Saturday's AAR

Things went pretty well, but we didn't have any where near the number of Scouts show up that were "predicted".

I'd be surprised if we had more than 200, but I think the weather may have had more to do with it than anything else.

It drizzled and rained a bit driving over to the Iowa, but stopped when I was lugging the last of my gear on to her. Mostly it was cloudy, and started to sprinkle a bit as we were loading the trucks back up.

I had originally planned to operate on FO-29, AO-27, AO-7, and possibly the ISS if they were on-the-air.

It turned out the AO-27 is still being recovered from a system crash, and was non-operational; AO-7 had switched to "Mode A" which meant it was on a 10 Meter (28 MHz) downlink, which I didn't bring an antenna for (DOH!) and so was unusable; and the International Space Station hed their radio operating as a packet radio digipeater, so the was out of the picture, too.

That left ONLY FO-29, and only for two passes.

I was only able to use one of the FO-29 passes we had available, but what a pass!

I made 13 contacts in the 16 minutes the satellite was available, and was able to connect with one of my friends who was doing a satellite demonstration at a Hamfest in Northern Arizona. I knew he was doing the demo, but sure didn't expect to work him!

The next pass of that satellite turned into major fail.

The station next to me had positioned his antenna about 10' from mine. Normally, this shouldn't be a problem, as the frequencies I was operating at were about TEN times as high as his, so we shouldn't bother each other.

WRONG!

Murphy showed up, and whenever he keyed up on 20 Meters (14 MHz), my receiver went nuts, and a couple of other things seemed to flake out, but not too badly. We asked him politely to NOT operate on 20 meters, updated, printed, and posted the Operating Instructions for that station, and did some testing with that station on other bands, and all was good, and I went on to make the 13 contacts just fine.

WELL.....90 minutes later when good old FO-29 came back over, this ding-dong decided to operate on 20 again.

About two minutes into the 14 minute pass, he keys up, and everything on my end went bonkers.

My laptop bluescreened, and my trusty Yaesu FT-847 locked up, something I'd not only never seen, but never even heard of happening.

With the laptop pouring gibberish out of the USB port, the rotor controller freaked out, and started the antennas moving all on their own.

I immediately shut down the rotor controller, turned the radio off, and yelled over at the guy to "Get Off Twenty........NOW!" while rebooting the laptop.

He finished the contact he was having, and then went on to make another!

About this time the event coordinator came over, told the guy to shut down NOW, and didn't he READ the printed instructions clearly showing the times the satellite passes were scheduled for? You know, the sheet printed in BOLD, right next to the clock?

By this time the laptop was back up, but the radio was still hosed even after a power-cycle, so I dove into the menu and did a Master Reset to it.

Since the radio is completely under control of the laptop, doing a Master Reset was more an annoyance, as I didn't have any frequencies or other things stored in it, but it took about a minute to find the menu setting, and execute it.

By the time I got everything back online, there was only a few minutes left in the pass, and the only guy I worked was one who I'd worked before, and wondered what had happened when my station quit in the middle of a "CQ FO-29". He said there were people asking where I was, so I explained what had happened, and he said he understood. He then asked me how much weight we tied to the guy before we dumped him overboard.

I don't know how many contacts the other stations made, as I was too busy explaining all kinds of things about satellites to the various Scouts (and their parents) that came by, and doing an interview for a scouting magazine.

Still, for an inaugural event I think we did pretty well. The rain held off until we were finished loading up after the event, and the Scouts had a good time. Multiple Radio Merit Badge classes were offered and were FULL at each sitting, and a whole lot of Scouts will be adding another badge to their sash.

There was also a very large group of young people dressed in BDU/ACU or whatever they're calling it these days, but I didn't get a chance to ask if they were Sea Scouts or the local group of Young Marines who I've seen many times at Fort MacArthur in San Pedro.

The most heartening thing I saw all weekend were the Scouts. Every single one of them was polite, asked good questions, listened attentively, and had excellent attitudes.

Maybe there's hope for us yet......
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Equipment Loaded, and We're Go for JOTA!

GROAN.....Five trips up the aft "brow" today lugging my complete "portable" satellite station on to the IOWA.

 The radio and support equipment are stored in one of the ship's secure areas, and the tower and antennas shown in the picture, and the generator, we're lugged up there today and stowed by the #3 turret.

No, we won't be using the tent, and the handsome young guy in the photo (my son the EMT) won't be there as he has to work his "day job".

So, at a little past O-Dark-Thitry I'll be trundling down there with the last few bits and pieces (laptop, 3G/WiFi Mobile Hot Spot) and start setting up.

I had been told we were expecting between 300 and 500 Scouts, but the Scoutmaster in charge of the event, who helped my tote everything down there, has raised his count to almost 1000 based on the inquiries he's been receiving.

ONE THOUSAND Boy Scouts............WoW!

I just hope we do a proper job introducing them to Amateur Radio. God knows we need new blood in the hobby!

73, drjim

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Gonna Be Busy On Friday

The good folks who take care of the USS IOWA have agreed to let us prestage our equipment for the BSA JOTA event on Saturday.

So, Friday afternoon I'll be lugging my semi-portable satellite antennas and radio gear down to the IOWA. One of my friends has graciously offered to come by Radio Central here and help me load the big stuff into his truck, and then bring it all back Saturday afternoon.

We're expecting about FIVE HUNDRED Boy Scouts, plus their family and friends to swing by. Besides activating the IOWA with her new callsign for the first time, we're also going to tray and connect with the MISSOURI, WISCONSIN, and NEW JERSEY on the HF ("shortwave") radio frequencies.

This will be the first time ever that all four IOWA-class ships are on-the-air on Amateur Radio frequencies at the same time.

UPDATE

Just got an email that the Wisconsin won't be able to be an-the-air with us as they don't quite have their Radio Room space finished.

They're going to be on-the-air the weekend of the 7th to 9th of December for the anniversary of Pearl Harbor.

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Hey, Kids! Turn In Your Mom And Dad And Win Valuable Prizes!

This is downright freakin' scary!

Federal Government Graduates First Class Of Homeland Youths

Wonder if they'll be wearing brown shirts, or black?
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You Know You're an 0bama Voter If....

Yep, here's another one, courtesy of GrassTopsUSA.

Gee....I wonder how many more I can post in the (less than!) three weeks remaining??

• You know you’re an Obama voter if you think our dismal economy is all the fault of George W. Bush, who left office 45 months ago, and whose average unemployment rate was 6.3% – almost 2 points lower than under his whiz-kid successor. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think lack of adequate regulation is responsible for the home-mortgage meltdown of 2008, rather than a Democratic Congress that (in the name of fairness) made banks to give sub-prime mortgages to unqualified lenders. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the Muslim Brotherhood is a fraternal order. Their initiation rite is killer. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you believe Joe Biden’s claim that the intelligence community initially told the administration that our Benghazi consulate was attacked by a spontaneous mob – a spontaneous mob of al-Qaeda fighters armed with AK-47s, rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and gun trucks. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the president has done a consummate job of keeping Iran from getting nuclear weapons – by enacting more sanctions (which have never worked before), working with our “allies” China and Russia and refusing to draw a red line which would elicit military action against Tehran-- while the mullahs spent the last four years developing fissile material. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Barack Hussein has “got Israel’s back.” By having Israel’s back, the president means sending hundreds of millions of dollars to Palestinians committed to Israel’s annihilation, seeking to dictate Israel’s future borders (so as to make the Jewish state impossible to defend), helping the Muslim Brotherhood come to power in Egypt, and telling the former president of France how much he hates Israeli Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu. • You know you’re an Obama voter if, like your candidate, you think the Israeli “occupation” of Israel is the principal cause of turmoil in the Middle East, and that, before Israel’s rebirth in 1948, from time immemorial the region looked like Woodstock. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Islam really is the religion of peace – and that al-Qaeda, Hamas, Hezbollah, the Muslim Brotherhood, the Taliban, Ahmadinejad, the scholars of Cairo’s Al-Azhar University and the imam of Mecca’s Grand Mosque don’t understand their own religion. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the Ft. Hood massacre (where 13 of our soldiers were murdered in cold blood by a Koran-spouting jihadist) was “workplace related violence.” • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think it doesn’t matter that this president skips more than half of his daily intelligence briefings. After all, he reads the reports at night – or on the golf course. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the “undocumented workers” streaming across our southern border (thanks to the president’s non-deportation order) are all hard-working family folk, eager to learn English and assimilate – with nary a hardcore criminal, gang member, grifter or terrorist among them. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Joe Biden is clever and witty, not to mention polite and respectful. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Michelle is hot and Hillary belongs on the cover of the next Sports Illustrated swimsuit issue. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the oil companies, the Arab Spring or hurricanes in the Gulf states are responsible for prices at the pump more than doubling since January 19, 2009, rather than this administration’s insane environmental policies and war on energy development. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you believe that green energy is our salvation – with a wee bit of help from the unicorns, the fairies and the little people. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think drastically limiting off-shore drilling, closing coal-fired energy plants, nixing U.S. participation in the Keystone Pipeline and extreme environmental regulations will make us less dependent on foreign oil. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the GM bailout is a shining success. At a cost of $50 billion to taxpayers, the president saved $56-an hour union jobs, while screwing bondholders and giving Washington 26.5% share of the auto giant. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think “gay marriage” strengthens the family. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you don’t care that the voters of 32 states have overwhelmingly rejected this absurdity by passing defense of marriage amendments. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Obama and Biden care about the middle class – instead of looking at them the way Dracula views a blood bank. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think raising tax rates on businesses, in the weakest economic recovery in history, won’t devastate job creation. • You know you’re an Obama voter if, like your candidate, you think the question of when life begins is “above your pay-grade” – that you can’t tell if an unborn child with a heartbeat and brainwaves and fingers and toes is human. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think opposition to the incumbent is motivated primarily by racism. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think that Barack Obama – who was raised by his white grandparents, spent his childhood in Indonesia and Hawaii and went on to Columbia and Harvard – was immersed in the black experience. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Republicans want to put black people “back in chains.” That includes Allen West, Clarence Thomas, Star Parker and Thomas Sowell. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the man who sat in a pew in Rev. Jeremiah Wright’s Church of God Damn America for 19 years never heard anything in the least controversial – that anti-American, anti-white and anti-Israel sermons were reserved for those occasions when the future president was absent. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Mitt Romney is a liar – but Obama has told the God’s-honest truth about responsibility for the deaths of our ambassador and three other Americans in Libya, getting the unemployment rate under 7% if we passed his $832-billion stimulus bill, cutting the deficit in half in his first term, his Justice Department having no knowledge of Fast and Furious (the ATF’s gunrunning-to-Mexican-drug-lords operation) prior to February 2011 and that he’d never dream of raising taxes on the middle class. The Supreme Court says the “penalties” under Obamacare are a tax – on guess who? • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the president is upholding the Constitution – by interim appointments while Congress is still in session, governing by executive order, refusing to defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, sending troops to Libya without Congressional approval and not prosecuting the New Black Panther Party for a blatant case of voter intimidation in 2008. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think your candidate’s 2008 resume – law professor, community organizer, Chicago politician, less than two years in the U.S. Senate – trumps Romney’s as a job-creator (Sports Authority, Staples, Domino’s Pizza, etc.) • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Romney would get a kick out of firing Bob Cratchit on Christmas Eve, while stealing Tiny Tim’s crutches and muttering “Bah humbug!” • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think opposition to requiring Catholic institutions to provide birth control through their health insurance plans (in violation of Catholic teaching), constitutes a Republican War on Women. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Joe Biden, Nancy Pelosi and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius are Catholics. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you believe that Ann Romney – who raised five sons while running a household, doing charitable work and battling MS – “never worked a day in her life,” unlike Michelle Antoinette who earned a six-figure salary for serving as “vice president of community relations” for the University of Chicago Medical Center and vacations at five-star resorts on the Spanish Riviera. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you’re blithely unconcerned about your candidate’s past associations with (communist) Frank Marshall Davis, (revolutionary communist) Bill Ayers and (Islamist) Rashid Khalidi. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think complaints about the president increasing the National Debt by $5.4 trillion (almost 50%) in less than four years is a Republican campaign gimmick to divert attention from Obama’s economic achievements – like increasing the food stamp rolls to 47 million (50%) since he took office and raising federal spending from 20.2% to 23% of GDP. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think we can provide health insurance to 10 million currently uninsured – without a plan to add a single new doctor – it won’t cost taxpayers a cent and there won’t be rationing of services. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you’re thrilled at the prospect of turning the best health care system in the world over to the same people who bankrupted Social Security and Medicare. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you don’t care that under this administration we’ll soon have a navy that can float in a bathtub and an army that can maneuver in a broom closet. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think your candidate will be carried to victory by the Big Bird vote – like fans of Public Broadcasting would ever vote Republican, without a gun to their heads. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you’re skeptical about putting God in your party’s platform because it excludes atheists, agnostics, animists and most of the president’s appointees. • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think Islam is a civilizing force that’s enlightened in its treatment of women and minorities, but Christianity is repressive, patriarchal and a threat to liberty and democracy. • You know you're an Obama voter if you think "American exceptionalism" is a ploy devised by Newt Gingrich to stigmatize people who don't think America is exceptional. Just because we have a Constitution that's been a model for emerging nations for over 200 years, we built the greatest economic engine in the world, we created a unique society, and we saved humanity from the horrors of Nazism and communism in the 20th century -- what's so special about that? • You know you’re an Obama voter if you think the Occupy Wall Street movement is composed of idealistic, humanitarian reformers but the Tea Parties are a gang of race-baiting, neo-fascist thugs.

         You know you’re an Obama voter if you think pigs have their own air force, the moon is made of green-energy cheese and, while standing in a torrential downpour, you wonder why you’re soaked to the skin.

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Reasons You're An Idiot If You Don't Vote For Romney

Yeah, he wasn't my first choice, either, but I will admit I voted for him in the primary in 2008.

I think McCain is a bona-fide War Hero, but just not Presidential material.

Do you want . . .

• A president who has us on the road to serfdom?
• A president who advocates higher taxes? Wealth redistribution, less freedom and less opportunity?
• A president coated in Teflon who freely gets away as an accomplice to the murdering of innocent Americans?
• A president who circumvents the constitution, but bows to Saudi kings?
• A president who nationalizes sectors of our free market economy and single handedly picks winners and losers?
• A president who forces you to buy goods and services you don’t want and then fines you for not following his orders?
• A president who is systematically bankrupting our country while giving away tens of billions of dollars to our enemies abroad?
• A president who, for the first time in American history, is robbing your children and grand children of the same freedoms, opportunities and dreams that were handed down to you and me?
• A president who does not believe in the supremacy and exceptionalism of the United States of America?
• A president who despises our military so much that he jeopardizes our national security by cutting their budget in half?
• A president who is about to foist the single biggest tax increase on the American people in the 237-year history of our country come January 1st?
• A president whose political ideology takes delight in a record 47 million Americans now on food stamps?
• A president who invests tens of billions of dollars in failing green companies that are headed by some of his biggest campaign donors?
• A president who refuses to approve a desperately needed oil pipeline that would help put many Americans to work while decreasing our dependence on foreign oil?
• A president who usurps the Constitution, ignores the separation of powers, thumbs his nose at congress and issues executive orders with impunity?
• A president with deeply rooted ties to domestic terrorists and radical Muslims and Marxists?
• A president whose upbringing was heavily influenced by radical Communists and Socialists?
• A president who appoints members of the radical Muslim Brotherhood to his cabinet?
• A president who shuns the leader of Israel, our only democratic ally in the Middle East, in favor of appearances on celebrity T.V. talk shows?
• A president who makes back door deals with leaders of Communist countries conditioned upon his reelection?

Shamelessly borrowed from Catch Kevin.
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3 Weeks Until Election **REMEMBER IN NOVEMBER**

Not sure if these are real, as they came in an email, but they sure should be!

This just might very well be our last chance to turn the Ship of State around, or least get the course changed enough that we won't crash into the rocks near the shore...
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Uh-Oh....I May Have To Go To "Plan C"

WELL.....got everything assembled and apparently working, until I tried to transmit. I'm having a horrible case of receiver "desense", which basically means that my local transmit signal is hammering my own receiver. This results in the complete overwhelming of the receiver, and I can't hear my signal coming back from the satellite. I can hear other users just fine, but when I transmit, all I hear is a distorted version of my own uplink.

I had this problem when I first got started many years ago, and followed the hard won wisdom of all those who've gone before me. Namely, ADD SOME FILTERS.

I have a filter on the UHF side which only passes signals from about 380 MHz to 500 Mhz, and another one on the VHF side which only passes signals from 144 MHz to 148 Mhz. These are basically used to keep any 145 MHz fundamental from getting into the UHF side, and to keep any 3rd harmonic from the VHF side from getting out of the transmitter.

The UHF filter is ahead of the preamp, which has it's own helical filters inside, and the VHF filter is connected directly to the output of the transmitter.

Up until now, it's worked "As Advertised", and I haven't had this problem since I started using them.

SO......I either have something connected wrong, or the antenna I'm using isn't real happy with the way the coax runs to it. The antenna I'm trying to use (and it's worked fine before) has the VHF and UHF elements on the same boom, mounted at 90* relative to each other to minimize and cross-coupling. Sometimes the way you run the coax can have unpleasant results, but I don't have the time to troubleshoot a rather arcane problem like that.

Tomorrow I'm going to tip the tower back over, and reinstall the two separate antennas I use for Field Day, on the long cross-boom, check ALL the cabling again, and give it another go.

I *know* that set up works, and I've been using it for several years now, both at Field Day, and here at home.

The big problem with transporting all this stuff down to the IOWA is I'd have to rent a trailer. Fortunately one of the guys who's helping with the event has a full-size pick-up, and he'll swing by here Friday morning to load it up and take it down there.

Hmmmm.....Sure Am Glad I have A "Plan B"!

WELL.......the "Port-A-Sat MK-III" antenna mount was a complete failure.

When I was was playing with it yesterday, I though ut felt a bit sloppy, but didn't think too much about it. I figured the Azimuth rotor was worn, and that's where the slop was that I felt.

When my stepson was helping me extend the legs today, he noticed part of the hub where the legs go into was cracked...?!? I took a close look at it, and sure enough, the thin-section aluminum casting on the top of the legs was split in a couple of places.

After muttering a few choice words, having a soda and cooling down a bit, I decided that since this type of tripod was never meant for loads like this, it would be a mistake to get another one, and I should probably just go ahead and transfer the smaller antenna, shorter cross-boom, and the preamps over to the 9' tower I use here and for Field Day.

I took the antenna off, and as I was moving it over out of the way.....WHAMMO!......the whole shebang fell apart and smacked into the driveway.

I'm glad I was a few feet away when it "rapidly disassembled" itself.

Turns out that the legs had failed at the top, and it just toppled over after the weight of the antenna was removed from one side.

I only paid about $25 for the tripod, but had 20 or 30 hours wrapped up in it making the adapter plate for the Azimuth rotor, new cables, calibrating the rotors, and chasing down parts for it.

Oh, well.......sure glad I have a Plan B to fall back on!

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Going Shooting on Sunday

Hah! Bet that got your attention.

Actually, I'll be shooting some RF up at the Amateur Radio Satellites as I test out my "Port-A-Sat MK-III" antenna system.

This is the one I built using a surveyor's tripod, a used (very used!) Azimuth/Elevation rotator I bought from a friend, an AMSAT "LVB Tracker" interface that I bought several years ago, and just now got around to testing, and a "Dual-Band Easy Satellite" antenna from Gulf Alpha antennas. The rotator interface is one of the original "LVB" trackers designed by Howard, G6LVB. I always get a lot of "static" from other members of the Amateur radio satellite community about using a "cheap knock-off" of Howard's design, even though he published all the specs, designs, and printed circuit foil patterns and files. The one I've been using is a clone of it kitted up and sold by a really nice Ham in India.

Seeing as I'll be seen by LOTS of people next weekend, I figured I'd use the "authorized version", and avoid any PR flack.

I spent today getting the last bits and pieces arranged, making some cables, and testing/calibrating the interface box and the two rotators.

So far, so good, BUT the surveyor's tripod has spikes instead of feet, which makes it pretty dicey to use on hard surfaces. I'm going to make some blocks out of a 2x4, and bore a hole about half-way through for the spikes to rest in. I've got some 1/2" thick, adhesive backed rubber sheet that I'll glue to the bottom, and hopefully that should give me some traction on the deck of the IOWA next week.

It's one thing to have "Technical Difficulties" in front of a crowd, but having the tripod legs go scooting in different directions resulting in the whole thing crashing down is a bit of an embarrassment I'd rather not endure.

Once I have it aligned North, and level, I'll run some paracord between all three legs to keep them from separating.
, and doing a "split"

I'll try and post a few pix on Sunday.

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Political Quotations

    "If you put the Federal Government in charge of the Sahara Desert, in five years there would be a shortage of sand.” — Milton Friedman

    “I need a job. My family can’t eat healthcare.”

    “Romney can tell us when he left Bain Capital when Obama tells us when he left Kenya.”

    “Let’s not look backwards and look at Obama’s past. Instead, let’s look backwards and dwell on Romney’s past.”

    “He that is good at making excuses is seldom good for anything else.” —Benjamin Franklin

    “Socialism is the philosophy of failure, the creed of ignorance, and the gospel of envy. Its inherent virtue is the equal sharing of misery.” —Winston Churchill

    “INTAXICATION:  The nice feeling you receive a tax refund until you realize it was your own money in the first place.”

    “Romney supporters sign their checks on the front while Obama supporters sign their checks on the back.”

    “If you can afford beer, wine, drugs, cigarettes, manicures, and tattoos, you don’t need food stamps or welfare.

    “We should measure the success of government programs by how many people leave them not how many people are added to them.”

    “When the government fears the people, there is freedom. When the people fear the government, there is tyranny.” — Thomas Jefferson

    “If someone is so fearful that they are going to start using their weapons to protect their rights, it makes me very nervous that these people have any weapons  at all!” — Democrat Congressman Henry A. Waxman (California).

And one of my favorites.:

"If you think it's time to start burying your guns......then it's probably

time to start digging them up".

I tried to find out who first said that one, but the best reference I could find was here. 

I thought it was Claire Wolfe, but it looks like Tam said it first.

You go, girl!

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The Second Amendment Is NOT About Duck Hunting!

Shamelessly stolen from wirecutter (thanks, Ken!)!

1941 Chevrolet Pick-Up Truck

Had to get my Jeep smogged last week, and while I was there, I spotted this 1941 Chevy Pick-Up truck in the lot.

REALLY sweet! The paint was the best I've seen in years, and EVERY nut and bolt was either chromed, or polished stainless.

The guys at the shop said it had a 350 in it with a Turbo-Hydramatic.

Dividing a Circle Into Thirds, Without a Protractor

One of the things I'm doing in preparation for the JOTA event on the USS IOWA, is (finally!) building up my new "more portable" antenna mount for my satellite antenna.

I started with a 5' surveyor's tripod I got really cheep on eBay. I have numerous "spare" Yaesu Azimuth/Elevation rotators and control boxes, so I figured I could mount one of my spares to the tripod with an adapter plate.

I bought some good 6061 1/4" thick aluminum sheet, and proceeded to cut out a 6"x6" square. I marked it, and using a set of trammels, laid out a circle the same diameter as the bolt circle for the Azimuth motor. Then I drilled and countersunk some holes to bolt it to the motor with flat-head machine screws.

Now the task was to mount the plate to the tripod, and there was the snag I hit.

The top of the tripod is triangular, and where the legs mount to it there's a lack of space on the underside of the plate to use four mounting screws. So, I decided I'd use three screws instead, and they'd have plenty of room between where the legs meet the top of the tripod.

The problem was, how do I lay out 3 equally spaced holes on the correct 3" diameter circle I just scribed using my trammels?

I remember from way back in high-school geometry (or was it trig?) that dividing a circle into thirds was a very complex, tricky task, and you were better off to just get a protractor, and lay out your marks every 120*.

A quick Google search found this very ingenious method of equally dividing a circle into three sections, WITHOUT the use of a protractor.
I was so amazed that I thought I'd share it with my friends here, in case any of you are metal cutters like I am, or perhaps woodworkers.

Enjoy the little video. I found it quite amazing!



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ARRRRGH!......Garbage Disposal Blew!!

WELL.....I was right in the middle of machining some adapter plates out in the garage when my wife walks in.

"You're NOT going to want to hear this.........."

There was a massive water leak under the sink, and since I put a nice new faucet assembly on it a couple of weeks ago, I immediately thought the worst.

Turns out the water was POURING out of the circuit breaker ( !! ) button on the garbage disposal!

And the breaker hadn't tripped, and the panel breaker hadn't tripped......

I unplugged it, and off we went to Home Depot.

I looked up the specs on the "Badger 100" that was in there, and found out of ALL the reviews listed, the HIGHEST review was a "2".

Her oldest son had installed it about three years ago, and all the reviews said you were lucky if you got TWO years out of it. It's been jamming a lot lately, and tripping the breaker once in a while, so I guess the "extra" year we got out of it was just luck.

Now in the process of installing the new one, and just about finished, but had to take a break. I'm not as young as I used to be (who isn't?), and working on my back, under the sink, has a tendency to put kinks in me.

The replacement we bought got 12 "5 Star" reviews, so I'm hoping replacing a $79/ 1 year warranty disposer with a $180/ FIVE YEAR warranty model will be worth the money and effort.

It's pretty cheap of them to NOT include a $3 power cord, so I'm going to reuse the old cord.

And the conduit fitting.

And the wire nuts.


****UPDATE****

It's all connected, no leaks, and works as expected.

It's very quiet, and seems like it could grind up small branches. Everything we've put in so it so far just disappears with a 'whoosh'. This one is a two-stage grinder, which is supposedly "Better for the Environment".

Now while I'm by no means a "greenie", we do some commons sense stuff like separate the plastic bottles and aluminum cans, flatten them, and take them to a place that buys them for more than the CRV.

Since we have two trash containers here in Long Beach, one for regular garbage, and one for 'Recylables', I wonder how long before The Gubmint will demand we turn our valuable trash over to them instead of selling it ourselves.

Back to the disposal.....This "Better for the Environment" pap is proudly printed on the box, showing a "Circle of Political Correctness", printed in GREEN, showing food being put down the disposer, going to a Sewage Treatment Plant, then a picture of a tractor, and finally a picture of an apple, all proudly printed in GREEN, with a "vegetable based soy ink", the idea being that since this unit grinds the waste to smaller particles, it's easier to process in the STP, making for better fertilizer, which grows pretty green apples, and all is wonderful in the world.

Having worked in many Sewage Treatment Plants in a former career as an Industrial Controls Field Service Engineer, I can safely tell you that the size of the food particles coming out of your kitchen disposal has absolutely NO effect on the efficiency of the treatment palnt.

NONE.

You could practically stuff a whole cow through one of these plants and it would reduce it down to sludge.

I'll admit that smaller bits going into a home septic system is probably a Good Thing, but to an industiral-scale treament plant? HAH!

And somebody at Insinkerator probably got a nice bonus for putting this crap on the package.

Oh, well......at least the new disposer works very well, and it's extremely quiet.


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Busy This Weekend

So I probably won't be posting much.

Saturday morning I have my monthly radio club breakfast, and then we're giving a Commercial Radio License Exam, and then I have to go over to the USS IOWA and turn in my paperwork, and get badged.

JOTA (Jamboree On The Air) for the Boy Scouts for our area is going to be held onboard the IOWA on October 20th, and since I'm running the satellite station, I have to finish my paperwork to be a volunteer.

Which means I have about 12 days to finish building my new "portable" satellite antenna system, get it tested, and round up all the gear I'd normally take out on Field Day.

The last of the parts I needed came in this afternoon, so I can begin in earnest Saturday afternoon. I've got most of the small sub-assemblies, cables, mounting plates, etc, all made, but I still have to bolt everything together and see how it plays.

Should be an interesting two weeks.....

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Yes, I Watched/Listened To The "Debate"

I didn't quite get the impression that Romney "mopped the floor" with 0Bama, but I did get the impression that he came across as intelligent, sincere, and full of energy.

I particularly liked the part where 0Bama was crying about the 2.8 billion "Tax Breaks" being given to the oil companies. Romney countered with it was mostly an accounting method, and came slamming back with the 100 billion 0Bama had spent on "Green Energy", and he proceeded to name the companies 0Bama has bestowed all this wealth redistribution upon, and commented that in one term, he spent FIFTY TIMES  that amount on failed "Green Energy" programs.

 “You don’t just pick the winners and losers. You pick the losers.”

I think that will go down in history as the entire 0Bama policy.

Brietbart has an excellent review of the debate.

Be sure to read the comments. Some of them are hilarious.

"The new tingle Matthews has is urine running down his leg from peeing his pants."

" And we all know that if Obama did nothing more than belch and drool all over the mic for the entire debate the alphabet media would still say Obama won big."

" Does anyone have one of those 23 million jobs the president created?"



It should be very interesting to watch the Ryan/Biden spectacle.

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Sail On, Sailor

Another one of my Beach Boys favorites.

From their album "Holland".

I sailed an ocean, unsettled ocean
Through restful waters and deep commotion
Often frightened, unenlightened
Sail on, sail on sailor

I wrest the waters, fight Neptune's waters
Sail through the sorrows of life's marauders
Unrepenting, often empty
Sail on, sail on sailor

Caught like a sewer rat alone but I sail
Bought like a crust of bread, but oh do I wail

Seldom stumble, never crumble
Try to tumble, life's a rumble
Feel the stinging I've been given
Never ending, unrelenting
Heartbreak searing, always fearing
Never caring, persevering
Sail on, sail on, sailor

I work the seaways, the gale-swept seaways
Past shipwrecked daughters of wicked waters
Uninspired, drenched and tired
Wail on, wail on, sailor

Always needing, even bleeding
Never feeding all my feelings
Damn the thunder, must I blunder
There's no wonder all I'm under
Stop the crying and the lying
And the sighing and my dying

Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor
Sail on, sail on sailor

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Endeavour's Final "Flight".

Courtesy of NASA Dryden Flight Research Center/



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Verizon Email Down

SO.....I won't be getting any notifications when somebody replies to my scribblings.

Looks like it's nation wide, too.

Oh, well....we've had FiOS for several years now, and been quite satisfied.

Guess I can cut them a little slack when the system craps out once in a (great) while!

Bill Whittle Does It Again

H/T to Silicon Graybeard and The Smallest Minority.

0bama Tells Defense Contractors NOT to Issue Layoff Notices Over Sequestration

Seeing as most of the employees who work for defense contractors hate 0bama's guts, getting the contractors to NOT issue the legally required notices is just more smoke and mirrors from this most transparent administration in history.

Seeing as the notices would be mailed to the employees before the November elections, I guess Chairman MaoBama figures he can pull the wool/blow the smoke, and con the people into not knowing what's going on.

Article below is from The Hill:


The Obama administration issued new guidance intended for defense contractors Friday afternoon, reiterating the administration’s position that the companies should not be issuing layoff notices over sequestration.
The Labor Department issued guidance in July saying it would be “inappropriate” for contractors to issue notices of potential layoffs tied to sequestration cuts. But a few contractors, most notably Lockheed Martin, said they still were considering whether to issue the notices — which would be sent out just days before the November election.
But the Friday guidance from the Office of Management and Budget raised the stakes in the dispute, telling contractors that they would be compensated for legal costs if layoffs occur due to contract cancellations under sequestration — but only if the contractors follow the Labor guidance.
The guidance said that if plant closings or mass layoffs occur under sequestration, then “employee compensation costs for [Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification] WARN act liability as determined by a court” would be paid for covered by the contracting federal agency.

Senate Republicans, who accused the White House of trying to hide job losses after the first guidance, said Friday that the new OMB statement “puts politics ahead of American workers.” “The Obama Administration is cynically trying to skirt the WARN Act to keep the American people in the dark about this looming national security and fiscal crisis,” Sens. John McCain (R-Ariz.), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) and Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) said in a statement. “The president should insist that companies act in accordance with the clearly stated law and move forward with the layoff notices.”
The fight over WARN Act notices began in June when Lockheed Martin CEO Bob Stevens said his company might send the notices to all 123,000 of its employees.

Some companies were hesitant to follow Lockheed, but several others told McCain in letters earlier this month they might send the notices, too, despite the Labor Department guidance.

But the new guidance would appear to address one of the chief concerns from the companies — that they could be liable to compensate employees who were laid off if the companies don’t issue the notices.

The GOP senators complained, however, that this tactic would push the cost of the layoffs onto taxpayers.

A Lockheed Martin spokeswoman told The Hill that the company is still reviewing the documents.

And there's another related article here.

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X-Files Humor

My son just sent me this.
We're still of the opinion the "The X-Files" was one of the better TV programs ever made.

Another Reason To Dump AARP, As If You Need One More

I had been a member up until they supported Obamacare, against the wishes of almost all of their membership.

I immediately tore up my card, and sent it back to them cancelling my membership, and joined AMAC, the Association of Mature American Citizens.

I figured AARP must have had some "internal" reason to so strongly support this POS legislation, and now I know why.
They license out their name to independent companies selling "Medigap" insurance, and collect a 4.95% "royalty". This "royalty" brings them in a huge chunk of money, and like most things these days, It's All About The Benjamins.

Please go read the article here on the Political Outcast site. It's very interesting.

Feel Flows

No reason for posting this, other than the fact between this and "Surf's Up", they're my two favorite Beach Boys songs from their later works.

I guess I "grew up" at the right time as far as listening to the Beach Boys, and almost all of their songs have some sort of "meaning" to me, from the surfing/hot rod days, to their more introspective, exploratory music.

We were a different country then, full of *real* hope and promise, on our way to the Moon, and soon everybody would have a flying car, and a newfangled thing called a "Microwave Oven" that would cook your food in just seconds.

We all knew what was "Right", and what was "Wrong", and we had yet to lose our innocence in that quagmire of a far away place with a funny name. Viet Nam, I think it was called......

Every young man's dream was to cruise around in his Hot Rod, be the King of the Street, and pick up the coolest chicks.

Of course, we weren't really sure what we'd do with them once we picked them up, but then I guess the thrill of the chase is what motivated us.

Solid-lifter cams thumping away, the bark of the tires against the street when you slammed into second gear, and the smell of a slightly rich Holley carb sucking real 100 Octane fuel @ 35 cents a gallon, and exhaling it out through Hooker Headers, 2-1/2" pipes, and Chrysler Street Hemi mufflers, the hot setup for street-legal exhaust.

Catalytic converter?? Oh, yeah, my older brother works at the Texaco refinery, and I think he says that's what they use to "crack" the molecules and remake them into High-Octane Gasoline.


Almost makes me want to whisper "Rosebud"........


Whatever........enjoy!





Unfolding enveloping missiles of soul
Recall senses sadly
Mirage like soft blue like lanterns below
To light the way gladly
Whether whistling heaven's clouds disappear
Where the wind withers memory
Whether whiteness whisks soft shadows away
Feel flows (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel goes (Black hot glistening shadowy flows)

Unbending never ending tablets of time
Record all the yearning
Unfearing all appearing message divine
Eases the burning
Whether willing witness waits at my mind
Whether hope dampens memory
Whether wondrous will stands tall at my side
Feel flows (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel goes (Black hot glistening shadowy flows)

Encasing all embracing wreath of repose
Engulfs all the senses
Imposing, unclosing thoughts that compose
Retire the fences
Whether wholly heartened life fades away
Whether harps heal the memory
Whether wholly heartened life fades away
Whether wondrous will stands tall at my side
Whether whiteness whisks soft shadows away
Feel goes (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel flows (Black hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feel goes (White hot glistening shadowy flows)
Feelings to grow (White hot glistening shadowy flows)

White hot glistening shadowy flows
White hot glistening shadowy flows
White hot glistening shadowy flows

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Pledge Allegiance To WHO?

Just read this article over at Political Outcast.

I'm much more inclined to do this:

Thanks to Mike over at Sipsey Street for posting the cartoon.

At least people won't riot in the streets and burn buildings in the USA for posting "Politically Offensive" catoons.

Or will they......

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Training New Shooters

I received an email yesterday from another NRA Instructor friend of mine asking if I could help him this morning at an NRA "First Steps" pistol course.

Of course I said yes!

Normally he limits the size of his classes to 10 people, *maybe* 12,but hes been so swamped with applicants, and he knows numerous other instructors, that he decided to increase his class size as long as he can get some of us "other" instructors to help.

We had 18 people today, and after he ran the classroom section, out we went to the range.

The other instructor and I had (somewhat) prepped the 5 lanes he reserved, having stacks of targets ready, plenty of empty magazines and ammo, and a table set up to use in between rounds.

We started the students off with just plain old 8-1/2x11 sheets of paper to see where they were getting hits, and correcting them as necessary.

We had the usual issues with new shooters; poor grip, poor stance, poor sight picture, which all resulted in them not being able to consistently hit the piece of paper. Most of them were too "aggressive" in their stance, with their feet too far apart both side-to-side, and front-to-rear, or leaning back, rather than forward, so we worked on that first. Then we made sure they understood proper grip, and reminded them of what a proper sight picture was.

Everybody got two magazines (20 rounds) on blank paper, and when we were satisfied they understood what they were doing, we moved on to "real" targets.

We let them fire another 20 rounds at the targets, had a question/answer break, and went back to another round of targets to see how they were doing.

For the Grand Finale, they got one target, and one magazine, and shot for "score".

It was amazing to see them improve from the blank paper to the targets, and improve again after the break.

We were using Ruger "Mark II" pistols, a nice little 22LR semiautomatic that's fairly easy to shoot, especially after you add a few dabs of white paint to the all-black sights!

All of the students did very well, and their range safety discipline was excellent, and was better than I've seen in some of the advanced classes I've taken.

After the range session, we went back in the classroom, and handed out their NRA cards, patches, and certificates, and had another Q & A session.

They ALL wanted to know when the next, slightly more advanced, classes would be held, how could they join the NRA, and asked a bunch of questions about going to the range, buying their own guns, and how to store and transport them safely.

The student ranged from 19 years old, to 70 years old, and all in between. The youngest and oldest were a grandmother and her grandson, and the "Best Shot" in the class was a 50 year old woman whose husband is an LAPD officer.

All in all it was a very fine day, even though the class ran over 45 minutes.

It's great to see young and old people show up for these classes, and doubly great that they all have a positive attitude about becoming good, SAFE shooters and gun owners!

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Endeavour Came Home Today

It's flying over the Roase Bowl/Pasadena area right now, and then down to orange County where it will do a flyby of the Boeing plant in Huntington beach.

Then up the coast, over the Queen Mary in Long Beach, ad then to LAX.

It should get really close to us, and I'll try and grab some pix......


One crappy picture. You can barely see it between the light pole and the stern of the MARAD ship. I was walking out to see if I could spot it, and before I was out of the building, I *heard* it, and knew I was too late.

Oh, well......

And, of course, the local L.A. "news" crews are going nuts about "History Being Made".

BULLSHIT!

History was made when it FLEW, not when it's being put out to pasture.

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Rare Photo of Marx and Obama Together

Sorry about the quality, but it's a rather old photo.....

And on a further note........

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First X-15 Powered Flight 53 Years Ago Today

  

I've always been in love with the X-15, the most successful Research Aircraft of all time. As a little boy of 10 years old, I built *every* model of it I could find. I built just the X-15, and the kit that was the NB-52 Carrier Aircraft, with a little 4" removable X-15 that you could pop off the pylon and "fly" away while your other buddies played "Chase-1" and "Chase-2" with models of the F-100 Super Sabre and F-104 Starfighter, leaving your 4th buddy to lumber around "flying" the now lonely NB-52 back to your "base".

September 17th will mark the fifty-third anniversary of the X-15's first powered flight.

There were a total of 3 aircraft built, known by their tail numbers of 66670, 66671, and 66672.

At first the aircraft were powered by a pair of XLR11 rocket engines, which were the same engines used in the Bell X-1 due to the much more powerful XLR99 engine being behind schedule.

It was the first aircraft to routinely exceed  100,000 feet, and towards the end of the program, it routinely flew at 200,000~250,000 feet.

The record altitude for the X-15 was 354,200 feet, a record that stood for FORTY ONE years, until Brian Binnie in SpaceShipOne exceeded in 2004 by achieving and altitude of 367,441 feet.

In terms of speed, the X-15 was the first aircraft to exceed Mach 4, Mach 5, and Mach 6, with its fastest flight being Mach 6.72, or 4520 MPH.

The Mach 6.72 flight was flown by the X-15A-2, a modified version of the #2 aircraft, shown above, wearing it's ablative coating.

This is 6630 feet-per-second, nearly THREE times as "Fast as a speeding bullet". The aircraft was damaged by local heating, suffering several burnt-through areas on its lower (ventral) stabilizer. Although North American rebuilt the aircraft, it never flew again, and the program was terminated after 199 flights.


A typical flight would have the X-15 carried aloft by the NB-52 to 45,000 feet and Mach .85, and then released. The pilot would light the engine, and then fly a very precise profile for either a high-speed, or high-altitude flight. High-altitude flights typically released the X-15 in the vicinity of Wendover, Utah, while high-speed flights would release the X-15 in Northern Nevada. The ground track was 300~400 nautical miles, depending on flight profile, and the aircraft landed, dead-stick, approximately 8 to 12 minutes after release.

That's right, only eight to twelve minutes for the entire flight, from release to landing!

And the landing was unpowered, "Dead Stick", with a descent rate of 12,000 feet-per-minute, and a glide angle of 12*~20*, at 200~300 knots, depending on where the aircraft was in the landing pattern.

Ten men flew the X-15, and one gave his life exploring the unknown realm of high-speed, high-altitude flight in this aircraft.

They were:
Mike Adams, USAF
Neil Armstrong, NASA
Scott Crossfield, North American Aviation
Bill Dana, NASA
Joe Engle, USAF
Pete Knight, USAF
Jack McKay, NASA
Forrest Petersen, USN
Bob Rushworth, USAF
Milt Thompson, NASA
Joe Walker, NASA
Bob White, USAF

These were very brave men, pushing forward the frontiers of flight. I'm honored to have known, and worked with, Pete Knight.

While the "Mercury Seven" were getting all the 'good press', benefits, and public adoration, the men who flew the X-15 were basically unknown, although several  of them would go on to other programs, and one into the history books.

The X-15 was really America's first operational spaceship, and collected much needed data about hypersonic  and high-altitude flight. Much of this information helped solve problems with the Space Shuttle, and validated or corrected, theoretical data from earlier wind tunnel research.

I find it amazing that this aircraft was flying 50 years ago, and data collected during the program are still useful.

And I find it even more amazing that we no longer have any programs of this sort operating.

The follow-on/concurrent program to the X-15 was to be the X-20 Dyna-Soar, but interagency politics )USAF vs NASA) and Robert Macnamara killed that one.

If the X-20 program had come to fruition, we would have had a fully functional, reusable, spaceplane flying ten to fifteen years before the Space Shuttle.

But that's a story for another day.....

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The War on Guns: Calling All "Gun Bloggers"

Something worth supporting, I think.

I didn't "kick in" a lot of money, but I think they'll easily make their goal.


The War on Guns: Calling All "Gun Bloggers"


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A Little Humor Today....

From various sources.......

Straight From The Horse's Mouth

....sorta

A Biker is sitting in a bar in Sturgis, South Dakota, when Barack Obama comes on TV.

The man looks at the TV and says, "Obama is a horse's ass." Out of nowhere, a local jumps up and punches him in the face, knocking the first guy off his bar stool, then stomps out.

The Biker gets back up, rubbing his cheek and orders another beer. Shortly after that incident, Michelle Obama appears on the TV. He looks at the TV and says, "She is a horse's ass too!" Out of nowhere,

another local punches him in the other side of his face, knocking him off his bar stool once again.

He gets back up and looks at the bartender, "I take it this is Obama country?"

"Nope." replies the bartender. "Horse country."

Recently, while working in the flower beds in the front yard, my neighbors stopped to chat as they returned home from walking their dog.

During the friendly conversation, I asked their little girl what she wanted to be when she grows up.

She said she wanted to be President some day. Both of her parents, liberal Democrats, were standing there, so I asked her, "If you were President what would be the first thing you would do?"

She replied... "I'd give food and houses to all the homeless people."

Her parents beamed with pride!

"Wow...what a worthy goal!" I said. "But you don't have to wait until you're President to do that! "I told her.

"What do you mean?" she replied.

So I told her, "You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull weeds, and  trim my hedge, and I'll pay you $50. Then you can go over to the grocery store where the homeless guy hangs out and give him the $50 to use toward food and a new house."

She thought that over for a few seconds, then she looked me straight in the eye and asked, "Why doesn't the homeless guy come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?"

I said, "Welcome to the Republican Party."

Her parents aren't speaking to me anymore

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Never Forget........

Car Maintenance aned Radio Daze

Did some minor maintenance on our four vehicles today.

Checked all tires for correct air pressure.
Checked all engines for coolant, windshield washer, and oil levels.
Replaced everybody's wiper blades and air filter.
Cleaned the windows in all four cars.

Since my right leg is feeling much better, I've been more active.
The shoulder still hurts, and it takes two Naproxens to knock the pain down. I'm going to tell them Monday afternoon at PT that I don't think my "Subscapularius" muscle is healing.

AND....I'm messing around with some radio stuff. Mostly I'm writing up a beginners guide to short wave and SHTF portable radios for wirecutter, and I'm still working on the "Expedient HF Antennas" article that I promised the guys over at Western Rifle Shooters Association about a year or so ago.

After I get the first article done on listening for Kenny, I'll start one on (legal) transmitting. He brought up some good points in our emails about most people don't know very much about practical radio use in regards to what kind of little radio to stuff into their BOB, SHTF bag, or whatever you call yours, and how to use them.

And he's 100% correct. You can get some excellent, small, power stingy, portable radios these days that cover AM, FM, and SW that you could use to at least get an idea of what's going on if/when things collapse, BUT unless you have a little basic training about how to use them, you probably won't get much "value" out of them.

Out here in the People's Democratic Republic of Kaliforniastan, we call them "Earthquake Radios", and we keep them with our "Earthquake Supplies". 25 or so years ago I was making up a list of stuff, and one of my buddies saw it, and asked if he could add something to it.
Right at the top, he added three items:

45ACP
12ga pump
ten boxes of shells for each

Interesting foresight from a good friend who's no longer with us.....

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OpenSUSE 12.2 Released

I've been running Linux since about 1995, and various version of SuSE for just about as long. I've tried all of the major distributions, and a lot of obscure ones, and always kept coming back to Suse, now named OpenSUSE.
12.2 was released yesterday, and I downloaded it last night. Since I had a ton of files on the hard-disk in this machine, the easiest way (for me) to upgrade to the new release (I was running 11.4) was to just install another drive, do a clean installation on the new drive, and keep the drive that was running 11.4 as a secondary drive until I can get all my files transferred.
So far it's running just fine, but it'll take me a few days of tweaking it to get it to look like I want it to, and probably another week to get all the packages that I'm used to having installed.
The nice thing about Linux is that it's virtually immune to virus attacks, spyware, malware, and most of the other Bad Stuff floating around on the Web.

"The Union Creek Journal" Now Available for Kindle and as a PDF

I don't know how many of you have stopped by The Union Creek Journal blog.
You can now download all 337 pages of it as a pdf for a paltry $6.99!
It's a really good read, and I think you'd enjoy it.
I don't own a Kindle, so I went with the pdf download.
One of these days when I have an extra half-ream of paper, and a new toner cart, I'll duplex print it out for myself.

Work Injury

Well, I have a sprained left shoulder, and a nerve in my right leg that gets compressed when I stand too long.
At least I'm lucky that this nerve just makes my leg get numb, and doesn't make me fall down screaming in pain.
I start Physical Therapy tomorrow morning, 3 times a week for 6 weeks, and they gave me a bottle of Naproxen.

meh......

Well, we were *supposed* to go see John Williams tonight at the Hollywood Bowl, but my leg has been acting up all day. Even though we get there early so we can park right across the street, we still have to walk quite a distance to where our seats are.
At least we found one of her friends who was delighted to get the tickets, so they didn't go to waste. She says she'll tell us how good the seats were, and how the show was.
As far as my work-related injury, I had my quarterly check-up on Wednesday, and my Doctor informed me that they are NOT allowed to examine or treat a work-related injury. So, after I got back (excellent check-up, btw), I spent TWO HOURS on the phone finding a place that I could deal with out of the dozens that are listed on the State Insurance Fund website.
I have an appointment with them on Tuesday at 3pm, and woe betide my employer if they give me any grief about leaving "early" to get to the appointment!

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Michelle 0bama Gives.....Shopping Lessons?

I saw this over at wirecutter's place, and his response to it was so on-the-money that I had to repost it here.

This is just another example of the democRATS "Do As I Say, Not As I Do" thinking.

(CNSNews.com) - As part of her anti-obesity Let's Move campaign, First Lady Michelle Obama is now presenting a brief online course: “Supermarket Shopping 101.”
The course, which now appears on the letsmove.gov website, provides novice shoppers with tips such as “steer clear of the cookie, snack and soda aisle.”
More of this ridiculous bullshit here

And Kenny's response:

What the fuck is she doing "presenting" a course on shopping? When was the last time she ever went shopping for her own food? When was the last time she went to the store and had to buy generic because the better quality brand name item was 75 cents more expensive? When was the last time she thumped a watermelon to see if it was ripe? Don't answer that one..... When was the last time she had to wrap her kids' lunch in tinfoil because she couldn't afford to buy baggies until Friday? When was the last time she skipped a fucking meal so her kids had plenty to eat? When was the last time she ate Top Ramen with an egg and some slivered leftover ham in it and considered it a fucking treat? When was the last time she checked her bank balance before she went to the store so she wouldn't be embarrassed if her card was refused because there ain't enough money on it? When was the last time she put a picked clean bone in the freezer so next week's beans will have at least some flavor to them?
You want me to keep going?

Well done, Ken!!

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Obamanation

The Feral Irishman found this.

THANKS!






And here's  link to an interactive version of the painting, explaining all the symbols used.

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Might Get Some "Weather" Tonight

The temperature's dropping, the humidity has dropped like a rock, and there's HUGE thunderheads off the the North and East.

The National Weather Service has issued Flash Flood Alerts, and the weather app on my phone has been screaming at me for attention.

Might a get a drizzle or very light shower, but if you're up in the foothills....HEAD FOR HIGH GROUND!

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Who Am I?

I'm sure this has been floating around the Web, but it's the first time I've seen it.



I was born in one country, raised in another. My father was born in another country.

I was not his only child. He fathered several children with numerous women.

I became very close to my mother, as my father showed no interest in me.

My mother died at an early age from cancer.

Although my father deserted me and my mother raised me, I later wrote a book idolizing my father not my mother.

Later in life, questions arose over my real name. My birth records were sketchy.

No one was able to produce a legitimate, reliable birth certificate.

I grew up practicing one faith but converted to Christianity, as it was widely accepted in my new country, but I practiced non-traditional beliefs and didn't follow Christianity, except in the public eye under scrutiny.

I worked and lived among lower-class people as a young adult, disguising myself as someone who really cared about them.

That was before I decided it was time to get serious about my life and embarked on a new career.

I wrote a book about my struggles growing up. 

It was clear to those who read my memoirs, that I had difficulties accepting that my father abandoned me as a child.

I became active in local politics in my 30's then, with help behind the scenes,

I literally burst onto the scene as a candidate for national office in my 40s.

They said I had a golden tongue and could talk anyone into anything.

I had a virtually non-existent resume, little work history, and no experience in leading a single organization.

Yet I was a powerful speaker and citizens were drawn to me, as though I were a magnet and they were small roofing tacks. I drew incredibly large crowds during my public appearances. This bolstered my ego.

At first, my political campaign focused on my country's foreign policy.

I was very critical of my country in the last war, and seized every opportunity to bash my country.

But what launched my rise to national prominence were my views on the country's economy.

I pretended to have a really good plan on how we could do better, and every poor person would be fed and housed for free. I knew which group was responsible for getting us into this mess.

It was the free market, banks and corporations.

I decided to start making citizens hate them and, if they became envious of others who did well, the plan was clinched tight.

I called mine "A People's Campaign." That sounded good to all people.

I was the surprise candidate because I emerged from outside the traditional path of politics and was able to gain widespread popular support.

I knew that, if I merely offered the people 'hope,' together we could change our country and the world.

So, I started to make my speeches sound like they were on behalf of the downtrodden, poor, ignorant, to include "persecuted minorities".

My true views were not widely known and I kept them unknown, until after I became my nation's leader.

I had to carefully guard reality, as anybody could have easily found out what I really believed, if they had simply read my writings and examined those people I associated with. I'm glad they didn't.

Then I became the most powerful man in the world. And then the world learned the truth.


Who am I?

ADOLPH HITLER

If you were thinking of SOMEONE ELSE, you should be scared, very scared!

RCBS "Rock Chucker" Kit

Well, I went over to my buddy's business today to pick up my mail and my packages.

Besides the RCBS kit, I'd ordered a bunch of books on the X-15 Research Aircraft and the XB-70 Valkyrie Experimental Bomber, and another book on the M1 Garand and M1 Carbine..

It took me about 15 minutes to bring everything in from the Jeep once I got home.

I'm really impressed with the RCBS "Rock Chucker" kit! I knew it came with the big items I wanted, like the press and a scale, but I'd either forgotten, or didn't look at everything listed in the description.

It came with a hand primer, and an automatic powder measure, along with a bunch of other little things. Every box I opened was "Oh Boy!" to the point my sweet wife came over and started looking at all the goodies.

We talked about reloading yesterday when I was plopped on the couch relaxing, and I showed her pictures of all the equipment, and explained all the steps in reloading empty cases.

She agreed it was a good aspect of the hobby to know and understand, and said I'd probably "Do everything exactly by the book, and get really good at it".

At this point (Rank Beginner) I'm just looking to get performance comparable to the factory loaded ammo I buy, learn a bunch, and save a few bucks. Perhaps at some future date I'll do some experimentation to develop loads suited to my particular guns, but as Ellie Arroway's Dad told her...."Small steps".

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Good To Be Back Home....

And I'm going to In-N-Out tonight!

Neil Armstrong Dies at Age 82

A true pioneer, and a fine man.

May he rest in peace........

Further details here.

And here.

And here.

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SoCal Blogshoots?

Are there any out there?

I keep reading on all the other blogs about how much fun all you fine people have going to them, but I've yet to see any mentioned for Southern California.

The local NRA group held a "Fun Shoot" a couple of weeks ago, but alas, I was out bouncing around on the ocean for work.

Hmm.....maybe I should check with the ranges I go to and ask around some more, but I've never seen any gatherings "advertised" as a blogshoot.

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ETA Sunday, About Noon, +/- God Knows How Much.....

We're about 2/3rds of the way back to Long Beach, and should either be at the Pilot Station, or pier, at 10AM/Noonish.

Still a *bit* too early to pin down an exact time, but I sure as H3LL hope it's not 10 freaking PM like it was last time!

I'm going to take my two bonus/incentive days immediately, and an extra day of personal time to go see my Doctor. My leg is getting better, and the Mother Of All Bruises is _starting_ to fade, but I'm still limping, I can't put my right leg over my left to put my shoes and socks on, I still have a big, sore lump where I "hit the deck", and my entire right thigh goes numb if I stand in one place for more than about ten minutes.

And I think I wrenched my left shoulder as I was going down. I didn't black out when I hit, but there's a bit of a timeline gap between realizing my feet were in the air and I was looking at the sky, to when I remember lying on the deck with two of the Russian guys running over to help me get up. I was still holding on to one of the stair rails with my left hand, and my arm was kinda back behind my head.

I'm sure I'll get referrals to Orthopedics, and probably Neurology, and I wonder what, if anything, they find.

For now I'm taking Ibuprofen, staying off my feet as much as I can except when I have to go do things, and trying to get as much sleep as I can.

Talk at y'all later.........

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Case Trimmers?

Well, the Brown Truck of Happiness has delivered my RCBS "Rock Chucker" kit, along with the dies and other goodies I bought, BUT I still need a case trimmer.

Seems like there's quite a few choices out there, and I'd rather go with suggestions from my friends out here that have the experience I still lack.

Since we won't be getting back until Sunday, I still have plenty of time to order one and have it waiting for me.

Recommendations, suggestions, and actual use reports are welcome and greatly appreciated!

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