still behind!

wellllllll no excuse.....i'm behind the eight ball!

started the new job with the new company - - spent a day on the couch attending the online orientation day - webex & telephone! such fun...

spent and evening and afternoon filling out the usual barrage of paperwork that goes along with switching companies - - insurance, health, medical, dental, vision, emergency contacts - all that mundane stuff.

managed to clean out my old desk and move all my stuff to the new building and get it all setup ok....fortunately, i've been a govt contractor for a long time and i know better than to load up my desk area!

we've been fighting with cracks in our pool. unfortunately, there's no way to prove whether or not the cracks were there back in march when we bought the house. i honestly don't know and wouldn't say they were...

anyway - - the pool is one of those fiberglass pools that's all one piece and they just crane it into the hole and then plumb it up and it's ready to rolll....

we have no idea how long the pool has been here - but on the bottom of the deep end - where the drain is there are two cracks that are spreading out from the drain. kinda like a windshield crack - you know how they spider and grow....

we first discovered them back at the beginning of may. it was then i discovered that the home warranty that the previous owners bought us doesn't cover pool leaks from within the pool! and i also discovered that there are no fiberglass pool sales places or repair people anywhere in this area.

but there's a place up in abilene - southwest pools & spa - - really nice people. there repair guys came down and checked out the pool (that's how we found out about the leak)....

they did a dive and packed it up with "pool putty" and it stopped the leak. but here like this past monday we noticed the water level was dropping again. so i called and the guy came back down - - appears the cracks have spread just a bit - enough to let the water start leaking out again....

and if you know anything about pools - you know that it's not good for the water to seep out of the pool and settle around the lining - or, in this case, the fiberglass.

he was able to pack it up with the putty again - and he does good work. but pool putty ain't necessarily designed to be used on fiberglass pools - - so there's really no telling how long it will last....could be another couple months - could be rest of the summer...

bigger problem that we're pondering is what to do about it....just keep patching it up when it leaks or figure out a way to drain it (13,000 gallons!) and then try to use a fiberglass patch kit (like those for cars) and try to fix it that way..

or,

figure out a way to drain it, get rid of the fiberglass pool - and have someone come and put in another pool! (not fiberglass!!)

obviously the last choice is quite costly! in fact, to have a pool company come in and do the entire thing - drain this one, get rid of it, build another one is somewhere in the 30-40k range (yes 30,000-40,000)!!!!! yikes....

so we're patched for the time being and all is well....but we gotta ponder this one and try to figure out something.....

meanwhile - water's nice! was 108 today....supposed to stay that way all weekend too!! it was 87 at 0600 this morning when i went to work! luv it!!!

happy fourth of july!!!!

i'll probably not post for the week-end! the kids are on their way to grandma and grandpa's house as i type this. so we'll have a fun (but busy) fourth week-end!!

i cleaned the pool this afternoon and made sure all was ok out in the back - - then i clean up the charcoal grill so we can do some steaks on saturday afternoon...

weather is supposed to be really nice (as usual around here!)

we're looking forward to seeing some fireworks and having a good fourth of july!


put your flags out!!!

everyone have a wonderful (yet safe) holiday weekend!!!

a week!

i see a whole week has gone by since i posted anything. whew! been busy busy this summer. we haven't had a day under 100 in weeks now and it doesn't appear that it's going to get any better. they're watching a cold front that is supposed to move through here monday and tuesday and could possibly give us some moisture - but the temps will still be in the high 90's and on wednesday are expected to be back in the triple-digits again for the fourth of july weekend!

i don't usually talk about my job, but it's been occupying a lot of my time and thinking lately.

there's been a lot going on....my job over the past months has not been panning out. if you've never been a govt contractor or been associated with govt contractors, it's a strange world. while my current company rushed me down here under the auspices of taking on a particular job, that never happened because as it turned out the actual contract for that system belonged to another company - - and (of course) they wanted their people in charge of the system, so even though it's my forte and what i was rushed down here for last year, i don't get to use or participate in the system. and what made it stranger yet was this other company didn't have anyone who knew the system - they brought in someone who had never done such a thing before and put him in the sysadmin role and he had to spend most of the year learning how the system worked!!

and i'm surely not talking against any of these guys - they're all my friends and i get along super well with all of them. it's just the govt contractor world that we work in.

anyway, since i bounce around the net alot, i recently discovered that this company had a position available on their website for a sysadmin here in san angelo! i mentioned it to my Navy buddy (who is the current sysadm) and he told me was anxious to move to another position in that company involving curriculum design and development. long and short of it is after a couple months of considering and pondering, i followed up on it and have just signed the papers to change companies and take the job as sysadm - the job i was supposed to have with the company i'm now leaving! lol it's a funny thing this world of govt contracting....

so i'm nearing the end of my two week notice and come 6 july will start with this other company doing what i like to do and have been looking to do since i've been here!

oh yeah - - i should mention that i updated the list of blogs that i follow over there on the left side of the page. i have a folder in my bookmarks for blogs and as i find a blog that i enjoy visiting i keep it there for a while before i move it onto my list here. i added five or six folks whose blogs i have been reading for some time now and enjoy stopping by once in a while.

father's day weekend

i hope everyone had a great week-end! and a very happy father's day to all the dad's out there!! i talked to my dad tonight for a while - they're doing good! he's been reading the national geographics again - - was telling me about climate changes....was a good chat and i'm glad they're feeling good and staying well...

sue and i went up to arlington on thursday afternoon and spent the week-end with the kids. we had discovered that our favorite bluegrass band - the cherryholmes - was going to play at the ft worth botanical gardens on friday. sue managed to get us tickets - so we went down on friday night to the gardens and listened to some great music!



it was a real nice location for a concert - the gardens are nice. the only problem was it was HOT!



there was lawn seating and table seating. sue managed to get us at a table - so we had great seats! we stopped at a subway on the way down to the concert and picked up sandwiches and bottled water - - so we sat there and had some dinner before the show started....



there was a nice crowd - although the attendants told us that for a rock group the place is totally packed! and its a shame - - these guys play really good - they're great entertainers! they've got some tunes on youtube, so go check 'em out...their website is the cherryholmes family band.



there were fireworks after the concert. really turned out to be a good evening! and the rest of the weekend was just a good. we had fun - the kids had fun and mom and dad went out for a 'date night' saturday night - dinner & a movie - while we watched the kids. good weekend for everyone!

more D.C. escapades....

I’ve been pondering over some of the more interesting things that went on while I was stationed in D.C. back in the early 70s. it didn’t take long for me to get permission to live off-post. I teamed up with a couple other guys on the shift – larry taylor, corky Callahan. We managed to rent an apartment right across the street from the census bureau complex there in suitland. I couldn’t begin to remember how much we paid – seems to me that larry was the main guy who made sure the rent was taken care of.

But all three of us were lowly seamen and didn’t have a whole lot among us. We rented furniture – couple of beds, couch – stuff like that. We visited the goodwill stores and other places and managed to scam some pots and pans and other kitchen type stuff. My best memory of living there was our menu - - corky found this huge pot complete with a lid. That thing stayed on the stove for as long as I lived there!! We used to stop at the store and buy a box or two of elbow macaroni and a couple of cans of tomatoes – whole/chopped/sauce whatever.

Every payday one of us would add to the pot – sometimes we’d splurge and get a package of hamburger meat and toss it in. but mostly it was macaroni and tomatoes. Burner was kept on low and it just cooked forever! Breakfast, lunch, dinner, midnite, whatever shift you worked you always knew you’d come back to the apartment and have macaroni and tomatoes!!

Back in those days suitland was a real safe place to be – the bars were friendly, the people were great - - of course, none of us was anywhere near 21 - - all three of us were barely 19 – but the beer and alcohol were plentiful. At the time I was loving southern comfort and coke. Our buddy corky was from north Carolina – somewhere on a mountain top. Corky was everyone’s stereotypical hillbilly! We all used to go home on our 80 hours off every once in a while. And of course, we’d all bring back various bags of goodies that our mom’s had made up for us. But Corky topped us all - - he brought back moonshine - - real, homemade moonshine – in jugs!

We used to have some great parties! Lotsa music, and lots of homemade “punch” (spiked with Corky’s moonshine of course!). whew…some reall good times in that place…soon the three of us ended up separated on different watch shifts. Things started getting difficult with everyone on a different work schedule….

I guess it was just after the first of the year, 1971 when I moved into another apartment with a buddy from my watch shift and the maintenance guy on the shift. Snips was a second class petty officer and was the coolest dude around. Snips was also a biker from Chicago. Red was the maintenance tech from our watch shift – so the three of got together and rented an apartment. We were on the fifth floor of this rather nice apartment building in suitland.

Our most common visitors were biker buddies of snips from Chicago. There were always people in and out. And parties!? Whew….

By now, I had settled down a little bit. I was working a part time job at a burger chef that was located right across the street from the census bureau complex. Nice place – good people – I was one of two nighttime managers. We were both military guys – he was air force and I was navy and our shifts were just opposite enough of each other that we were able to split the nightshifts up pretty well to keep the manager happy. Working there with joe and the rest of the gang was lots of fun. All the horror stories you’ve ever heard about fastfood burger joints are totally true – believe me! We used to clean the grill early and deep-fry burgers; we’d make up a box of milkshakes and put ‘em in the freezer so we didn’t have to dirty the clean shake machine; we’d toast buns under the heat lamps that were supposed to keep the food warm. And I won’t go into some of the more “interesting” things we used to do to your food……lol

Somewhere in that summer/fall of 1971 the manager hired this high school girl and put her on my night shift. I think she was 15 – but kinda cute and blonde. My nemesis in the fast food world was the French fry bagging thingy. I’m left-handed – and as you well know, everything in this world is designed for use by right handed people. Even the old French fry bagging thingies that fastfood places used. You had to hold the bad with your left hand and using the tongs slide the fries down the thing into the bag - - perfect if you’re righthanded; totally ass-backwards if you happen to be a lefty. So I shied away from doing French fry stuff cause it was awkward and I wasn’t good at it. This girl thought that was funny and was always on me about bagging fries. She even tried to show me how to use my right hand and do it the “right” way! It became kind of a running gag to get me on the fries line…..everyone got a charge out of the lefty…..

mtf.........

on to washington, d.c.

so anyway i left off my navy life down in pensacola, florida in 1970 (man, that was a good year!)

after graduating from communications technician "operations" "A" school, i went on another two weeks of leave. chance to get home, tie up any loose ends, gather anything i wanted, see some friends and family and then move on....

i had a 1963 ford galaxie that was going to be my transportation. 289 engine, automatic...nice car...very similar to this one, except mine was a gold/brownish color.




i had orders to the Naval Intelligence Processing Systems Support Activity (NIPSSA) in suitland, maryland. this pic is from the 1971/1972 timeframe.



The building was located in amongst the census bureau buildings on the corner of suitland road and silver hill road. in fact the census bureau is still there and now the office of naval intelligence is there. over the years the commands have combined, closed and restructured into the ONI.

anyway, our personnel records were maintained over at 3801 nebraska avenue in washington, dc. this used to be the holy land for us intelligence security type navy people. for many years the Naval Security Station at 3801 was the mecca of naval intelligence. we took advancement exams there, received training there, anything administrative was accomplished at NSS. i think the building may still be there but nothing there is related to military at the moment...

when i first arrived there i was put into the barracks down at bolling air force base - which was down on the patuxent river. the navy had a good many folks living down there. we were allowed to use the chow hall, medical clinic and other base facilities.

my main interest was making E4 (third class petty officer) so i could move out of the barracks into an apartment!

washington, dc in the summer of 1970 was a pretty groovy place! war protests, war rallies, music, girls - - it was all there. we will had to wear our dress uniforms (crackerjacks) on our off time until we made E4 (another reason i was studying a lot for the test). one saturday we were wandering around the mall downtown and ended up in the midst of a good sized anti-war rally. so here we were, four of us - in dress blue navy uniforms wandering around the washington monument surrounded by a few thousand hippies and other rockers....surprisingly no one bothered us. sure we had some nasty looks, few catcalls - but nothing any worse than that.

little bit about work - i was a watchstander. our shop - the communications center - was manned 24/7. we worked shifts - - two mids, two eves, two days and then 80 hours off. mids went from 9-5, eves went from 1-9 and day shift went from 5-1. but the best part was that 80 hours off!!! navy called it 2-2-2&80.

most of our work involved maintaining communications circuitry to other intelligence sites around the world and also sending and receiving messages to/from those places. the teletypes were stocked with multi-ply carbon paper. we would get four or five copies of the messages. we would have to route them by subject to the various intelligence offices in the building. we used to take the top copy and run it through a mimeograph machine to get carbons and print more copies to be routed around. usually by the end of a shift working the receiving end your hands and forearms were a nice shade of blue/black from the carbons!

if you lucked into working the send side of things, you spent your time on a teletype typing messages. everything was very very precisely formatted and you had to type things up correctly. so your work was checked and re-checked and checked again. errors were totally unacceptable. if we sent out messages with errors in them, there was hell to pay - and it was easy to know who typed what message because they were stamped and you had to chop off on them (sign them). errors resulted in swabbing decks, cleaning bathrooms, no breaks - - general punishment type stuff.

one of our other duties was to help out two civilian programmers who were attempting to "computerize" message operations. our job was to update the stacks of keypunch data cards with the program changes and have them ready for them to update their machines with the following day. they ran these giant CDC computers. we all kinda snickered at them - - imagine a machine replacing our work....lol

i'll continue this......stay tuned.....

dinner.....

we both like hot wings!

and we both like going to hooters for hot wings - - those hooter wings are about the best there is.

BUT

since we would have to drive nearly all the way to arlington or about the same to san antonio in order to find a hooters.....

we make due with the local buffalo wild wing.

tuesday nights are wing night here - 40 cent wings!

so we try to go on tuesday nights and have our wings and a glass of beer for dinner. sue likes wings with the sweet bbq sauce and i like mine hot.

sometimes we make our own here at home. but when it's 90+ outside, lighting the oven is not a good thing...!! we're thinking of trying to roast them on the charcoal grill (i don't like gas grills - charcoal only here).....

so we have a package in the freezer - - just waiting for some saturday or sunday afternoon to light up the grill and give it a try....

anyway - - told you all that to tell you this - - we were sitting there munching our wings and watching the rangers play the yankees on the big screen tv. table next to us were two stereotypical computer nerds complete with a laptop!! dressed as you would expect a computer nerd to be - - checked/striped shorts, weird glasses, computer ball caps....

you could define computer nerd with these guys! sitting there surfing the net as they munched their food.

but the strange part to us was that all the girls working their at bww were all over these two characters!! i mean like four or five at a time, giggling, talking, reading whatever web sites these guys were at....

amazing! who knew!