Cleveland Indians vs NYY

My friend Bill Fotheringham is from New York City. He's a rabid Yankee's fan, and he always busts my chops when they beat Cleveland, which, is pretty often, dammit! Here he is with his son at Yankee stadium.


The last time Cleveland played New York, we made a 20$ bet on who would win the series. NY swept the Tribe, and I still haven't paid off the debt. So the dreaded Bombers are coming back to town for another series. Both teams have been hot, but Cleveland is 0-6 against them. Can they break this damn curse? Anyway, Bill called me tonight to offer another bet......Of course, it's double or nothing, to start. But he added a little twist. If Cleveland wins the series, then he'll send me a picture of himself, wearing a Cleveland Indians hat, to post on my blog. If NY wins, then I have to post a picture of myself, wearing a Yankees hat. I like that sort of bet! A little cash between friends is nice, but no big deal, but bragging rights, and a picture to prove it...now THAT'S what I call incentive! Since I'm not a ball player, and there is nothing I can do to physically influence the game, I'll have to make an offering to the gods of baseball, and say a prayer:

O' mighty baseball gods, hear my plea,
In the first round of playoffs,
Tribe beats the Yankees in three.
If that's too much to ask, then I'll take game five.
I just want to win, I'm not that picky.

Go Tribe!

Back from Lima

I spent last week in Lima, Ohio, working on high voltage terminations at the new Ethanol plant being built there. It was an interesting experience, as I have not worked out of my local jurisdiction before. Now I'm a big "traveler"! I worked better than 12 hours per day every day to try to get the work done (estimated two weeks worth) in one week. I had a few 16 hour days, but what the heck, there wasn't anything else to do except sit in the hotel room and watch TV, or drink. Even the restaurants and bars closed down by 11 pm. I give the superintendent who is running that job a lot of credit. He's been there for 6 months now, staying in the hotel during the week, and going home to his family on the weekends. I'd either go bonkers, or become an alcoholic if I had that much free time without friends and family around.

The local hands in Lima were all good people, but I could tell they weren't happy that someone from another local came in to do "their" work. Likewise, they were happy to see me go, once all the terminations were completed. I can see their point, and they were very gracious and polite, and treated me well while I was there. There are 18 more terminations that need to be installed, once the feeders get pulled. I'm hoping to go back to do them. I run into this attitude even here in Cleveland. Many people think that installing HV terms is no big deal, and it isn't, as long as it's done correctly, with careful preparations and a high attention to detail. Unfortunately, most men who work with 480 volts don't make the leap to being more careful when working on 5kV, 15kV, or higher. Ah well, I'm just a prima-donna splicer. All of the cables checked out good, and I'm back home now. I'm headed to the mill on Monday, to start working on a blast furnace reline project. I'm looking forward to that too. Coincidentally, I started working for Lake Erie Electric on a blast furnace reline back in 1997.