Welcome to E D Skinner's Website

On a recent business trip to the Washington DC area, I had a couple of spare hours to visit the National Firearms Museum. It’s in the NRA headquarters building in Virginia, just west of Washington DC. For those with street mapping GPSs, a good map or who are familiar with the area, the street address is 11250 Waples Mill Road, Fairfax, VA.

In a list of attributes of second-century Christianity:

And, alas, the latter is exactly what I’m trying to do, to reason Jesus as deserving of the claims Christians make.

• In-transit time: 25 hours
  Flights: Phoenix to Philadelphia, to Rome, to Turin Italy
  Seats: Middle, aisle, aisle

I’m the “check pilot” for the instructor that will do the actual teaching this week. My job is to back him up, help in the labs, and at the end, say if he’s able to teach this class on his own. But I know this person’s abilities and have no doubt he will do fine.

I’m on a three part quest to answer the following questions.

Staying Out

Sometimes I stay “out” for two classes. For example, I recently had a Tuesday-Friday in the Washington DC area and then a Monday-Thursday near Boston. Rather than flying home to Arizona on a Saturday, doing the laundry and then flying back to the east coast and Boston on Sunday, I visited a local laundromat Friday night, did some sightseeing on Saturday and Sunday morning, and then flew up to Boston on Sunday. By skipping that round trip to Arizona and back, the company saved more than enough to pay for the weekend expenses, I got some additional rest, and I got to do some sightseeing.

Tomorrow (Monday) morning, I’m headed east, first to the Washington DC area to teach a four-day class, and then up to Boston MA for another four-day. Although Virginia, where I’ll actually be, is “friendly” enough that I could take my guns and get in some shooting, Boston is not. Decidedly so. Consequently, and since this is a single two-stop round trip, I’ll be travelling “without” for the next two weeks.

My teaching calendar has me in the Washington DC area next week for a four-day, then up to Boston MA for another four-day. The first is Tuesday through Friday while the second is a Monday through Thursday class; I could fly home over the weekend but it’s cheaper to just stay on the east coast. And it’s a lot easier on the body.