Saturday Relaxation

Didn't have to work extremely late Friday, only until about midnight. Was balsting along the access road, and when I turned the second-to-the-last corner, I saw the railroad crossing arms coming down in the distance.

RATS!

Wound up sitting there at the crossing for 35 minutes as they moved a train back and forth getting all the cars connected.

They back it down one siding, pull forward past the switch, throw the switch, and then back down another siding to connect more cars, finally getting the rest of their load, and then they pulled out of the yard, past the crossing, and off in to the distance.

Here's a screenshot of the crossing I have to traverse every day. Follow "Nimitz Rd" from the lower right, and towards the top you'll see it turn, and this is where the crossing is. It's a choke point for everything out on the Navy Mole besides us, and can really cause a jam, as it's the ONLY road leading on and off the mole.

The sidings with all the traffic are to the left of Nimitz Road, while the sidings on the right take a different route off Terminal Island, and never impede vehicular traffic.There's been a couple of times in the past (a derailment, and a fatal accident) that kept the crossing blocked for 24 hours, so we had the railroad guys open up one of their access roads for us, so we could get off Terminal Island. It wasn't easy, but we had access.

SO.....I didn't get home until about 0045, which means by the time I get into my jammies, and wind down, I finally got to sleep about 0130.

The Launch Platform is leaving Sunday morning, and the Command ship will be leaving Thursday morning, and I'll be standing on the pier waving to them.

Finally Friday!

Been pretty busy the last few days getting ready for tonight's final testing of the "Integrated Launch Vehicle".

I'll be going in about 1600 to finish training the guy who's going in my place, and supervise him during the test.

The RF portion of the test will start about 2200, although the customer has told us they *might* be ready to go as early as 2000.

If all goes well, I should be able to get out of there at midnight, otherwise it could be a looooong night!

The last time this particular customer was there, they dragged things out, left for dinner without telling anybody, didn't follow the printed schedule we gave them, and in general caused the whole operation to be in Charlie Foxtrot territory all night.

I wound up being there almost 16 hours!

This morning I'm going to go by the Social Security office to ask a few questions about my upcoming retirement, and then I'm going to a farewell lunch for another person who's leaving the company. She's one of the "Export" people who handles a lot of the paperwork, and she'll really be missed.

After this launch, we have NO idea what's going to happen. The launch for fourth quarter of this year isn't going to happen, and the customer the management was in talks with for next year has yet to commit. Considering it takes anywhere from 6 to 12 months to get some of the specialized hardware built, if they don't commit pretty soon, that launch just aint gonna happen.

Several people have told me in private they're going to bail after this launch, which will really out the company in a bad position.

As for me, I'm out of there in August!

Bummer......

Just heard via Tam's blog that my friend Jeffro has passed away.

I always enjoyed corresponding with Jeff about Big Rigs and stuff, as he was a wealth of information, and always willing to patiently answer my Dumb Questions.

God Bless you, my friend, and may you Rest In Peace.

Duracell Battery Problems

Has anybody had problems with the big "24 pack" of Duracell batteries lately?

I bought a pack at Home Depot some months back, and they're pure GARBAGE!

I use them in my LaCrosse digital clock here in the radio room, and they not only go dead in a month, but they LEAK!

I've never had problems with "AA" size Duracells before, and a pair of them used to run this clock for about a year.

And it's not just this clock, either. They don't last more than a month or so in the various remotes we have, and those leaked, too.

I'm beginning to wonder if somebody slipped Home Depot a fast one, and they got stuck with some counterfeit batteries.

Guess I'll have to write Duracell directly, but just wondered if anybody else out here has noticed this.

I've gone back to Energizers in the meantime.......

Busy, Busy!

Besides being busy helping to support the next launch, been putting a big dent in the Honey Dew list.

We bought a new air conditioner for the living room, and after my wife's #1 son helped me install it, I noticed the plug was the "T-Slot" type. Well, it needs a "20 Amp" receptacle, I thought, so I went to the Cheapo Depot, bought one, and swapped it out. ALL the breakers to our 120 Volt outlets are 20 Amp, so changing it was no big deal.

I went to plug the new A/C unit in, and WTF???? The "Tee" was wrong, and wouldn't fit the new outlet!

Then I looked at the GFI that's built into the plug, and realized she'd bought a 240 Volt unit! Then I looked at the part number I gave her, and realized I'D given her the wrong model number to buy!

D'OH!!!!!


Luckily her BFF's son-in-law is an electrician, so for $70 worth of parts, and $160 in labor, he came over with his dad Wednesday night after his normal shift, installed a new outlet, ran new cable, and put a new breaker in our Service Entrance box.

It cools much better than the 10 year old 120 Volt unit we had, and as a bonus, the lights don't dim when it kicks in.

ANYWAY....then I had to spackle the one hole he had to drill behind the baseboard so he could run the cable, nail the baseboard back on.

Toyota Leaving California For Texas

Toyota's been in Torrance for 57 years, and now they've pulled the plug for all the Usual Reasons.

Read the whole story here.

I wonder if when Honda will go, too.......

I'm Out Sick Today

Wife was sick last week, so I blame her.

All congested, headache, achy body, and all I want to do is sleep.

I'm going back to bed......

Glad It's Tursday!

As this has been an exceptionally BORING week at "work".

We have a morning meeting informing us of the progress in getting the launch vehicle back together, and then.........NOTHING.

I've read all of the books I have on the Iowa

I've read every "Hammer Time" post over at The Truth About Cars

I've re-read all of the books I have on the care and feeding of an M1 Garand

Et cetera, et cetera, et cetera.......


And I still have four months until retirement.......


We've heard the ships will be going in to "Cold Layup" at the completion of this launch campaign, although there's a faction fighting to keep the command ship in "Semi-Warm Layup".

And one of the IT guys told me they want to shut down the building where all us payload guys are cubicaled (is that a word?) to save money. The problem is, there's not enough floor space in the building they want to use to house all of us.

I expect a Reduction In Force to occur a few weeks after the ships are back........

Easter Brunch On The Battleship Iowa

Well, my jaw has recovered 90% or better, and no signs of swelling, so the wife and I went down to the Iowa for the Sunday Easter brunch.

The food was catered by the San Pedro Brewing Company, and was typical breakfast fare, with eggs, potatoes, sausage, BACON!, and a lot of other items, and it was quite good.

After eating, we took the self-guided tour again, and saw some of the areas that have been cleaned up and open to the public since we first took the tour before the ship was opened.

And we saw the Plank Owner's wall, with the teak plate inscribed to the memory of my father, who served in the Sea Bees from 1941 through 1945.

One of the really neat things the restoration crews found was in the Officer's Wardroom.

As they were cleaning off some peeling paint, they found a beautiful map, hand painted on the wall, of the South Pacific Theater of War.

It was very similar to the map on Wikipedia, reproduced below, but was painted in differnt colors, and had much more detail.

Since they can't find any photos of this map in their extensive archives, it's still a mystery as to when it was painted, and who painted it.

My wife was very surprised that I could point out all of the places my Dad had been to, and frankly, I was too. He was like a lot of our Veterans, in that once their job was finished, he came home, and didn't care to talk about it much. Sometimes he'd start to talk, and just when it was getting very interesting, and I'd ask some questions, he'd clam up. But seeing that map, with names of places in use at the time, brought the memories flooding back to me.

And we stopped by Turret 2 to see the memorial to the 47 who lost their lives 25 years ago. I didn't make it down there yesterday to help with the "Radio Activities", but at least we got to see the memorial while it's still there.

Back from The Dentist

Well, it wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be, and I learned a ton about how teeth are extracted.

The tooth in question is/was "#31", the last molar on the lower right side. I'd had a filling fall out some years ago, and like a dummy, I just ignored it until it really started to hurt. My own dental insurance had gone away after I was laid-off from Boeing, so I went to the Dentist my wife uses.

He wanted to just pull the tooth, but I figured it wasn't that bad, so I went back to my own Dentist who examined me, said I needed a root canal and a crown, and no, my wife's insurance wouldn't pay for it.

I also got a lecture about what would have been a $250 filling replacement had now turned into a $2200 procedure!

ANYWAY.......that was about 5 years ago, so I guess I got my money's worth out of the crown.

During a previous cleaning they noticed something was odd, but couldn't decide what was going on, so they told me not to worry about it, but to contact them immediately if I had any problems.

WELL...during the cleaning I had a couple of weeks ago, they noticed that the tooth appeared a bit "strange", so they took and X-Ray, and found the front root had separated from the rest of the tooth, and declared the tooth would have to be removed, which we did this morning.

The worst part was getting stuck with the needle (God, I HATE needles!) to numb it out, and the actual extraction and cleanup went very smoothly.

There were NO problems apparent with clotting, despite the fact I'm taking Plavix and an 81mg aspirin per day.

I was in and out in an hour, and then came home and took a bit of a nap.

So far I'm just kind of "generically sore" in the jaw, and taking it easy, as I don't want to interfere with the clotting/healing that's started.

I had planned on attending the Battleship Iowa memorial service tomorrow for the 47 people that lost their lives in the Turret #2 Explosion, and then operate the radio station for the event we're having, but I think I'll pass on it. One of the things the Dentist told me to do was NOT talk a whole lot, and since I operate on Single Sideband, that's kind of hard to do!

Sunday the wife and I will be going to the Easter Brunch on the Iowa, so at least I'll spend a little time there this weekend.

Think I'll head back to the rack for a little while.......

Bundy Ranch Video

Supposedly Facebook is has banned this video.

Several commenters have said they post it, and it just "disappears".




And for those that don't understand why Mr. Bundy refused to pay his "Grazing Fees", here's another rancher's explanation of it all.

All the big city folk that cry and fret about a supposedly endangered desert tortoise, while eating their Big Mac, don't have clue where the beef comes from.


And then there's this story about a planned Fed raid on the Bundy's home.

As much as I'm happy the Feds pulled out (or were pushed out), I certainly don't think this is The End Of The Story.

Bullies have a way of returning, you know......