Oh.....I Broke 200k Page Views.....

Not sure when it happened, but my stats indicate I'm at 201,xxx page views.

Thanks to everybody who drops by to read my drivel!

Russia Electronically Captures US Drone Over Crimea?

If this is true, we're in a serious world of hurt.....

Read all about it here on Breitbart.

Chumlee Is NOT Dead

One my wife's and my 'guilty pleasures' is watching Pawn Stars.

Besides the interesting items they have brought in, the characters in the show are, well, characters.

Sure, it's staged like most "reality" TV shows, but it's fun to watch.

WELL....my wife came running into Radio Central saying she'd read that Chumlee had passed away from a heat attack.

A quick check of Wikipedia shows he's fine, and now the first hit for "Pawn Stars" on Google is a story where he's Tweeting that he's still with us.

This is "news", while they still can't find MH370.......

It's Official.....I'm NOT going On This Launch

Well, my Doctor agrees with me. On the basis of the recent lab tests I had, and my description of the medical facilities we have at sea, and the time it would take to get me to a hospital, he has advised me to sit this one out.

My Triglycerides are way up since my last lab tests, and we're both wondering why. I gained back 6 of the 15 pounds I'd lost. so now I'm going to start keeping a log, and counting calories. My wife has an app on her smartphone called "Lose it", and I'll be installing that tonight.

Other than that, I'm OK......

Shooting Drones With Shotguns

All I have to say is it sure looks like fun!

Here's more on the Gnat R/C airplane used.

Tip 'o the hat to Survival Blog.......

The Weekend Already?

Oh, well....been pretty busy at work getting ready for the next launch.

The customer finished fueling the satellite today (UDMH) after spending Monday and Tuesday putting the oxidizer (NTO) into it. They take a one day break to clean all the equipment, and make sure the lines are purged.

While they were busy doing those tasks, we've been checking out our telemetry equipment, and some other radio links we use to allow the customer to command and monitor their satellite.

Next week things will really start rolling, as once they've completely fueled and checked out their bird, it will get "floated" from the fueling bay to the encapsulation bay where it will get tested again, and then "encapsulated" into the payload fairing, or "Nose Cone" for all the civvies out there. Then we do the final RF testing, and it gets rolled over to the ACS to get mated to the Launch Vehicle.

After some more testing, and a full-on live data flow from end-to-end going through NASA's TDRSS satellites, it gets transferred over to the Launch Platform.

After some more testing, it get rolled out, erected, and a full-on "dry" (unfueled) countdown takes place, usually a very long day. This is when we make our final adjustments, and the customer runs all their pre-flight tests. Except for fueling the Launch Vehicle, and running our RF systems at reduced power, this is the real thing. If anything goes wrong, it has to be fixed before we leave. Things usually go well, but it still winds up being a 12~14 hour day.

The last launch we did with this customer was a real Charlie Foxtrot, as they didn't follow the script we gave them, they took off for dinner without telling us ( ! ), and I wound up being there 18 hours. NOT a fun day!

If all goes well, the platform stands down for a day, and then sets off to the launch site. The command ship follows four days later, and for this one I'll be on the dock wishing them a "Bon Voyage".

I'll be a tiny bit sad not going on this, my "last" launch, but I don't want to take ANY chances with my health. If I were to have another cardiac episode, it would be a MINIMUM of 36 hours before I could be in a hospital, but more likely it would be 72+ hours. I've been on missions where we had some seriously sick people, and I know how long it takes to get somebody to a "Full Service" hospital.

No thanks, but I can do without that particular uncertainty!

Today's Lesson On Irony

From a friend......

Lessons on irony

These three statements tell you a lot about our government and our culture:

1. We are advised to NOT judge ALL Muslims by the actions of a few lunatics, but we are encouraged to judge ALL gun owners by the actions of a few lunatics.  Funny how that works.

And another statement for consideration--

2. We constantly hear about how Social Security is going to run out of money. How come we never hear about welfare running out of money?  What's interesting is the first group "worked for" their money, but the second didn't.

Finally ...

3. The Food Stamp Program, administered by the U.S. Department of Agriculture, is proud to be distributing this year the greatest amount of free Meals and Food Stamps ever --- to 47 million people, as of the most recent figures available in 2013.

Meanwhile...

The National Park Service, administered by the U.S. Department of the Interior, asks us "Please Do Not Feed the Animals. "The stated reason for this policy is because "The animals will grow dependent on handouts and will not learn to take care of themselves."

Thus Ends Today's Lesson On Irony

RAIN!

And lots of it.

Haven't been on the PC much, as I *finally* got the new one I built a while back online as my daily driver, and had to transfer a ton of data from the old one to this one, and then verify everything transferred over correctly.

But holy smokes has it been raining here! We've gotten almost 3" of rain in the last couple of days, and it's pouring again.

The backyard looked like a swamp this morning, but it had pretty much drained out by 10am, but it's filling up again.

The first winter I lived here we got several inches in about 48 hours, and the "drainage" we have couldn't cope with it, and I was seriously considering heading out the Harbor Freight to get a pump. Hasn't been nearly as bad this year, and this last major line of rain should be through here tonight, and the showers will be tapering off through Sunday morning and afternoon.

Pebbles (the dog) heard her first thunder this afternoon, and jumped out of her bed running around to see what made the noise. The next boomer that rolled through startled her pretty good, so I calmed her down, and now she seems used to it.

Hope she'll be OK on July 4th......

"2CELLOSlive".....These Guys Are Amazing

Heard about them tonight on Sirius/XM as I was driving home.

Just amazing stuff.




And if you don't care for cello renditions of Nirvana, here's their own YouTube page.

I Feel A Great Disturbance In The Force

I just found out the Brigid's dog, Barkley, has left us.

Having been through this, please say a little prayer for dear Brigid, and Partner in Grime.

  

 Barkley

July 11, 2003 - February 24, 2014

                             

YAAAAWN........

Didn't get a damn thing done today that I had planned except check my mail, and play with the dog.

The wife was running around all morning, so Pebbles and I played in the back yard off and on for a couple of hours, then it was lunch time, then nap time.

Only my planned 45 minute nap lasted two hours, which means I'm groggy when I wake up, and it takes me another two hours to get going, and then it's dinner time, and I tend to get sleepy after dinner, and well....you know the rest.


Well, actually I did get a few things done. I measured the cabinets in the kitchen, and "inventoried" the number of doors, drawers, hinges, and knobs for future use as we're going to get them refinished soon, and it's nice to be able to tell the contractors what we have, and how much.

And I took the wiring harness apart that connected the "old" Sony headunit to the OEM wiring in the Supra. I bought a set of connectors with leads that fit the Toyota connectors so I can just make a plug-and-play harness, like the one that the Sony had on it.

Only I misplaced the connectors somewhere.......

I figured, what the heck, I already have a set of plugs that fit on the Sony harness, so I'll just make a drawing of what color Toyota wires connect to the Sony wires, and then compare the Sony color code to the color code for the new Alpine CDE-134HD I bought, and then cut the Toyota connectors off the Sony harness, and connect them to the Alpine plug/wire assembly.

The installers who did this job back about 1999~2000 used really cheap electrical tape to bundle everything together, and if you've ever done any wiring, you know what really cheap electrical tape turns into after six months, let alone 14~15 years.

Yep, an ooey-gooey mess!

Took me about half an hour to clean the glop off all the wires before I could even bring it into the house.

Oh well, drawing is made, Toyota plugs cut off, and the new harness is soldered together.

I won't install the new radio until after I finish ripping out the interior, clean it, install the new carpets I ordered, and put it back together partially so I can test everything.

The carpets by the vestigial back "seats" are in good condition, and the carpet in the rear cargo area looks OK, but the front carpet is just completely shot. The clutch master cylinder failed at some time in the past, dumping all the hydraulic fluid inside the car as these cars are prone to do, and the driver's side carpet is permanently stained. The front carpets are also faded badly to the point they're several shades lighter. My wife though we could just clean them up, and maybe redye them, but after I pulled the center console, she could see the difference in the color between where the sun never shone, and where it did, so she agreed that the carpets were shot, and should be replaced.

The new carpet should be here in about two weeks, right about the time we'll in full-blown pre-departure testing for the next launch, which is now scheduled for April 15th.