

If you play golf or know someone who does, check it out. It's a golf accessory that really works as advertised.