Scarter's Corner

Day 3

2011-11-04T02:19:00.000-04:00

The flight WAS fun! We had some turbulence, and a couple of moments of roller-coaster drops, then it steadied out. Deb and I watched Balboa videos until my laptop battery ran out, then I took a nap and she looked at home decorating ideas.

We had an excellent dinner at Bahama Breeze, then headed to the hotel for a nap before dancing. I was pretty worried about dancing with this caliber of dancers, but I just sucked it up and asked some ladies to dance. I did notice some differences between what I expect a follower to do, and what some followers who aren't from Cleveland do.

I'm getting sleepy. It's after 2am. Going to bed and start off tomorrow with breakfast in bed, then lessons all day.

Trip to Raleigh

2011-11-03T11:19:00.000-04:00

I'm sitting at Cleveland Hopkins airport, just messing around while I wait for my boarding call. I haven't flown in several years, so this is going to be fun. It's also a small plane, so I'm hoping for turbulence. I found what must be the only outlet on the concourse, got on the wifi network, and I'm just click, click, clicking away. I'm a bit nervous about dancing at this place, because the skill level is high, while mine is low. I am looking forward to the classes though.

Last night, I started learning Blues dancing. It's a lot of fun, with a similar close connection to Balboa, which is one of the reasons I like Bal. With Blues, though, it's so slow, it takes a lot of concentration to try to follow the music. The main idea of Blues dancing is to interpret the music with body movements. More attention is required than with Jitterbug, which I use more structured moves for.

Day 2

2011-11-03T09:49:00.000-04:00

Today is the last day on a really fun job that has lasted the last 6 weeks. One of the research test cells where I work needed to be able to rotate their main motor backwards. They use that motor to test turbine blade geometry under various atmospheric conditions and rotational velocities. The turbines are used in jet engines. Since researchers view the rotation from the front of the turbine while aeronautics companies view the rotation from the pilot's viewpoint, in order to test private sector turbines, the motor must be able to turn counter-clockwise. To understand this, take a pinwheel and blow on it to get it spinning. Notice which direction it is turning while it faces you, then slowly rotate the stick until it's facing the other direction, and you'll see that from your new perspective, the pinwheel is rotating in the opposite direction.

In order to make any three phase motor reverse direction, any of two phases much be switched. That isn't too hard to do in a small motor, but this one is 15,000 horsepower. It can draw almost 1000 amps at full load. The main problem is that the high voltage cables that power the motor are 59 years old, and beyond their life expectancy by 10 years. With that in mind, we didn't want to have to move them very much, or very often. The trick was to come up with a way to switch phases, without having to move the cables every time.

The best method would have been to use a reversing disconnect switch, but the switch alone cost $80,000. The head engineer wanted a more cost-effective method, so I redesigned the existing switch to enable us to swap out pieces of buss (4" wide x ¼" thick copper plates that are used instead of wires) for clockwise and counterclockwise rotation.

The first thing to do is determinate the existing cables, so they can be tested. This picture shows the cabinet, with the cables removed from the buss.

Here is the other end of the cables, where they terminate on the motor buss. They are taped up with insulating tape to keep the 6,900 volts contained.

The cables tested out fine, so we continued. Since only two of the phases need to be interchanged, the third phase (also called Phase C) was put back on the same buss. We had lowered the cables to give us as much room as possible to form them where they needed to go, so we had to manufacture a short buss extension before landing the Phase C cables. A nice cup of java to start the day...

The next step was to start fabricating the other buss pieces. This is a buss bender. We used to to bend right angles in the copper plates. This was fuuuun!

We were meticulous with our layout and measurements. In all, there were 12 pieces of buss that had to be measured, cut, drilled or punched out, polished, and put together. My partner, Bill is cutting one of the straight pieces.

This is a picture of the Phase B buss for clockwise rotation. The cables will land on that angled plate, then the circuit continues up to the same spot the cables originally landed. You can also see the Phase C cables (with the blue tape). The three shiny vertical cables in the back are the incoming feeders.

Bill and I bent up the Phase A buss pieces next. This is the layout for clockwise rotation also, since the circuit goes from the cables right to where they were landed previously. You can see the 1½ inch offset that brought the buss closer to the side of the cabinet. This was to make it easier to land the first Phase A cable. The piece on the bottom with the holes punched in it is where the cables will be bolted in. I didn't like how this was looking because it would require me to bend the cables too far, violating the bending radius specification, so I moved that angled plate, and rotated it.

My ride is here! I'm flying to Raleigh, North Carolina to participate in the weekend long Eastern Balboa Championships! I won't be competing, but I'll be taking classes for 4 days, and dancing each night. I'll post more about this fascinating job when I get back.

I'm going to try to write every day of November, starting today.

2011-11-01T16:48:00.007-04:00

This Lifehacker post gave me the idea to write every day, and try for 50,000 words by November 30th.

This blogpost that my niece linked on her facebook page got me thinking about how I view women, so that will be my first topic.

I've got a lot of women friends. I can't imagine treating any of them the way this woman was treated by her husband, and I can see why she felt the need to work out, get big, and get strong. But I'm writing about me, not her.

I like smart women; those who aren't afraid to tell me when I'm wrong (one of you tell me if I'm using the semi-colon properly). I like strong women; those who can have different opinions than mine, but still respect my opinion, and I theirs. Mostly, though, I like girly-girls! They wear make-up, don't fart in public, enjoy showing off their legs with high-heels and thigh-length skirts. They like to look pretty, like to be twirled around on the dance floor, and enjoy my hugs.

I truly enjoy the way a womanly woman makes ME feel! I'm talking about a woman who LIKES to be a woman, and who enjoys the attention of men. My most recent lover was such a woman, and she allowed me to be masculine. In fact, she wanted me to be masculine, and I wanted her to be feminine. Simply resting her head on my chest with my arm around her made me feel fantastic! It made me feel protective, strong, trusted, manly, important. She liked that I had a strong sex drive, liked to look at her naked, liked to touch her, and thoroughly enjoyed having sex with her. She made me happy I was a man. Killing spiders and opening jars was part of the deal too, along with walking my female friends to their cars at night, asking for text messages when they got home safely, and offering to be there should they get in a jam and need a flat tire replaced.

I don't have to bully a woman (or anyone) to feel strong and manly. A woman shouldn't have to feel she should be "weak and fair (complected)" to be womanly.

Flash mob at the Cleveland Warehouse District Street Festival

2011-08-15T10:23:00.001-04:00

This year, we did last years flash mob routine, and learned a new one too. We performed both the same day, and also danced to the band Blue Lunch. The food at the Blind Pig was awesome, we had cold beer, and great fun dancing and talking.

This is what happens when the contractor locks the house.

2011-06-28T23:19:00.001-04:00

Damn, the place is locked up... only one way in!

Need to remove the insulation first.

The inner milk chute door.

View from the outside looking in... how do I get in there?

This is the easy part... still got a long way to go. Damn pants got caught on the latch-hook too. I thought I was going to have to wriggle out of them!

View from the inside, looking out.

The guy did a nice job on my floors, though!

Life is good

2011-05-03T18:13:00.000-04:00

I was thinking yesterday just how good my life is:

I've got a nice house that will soon be paid for(it still needs some work, though).

I've got a great job that's close to home, and I've been lucky to be employed when many aren't.

I truly enjoy my job, and I like going to work, though when it's time to retire, I'm sure I'll find other things to keep me busy.

I've got some awesome friends, who I spend most of my time with going out to dinner, dancing, seeing movies, hiking, and generally enjoying life.

I've got a great family that I don't see often enough.

I'm in excellent health, and not to old to learn new things.

I've got all the toys I want: motorcycle, sports car, pick-up truck, power tools (ruff ruff!).

I sleep well every night knowing that the choices I've made were the right choices.

All in all, life is good.

I hope all of my friends and family can say the same, or are at least on track to be able to say the same in the future!

Finally. Spring!

2011-03-29T17:01:00.002-04:00

It's still cold out, but the sunshine is warm. I see little plants popping up after raking the leaves left over from last fall. I should probably fertilize the lawn today.

Over the weekend, I got the motorcycle, the Mustang, and the lawnmower out of the garage. All started with little or no trouble, though the lawnmower took some effort. It won't be long now before I'll be cruising on two wheels, or with the top down.

I'm hoping to cook out before too long. Nothing fancy, just some hot dogs over a split-log fire followed by marshmallows. Damn. Now I'm hungry...

p.s. Happy Birthday, Bill F+11 What's that show we used to watch? Hawaii something...? :-)

New Year's Eve Dinner and Dancing

2011-02-16T23:50:00.001-05:00

I don't know why I had such a hard time posting this. The first time I tried was January 3rd. Today, I see it as a Draft, and it posted just fine. Anyway, I've been busy with other stuff, and haven't been to my blog in awhile.

Cleveland Swing Flash Mob

2010-11-24T16:43:00.000-05:00

I've been practicing with my friends for several weeks for this event. It occurred last Saturday, November 20th at Great Northern Mall, and again at Southpark Mall, in Strongsville.

My dance partner is Lauren. We met at classes, became friends, and now have great fun dancing together. In the background are some of my other friends, Danelle is dancing with Ed. Laura is dancing with Gil. Deb is dancing with Dave. Val (my instructor) is started the dance off with her partner, Alex, as well as Jenn and Matt.

Something I don't want to lose

2010-10-02T11:09:00.000-04:00

KELLY PATRICK: I know it's been years now...but I miss you. You crack me up =) I can't recall a single bad memory from our time playing together. It was always a pleasure. I just thought you should know that.

A better dancing video

2010-09-30T04:54:00.000-04:00

Here's a much better video of Lauren and I dancing last Saturday night. We were practicing a part of a dance move that Karen and I had learned earlier that week. The cross kicks looked cool, and fun, so the girls wanted me to teach them how to do it. We never actually did the whole move, but we had a blast anyway!

My niece took a picture of us too:

Swing Dancing

2010-09-25T15:57:00.001-04:00

If you read my blog, then you know that I've been taking swing dance lessons. Cheri, Lori, Bill, and a few others, here's a few pics and videos for your entertainment.

These are a few of the ladies I dance with regularly. Occasionally, we'll go out after class for ice cream, or after a dance for other refreshment. The women are, from left to right, Laura, Lauren, Valerie, and Danelle. The lovely redhead in the center, right, is our dance instructor. She owns and operates Get Hep Swing.

Just to prove that I didn't steal these pics off some website...here's me in the picture. :-)

Last night, we went to Quaker Steak and Lube for wings and just to talk, because we don't usually have time to chat at the dances. Karen came with us last night, she's the one in back, on the right with the Mona Lisa smile. Makes you wonder just what she's thinking.... I found out that Karen and I share the same dream job, that of being a fighter pilot. Lauren would love to find a cure for cancer, and save all the children (she's studying to be a nurse). Shoot! I forgot what Laura and Danelle's dream jobs are.

Here, Lauren and I are dancing. My niece took the video, and turned the camera sideways halfway through. It seemed like a good idea at the time, to match the framing, but I haven't found a way to rotate the video back to normal yet.... We're going out dancing again tonight, so we can record a new video.

Danelle's friends from Missouri came out for the week. Friday night they stopped by my house for cards. Their daughter wanted me to teach her to dance, so here we are:

So, what I'm trying to say is that I'm having fun swing dancing.

Two more fine gentlemen retire

2010-09-22T00:14:00.002-04:00

I haven't posted in awhile, but I want to congratulate two more Local 38 wiremen who I've had the pleasure to, well, not work with directly, but work in the same crew with:

Jeff

and Jay, who is in the middle here:

Those flags were flown on the NASA Glenn Research Center's flagpole for a day, before being folded up and presented to these men in recognition of their service.

Now I want to say something about these two guys, because not everyone liked them. They didn't like everyone either. That's what I admired about them. These two guys are both old school electricians, from a time when you spoke your mind, and that was that, and if the other guy didn't like it, too fucking bad. These guys would call a spade a spade, would let you know what they thought of you, and even if they liked you, they wouldn't hesitate to set your ass straight if they felt it was necessary. A few times they needed to have their asses set straight too.

See, in this day of political correctness, and "everyone is equal and important, and wonderful as they are" lovey-dovey bullshit, we are being taught to be afraid of confrontation. Confrontation can be a good thing. Learning to deal with confrontation is definitely a declining skill. Learning how to work with a guy who thinks you are an asshole, and who you think is an asshole is an interpersonal skill that few people have anymore, and fewer are learning as they grow up. All right, I don't want to stay on my soapbox here. These two weren't afraid to say what they thought. 'nuff said.

Congratulations to you, Jeff, and Jay. I hope you have a long, enjoyable retirement.

Did I mention that I really enjoy going to these retirement parties?

Labor Day Weekend

2010-09-09T21:46:00.000-04:00

I spent Labor Day weekend at my brother's house again this year. His son turned 8 on Friday. Here they are, watching TV.

It didn't take long before David and I were engaged in a battle of mixed martial arts.

Even Uncle Morgan got a turn in the "cage"

Taking the tree down

2010-07-06T22:57:00.002-04:00

On Father's Day, we decided to take the burned out tree down. I started cutting through on the right side, to slice to the existing holes, thinking that would be enough. It wasn't. Then Anthonie drove a wedge in the slot there, but that just got the wedge stuck. I went in and cut on the left side until I got to the real meaty part of the tree. The entire time, if we'd hear a crack or a pop, we would back out quickly, not unlike scared little girls. That old tree hung on pretty well, though. Tom suggested we cut a slice on the front of the tree, opposite of the burnt out side. I worked on that for a bit, but didn't really like the idea because I thought the saw would get stuck when the tree buckled. So Tom cut the slice. He cut in until we heard one real loud crack, then we bounced right back out.

Anthonie and I went in to check it out, and saw that the cut on the back was spread out pretty well. I didn't think it would take much to topple the tree now, so I held the splitting maul in the crack and Anthonie beat on it with the sledge:

We won!

For the last couple of weekends I've been going out to work on the tree. I don't know what Dad is gonna do with all that firewood, since Mom won't let him keep the wood-burning stove in the house any longer.

When I look at this post on Firefox, I can't see either of the two videos that come before the final picture of the tree. Post a comment if you can or can't see them. This is my first video post, so it might not be perfect.

Another great xkcd comic

2010-07-01T15:49:00.000-04:00

Ok, check this one out. It's hard to pick out the subtle discrepancy, but if you hover over the comic, you'll get a text box that gives you a clue.

I thought it was fun. I tried it with a few other numbers, and I found that it's true for n and n squared: n x (n^2) = x

My old treehouse tree got struck by lightning

2010-06-21T22:48:00.000-04:00

I built this treehouse when I was 12 or 13, maybe even younger. I remember two kids could fit in it back then. I climbed inside when I got out of the Navy and I could barely fit by myself.

A couple of weeks ago, the tree took a lightning bolt and caught fire. Mom and Dad said it smouldered for 3 days before the embers finally went out.

I offered Dad to cut the tree down for him, but he thought the tree would fall over on it's own, due to the amount of damage to it....

Heck, you can see right through it!

Here's a picture my sister Kerry took on Father's Day. If you download the picture, or open it in a new window, it's much larger.

5 Men Retire

2010-06-10T22:09:00.001-04:00

Last Friday, I went to a retirement party for five Local 38 wiremen. I hadn't seen these guys in several years, and it was great to see them all in good health, great spirits, and retiring with hopefully years and years of enjoyment.

Bobby Tomsik, the guy on the far right in the orange shirt, is doing what I've always seen him do: smiling, laughing, and he's probably busting someone's balls. He's one of the best men I've ever worked with. My favorite story of working with him was on a job where he was the foreman, and I was there for a few days to help with a hot job. We had some rooftop work to do on a large building. Bobby instructed me to stay in the electrical room, and that he'd go on the roof. Unbeknown to me, while he was on the roof, and I was in the warm, dry electrical room, it started to rain. When he came down, he was soaking wet! Every guy in the place gave me shit for making the old man go up on the roof while I stayed inside, nice and dry. Finally, since we had to get that part of the job done that day, we both went up top. We brought an umbrella....we wore rain suits....it didn't matter. The rain wasn't coming down, it was coming sideways! We got the job done, laughing and joking the entire time. Bobby Tomsik is one class act, and I hope I've learned a few things from him.

Next to him is Mike Pilange. Though you can't tell by the picture, Mike CAN actually smile when he wants to. I only worked for Mike for a few months, and there was another level of management between us, so I'm sorry Mike, I don't have any cool stories about you.

In the middle is Dave Stretar. Dave was my first partner down at the tandem mill. Our first job together was under the mill, in a maze of electrical, hydraulic, and water pipes. Everything was covered in either grease, or oil. We had to weld a bracket onto the structure to support a conduit we were running. After I got in there, got covered with oil, wiped all the grease off the steel I could and welded the bracket on, I asked Dave, "This was a test, wasn't it? A test to see if I'd climb in here and do the job or not, right?" He just smiled a big shit-eating grin and nodded. Well, Dave, it took some digging, but I finally found it, in a hall closet at my parents' house:

Remember that day?

Next guy in is Brian Stadtler. He's one of my favorite guys to work for. He was always laid back, in control, never yelled or got angry. He was always smiling and laughing. He had a knack for being able to needle you when you made a mistake, which was good-natured, but let you know you needed to fix it. When the job needed to get done, he expected you to bust your ass to get it done, which happened often for the customer he took care of. After that he'd take care of you.

The fifth retiree is Nick Sivik. I've worked with Nicky time and time again over the years. He's one of those solid electricians who could do anything, whether it was terminate a panel, like he's doing here, or run banks of 4" pipe. He's a true mechanic.

The local is going to miss these guys, and their centuries of combined experience. Good luck to you all.

Oh, I need to mention Turtle too! He retired from Local 38 a few weeks ago, but I haven't gotten any pictures from Bruce yet. Some people call him Earl Coe, but I don't know any of them.

I got my Turtle pic. He's the guy on the left, while his best friend, Lenny, is on the right. Over the years, I can't count the times I've heard Turtle say "Me and Lenny....." It used to be a running joke to see how early in the day it would be before we heard a story from Turtle about him and Lenny. Rick and I would laugh and say "We have a 'Lenny'!"

Galaska and Son, Splicers-r-Us

2010-06-08T18:13:00.000-04:00

As Union Electricians, you never know who you will run in to on the job. This is a father (Dr. Bob) and son (Junior) picture. Dr. Bob works for Lake Erie Electric, while Junior works for the same contractor that I do, Call Henry. Dr. Bob came out to do some splices and terminations on a contract job that Lake Erie won. Since he may retire sometime in the next few years, Junior wanted to get a few pictures with his old man on the job.

This is an Instructor/Student picture. A little over a decade ago, Junior and I took the NJATC course in Medium Voltage Cable Splicing and Terminating. Dr. Bob was the lead instructor and the bohunk on the far right, Bruce Marek, was the other instructor. Bruce is now the shop steward for Call Henry. It's a sad state of affairs that Junior and I will be taking the reigns over when these two men retire, especially since we never listen....

I even got to see my old buddy and splicing partner, Casey again. He was assisting Dr. Bob with the splices and terminations. Casey has been splicing for about 8 years now and will probably take over as lead splicer for Lake Erie when Dr. Bob retires. I know, the sunglasses make me look like, well, a total dork.

One more picture to round out the post. (Emphasis on "round"!) Here are the Galaska family splicers. On the left is Dr. Bob's brother, Kenny. We call him "Unc" since he's Juniors uncle. Well, to his face we call him "Sir" because he's also our foreman. I'm probably gonna be cleaning out manholes for a year for my "round" ballbust, but it was worth it. Crap, I gotta work with Junior tomorrow too!

Memorial Weekend

2010-06-02T23:10:00.011-04:00

I had such a fun time last weekend! On Saturday, I went hiking with S. in the afternoon, then went to the dance that evening. On Sunday I went to my parents' house for a graduation party/ Memorial Day cookout.

We started with 4 on 4 volleyball. My niece took the pictures. Nice action shots, Shellyo! Anthonie goes up for the spike!

We sometimes pretend that we are real volleyball players, you know: bump, set, spike. It never really works out that way though. I ended up with a lot of sand in my butt crack before the day was over.

We took a break from V-ball to play some corn hole. Why it's called "corn hole" is beyond me. We had horseshoes, but never got the stakes driven in the ground. I guess corn hole is a suitable substitute. Bean bags don't clang though.

Anthonie is the young fella my niece had the graduation party for. He's a good looking kid. Pretty damn strong too. He's helped me around the house before. I just realized that I maybe should have kept my t-shirt untucked.... My dunlop disease is showing.

Dad couldn't sit still for too long before he had to get out in the garden to plant something. This is a great picture, Morg! Behind that stand of trees is where the quonset hut used to be.

That is one awesome row of prickers there Dad! Good thing you used that twine to make straight rows. I guess you'll be hoeing any sweet corn, tomatoes, or beans that accidentally pop up nearby. Well, good luck at the fair this year, maybe you'll get a blue ribbon for Best Weed. At least they are bigger than your watermelons....

Morgan and I have to play frisbee every summer. It's so much fun! Yes, I caught it.

Anyone else notice Morg's legs? I think he shaves his ankles. Nice catch, bro!

Remember that sand from earlier....

Bohemian Dance Night

2010-05-31T14:01:00.002-04:00

I went swing-dancing Saturday night at the same place I went the first time. This time, I wasn't nervous at all! I had a really good time. I only danced with S. once, because there were so many guys asking her to dance, and I didn't really want to spoil her fun since I don't know what I'm doing. I shot home after the first lesson to get some ear-plugs, because the band seemed too loud. Maybe because I was right next to the speakers. Anyway, when I got home, my neighbor, Patty, expressed an interest in going, so I waited for her to get ready and we went. She had a lot of fun dancing too. I ended up dancing with 4 or 5 women, for about 10 dances, which isn't bad for me. I still don't feel like I know what I'm doing, though. There's another class starting up at the end of June with the folks who sponsored Saturday's dance. I'm planning on checking that out too. Everyone keeps telling me that I have to go out on the floor and "just do it", but if I don't feel that I've got a rudimentary understanding of what to do, I won't have as much fun. I think I'll ask S. to work with me while I wait for the next classes to begin. I am determined to learn how to do this, even if it takes forever!

Cedar Point

2010-05-24T19:17:00.002-04:00

I went to Cedar Point yesterday with my friend, S. We had an incredible time! We rode all the cool rides that have come along since the last time I was there, 20 years ago, and a few of them twice. We jogged from ride to ride and only stopped long enough to eat a sandwich and for me to get a season pass. She already has one. I can't wait to go again!

Alpaca shearing time again!

2010-05-20T21:03:00.008-04:00

Last Sunday was time for the annual haircut for the alpacas. This is a story that is best told in pictures. Let's start with a few from a month ago, when I was out cruising on my bike and stopped by Rick's farm.

Here are the ladies. Maggie and Lily are the two white ones. Don't ask me which is which. Felicia is the brown one.

And the gentlemen: Auggie and Dragster.

Auggie and Lily are Maggie's babies. Right now, Maggie is pregnant, I think by Dragster, but Lily is too young still. Look at those thick, heavy coats! You know that as summer comes and the temperatures rise, those animals are gonna cook. It kinda makes them look heavy too, doesn't it? From the picture, I'd put Auggie at 150 lbs, and Dragster close to 200 lbs....

Here, Lily is stretched out for her haircut. The ropes keep her from kicking, and it makes it easier to roll her as the shearer takes off the "fleece", which is the swath of fur around her torso. Oh, alpaca fur is referred to as "fiber".

My job was to get the animals ready for shearing. We had two mats set up. We wanted to have one ready to go when the shearer was ready, but didn't want them to be tied down for too long, especially the pregnant ones. I like this job because I don't have to worry about knowing which fiber is important and which is trash. The women decide that.

At first, I was trying to lay the animal down with a wrestling move. I'd grab the far front leg and pull it to me while leaning into it's shoulder, which would roll the animal over. I was depending on the guy behind me to do the same with the back feet. Once the animal was laying down, it became docile and it was easy to put the ropes on it's feet. Sometimes, the animal would spread it's hind legs when I went to roll it, which became a pain in the ass. So they told me how the Australians did it.

The Australians would lean over the top of the alpaca and, with two hands, grab the thick fur just in front of the hind legs and in front of the front legs. Then they'd lift the animal up in the air and set her down on her side.

Well, I tried that too... With the first alpaca I lifted that way, I nearly threw her through the ceiling! I must have lifted her to shoulder height, at least. All that thick fleece is misleading making the animal appear much heavier. Then, because I wasn't really sure of what I was doing, I sorta body-slammed the poor animal down on the mat. She was docile, all right.... That got me nervous looks from the alpaca farmers. Rick suggested that I be a little more gentle next time, and I was. It took a few animals before I was able to judge the weight well, but I didn't injure any of them.

The next one was a big male, and he ended up on top of me. When I went to flip him, I lost my balance and fell underneath. One of the pregnant females wasn't very happy about being on her side, and I ended up with a fat lip when she slammed her shoulder into the side of my face. I got spit on half a dozen times, and I tell you alpaca spit is some nasty smelling stuff. It's mostly grass, but grass that's been in their bellies for an hour, fermenting. Rick got kicked in the shins a number of times too. So, to make a long story short, we had a lot of fun!

So here is the lovely Lily with her new 'do. Isn't she loooovely.... I know she'll be cool at least.

Auggie must have lost 100 lbs! That poor guy. How's he going to impress the ladies without his mane? I guess he'll have to rely on his conversational skills.

You can see why I misjudged the first animal's weight when I flipped her.

Once more, for effect

Before:

After:

Man, does that crack me up!

Today we had a young visitor to the job

2010-05-13T22:08:00.007-04:00

A friend's grand-niece joined us on the job this week to check out the type of work an electrician does. It's part of her senior project at a local high school. Next week she'll be watching and helping teachers who work with disabled and handicapped children.

We were able to get her the necessary training needed so she could join us in the manhole while we spliced some high voltage cables together. She looks really happy, doesn't she?

Of course, we put her to work. Nothing dangerous or too complicated. She just had to press the button on the hydraulic crimper. It's an easy job, but she had to pay attention to when I needed her to crimp, and listen to the pump when it had completed the compression so she could let off the button.

We took a minute for some Q & A for her project. She had taken journalism, and was prepared with good questions regarding my personal history and interests in the electrical industry.

The next step was to put the tubes on, and she got right in there, helping out

She only stayed with us on our particular job for a few hours before she moved on with two other men on another facet of our daily grind. This young lady had an excellent attitude, and I know she'll do well at whatever occupation she chooses.

E's first motorcycle ride!

2010-05-04T16:16:00.002-04:00

I cruised out on my bike to see some friends yesterday. It was another great day for a ride, a bit cool, but not too bad with the leather jacket on.
My friend's daughter had told me that she wanted to go for a motorcycle ride some day. That day finally came. She got permission from her parents, put on some jeans, and away we went. A whopping 4 miles, but she loved it. She told me later that she was smiling until she fell asleep. When we got back, her mom asked how she liked it and she replied, enthusiastically, "I want to go again!" I promised to take her for a longer ride when the weather warms up a bit more.

New car! (New to me, anyway)

2010-04-25T08:13:00.005-04:00

My brother and I had been talking about getting new cars for the last year or so. We both liked the Challenger, he liked the Taurus and Cadillac CTS, while I liked the Mustang. I considered buying a Mustang GT Shelby Cobra, but I couldn't wrap my mind around the idea of buying a car with the sticker price more than half the cost of my house. In any case, I'm not the kind of guy who needs the top of the line, very best to enjoy something. I am the kind of guy who likes to have his cake, and eat it too. For instance, in 2005, I had $25k to spend on a vehicle. I considered buying a nice, full sized truck (F-150, of course) or buying a decked out Harley Low Rider or Fatboy. Instead, I bought a bottom of the line Ford Ranger for $13k AND a Harley Davidson 1200cc Sportster for $10k.

My brother knew I was considering a new car, and his friend decided she wanted to sell her 2007 Mustang Convertible. I've always wanted a convertible, but I always thought of a caddie, or some other older boat. He got us together, she sent me some pictures, and we worked out a deal!

After tax, title, and licensing fees, the total cost of the car was about $19,000. That leaves me ~30,000 (if I had bought the Cobra) that I can spend elsewhere, like on a new garage or a new roof, or some other home improvements.

I'll still get the enjoyment of driving a convertible, having a fairly fast car with a manual transmission (5 speeds of fun!), plus it's a beautiful automobile. I'm feeling rather proud of myself right now! (pats himself on the back)

Learning to dance

2010-04-11T08:12:00.005-04:00

Well, you guys are gonna get a good laugh out of this one. I know I still do.

Yep. I started taking swing dance lessons. Jitterbug, to be exact. The most shocking aspect of all is that I really enjoyed it. I had a blast!

Well, not the first time. The first time sucked. I went to an actual dance, which begins with a lesson an hour early. I thought there would be 10, maybe 20 people there, and there were hundreds. My friends and family know I don't do well with crowds, and though I managed to keep the panic down for the lesson, as soon as it was over, I bolted out the door. Ever see The Aviator? The scene where Howard Hughes meets the senator for lunch; the senator has put his thumbprint on Howard's drinking glass to rattle him. Howard pulls off the meeting spectacularly, but once he gets out the door, he falls apart. That's how I felt at the first dance.

So where did I get the idea to learn to dance? To impress a girl, of course. I met her at a New Year's Day dinner party at my neighbor's house. We've gone hiking a few times, or walked around the neighborhood, but she's very busy. She's told me that she doesn't want a boyfriend right now, because she's so busy with her job and school (she's going through her residency). However, she enjoys swing dancing. She dances almost every weekend. Soooo, if I want to spend time with her, I need to learn how to swing dance!

She went to the first dance, but got there after I had left. I still didn't know what I was doing, and was way too nervous to enjoy myself, so it was better that I left (like a scaredy-cat!). The next day, she came over and showed me the triple-step that had kicked my ass the night before. She explained to me that in Swing, the male leads and the female follows. She said that the woman will do anything the man leads her to do. Of course, that put a smile on my face! I like the simple, conservative, "old-fashioned", premise there.

By the time she left, I had the rock-step, and triple-step down pretty well, so we went to a dance at Baldwin-Wallace college that evening. She and I danced twice, but then I sat down to listen to the student band while she danced with other guys. She's an excellent dancer! I did have fun, though, and wasn't nervous at all, with the much smaller crowd.

A couple of weeks later, I took my first Jitterbug lesson. (Everytime I write or read "jitterbug" I hear George Michael in my head...) I had asked my friend's daughter to join me, because I wanted someone there that I knew, to make it easier. She agreed to go, but had to cancel at the last minute due to work. I thought about skipping it, but that was the first class of the series, so I grew a set and went alone. To make a long story short, I had an incredibly fun time. The teacher was excellent, very low-key, patient, and well prepared. We learned the beginning steps to the Jitterbug the first hour, then the beginning steps to the Balboa the second hour. There were as many guys as girls, with lots of couples, but also several single women.

To teach, all the men got behind the male instructor, and all the women got behind the female instructor, and we just practised the steps, first without music, then he'd play something so we'd get the beat down. It was very elementary, which made it easy to learn. Once we had learned the steps, the women formed a circle around the instructors, and the men paired up with them. We'd practice the steps for a minute or so, then the ladies would rotate to the next man. This was great because we got to chat a bit, practice, then she'd move on. Even if one woman knew what she was doing, the next 5 didn't. We got to learn, joke, and laugh with each other. It kept things very informal, and loose.

I already knew the jitterbug steps, so that was easy. The Balboa was new, and it took a bit longer to pick up, but I finally did. As the lesson went on, I gained confidence. When I danced with the lady instructor, she told me that I had a strong lead, which was good. Also, as my confidence grew, I imagined dancing with S. I'm truly looking forward to being able to dance with her. Since this type of dancing has specific rules, and moves (it's not free style), I probably won't go to another dance until I know what I'm doing. The Lead must be able to think ahead, and transmit to the Follow what he wants her to do next (spin, twirl, come in close, whatever, I don't know yet). I want to be able to do that well before I dance with her. I want to sweep her off of her feet.

Back at it again!

2010-03-02T20:26:00.003-05:00

It must be that time of the year. It's cold outside, it's overcast. I don't feel like doing anything. So I look into Everquest. Last year, I saw Project 1999 just getting started:

Relive the classic Everquest MMORPG Gaming Experience as it was in 1999 and onward. Project 1999 is a free to play Emulated Everquest Server giving Players the opportunity to experience Classic EQ Once again, starting with the original 3 continents and a max level of 50, with the look and feel of the old interface and several modifications making game mechanics similar to how the game used to be. Project 1999 is the best and most popular classic Everquest experience.

They don't expect Kunark to come out for a few months yet. Yes, the good old glory days of Everquest, when your corpse could rot with all of your equipment on it, if you didn't get there in time. When the Everquest world seemed big, because you had to run everywhere. When the thrill and excitement of killing a Vengeful Composer after being killed so many times by him before just made your day!

Come back, my friends...come back! I need a shaman buddy!

Man, look at that bearskin hat! Back at level 4 killing wolves and bear cubs. I sure wish I had a SoW!

EQ Emulator can be found here.

The Getting started guide can be found here.

I'm sure you can figure it out. Feel free to ask any questions! Hope to see you in game.

Happy Birthday David

2009-09-07T19:04:00.012-04:00

My brother Morgan and I visited David for his birthday. We brought along a big surprise... We parked down the street from Shane's house, and walked to their backyard, where David and Shane were playing catch. Shane had positioned David with his back to the gate, and was asking him what would make him surprised for his birthday, as I let the dog loose....

It was quite the happy reunion, complete with hotdogs!

Of course, we had to don our magical helms, choose our weapons, and fight to the death in the age-old style of Mortal Combat!

I slid the sword deep into my foe's chest... and he expired with much honour and dignity. Then we fought again!

Uncle Morgan buys the bestest presents!

A new battle sprung up between the three warring factions....

But alliances were made, and even Uncle Morgan's superior air power proved to be insufficient against the combined onslaught of the reunited father and son.

Man, my GI Joe had kung-fu grip, and I was damn happy for it! I'm jealous of all the cool toys kids have these days. OTOH, I'd probably just blow them up with firecrackers.

Smash-up Derby

2009-08-30T09:58:00.015-04:00

I had never been to one of these. It's held at the Lorain County Fair each year. As far as I know, this is the only fair to hold this particular contest.

I've been to smash-up derbys before. I've even seen a motorcycle derby. I had never seen a Combine smash-up derby though. Yeah, Combines. If you're too lazy to follow the link, a Combine is used to harvest grain. They are relatively expensive, and can be quite large. On to the pictures:

There were 5 heats. Each heat had either 5 or 6 combines. They started off with the older, smaller models, and worked up to the larger ones.

I was cheering for the Pink Panther, and he did pretty good, but only the last two combines from each heat move to the finals. Pink didn't make it.

As each combine came out, the announcer would tell us the year, make, model and price of the vehicle. The first ones cost around $10,000 new, which at the time of purchase was a lot of money. I think the most expensive one cost $85k, new.

There were broken axels, one guy lost a main drive wheel. We saw a yellow combine get pushed from one end of the field all the way to our end, right into the concrete wall, and he had both of his steering wheels torn off from the impact.

Love that diesel smell...

Throughout the evening, folks commented on my niece's jacket:

Again and again, she was compared to Sgt. Pepper. Eventually, she asked me, "Who IS this Sgt Pepper guy, anyway?" After I stopped laughing, I told her, "Ever hear of a group called the 'Beatles'?" She told me she was going for the Michael Jackson look. Oh well, generation gap. It reminded me of the Mindset List.

My nephew (background) and his cousin (foreground) expressed their enthusiasm.

Between the 5th heat and the final heat, they had the pick-up derby. THAT looked like a lot of fun! Come to think of it, my dad has a 1988 Ford Ranger at home that he isn't using....

Me, my sister, my niece, and my nephew's cousin, as well as my brother, brother-in-law, and nephew went to the show.

The final heat was the longest. It lasted about 15 minutes. Overall, the derby lasted about 3 hours. Not bad for 8 bucks.

By the end, we were cold, hungry, and ready to go home. I didn't pay attention to who won. I was thinking about that 45 minute motorcycle ride I still had to get home.

It was pretty cool to see, but I put that in the "Once is enough" category.

Hammamia pictures for David

2009-08-26T20:08:00.007-04:00

Hey kid, I know you miss your doggy so here's a couple of pictures for you. I can't believe my old treefort has any remnants left in those branches.

Grandpa doesn't think she's very smart, because he gave her a dog biscuit, and she's so busy jumping up and down and running in circles that she doesn't see it, even though he's pointing at it.

She looks hungry doesn't she? Wait, isn't that food on the ground right next to her foot? It's a good thing she's got a home, because I don't think Hammy could find food on her own!

David, here's a picture of Amos for you too. Look how grey he's gotten! Dad says he's 14 or 15 years old now.

Pops is pointing out his Silverqueen sweet corn, which should be ripe in another week:

The worlds largest cellphone! I took the picture next to one of Dad's watermelons, to show the gigantic scale.

I can just hear what my dad will say about me when he reads this blog: "That asshole! Imagine making fun of my watermelons."

The cable removal is going well.

2009-08-22T07:41:00.005-04:00

We've gotten all the splices cut out and have moved on to the cable removal phase. Nothing works better than the simplicity of a few half-hitches and a clove-hitch to grip the cable.

We set a wheel at the bottom, which allowed the cable to come out smoothly. The plate at the bottom, which the wheel is shackled to, is held down to the concrete with nine 3/4" bolts. It's not going anywhere!

We've got a bit more cable to remove, then we'll start "swabbing" the pipes to remove any mud that may have built up over the last several decades.

2009-08-22T07:22:00.003-04:00

I do enjoy a summer morning, motorcycle ride, in the country...

...along curved roads, past fields of corn and soybeans...

...up and down hills...

...to arrive at an old friend's home. One who knows just the right way to say "Welcome"

The Box is dead

2009-08-09T08:30:00.005-04:00

Due to a player base made up of cheaters and assholes, and internal strife among the staff, the VZ/TZ Everquest Emu has been shut down.

I was just getting some good gear, and learning the finer points of PvP!

Oh well. It was always just a diversion.

There is talk that the box will live again, and talk that another EQ EMU server will take it's place, and talk about a completely new server, with a completely different rule set. We'll see what happens.

For now, I'm just not playing EQ; catching up on some other things instead.

Work is going quite well. We started a large cable replacement job that should last a few months. Here I'm cutting out splices before we pull the cable out. Once the hydraulic guillotine cutter is tied up in place, I'll exit the manhole and my partner will operate the hydraulic pump, so the cable will be cut without anyone nearby, for safety.

We made the first cut on all three cables, on the left side of the splice. Now I can stay in the manhole for the second cut, and rig the splices to be lifted out.

I've been riding my motorcycle to work, on nice days, and getting some rides in on the weekends too. I'm thinking of heading out soon to see mom and pop.

Last weekend I found some small bunnies in my backyard, when I mowed an area I don't always mow. I caught 2, to show to the neighbor's grand-daughter, but since she didn't come over that day, I let the bunnies go. I've seen them since, running around the backyard.

That's about it.

What I've been up too

2009-06-30T20:58:00.004-04:00

That one day at my sister's house, playing WoW did me in. I went home, reformatted my hard-drive and installed WinXP, then installed Everquest. I had to check it out again, after 5 years. I had spent so much time with my character, that when I loaded him up, it was like visiting a long lost friend. I talked with some of my old guildmates, and started a new character with another friend who had just gotten back into it. It was really cool!

Then I had a problem with Sony's CS department. Evidently, I misunderstood the rep I talked to, thinking he said I'd have 30 days to check out Everquest again before having to start the subscription. He said he told me 3 days. So after 3 days, in which I had just barely remembered how to open doors, move around, and set up my keyboard, my account was suspended. I called CS again, and this time I got an asshole for a CS rep. He told me he'd give me 3 more days, and that "You should be thankful that Sony was so nice. Now get that subscription going again."

I did log back on, and talked with my old friends, and played some more, to find out just how easy it had become. Sony had added mercenaries (NPC characters) which were better than real players. My old friends were still in a high-end guild, and one linked me an item gotten off a raid mob, and an item gotten off a single-group mob. They were nearly identical! The raid item was slightly superior, but the game designers had catered to the whining masses and made the game way too easy. There was no challenge.

That, coupled with the idiot CS rep made up my mind, and I just let my account expire. I took a few screenshots for old memories.

The best part of Everquest, as I remember it when I first got started, was the way the game made you feel you were IN the game. It was total immersion. I had played Doom and Half Life before, but nothing was like Everquest. Everquest was the Dungeons and Dragons of the new century. (Of course I had played D&D too!) Anyway, the game mechanics made me feel emotions as if it were real life. When my character advanced in levels, or skills, I felt like I was getting better. When my character died, there was a real sense of loss. One of the best parts of the original game was the fact that when your character died, you had to go find your corpse. If you waited too long, that corpse would "rot" and you'd lose everything on it. That was a HUGE incentive to 1.) Not die. and 2.) Be sure to get your corpse quickly. Of course when you died, you would spawn back at your original bind point, and where your corpse was may be quite far away.

Another facet of the game I really enjoyed was the seeming expanse of the world. One had to run everywhere! This gave the illusion of a very large world. Continents were seperated by oceans that one had to take a boat to cross. A boat ride would take ~ 10 minutes of real life time, adding to the illusion of a real world, with far-off places. Because of this, one didn't see too many races from the distant continents, and when you travelled to those far off places, you may not be welcome by all.

There was the constant threat of danger, which would wane as you grew in levels, but never quite disappear.

With the current Everquest, there is no risk. It's easy to pass from continent to continent by clicking on a stone. If you die, your corpse is easily accessible, with no dangerous corpse runs. They took all the fun out of the game to make it easy, the bastards!

Then I went searching for something I had heard about years before, an Everquest emulator. EQEmu was a project developed by fans of the game, who didn't like the direction the game was taking under Sony's leadership.

I found this site through Google. The play guide got me started, and after solving a few minor problems, I was up and running!

I read the descriptions of the various servers, and started off with VZ/TZ which is a Player vs. Player (PvP) server. PvP is quite different from PvE (Player vs. Environment), and it takes a little getting used to. Fighting a character that is controlled by a real live person is much more difficult than fighting an NPC (non-player character) that has been programmed to act and react a certain way. But with the higher difficulty, comes a more challenging (ie, FUN) experience.

I tried to get some of my friends to play, but they chickened out on the PvP aspect (You KNOW who you are...Kendes...Kolm...Barm.) Barm told me to check out another server Scars of Amerous, so I did. He told me to be sure to see the weapon merchant in Surefall Glade, where we pop into the game, then go fight in Crushbone.

The weapon merchant sold me, for nothing, gear that I had gotten before after months of raiding. He just gave it to me! That made me laugh, but nothing prepared me for running into this guy, weilding this weapon:

That weapon is the warrior epic 1.0, and in it's heyday, was the most awesome, and most desired weapon of any warrior class character. So I killed the Orc and took the epic. A few hours later, I was level 75.

Barm still tries to get me to play on that server, but it's too damn easy. I do like to stop in now and then though.

So, over the past several weeks, I've been playing EQ, and not blogging. Why did I take a break now? Not by choice. The man who manages the VZ/TZ server (the hardware, or "box") is moving, and the box is down for a few days.

Once it's up again...I'll probably be gone again.

I can't wait!

Liz's wedding was a masterpiece

2009-04-20T22:03:00.003-04:00

Which it should have been, being the second time around! The first wedding had broken out in the middle of a hockey game.

Liz had a perfect day for it, which was amazing since the weather was crappy before, and right afterwards. She looked stunning in her cream (I know that isn't the correct name for that color) dress, which had a stripe of red going down the train. I thought it might have been a racing stripe...but she stuck around for the entire ceremony. Kyle was dapper in his tux, standing tall, but not quite at attention. My buddy, Rick had just gotten his Marv haircut that morning, and Cheryl was attractive in her mother-of-the-bride dress.

The coolest part of the wedding ceremony was when Liz and Kyle knelt down before the statue of Mary, to pray together. Just then, sunlight came streaming through the stained-glass window, to light them up. It couldn't have been choreographed better to look like God was blessing them.

I had picked up a head cold on Friday, and exacerbated it by drinking many beers that night, after the rehearsal dinner at Rick's house. The entire day, Saturday, I was plagued with a runny nose, headache, and worst of all, an incessant tickle in my chest that would send me into a burst of coughing. I was barely able to control it by concentrating on breathing slowly, and shallowly, but that made for very poor conversation.

I debated on skipping the reception, but in the end, I went. They served great food, and the reception was as nice as the ceremony itself. The highlight being, during the introductions, the groom preceded the bride, then began jumping up and wriggling his body, with his hands at his side. I was wondering what kind of weird fish dance he was supposed to be doing?! When I saw Liz come out, miming the use of a fishing rod, I realized that she was reeling him in. It was very funny.

I stayed in bed all day Sunday, and most of Monday, drinking prodigious amounts of OJ mixed with water, and sweating. I didn't feel too bad this morning, but took off anyway, because I didn't want to work in the rain, and have a relapse. My buddy suggested Nyquil, which I went to the store for, and it seemed to work. I took it at noon, slept from 1 to 5pm, and felt decent. I just took another dose, at 10pm, to last me through the night.

I bought a couple of suits

2009-04-16T21:26:00.002-04:00

It's a slow news day. Yup, I finally buckled and bought a suit. My buddy's daughter is getting married on Saturday, and I figured I'd get a suit for it. Every man *should* have two suits anyway, one for festive and one for sombre occasions. The experience wasn't nearly as bad as I expected, though I've been dreading and avoiding it. The two gentlemen who helped me knew their trade, were polite and patient, and completely natural and unpretentious. I felt at ease as the fellow told me that the bottom button is never buttoned on the suit jacket, and explained why the pants were so long. I'm a Goober.

At least I'll be a well-dressed Goober at the wedding and reception.

Easter

2009-04-14T23:55:00.011-04:00

Easter morning was bright and sunny, though a bit cool yet. My daffodils have started to bloom, adding a nice splash of color to the front of the house.

I headed off to my sister's house for Easter dinner and some fun, but first I stopped at Mom & Dad's to see how the old farm looks. Dad's demo of the quonset hut is coming along. It's sad to see the old buildings falling apart. There used to be a corn-crib and a grainery too.

The barn looks in FINE shape still. Look at those straight lines. They sure knew how to build to last 100 years ago. Of course the new siding and paint job we put on 10 years ago helps. Notice the ladder leading to the top of the pear tree? Pop is fearless at 77. I'd be nervous about going up that ladder, and I make a living climbing!

Hammamia was happy to see me. Or bored. (This picture is for David)

My sister Megan, and her daughters were already there when Mom, Dad, and I arrived. I told Autumn that she had the wrong color scheme for this holiday.

Shelby let me create a character on her World of Warcraft account (actually, Kerry's account), just to check it out. Beautiful graphics! Sometimes I miss the old Everquest days.

I took some time to show my dad the old pictures my cousins had put up on the GENI site, and we tried to get the names of some of the people Aunt Joann couldn't remember. Dad had a few more names, and he really enjoyed seeing those pictures. He said it was like a history lesson. Then I headed out to the Man Den, for a few cold beers, Cavs AND Indians games, and to see my brother-in-law's (Kerry's husband, Tom) new project with his nephew. James' car is a 1970 Olds 442.

Some day, it'll look like my other brother-in-law's car (Stacey's husband, Brian). It's the exact same car. I wish I knew how to do automotive work. It looks like it would be very rewarding. One of these days, I'll get some pictures of the car Tom has already restored.

Back home again

2009-04-14T23:12:00.007-04:00

When I got home from Indiana, Tina and I took Katie for a walk at the local park. While Katie made dootie, Tina prepared to do her duty. Dootie-duty. (I'm a damn fine writer, aren't I?)

No one told Katie that she wasn't supposed to go for a swim, so while I walked out onto little "duck island", Katie followed me, though she took the muddy route. I couldn't stop laughing while Tina was yelling for Katie to get out of the mud. I didn't mention that Tina wore a white sweater that day, did I...?

I ran her around a bit to try her, and wipe some of the mud off.

We put her in the back of the truck for the ride home, then right into the laundry sink for a bath. She used to be afraid of that sink, but now she just sits down under the warm water and enjoys it.

I don't know why Katie used to be afraid of the sink. Just because it looks like it belongs in a slaughterhouse. Those stains do look like blood, don't they? Hmmmm.

Yes, I made Tina do all the work while I cheered from the sidelines.

I stopped to visit my third brother

2009-04-05T19:43:00.010-04:00

I left Shane's house at 10:48 pm, Saturday. I had taken a nap that afternoon, and figured I'd end up watching late-night movies anyway, so instead I headed out towards Morgan's house. I arrived there at 2:36 am, which wasn't too bad for 242 miles. Morgan and I chatted for a bit, then I went to bed. Up and out by 7:30, which let me arrive in Sullivan about 9:10. I stopped there to visit my other brother, Kelly:

I had never been to his grave site before. That's about all I feel like writing.

Terre Haute, Indiana

2009-04-03T21:12:00.012-04:00

On my way to Shane's house, I saw this sign when I drove into town. Gives one a warm, fuzzy, feeling all over, doesn't it?

Here is Shane's new house. It was built in 1884, and is registered as a historical landmark. It's a really cool house, and he got it for a great price.

David showed me around the house, but couldn't wait to show me his collection of "weapons". Let's see, there is a Dragon Spear, two Dark Elf weapons, a Wood Elf bow, one of each kind of Wizard's wands (one long, one short), a Dark Elf sword, and probably more that my 45-year old mind can't remember.

Here he's showing me how to use a Dragon Spear, and he demonstrated it on the "dragon" in front of their house (which looked like an evergreen tree to me)

This is the proper way to wield a Wizard's Long Wand. ...swish....and flick.

Every Dark-Elf should be well versed in all techniques of Dark-Elf weaponry. By the time my sensei had completed the lesson, I felt ready to do battle with any Orc I might come across, with a variety of weapons.

Kristen made us a delicious dinner, after which we went out back to relax. I'm sure in David's vivid imagination he's fighting a fire elemental to protect Queen Kristen and King Shane, while the dullard Prince Shawn looks idly on.

Weekend visiting my brothers

2009-04-02T23:33:00.009-04:00

I have tomorrow (Friday) off, so I decided to have some fun this weekend and go see my brothers. Right now, I'm at Morgan's house. We just finished a pizza, and watched the Cavs lose. Like my geeky shirt? I'd like to find one of Ninja Scroll some day.

Morgan has a real nice Sony big screen TV. I had not yet seen this commercial, and it rocked, so I watched it a few times with TiVo, then I took a picture. GREAT color and clarity. One of these days, I'll get one.

Morgan showed me this site that my sister, Casey started, and my cousin Maureen worked on also. It's at Geni.com, and it shows our geneological tree. There were pictures from my father's side that I had never seen before, including this one, from when he was in the Army, during the Korean war.

This is my favorite picture of my Dad, ever. I remember seeing this picture when I was a kid. Somewhere, we've got a similar picture of my nephew.

Someone is trying to hack into my computer!!

2009-03-29T20:38:00.006-04:00

I am not the paranoid type, but I caught someone trying to hack into my computer this afternoon. That blows my mind! Especially after reading the article on the BBC about China hacking the Dalai Llama's network.

Anyway, I was cruising the 'net, looking for information regarding the War in Iraq for my Mom, when I got a kernel fault, which is weird, because my Fedora 10 install is pretty stable. It made me wonder, so I looked into the several sysadmin logs that Linux writes, and saw that, for about an hour, someone was trying to log into my computer with various usernames, including "root", which is the superuser, or all-powerful user. (When logged in as "root", a person can do anything to the computer, unlike when logged in as a regular user)

Mar 29 04:33:39 localhost sshd[7653]: Did not receive identification string from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:42:31 localhost unix_chkpwd[7656]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:42:31 localhost sshd[7654]: pam_unix(sshd:auth): authentication failure; logname= uid=0 euid=0 tty=ssh ruser= rhost=93.100.242.3 user=root
Mar 29 04:42:33 localhost sshd[7654]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 52449 ssh2
Mar 29 04:42:33 localhost sshd[7655]: Received disconnect from 93.100.242.3: 11: Bye Bye

He tried logging in as root 12 times. Then he tried to log in with other usernames, interspersed with more tries as "root". Here's a sample of the log file:

Mar 29 04:43:00 localhost unix_chkpwd[7687]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:03 localhost unix_chkpwd[7690]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:05 localhost sshd[7691]: Invalid user admin from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:43:05 localhost sshd[7688]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 59174 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:07 localhost sshd[7691]: Failed password for invalid user admin from 93.100.242.3 port 59546 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:07 localhost unix_chkpwd[7695]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:09 localhost sshd[7696]: Invalid user miquelfi from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:43:09 localhost sshd[7693]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 59997 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:11 localhost unix_chkpwd[7700]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:11 localhost sshd[7696]: Failed password for invalid user miquelfi from 93.100.242.3 port 60401 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:13 localhost sshd[7698]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 60823 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:13 localhost unix_chkpwd[7704]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:15 localhost sshd[7703]: Invalid user fax from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:43:15 localhost sshd[7701]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 33103 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:15 localhost unix_chkpwd[7708]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:17 localhost sshd[7703]: Failed password for invalid user fax from 93.100.242.3 port 33508 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:17 localhost unix_chkpwd[7711]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:17 localhost sshd[7706]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 33609 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:19 localhost sshd[7709]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 33946 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:19 localhost sshd[7712]: Invalid user pgsl from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:43:19 localhost unix_chkpwd[7716]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:20 localhost sshd[7712]: Failed password for invalid user pgsl from 93.100.242.3 port 34365 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:21 localhost sshd[7714]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 34440 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:21 localhost sshd[7717]: Invalid user admin from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:43:22 localhost sshd[7719]: Invalid user postgres from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:43:23 localhost unix_chkpwd[7723]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:24 localhost sshd[7717]: Failed password for invalid user admin from 93.100.242.3 port 34817 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:24 localhost sshd[7719]: Failed password for invalid user postgres from 93.100.242.3 port 35137 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:25 localhost sshd[7721]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 35251 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:26 localhost unix_chkpwd[7730]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:27 localhost sshd[7726]: Invalid user postgres from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 04:43:27 localhost unix_chkpwd[7731]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:28 localhost sshd[7724]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 35927 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:29 localhost sshd[7728]: Failed password for root from 93.100.242.3 port 36219 ssh2
Mar 29 04:43:30 localhost unix_chkpwd[7738]: password check failed for user (root)
Mar 29 04:43:31 localhost unix_chkpwd[7739]: password check failed for user (root)

That's 30 SECONDS of trying to get in!!

You can see that he tried different ports, different usernames, root, and different shells (ssh, and ssh2), and in combinations. For an hour. He may be trying to get in right now, while I'm writing this blog, though I did disable the secure shell program (ssh, ssh2). Secure shell is used to remotely operate a computer.

Just for kicks, I checked out his IP number: 93.100.242.3 and found this information with the "whois" command:

[Sun Mar 29 19:46:12 scarter@hawkeye ~]$ whois 93.100.242.3
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[Redirected to whois.ripe.net:43]
[Querying whois.ripe.net]
[whois.ripe.net]
% This is the RIPE Whois query server #1.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% Rights restricted by copyright.
% I'm taking this line out because it's a web address that could possibly install malware on your computer if you check it out.

% Note: This output has been filtered.
% To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag.

% Information related to '93.100.240.0 - 93.100.255.255'

inetnum: 93.100.240.0 - 93.100.255.255
netname: PULNET
descr: LLC "Pulnet" Network
country: RU
admin-c: AKA36-RIPE
tech-c: AKA36-RIPE
status: ASSIGNED PA
mnt-by: MNT-SKNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

person: Anton Korbin
address: 196240 Saint-Petersburg
address: Varshavskaya 79
phone: +7 812 325 23 25
e-mail: noc@pulnet.ru
nic-hdl: AKA36-RIPE
source: RIPE # Filtered

% Information related to '93.100.240.0/20AS35807'

route: 93.100.240.0/20
descr: LLC "Pulnet" Network
origin: AS35807
mnt-by: MNT-SKNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

% Information related to '93.100.0.0/16AS35807'

route: 93.100.0.0/16
descr: SkyNet Networks
origin: AS35807
mnt-by: MNT-SKNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

% Information related to '93.100.128.0/17AS35807'

route: 93.100.128.0/17
descr: SkyNet Networks
origin: AS35807
mnt-by: MNT-SKNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

% Information related to '93.100.192.0/18AS35807'

route: 93.100.192.0/18
descr: SkyNet Networks
origin: AS35807
mnt-by: MNT-SKNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

So that tells me the IP number is from Russia (country: RU). I don't know if this information is real.

Further along, he started using much different usernames:

Mar 29 05:30:53 localhost sshd[21721]: input_userauth_request: invalid user mapview
Mar 29 05:30:58 localhost sshd[21724]: pam_succeed_if(sshd:auth): error retrieving information about user helpdesk
Mar 29 05:30:59 localhost sshd[21722]: Failed password for invalid user chris from 93.100.242.3 port 35013 ssh2
Mar 29 05:31:02 localhost sshd[21728]: Invalid user frank from 93.100.242.3
Mar 29 05:31:08 localhost sshd[21733]: input_userauth_request: invalid user agencia
Mar 29 05:33:38 localhost sshd[21808]: Failed password for invalid user contabilida

and many, many more.

Then someone else got into the action:

Mar 29 17:43:15 localhost sshd[3113]: Failed password for root from 173.45.67.210 port 54402 ssh2
Mar 29 17:43:25 localhost sshd[3126]: Failed password for root from 173.45.67.210 port 55901 ssh2

et cetera, et cetera, et cetera...

whois for 173.45.67.210 gives the following information:

[Sun Mar 29 21:38:32 scarter@hawkeye ~]$ whois 173.45.67.210
[Querying whois.arin.net]
[whois.arin.net]
eNET Inc. ENET-XLHOST-2 (NET-173-45-64-0-1)
173.45.64.0 - 173.45.95.255
XLHost.com Inc XLHOST-MPATEL1-5073 (NET-173-45-67-208-1)
173.45.67.208 - 173.45.67.223

# ARIN WHOIS database, last updated 2009-03-29 19:10
# Enter ? for additional hints on searching ARIN's WHOIS database.

This pretty much shocked the hell out of me. So far, I haven't seen any new syslog messages regarding the secure shell. (But it's shut down, remember?)

I called my friend, Jim up, who does system administration for a living. He told me this happens all the time. He was a bit concerned that they actually got to the open ports, that maybe my modem has been compromised also. He figures they are just looking for another bot for their botnet. You can tell that the log in attempts were run by a program.

Jim suggested I install Wireshark, which is a packet sniffing program. It'll tell me where my incoming and outgoing packets are coming from, and going to. I'm downloading it now. I'll let it run overnight.

I don't have anything on this computer to worry about, and I plan to install Fedora 11 when it comes out in a couple of months, which would mean a hard disc wipe anyway. So in the mean time, I'll have fun snooping around.

I wonder how easy it would be to get into a Windows machine....

EDIT:

I just looked at the syslog for last week, and all I can say is "HOLY SHIT!!" For hours upon hours, nearly every day, there was someone from Poland trying to get into my computer:

[Sun Mar 29 22:20:13 scarter@hawkeye ~]$ whois 212.2.125.67
[Querying whois.ripe.net]
[whois.ripe.net]
% This is the RIPE Whois query server #3.
% The objects are in RPSL format.
%
% Rights restricted by copyright.
% See http://www.ripe.net/db/copyright.html

% Note: This output has been filtered.
% To receive output for a database update, use the "-B" flag.

% Information related to '212.2.96.0 - 212.2.127.255'

inetnum: 212.2.96.0 - 212.2.127.255
org: ORG-PN5-RIPE
netname: PL-PLUSGSM-990819
descr: Polkomtel S.A.
country: PL
admin-c: PKL1-RIPE
tech-c: PKL1-RIPE
status: ALLOCATED PA
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-lower: POLKOMTEL-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

organisation: ORG-PN5-RIPE
org-name: Polkomtel S.A.
org-type: LIR
address: Polkomtel S.A.
Ireneusz Neska
ul. Postepu 3
02-676 Warsaw
POLAND
phone: +48 22 426 5709
fax-no: +48 22 426 0088
abuse-mailbox: abuse@polkomtel.com.pl
admin-c: AS114-RIPE
admin-c: IN3-RIPE
admin-c: KK1860-RIPE
admin-c: SO1236-RIPE
mnt-ref: POLKOMTEL-MNT
mnt-ref: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
mnt-by: RIPE-NCC-HM-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

role: PlusGSM IP Team
address: Polkomtel S.A.
address: ul. Postepu 3
address: 02-676 Warszawa
address: Poland
phone: +48 22 4261599
phone: +48 601 131599
fax-no: +48 22 4260099
remarks: Plus (pl.plusgsm) registry administration
remarks: ---
remarks: Registry contact: registry@plus.pl
remarks: Spam and abuse reports: abuse@plus.pl
remarks: ---
abuse-mailbox: abuse@plus.pl
admin-c: IN3-RIPE
tech-c: KK1860-RIPE
tech-c: SO1236-RIPE
tech-c: DCH3-RIPE
nic-hdl: PKL1-RIPE
mnt-by: POLKOMTEL-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

% Information related to '212.2.96.0/19AS8374'

route: 212.2.96.0/19
descr: PlusGSM Net
descr: Warsaw, Poland
origin: AS8374
mnt-by: POLKOMTEL-MNT
source: RIPE # Filtered

Quite busy today, on the computer

2009-03-28T14:50:00.005-04:00

As you can see, I've changed the blog around a bit. While I was poking around the new features, I found this:

I'd hate to see the commercialization of personal blogs. If people start thinking they can make money with their blogs...where will it end? There are enough shock-jocks, amateur videographers, and second-rate newsmen out there already. It'll probably end up with 90% porno-blogs and 10% bum-fights.

This may shock you at first so steel yourself for the idea. Ready? We are going to start paying bloggers. Soon you will be blogging for dollars. That's right people, chocolate is to peanut butter like AdSense is to blogs. Or is it the other way around? Either way, we've got something big here folks.

You may have noticed that we recently removed our ads from Blogger powered blogs. We were making money from those ads but you weren't getting any of it. Now, we're inviting you to set up your own Bloggerized AdSense account so that you make the money. What's the catch? We're going to take some of the action. Based on what we have learned from AdSense so far, this will work out very nicely for both of us. Please note that this program is optional and that it is not required for you to have a Blogger powered blog-all bloggers are invited.

-- From Blogger's help site.

I spent most of the morning trying to figure out how to make the date and time show up on my console (text) screen, in Linux. I knew there was a way to have it displayed in the prompt, but rooting out the answer wasn't easy.

The standard prompt is the username@hostname followed by the current directory (~ represents the users home directory):
[scarter@hawkeye ~]$
My username is scarter.
My computer's name is hawkeye (as in E-2 Hawkeye, not the guy from M.A.S.H, or the scout from The Last of the Mohicans.

But how to insert the date and time?
It turns out to be pretty easy, once I knew what to do. If I edit the file /etc/bashrc, I can change the PS1 variable to display what I want. bashrc is a text file that contains rUN cONTROL information for the bash command interpreter. Hence, bashrc.

The part of the file that I needed to change is:
PS1="[\u@\h \W]\\$ "

\u the username of the current user
\h the hostname up to the first ‘.’
\W the basename of the current working directory, with $HOME
abbreviated with a tilde
\$ if the effective UID is 0, a #, otherwise a $
(that means for user "root", you get a pound sign, for any other user, you get a dollar sign)

and at the same spot I found those definitions, I found these:

\d the date in "Weekday Month Date" format (e.g., "Tue May 26")

\t the current time in 24-hour HH:MM:SS format

So, all I had to do was add those two commands:
PS1="[\d \t \u@\h \W]\\$ "

and I got the prompt that I wanted
[Sat Mar 28 13:27:43 scarter@hawkeye ~]$

Now I've got music

2009-03-27T18:03:00.003-04:00

Today I installed Rhythmbox and Gstreamer for mp3 support. This is a bit different from the standard Fedora installation because part of it is proprietary. That means the owners of the various types of audio compression formats (.mp3/ .wav/ . avi, etc.) own property rights associated with their work, probably a patent. It's not illegal to use the software, but I don't understand the esoteric legal ramifications. (I try to use the word "esoteric" as often as possible.)

There is a free audio codec which loses no quality during compression. It's called FLAC. I can use that when I rip the CD's that I own. There is also the ogg-vorbis compression codec out there, but I need to read up on these a bit more before I choose a personal favorite. Though I like to say "ogg-vorbis" It sounds very intimidating: "Commander, bring me the ogg-vorbis! It shall assist me in prying the secrets from this rebel spy."

The first song I played?

Video Killed the Radio Star by Buggles from Age Of Plastic

Of course.

Pidgin

2009-03-26T22:21:00.008-04:00

Pidgin is the Internet Messaging software that I'm using on my linux box. It works under Windows, and supports all of the IM protocols, so you need only run one program to talk to various people under different systems, such as AIM, and Yahoo.

I used to run Gaim, but that was way back during the Fedora Core 4 years. Pidgin is the upgrade.

W² showed some interest in Linux, so I'll post about interesting features that I find. For instance, here is an article that points out just how evil Microsoft's EULA is.

As an unknown feature, since I joined google chat, when people I know who have gmail accounts log in, they show up on my IM screen. That seems a bit presumptuous to me because I may not like them! Furthermore, They may not like me either!

DOOM up and running!

2009-03-22T18:37:00.007-04:00

Today I fixed the sound problem. It took a LOT of hunting around to find that one little soft-switch that needed to be turned off, but in the meantime, I got a nice refresher on the system. Of course the only reason I was worried about the sound was so that I could play DOOM again! Hey Jim, remember this?

I actually got to bring out my old Ultimate Doom CD because while the game software (Vavoom) is free, being a port (Computer Science. To modify (software) for use on a different machine or platform) of the original program, the wadfiles are still protected by copyright.

One new feature I've found to be very helpful is the Tomboy Notes program. As I went through each possibility that came to mind, eliminating them one by one, I'd keep a note about it. This kept me from repeating mistakes, and helped me keep focused on the next possible problem.

Network problem not-so-solved!

2009-03-20T22:50:00.004-04:00

My network problem being "solved" was more luck than skill. In fact, it isn't really, properly solved. I'm still not sure, but it seems that while I was fiddling about with the inner networkings, I caused a kernel fault that subsequently allowed me to connect to the Internet. I've been able to duplicate this fault enough times to upgrade the system, and download the Install CD's via BitTorrent. I'm still trying to figure out the actual problem, and it's solution.

In the meantime, I'm having lots of fun poking around the new OS. It really rocks! I've got a weather report that updates every 15 minutes right on my top Panel. There's an applet that will chart stocks. Right now, I'm downloading the Open Source files to play DOOM! DOOM, man! Fucking DOOM!!!! That's just so cool, that if you don't know what I'm talking about, you don't know what you missed about 16 years ago.

Upgrading to Fedora 10 is a combination of Retro and Neo that's awe-inspiring. New stuff: It's got a built-in firewall and SeLinux for security. I can encrypt my HD. Firefox has a plethora of new features, and I've only been playing with this for a couple of hours. Yet, I can still read the comforting words of Wanda the Fish telling me that "Today is Prickle-Prickle, the 6th day of Discord in the YOLD 3175." It brings back memories of all-nighters trying to get the damn 386 motherboard to run Slackware 1.9, and the first time Jim and I wired our two computers together via the serial port and looked at each other on our respective screens, a second before he shot me dead.

Network problem solved!

2009-03-18T22:18:00.004-04:00

I'm currently typing this post from FC10 live CD (x86_64). It took a lot of hunting, but I plowed ahead with my usual brute force methodology. That means I tried every permutation and combination of configuration changes until I stumbled upon the right one. I had already disabled the firewall, and set SeLinux to Permissive, but I still couldn't get out. I finally found another configuration tool that allowed me to start/stop and enable/disable different processes, called the Service Configuration tool. Turns out the iptables firewall was the problem. Now I'm not sure how to fix it properly yet. I'm sure I'll have to enter a record to allow my computer to talk to the modem or something, but for now, it's disabled, and I'm up and running again. Once I figure out how to make that work, I can move ahead.

Next step is to install FC10 to the hard drive. That'll require a bit of thought first, because I want to set up the /home directory on a separate hard drive, so that next time I upgrade, I can wipe hda to install FC11, but keep hdb intact, preserving all my data (pictures, music, movie clips).

I may not be as smart as I once was, but I'm twice as stubborn!

Oh yeah, I'm taking copious notes.

I must be getting dumber as I get older

2009-03-15T10:05:00.012-04:00

I used to know computers inside and out. I could program in assembler language in high school. I would order individual pieces, like the motherboard, drives, video card, networking card, etc and put them together to build the ultimate gaming machine. Now, I'm a computer idiot.

This weekend, I decided to upgrade from Fedora Core 4 to Fedora 9. I did all the important backup work, then started with my Fedora 9 LIVE CD. That seemed to work, so I installed it. Unfortunately, for some reason I can't access the internet. After hours of trying, I finally pulled out this old PCLinuxOS CD I had that I've used before as a Live CD. It does enable me to log on, but I can't download the files I need to reinstall Fedora 9, or 10, for that matter. Even this program unexpectedly crashes often. Gah, I'd hate to have to install WinXP on this computer, just so I could download Fedora 10 for a new install....

OTOH, it was an awesome day today, and I got most of the outside yard work done.

2009-03-13T17:33:00.004-04:00

Last week I did my sixth, and final lead wipe. Junior is handing me the molten lead, which I'll apply to the termination joint. We have to wear respirators that filter the fine lead particles that may be airborne. We also have to wear monitors that sample the air for lead contaminants.

It's a nice looking shape, now to smooth it out and put the final touches on it. This one was my best, by far. I was able to do it quickly, and confidently, finishing in 35 minutes. I was fast enough that Junior didn't have to work on this one.

W² was our Temperature Control Specialist (aka Ragboy). He kept the termination cool.

Junior did the last termination, which gave me a chance to use my BRAND NEW ladles! You can see the air sampling tube for the air monitor clearly here.

Ladle, ladle, ladle....making lead for Junior.

There's my last (I mean most recent) lead wipe! I look forward to doing those again, though it may be a year or more from now.

Here's the crew that worked on this job: Junior, me, Dennis (no nick-name yet) Bruiser, W Squared, and The Boss. Junior and I were the splicers. Dennis and W Squared were ragboys. Bruiser was our instructor, technical specialist, and main critic, and The Boss was the boss.

Tess is in the hospital

2009-03-10T16:43:00.005-04:00

Tess is 92. She lives at the end of my street. I've been taking her up to Mitchell's for dinner every weekend for the last 6 months or so, to get her out of the house. We would start dinner with a bowl of popcorn, because she really enjoyed it. She would even bring a baggie with her, to take any left-over popcorn with her, "to feed the birds" she'd say with a wink. We have a lot of fun, and she always quizzes me about the women in (or not in) my life. "So how is Tina? You know she wants to get her hooks into you, don't you?", She warned. "You can't be so demanding with So-and-so. Give her room to breath, and let her come to you. Otherwise, you'll chase her away.", she prophesied. Sadly, I did, indeed, chase So-and-so away. "Shawn, you waited too long to find a woman! All the good ones are taken already." she told me once with stinging intuition. "If I was 50 years younger, I'd teach you to dance" She cracks me up more when she tries to hook me up with the barmaids. "What about that one? She's curvy, don't you think?, she said regarding one voluptuous server. She's a pisser.

We didn't go out last weekend because she's in the hospital. I found out from her neighbor, Lucy, that Tess had fallen into her bathtub Friday night, and couldn't get out. She spent the night in her tub! Luckily, Tess and Lucy have a code such that each morning, Tess would turn on the living-room light, just to let Lucy know that she's OK. Saturday morning, the light didn't go on, so Lucy called Tess' brother and he found her. They had to convince her to go to the hospital, but she finally did go. Lucy told me that they suspected a stroke, but weren't sure yet.

I visited her Sunday night. I brought some Mitchell's popcorn for her, which lit her face right up! She seemed fine, and alert, but it seemed that her brain skipped a beat every now and then. Like a needle on a record skipping over a few grooves in the song. The nurses couldn't tell me anything about her condition, since I wasn't family. Tina came with me, and Tess didn't recognize her. I asked her if she was taking any drugs, but she said that she wasn't aware of any. I had thought, from talking with her, that she was on morphine or something.

I hope she's able to get better. The funny thing is, she's told me that she's ready to go. Most of her family are gone, and most of her friends. She just feels that she's lived long enough, and wouldn't mind moving on. In any case, for now, I enjoy her company, and hope she gets well.

Wiping Lead!

2009-03-07T09:07:00.006-05:00

I've been getting some practice wiping lead. Here I'm working on my fourth termination. I was still going too slow, though, and Junior would have to take over for the final stages. It was fun, and by this one I had lost my initial nervousness.

With each one I got better, and more confident. The fifth wipe has excellent shape. We were able to get two done in a day, but I still needed Junior to finish each one.

Snow day!

2009-01-28T19:26:00.005-05:00

I made it into work today, though I was a few minutes late. I KNEW I should have gotten out of bed at 5:30, instead of snuggling under the blankets for that extra half-hour. I expected NASA to be closed, due to all of the snow, but they opened on a delayed schedule. It turned out my little truck made it's way through the snow with no problem. Well, there was one, small, problem. Last night, I noticed my driver's side, rear tire was low, so when I got home from work, I filled it with air. This morning, it was low again, so I filled it with air again, while I shoveled out the drive. I figured I'd take it to the gas station after work, to have it checked for leaks. Unfortunately, the snow just kept coming down, and NASA closed at noon. I was in such a hurry to shoot home (not really, I was shooting to the bar to have lunch and a beer with one of my friends), that I didn't check the tire for air pressure, and just hopped in the truck and drove off. I had no problems for the first mile or so, but then I noticed a definite shimmy, coming from the rear. There was so much snow on the road, that I didn't dare stop, for fear of getting stuck in the middle of the road, with no shovel to dig out with. So I just kept going.....right home. I finally did get stuck, right in front of my house. It turned out that I had a full flat, and by the time I got home, the tire was shredded. The other tire was doing all the work, and it just kept spinning out on the ice, as I tried to turn into my drive. As luck would have it, a couple of North Olmsted snow plows came down the street, and their drivers stopped to help push my truck into the drive. I was able to swap the bad tire for the spare, and luckily for me, the rim wasn't damaged (crosses-fingers) due to the amount of cushioning snow on the road. So for $135 bucks, I got a new tire put on, and I'm ready for work again tomorrow.

Good little truck! Junior has really gotten the hang of wiping the molten lead onto these solder-tight terminators. He'll do a few more, to really let the feel sink in, then I'm hoping that I'll get to do a few. We've got 12 left to do.

I spent Monday freezing my tail off, testing the cables. Junior was right with me the whole time, but while I tested, he worked on cleaning up the area, and getting us ready to move down to the next set of 6 terminations. The day started in single digits, but got up to a whopping 18 degrees that afternoon.

Christmas day

2008-12-30T22:14:00.008-05:00

We all went to my sister Megan's house for Christmas dinner, and boy did we have a blast! It's been a long time since I've laughed that much, and I was on a roll. I got a lot of milage out of my sister's 120 degree tree! Since it was an artificial one, she only built one side, and fastened the tree to the walls with string and thumbtacks. This saved her lots of room, which actually, was a stroke of genius, but I couldn't let my sister know that.... So I joked about how many more presents there seemed to be this year, while actually being 2/3rds less, and how she was saving on electricity, only using 1/3rd of the lights, etc.

I also called it her 4th Dimension tree, saying that the rest of it was in a quasi-dimensional state between our reality, and being shared with two other Megans in different planes of existance. Yeah, not many other people got that one, but my brother did! Just look at that shirt! It's got science geek written all over it! He's a typical Carter, rocks at the green pie pieces, but sucks at the orange.

Dad excitedly unwrapped his present, and couldn't WAIT to give it a try!

The funniest part of the day was when my sister, Kerry, relayed a story that our brother Shane told her about his son, David. Shane asked David what he wanted for Christmas, and David quickly replied, "A penguin." Shane asked if he was sure he wanted a penguin, that maybe he would like a truck or some other toy better. David thought for a moment, but decided to stick with the penguin. So Shane tried to dissuade David from his choice, and went into an elaborate story about how young David would have to travel many, many thousands of miles, first by bus, then by train, through harrowing weather, then by boat, across the mighty ocean, then by dogsled, mushing across the frozen ice, in search of his penguin, since they only live in the antarctic. Shane went on to say that such a trip would take many years, and that by the time David returned, he would be a grown man! Shane doubted that he would even recognize his own son, after such a long journey. Without a hitch, David replied, "Of course you would, dad. I would be the guy with the penguin."

Oh, man, does that make me laugh! It also reminds me of another David story. Not too long ago, David was really into trucks. He liked any kind of large machinery, and he knew all the construction vehicles, back-hoes, loaders, etc. One day, in the summer, Shane and Kristen were driving through town with David in the back seat. They came up on a construction site, where one of the foreman was lamenting about one of the trucks being late. He must have been on the handheld radio or something, but he said, quite loudly, "Where's the fucking truck?" David shot up excitedly, asking, "Dad, what is a fucking truck? I do not know what a fucking truck is. I know what a tow truck is, but not a fucking truck. Where is the fucking truck? I do not see it. I see a dump truck, but I do not know what a fucking truck is." Shane and Kristen were laughing too hard to speak.

Any story about the funny things kids say wouldn't be complete without my favorite Autumn story. This happened probably 15 years ago, since Autumn is going to be 19 soon. The song "No more tears" by Ozzy Osbourne was being played heavily on the airwaves. One night, we had a family poker party at my parents' house, and my sister came with Autumn. Some of us were drinking heavily, and eventually I ran out of beer. As I finished the last can of Budweiser, I sniffled, and sang "No more beers, beers, beers. No more beers, beers, beers" to the Ozzy tune. We all laughed, and soon the poker game wrapped up and everyone went home. The next day, mom and dad were watching Autumn. When I came downstairs (I still lived there at the time) Autumn was at the kitchen table coloring, and drinking out of her sippy-cup. As she swallowed the last bit of liquid, she slammed the cup down, and broke into song, "No more choca-milk, milk, milk. No more choca-milk, milk, milk"

Christmas

2008-12-25T19:40:00.013-05:00

I've been pretty bummed out over the last week, so I wasn't really looking forward to the holiday season. That all changed yesterday, when I started hearing my favorite Christmas songs. I've got several favorites, each of which represents a certain time of my life.

Let There be Peace on Earth - I guess this isn't an "official" Christmas song, but I heard it the other day, and I found the words speeding their way up from the deep trenches of my memory to explode on my consciousness with feelings and images of my childhood. This is the song I sang at my First Communion! I still knew all the words! It was a weird feeling, but good weird.

Do You Hear What I Hear - This is one of my all-time favorite songs, but the Perry Como version is the best. It's another song from my childhood that I remember when mom would put a stack of LP's on the turntable, and we'd just go through them over and over, all day long. There were several good songs in that stack, but this has always been my favorite. I haven't heard the Perry Como version yet...I'm still hoping. Hah! The song just started on WDOK! It's not Perry, though. :-(

Father Christmas - This song, done by The Kinks, came out when I was in high school. The only time I ever hear it is on the classic rock station, once or twice a year, at Christmas. This is THE defining Christmas song for me. It's one of two that I need to hear every year, to be put in the Christmas spirit. I just heard it, for the first time this year, yesterday. Junior had not heard it before, but laughed along as he listened to the lyrics unfold. Christmas was that "" close to not happening for me.... Oh, and the rules are, I have to hear it on the radio, by chance. I can't buy it, or download it, or copy it. It's that magical.

Happy Xmas (War is over) - I just read that this song came out in 1971 as a protest to the Vietnam war. I remember it most from my college years, with the slight change in lyrics to read "And so this is Christmas, and another new year, let's pray for a good one, with plenty of beer!" It gained a lot of air time after John Lennon's death in 1980. Junior and I sang this just yesterday, in the truck!

White Christmas - This is the other song that I need to hear each year, validating that we're actually in the Christmas season. Of course, no one can sing it like Bing, though many try.

2000 Miles - I've liked this song since it came out, but it really sunk into my brain when I was in the Navy. A good friend of mine, Devon Bunch, was putting together a package for his new wife at Christmas. We were on a six-month WestPac (1986-87) cruise, and he missed her just an incredible amount. He wanted some suggestions for a tape he was making for her, so I suggested Bargain, by The Who, but he couldn't see the romantic side of that one. Then I played this song off the Learning to Crawl tape, and he loved it. We went on to make a short video of him dancing side by side with two other friends to the song I Can't Help Myself, aka "Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch" by The Four Tops. Just imagine three white guys trying to dance like the Four Tops, snapping fingers, spinning around, fancy footwork in step, mostly....fortunately for all, I was the cameraman. Whenever I hear this song, I go back to that instant of my life, and, I swear, I can smell the sweet, oily steam of the catapults and the overpowering, acrid stench of jet exhaust.

Honorable Mentions: Santa Claus Is Coming to Town, by Bruce Springsteen. I Believe in Father Christmas, by Greg Lake, which has a beautiful melody, totally incongruent with the lyrics. Carol Of The Bells, preferably at night, while driving, looking at Christmas lights

Every Rose Has It's Thorn - This is a favorite Christmas song in a very convoluted way. It's not a Christmas song at all, obviously, but it reminds me of someone who, to this day and forever, holds a very special place in my heart. This was Rose's favorite song. She was a barmaid at a hole-in-the-wall joint we used to drink at, in Lemoore, Ca. when I was stationed there. On this date, in 1988, (My God, that's 20 years ago!!) on a last-minute whim, she invited me to a small Christmas party she was hosting for friends and family. I was a bit homesick, and felt depressed and lonely. She really had to talk me into going. I protested because I didn't know many people there; but she persevered and got me to climb in the truck with her and Bill. We had a few drinks, and some great food, then they started handing out presents. I sat quietly in the background, watching the gift-exchange that had been set up weeks before. Her children were there. Her friends from the bar, and from outside the bar were there. Rose would pick up a gift, read the name, pass it to that person, and we'd all cheer and applaud as they opened it. I felt awkward, and left out, but I participated in the cheering. Then, to my utter surprise, she called my name. I was dumbfounded. "How did you know that I was going to be here?", I asked. "Santa knows everything", she replied, with an air of what I can only describe as "duh". I unwrapped the paper to find this:

That was the single most gracious, generous, and unexpected gift ever bestowed upon me. To this day, I'm moved by her kindness and empathy. A Budweiser stein; still one of my most treasured gifts of all. That year, Rose demonstrated that the Christmas spirit is about sharing with friends and family, and even a stranger from a small town in Ohio.

How Browns' fans celebrate the Christmas season

2008-12-24T21:57:00.009-05:00

Last Sunday, my friend Rick and I went downtown for a tailgate party before the Cleveland Browns game. As you can see, it was a beautiful day in Cleveland, down by the lake, with the wind chill of negative 25. Someone brought a Christmas tree, so we decorated it with empty beer cans. The beer was freezing in the cans as soon as we popped the top, so we had to drink fast...like the guy in the picture is demonstrating. I taught him everything he knows...btw.

Deneen had asked Rick and I to judge the annual chili cook-off held by a group of her Browns' fans friends (BFF's?). Deneen is the pretty one in the middle. Rick and I are the troll-like bookends. In the background is the USS Cod submarine.

Here's another shot of the USS Cod. Man, is that a tiny boat!

Let the chili tasting begin! There were half a dozen or so entries. This was the first contestant. His chili was very sweet. Not what I was expecting at all, but I really liked it. His came in second place for me. My first place pick was the most traditional American chili, which was spicy, with plenty of ground beef, lots of beans, and with a strong tomato background taste.. My third place choice was a traditional Mexican chili, made with ground beef, some pulled pork, and several different types of beans, but very little tomato. Two types had turkey rather than beef (good, but I'm a traditionalist), one entry left a pleasant hotness lingering after it was gone. This was Rick's first choice. Rick's third choice was a venison based chili. It was also good, but not the best.

Since Rick and I had different 1st and 3rd winners, but agreed on 2nd place, we chose him as the winner. Here the lovely Deneen is awarding the coveted trophy, which will no doubt sit in a box of Browns paraphernalia until next year's contest.

Dinner at Mom and Dad's

2008-12-14T20:58:00.010-05:00

My younger sister (well, they are all younger, since I'm the oldest) Stacey came up from Florida for the weekend to let everyone see her new baby, Elizabeth, aka Elly. She brought her 2.5 year old, Molly too. So Mom cooked a real nice pot roast for everyone and we got to visit for awhile. Grandpa got the first honors.

Molly loved playing with Little Miss Dickel (named after Dad's favorite whiskey), but I'm not so sure LMD enjoyed being played with. She'd run away every chance she got.

Elly and I had a great time! It wasn't until after I'd been making faces and baby noises for 5 minutes that I noticed Stacey was recording... I've got to get that recording before it falls into the wrong hands!

Autumn and her boyfriend, Anthony stopped in too. Autumn made some Christmas cards for me this year which were just phenomenal! Thanks Aut!

Shelby is Autumn's younger sister. She was trying to show Molly how to play with the kitten with a string and Christmas ornament. Molly just wanted to hold the kitten, though.

One more goofy picture of me, with my new niece.

New toys at work update

2008-12-13T19:13:00.013-05:00

Last month, I posted a picture of a sectionalizer box. As promised, here is the inside. This is a nice system! One of the sets of cables coming in from the left (bottom three) is the feeder. The other set of cables (top two) go out to a new building. Two more sets of cables can come in from the right side. The three vertical bars in the center are the buss. The cables are joined to the buss with horizontal "links". The links can be removed while the buss is energized, so a cable can be disconnected, without shutting down the other cables. I don't think that procedure is practiced any longer, due to safety concerns.

Our job was to install the third cable. The cable first gets terminated in a pot head, like the two above. We stuck the cable inside the box to get a measurement.

I'm sliding the pothead body over the cable.

After filling the pothead body with compound, it's ready to be bolted into the box.

Finished product! It's shiny.

My first 35kV solder-wipe termination!

2008-12-04T20:55:00.016-05:00

Junior and I have started a new job, replacing old porcelain cable terminations with new ones.

This is our home for the next couple of weeks. This tent will keep the snow and rain out, but still provide ventilation through the center. It's also on wheels, so we'll be able to roll it down to the next set of terminations. The lines you see (disconnected, of course) carry 34.5 kV from the transformer secondary to another substation.

This is our first victim. The cable coming from the bottom is a single conductor (Phase C), with a lead tube around it. These cables are pressurized with nitrogen, to keep moisture out, and to provide an early warning of possible failure. If we find that a lot of nitrogen is being used, we know the cable is leaking. If the amount of nitrogen leaking out is excessive, we know that there is a problem, and it's possible that the cable will fail. The lead jacket gives excellent protection to the conductor, and allows us to solder-wipe joints together.

Junior uses a torch to melt the existing solder joint. I'm holding the pan to catch the drippings.

The old terminator came right off. What you see here is the stress cone.

I'm inserting a guide rod so the new terminator will sit properly over the existing cable.

The new one went right on. We plumbed it up, then tightened the bracket.

Here's that pot of molten lead again. My job was to ladle out the solder into a pan, and cool it to a mushy consistancy so that it was solid, but workable. As Junior needed it, I would pour a dollop of the solder onto his wiping pad, and he'd apply it to the joint where the terminator and the lead tube meet. That pot weighs about 30 lbs, full of lead.

After the joint is made, we cool it down rapidly with wet rags. We were too busy during the wiping process to take any pictures, so you just get to see the final product.

That was a lot of fun today! We're hoping that with practice, we'll decrease the time. The Bruiser was able to get two of these done in a 10 hour day, so that's our goal. For starters, though, we were happy to get one done in 8 hours, with no mistakes or injuries.

You never know what you'll learn at Mitchell's...

2008-11-15T09:40:00.005-05:00

A night or so ago, I walked up to Mitchell's for a couple of beers. It's kinda funny, because I just wanted to go for a walk, but needed a destination, so thought I'd grab two beers, then come home and work on stripping paint. I was talking with a couple of guys next to me, while Andrea (totally made up name, you'll see why...) waited on us. Gus had had a great day perch fishing, We talked about politics and movies, and whether or not the Brown's would beat Buffalo. I was having fun, so I drank another beer, had a shot, then Andrea's shift ended and she joined us. She knew the one guy's name, and he introduced his friend, "Jim". She shook his hand, then said, "Wait, is your last name Hammersmith?" Jim said yes, and Andrea looked at me and said, "Oh my god! This is the guy I lost my virginity to!" I was caught off guard. If I had a been drinking my beer, I'd have sprayed it all over the bar. So, I did the only thing I could think of, "Hey man, high five!" SMACK. I told her it was a bit more information than we needed to know. We talked a little more, Jim had recognized Andrea immediately, but it was funny that she didn't recognize him right away. "You really must have made in impression on her!", I chided.

During the same evening, the other barmaid kept playing air guitar, so when I asked her if she played, she said she could play rhythm on an acoustic guitar. She's not in a band or anything, but she did tell me to look up her "Obama song" on YouTube. So, here it is. The first verse is pretty bad, but after that, well, it's still bad, but what the hell, she's having fun.

Running into old friends

2008-11-15T09:02:00.006-05:00

One of many cool aspects of being a union electrician is that we often run into people we've worked with before, on other jobs, and/or for other companies. The first time I worked with Andy was over 10 years ago for a shop that is no longer around. I was an apprentice, and he was my journeyman/foreman. Several years later, I was foreman on a job at University Hospital and he helped me out as a worker. We've often worked together at the steel mills too. When I walked in the room for the first time for Call Henry, I saw him, Earl, Bobby, Tom G, Bruce, and Eddie; it was sort of like a family reunion. Working together over the years gives one a feeling of comraderie and brotherhood.

A couple of weeks ago, I worked with Andy on a cutover, and got to teach him a bit about HV splicing. He's a "splicer-in-training" for the shop and hands-on experience is always a good learning tool. Here he's shrinking down a Raychem motor lead termination kit for 2400V unshielded cables. I did the first three terminations, explaining what to look for, and showing him the proper technique of using the torch. He did the next three, then I finished the last three.

I couldn't have done a better job myself.

New toys at work

2008-11-13T21:54:00.005-05:00

I've been getting started on some new types of high voltage work. In the past, I've done some lead cable work, but nothing like what I'll be doing soon at NASA, for Call Henry. I get to play with new toys! This is a solder pot. It's filled with molten solder that we used to tin the spun copper wiping sleeve of the termination. When I look at that, I think of Jearl Walker's The Flying Circus of Physics. When I was in high school, we watched a video of Jearl Walker explaining certain facts of physics, and demonstrating them. In one, he dipped his finger in water, then poked it in a pot of molten lead. He did the same thing with a cannister of liquid nitrogen. He was explaining how some people can walk across hot coals, barefoot. The intense heat causes the water to vaporize, forming a thin insulating layer between the molten lead, or hot coals and the person's skin. I don't remember how it worked with the liquid nitrogen, but it was similar. I bet Mr. Dria would be proud that I was actually paying attention way back then!

This is a sectionalizer box. Later, I'll post a picture of the insides. The cool thing is that I'll be terminating a cable installed in a pothead into one of these soon.

Here, I'm holding a stress cone that had been installed in one of the same type of terminations that we had to tin earlier. I don't know when we'll actually do those terminations, but I'm looking forward to it.

Happy Birthday Tess

2008-11-02T12:37:00.003-05:00

Tess turned 91 on Friday. I had worked out a surprise party with "CR", one of the barmaids at Mitchell's. The plan was to take Tess out for dinner, like we usually do once a week, and have a few friends wish her a happy birthday. CR made this wonderful, and delicious cake for her. It turned out I had to work late, and we had to cancel the dinner, so I brought the cake over this morning. Tess was delighted!

Firebrand conversation at Mitchell's

2008-11-02T08:04:00.016-05:00

Last night, I got into trouble with the barmaid ("JH"), and the woman I'd like to date ("CB"), who, incidentally, doesn't want to date me. The topic? Abortion.

It's just amazing that these interesting conversations always occur late at night, after too many beers and usually a couple of shots. That's too bad, because I enjoy debating these topics, including listening to the other person's views. I may not agree with them, but I think a healthy discourse helps to solidify one's own opinions, and you never know what might change your mind. The problem is that emotions run hot, and the friendly debate turns ugly.

I agree with JH and CB on many things. We're all voting for Barack Obama. We also agree on...hmmm, let me think here...what else do we agree on? The three of us agree on some things, the biggest that Obama would be a better president than McCain.

We were discussing politics, and smiling and all happy and in agreement as we tried to talk our friend into changing his vote from Bob Barr's Libertarian party, to Barack Obama. Then JH began whispering to CB, though not too quietly, that the fellow at the end of the bar was going to vote for John McCain, strictly to get Roe vs. Wade overturned. Her voice rose as she said "Some MAN is going to tell me what I can or can't do with my body!!" (Imagine her hands on her hips, and her head bobbing left to right as she spoke) Then I got involved, "Wait a minute. Why shouldn't the guy get a say in that? The child is his too." "Well he doesn't have to carry the child for nine, no, it's TEN months...", she said. "But what if the man wants to rear the child himself? Why shouldn't he get that chance?" I was going strong by now. "They want to outlaw abortion, even in the case of rape or incest!", she added. "Yes, but I'm not talking about that!", I replied, drawing closer to the fire. At this point, our very wise Libertarian friend left. CB also went out for a smoke, and I knew she was fuming. But I couldn't keep my damn mouth shut. JH and I went back and forth a little bit more, then, in the span of a second, I dug a 12 ft. deep grave (six feet is too shallow), jumped in, and pulled all the dirt on top of myself, by saying "Well then you should keep your legs shut!" I regretted it instantly. What I said was sort of what I meant, but not nearly as mean-spirited as the words I actually spoke. JH walked away. When she returned, she told me just how mean that was. I apologized, finished my beer, paid, and left.

The three of us had a similar conversation, gosh, last Saturday night, after many beers (think there's a pattern here?) That time, I buried myself when I asked them why women, considering the huge impact on their lives that a pregnancy could have, don't ensure using some form of birth control, or protection. To me, that's like a fireman going into a burning building without any equipment. Sure, he *might* come out unscathed, but he might not. Why take the chance? So CB drilled me with "Haven't you ever gotten caught up in the moment, and not used protection?" "Yes, of course I have, but I'm not the one who ends up raising the kid, so I would think it would be in the woman's best interest to have it." "Though I would be there for her, if that happened!", I hastily added (as if I still had a chance with her).

The ironic point is, I agree with RvW. There are several factors to consider. In my opinion, rape, incest, or to save the mother's life are valid reasons for abortion, and I'd go even futher, and say that instances of severe birth defects or severe mental retardation could warrent the operation. I think a woman should have a choice, but I also think that in the case of consensual sex, the man should have a say whether his child gets aborted too. I mean, it takes two to make a child. If she thinks enough of the man to let him into her body, then shouldn't his opinion count for something? I'm a firm believer in women's rights, but what about men's rights?

Abortion is killing. Sometimes, like war, killing is a necessary evil. But it should seen for what it is, not rationalized away by saying that the fetus isn't a child until birth. It should be avoided if at all possible, and there should be regret when it happens. If a person (man or woman) isn't mature enough to be responsible regarding sex, then they should keep their zippers zipped, or legs closed. Birth control should come before sex, not after.

That's what I was trying to say last night.

50 Years of NASA in Cleveland

2008-10-31T21:39:00.005-04:00

Recently, Glenn Research Center (GRC) celebrated their 50th anniversary. See if you can find me in the picture. Hint: I'm not dressed like Waldo, but if I had known about the picture ahead of time.....

An observer with the right military background might notice the two S-3 Viking aircraft at the top of the picture. I don't know what their function is, though. During Hurricane Ike, there were several E-2 Hawkeye aircraft that came in for a day or two. They were deployed for weather monitoring as the hurricane came ashore.

I got to see them shipping some of the rocket sections for the Ares I-X one day. That seems like an interesting project, and one that is keeping jobs here at GRC.

If it wasn't for Wikipedia, my blog entries would me pretty damn boring!

Oh yeah, today is Tess's birthday. She's 91 today. I've got a little party planned for her for tomorrow at Mitchell's. Hopefully, I'll have some pictures to post from that.

My first 35kV splice and terminations

2008-10-25T19:59:00.008-04:00

I spent the last couple of weeks working with Junior (not the same Junior I've posted about before) on some 35kV splices and terminations. This Junior is Dr. Bob's son. It's pretty cool to get to work with both of them. Junior and I went to 5 years of trade school together, then 2 years of High Voltage Splicing class. The splices were the easiest I've ever done, since they were at the perfect height, and in a large, warm, dry, clean room. I could get used to this sort of work! Here, Junior is chamfering the end of the insulation.

"Hey Shawn!" "Huh?" Yeah, he got a good stupid look out of me. I'm applying the yellow stress-relief mastick to the connector area of this splice. The two completed splices are hanging below.

This would be a great picture of me working on the terminations, if I had only looked up.

35kV cable is a bit bigger than what I've worked with in the past. The terminations are essentially the same, though there is much more exposed insulation (called tracking distance) on a 35kV cable termination than on a 15kV cable termination.

I'm very happy working at NASA. All of the guys there are pretty cool, and we do have a lot of fun busting each other's balls. One of these days, I'll get to work on some lead cables. That will be a new experience for me because, unlike the lead cables I've worked with before, these cables get "wiped", which means working with molten lead to fill in the joint between the cable jacket and the termination.

A sad day, indeed.

2008-10-09T18:56:00.003-04:00

I read on /. that soon Opus will be no more. NPR has more info. I wonder myself where in the attic my old Opus plush doll might be found. He's probably playing with Hobbes.

Side note: I wonder how many morons got Opus tattoos.... When I was in the Navy, I knew a guy who got a Calvin tattoo. How often does he have to explain who Calvin is?

A pleasant autumn day

2008-10-05T15:46:00.009-04:00

I went out to see my folks Sunday morning. We had breakfast in Wellington, then headed out to the farm. I love an early Sunday morning in farm country. The dew was sparkling off the fields, the air was crisp, I could even taste it.

During breakfast, we discussed the bailout (none of us like it!), and politics, and what everyone was up too. Dad and I shared a good chuckle when Shane's name came up because Dad can't talk politics with Shane without the two of them getting pissed off. Shane tends to dominate the conversation. I told Dad that I can't talk politics with Shane either, and we both have the same views! (I know you're gonna read this bro, and when you do, just imagine me sitting here, snickering) After breakfast, back at their house, I stood by the wood-burning stove, enjoying the fire I had recently started, and saw, on the 'fridge, where once was a picture of "W", there was now a picture of John McCain and Sarah Palin. I had to give dad a shot about that, and offered to get him a picture of Barak Obama.

We all walked out to see how the demolition of the grainery was coming. There isn't much left anymore. Mom and Neph have most of the wood either piled up neatly to save for firewood, or in a bonfire pile to burn one of these days. There were some concrete blocks, and some stone there still to be moved, but mom didn't want me to move them. I did pick up some nice stones for the front of my house. Mom kept trying to get me to take more of them, but I didn't want to load the truck down too much, or have to unload them when I got home. I did pick up two really nice ones for my front yard.

The rock in front must weigh 150 lbs. It was tough to get up into the truck. Now it's peacefully sitting there, not needing to be moved, zero inertia.

I sat for awhile with my dad, on the back porch, just enjoying the morning and chatting. I could hear the occasional train horn, the wind rustling the pre-autumn leaves, and Mom's cat purring deeply in my lap. It was very relaxing. Dad mentioned how he liked to sit there and think about all the projects he'd like to do. He mentioned that he could sit there for hours, thinking about the projects that he'd like to do....which sounded just like me. I can sit for an hour imagining just how Shelby's playhouse would look, what materials it would need, what tools, the roofing, and paint, and double-hung windows (two of them). I could spend another hour putting it together in my head, imagined weekends drifting past, trips to the hardware store, the smile on her face...and never get a damn thing done! (Hey bro, now I'm chuckling at myself)

Mom had copied a picture of Tina from this blog, and put it up on the family collage. She was disappointed when I told her that Tina and I had broken up, and that I was interested in a different woman. I didn't go into too much detail, because as of now, we're just friends, but who knows what the future holds.

I headed home to take Katie for a walk, then did some yard work, while the weather was nice. I ended up sitting in the back for a bit, and started a fire. I drank some apple cider with a shot of rum, while I cooked a couple of hot-dogs over the fire. Katie was laying on the ground next to me and I watched the stars come out. It was a nice end to a pleasant day.

Life is good!

2008-09-25T23:15:00.005-04:00

I have been pretty busy lately. One of the greatest benefits of the new job is it's closeness to home. Driving 10 minutes to work gives me much more time for fun. Since we've had a week of incredible weather, I've been out on the bike more often. In fact, tomorrow I'll go pick up my new motorcycle jacket. It's Union Made in USA, which is nearly unbelieveable. Thanks Kip for that tip! I've got a couple of leather jackets already, but they aren't motorcycle jackets. The main difference being that a motorcycle jacket has a flap either under, or over, the zipper (some have both) that keeps wind from penetrating through the zipper. As the weather gets cooler, this becomes a huge difference. Tina just got a great buy on a Harley Davidson jacket (also Made in USA) at a second-hand store. Her's is $500 new, and she got it for $75!! I got her a helmet for her birthday, so maybe we'll get some riding in even in the fall. I'm considering getting chaps, or even leather pants, but that'll be next year.

I started going to the gym again, though I don't know if I'll keep the early morning (5 am) schedule, or move to an afternoon workout. NASA has a fitness center that I'm welcome to use also. Next Tuesday, I go in for a fitness test. I guess they want to make sure I won't keel over on the elliptical machine. I had to get a physical for work, and some blood tests to check lead and zinc levels in my body. Everything checked out ok, but both the nurse and doctor suggested I get my own doctor, and the nurse said I should have my eyes checked. Growing old sucks! I know I need reading glasses, because soon my arms won't be long enough for me to see what I'm doing.

Speaking of work, it's going great! For the last couple of weeks, I've been doing HV terminations. They are only 2400v unshielded terms, but NASA is very particular about how their work gets done, so it takes a little time. I really enjoy getting the time to do a top-notch job and not have the aggravations I had with the other company. I've got a few more days on this switchgear, then I'll start on a 34.5 kV job, with an old tradeschool classmate of mine. In fact, I was working with his father not too long ago. Bob Sr. is nicknamed Dr. Bob. Bob Jr. is nicknamed, well, Junior, but the guys at work extrapolated that to June Bug, and pretty much Bug, or The Bug has stuck. I think nicknames are great. BTW, my nickname is Shawn Two, since there is already a Sean on the job.

Katie is doing well, though I was pretty pissed at her today when she puked on the couch. Most of the time, I keep blankets on it, for protection, but I hadn't adjusted them recently and she found the one spot not covered. It's my fault for not taking her outside after she ate, or for keeping the couch covered. I've been taking her down to the Metroparks for walks and swims, though the water is starting to get cold. A couple of times I've also taken my neighbor, Tess. She'll be 91 on Halloween day. We walk a little, then she'll sit on a bench and watch the children playing, or the bikers, or joggers, or pretty much anyone while I take Katie for a short walk. She's what Bill F+11 would call "a pisser"! She's very frank and straightforward, and we talk about pretty much everything.

I haven't asked her what she thinks about the bailout of the financial industry though... I wonder what she'll say, with her knowledge of the Great Depression.

Yesterday, I played sand volleyball for the first time in 15 years. What a great time! It's a co-ed fall league that'll last 5 weeks, but we play two sets of 3 games each week. Everyone is close in age, so we were all tuckered out about the same, and I'm sure sore today. I was pleasantly surprised that I can still dig the ball out of the net and serve over the net. I'm looking forward to Wednesdays!

Scoring the ultimate job

2008-08-31T07:08:00.005-04:00

Last week, due to pure dumb luck, I scored the ultimate electrician's job, here in the Cleveland area. I took a permanant call for Call Henry Inc, working at NASA Glenn Research Center. That's right NASA! Is that cool, or what?!

My job is with the High Voltage maintenance department, and it really IS high voltage. Their main feeders carry 138,000 Volts! The cable terminations I'll be repairing carry a mere 34,500 volts. Our job is to maintain the substations, perform scheduled maintenance, and complete repairs in order to keep NASA's power needs uninterrupted.

This is a picture of two types of cable. The piece on the left is of Unishield 500 kcmil copper conductor with a solid dielectric (insulation) rated for 15kV. It's one of the most common types of cable that I've worked with. The cable on the right is the 138 kV power cable. The insulation is the part between the shiny copper conductor in the center, and the black jacket. Quite a difference in insulation thickness between the two.

How did S. Africa beat us to this!

2008-08-15T15:47:00.002-04:00

I like to stroll through Wikipedia from time to time to check out the picture of the day, read the daily facts, and history, and sometimes actually look something up.

Imagine my surprise when I saw this little fact regarding a holiday in South Africa! Jeeze, why couldn't we have come up with that?

This holiday "is started according to a design to solemnize women's independence and power in all facets of life, from their careers to their relationships to their own destiny." Now that's what I call rationalization!

Bravo, South Africa. Bravo.

Weekend Fun

2008-08-11T23:44:00.005-04:00

In addition to visiting my friends, Jim and Kelly last weekend, I took Katie out to the park early Saturday morning for a stroll and a swim. I don't think she strolled a bit. It was like watching a 2 year old running everywhere she went. I gave her some off-leash time, and she behaved herself quite well.

Tina wanted some before and after pictures Saturday, when she got her hair cut. I like this picture, especially the red and green contrast. While she was getting her hair done, I took Tess up to Mitchell's Tavern for the prime rib dinner. One of these days, I'll get Tess on the back of my bike, and go for a nice ride through the metroparks. It's going to be sunny and warm tomorrow....

This picture was taken after her haircut. I know... you're all thinking: "Nice hooters!", and "Haircut?...she has hair? I didn't notice." I like her hair straight, but I don't know if it's worth sitting in a chair for 4 hours. Tina is going through a mid-life crisis right now. She'll be 45 in a few weeks, and she feels old. I'm not really concerned about growing old, so I can't comiserate with her. It's not like I'm an overflowing well of emotions anyway. In 100 years, we'll all be dead, so why worry about it.

This is absolutely the best picture of Katie I've ever taken. I had to post it. Besides, she gets jealous of Tina (and vice-versa), so I had to post 2 pictures of each of them to stay out of trouble. I will probably be in trouble with Tina anyway, for talking about her boobs. It's a daring life I lead...

The 5 year science project

2008-08-10T16:29:00.004-04:00

My friend Jim (the wise fella who often posts sage advice as comments on this blog) has been working on a project for awhile. He's got it nearly complete, and far enough along to look good.

Yes, it's an arcade game. "Which one?" you ask. Why, it's all of them! With the magic of Linux, MAME, a soldering iron, and imagination, my friend has built the ultimate home arcade gaming experience!

Nice workmanship! It still needs a bit of tweaking, but we had fun playing old games last night. The graphics, the sound, the crappy animations. Ahhh. It was like being back in the 80's again.

There it was in the corner of the bar.
I tried to run, but I didn't get far.

BTW, this is the guy who wrote his first game for the Apple II + in Hex codes. For you non-computer geeks out there, that would be similar to cutting down a tree with a knife. It works, but takes a LOOONG time, and there are other, quicker, tools available, such as a compiler. OTOH, there is a wayyyy-cool factor there. I wrote programs in Assembly Language, and I thought that was hard. Writing out the progam in Hex is one step above using ones and zeros!

Great xkcd today!

2008-08-06T00:10:00.002-04:00

See how long it takes you to get it. It took me about 30 seconds, and three re-reads.

Day Game

2008-08-02T08:43:00.007-04:00

Few things are as enjoyable as playing hooky from work... I've been working at the Cleveland Clinic for the past two weeks, but left at break time on Thursday.

I've seen this sculpture time and time again while driving down Chester Ave., and often wondered, "What the heck!!??", so I stopped to check it out. It's called The Politician: A Toy. It was created by Billie Lawless in 1994. It looks like it could use a little TLC now. The paint is peeling, and the mechanics aren't working, with the exception of the single wheel which still turns.

I ate breakfast at Sal's on West 25th Street. Crystal has gone blond now, and I think I hurt her feelings when I said she looked good as a redhead. She quickly corrected me. Sal made me a fine western omelet! Then I headed to Hoopples for a warm-up beer. I got there early, but the cook was happy to get me draught Dortmunder until the bartender arrived. My buddy got there shortly after I did, and we talked shop for a bit. The advantage of arriving early is that all the beer is really ice cold! His bud froze once he popped the top off.

Then we headed off to the main event! Cleveland Indian's vs Detroit Tigers at noon. It was a great game, which the Indians won 9-4. I was thinking of my friends, hard at work, while I drank beer, ate peanuts, and watched Grady Sizemore hit his 27th homerun. Poor Bastards!

After the game, we stopped at Gallagher's to see Daneen. She was smokin' in a tank-top and camo pants. Shaggy and Jimmy 1450 met up with me after work (they came to see Daneen too, not me) and we had a few more beers and shot the shit. Afterwards, I went to Mitchell's for wings and icewater. It was a fun-filled afternoon, just what one needs to do once in a while in the summer.

Big, Way Cool News!!

2008-07-26T21:33:00.006-04:00

I read on /. today, that NASA has released it's image library to the public!!! That's like, the first time I played Everquest cool!

I went to the page on Earth, and saw images 1 to 50, of TWO THOUSAND, TWO HUNDRED NINETY-SEVEN!!

I've had the Hubble Site bookmarked for awhile, but now with this collection of images, I'm set for geeky wallpapers for life!

Good bye Scarlett... I'm going to miss you!

Morning at the park

2008-07-21T05:08:00.010-04:00

Yesterday morning, we took Katie down to the park for some fun. We started off with some pastries and chocomilk, for energy!

Katie loves tromping around in the mud, smelling everything, and, believe it or not, swimming. She's trying to build up the courage to dive in. Or she smells raccoon crap. I'm not sure which.

I like starting my day early. The mist hadn't yet burned off the valley. It was still nice and cool, but there were lots of mosquitoes out.

Tina has been raiding my attic for shirts and shorts. She looks better in my old Singapore shirt than I ever did!

Of course, I had to follow the path less taken...

Katers had a great time being a dog. I don't think Ellen would have approved of this when she was alive, but, God bless her, I'm sure she's looking down and smiling.

It's been a flurry of medium-volatage activity!

2008-07-05T07:21:00.014-04:00

I've been doing a ton of medium voltage work lately, and it's GREAT! Continuing with the blow-up story from down at the mill, this is a picture of an old time lead splice. The cable contained an identification strip dated 1951. That's a pretty good lifetime for a cable! This splice will be cut out, and we'll splice in three new cables to the existing 3-conductor lead cable. This is in MH-22.

Backup and I are working on the other end, in MH-24. It's a very small manhole, with just enough room to make the splices. The existing cables in here were three single cables, so the splice is a three single conductor to three single conductor splice, which is pretty common. The day started off very nice, sunny and warm...but it didn't stay that way. Around 6 o'clock, the foreman told me there was a storm coming in from the west. You can't tell from this picture, but basically, since this manhole is sunk below grade, the opening around the manhole acts as a funnel, and every time the safety guy moved up top, gravel or dirt would spill down into the hole. Just before the storm hit, we were at a critical stage in the splice, when the cables, our hands, and the splice components had to stay absolutely clean. Just as we finished heat-shrinking the last of the critical splice components, the storm hit like a tidal wave. Dr. Bob and Junior fought to get the tarps up, to keep rain out of the manhole. They got soaked to the skin in seconds. There were lightning strikes close by, booming thunder almost continuously, and nearly horizontal rain. We joked about a tornado, that we (Backup and I) were safe in the manhole, but not Junior or Dr. Bob, then we heard the Tornado Warning for Wellington come across the radio. It wasn't long before water began pouring into the manhole, right above me. A steady stream of cold water drenched me as I held the cables apart so Backup could work the torch around them. The cables themselves were in just the right place to miss the water, so we were able to continue working on the splice.

The storm lasted about an hour, then the sun broke out again. I fire-taped the cables, and we called it a day.

We had Sunday off, but returned Monday to do the trifurcating splice. Dr. Bob was my partner this time. It was good to work with him again, as he's very knowledgeable about this type of work having done the types of splices in the first picture years ago. Here is the lead cable, with the splice removed, and it's been cleaned up a bit. I did the lead cable prep work, while Dr. Bob prepared the three single conductors. I wanted the experience, since these types of splices don't happen often. I had done this only twice before, and that was years ago.

I'm shrinking the conductive boot over the oil-barrier tubes and lead jacket now.

The cables are ready for the connectors. Notice the triangular shape of the conductors. These are called compact sector conductors, and allow for a smaller over-all diameter of the cable.

One of the major differences with working with lead cables is that the grounding braids and shielding mesh get soldered to the lead jacket. This isn't for the novice. Imagine what would happen if one were to melt through the lead jacket....

Splice complete! The next day, we taped up the cable end connections, chopped up the lead cable and tossed it into a dumpster for the customer, then cleaned up our areas.

After this was over, we went back to the Elastimold job that's been ongoing. Our cut-over was last Saturday (June 28th), and everything went well. Last week Dr. Bob and I did two, 3-conductor armor to 3-conductor armor splices for the folks here:

Starting Monday, we'll be back on the Elastimold job, with the second cut-over scheduled for July 12th. Then I'm going back to the zoo!

Busy, busy, day.

2008-06-17T16:12:00.009-04:00

We've got several HV jobs going on at the moment. Here, Dr. Bob is finishing off one of the Elastimold terminations that we need done for an upcoming shutdown.

Chuck, our foreman also lent a hand with the grounding.

I'm tying the cables up, temporarily, so that tomorrow we can start installing the support brackets.

Ain't they purrty!?

At noon, I headed over to the steel mill, where they had a cable blow up last week. Peeps is operating the capstan, to pull the old cables out of the underground ductbank.

Jimmy 1450 mans the sheave, and cuts the cables off after each "bite". It was a strange day, for June. Cloudy and cool. It felt more like September, than June.

There's the fault! That's a pretty good sized hole, when you consider that the copper that used to be there was vaporized in the explosion.

It was a rough day for everyone. Even Shaggy gets dirty! He spent nearly the entire day in this hole, rigging the sheave in the manhole, and working the strap for each successive "bite".

Last week on the bridge ornamental lighting job

2008-06-06T20:04:00.010-04:00

This has been a very enjoyable job, but all jobs come to an end. At least we saved the best for last! Some of the light fixtures for the Center Street bridge are located under the Veteran's Memorial Bridge (on the left, in the picture), and shine downwards. Access is under the vehicle bridge, via the out-of-service trolly-car level.

The light fixtures are a bit hard to reach...

A view from my perch: Oooo, pretty girl jogging! (Who else is making the Steve Austin dut dut dut dut dut bionic eye zoom sound in their heads?)

This is the reason we have a swing bridge! Another freighter being hauled upstream by a tugboat.

Peeps is instructing me to move the fixture a bit to my right... He and Johnny O were the Wonder Twins that day. I wonder if they call each other up to be sure to match shirts...

Just another day on the job. And to think that I get paid to have this much fun!

Maggot Brain

2008-05-31T23:56:00.003-04:00

I'm listening to it now. What a trippy tune. That's the only way to describe it.

I had a real good night tonight. I sat in my backyard, listening to music, drinking beers. I would turn the dial up, slowly, waiting for a song I like, or one I've never heard that sounded interesting. Once I'd get to the end of the FM dial, I'd switch to AM, and work my way back down. I listened to the Grand Ole' Opry, 60's, 70's, and 80's music, my all time favorite Saturday song, SATURDAY NIGHT, by the Bay City Rollers, (and I learned that it was the number one song in 1975, when I was 12). I heard a few baseball games, and the really cool sounds of tuning into an AM station that kids nowadays don't even know about. I mean the squeaks, and dying cat sounds, pops, whistles. Gospel music, and old country. New pop, rap, and techno. Techno is NOT dead! It's just hiding out on the low end of the FM dial. Ooo, right now, it's Stevie Nicks singing "Sara".

I enjoyed listening to the old country. It reminded me of when I went with my dad and uncle down to Virginia, to visit my Aunt Molly. We ate her homemade cinnamon apple butter, which my dad is still trying to reproduce. I found a 1918 penny under the porch step. We would sleep on the floor, in sleeping bags, listening to the AM radio playing old country. That was back in the 70's. It's REALLY old country now.

I built a fire and sat on my patio chair, rocking back and forth, watching the stars through the pine boughs. Now it's "Everlasting Love", the Carl Carlton version, from 1974. "According to Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), the 1974 Carl Carlton version has been played more than 4 million times." from Wikipedia.

This is really weird. I heard Santana's "Black Magic Woman". Now that song rocks all by itself, but what's really cool is that I kept seeing the "notes" come up, in my mind, from when Pete F+11 was playing Guitar Hero. Whenever I hear that song, I see it.

Great Memorial Day Weekend!!

2008-05-31T07:03:00.014-04:00

Last weekend was a blast! Early Saturday morning, I rode out to my parents' to see my brother, his wife, and son. David just had to wear grampa's ratty old hat. Mom, Dad, Shane, David, and I went for breakfast in Wellington.

David and Shane wrestled during the trip in while I made grumpys.

When we got back, Dad put me to work cutting a few branches off the maple tree by the garage. It's a pleasure using a good chainsaw with a sharp blade, buzzing through the wood like butter. I only had time enough to cut one branch off before I had to head home. Steve and his family were coming into town, and we planned to watch the Indian's play baseball that evening.

I shot back home, got cleaned up, and waited for Steve and his family. Before they got there, I took Katie for a nice walk, giving her a chance to do her business (code word for crap), then fed her. When Steve and all arrived, we relaxed a bit in my backyard. I can't believe how tall E has gotten! She's going to be an awesome volleyball player! Of course, Steve is still the same friend I knew back in 5th grade, always joking around. Dar hasn't seen this picture yet!

I took them down to Shooters for dinner, so I could show them the bridges I had been babbling incessently about. C has such a pretty smile! Steve and I teased her about wearing Brittney glasses, but what do we know about a teenaged girl's fashion, or middle-aged guy's fashion, for that matter.

This picture was taken from Shooter's dock. You can see the demolition work being done in the background, on the east bank of the flats, preparing for new construction. I wanted to take the picture with the NS bridge in the background, but the lighting wasn't right.

Steve and I held a contest to see which one of us could hold our gut in the longest.

That's one fine looking ballpark! I still hate that they changed the name from Jacob's field, "The Jake", to Progressive field. Will they start calling it "The Prog" now?

BONUS! It was a giveaway night. We got Grady Sizemore bobbleheads, Woo Hoo! He's my favorite player too.

Back to the bridges

2008-05-25T21:21:00.005-04:00

There was a lot of work to do on the Willow bridge. Here, Peeps is cleaning a light fixture.

I know I should be helping Peeps clean and repair fixtures, but it's not often that one gets a chance to take photographs like these:

Here's another picture of me not working. I hope no one from the shop looks at these......Jim....

I was on vacation at the time, but I heard tell of a vicious lake gull attack on poor Jimmy 1450 as he tried to work in that stainless steel pullbox, and a subsequent attack upon Dandaman, though Dan defended himself valiantly with a stop/slow sign. That's the stuff of legends, I tell you. Poets will write songs of their bravery and women will swoon at their very passing.

1450: There he is!
Peeps: Where?
1450: There!
Peeps: What? Behind the gull?
1450: It *is* the gull!
Peeps: You silly sod!
1450: What?
Peeps: You got us all worked up!
1450: Well, that's no ordinary gull.
Peeps: Ohh.
1450: That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered avian you ever set eyes on!
Dandaman: You tit! I soiled my harness I was so scared!
1450: Look, that gull's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
Carl: Get stuffed!
1450: He'll do you up a treat, mate.
Carl: Oh, yeah?
Dandaman: You manky Scots git!
1450: I'm warning you!
Dandaman: What's he do? Nibble your bum?
1450: He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!
Peeps: Go on, Onots. Chop his head off!
Johnny-Onots: Right! Silly little bleeder. One gull stew comin' right up!

New HV job

2008-05-25T21:08:00.006-04:00

I'll be working on a new high voltage job beginning in June. I went to scope the job out, and took a few pictures while I was there. This is another typical HV trench, although these conduits are being covered in concrete (it's a parking lot!) instead of stone, like the one at the zoo.

This concrete box is a manhole. These are precast, and set in place with a crane. In the olden days, carpenters used to build forms for concrete to be poured into. This is much quicker and more efficient, as well as modular.

These rings will be set over the top opening, giving us access once the manhole is covered with earth.

We've got two new manholes on the project, and we'll be tying into an existing manhole during phase 2.

I have had nothing but fun at work and during offtime for the last couple of weeks

2008-05-25T19:57:00.002-04:00

I'm going to have to break this up into several posts, because I haven't posted enough as events happened. I really had just an awesome time in New York. I can't thank my friend Bill, his wife, Beth, and young Pete enough for the great time I had there. They took a lot of their time, allowed me to be a guest in their home, and went out of their way to make me feel comfortable, and enjoy my week there. I truly hope to do the same for them some day. This mural is painted on a building across from Yankee Stadium.

When I got home, my lilacs had bloomed. The bush isn't quite as big as the one outside my bedroom window that I remember as a kid. I used to wake up early, with the sun streaming through the window and the smell of lilacs wafting through the screen. It's one of my favorite childhood memories. In a few years, it may be big enough. I also may get another small plant from my parents to see if it'll grow as well as this one did.

I don't know what the other flowering bush is, but it bloomed while I was gone also.

My elderberry bush is a slow grower. I won't even be able to try to make jelly for several years. I liked the way the sun lit the plant, so I took this picture.

Dispelling a myth

2008-05-18T20:43:00.008-04:00

I've played MMRPG games for years. I put many years into Everquest, and started off as a Beta tester for Worlds of Warcraft, then went on to play for a few months before I dropped out. There is an ongoing joke that the women who play really aren't women. They are men, in disguise as women, so other men will either P/L them, or give them money or gifts of some type.

Well, tonight, I found out that one very attractive young woman does, indeed, play Worlds of Warcraft. In her spare time, she works as a bartender at one of the taverns I occasionally visit. She agreed to pose for a picture, just so I could say that I met a really hot woman gamer. This is Erin. This picture doesn't even do her justice. She's quite pretty, and very funny, as well as outgoing. I may post more pictures of her,if she sends some. First, I want her to check out the blog and make sure she feels comfortable with it. I hope to hear from her soon. Hell, I may even start a new character in WoW... I wonder if she likes to go for motorcycle rides in her non-WoW spare time.... Can you just dig that belt buckle enough?

With 4 home runs, the Yankees take the last game of the series.

2008-05-08T22:05:00.009-04:00

We took the time to visit Monument Park today, before the game. This is a zoom view from our seats.

While we were at a bowling alley, drinking a beer before the game, we ran into this nice couple from Lyndhurst, Oh. Bob and Lynn came out for the weekend to see the Indians/Yankees game, then catch a few shows on Broadway. Bill adopted the roll of NY ambassador, showing them around, telling them the history of Yankee Stadium, as well as stories of the men honored in Monument Park.

Bill has great seats, as you can see. Next year ticket prices may double, squeezing out many of the middle-class ticket holders, so Bill probably won't be going to as many games. It's a shame that the die-hard fans are losing out to corporations, but I guess that's the American way.

Tom and Linda were at the game too. Tom had a few more questions, "Who would you rather have, Casey Blake, or Robert Blake?" It was an excellent game, with the Bombers taking an early lead, then the Tribe catching up. Later they just kept jacking those baseballs into the stands, winning 6-3.

After the game, we stopped at The Yankee Tavern for a few beers. I have never been in a bar that was so crowded before. It was, literally, wall to wall people. Many Yankee fans congratulated me on the performance of our team (like I had anything to do with that), and I was happy to have attended the ballgame. It's not every day you see 4 home runs in a ballgame.

Cliff Lee goes 6-0

2008-05-07T23:24:00.007-04:00

Freddy Sez is a local celebrity around Yankee Stadium. Bill tells me that Freddy is the unofficial mascot.

Below, Pete is looking for a practice ball for me. He promised, before we left for the game, that he'd get one. Bill and I stood there for a few minutes, but then left to let the kids get in there. While we were there, we saw the guy in the white shirt/blue tie make a barehanded catch, then hand the ball to his daughter. Many of the Yankee fans wanted to sign him up! Pete is wearing the blue/white pinstripe cap. It's the cap that the Yankee's farm team in the Dominican Republic players wear.

Pete delivered on his promise. He caught that one while the Indian's were conducting their batting practice.

The Tribe won tonight, 3-0. It was an excellent game, both offensively, and defensively, with several good catches by the outfield. I never count the Bombers out until the last strike, because we Clevelander's know the damage they have done to us in the past.

I can't account for the goofy look on my face, but at least Bill looks good. It was cool enough out that I got to wear the jacket I brought with me.

A debt retired

2008-05-07T07:06:00.010-04:00

As promised, Bill posed in front of Yankee Stadium, wearing a Cleveland Indian's hat, per our bet. I never doubted that he'd keep up his end of the bargain, but it was great to be there and take the picture myself.

Here we are in the Yankee Tavern. I received a somewhat cool reception by some of the patrons there, but the bartenders were friendly (once they knew I was from Cleveland, and not NY). We chatted with a couple of Yankee's fans up from North Carolina, and a sheet metal worker who had been working on the new Yankee's Stadium:

It's a beautiful ballpark, built with limestone, and with a nod to the old stadium, the facade across the top.

Below is a picture of Bill with two of his friends who regularly go to Yankee games, Tom, and Linda. Tom is the master of the "What would you rather have...?" question, such as "Shawn, who would you rather have, Derek Jeter, or Bo Derek?" Of course the answer to that one is Bo Derek. I asked him "Tom, what would you rather have, Derek Jeter, or an oil derrick?" and he chose Jeter. Though Linda kept trying to get me to get on a train to who knows where, she did lead us back to the subway.

Then Tom took a picture of Bill and I at the game.

The Indian's won the first game of the series, five to two. Tonight Cliff Lee (5-0) matches up against Chien-Ming Wang (6-0). It should be a great game of pitching. If our batters can make some offense happen, I feel Cliff can keep the Yanks from scoring.

Jones Beach

2008-05-06T02:30:00.004-04:00

It was a warm, sunny day, so Bill and I went out to Jones Beach. We're hoping the rest of the week is as nice as today was. Then we had lunch at a local pub, drank a few beers, and spent the afternoon talking about old Navy times. We didn't get too crazy with the beer, because Bill had to pick up his son from school, then take him to baseball practice.

Bill is a die-hard Yankee's fan. I've never seen so much sports paraphernalia in my life. He's got Yankee floor mats, keychain, pajamas, cell-phone, I mean, the list is endless.

The games start tomorrow! It's going to be fun!

Greetings from New York!

2008-05-05T05:37:00.007-04:00

Yesterday, Bill took me to The City, aka Manhattan. I imagined King Kong swinging from the spire at the top of the Empire State Building as we drove by.

That's the Brooklyn Bridge behind me, and deeper in the background is the Manhattan Bridge.

Here is Bill and his family. Pete, who's almost 14, and nearly grown, was gracious enough to wear the Indian's hat I had sent to Bill last year. Well, he wore it until we visited The Yankee's Store. After that, Chief Wahoo got stuffed in a pocket and Pete sported a newer Yankee hat. His wife Beth is a real sweetheart. These were taken at the South Street Seaport, which is on the East River.

We spent some time enjoying the sun and view, then headed to The Village for something to eat, and drink. The Pour House was packed, but we found seats at Around the Clock. We visited St. Marks place, then stopped at Veniero's bakery for some cannoli before going home.

New York bound

2008-05-03T08:03:00.006-04:00

I'm packed, checked, and double checked. I've got a few hours until the taxi gets here, Katie has been dropped off at my parents' house, and there's nothing left to do but wait. I'm pretty excited, and a bit antsy. Since I've got some time, I figured I'd post a few more pictures from yesterday.

These were taken at NS1 bridge. This boat was coming in while I was at the top of the bridge, checking on the tower lights.

Here I'm on the "dolphins" working on the lights that light up the towers. The dolphins are there to protect the bridge from being damaged by freighters. I don't know if Peeps is lucky, or good, but he's taken several excellent pictures.

The American Courage is returning from unloading iron ore at the blast furnaces. I've got several pictures posted of this ship making her way up or down the river.

As she steams by, I just keep working. I still get a kick out of working downtown on the bridges, but after a short while, the newness wears off and it becomes business as usual.

I've been busy!

2008-05-01T20:43:00.019-04:00

I've been moving around alot lately at work, which is pretty fun. Several weeks ago, I was back down at the Cleveland Zoo working on their high voltage cables again. Here, Jose is beginning a trench to connect the newly installed HV box with an existing HV box. I posted this picture just for my nephew, David, who likes trucks!

Here's a shot of the trench, with the conduit in it. We still have to go back and set the conduits on spacers, which, oddly enough, keep the conduits evenly spaced in the trench, and slightly raised up from the trench floor. Then we cover the pipes with loose gravel, lay a marker tape down the length of the trench, and backfill the trench. The marker tape is metallic, so it can be found with a metal detector next time someone needs to dig a trench near our buried conduits.

Dan da Man is testing the HV cables. The 2"x4" studs were covered with a tarp to make a tent, so I could complete the HV terminations regardless of the weather.

After this job, I went to the crane job in the previous post. Then I went to the Cleveland Clinic Heart Center. That was a fun job to visit! I got to see many electricians I hadn't seen in awhile, including two guys I went to trade school with. I got to meet some new wiremen, and I got to work for a young man who used to be my apprentice. It made me feel good to see him doing well in the trade. I didn't bring my camera to that job because I wasn't sure I'd be able to take pictures since it's nearing the end of the job and the big push is on to "get 'er done". Sometimes I can sneak a few minutes in to take some pictures, and sometimes not. I did see some fine workmanship on that job. Huge banks of pipe running in all directions. Kicked 90's. Paralleled offsets. Matched couplings! Yeah, I know. I'm a geek.

Then, last Monday, I got a real nice treat. I was sent back downtown to work with my old friend, Peeps, on the bridge lighting. This was taken on the roof of Shooters. That's Bascule No. 1 bridge directly behind him, which is lit up at night by the lighting system we maintain. In the background, one can see the Willow avenue bridge.

Right across from Shooters is my favorite bridge. NS1. It's also called the Iron Curtain, or the Conrail Bridge. I'm guessing boaters call it the Iron Curtain the most.

I just checked out the Shooter's gallery. Lots of babes hang out there! Roger Loecy, the owner, bought us lunch one day. We both got the Shooter's Burger with fries. That was one fat, juicy, delicious chunk of Black Angus, I'm telling you.

The boss is checking his blueprints to see what circuit he needs to turn off so we can change a couple of ballasts in the light fixtures. I thought it made a cool picture.

See, I don't spend all my time taking pictures! I actually do work too. I've changed the lamp, and now I'm cleaning the lens. Mostly, we find dead bugs clouding up the lens. Often we'll find the beginnings of a bird nest, but once those lamps are energized, they get hot fast. I've never found a complete bird's nest.

If you're wondering, I bought an extra chin to work, you know, in case I lost one. It was a sunny day, but a bit cool still, and breezy near the river. Hence the extra layers of clothes.

I think steel and rivets make for extremely cool photographs. Peeps took some excellent pictures, despite the fact that I'm in them. I often wonder if I'll ever find a dead body down in one of these holes we work in.

I got to climb to the top of the Willow bridge today. Here's a view of Cleveland's skyline. The sun poked out just long enough for me to snap this picture.

I've got one more day working on the bridges, then I'm headed for New York! My boy Grady Sizemore is back in action, but Bill tells me that A-rod is on the DL. I would have liked to see him play. You know, strike out a few times. Bill calculated that, last year, A-rod was paid $33,000 each at bat. I'm quite looking forward to this trip. If I can, I'll post updates from Bill's house. If not, I'll post something when I get home.

Riding the rails

2008-04-11T19:27:00.007-04:00

I had an interesting week at work. We began last Friday installing this crane at a local metal stamping plant.
It's not very high, only 60 or so feet up, but this was the first time I got to work on the installation of a crane like this.

Here's an action shot of The Big Man hooking up the cables from the festoon system to the crane's hoist motor cables. The festoon system allow the trolley to move along the bridge, dragging it's power and control cables back and forth along with it. You can see the loops of cables in the above picture.

Here's the boss, Alpaca Dick (don't ask) answering one of The Big Man's questions regarding some "extra" wires. All he does all day is sit around and look important. I think he's got it down pretty well here.

Junior and Dobi, henceforth known as Dan the Man because whenever I think of Dobi, I think of a particular house elf. Anyway, Jr. and DtM are connecting the 480v AC power feeds that go from the collector shoe to the main crane disconnect. The collector shoe travels along in that track above Dan's head, picking up power from the internal hot rails. As a safety precaution, the power has been shut off, locked out, and tagged out.

Finally, a picture of me! I was supporting the festoon cables that went into the pullbox that TBM was working in. You can bet your ass that I had those safety lines hooked up at all times.

Later, as we tested the crane, I got to ride it up and down the length of the building. We were looking for obstructions and to ensure it worked properly. It was fun once, but I can see the thrill wearing off quickly.

Last week, I walked into this tavern....

2008-04-06T21:03:00.008-04:00

and it was packed. There wasn't a seat at the bar. Most of the tables were taken, but there were a few seats at the back bar. The back bar is basically a wall between the bar area, and the tables, but they put a counter down the length of it, along with stools. It's like the second stringer bar. I picked one with a good view of the pretty barmaids, I mean good view of the HD widescreen TV with nothing but sports on it. Stacy got my regular Bud draft, and I leaned back against the counter and waited for a first string seat to open up.

Then I saw something fall. It belonged to the woman sitting in front of me, at the bar. I got up to grab it, to hand it to her, but then my hand froze. I saw what it was, and quickly glanced around. No one saw me! Thank goodness. I sat back for a minute, thinking she'd realize that she dropped something. She didn't. My inner Knight finally won over my inner Coward, and I walked behind her, leaned forward, and whispered, "Excuse me, I think you dropped something." Then I sat back down.

She glanced around, but didn't see anything. She spun around in her chair, and told her friend that she dropped something. Neither of them could see it, as it was under her stool, on the floor. She then told her husband, and her friend's husband, and they all started looking, and since NONE of them found it, I finally got up, bent down, and picked up the tampon and handed it to her.

She put her hand over her mouth to stifle a scream. Then she said that it wasn't hers. She said it was her husband's. He laughed. She started laughing. Then they all were laughing, myself included. Stacy looked up from washing glasses, but had no clue what was going on, so she shook her head and walked away. The woman thanked me. She said I was sweet, and very polite. I told her that I was trying to be discreet, but that all went to hell when she told everyone to help her find whatever it was that she dropped. We laughed some more, and she introduced herself as Linda.

Last night, I walked into the same tavern....and Linda and her husband are sitting there. I sat a few seats down, ordered the prime rib dinner, with a cold beer, and started watching the NCAA semi-final basketball games. She didn't see me, and I didn't make any move to get her attention, but eventually, after the people between us left, she noticed me. She came over and said "Hi, you're my Tampon Man.", and laughed. I cringed. She confided to me that if she were in her 20's she would have been horrified by that event. I told her that I thought about ignoring it, but then thought, "What if she needs it?" She said that even in her 30's she would have blushed beet red with embarrasment. I reiterated my plan of discretion, and how like those well known best laid plans, it went astray. She went on telling me that since she's in her 40's it was no longer a big deal, and she held it up in the air. I imagined Linda brandishing that little white tube as if it were Excalibur! I told her, "See, it means you're still young!" Then I asked her to do me a big favor.

I said, "Please, PLEASE, don't ever call me your 'Tampon Man' again."

The 13th Warrior

2008-04-02T21:54:00.002-04:00

This is one of my favorite movies. One of the best parts was when the arab learned the norsemen's language, by listening to them speak.

My favorite part was near the end, when Bullvye, poisoned, weak, and dying, stands up and says "Lo there do I see my father..." and each remaining member of the original 13 says a line from the saying that was spoken by a woman early in the film just before she was burned on a funeral ship with her dead husband.

This evening, I was a bit bored, but not quite tired enough to go to sleep, so I went to Wikipedia to see what might sound interesting. I found an article on viking funerals.

There I found an account of a viking funeral written by an arab scholar named Ahmad ibn Fadlan...sound familiar? A great deal of the movie comes from this man's writings. Then I followed the link to the Viking Answer Lady's page going into more detail about the book, the movie, and the original writings, which are called the Risala.

In any case, it was interesting to read.

NY trip

2008-04-02T19:23:00.002-04:00

I got the plane tickets today. Mom and Dad are going to watch Katie for me while I'm gone. Now I just have to wait.

Is it May 3rd yet?

How 'bout now?

Can I leave?

I'm ready to go!

I could be famous!

2008-03-30T19:19:00.002-04:00

I got an interesting email today. It was in the spam folder, but I thought I'd check it anyway, in the hopes that I'd have a Nigerian scam mail.

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