Category Archives: Random Thoughts by Mark L. Fox
Fog Fest
Pacifica…They call it Fog Fest but the purposely schedule it during the highest probability of clear skies in September.
Fleet Week 2017
My 56 Birthday
Salsalito music festival with the Fixx and Pablo Crusie. The Fixx was way better. Fixx from Mark Fox on Vimeo. IMG_3511 from Mark Fox on Vimeo. IMG_3513 from Mark Fox on Vimeo.
Solar Eclipse 2017 and Eden Balloons
McCall, Idaho
Danny set a new record, not $1 dollar did he spend in 4 days on vacation 🙁 And Firework back home in Foster City
Museum of Modern Art
Oleta Adams at Yoshis
Hanging out in San Fran and Muir Woods
55th Birthday
Pick and Pull
Digging through the junk yard in Oakland looking for side mirror for Barb’s Saturn.
23 Anniversary San Fran
Superbowl
The pain and agony of watching the Patriots come back while in Palm Springs on my way back from PPG in Salton Sea. The Beer Hunter Bar. Almost died the next day on a near miss head on collision driving home 🙁
Alpha Acid
I new brewery opened in Belmont. It is a storage unit with a roll up door and a shower curtain for a door. But it was packed.
San Francisco Museum of Modern Art
Christmas Time in San Carlos
Chicago
Stopped in Palm Springs on the way home from Salton Sea to watch Chicago the night before the Superbowl. They were pretty good, the trombone player looks to be about 90 so he is an original as well as a few others. Barb had to fly to London the same…
Salton Sea
The air is so smooth here you can fly at 2:00 in the afternoon. So I cut a line, tore 3 tabs on the glider and split my prop on take off. This guy I never met, Dave Jewel walks up and says “I can fix all that in about…
Imperial Sand Dunes
Christmas 2016
Half Moon Bay PPG
My morning and very first PPG flight at Half Moon Bay. The Abyss gets a little close at 25 seconds 🙂
Martinez Blues Festival
Wistia Test
Please just simply click on and run the videos, you dont have to really watch them or even watch them to the end…I just need several people clicking on it to test a new measurement system. I am using a hosting service for the videos that allows me to see…
PPG at Eden Balloon Fest
My First Paragliding Tandem
Olympic Volleyball Tryouts
Barb said it wouldn’t be any fun, but she was wrong. Then she tried to dump me for these 2 guys The goofiest look ever
Sailing on Melody’s 53rd Birthday
We had a 28 footer rented out of Santa Barbara sailing center. Someone ran it into a reef so we got the 50 footer upgrade at no additional cost. Had to scrape up 8 people to crew it.
Hiking to nowhere
Melody took us hiking to some mysterious place called punch bowls and we never found it. The best entertainment was her falling down
Young kid rocking it at at the San Mateo County fair
Panama Panic
Three new friends from Panama on their 4th day of training. The self-proclaimed leading student, was feeling spunky that “today was the day” for his first solo. So confident waking up this morning, he was cocky enough to wear his Iron Man shirt in more than a pretentious fashion. This…
Placerville
Went to go have dinner with my friends from Thiokol Mike Evans and his wife Miranda, with some bar art first Stayed at historic Cary House Funky little town
Glenn Park
Very windy and they ran out of beer right when the headliner started. How is that possible as a vendor ?
Valley Springs Fly in Apr 2016
0:36 – Motor hiccups, should have aborted 0:46 – Power drops to 50% (can’t climb at 50%), pucker maneuver between trees 🙁 0:59 – Lift feet to avoid branch 🙂 1:10 – Full power restores 1:42 – Finally high enough to feel good about backing off full power, running fine…
Watch This
After my PPG flight yesterday morning, I was heading into Valley Springs for Lunch and this was blocking the road. With a Rocket Scientist in charge of recovery operations what could possibly go wrong ?
Punk-Ass-Bitch
A retired sheriff threatened me, called me a punk-ass-bitch, called the cops on me, and then I won. In my days, lots of people have called the cops on me for various reasons and mostly no reasons. My sister still holds the record – but I digress. This last Friday…
Computer History Museum
Barbara and I hung out for 3 hours at the Computer History Museum in Mountain View. This museum is really cool and everyone in the bay area should visit it if you get a chance. The zip drive got one little spot on the wall and the caption said “didn’t…
My Day Yesterday
Went to go fly my paraglider in the morning. Starter rope broke. Ace Hardware for replacement and tools. A guy offered to help. Went to his house. Fixed it. Told him I had 3 hours to kill until the evening flight. He took me sailing on his 33 footer. Seals…
Hiking McNee State Park
Superbowl City 50 Opening Day
San Francisco has a week long party with live bands. We made it here for the opening day the Saturday before Super Bowl weekend. It is a small venue and the lines were pretty crowded during the day for the NFL activities, we couldn’t get into any of them. Kids…
Back in San Fran
Having Pizza at one of our favorite watering holes in San Mateo – Mavericks Note to self – they have the best pizza crust around
Cocoa Beach Christmas Boat Parade
Cocoa Beach Christmas Boat Parade – A glimpse of the sights and sounds inside the command center with 1 driver, 3 captains, and a teddy bear.
Quite the imagination….
Anniversary 2015
Barb and I on our 22nd wedding anniversasy (with Melody) There is a hidden wine country on 128 between Cloverdale and Mendocino. It reminds me of the old days Sonoma, when wine tasting was free 🙂 Skunk Train, Glass Beach, crashing art exhibit parties, hanging out…….. …..and the most angry…
Restart on the Fly
So here is this guys first solo flight….he hits the kill switch on inflation (we have all done it). Then the instructor restarts it while he is running. I have never seen that done before. When I asked the instructor “What the hell was that? Have you ever done that…
Oakland Octoberfest
Someone opened the gates in Oakland on Saturday. Maybe the most people I have seen at a street festival in CA.
No Bueno
So yesterday afternoon, 2 students ran straight into trees with perfectly good equipment 🙁 I was standing next to this guy when he took off, thinking what the hell is he doing ?…..He wont clear those trees! He didn’t. Injury assessment; Knee = minor, Pride = major The view from…
Reno Air Races
Beers on a floating dock on Lake Tahoe Pearl Harbor reenactment Reno air races with Astronaut Hoot Gibson winning (again) Loosing at Blackjack 🙁
My Morning
Am I supposed to feel guilty about Barb working all the time when I am doing this kind of stuff ? A 1 hour flight this morning. In the last frame you can see the landing strip and my car, but the GoPro ran out of juice before landing 🙁
Russian River Festival
Russian River Jazz and Blues Festival. We went on Saturday to the Jazz day. Weather was supposed to be hot and ugly, but an overcast lingered around all day and made it perfectly comfortable. Highlights included: $100 a night for a cabin at River Bend Campground…no sheets, pillows or blankets…
Milbrae Art Festival
Probably the longest one I have ever seen. Too hot and crowded…so we headed to Pacifica