I Can Almost Sing This Song This Well
hey...it's really easy...everybody should try it...a couple of drinks makes you bullet proof...
Saturday, November 21, 2009
Friday, November 20, 2009
D E T A I L S
"The Devil Lies Therein..."
Needless to say, as on any pioneering adventure, I'm about to run myself to death finding last minutes scraps and parts to finish putting this PLC Control Panel together.
Apparently the people that sell this stuff never actually BUILD anything with any of it, at least anything that has to do tricky tasks like actually WORK when the dust and insulation scraps settle to the shop floor.
For instance, I have to cut four holes in the bottom of the panel to let wires run in/out in the plant: one for the 120 VAC power feed, two for the fancy non-contact infrared temperature probes on the bottle conveyor line, and one to power a pneumatic solenoid valve that is responsible for "kicking" any faulty bottles we find off the conveyor line.
The "strain relief" connectors that mount in these holes designed to keep you from ripping the cords out of the panel when some oaf trips over or pulls on the wiring are easy enough to buy at Home Depot, but NoooooooOOOOOO...I opted to use some shiny fancy knurled aluminum connectors I had to order and wait three days to receive.
Funny thing, but they sell the lock nuts separate for the connectors, but I opted to order the 3/8" size rather than the standard 1/2" and now I have $35 worth of connectors and neither Home Depot or even the place I bought them from sells 3/8" lock nuts!
WTF?
So now I have to go back across West Knoxville and return my connectors and order five more 1/2" sized--and most importantly the lock nuts--and wait until Monday or Tuesday for them to come in and drive back over and pick them up.
Of course they can ship to my house but in that event it would cost me an extra $10 UPS charge and take five days for ground service.
And the list goes on and on with nagging things like that which I won't bore you with the details of this morning, but it's obvious that spending the last $100 of a nearly $3,000parts order is going to cause much of the remaining hair on my ever greying, ever balding head to fall to the floor (or take root on my back and behind...)
Bottom line is I've wasted all the time I have to waste and next week's Thanksgiving and everything will come to a standstill for two days and then comes the delivery deadline of November 30th and so now I have to get off my butt and produce...and I can't do it if I've screwed up the parts list.
Thus it's time for me to head over to the electronics supply store and get things moving.
OH...and y'all have a LOVELY day...if you will...
Needless to say, as on any pioneering adventure, I'm about to run myself to death finding last minutes scraps and parts to finish putting this PLC Control Panel together.
Apparently the people that sell this stuff never actually BUILD anything with any of it, at least anything that has to do tricky tasks like actually WORK when the dust and insulation scraps settle to the shop floor.
For instance, I have to cut four holes in the bottom of the panel to let wires run in/out in the plant: one for the 120 VAC power feed, two for the fancy non-contact infrared temperature probes on the bottle conveyor line, and one to power a pneumatic solenoid valve that is responsible for "kicking" any faulty bottles we find off the conveyor line.
The "strain relief" connectors that mount in these holes designed to keep you from ripping the cords out of the panel when some oaf trips over or pulls on the wiring are easy enough to buy at Home Depot, but NoooooooOOOOOO...I opted to use some shiny fancy knurled aluminum connectors I had to order and wait three days to receive.
Funny thing, but they sell the lock nuts separate for the connectors, but I opted to order the 3/8" size rather than the standard 1/2" and now I have $35 worth of connectors and neither Home Depot or even the place I bought them from sells 3/8" lock nuts!
WTF?
So now I have to go back across West Knoxville and return my connectors and order five more 1/2" sized--and most importantly the lock nuts--and wait until Monday or Tuesday for them to come in and drive back over and pick them up.
Of course they can ship to my house but in that event it would cost me an extra $10 UPS charge and take five days for ground service.
And the list goes on and on with nagging things like that which I won't bore you with the details of this morning, but it's obvious that spending the last $100 of a nearly $3,000parts order is going to cause much of the remaining hair on my ever greying, ever balding head to fall to the floor (or take root on my back and behind...)
Bottom line is I've wasted all the time I have to waste and next week's Thanksgiving and everything will come to a standstill for two days and then comes the delivery deadline of November 30th and so now I have to get off my butt and produce...and I can't do it if I've screwed up the parts list.
Thus it's time for me to head over to the electronics supply store and get things moving.
OH...and y'all have a LOVELY day...if you will...
Thursday, November 19, 2009
I'm Resisting Throwing My Computer In The Lake
Comcast Haunts Me...
Dang it people...
It's really frightening the coincidence of our cable/Internet service interruptions over the past month with my attempts to make wiring modifications to our home data/TV network.
Once again, TODAY, for the SECOND time in the past 30 days, the local cable/Internet signal has been going on and off and on and off and On and Off and ON and OFF all FREAKING morning, while I've been running up and down the stairs trying to resist the urge to commit suicide with a little set of pliers or drive down to the Comcast office and make the headlines on FOX News holding everyone hostage with a roll of electrical tape and a Phillips head screwdriver.
WTF?
It's hard enough having to drill holes through studs and fight squinting my way through wood chips and dangling 45 years of spider webs lurking in the recesses of the sub-flooring, but then the nerds over at Comcast clicking the signal on and off every fifteen minutes makes sanity and progress nearly impossible.
Like I predicted earlier, the proposed two hour long task is well on it's way to taking three or four hours to complete, but complete it I will, dang it...else I'll end up needing some sort of mental analysis and medical treatment for self induced insanity and high blood pressure.
oh...oH...OH...Ah..AH...Ahhhhhhhh....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
clunk...
(the sound of me falling out of my chair)
that will be all...for now...
Dang it people...
It's really frightening the coincidence of our cable/Internet service interruptions over the past month with my attempts to make wiring modifications to our home data/TV network.
Once again, TODAY, for the SECOND time in the past 30 days, the local cable/Internet signal has been going on and off and on and off and On and Off and ON and OFF all FREAKING morning, while I've been running up and down the stairs trying to resist the urge to commit suicide with a little set of pliers or drive down to the Comcast office and make the headlines on FOX News holding everyone hostage with a roll of electrical tape and a Phillips head screwdriver.
WTF?
It's hard enough having to drill holes through studs and fight squinting my way through wood chips and dangling 45 years of spider webs lurking in the recesses of the sub-flooring, but then the nerds over at Comcast clicking the signal on and off every fifteen minutes makes sanity and progress nearly impossible.
Like I predicted earlier, the proposed two hour long task is well on it's way to taking three or four hours to complete, but complete it I will, dang it...else I'll end up needing some sort of mental analysis and medical treatment for self induced insanity and high blood pressure.
oh...oH...OH...Ah..AH...Ahhhhhhhh....AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH
clunk...
(the sound of me falling out of my chair)
that will be all...for now...
My Head Hurts
I Just Can't Leave Well Enough Alone...
The day we closed on this old house I live in today, while the movers were still backing into the driveway with boxes containing all of our "stuff", at the same time I had the Comcast Cable guys drilling holes in my wall and checking TV and Internet connections on old wiring that had been around in the building for at least 20 years.
Since I didn't want to pay them $50 an hour to do wiring inside the house, I just asked that they get me a working feed to a spot inside my "third bedroom" office and figured that I'd handle working out the details needed to get Internet and a TV signal to the other rooms.
Things have sort of proceeded on a "helter skelter" basis since then with the addition of an under counter TV in the Kitchen and TV's in the living room, Master bedroom, and a cable flopping around in the basement that served the shop and laundry area.
The living room TV signal has been annoying on certain channels apparently because of the aged wiring, and with other recent technical revelations...I've decided that now it's time to "Pay the Piper" and straighten things out for good.
You see, yesterday I moved my old HP laptop into the new World Headquarters of Plastics Engineering Technologies upon receipt of a shipment of the last cables and technical do-dads relating to uploading my new program to the Horner PLC, and in the process I learned...
gasp...
my Linksys wireless signal doesn't reach through the 1963 vintage concrete walls and heart oak flooring and framing from the first floor to the basement.
Now it looks like I have to go with a CAT 5 hard wire from the router to be able to Google and Blog from my area of the basement.
Dangit...
Of course if I'm going to start moving ceiling tiles and drilling holes I might as well re-wire the crappy vintage cable TV wiring at the same time, so a couple hours of this morning will have to be dedicated to pulling out and replacing the old cable wires to a couple of rooms and putting in a new CAT 5 feed to the computer workstation in the shop.
And of course when they added central air conditioning to the house in the 1970's they ran the central trunk duct work down the middle of the basement, right underneath the spots where I want to drill holes and make cable drops against the baseboards on the first floor, so instead of two hours I'll probably actually spend four hours cursing and banging my knuckles and fishing around with a bent coat hanger for wires rendered invisible by the duct work.
Oh well.
It has to be done...and I'm the cheapest technician I know that can get it accomplished.
Is it just me, or am I getting too old to do this crap?
The day we closed on this old house I live in today, while the movers were still backing into the driveway with boxes containing all of our "stuff", at the same time I had the Comcast Cable guys drilling holes in my wall and checking TV and Internet connections on old wiring that had been around in the building for at least 20 years.
Since I didn't want to pay them $50 an hour to do wiring inside the house, I just asked that they get me a working feed to a spot inside my "third bedroom" office and figured that I'd handle working out the details needed to get Internet and a TV signal to the other rooms.
Things have sort of proceeded on a "helter skelter" basis since then with the addition of an under counter TV in the Kitchen and TV's in the living room, Master bedroom, and a cable flopping around in the basement that served the shop and laundry area.
The living room TV signal has been annoying on certain channels apparently because of the aged wiring, and with other recent technical revelations...I've decided that now it's time to "Pay the Piper" and straighten things out for good.
You see, yesterday I moved my old HP laptop into the new World Headquarters of Plastics Engineering Technologies upon receipt of a shipment of the last cables and technical do-dads relating to uploading my new program to the Horner PLC, and in the process I learned...
gasp...
my Linksys wireless signal doesn't reach through the 1963 vintage concrete walls and heart oak flooring and framing from the first floor to the basement.
Now it looks like I have to go with a CAT 5 hard wire from the router to be able to Google and Blog from my area of the basement.
Dangit...
Of course if I'm going to start moving ceiling tiles and drilling holes I might as well re-wire the crappy vintage cable TV wiring at the same time, so a couple hours of this morning will have to be dedicated to pulling out and replacing the old cable wires to a couple of rooms and putting in a new CAT 5 feed to the computer workstation in the shop.
And of course when they added central air conditioning to the house in the 1970's they ran the central trunk duct work down the middle of the basement, right underneath the spots where I want to drill holes and make cable drops against the baseboards on the first floor, so instead of two hours I'll probably actually spend four hours cursing and banging my knuckles and fishing around with a bent coat hanger for wires rendered invisible by the duct work.
Oh well.
It has to be done...and I'm the cheapest technician I know that can get it accomplished.
Is it just me, or am I getting too old to do this crap?
Tuesday, November 17, 2009
Silence Is Golden
Too Busy To Write Or Talk...
After spending most of the past three days of "Indian Summer" here in Eastern Tennessee on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River finishing up the seasonal details in my yard and other outdoor endeavors, today found me with a basement workshop full of fancy do-dads and "electronic components" needing drilling and bolting and wiring together...
thus the silence here on the blog for the past day and one half.
I've got an owners manual to write and a PLC program to finish and a bunch of metal chips to make and wiring to run and you'll just have to excuse me if the words are few and far between for a while.
Of course there's always the chance that I'll hear or see something that will cause my head to explode but in the mean time feel free to entertain yourselves.
Regards Y'all...
After spending most of the past three days of "Indian Summer" here in Eastern Tennessee on the Banks of the Mighty Tennessee River finishing up the seasonal details in my yard and other outdoor endeavors, today found me with a basement workshop full of fancy do-dads and "electronic components" needing drilling and bolting and wiring together...
thus the silence here on the blog for the past day and one half.
I've got an owners manual to write and a PLC program to finish and a bunch of metal chips to make and wiring to run and you'll just have to excuse me if the words are few and far between for a while.
Of course there's always the chance that I'll hear or see something that will cause my head to explode but in the mean time feel free to entertain yourselves.
Regards Y'all...
Monday, November 16, 2009
Saturday, November 14, 2009
I Wanna Go To Miami
It's Not Just A Famous Jewish Whine...
I did that...just take off for Miami...on a whim once about this time in November about fifteen years ago...
I say that you're definitely getting old when you spend all of your time comparing or explaining what you're doing today with what you were doing more than five or ten years past on the calendar.
Unfortunately I'm in that situation this week as I look at the weather forecast for south Florida and find myself wishing I could just buy a couple of tickets and jump on an airplane and a few short hours later walk out into their airport parking lot into the 80 degree late fall dry heat and put my cares behind me.
Then I'd get a Taxi and wander over to South Beach District and find a little hotel with a room to stay in a few blocks from the beach, and I'd find a nearby Cuban restaurant and eat their ethnic food and watch the crazy things going on (like the bar fight I saw once that lasted for near a half hour...), then tonight after watching Georgia Tech pound Duke in College Football I'd stagger back home to the hotel and curl up in the bed and let my ever greying, ever balding head rest for five or six hours.
Things sure have changed since those days...some good...some bad...and I guess Miami is beyond my reach now but you can't blame an old Ramblin' Wreck for wishing...
Go YELLOW JACKETS!!!
I did that...just take off for Miami...on a whim once about this time in November about fifteen years ago...
I say that you're definitely getting old when you spend all of your time comparing or explaining what you're doing today with what you were doing more than five or ten years past on the calendar.
Unfortunately I'm in that situation this week as I look at the weather forecast for south Florida and find myself wishing I could just buy a couple of tickets and jump on an airplane and a few short hours later walk out into their airport parking lot into the 80 degree late fall dry heat and put my cares behind me.
Then I'd get a Taxi and wander over to South Beach District and find a little hotel with a room to stay in a few blocks from the beach, and I'd find a nearby Cuban restaurant and eat their ethnic food and watch the crazy things going on (like the bar fight I saw once that lasted for near a half hour...), then tonight after watching Georgia Tech pound Duke in College Football I'd stagger back home to the hotel and curl up in the bed and let my ever greying, ever balding head rest for five or six hours.
Things sure have changed since those days...some good...some bad...and I guess Miami is beyond my reach now but you can't blame an old Ramblin' Wreck for wishing...
Go YELLOW JACKETS!!!
Every Game's A Critical Game
If Your Life Is Football...
OK...I hate to admit that I've planned my past TWO Saturdays around the TV schedule, and this Saturday is no exception.
I can do anything I want today except between 12 Noon and about 4 PM, when Georgia Tech is being televised trying to extend their win streak to eight in a row in this season--bringing the total to ten wins against one loss with Georgia and the ACC championship game left to play later this month and in early December.
Of course as is usual in college football and particularly as I've seen in my 32 years following Georgia Tech...ANYTHING can happen today...but regardless I seem to have an all consuming urge to watch the proceedings because it's been nearly TWENTY years since the North Avenue Trade School had anything close to the kind of team they're fielding this year.
It's not often Tech's in the top 10 in the sport, and today they put their Number 7 ranking on the line and with the other match ups out there Tech could advance a notch or two if there happens to be an upset like Alabama getting beat by Mississippi State.
Now it's time to get back to programming I guess...
OK...I hate to admit that I've planned my past TWO Saturdays around the TV schedule, and this Saturday is no exception.
I can do anything I want today except between 12 Noon and about 4 PM, when Georgia Tech is being televised trying to extend their win streak to eight in a row in this season--bringing the total to ten wins against one loss with Georgia and the ACC championship game left to play later this month and in early December.
Of course as is usual in college football and particularly as I've seen in my 32 years following Georgia Tech...ANYTHING can happen today...but regardless I seem to have an all consuming urge to watch the proceedings because it's been nearly TWENTY years since the North Avenue Trade School had anything close to the kind of team they're fielding this year.
It's not often Tech's in the top 10 in the sport, and today they put their Number 7 ranking on the line and with the other match ups out there Tech could advance a notch or two if there happens to be an upset like Alabama getting beat by Mississippi State.
Now it's time to get back to programming I guess...
Friday, November 13, 2009
Back Home
And Busy As Heck...
So we're back home and now I'm up to my armpits in paperwork and boxes of "stuff" that arrived on my carport in my absence.
It's almost like Christmas morning except I'm five decades old and the "toys" are electronic hardware and technical publications and other nerdy do-dads.
I've been up since 2:30 AM sorting mail and stumbling around in the mire and mess which has ensued since depositing Missy the Turbo Pup and her Lockers and Sea Chests back in the living room.
The lawn guy has already been by with his leaf blower raising a dust storm in an effort to piss me off, and now I'm seriously leaning toward taking a shower and declaring an early happy hour before coming home and warming up some of my thawed out "Green Butt" White Chili and making a giant pone of cornbread.
Time to make some calls and chase the yard guy around with a check I guess.
Regards Y'all...
So we're back home and now I'm up to my armpits in paperwork and boxes of "stuff" that arrived on my carport in my absence.
It's almost like Christmas morning except I'm five decades old and the "toys" are electronic hardware and technical publications and other nerdy do-dads.
I've been up since 2:30 AM sorting mail and stumbling around in the mire and mess which has ensued since depositing Missy the Turbo Pup and her Lockers and Sea Chests back in the living room.
The lawn guy has already been by with his leaf blower raising a dust storm in an effort to piss me off, and now I'm seriously leaning toward taking a shower and declaring an early happy hour before coming home and warming up some of my thawed out "Green Butt" White Chili and making a giant pone of cornbread.
Time to make some calls and chase the yard guy around with a check I guess.
Regards Y'all...
Thursday, November 12, 2009
South Bound Again
Afternoon Journey...
Man...the past two days have been a whirlwind of mental activity here in Indianapolis.
The PLC (programmable logic controller) class was free, but in my opinion it was one of the best if not the best technical classes I've ever attended.
The people at Horner go out of their way to give you a good understanding of their products and their proprietary programming environment, and every one of the twenty plus people in attendance either already had their equipment in their plants or like me were building new products based on one of their controllers.
Everyone was on time every morning and sat there for eight hours (they fed us lunch also) and absorbed information like a room full of sponges.
My head is about to explode with ideas and I can't wait to get back home and get started building this first custom control panel and writing the software to control it before I forget something.
We have another session today that's scheduled to last until 2 PM, but I think I'll be able to slide out the door around lunch and be back on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River at the Turbo Pup compound by Happy Hour.
Wish us a safe journey free of encounters with texting morons driving habits...if you will...
Man...the past two days have been a whirlwind of mental activity here in Indianapolis.
The PLC (programmable logic controller) class was free, but in my opinion it was one of the best if not the best technical classes I've ever attended.
The people at Horner go out of their way to give you a good understanding of their products and their proprietary programming environment, and every one of the twenty plus people in attendance either already had their equipment in their plants or like me were building new products based on one of their controllers.
Everyone was on time every morning and sat there for eight hours (they fed us lunch also) and absorbed information like a room full of sponges.
My head is about to explode with ideas and I can't wait to get back home and get started building this first custom control panel and writing the software to control it before I forget something.
We have another session today that's scheduled to last until 2 PM, but I think I'll be able to slide out the door around lunch and be back on the banks of the Mighty Tennessee River at the Turbo Pup compound by Happy Hour.
Wish us a safe journey free of encounters with texting morons driving habits...if you will...
Tuesday, November 10, 2009
Have you Asked Your Doctor About "Dememetiaforyou"?
(Hexamexatexa-ibuprofin HCL)
Picture a TV ad scene with a middle aged couple walking barefoot on the beach.
Now Que the baritone announcer's voice:
"Feeling Stupid?
Feeling Sad?
Feeling Broke?
Feeling Bad?
Got Bunions?
Ingrown Toe nails?
Got an Attitude?
Or Just don't give a damn?
Then Dementiaforyou may be just for you...ask your doctor for a dose or two..
That's right folks...
Hang around until we all have the Democrat's "Universal Health care," and maybe your doctor willsubscribe prescribe some for you.
Dementiaforyou--the all-in-one FDA approved chemical solution for all those little nagging problems in life...
After all...You're only half a person without it.***"
Now the disclaimer scrolls past in the final five seconds:
*** THE FINE PRINT
May cause hives; hernias; hemorrhoids; heat rash; hacking; hypertension; hepatitis; homosexuality; homophobia; sleepwalking; sleep talking; whooping cough; anal seepage; rectal bleeding; incontinence; excessive desires to gamble; being unusually happy; being unusually sad; becoming suicidal; erections lasting longer than 4 hours; no erection at all; sex change; being an angry insensitive blogger; unusual desires for sex involving weed eaters, chickens, kitchen appliances, shop tools, fruits, vegetables, and antique automobiles; death; stroke; strange food craveings; cancer; constipation; conniption fits and/or Shivering Shaking Screaming Heebie Jeebies.
Consult your physician if any or all of the above symptoms or conditions occur.
Heh...
Picture a TV ad scene with a middle aged couple walking barefoot on the beach.
Now Que the baritone announcer's voice:
"Feeling Stupid?
Feeling Sad?
Feeling Broke?
Feeling Bad?
Got Bunions?
Ingrown Toe nails?
Got an Attitude?
Or Just don't give a damn?
Then Dementiaforyou may be just for you...ask your doctor for a dose or two..
That's right folks...
Hang around until we all have the Democrat's "Universal Health care," and maybe your doctor will
Dementiaforyou--the all-in-one FDA approved chemical solution for all those little nagging problems in life...
After all...You're only half a person without it.***"
Now the disclaimer scrolls past in the final five seconds:
*** THE FINE PRINT
May cause hives; hernias; hemorrhoids; heat rash; hacking; hypertension; hepatitis; homosexuality; homophobia; sleepwalking; sleep talking; whooping cough; anal seepage; rectal bleeding; incontinence; excessive desires to gamble; being unusually happy; being unusually sad; becoming suicidal; erections lasting longer than 4 hours; no erection at all; sex change; being an angry insensitive blogger; unusual desires for sex involving weed eaters, chickens, kitchen appliances, shop tools, fruits, vegetables, and antique automobiles; death; stroke; strange food craveings; cancer; constipation; conniption fits and/or Shivering Shaking Screaming Heebie Jeebies.
Consult your physician if any or all of the above symptoms or conditions occur.
Heh...
The World According To Archie Bunker
I Agree Completely...
(that was broadcast over twenty years ago, and it's frightening how true it still is today...)
(that was broadcast over twenty years ago, and it's frightening how true it still is today...)
"She Slopped Her Dripper"
Hee Haw Greatest Hits
I remember watching this live back when it first ran on TV...
If you're not from the south you may not laugh, but I remember the skit and many of the words to this day
I remember watching this live back when it first ran on TV...
If you're not from the south you may not laugh, but I remember the skit and many of the words to this day
Monday, November 09, 2009
The Cone Of Death Approaches
Governor Jindal Trys To Make Lingering Katrina "Victims" Get The Heck Out...
So I'm sitting here checking out the weather this morning and notice that my Mom and the Family Farm may be in the path of Hurricane Cousin Ida when she comes calling later this week.
But wait a minute, I also heard earlier where Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had already declared a state of emergency in New Orleans for fear that Carl Rove and George Bush were sending another Hurricane after the poor and disenfranchised residents of the lower fifth ward and other areas of the city STILL FIRMLY SITUATED BELOW SEA LEVEL FOUR YEARS after Katrina swamped the place.
Any way, it looks like the storm is going to take an eastward turn and be further downgraded into a weak hurricane or a strong tropical storm as it comes inland somewhere between the Mississippi/Alabama line and Appalachacola, FL.
Me and members of my family have been there and done this drill dozens of times in the past 75 years and as I see it there's no reason to run to the grocery store and buy all of the bread and milk and peanut butter--but I'll leave the decision up to each individual.
We've never once in the middle of the aftermath of a half dozen strikes and near misses by the eyes of Hurricanes (Opal and Elloise come to mind) seen hide nor hair of FEMA at our houses and we're still alive and paying "our fair share" of taxes today.
If I were not going to be 450 miles north of ground zero I would gas up my car and probably make sure I had batteries for the radio and flashlights, but then again I did that every year in the spring when I lived within a mile of the Atlantic on the Georgia Coast and a hundred yards from the beach on the Gulf in Mexico Beach, FL.
I never ONCE had to sit around and wait for the GOVERNMENT to knock on my door and tell me to take steps to protect my life and property.
Did I mention that I still have a 1.5 KW generator packaged in the original shrink wrap box...left over from when we moved to St. Simons Island in 2003?
So I can just hear it now...after a quiet Atlantic/Gulf hurricane season, the wild eyed, sniveling, booger eating, eco-friendly tree hugging patchouli tie-died smelly former hippy tree huggers will announce, at a press conference with Owl Gore, that this mid-November Hurricane is yet additional PROOF of anthropological (i.e. man made for those of you that attended business admin classes at the University of Georgia) climate change.
Just watch...
They will...
Bet me...
OK...I'm shifting gears here now Boss...
What really got me started yelling this morning was when I started calculating the total amount of atmosphric Oxygen a valve I'm rebuilding sees in the process of handling 650 CFM of air, 24/7, 51 weeks a year at 40 bars of pressure (588 pounds per square inch.)
I had to look up a chart with the composition of air in order to run the calculations, and when I did I found this chart:
So I'm sitting here checking out the weather this morning and notice that my Mom and the Family Farm may be in the path of Hurricane Cousin Ida when she comes calling later this week.
But wait a minute, I also heard earlier where Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal had already declared a state of emergency in New Orleans for fear that Carl Rove and George Bush were sending another Hurricane after the poor and disenfranchised residents of the lower fifth ward and other areas of the city STILL FIRMLY SITUATED BELOW SEA LEVEL FOUR YEARS after Katrina swamped the place.
Any way, it looks like the storm is going to take an eastward turn and be further downgraded into a weak hurricane or a strong tropical storm as it comes inland somewhere between the Mississippi/Alabama line and Appalachacola, FL.
Me and members of my family have been there and done this drill dozens of times in the past 75 years and as I see it there's no reason to run to the grocery store and buy all of the bread and milk and peanut butter--but I'll leave the decision up to each individual.
We've never once in the middle of the aftermath of a half dozen strikes and near misses by the eyes of Hurricanes (Opal and Elloise come to mind) seen hide nor hair of FEMA at our houses and we're still alive and paying "our fair share" of taxes today.
If I were not going to be 450 miles north of ground zero I would gas up my car and probably make sure I had batteries for the radio and flashlights, but then again I did that every year in the spring when I lived within a mile of the Atlantic on the Georgia Coast and a hundred yards from the beach on the Gulf in Mexico Beach, FL.
I never ONCE had to sit around and wait for the GOVERNMENT to knock on my door and tell me to take steps to protect my life and property.
Did I mention that I still have a 1.5 KW generator packaged in the original shrink wrap box...left over from when we moved to St. Simons Island in 2003?
So I can just hear it now...after a quiet Atlantic/Gulf hurricane season, the wild eyed, sniveling, booger eating, eco-friendly tree hugging patchouli tie-died smelly former hippy tree huggers will announce, at a press conference with Owl Gore, that this mid-November Hurricane is yet additional PROOF of anthropological (i.e. man made for those of you that attended business admin classes at the University of Georgia) climate change.
Just watch...
They will...
Bet me...
OK...I'm shifting gears here now Boss...
What really got me started yelling this morning was when I started calculating the total amount of atmosphric Oxygen a valve I'm rebuilding sees in the process of handling 650 CFM of air, 24/7, 51 weeks a year at 40 bars of pressure (588 pounds per square inch.)
I had to look up a chart with the composition of air in order to run the calculations, and when I did I found this chart:
Check that crap out...BY WEIGHT...
Nitrogen 75.5%
Oxygen 23.2%
and the HATED Global warming Villain...Carbon Dioxide???
CO2 equals only...
Ready?
0.05% of our ENTIRE ATMOSPHERE
That's FIVE ONE HUNDRETHS OF ONE PERCENT...
Got that?
So IF I continue to smoke Cigars...
And IF I continue to drive my old Suburban getting 9 MPG
And IF I continue to burn my branches and leaves in my back yard in a big smoky pile
And IF I continue to use my charcoal grill
And IF I continue to just not give a crap in general about my "Carbon Footprint"...
And IF I continue to run my mouth at an accelerated rate...
Then...
after all of that stuff happens without government intervention.
AND THE LEVELS OF ATMOSPHERIC CARBON DIOXIDE DOUBLE OVER THE REST OF MY LIFE...
Carbon dioxide will still, on that horrible, yes even possibly cataclysmic day in the eyes of Owl Gore and the sniveling booger eating crowd et. al.
...
Only be...
0.10% of the total mass of our atmosphere.
Now in light of these statistics, DOES anybody else out there besides me wonder what all the noise is about?
Yea...I thought so...
Dammit...
The Turbo Pup's Back On The Road
And The Blog Silence Might Be Deafening...
About 9 AM this morning, after the local rush hour settles down, Missy the Turbo Pup and her entourage are blasting out of Knoxtown up I-75 toward a rendezvous with a 2-1/2 day technical training class in Indianapolis, Indiana.
This will be her...
Wait...how many states has the Turbo Pup visited since she was born in 2006?
Let's see...
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi (she was born there), Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia ...
So now with the addition of Indiana Missy the Turbo Pup will have traveled to SIXTEEN STATES in her soon to be three year long life.
Not bad for a little 11 pound miniature long haired Dachshund, eh?
I keep talking about getting some of those state stickers like people put on the back of their motor homes and travel trailers and putting them on the outside of her travel crate.
She's been crate trained since she was 2 months old and weighed 2 pounds, but we never lock her up in the thing. She just uses it like a den or "safety deposit box" and wanders in and out on her own hiding left over pieces of rawhide chews and wads of napkin and old paper towel tubes we give her to play with.
Still, if we have the room (thus far only one exception last summer) the crate, her bed, her blankets, and a giant assortment of toys go along with her in the back of the old Chrysler 300 when she hits the road.
Half the back seat is generally enough room for her royalness and her "lockers and sea chests" as I call them.
I get one seat and space in half of two suitcases along with room for a few hanging clothes, and of course the gasoline bills.
The weather over our route both ways looks good so far, and it will be good to get to interact in person with some of my technical peers for a change since I've basically been a hermit working alone from my office since my employer closed down last December 19th.
Time now to clean up my desk and do some final packing, and maybe catch another hour or two of sleep before hitting the road.
Wish us a safe trip and protection from the driving/texting morons...if you will...
About 9 AM this morning, after the local rush hour settles down, Missy the Turbo Pup and her entourage are blasting out of Knoxtown up I-75 toward a rendezvous with a 2-1/2 day technical training class in Indianapolis, Indiana.
This will be her...
Wait...how many states has the Turbo Pup visited since she was born in 2006?
Let's see...
Alabama, Georgia, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Kentucky, Mississippi (she was born there), Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Virginia, West Virginia ...
So now with the addition of Indiana Missy the Turbo Pup will have traveled to SIXTEEN STATES in her soon to be three year long life.
Not bad for a little 11 pound miniature long haired Dachshund, eh?
I keep talking about getting some of those state stickers like people put on the back of their motor homes and travel trailers and putting them on the outside of her travel crate.
She's been crate trained since she was 2 months old and weighed 2 pounds, but we never lock her up in the thing. She just uses it like a den or "safety deposit box" and wanders in and out on her own hiding left over pieces of rawhide chews and wads of napkin and old paper towel tubes we give her to play with.
Still, if we have the room (thus far only one exception last summer) the crate, her bed, her blankets, and a giant assortment of toys go along with her in the back of the old Chrysler 300 when she hits the road.
Half the back seat is generally enough room for her royalness and her "lockers and sea chests" as I call them.
I get one seat and space in half of two suitcases along with room for a few hanging clothes, and of course the gasoline bills.
The weather over our route both ways looks good so far, and it will be good to get to interact in person with some of my technical peers for a change since I've basically been a hermit working alone from my office since my employer closed down last December 19th.
Time now to clean up my desk and do some final packing, and maybe catch another hour or two of sleep before hitting the road.
Wish us a safe trip and protection from the driving/texting morons...if you will...
Saturday, November 07, 2009
Engineer(s) Gone Wild?
One Went "Postal" In Orlando...
Anyone but me wonder what the heck was/is going on down in Orlando this week?
First I hear that some guy has run into an office building in downtown and shot the place up, killing one person and wounding five more.
Then I hear that the guy was shooting in the offices of an engineering firm and was an engineer himself.
I know that for various product related reasons that some people might want to kill engineers--like I for a while wanted to maim the guys that designed the 1984 Pontiac Fiero when it spent most of its first six months of my ownership in the Dealer's shop rather than in my Garage.
But still...
Engineers SHOOTING PEOPLE?
I thought that usually if an engineer wanted to kill you, their weapon of choice would be to BORE YOU TO DEATH.
You know--talking about interesting things like fluid flow and heat transfer coefficients, soil bearing capacity, electrical impedance, or the effect of long chain polymer chemistry on the tensil strength of ultra high density polyethylene (UHDPE for short.)
Although I can talk about all of that stuff, I generally don't break it out in casual conversation in a bar or at Thanksgiving dinner...BUT...
If I really wanted to hurt you I would generally assault you through your ears and mind (and possibly your eyes if you had to look at me while I was talking.)
On second thought, I guess that some people could think that engineers routinely kill people when airliners fall out of the sky or bridges collapse or their new white Toyota Prias squashes like a grape when it comes in contact with the front bumper of my old Chevy Suburban at 60 MPH.
Problem is, those events are hardly ever attributed to an actual engineering design flaw...they're usually owner and/or operator induced failures.
For instance, most "uncontrolled contact with terrain events" a.k.a. "air disasters" are initially caused by inexperienced pilots flying into bad weather or running a perfectly good airplane out of gas.
And military and commercial aircraft, while closely scrutinized, usually fail because of the enormous numbers of hours that they're in the air and issues relating to maintenance mistakes or the shear parts fatigue of their demanding daily operations.
And you certainly can't blame the engineers when they are technically unable to build a box with an electric motor and wheels that gets 50 MPG and can also withstand a potential assault by a 6,000 pound Suburban or a 80,000 tractor trailer rig when they try to occupy the same piece of asphalt.
All of these theoretical incidents involve owners and operators assuming what they believe to be an acceptable amount of calculated RISK based on the initial cost of the equipment and the operating and maintenance cost of the systems (plane, train, car, bridge, whatever) after purchase.
Bridges that have lasted 40 years don't fall down because of an engineering design flaw, they generally fail because the local, state, and federal governments take the gas taxes from the bridge users at the gas pump and spend the "highway" money in other areas like child welfare programs or "stimulus packages" rather than inspecting and repairing and possibly REPLACING the bridge before it drops a couple of mini-vans full of children into the Ohio River.
And modern airliners don't fly safely for 10 years and then have a wing or engine tear off while your tray table and seat back are in the upright and locked position. It's not the guy with the calculator and pocket protector's inadequacy.
Things end up breaking off these days as a result of everyone wanting to fly from Atlanta to Detroit for $199 a seat--a price less that the cost of the gasoline I'd burn in my Suburban-and the Airlines having to cut costs to provide that kind of ticket pricing and still stay solvent.
As a result of the flying public wanting cheap air fair, the airlines are forced to cut quality of service, charge fees for everything except using the restroom, and fly older and older planes by doing things like major rebuilds--called "life cycle extension programs."
Then they and their low fair paying passengers end up together in uncharted performance territory in a process of delaying or avoiding the purchase of new zillion dollar airplanes.
And what is the one additional thing that the safety of bridges and airplanes and automobile have in common?
G O V E R N M E N T.
We have the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), and the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) all spending BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars each year writing laws and rules and legislating things like that your car has to automatically lock the doors and turn on the headlights, yet about 44,000 people die each year in auto accidents.
And all of the states have passed seat belt laws, but don't a bunch of people still die while not wearing a seat belt? They drive at the risk of paying a "fine"--actually more practically a tax--for exercising their free choice and thereby assuming a level of risk they are personally accountable for.
...taking a big breath here...
Now back to my original point.
I bet $20 bucks that within the MONTH that some stupid eco friendly sniveling, booger eating, tree huggingliberal progressive politician is going to call for congressional hearings on gun control and trying to bring back the "Brady Bill" and the so called "Assault Weapons Ban."
They just can't help themselves, and with the events of the past week their "never waste an disaster" mentality will drive them over the edge again.
I repeat over and over and over that we don't need new laws limiting LAW ABIDING citizens rights of gun ownership and further, their rights to carry a gun.
IT'S ALREADY AGAINST THE LAW TO WALK UP AND SHOOT SOMEONE, and if more trained and licensed private citizens were allowed to legally carry guns into churches and theaters and on college campuses, most of the events making the news over the past ten or twenty years would have been limited else prevented outright.
Further, it was already ILLEGAL--an outright gun ban was in place-- on of all places the military base in Texas, yet that asshole simply drove on base with not one but two guns and shot a bunch of un-armed soldiers and civilians.
I somehow find it amazing that the military has taken a policy of locking almost every one of their guns and ammo up and relying on the MP's and private security forces to maintain their security functions.
I bet if the guy had walked into a US military base in 1944 or 1952, pulled out a gun and fired a shot, that twenty different people would have drawn their own weapons and blown his miserable head off.
Instead, in 2009 some guy walks into a government mandated "gun free zone" and fires OVER A HUNDRED FREAKING ROUNDS before someone manages to draw a bead on him and drop him (I wish they had killed the bastard so we won't have to spend ten million on a trial.)
I see it like this...most of these crazy spineless morons like the Texas and Florida (and Virginia Tech and Columbine) shooters would never walk into a Saloon in California in 1875 and start shooting if they knew that everyone else in the room had one if not two guns on their person, would they?
If they did they would get what they deserved and the only "due process" remaining when the smoke cleared would be to pick up the pieces and mop the floor.
Anybody agree with me here?
Yes?
No?
Well, finally, in closing (and in jest,) don't be surprised if, as a result of the Orlando shootings, some kook legislator will try to pass a new law designed to require Engineers to register in a database like "sexual predators." (I think maybe they call it the State PE Licensing Board...Roy)
As a result they'll also probably want to make us stay at least a hundred yards away from libraries and technical bookstores.
And then if someone opens a computer store in my neighborhood, being an engineer I'd likely be forced to sell my house and move at least a mile away.
These same kinds of laws and procedures and mandates are in effect today at government mandate in the name of "protecting women and children", and you see the outcome...children are still disappearing and dieing at an alarming rate.
Government can't control anyone but law abiding citizens, and all I'm saying here Ladies and Gentlemen is that you just watch what happens, and try to think logically and intelligently rather than reacting emotionally.
In my considered Redneck opinion, "There aught to be a law..." isn't always true, and I don't want to give up any more of my Constitutional and God given freedoms to our hysterical, power grabbing government.
Anyone but me wonder what the heck was/is going on down in Orlando this week?
First I hear that some guy has run into an office building in downtown and shot the place up, killing one person and wounding five more.
Then I hear that the guy was shooting in the offices of an engineering firm and was an engineer himself.
I know that for various product related reasons that some people might want to kill engineers--like I for a while wanted to maim the guys that designed the 1984 Pontiac Fiero when it spent most of its first six months of my ownership in the Dealer's shop rather than in my Garage.
But still...
Engineers SHOOTING PEOPLE?
I thought that usually if an engineer wanted to kill you, their weapon of choice would be to BORE YOU TO DEATH.
You know--talking about interesting things like fluid flow and heat transfer coefficients, soil bearing capacity, electrical impedance, or the effect of long chain polymer chemistry on the tensil strength of ultra high density polyethylene (UHDPE for short.)
Although I can talk about all of that stuff, I generally don't break it out in casual conversation in a bar or at Thanksgiving dinner...BUT...
If I really wanted to hurt you I would generally assault you through your ears and mind (and possibly your eyes if you had to look at me while I was talking.)
On second thought, I guess that some people could think that engineers routinely kill people when airliners fall out of the sky or bridges collapse or their new white Toyota Prias squashes like a grape when it comes in contact with the front bumper of my old Chevy Suburban at 60 MPH.
Problem is, those events are hardly ever attributed to an actual engineering design flaw...they're usually owner and/or operator induced failures.
For instance, most "uncontrolled contact with terrain events" a.k.a. "air disasters" are initially caused by inexperienced pilots flying into bad weather or running a perfectly good airplane out of gas.
And military and commercial aircraft, while closely scrutinized, usually fail because of the enormous numbers of hours that they're in the air and issues relating to maintenance mistakes or the shear parts fatigue of their demanding daily operations.
And you certainly can't blame the engineers when they are technically unable to build a box with an electric motor and wheels that gets 50 MPG and can also withstand a potential assault by a 6,000 pound Suburban or a 80,000 tractor trailer rig when they try to occupy the same piece of asphalt.
All of these theoretical incidents involve owners and operators assuming what they believe to be an acceptable amount of calculated RISK based on the initial cost of the equipment and the operating and maintenance cost of the systems (plane, train, car, bridge, whatever) after purchase.
Bridges that have lasted 40 years don't fall down because of an engineering design flaw, they generally fail because the local, state, and federal governments take the gas taxes from the bridge users at the gas pump and spend the "highway" money in other areas like child welfare programs or "stimulus packages" rather than inspecting and repairing and possibly REPLACING the bridge before it drops a couple of mini-vans full of children into the Ohio River.
And modern airliners don't fly safely for 10 years and then have a wing or engine tear off while your tray table and seat back are in the upright and locked position. It's not the guy with the calculator and pocket protector's inadequacy.
Things end up breaking off these days as a result of everyone wanting to fly from Atlanta to Detroit for $199 a seat--a price less that the cost of the gasoline I'd burn in my Suburban-and the Airlines having to cut costs to provide that kind of ticket pricing and still stay solvent.
As a result of the flying public wanting cheap air fair, the airlines are forced to cut quality of service, charge fees for everything except using the restroom, and fly older and older planes by doing things like major rebuilds--called "life cycle extension programs."
Then they and their low fair paying passengers end up together in uncharted performance territory in a process of delaying or avoiding the purchase of new zillion dollar airplanes.
And what is the one additional thing that the safety of bridges and airplanes and automobile have in common?
G O V E R N M E N T.
We have the FAA (Federal Aviation Administration), the NTSB (National Transportation Safety Board), and the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) all spending BILLIONS if not TRILLIONS of taxpayer dollars each year writing laws and rules and legislating things like that your car has to automatically lock the doors and turn on the headlights, yet about 44,000 people die each year in auto accidents.
And all of the states have passed seat belt laws, but don't a bunch of people still die while not wearing a seat belt? They drive at the risk of paying a "fine"--actually more practically a tax--for exercising their free choice and thereby assuming a level of risk they are personally accountable for.
...taking a big breath here...
Now back to my original point.
I bet $20 bucks that within the MONTH that some stupid eco friendly sniveling, booger eating, tree hugging
They just can't help themselves, and with the events of the past week their "never waste an disaster" mentality will drive them over the edge again.
I repeat over and over and over that we don't need new laws limiting LAW ABIDING citizens rights of gun ownership and further, their rights to carry a gun.
IT'S ALREADY AGAINST THE LAW TO WALK UP AND SHOOT SOMEONE, and if more trained and licensed private citizens were allowed to legally carry guns into churches and theaters and on college campuses, most of the events making the news over the past ten or twenty years would have been limited else prevented outright.
Further, it was already ILLEGAL--an outright gun ban was in place-- on of all places the military base in Texas, yet that asshole simply drove on base with not one but two guns and shot a bunch of un-armed soldiers and civilians.
I somehow find it amazing that the military has taken a policy of locking almost every one of their guns and ammo up and relying on the MP's and private security forces to maintain their security functions.
I bet if the guy had walked into a US military base in 1944 or 1952, pulled out a gun and fired a shot, that twenty different people would have drawn their own weapons and blown his miserable head off.
Instead, in 2009 some guy walks into a government mandated "gun free zone" and fires OVER A HUNDRED FREAKING ROUNDS before someone manages to draw a bead on him and drop him (I wish they had killed the bastard so we won't have to spend ten million on a trial.)
I see it like this...most of these crazy spineless morons like the Texas and Florida (and Virginia Tech and Columbine) shooters would never walk into a Saloon in California in 1875 and start shooting if they knew that everyone else in the room had one if not two guns on their person, would they?
If they did they would get what they deserved and the only "due process" remaining when the smoke cleared would be to pick up the pieces and mop the floor.
Anybody agree with me here?
Yes?
No?
Well, finally, in closing (and in jest,) don't be surprised if, as a result of the Orlando shootings, some kook legislator will try to pass a new law designed to require Engineers to register in a database like "sexual predators." (I think maybe they call it the State PE Licensing Board...Roy)
As a result they'll also probably want to make us stay at least a hundred yards away from libraries and technical bookstores.
And then if someone opens a computer store in my neighborhood, being an engineer I'd likely be forced to sell my house and move at least a mile away.
These same kinds of laws and procedures and mandates are in effect today at government mandate in the name of "protecting women and children", and you see the outcome...children are still disappearing and dieing at an alarming rate.
Government can't control anyone but law abiding citizens, and all I'm saying here Ladies and Gentlemen is that you just watch what happens, and try to think logically and intelligently rather than reacting emotionally.
In my considered Redneck opinion, "There aught to be a law..." isn't always true, and I don't want to give up any more of my Constitutional and God given freedoms to our hysterical, power grabbing government.
Friday, November 06, 2009
Ultimate Home Workshop
I'm Now So Organized...I Can't Find Anything...
Sorry about the light blogging recently, but I have a good excuse...I'm happy to report that the last dust settled in my Basement yesterday afternoon.
OK...maybe the next to last dust.
That would be because like most men's home workshops...they're always a work in progress.
That said, I say that I'm finished with mine for now because:
A. I've run out of money
B. I'm tired of building the shop and I believe that it's time to actually get some WORK done in my "workshop."
In the past four weeks I've taken every single tool I own, and almost every single nut and bolt and nail--or at least the boxes containing same--and dusted them off and cleaned things out and sorted like things in with like things to the point that when everything went back on the shelves and bunkers and bins this morning I find myself wandering around in my own basement like an Alzheimer's patient in a Nuclear Plant (or maybe a shopping mall.)
For your enjoyment, here's a photo looking at the entry wall of the 20'x12' shop area. All of the doors in these pictures are recycled Luan doors I pulled out of the main house when I replaced them with painted 6 panel slabs last year.
The bi fold doors cover a computer workstation with keyboard shelf and room for a file cabinet and my technical books. Of course there's also the obligatory TV and radio...if I could get a recliner in the room Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup would never see me again except at dinner I'm afraid.
Here's a look at the old workbench that was in that spot in the basement when we bought the house. It's build out of giant salvage lumber from the original home owner's farm and weighs about 500# I guess. Like that red door there covering my paint cans and WD-40?
Here's the wall opposite the entry, again showing our old closet doors covering a whole wall of storage shelves that came with the house...
Here's the same wall with the doors open showing where all the tools and supplies I've carefully put away and then forgotten which storage tub they reside in...
And finally, here's the new electronics workbench, made out of the old master bathroom door and covered with a sheet of 3/4" plywood. If you look closely you'll notice that the legs fold up and the whole thing is hinged to the wall (the entire wall is made of old doors except about 6" in one corner) so it can fold down out of the way if I ever decide to build a 16' sail boat or an experimental airplane in my old age...
There's still new 50 Amp 220 Volt and 20 Amp 110 Volt electrical circuits to install for future equipment like a small welding machine and larger capacity air compressor, but in the mean time I'm settling for the rewired and extended 1963 electrical circuits augmented with a new #6 grounding wire/rod circuit in an effort to reduce the chances of frying either myself or the sensitive equipment that will take form on the new bench.
Any way...back to my original point, I need to build something...and to that end I've had UPS dropping off multiple boxes almost every day this week, and I did another trip today to the Home Depot electrical isle for things like wire ties and wire labels and other wiring management stuff.
There's still a wire and tool trip to Radio Shack and Granger and possibly Northern Tool, and in the mean time I'm still waiting on the touch screen PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) to arrive from Indianapolis.
Speaking of Indianapolis, coincidentally Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I will be up there next week for a three day training class on the PLC company's unique programming software. It's free if you'll pay your own per diem and we couldn't pass up the opportunity.
That, and we hadn't made a road trip in about a month and I didn't want to violate my personal and now company travel policies--one adventure every thirty days of at LEAST eight hours in round trip duration.
I'm so excited about this chance to advance skills I haven't used since back in the early 1980's, and things have come so far technically since then (i.e. SIMPLER TO UNDERSTAND THAN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS) that I hope it's true that almost anyone with programming experience can become a PLC expert in short order.
I guess that it's time to do some paper work and a little news surfing...and why don't you join me in praying for the dead and wounded and their families out at Ft. Hood--yet additional victims of another wild eyed believer in that ever peaceful religion of Islam.
(&%$#@!ing towel heads...)
Sorry about the light blogging recently, but I have a good excuse...I'm happy to report that the last dust settled in my Basement yesterday afternoon.
OK...maybe the next to last dust.
That would be because like most men's home workshops...they're always a work in progress.
That said, I say that I'm finished with mine for now because:
A. I've run out of money
B. I'm tired of building the shop and I believe that it's time to actually get some WORK done in my "workshop."
In the past four weeks I've taken every single tool I own, and almost every single nut and bolt and nail--or at least the boxes containing same--and dusted them off and cleaned things out and sorted like things in with like things to the point that when everything went back on the shelves and bunkers and bins this morning I find myself wandering around in my own basement like an Alzheimer's patient in a Nuclear Plant (or maybe a shopping mall.)
For your enjoyment, here's a photo looking at the entry wall of the 20'x12' shop area. All of the doors in these pictures are recycled Luan doors I pulled out of the main house when I replaced them with painted 6 panel slabs last year.
The bi fold doors cover a computer workstation with keyboard shelf and room for a file cabinet and my technical books. Of course there's also the obligatory TV and radio...if I could get a recliner in the room Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup would never see me again except at dinner I'm afraid.
Here's a look at the old workbench that was in that spot in the basement when we bought the house. It's build out of giant salvage lumber from the original home owner's farm and weighs about 500# I guess. Like that red door there covering my paint cans and WD-40?
Here's the wall opposite the entry, again showing our old closet doors covering a whole wall of storage shelves that came with the house...
Here's the same wall with the doors open showing where all the tools and supplies I've carefully put away and then forgotten which storage tub they reside in...
And finally, here's the new electronics workbench, made out of the old master bathroom door and covered with a sheet of 3/4" plywood. If you look closely you'll notice that the legs fold up and the whole thing is hinged to the wall (the entire wall is made of old doors except about 6" in one corner) so it can fold down out of the way if I ever decide to build a 16' sail boat or an experimental airplane in my old age...
There's still new 50 Amp 220 Volt and 20 Amp 110 Volt electrical circuits to install for future equipment like a small welding machine and larger capacity air compressor, but in the mean time I'm settling for the rewired and extended 1963 electrical circuits augmented with a new #6 grounding wire/rod circuit in an effort to reduce the chances of frying either myself or the sensitive equipment that will take form on the new bench.
Any way...back to my original point, I need to build something...and to that end I've had UPS dropping off multiple boxes almost every day this week, and I did another trip today to the Home Depot electrical isle for things like wire ties and wire labels and other wiring management stuff.
There's still a wire and tool trip to Radio Shack and Granger and possibly Northern Tool, and in the mean time I'm still waiting on the touch screen PLC (Programmable Logic Controller) to arrive from Indianapolis.
Speaking of Indianapolis, coincidentally Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I will be up there next week for a three day training class on the PLC company's unique programming software. It's free if you'll pay your own per diem and we couldn't pass up the opportunity.
That, and we hadn't made a road trip in about a month and I didn't want to violate my personal and now company travel policies--one adventure every thirty days of at LEAST eight hours in round trip duration.
I'm so excited about this chance to advance skills I haven't used since back in the early 1980's, and things have come so far technically since then (i.e. SIMPLER TO UNDERSTAND THAN EGYPTIAN HIEROGLYPHICS) that I hope it's true that almost anyone with programming experience can become a PLC expert in short order.
I guess that it's time to do some paper work and a little news surfing...and why don't you join me in praying for the dead and wounded and their families out at Ft. Hood--yet additional victims of another wild eyed believer in that ever peaceful religion of Islam.
(&%$#@!ing towel heads...)
Wednesday, November 04, 2009
Stinky Cheese And Web Page Printing
Things I Keep Forgetting To Admit Or Complain About...
Tonight I'm feeling lazy and distracted as seems to be usual recently, but while eating some leftovers as a snack and printing some vendor data sheets on laser measurement systems (try not to swoon) I remembered a couple of things I've thought about writing about but never can remember when I get the Blogger dashboard open and my fingers on the keyboard.
First of all, anyone but me out there like "stinky cheese??"
(Wipe the foot and genitalia images out of your mind and try to stay with me here...I'm trying to make a point.)
Seriously, today in my household we hardly ever or never buy "American Cheese" slices any more or generic orange blocks of Velveeta "cheese food products" or anything else without the word "Swiss" or "Gouda" or "Sharp" on the label.
Things get stranger and more expensive every day it seems.
Just show me the words:
Cow Feta?
Horse Feta?
Sheep Feta?
Deep Veined Blue Cheese?
Imported Organic Crumbly Goat Cheese?
(and possibly make me have to take out a loan to buy a couple of pounds of the stuff?)
NOW YOU'RE TALKING...
Let's face it...I like my stinky cheese these days, and the older I get the stronger I like it.
Maybe it's because I'm trying to have an excuse for my breath and armpits and butt smelling like they do (OK TMI), or it's just that possibly I'm hoping that the cheese covers the odors I emit after a couple of days wandering around the Turbo Pup compound in the same pair of socks.
Any way, what brought this to mind was that last night we thawed out a couple of medium sized Beef tenderloins--about an inch and a half thick each--and I sliced a big pocket into the inside of each of them and then seared everything on each side in a big skillet on the stove, then finished them to about medium doneness in the oven.
Then I danced around opening their insides up and I stuffed those suckers with a portion of nice strong crumbled blue cheese.
After adding some bacon and sauteed mushrooms on top and some smashed red potatoes containing a quarter pound of butter and more blue cheese on the side, Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I dined, and then I collapsed back into the bed on top of the omni-present heating pad to recover from the day's basement shop construction efforts.
Then about 1 AM I awakened and decided to work on some more paperwork and do some more work on the Internet...bringing me to my final bitching moment this morning...
Ready?
Does anyone but me think that all website designers also own stock in the office paper companies?
No?
Yes?
I think that they do.
Otherwise, why is it that almost every time you print out a web page you get one or two or three pages, followed by that infuriating LAST page that has nothing but possibly a disclaimer and a header/footer?
Understand?
I've got near an entire REAM of paper in my recycle/reuse bin with only one or two lines of text on them...all MEANINGLESS AND USELESS to the task at hand when I was printing.
Am I nuts?
Am I petty?
Am I just Paranoid?
OK
In the words of PopEye..."I am what I am and that's all that I am..."
Regards Y'all...
Tonight I'm feeling lazy and distracted as seems to be usual recently, but while eating some leftovers as a snack and printing some vendor data sheets on laser measurement systems (try not to swoon) I remembered a couple of things I've thought about writing about but never can remember when I get the Blogger dashboard open and my fingers on the keyboard.
First of all, anyone but me out there like "stinky cheese??"
(Wipe the foot and genitalia images out of your mind and try to stay with me here...I'm trying to make a point.)
Seriously, today in my household we hardly ever or never buy "American Cheese" slices any more or generic orange blocks of Velveeta "cheese food products" or anything else without the word "Swiss" or "Gouda" or "Sharp" on the label.
Things get stranger and more expensive every day it seems.
Just show me the words:
Cow Feta?
Horse Feta?
Sheep Feta?
Deep Veined Blue Cheese?
Imported Organic Crumbly Goat Cheese?
(and possibly make me have to take out a loan to buy a couple of pounds of the stuff?)
NOW YOU'RE TALKING...
Let's face it...I like my stinky cheese these days, and the older I get the stronger I like it.
Maybe it's because I'm trying to have an excuse for my breath and armpits and butt smelling like they do (OK TMI), or it's just that possibly I'm hoping that the cheese covers the odors I emit after a couple of days wandering around the Turbo Pup compound in the same pair of socks.
Any way, what brought this to mind was that last night we thawed out a couple of medium sized Beef tenderloins--about an inch and a half thick each--and I sliced a big pocket into the inside of each of them and then seared everything on each side in a big skillet on the stove, then finished them to about medium doneness in the oven.
Then I danced around opening their insides up and I stuffed those suckers with a portion of nice strong crumbled blue cheese.
After adding some bacon and sauteed mushrooms on top and some smashed red potatoes containing a quarter pound of butter and more blue cheese on the side, Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup and I dined, and then I collapsed back into the bed on top of the omni-present heating pad to recover from the day's basement shop construction efforts.
Then about 1 AM I awakened and decided to work on some more paperwork and do some more work on the Internet...bringing me to my final bitching moment this morning...
Ready?
Does anyone but me think that all website designers also own stock in the office paper companies?
No?
Yes?
I think that they do.
Otherwise, why is it that almost every time you print out a web page you get one or two or three pages, followed by that infuriating LAST page that has nothing but possibly a disclaimer and a header/footer?
Understand?
I've got near an entire REAM of paper in my recycle/reuse bin with only one or two lines of text on them...all MEANINGLESS AND USELESS to the task at hand when I was printing.
Am I nuts?
Am I petty?
Am I just Paranoid?
OK
In the words of PopEye..."I am what I am and that's all that I am..."
Regards Y'all...
Tuesday, November 03, 2009
A New Load Of Lumber
And A Sore Back...
Yet another truck showed up in my driveway yesterday afternoon.
It was my fault, because I stopped by and ordered it from a local building supply (not Lowe's or Home Depot) after making the obligatory bi-weekly trip to Staples and Home Depot.
I don't know what I'm thinking sometimes when the 75 pound slabs of 3/4 inch thick plywood show up in my carport.
How do you get a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of wood into your basement past a kitchen and dining room table, around a corner through a door, down the stairs, around another 90 degree turn into it's future resting place?
My only solution is to cut it up into the slabs and strips in the sizes it will ultimately reside in, then make three or four trips with Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup hanging onto the other end rather than falling down the stairway on my head with the full sized slab of laminated wood on top of me.
In addition to A/B grade plywood, there was also five sheets of 1/4 pegboard intended to line the open spaces in the new wall framework and cover part of the freshly painted concrete wall.
Bad news is my back and right shoulder is giving me fits so I've been relegated to slumping at my desk and hanging out in the bed reclining on the heating pad for part of the past 48 hours.
Add to that organic pain the neurological costs of the spasms sent through my spine when I read the newspaper and watch the TV news and I hope you understand why I'm currently feeling every single minute of my past 50 years in my forehead and butt.
Time to go clean my guns and hone my blades I guess...
Yet another truck showed up in my driveway yesterday afternoon.
It was my fault, because I stopped by and ordered it from a local building supply (not Lowe's or Home Depot) after making the obligatory bi-weekly trip to Staples and Home Depot.
I don't know what I'm thinking sometimes when the 75 pound slabs of 3/4 inch thick plywood show up in my carport.
How do you get a 4 foot by 8 foot sheet of wood into your basement past a kitchen and dining room table, around a corner through a door, down the stairs, around another 90 degree turn into it's future resting place?
My only solution is to cut it up into the slabs and strips in the sizes it will ultimately reside in, then make three or four trips with Pat and Missy the Turbo Pup hanging onto the other end rather than falling down the stairway on my head with the full sized slab of laminated wood on top of me.
In addition to A/B grade plywood, there was also five sheets of 1/4 pegboard intended to line the open spaces in the new wall framework and cover part of the freshly painted concrete wall.
Bad news is my back and right shoulder is giving me fits so I've been relegated to slumping at my desk and hanging out in the bed reclining on the heating pad for part of the past 48 hours.
Add to that organic pain the neurological costs of the spasms sent through my spine when I read the newspaper and watch the TV news and I hope you understand why I'm currently feeling every single minute of my past 50 years in my forehead and butt.
Time to go clean my guns and hone my blades I guess...
