Rockin' And Rollin' and Happy Thanksgiving!

We pushed right on time at 1000, and then sat outside the breakwater for about FOUR HOURS while they calibrated some of the nave gear to play nice with the Dynamic Positioning System.

They were having some "issues" (GAWD I hate that term!) with the system, but got everything figured out, and we're on our way.

We went past Catalina Island around 1800, and we're hitting the long duration swells from the storm system that hammer the North West a few days ago.

The weather guy says 4 meter seas will be coming our way tonight, so that means tie everything down before we hit the hay.

These are slow rollers, so it's not like we're getting slammed going through a big storm, but even on this ship (~660 feet long, 107 foot beam) we get bounced around quite a bit.

Time to watch a movie, and go to bed early.....things I always do the first day out, along with eating a LIGHT lunch, and a LIGHT dinner.

Hope you all have a very Happy Thanksgiving!

All Packed And ready To Go

Spent last night packing up my stuff and loading the Jeep. I'll drop it off Wednesday morning, and they'll lift it on to the ship for me.

All our gear is stowed and ready for transit.

The helicopters arrived last night, and the pilots and mechanic are getting settled in after a few IT issues I helped them out with.

One of the pilots just returned from another tour as a civilian contractor in Afghanistan, and it sounds like he'll have some more good stories to tell.

And my dear wife has been baking up a storm since Sunday afternoon. I got home last night and was greeted by the lovely aroma of......CHOCOLATE CHIP COOKIES!

Yep, she's making me up a care package to take with me, but I doubt it will survive more than a few days. Seems like anytime somebody opens up a package of home made stuff, people come out of the woodwork in the office, and it just evaporates.

Last launch one of the guys brought three pans of home made fudge his wife put togther for him to take.

I think it lasted 4 days!

Probably blow out of here early to get the last of my running around errands done.

We're scheduled to push from the pier about 0930, which means we'll clear Queen's Gate about 1015 or so.

Then a life boat drill, lunch, and a quick nap in my cabin. I don't get seasick like some people do, but I've found if I have a light lunch, and take a nap, I'm good to go at 100% the next day. I didn't do that last time, and it took me a day or two to get my sea legs!

$60 Meade Spotting Scope At Costco

DO NOT BUY ONE!

I went to Costco today to stock up on some stuff for my upcoming trip, and as I wandered the aisles, I saw these on the shelf.

Hmm....20~60x 60MM, angled eyepiece, in a "Pelican" type case WITH a collapsible 15" to 44" tripod.

I figured the tripod would be junk (it is), but I was unprepared for just how BAD this little scope is.

To begin with, it has such short eye relief that I can NOT use it, at all, even on the 20 power setting, with my glasses on.

At the 60 power setting, even with my glasses off, I had to have my eye completely buried in the eye cup to use it.

The image isn't very bright considering the 60mm objective lens size, so I don't know what they "Fully Coated" the optics with....maybe water?

Yes, I should have known better, considering my $400+ Vortex didn't meet my particular needs, but I thought I give one a try considering Costco's no-nonsense return policy.

My rating?

ZERO out of five possible stars.

Looks like I'll just have to bite the bullet, and get that $600 Nikon I've had my eye on.....pun intended!
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The One True Religion: The Church of Aircraft

Title shamelessly stolen from Depleted Cranium.

This is absolutely hilarious, so go read it.

Ready To Go Again

Just finished up stowing and securing our equipment on the launch platform for transit.

They're leaving Saturday morning, and we'll be leaving on Wednesday morning.

Saturday I'll go to Costco and stock up on my personal goodies, and Monday I'll start dragging my laptop, camera, and DVD collection in and stow them in my work space.

Really sucks to be away from home on Thanksgiving, but then I keep reminding myself I'm lucky to have a relatively high paying job AT ALL, and I only have this launch, and one more, before I can retire.

If they'd like me to come back *as a contractor* to support future launches, I'll consider it, but it would take $750 per day to get me to go to sea again.

I use that dollar amount because I know that's what they're already paying some of the other contractors, and they're aren't too many people around who can do this type of work. Plus, since I live locally, they won't have to pay air fair to get me here, or provide hotel accommodations and a per diem for me while waiting to leave.

OUCH!.......EIGHTEEN Hours Today

Went in at 0600......got off at 2400.

Pardon me while I go collapse..............
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Seatrain - "Song of Job"

For some reason, I think all Patriots these days might relate to this.

Or maybe not.......

[spoken]
Hear now the tale of Job, a righteous man, who had a loving wife,
And ten sons and seven daughters. His fields were always ripe
With wheat and corn. He had ten thousand camels and five thousand sheep
And three thousand head of oxen. At sunrise
You would find him on his knees singing, "Yahweh Yehoa".
Well, one day in the court of heaven,
All the heavenly host were gathered there in the presence of the Lord,
And Satan was there among them.

[sung]
Satan went to God, and God said, "Satan, Where you been?"
Satan said, "I been on Earth, among men."
God said, "You must have seen my faithful servant, Job.
You must have seen his worth and how he's evil's foe."
Job is evil's foe. Yes, he is.

Satan said, "Well, yes, God, Job is your man.
But if you struck him, God, well, what would he do then?
He'd turn his back on you and curse your name right to your face."
God said, "Allright, Bub, go and test his faith --
Go and try Job's faith."

"O my God, O my God," cried poor Job.
"I have lost everything I owned.
I lost my cattle, I lost my land.
You took my children, too.
I'm losin' my mind and the love of my wife,
But I keep my faith in You.
I still have faith in You.

"O my God, O my God," can't you hear Job?
He's singin', "This world can no more be my home.
My so-called friends speak biting words,
Telling me what to do.
My health is gone, I cannot rest,
But I keep my faith in You.
I still have faith in You."

[spoken]
And Job's friends, they called to one another,
"Brothers! Righteous Job has fallen.
Come, let us go and give him what we can."
Long, long they journeyed until they found Job
In the ashes of his burned-out farm.
And they sat down with him for seven days and nights in silence,
For they saw that he had suffered greatly.
But at last they could hold back no longer,
And with accusing fingers pointed at him they said,
"Oh, Job, what evil have you done to bring God's wrath upon you?"
And at this time, down the road comes Elihu,
What took one look and thought he had the whole scene covered!
Waaaaow!

[sung]
That young man lectured Job until Job's poor heart near broke,
And from the whirlin' wind, God Himself spoke,
Sayin', "Who're these who claim to know my workings and all my ways?
Job has proved his faith and shall live joyous days."
Yes, Job lived joyful days. Oh, yes, he did

Sorry, Been Busy

We're in the final testing, pre-departure mode for another launch.

Spent all day verifying telemetry and command (or as our current French customer likes to say..."Le Telecommand...") links between the ships and making final level settings so the signal doesn't get lost in the noise, so to speak.

The launch vehicle gets transferred tomorrow, and then a full day of testing, and then the platform leaves on Saturday.

We leave next Wednesday, just in time to miss Thanksgiving.

Hopefully we'll be home on December 11th or 12th, if all goes on-schedule, we don't have any weather delays, or, God forbid, and abort.

Depending on where in the count an abort occurs, it can be reset and recycled in as little as 24 hours, or it can take FOUR DAYS just to drain, purge, and reset everything.

My first mission was made real 'exciting' by a ten day weather delay, followed by an abort at T- 7minutes, 45seconds.

Took us six days to get that one ready to light again, but it went off just fine.

ANYWAY....guess I'm tired tonight (12 hour days do that to you) and rambling a bit.

We have one more in February, and then.....nothing.

Nada....

Zip.....

Zilch....

I think next August might be a good time to retire a couple of years "early", if I'm still employed at that time!

Take care!
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Happy Veteran's Day

And thank you all for serving!

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Expedient Antennas For SHTF Radio

The article I've been writing for, oh 18 months now, is just about finished.

I decided to rewrite it after comparing it to the more generalized "SHTF Radio Basics" post I did last week.

I'll try and get it posted here this week, if all goes smoothly at work.

We finished testing the latest satellite, it's now in the fairing ("Nose Cone"), and going to be rolled over to the ship on Sunday. Some more testing follows, then a transfer to the launch platform, then even more testing, and finally departure.

As of today, we're scheduled to leave on the 21st of November.

That's right.....the day BEFORE Thanksgiving.

And no, we won't be getting anything 'extra' for being gone over the holiday. Our new masters are "generous" enough to graciously allow us to take two days off with pay after we get back.

Hopefully we won't be required to work during the Christmas break, with the promise of more "deferred" holidays.

We have one more launch on the books for late February, and then..........nothing.

Nothing at all, and as far as they tell us, nothing on the horizon for 2013, or 2014.

Rumors are flying about the fate of the company, including a couple of verrrry interesting ones regarding relocation to SEA.

I hear Cam Rahn Bay is lovely this time of year.......
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Louisiana Residents Petition To Secede

This came across the email transom a little while ago.

Sign of things to come? 

On Nov. 6, Americans voted to return Barack Obama to the White House; then on Nov. 7, some folks in Louisiana petitioned the White House to peaceably withdraw their state from the Union.
Coincidence?
According to the White House website, the petition was created by Michael E. (full last name not provided) of Slidell, La., the day after the election and has since been electronically signed by a few hundred people, most – but not all – of whom hail from the Pelican State.
“We petition the Obama administration to: Peacefully grant the State of Louisiana to withdraw from the United States of America and create its own NEW government,” the petition reads.
It continues, “As the Founding Fathers of the United States of America made clear in the Declaration of Independence in 1776: ‘When in the Course of human events, it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve the political bands which have connected them with another, and to assume among the powers of the earth, the separate and equal station to which the Laws of Nature and of Nature’s God entitle them, a decent respect to the opinions of mankind requires that they should declare the causes which impel them to the separation.’”
The petition concludes with a further quote from the Declaration of Independence: “‘Governments are instituted among Men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed, that whenever any Form of Government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the Right of the People to alter or abolish it, and institute new Government.’”
The petition has until Dec. 7 of this year to gather 25,000 signatures, at which time, the White House pledges, it will be placed on a queue for response from the administration.

Read the rest here.
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