Cross your fingers

Lets hope the parking lot lights we"ll be working on today aren't as f*cked-up as the other two sections were.
I know they will be, though- because all the joints were made up by the ex-foreman who screwed up the entire job from the beginning. I've already had to re-pull different wire into three of the same poles three times as the incoming identification tape changed.

Jeez, I'm getting tired of climbing in and out of the bucket truck.



AND I'd like to do get something non work related done this weekend.



UNRELATED, but I saw it on my home page...

'Why do Muslims fast from dawn till dusk during the month of Ramadan?'
Why should I care and when are y'all going to start doing PR for Judeo-Christian values?

More jobblogging

Sorry.

Roberta had a good post up yesterday about what her guys go through in maintaining their TV transmitters.

Our stuff isn't as high, or time consuming, and we only have about 10% of the height to work at.

Besides, we







Cheat.

How to be a d1ck

in two steps.

Step one- be a cop.

Step two- sit at a four way stop sign during morning rush hour.

That way those clueless people who usually want to wait untill the sign turns green will wait an additional three minutes to go through the intersection.

AND -I forgot my wallet this morning and had to borrow the wifes debit card.
I don't know if the S-10 has a 16 or 17 gal. tank, but I ended up putting 15.8 gallons in it.

Tam wants to get a 'movement' going

So to make it easier, just cut and paste this:

"You can get anything you want at Alice's restaurant."

over here.




You young ones who don't know, might need to listen to the song first, so you know what you're getting into. If things go all pear shaped, you may even end up sitting in the "Group 'W' " bench with the mother raper and father rapers.

I thought it was done

and the lamestream media had moved on, but I was slapped with this smirking picture as soon as Yahoo opened up. Now, I guess we're in for another month of the Media's orgy of grief over his burial and retrospectives on the first outburst of overkill.

Naming names

And using the right titles.

Ok, I was a little put off when I heard Bush the 1st designating someone as a -something-Czar, and the occasional additional Czars.

Now that our version of Lennon Lenin is going back to his philosophical roots, lets get our nomenclature right.

A Czar was the inherent monarch of the Russian empire.

What we now have in D.C. are political appointees with absolute authority answerable only to the Lightbringer. Normally it would be accurate to call them the nomenklatura, but we Americans are lazy, and it's a hard word to say, so how about either apparatchiks or commissars?

Not as accurate, but the meaning comes through all the same.

Wakey, wakey! Rise and shine!

"All hands! All hands! Heave ho! Heave ho! Heave ho! Lash up and stow,
lash up and stow! Wakey, wakey; rise and shine, the morning's fine;
you've had your time and I've had mine! The sun's scorching your
bleedin' eyes out! Beautiful dreamer, lash up and stow! The cooks to
the galley have gone long ago! Show a leg! Show a leg! Make a move!"


I'm off to work today, but heard a snatch of music as I was turning off the alarm.
It wasn't this song, but close enough that it's now an ear worm.

Enjoy, because I'm nice like that...

What could possibly go wrong?

The worlds smartest negro is looking at Michigan to house his Gitmo guests while they cool their heels waiting for trials.

Michigan, the second largest concentration of moslims in America. Who'd ever think that there might be an invisible sign saying "Cause trouble" anywhere near the place?


Also, I'm not any kind of a lawyer, never got paid to pretend to be one, or teach the constitution- but doesn't just being IN the U.S. give them some kind of rights they wouldn't have in Gitmo?

A copper mine

We were at the new stadium yesterday working on the parking lot lights when my leadman called me over to do a pull for the scoreboard.
It was about 400 feet long with four #4 stranded and a #6 ground in a 1" conduit. Then they added another circuit of #12s, so I was now supposed to pull seven wires through a 1" hole, 400 feet long.

So I get set up with my boom extended to all of it's 55 feet to get above the framework of the target megatron screen and drop the winch line. As I'm on the phone, I tell them they need either a rope or a triple mule tape pull because of both the distance and I *know* how some of that conduit was bent (ovalled) when it was run.

They said they couldn't use a rope because they couldn't fit a made-up head inside the pipe, so I pulled two tapes through and told them we were going to have problems because I was feeling lots of tension on the truck just pulling that head.

I don't know how many 90's I pulled that wire through ( ths code calls for a max of 4 in a single run) but I know I had to idle down and let that wire decide by its self when it wanted to come through some spots- or I'd for sure lose it.

I finally got to the last 90 going up the base of the scoreboard when I hit a something that didn't want to give. I tried everything I could to coax it through the problem and it seemed to be working as my boom started regaining the foot it got sucked down (think of a 55' fishing rod) and I took up slack again and popped both those mule tapes. The guy at my end caught the tape and we retied, and after gaining about a foot snapped that, too and lost it in the conduit.


Today, they tried pulling it back for another try, but no matter what they did, it was unmovable, so there is about 500 pounds of abandoned copper under a brand new stadium in San Antonio.
Of course it's under the press box, parking lot and the astro turf field it's self, but if you want to try for it......

So I get to the yard this morning

I'm all laid out as to what my plans are for the day- when one of the service guys asks if I'm the one taking the boom truck up to Belton?

Um,,,,never heard about it, where is it?
Up by Tyler.

Oh, it's not (a local high end car dealer)- better call my boss.

As I'm dumping my tools into the first truck- his boss is calling mine.
As I drive my POV past them, my phone rings...Oh. look it's (bossman)!

You need to take the boom truck and yellow trailer with those light poles up to Belton and help service swap them out. You'll be up there several days.

OK.

To their boss- ok I'm yours, of course it would be nice to bring some clean stuff with me...
**You don't have anything?
Nope, this is the first I heard about it.
**Ok, go home and get your stuff, we'll get the truck sorted out.

I took a two and a half hour round trip to do a quick grab of what I'd need up there, including the internet unready laptop and took the most time looking for the birthday present Karen only watched one episode of.

Then back to work to drag the trailer from work to the HEB in Belton, Tx.

So,,, 2 1/2 hours later we pull in and drop the trailer so we can move poles when....
Those bases don't look right, they look too small.
-So out comes the tape and they're an inch and a quarter too short...so the phone calls start.

We end up pulling a pole, making a template of the bottom and resetting the pole. Then resecuring the new poles and hooking up the trailer for the ride back to the yard.

I ended up with 11 hours today- 75% driving nowhere.

Ice road truckers in the back ground

I thought Hugh Roland was supposed to be some kind of super trucker?

L:ast week he got hit on his logs, and now he just found out his Jake brake isn't working---on a downslope, being pushed by 55K pounds of drill pipe.

I'm no super trucker, but I kept my jake brake on just for GP where I'd find big hills.
That way I'd know it was working when I needed to use the #3 position when I was going down big hills. Not just turning it on when I'm going too fast already....Hugh.


But then, I never wanted to be called a super trucker.
If anything, I'd rather be a steady trucker like Alex.

Cash for clunkers- do over

So this *NEW and IMPROVED* just got another $2 Billion to go for another four weeks huh?


How long did the FIRST Billion last?

And out of curiosity, we know that about 60% of approved apps (when they weren't crashing the site filling out the book like forms) went to foreign firms, then Ford and lastly the Peoples Auto factories. How much did each application cost us our great grand kids?

Speaking their own language

Grahm Norton is on the BBCAmerica now.
He was late starting because of some bogus 'breakthrough' show about a vampire, werewolf and a ghost trying to be normal.

Anyway, Graham has some guy that (I guess) is a big star over there and Sarah Ferguson- remember, the fun one of the two princesses of the 80's.

Anyway, the British wife is laughing to some (to my American ears) unintelligible mutterings and slang as an Irishman, a fun girl and some comedian trade colloquialisms that I have absolutely no idea of what they're saying.


Seriously,,,,which of these two do you think would be more fun in your favorite bar, man cave, range or strip club? The Ice Princess or 'the other one'?

I'll take the real sized red head who's down to earth TYVM..... hey guys, curves are good.

Correct me if I'm wrong

But wasn't this guy collecting a salary for being the Illinois Senator for four years before he got where he is today?



I also seem to remember the Dems taking control of BOTH houses of Congress in 2006.

Down here, CPS is looking at more nukes

And the newest mayor of San Antonio, Julian Castro (Dem) is now balking at the idea of building two new nuke plants down at the South Texas nuclear project.

The freaks up in Austin are already up in arms about basically *ANY* new power, but nukes especially.

At least they haven't gone the 'safety' rout yet. Maybe it's because someone will point out that in the ENTIRE history of nuclear power production there has only been one incident that cause death or serious injury....and THAT was caused by a plant entirely designed, built and operated by GOVERNMENT EMPLOYEES.

Those anti-nuke people aren't against all new power, however. They'd like nothing less than to cure our growing population and energy problems with conservation and renewable energy.

Ok, that's a nice thought, but do me a favor and get out your 'Big Chief' notebook and a #2 pencil.
We'll make it simple, say we have a plant that puts out 100 units of power and the customers use 95 units, we have 5 units in reserve.
The energy company wants to ad another 100 units so we can have 105 units to sell to other power companies and to have plenty for our ever growing population.

The greenies want to ad maybe 40 units on a plot of land 20 times larger than the nuke site- that will ONLY work during the day and if it's windy enough- which it seldom is both. we'll be optimistic and call it 15 units online.
So we have 20 reserve units that we need to withhold from selling because it's unreliable.
Lets review because some aren't good at word problems.
Nukes- 4 of them giving 200 units of power, with 105 to sell to offset the huge construction bill.
Renuables- 2 nukes and solar/wind farms with a 120 peak output and (maybe)25 in reserve that you can't sell to offset the HUGE construction bill.

Now lets add the reason for the discussion- an additional population that will demand electricity ion the future. I don't know, but since they keep coming, lets say 40 new units of power in the foreseeable future.
BUT they'll be required to build green!
Ok, we'll knock off an unrealistic 15 units there and have a combined demand of 95 plus 25 gives us a demand of...130- cool, we're in hot beans.

EXCEPT....solar doesn't work at night, windmills need a minimum (and maximum) airspeed to operate. There could be days without enough wind. Darkness happens every night and in the heat of this summer, demand isn't going down because it's still hot at night.

So we either have a massive bill with 200 units available and able to sell 105 to offset the HUGE bill
-OR-
A massive bill with 120 units of power and a questionable 25 in reserve- barely enough to meet our needs and none to sell to offset the huge bill. Then we have those HURRICANES we have here that'll shut down those eco-friendly power plants for weeks at a time- not to mention some tourist throwing bread up and getting the windmills shut down because of the massive seagull kills.

That reminds me

Eric has a C.W.McCall ditty to clan an earworm from an earlier post.

Well, after last Saturdays work and moving a trailer to another jobsite- with a balky release valve. I knew how those trailewrs could deal with dragging brakes from my trips over the Rockies and the Appalachians. especialy since it was less than five miles to the new jobsite, so I drug (literally) that trailer with dragging brakes and could only get to 35MPH.
When I got to the jobsite they. were. smiking.
Not as bad as I've seen on the downhill sides of some famous slopes, but still pretty hot. The old plastic wheel hubs broke and spilled lube oil all over the rims.



Anyway, that reminded me of this song..

THIS.............

Is why you don't tailgate.


If that red truck is a semi, which it looks like it is, the front bumper was inside that car before the air even started the rear brakes working.




Bigger and better pic at Dicks.

Operation 'Supply Our Students' is on again

You probably have something going on around you with a similar name.

I know these disadvantaged poor kids need school stuff. Probably more than those that are better off.

BUT--- when did it become *MY* responsibility to be guilted into buying them cr@p that their parents should be?
The stuff they're asking for doesn't really cost all that much. I know what's on the required supply list, I had kids in school lately.
These social-economically disadvantaged adults could forgo their carton of cut rate smokes and get their entire brood school supplies for a year.
-Or put off a payment on those low profile tires gracing your hoodmobile or the preamp and base that pisses-off people for a quarter mile around you,

What all those 'disadvantaged' people need is someone to kick them in the ass whenever they fall down in the parental responsibility department.
But we know that'll never happen because it might cause them to be uncomfortable and now-a-days America is all about fast fixes and feelings.

HI! Did you miss me?

It seems I haven't put anything here in forever, but I see I threw something up just last Thursday.

Not much worth writing about in the news it seems. Michael Jackson is still dead.
So is Tim Russert.
The Newest Auto bailout is broke and showing how badly the .gov can run anything.

We're working 7 days a week and I'm usually gone from the house 11 to 12 hours a day.
I haven't been able to change the oil in the trucks, and they're about three weeks overdue.
We're running on reserve food at Casa Trainwreck because I haven't had a chance to do any *real* food shopping.

BUT, I did send the tax cheat Tim Geitner a quarter of what he says I owe for checking one extra box for the 18-yr-old.

The sense of entitlement in D.C.

Kay Bailey Hutchison, the one who voted for the last Amnesty bill when she though no one was watching has decided it's her turn to be Governor of Texas.
To further her goals, she has decided our current Governor- the very able Rick Perry, needs to step aside in the primaries so as not to interfere with her Senate gig.

AUSTIN — U.S. Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison's message today was as simple as it was confusing: If Gov. Rick Perry doesn't quit his re-election race to give me a free run at the Republican gubernatorial nomination, I'll quit the Senate to run against him.

In just a matter of hours, Hutchison told a Dallas radio station in a telephone interview that she planned to quit her Senate seat in October or November to challenge Perry. But then several hours later she told reporters in Washington that her statements had been misunderstood and what she really wanted was for Perry to get out of the race.

“Nobody expected [Perry] to run for 15 years, and I think there's a chance that he wouldn't run because he would see how divisive it is and that he's trying to stay too long and that he can really help in many ways if he doesn't run, in which case I could then be able to stay in the Senate all the way to the end,” Hutchison said, according to Congressional Quarterly.
Rick Perry assumed the governorship in late 2000 with the election of Bush as President.

As you read the article, you'll notice that her staff is using the Democrat rout of campaigning and heading straight to the pig pit of verbiage. I guess they learned how to get things done that way in DeeCee, but we don't really want to operate that way here Kay- just in case you forgot where you came from.

I'll not be voting for her again.


Stolen from Alamo City Pundit.

A healthcar preview

Brought to you by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
They're suspending the Cash for clunkers program as of midnight tonight,,,,because of the huge backlog of unprocessed files.

Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns about large backlogs in the processing of the deals in the government system, prompting the suspension.

A survey of 2,000 dealers by the National Automobile Dealers Association found about 25,000 deals had not yet approved by NHTSA, or nearly 13 trades per store. It raised concerns that with about 23,000 dealers taking part in the program, auto dealers may already have surpassed the 250,000 vehicle sales funded by the $1 billion program.

"There's a significant backlog of 'cash for clunkers' deals that make us question how much funding is still available in the program," said Bailey Wood, a spokesman for the dealers association.

The bureaucrats can't take care of less than 25,000 sales- HOW do they think they can manage 300,000,000 medical cases?

And yet in the same article, they predict the fiscal results of the massive healthcare bureaucracy to come...."Even before the suspension, some in Congress were seeking more money for the auto sales stimulus. Rep. Candice Miller, R-Mich., wrote in a letter to House leaders on Wednesday requesting additional funding for the program."


Now, wtf is the NHTSA doing administering funds for auto sales?

Kewl, It's nice to have friends

Via ZIP

We have surprise help in the Afghani anti-terror war- that's not a war on terror (or something like that).
The tiny country of Columbia is going to repay us, the U.S. for our help in training them to fight Marxist terrorists by sending troops to Afghanistan.

Ten years ago, they didn't even exist. Today, elite Colombian Special Operations troops are preparing to fight alongside the U.S. in Afghanistan, reports CBS News chief foreign affairs correspondent Lara Logan.

For Colombia, it's a way to give something back to the U.S., and the American Green Berets who've spent the last decade training them.

General Freddy Padilla de Leon, Colombia's top military man, chose an interview with Logan to make the surprise announcement his men would join the fight in Afghanistan.

"Very soon ... Maybe in August or September. This will be our first opportunity in our history," Padilla said.

Colombia's recent history is written in blood. An insurgency waged by leftist guerillas known as the FARC. And funded with drug money brought Colombia to its knees.

Colombia today is a different world. The economy is thriving and order has been restored.

It's a surprise announcement. Think Obama knows yet? If he does, how long do you think it'll take for him to revoke their ........combat VISAs because they were fighting against his fellow travelers in FARC (no, not the news aggregate), since he'll do that to countries who want to keep dictator free.

Well, color me surprised

The .gov is changing the rules in the middle of the game, and guess who it bebefits?

Any one want to bring this up as a comparison to nationalized healthcare?
I bet Rush has something to say.

But I *did* get them all right

This is the reason I hate taking tests like this.

Instead of getting one wrong and besting 80% of test takers, I know that the sun is made of hydrogen and that affects climate change more than the CO2 AlGore convinced 'scientists' believe.

How did you do?

Cash for clunkers and other car thoughts

Ok, we now have an idea about our Unifier in Chief's new ,,,,,carmulus,,,, plan.

It's reported that his bureaucrats over at the NTSA(???wtf?) have pulled these requirements out of their collective butts.

* Your vehicle must be less than 25 years old on the trade-in date
* Only purchase or lease of new vehicles qualify
* Generally, trade-in vehicles must get 18 or less MPG (some very large pick-up trucks and cargo vans have different requirements)
* Trade-in vehicles must be registered and insured continuously for the full year preceding the trade-in
* You don't need a voucher, dealers will apply a credit at purchase
* Program runs through Nov 1, 2009 or when the funds are exhausted, whichever comes first.
* The program requires the scrapping of your eligible trade-in vehicle, and that the dealer disclose to you an estimate of the scrap value of your trade-in. The scrap value, however minimal, will be in addition to the rebate, and not in place of the rebate.

I also read somewhere that there will be a $15000 fine for not scrapping clunkers. I don't know if this is per each cherry 64 Mustang that didn't get destroyed or just a blanket fine that lets the '74 goat sell for free.- Oh wait, were talking about the '80's none were worth saving- never mind.


OK, I have my 1967 C-10 I'm tired of getting 10 MPG and want to get rid of the thing because it'll cost too much to restore, but it's too old and I can't afford a newer car.

So I just keep driving the gas guzzler because those DeeCee lifers have never seen a vehicle older than 25 years on the road where they live. Right?


I guess this plan WILL apply to Ford, too- even though they're in competition with the two Peoples Auto Manufacturing Collectives.

AND, lastly- as I was wondering this morning while idling 5MPH below the speed limit...will Ford be doing away with those black and white Crown Vics that was causing the slowdown?
Because Obama Motors will make all .gov enforcement agencies buy from them for their cruiser needs.

Great Britain

The doughy island nation that launched an empire that spanned the world for centuries.

Who stood alone against the Nazis.

Who's colonies sprouted countries that lead the free world in liberty, inventiveness and self reliance.

Is now carding people for trying to buy a pizza cutter?
And forcing businesses to remove signs from yards so as to prevent people from walking into them.

And as Lord Nelson spins in his grave, arrests a man for defending his son from a youth gang -with a letter opener.

But hey they have Gov't healthcare!

Watching "Ice road truckers"

Hugh got busted by the Alaska DOT for his logs.
The way he acts, I though he had his chit together on a simple line graph logbook.

I'm not a 'super trucker' like Hugh, but I can show him how to jimmy his logbook to get around the mandatory rest periods.

Sometimes it's a name that captures your attention

You might not know the details, but the names make you remember them.

Galiploli

The battle of Rourke's drift

Bull run

The Alamo

Trafalgar

Sugar loaf

And we have a lesser known one close to home-
The second Battle of Adobe Walls.
Which saw Quannah Parker an 700-800 warriors of assorted tribes attacking the trading post of Adobe Walls with 28 buffalo hunters (including one named Billy Dixon) and a woman inside.

When the attack commenced at dawn on the 27th, Dixon and the others retreated to the camp’s saloon and several stores. The Indians charged on foot and horseback to the very doors of the buildings, killing three hunters. The hunters repelled the furious charge with their revolvers; the attackers then backed off and pinned down the hunters with peppering rifle fire. The hunters, suffering no more losses, switched to their heavy buffalo guns and returned fire, inflicting moderate casualties.

On the second or third day of battle (reports differ), a group of Cheyennes appeared on a mesa some distance from the camp. Dixon grabbed a Sharps “Big .50” rifle, sighted in one of the exposed Indians, and shot the Indian out of his saddle. Sizing up their losses, the Indians shortly retired from the battlefield and the Second Battle of Adobe Walls was over.

The distance of Dixon’s shot has long been a source of debate. Suspect early reports placed the distance at 1,538 yards. Dixon never sought credit for the shot nor even addressed it, leaving the question open for more than a century. Recent research at the site, may have resolved the matter, pegging the shot at a shorter, though still astounding, 1,200 yards, more than two-thirds of a mile.

I'd hate to be the white cop in that room

That room being the Oval Office with the smartest negro in America and his buddy the black racist who got himself arrested for interfering with a police investigation.

You know, the one the most eloquent black person in America called 'stupid'- for doing his job the way he was trained to do.

I'm sure that office politics had nothing to do with Crowley accepting this ........ informal knowledge session.

More joblogging

We're working all weekend to get six runs of conduit in the ground before they have to finish paving this week-end.

See, the guy who used to be in charge of the stadium job was falling down doing it and got demoted for doing it. The conduit was supposed to be in about six months ago before all the parking lots got done.
But he was too busy doing other things than pushing the job.

I don't think he's working for our company anymore.
The boss doesn't like loosing money like that.