Sunday, December 29, 2019

No storm, just winter





I didn't do much of a job managing my tasks yesterday. In my defense I was feeling a bit yeech. Having a good bit of nerve pain. Just part of life, no major change or cause for sympathy. It was just enough to throw me off my game plan. What I should have took and went and did was power through it with the old Jedi mind trick and a helping hand from the Big Aircrew Chief, but instead I chose to be whiny and miserable and feel sorry for myself. So I hosed up my Jedi-do list and flailed around like a monkey bleeping a football.

This morning things haven't changed all that much with two exceptions. Still feel yeech. Still hurt. Didn't sleep well. The icing on the cake is that our "storm" blew in a lot of snow from the north, and blowing snow from the north causes snow drifts on the southern exposure of pretty much everything that pokes up out of the ground. Trees, bushes, clumps of grass, buildings, SJW's waiting for the bus to Cluetowne, and all like that. So there was a monster drift parked right in front of my car port in town, and it needed to be moved by the professional lifter and mover -- me.



What? The two exceptions? What the hell are you on about, can't you see I'm trying to, er, oh. Yeah. The two exceptions. Ahem.

I did the old Jedi mind trick and I had a nice talk with the Big Aircrew Chief. As with most conversations with the Chief, it went like this:

Me: "Whine."

Big Aircrew Chief: "Shut up. You know how this shit works. Get out there and do it, and do it right. I got your back, but I'll kick your ass if you don't unfiretruck yourself."

Me: "Aye Chief, and thanks."

Big Aircrew Chief: "Get the firetruck out of here."

The snow drift was easy to move. It might have been a big snow drift for a civilian or a mud duck, but it was less than a pipsqueak drift for a sailor. Ten minutes tops, including time to shoot a video.

Big Aircrew Chief: "Put that #$&@#&*!#$ phone away!"

Me: "Aye Chief, and thanks."

I headed out to the ranch. Roads snow covered except where the wind has scoured them clear down to the ice layer. Not optimal for driving. Especially for people who are in the middle of driving somewhere but haven't yet decided whether they actually want to be driving somewhere. Judgmental? Who, me?



Conditions suck, but it sure is pretty out. For certain values of pretty, but those values work for me.



Our chickens won the chicken lifestyle lottery.



Perfect conditions for shopping at the food store. Especially when you don't actually need any food, but want to get a bag of potatoes and two bags of trail mix. It's a form of insanity.



And that's it from here for today. I'm working on Super RBOC Part II and making some progress. For what it's worth.

Be well and enjoy the blessings of liberty.






20 comments:

  1. Quiet day here, too.

    33*, 10~12MPH wind, and partly cloudy. I'm listening to two guys chat about ground rods on the 20 Meter Ham band, and watching the squirrels climb up into our crab apple tree and get the remaining little crab apples for lunch.

    I never knew squirrels ate crab apples.....

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Ah, ground rods. Don't know if it's the same thing, but properly grounding an electric fence can be a challenge around here when it's dry. I've now got 30' steel rods in all the proper places, so far so good. And as I think of it, electric fence is pretty noisy on the AM band, or at least it pulses a lot of RF interference that the radio picks up. It's like having a portable fence tester!

      That's interesting about the squirrels. Maybe they sve the crab apples for winter.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting drjim!

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    2. It's a "kinda-sorta" thing. Your fence needs the charger to be well grounded so that when something touches the energized wire there's a "Ground Return" path between the animal and the charger. The animal completes the circuit back to the charger through the ground, current flows, the animal gets a shock, and (hopefully) moves away from the fence. The hot wires on the fence need to be insulated from the fence posts so the current can't leak away or get shorted to ground.

      And yes, if unmaintained, they can be exceptionally good RF Generators, causing interference far and wide, from below the AM radio band, up through VHF/UHF frequencies. You need to avoid any loose connections that will spark, and if you have any dissimilar metals, like aluminum wire connected to steel wire, you should ensure the connections are clean and (somewhat) waterproofed. Dissimilar metals that get weathered and are in poor contact will act like like little "diodes" or "rectifiers", which will generate very high levels of radio interference.

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    3. Uh-oh. I think I've been rather carelessly making RF pollution all these years.

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  2. So happy I won't be driving 71 tomorrow on the medical courier route. Don't miss it, not even a little bit.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. By tomorrow it'll be clear sailing! Well, Tuesday maybe.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete
  3. Well, after the Christmas "rush" I'm trying to catch up on my blog reading. Good to find another NAC Ride-Along series. Your area is starting to look familiar from all the videos.

    NAS Kimball, love it.

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    Replies
    1. You would have felt (at least partially) right at home yesterday with all the USAF SF teams out in the "storm". Sky was thick with UH-1N's and there were dozens and dozens of heavily armed hummers running up and down the roads. Must have been moving or simulating moving a Minuteman III.

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Sarge!

      Delete
  4. "...less than a pipsqueak drift for a sailor."
    There isn't much a real sailor can't deal with when he puts his mind to it.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. That's a fact!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting!

      Delete
  5. You should get a small snowblower, so you can finish quicker, and get to throwing the ball for Nona, faster!

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  6. I would, but she likes playing snow shovel ball so much and I'd hate to take that away from her. Or the exercise away from me frankly.

    Thanks for stopping by and commenting Scott!

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  7. I was kinda sorta hoping we would get snow for Christmas, didn't happen.
    Don't know why but,for some reason I thought you lived on the ranch with mom. Have you always lived in town? LOL guess that is really none of my business.
    Need to replenish the Tahoe's go bag with winter items, and put my snow melt and shovel back in it. If the weather holds to a slow drizzle I'm off to my SIL & BIL's river house on the Columbia to do some sturgeon fishing.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. We had springtime for Christmas, followed by the recent wintry unpleasantness.

      I lived at the ranch until Mom and Dad retired to the country from town, reversing the more common trend. I moved to town then; I have a big corner lot with an old service station building and a small house. I've grown accustomed to high speed internet in town, so no plans to relocate any time soon. May end up back out there if Mom gets to a place where she needs help but the last thing she needs right now is someone hovering over her.

      Have fun fishing! I just flashed to memory pics of the Columbia; what a magnificent river!

      Thanks for stopping by and commenting Brig!

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  8. I really. really, really hate Blogger.

    Paul L. Quandt

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    Replies
    1. I have a policy of punching progroogle employees in the mouth wherever I find them.

      Thanks for stopping by and trying to comment Paul!

      Delete
    2. It was a really good comment too. Oh well. The only thing of any importance was a request for an explanation of when a sailor is to respond to an order with ' aye ' and when with ' aye aye '. For those of us/me who didn't choose the Naval Service.

      Thanks for the post.
      Paul

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    3. That's a good question. I don't think it has a single answer. It's a bit of brevity and a bit of informality you can often but not always get away with when responding to a Chief. Depends on the circumstance. It's also a bit of what used to be called "silent insolence" as you intentionally leave the second aye out and kind-sorta dare the superior to call you on it. It can also be a local or individual thing. In my experience it's not something I'd say to an officer. Rather than "aye sir" I'd say "yessir." If a clear formal response to an officer's order was required I'd say "Aye-aye, Sir." So, kind of a mashup. You needn't worry about getting it wrong, though, because if you do you'll be told all about it. One of the reasons why it really wasn't just a job, but an adventure.

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    4. Yes, sometimes senior NCOs can be long-winded and rather full of themselves, can't they?

      Paul

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    5. Hard to imagine a senior NCO who didn't match that description, at least from time to time. I know I did.

      Delete