*Slightly* Sad Today.....

Well, the launch vehicle transfer went smooth today, and since I had a ton of stuff to do, I stayed on the ship. About 1300 they started to move it back to the east side of the pier, and it struck me......

This was probably the last time I'll be on that ship when she moves under her own power.

Since she's tied down to the pier until she leaves Thursday morning, and I'm not going with her, I felt a twinge of sadness.

I've been out on 16 launches, and at a "nominal" 20 days per launch, that's 320 days at sea I spent on her.

Add up the two times we went on sea trials (10 days each), and the four missions that ran to 30 days due to weather, launch aborts, and other delays, and I've spent well over a year at sea on her.


Oh, well, life goes on.........

In The Home Stretch For "My Last Launch"

Been insanely busy the last week running checkouts on our various systems.

I was able to get one of the Linux PC's that runs the weather radar running again by using an external boot device to load a rescue disk in memory so we could run "fsck" on the hard disk and "repair" it. It had been improperly shut down several times, corrupting numerous files, and causing a kernel panic when it tried to load the OS.

And we also finished up 95% of the RF Link testing, and dropped the cable running between the two ships. We use a cable to tie the two systems together for pier testing as we're not allowed to radiate on the system frequencies while in port.

Tomorrow the Launch Vehicle gets transferred to the Platform, and on Saturday they roll out, erect the LV, and run a full-on dry (unfueled) countdown. If all goes well, they put her back in the hangar Sunday morning, and leave Monday morning. The bad thing about Saturday is the satellite people won't be ready to do their RF testing until 2200, so I'll go in about 1800 while there's still plenty of daylight, and train my "replacement" on how to aim some antennas we use, and where all the right knobs and buttons are that he'll have to adjust down at the launch site.

Oh, and I'm working up a whole list of things I just love about this job, and how terribly I'll miss them, but that'll have to wait until August to get published!

Obama and Putin Play Golf

And it turned out like this......

I wonder if he's thinking that Putin's a racist for making him carry Putin's clubs?

Pat Condell on "A Society of Cowards"

I don't always agree with what he says, and I don't subscribe to his religious "beliefs" (non-beliefs?), but he's usually spot on with his commentary.

This one is exceptionally good.

Saturday Morning Music

Really beat after all the running around I did all week at work.

So, while I'm gearing up to attack the Honey Dew list (I swear it gets bigger every day!), and checking my email, I've been listening to this.

I don't care for the man's politics, but he sure can perform.....

Been Pretty Nutso At Work

.......And I'm really bushed.

So, to borrow a phrase I see at other blogs...."Go read the good people on the side bar".

'Night!

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.......