A Good Month in Goodyear
Song of the week this week is a classic from Billie: Trixie to the B
It has been a busy week in the Academic Training Center but I managed to find a bit of time to get out and about in the local area and snap a few photos.
The first one is the garden (!) outside work, located at the intersection of Phantom Street and Fighter Country Avenue. There have been several serious injuries due to cacti falling over in strong winds, so this one has been propped up and it now resembles a kind of cactus Major Oak:
Here's the City of Goodyear sign up the road from our hotel:
And the local Fire Department keeping us all safe from harm:
Although I'm not sure how effective they have been lately; I've already met two families staying in our hotel because their houses have caught fire and burnt down. I guess it doesn't help that there hasn't been any rain since we arrived and firewood appears to be the construction material of choice for local dwellings.
We had a couple of opportunities to get out cycling this week and made it to the City of Peoria, which is another suburb that has also been swallowed up by Phoenix. We found the Veterans' Memorial:
And an ex-US Army Huey helicopter on a stick:
It's good to see that this one has fixed blades, unlike the gate guardian outside the Airbus factory in Albacete which had an unguarded rotor that spun up every time it got windy and turned itself into a climbing frame / death trap.
And as we were cycling home, we saw this week's horse(s) of the week:
I will defer judgement to the expert on this one, but I would say that the first horse is having a much easier ride than the second one, which appears to be undergoing a test to determine its maximum carrying capacity.
Back to the hotel:
My room is on the top floor and the right-hand two windows, ignoring the ones with the rounded tops. Here's the back entrance:
And the view from inside looking northwest to the White Tank Mountains:
And northeast looking over the golf course towards Luke AFB (which is too far away to see):
And here is our rental car, a Chevrolet Malibu:
And now for an Alan Partridge-style anecdote. We pulled up at some traffic lights on our way to work this week and remembered that we needed some milk. We were in the left lane at a red light. The supermarket was on the right hand side about 100 metres after the lights. There was a car on the right. We had two choices: 'floor it', or 'dawdle'. We selected 'floor it.' It's an automatic car and has a significant lag when pulling away but this is easily overcome by pressing the accelerator with the right foot whilst holding the car on the brake with the left foot (warning: this technique is only recommended for rental cars). The crossing traffic light changed to red. I depressed the accelerator slightly harder. The clutch began to smell. Our red light went out. I took my foot off the brake and then realised that the green light was a left turn filter and our light was still red. I went to press the brake again with my left foot and slammed it to the floor as if it were a clutch. The car screeched to a stop. A minute or so later, our light changed to green, the two-pedal technique worked a charm and we managed to win the race and get the milk.
Later that day, a girl who works in the programming office asked if we had a white Malibu rental car. When I told her that we did, she informed me that it was in fact her who was next to us as the traffic lights and thought that we were about to cause an enormous pile up at the junction as we set off.
It was so close to being the perfect crime...
Matched betting has been slow this week, with only £15.78 profit due to some issues with automated betting software detecting that I am in the USA. I am working a two-phase solution involving a Virtual Private Network and an intermediary in the UK. I hope to see £100 or so in the next few days once it's all sorted. Total profit to date £220.70.
It has been a busy week in the Academic Training Center but I managed to find a bit of time to get out and about in the local area and snap a few photos.
The first one is the garden (!) outside work, located at the intersection of Phantom Street and Fighter Country Avenue. There have been several serious injuries due to cacti falling over in strong winds, so this one has been propped up and it now resembles a kind of cactus Major Oak:
 |
| Fighter Country and Phantom |
Here's the City of Goodyear sign up the road from our hotel:
 |
| Welcome to Goodyear |
And the local Fire Department keeping us all safe from harm:
 |
| Fire Brigade, it's the Fire Brigade... |
Although I'm not sure how effective they have been lately; I've already met two families staying in our hotel because their houses have caught fire and burnt down. I guess it doesn't help that there hasn't been any rain since we arrived and firewood appears to be the construction material of choice for local dwellings.
We had a couple of opportunities to get out cycling this week and made it to the City of Peoria, which is another suburb that has also been swallowed up by Phoenix. We found the Veterans' Memorial:
 |
| What is says on the tin |
And an ex-US Army Huey helicopter on a stick:
 |
| UH-1 Huey |
It's good to see that this one has fixed blades, unlike the gate guardian outside the Airbus factory in Albacete which had an unguarded rotor that spun up every time it got windy and turned itself into a climbing frame / death trap.
And as we were cycling home, we saw this week's horse(s) of the week:
 |
| Horses of the Week |
I will defer judgement to the expert on this one, but I would say that the first horse is having a much easier ride than the second one, which appears to be undergoing a test to determine its maximum carrying capacity.
Back to the hotel:
 |
| Residence Inn |
My room is on the top floor and the right-hand two windows, ignoring the ones with the rounded tops. Here's the back entrance:
 |
| Residence Inn |
And the view from inside looking northwest to the White Tank Mountains:
 |
| View Northwest |
And northeast looking over the golf course towards Luke AFB (which is too far away to see):
 |
| View Northeast |
And here is our rental car, a Chevrolet Malibu:
 |
| The Chevy |
And now for an Alan Partridge-style anecdote. We pulled up at some traffic lights on our way to work this week and remembered that we needed some milk. We were in the left lane at a red light. The supermarket was on the right hand side about 100 metres after the lights. There was a car on the right. We had two choices: 'floor it', or 'dawdle'. We selected 'floor it.' It's an automatic car and has a significant lag when pulling away but this is easily overcome by pressing the accelerator with the right foot whilst holding the car on the brake with the left foot (warning: this technique is only recommended for rental cars). The crossing traffic light changed to red. I depressed the accelerator slightly harder. The clutch began to smell. Our red light went out. I took my foot off the brake and then realised that the green light was a left turn filter and our light was still red. I went to press the brake again with my left foot and slammed it to the floor as if it were a clutch. The car screeched to a stop. A minute or so later, our light changed to green, the two-pedal technique worked a charm and we managed to win the race and get the milk.
Later that day, a girl who works in the programming office asked if we had a white Malibu rental car. When I told her that we did, she informed me that it was in fact her who was next to us as the traffic lights and thought that we were about to cause an enormous pile up at the junction as we set off.
It was so close to being the perfect crime...
Matched betting has been slow this week, with only £15.78 profit due to some issues with automated betting software detecting that I am in the USA. I am working a two-phase solution involving a Virtual Private Network and an intermediary in the UK. I hope to see £100 or so in the next few days once it's all sorted. Total profit to date £220.70.
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