Year: 2015

Six Foot Tall

My height was listed as 5′-11″ on my very first driver’s license when I was sixteen. 6-00 is what it reads now on my current South Carolina driver’s license. I grew an inch in Navy boot camp and this height is what has been listed on every subsequent driver’s license, in whatever form required by any of the several states I’ve lived in since. In the intervening *cough* *cough* years I’m thinking that if measured it stocking feet today, I’d be back at the five foot eleven inch mark. In shoes though, still six foot even.

Back in May 2011 we bought a metal awning to park the Purple Whale under. The bottom edge of the powder coated mild steel side edge is 6′ 3″ from the surface of the driveway which allows for me to walk right under it. Normally. Sometimes I forget, like I did the day before yesterday, and step on the 3″ square tubing that serves as its base.

This caused me to bop the very tippy-top of my slightly pointed head. Fortunately I was wearing a hat so that instead of scraping off a dime sized layer of skin, I only ended up with a 1/4 inch long cut. Still it’s a head wound, so stopping the slight bit of bleeding took a while and a band aid.

In the past four years this happened with some regularity and you would think that I would avoid doing this and you’re right. I remember to step over the base or duck slightly when stepping on it for about two months, just about the time the previous wound heals.

Safety Poster

Forest Gump Safety PosterThis morning I was cleaning out some of my old files at work. Tossing out stuff from the previous century that were one-time things, stuff for people who have since retired and others that I can’t image I would be using as a template in the future.

About three year’s ago the Valve Store’s(tm) Ocupational Nurse held a little contest for employee suggestions for a new safety poster. So I worked up this cute little idea based on the movie poster for Forrest Gump and submitted it. I don’t remember what won, it wasn’t mine, so I’m sure it was fairly lame. 🙂

The only thing I can think of is they were afraid of a law suit from the legal department of Paramount Pictures. Or maybe the then nurse was smarter than she looked and saw through my sarcastic twist on the Forrest quote of, “Stupid is as stupid does.”

Started down, went up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1466

Why We Shouldn’t Lie

We were dressed and ready to go out for a dinner & theater evening. We turned on a ‘night light’, turned the answering machine on, covered our pet parrot and put the cat in the backyard. We phoned the local taxi company and requested a cab.

The taxi arrived, and we opened the front door to leave the house.

As we walked out the door, the cat we had put out in the yard scooted back into the house. We didn’t want the cat shut in the house because she always tries to get at the parrot. My wife walked on out to the taxi, while I went back inside to get the cat.

The cat ran upstairs, with me in hot pursuit. Waiting in the cab, my wife didn’t want the driver to know that the house would be empty for the night, so she explained to the taxi driver that I would be out soon. “He’s just going upstairs to say good-by to my mother.”

A few minutes later, I got into the cab. “Sorry I took so long,” I said, as we drove away. “That stupid bitch was hiding under the bed and I had to poke her butt with a coat hanger to get her to come out. She tried to take off, so I grabbed her by the neck. Then, I had to wrap her in a blanket to keep her from scratching me. But it worked, I hauled her downstairs and threw her out into the backyard. She’d better not crap in the vegetable garden again!”

The silence in the taxi was deafening.

Go Baby Part II

Last week I updated this blog’s NextGEN gallery software. After installation captions disappeared and thumbnails went all wonky. I downgraded to the previous revision, but the damage was done. Then I found a plugin called NextCellent Gallery that promised backwards compatibility with NextGEN. Once installed the caption issue was solved, but the thumbnails were still all wrong aspect-wise. So I have spent the last few days updating the 1,570 thumbnails in my 50 galleries.

Yesterday, in a brief respite from regenerating thumbnails, I did a couple loops of the neighborhood on rollerblades. While passing a middle-aged couple walking in the opposite direction from me, the woman smiled and said, “Go Navy!” I immediately flashed back to that moment in 2006…

Almost Blogged Tonight

 

 

Started up, went down, still down.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1464

It’s Alive

Back in January I piloted a Lily Ball III 30′ up into a tree in the backyard. Several weeks later while grilling on the back deck I looked up in the tree and didn’t see it anymore. It was on the ground!

It had rained pretty hard a couple days before, I bet that it must have been knocked out by the wind. I brought it inside and plugged the copter into the USB port. After dinner I found the Lily Ball’s tiny switch and turned it on. The white “head” light shone bright and the two fiber optic light strips started alternating between red and blue. Hot Dang!

I loaded up the controller with its eight double-a batteries, ran through the start up procedure, pushed the throttle forward aaaaand nothing. So I pulled out the batteries, threw the ball and the controller in the box and set it aside.

Fast forward to now. Tired of the box taunting me as I walked by it everyday, I figured it was time toss the thing out. The box could go in the recycle bin, but I doubt the plastic cage and body of the copter was recyclable. Plus the circuit board and battery probably shouldn’t end up in the land fill. The controller has got a circuit board too… I’m sure if I put in a regular opaque trash bag with a bunch of other kitchen trash no one will be the wiser.

I hate to throw it out though. Maybe I should try one more time to see it it will work. I loaded up the controller with its eight double-a batteries, ran through the start up procedure, pushed the throttle forward aaaaand it lifted off!

Lily Ball III is alive. Now I just have to not fly it into a tree again.

Started down, went up, still up.
Miata Top Transitions since 10/24/08: 1463