(feat. A Summer in San Luis Obispo in January...)

Saturday, January 10, 4:30am – I wake up on the couch on my living room. My alarm is not supposed to go off until 4:45, but I figure I should wake up now, or risk falling asleep until 10am. I am supposed to go pick up one of my professor’s on campus at around 5:15 and take him to the airport. This is the beginning, of what will become a long, strange trip. I know it’s going to be long, don’t know how strange it’ll be, but it’s strange enough, and I’m writing this part Friday 1/16.

From January 12 through January 15 is the annual Transportation Research Board conference. My professor is going to present a couple of papers. Several of us transportation graduate students were planning on going to the conference. Being tantalizingly close to the inauguration, we figure we can do both. My professor also wants to do both. However, in the end, we figure we can’t all miss a week and half of class.

My professor has to go the conference, the rest of my compatriots go for the inauguration. I sit on the fence, wandering and indecisive, but leaning towards going to the conference because I don’t know where I’m going to stay in Washington.

Then one of my classmates has the brilliant observation. Monday is MLK day and my professor has no classes on Tuesdays. Ah ha, he can make it, assuming he flies back the night of the inauguration. Ah ha, now I can go to the inauguration because now I have a place to stay because my professor has many places to house me in Washington over the weekend, since most of his family lives there. So its set, we all get to go. I get a place to stay in exchange for taking my professor to the airport and covering his classes for the week, which I’d rather do than go to the conference anyway…

Saturday, January 10, 5:00am – I better get my tail over to campus to pick him. I hop into my car. Damn it’s cold out, it must be 30-something, and windy too. I make the five minute drive to campus. I get a call, my professor is running late. 20 minutes later I’m cold again since my heater wasn’t on that long.

Saturday, January 10, 5:30am – Alright, my professor and his son have arrived for me to take them to the airport. Let’s go, that flight is leaving in 45 minutes. Off we go and… what the hell, did I just almost run over a pedestrian? No one walks across this intersection during daylight, what the hell is some one doing walking there at 5:30 in the morning. (*He was well across my half of the intersection as I was turning)

Saturday, January 10, 5:45 am – We arrive at the airport. Oh, my professor’s son fell asleep in my back seat. His name is Collin… he is a 12 year old black kid. He is not yet taller than me, I think… One of the other grad students I’m going with is Colin… he is a 12, err, I mean 24 year old, 6’4” hockey loving white guy…

Monday, January 12, 1:00 pm – The first class I am covering, CRP 213 – Population Housing, and Economic Analysis. Lab 1 on Excel basics.

Monday, January 12, 3:00pm – The second class I am covering, CRP 516 – Quantitative Methods for Planning. Lab 1A on Excel basics.

Tuesday, January 13, 2:30pm – Temperature in San Luis Obispo, CA… 86 degrees. Temperature in Washington, DC… 28 degrees.

Wednesday, January 14, 1:00pm – The third class I am covering, CRP 213. Continuing Lab 1 on Excel basics. This is taking a bit longer than I was expecting…

Wednesday, January 14, 3:00pm – The fourth class I am covering, CRP 516. Lab 1B on Introduction to American FactFinder. Temperature in San Luis Obispo, CA… 82 degrees. And now, for crying out loud, I have to turn the fan on in the lab room?

Thursday, January 15, 12:35pm – US Airways Flight 1549 crash lands into the Hudson River in New York City, as a result of multiple bird strikes shortly after takeoff, during ascent. Did I mention I’m laying over in New York City…

Thursday, January 15, 1:35pm – I am in a class on Airport Planning and Design. The topic of airplane engines comes up, and so does birds. Apparently, birds are a continuing problem in airports and with airplanes. Generally though, while birds hitting planes are a common occurrence, they’re usually not a pretty big problem. Jet engines are supposedly pretty tough. The first test flight of a Boeing 767 uplifted asphalt off the runaway and got sucked into the engine, causing only minor damage.

There is one danger zone where bird strikes are serious. Just before and just after takeoff, to get ascent lift, plane engines are working at about 120% their max capacity. If a bird hits then, the plane is trying to get up off the ground, and needs all that thrust. Also since the engine is running at 120%, the engine can not be quickly shut down. This also assumes your other engine is working.

Oh, this class started at noon, so we had no knowledge of what was going on in New York.

Thursday, January 15, 3pm – The fourth class I am covering, CRP 213. Lab 2 on Introduction to American FactFinder and Lab 3A on Population Pyramids.

Temperature in San Luis Obispo, CA… 80 degrees. Temperature in Washington, DC… 9 degrees.

Friday, January 16, 9am – The class I normally teach, CRP 216, Computer Applications for Planning, Section 1. Introduction to Geographic Information Systems, and Basics of Desktop Publishing.

Friday, January 16, 11:30am – It’s getting a little hard to talk. I’m not even halfway through done talking today.

Friday, January 16, 1:00pm – The fifth class I am covering, CRP 213. Lecture and discussion on secondary data sources, the UCSB Economic Forecast Project, and analyzing demographic and housing indicators.

Friday, January 16, 2:00pm – My seventh and final class of the week, CRP 216, Section 2. My voice is flagging pretty good now. I give my normal middle of class break after 45 minutes. I get a bit of reprieve because I have them work on their own in the middle of the class, but I close with a lecture. I’m toast by 5:00 and so ends 10 hours of instructing in 26 hours.

Friday, January 16, 5:30pm – I hop on my bus for San Jose. Hrmm, look at that funny looking guy, what’s that big things he’s carrying… Oh, it’s a snowboard… Hah, with 5 straight days of temperatures 80 degrees and above, who would’ve thought it would be weirder to see a guy carrying a snowboard than people in shorts…

Friday, January 16, 7:30pm – It’s the bus trips food stop in King City. I order a cheeseburger, small fries, and a coke. Hey, that costs less than I thought…. Server: Order #299, small fry… Hey wait, that’s my number. Ah damn it, she didn’t hear my first order. I’m hungry too… Back in line I go. Can I get A cheeseburger please. Cashier: That’ll be $11.72… Wait, what, 11 dollars, for a cheeseburger…. Cashier: Oh one, not eight [yells at the cooks in the back] hey, it’s just one, not eight… Oy… I suppose what was particularly funny was that the cashier didn’t as much as flinch when I supposedly ordered 8 cheeseburgers, and nothing else. What, is this not an odd order?

Friday, January 16, 9:30pm - My bus gets close to the stop at Diridon Station in downtown San Jose, across from the Shark Tank. As we wait at a stop light, I see a bunch of kids play sliding down a freeway overpass embankment. First, sliding down under a freeway overpass, and second, kids in downtown SJ at 9:30. What gives? Now whats that, are those soccer balls? No, they're red, white, and blue basketballs. Ah, the Harlem Globetrotters must be in town. Boy, they sure are more popular than I thought...

Friday, January 16, 10pm – Alright, back at home. Now time to pack like I’ve never packed before. Since I’m going to be relying on the DC Metro, it’s literally the same trains as BART just with three doors on the cars and better signs, I need to pack light. I will attempt to travel to the east coast in the middle of January on just a backpack. Let’s see, I think I can wear three shirts on the plane, but can I wear 2 pants?

Previously Recorded From An Earlier Live Broadcast Blogging The Donkey is a reference to Live Blogging the Elephant, a series of internet posts covering the Republican National Convention that appeared on a liberal blogosphere website. A Summer in SLO in January is a sequel to well, look below you...