Delinquent Travel Blogging

Live From "South Metro Atlanta"


Sorry about the silence here on the blog this week, but I really just haven't had anything much to say.

That, and until late this afternoon I had crappy Internet access.

The hotel we stayed in in north Atlanta Tuesday night had so many problems including poor Internet service that we canceled our Wednesday night portion of the reservation and came on down to Fayettville to visit with Pat's family earlier than planned having completed our work with the Lawyers a little after noon.

Having seen things from both side of the conference table in a law office a few too many times in my lifetime, it was interesting to see how it felt to spend three and one half hours talking to two lawyers and my Forensics partner and HAVE THE LAWYERS PAY ME FOR THE VISIT.

I figure that that single meeting was worth about $1,000 per hour to the clients, or $3,500 for the time spent having the discussions...not including the half week of preparation time spent getting ready to talk this time.

Then late today I managed to get our host's wireless Internet connection working so now everyone can be on line at once from different areas rather than hovering in the office competing for the single available cable modem connection.

So any way, with that done I'm sort of just lounging around the house while everyone else worked or went to school today and then tomorrow the girls and Missy the Turbo Pup and I are going to wander around south Atlanta and do some shopping and lunch.

Time to go now but after I done some more news reading I might work up a good head of steam on something and possibly come back and do a little ranting later.

Regards Y'all...

Gettin' The Heck Out of Dodge Knoxtown

More Forensic Injuneering Ensues...


I was busy this past weekend getting ready to travel to Atlanta this week to do a bunch of business stuff, thus the light posting the past half week.

First and foremost I have to attend a "pre-arbitration" meeting with a bunch of pointy headed lawyers to explain some of the stuff we've been writing and talking about on this steam accident investigation for the past nearly three years.

I have some advise for you if you are ever injured in an industrial or other workplace accident.

GO AHEAD AND DIE EARLY IF YOU NEED TO DIE...

...because the lawyers and OSHA and the Department of Labor will make you wait so long to get your financial settlement that you will wish you were dead if you really need the money to pay bills.

Seriously, THREE YEARS OF INVESTIGATION...and three and one half years after the accident and we're still fooling around explaining the obvious.

Someone screwed up a design/installation of some fairly simple stuff and as a result something exploded (I have pictures) and someone was badly burned in the process, and hundreds of thousands of dollars in legal fees and expert testimony later we're still basically saying:

Shazam...it went and blowed up and the guy standing beside it got burned...

It makes me crazy sometimes, and what is even more frustrating is I'm probably the least credentialed and lowest paid guy at most of these events and I know more about what I'm looking at than most if not all.

There are firms out there that investigate everything from car wrecks to airplane crashes to baby bed disasters and washing machine fires, and they show up at an accident scene claiming to know everything about anything.

Sort of like the guy they called "The Professor" on the TV show "Gilligan's Island"...except most of these oafs are more like Mr. Howell or even Gilligan than they are "The Professor."

On the other hand, my Partner and I don't do anything but steam plant accidents and after spending twenty plus years looking at smoldering broken steel and cast iron tanks and pipes we know a thing or two about what's going on and the possibilities of how things went wrong.

So any way, Travel on Tuesday afternoon and Forensics on Wednesday Morning and possibly a meeting or two with a couple of clients on Thursday and Friday, and then a weekend visit with some family, and as usual Blogging will be hit or miss based on my mental attitude and the available Internet connections.

No More Tomatoes

Some Sort Of Record...


We harvested the last of our tomatoes this afternoon...November 7th.  The heavy frost and freeze over night finally did the plants in.  Some of them still had blooms on them yesterday afternoon.

I got a dozen or so ripe fruit which wasn't damaged and a ton of green tomatoes which I'll either batter and fry or possibly pickle if I have the time and energy.

I'm saddest about the three Roma plants I raised from seed this spring.  I remember them when they only were an inch tall and had two leaves each.

The pepper plants took it on the chin also.

Thus goes the ebb and flow of the tides and the seasons, I guess.

The frost makes my old bones hurt too...maybe someone should consider frying ME after I get through pickling myself...