Christmas

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

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

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

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!

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.