Last Flight of 2008?

Today may have been my last flight for 2008. The weather and holiday commitments made it difficult to get into the air. I do have a flight scheduled for as early as New Year's Day.
I flew solo and decided on Ridgely as my destination. It's a straight short hop that allows my to get some practice in. You know it's short when your preflight takes longer than the flight time. Nevertheless I launched from runway 11 and turned left to follow Rt. 50 for the noise abatement procedure. The weather was high overcast and the air had a few little bumps. The solo flight was an opportunity to run the checklists and try for that "perfect" flight where you do everything exactly right. Once I got closer to RJD I was able to easily insert myself into the 45 degree approach to the downwind leg. I heard another aircraft behind me announce his position. He was entering the pattern as I began my final. As soon as I started my landing roll yet another aircraft called out that they were on an instrument approach for the same runway in the opposite direction. I continued to roll out so I could get off the runway and wondered what the aircraft in the opposite pattern was going to do. The winds were calm so there wasn't a favored runway. The aircraft on the instrument approach was most likely "dumped" their by ATC. ATC vectored him to the airport for the approach and told him to switch to advisory frequency. Instrument approaches are usually straight in affairs. The aircraft is on a straight in approach, switches to the airport CTAF, and then finds two visual approach aircraft set up to land on the opposite side of the runway. Had this been in actual IMC he would not have had the other airplanes to worry about.
It all worked out in the end. I turned off of the runway, the other aircraft extended his downwind and the instrument guy landed.
After a short break I fired it up and headed for the shore. Once again I got set up for the 45 degree entry for 11. While inbound I heard another aircraft call out for Bay Bridge. It used the call sign JetProp. Later research I did told me this is a Piper aircraft that has had its piston engine replaced with a turbine propeller engine. My JetProp called and said he was headed on a left base for the same runway. That meant that he was ahead of me in the pattern and we were converging at a 90 degree angle. I looked to my right to try and spot him and then called out to make sure he knew where I was. The preferred method for entering the traffic pattern is to make a 45 degree entry to the down wind leg. That puts you on the opposite runway heading. two more 90 degree turns, base and final, put on the the runway heading to land. There is no regulation about the traffic pattern at a non-towered airport. You can enter the pattern at any leg and even land straight in.
Technically Mr. JetProp had done nothing wrong be entering on the base leg, its just possible he didn't consider that I was making a "standard" pattern entry and he might be cutting me off. I looked for him and called out asking if he had me in sight. I also explained that I may need to go around because an extension of my downwind leg would put my into the DC ADIZ airspace. Fortunately, with a name like JetProp I assumed that he was faster than me. I finally spotted him below me on his base leg while I was still in the downwind. The approach to runway 11 is kind of thrilling. It involves descending while crossing the two spans of the Bay Bridge, then coming in low over the water to the runway threshold that's about 500 ft from the shore. As I crossed over the small patch of land between the water and the runway I saw a whole bunch of large birds sitting on the ground. I was really hoping that they all wouldn't decide that it was their runway and take flight. I would have been picking feathers out of my teeth. The birds decided to stay put and I brought it in for a smooth landing.