The Turkeys Gone, Here Comes The Trees

Well, all in all, things turned out pretty good. All six of us sat down together and had an early Thanksgiving lunch. 30 minutes later Big A was out the door to head to work. 10 minutes after that the boy was gone to the girlfriends family get together.

After a turkey induced nap we headed over to my parents for a little visit and to see my grandmother.

I stayed home with the little one Friday while the wife and two oldest girls headed out for the sales. I could feel my wallet shrink as I sat in my office and worked on some drawings.

I went out today to pick up a few presents. The stores really wernt that bad. Tonite we finished the leftovers. Thank goodness. I like turkey but one can only stand so much. We pulled the trees down from the attic and set them up. I spose tomorrow after lunch we will decorate them. That aint my favorite thing but they are nice when they are done. I am a bit envious of some of the neighbors with the gumption to leave their lights set up all year. Maybe I should invent prelit guttering.

I hope all y'all had Wonderful Thanksgivings. I look forward to reading about them.

Full House

It has been a while but tonite it will happen. College girl was spose to show up today but decided to surprise us by showing up at midnite last nite. She hugged the cats first.

Big A is getting off from the hospital tonite at 11 and is spending the nite with us so she can help with Thanksgiving lunch.

The son is driving up to WV to pick up his girlfriends cousin and will be back this evening.

It will seem odd to have them all under the same roof at the same time. Little A will be all excited this morn to see the college girl.

Let the Thankfulness and eating begin.

Hope all you guys have a wonderful THANKSGIVING!!!

She Moved Now I Can’t

My daughter moved yesterday. Again. I’ve moved like 5 times in my life including as a kid. She’s moved 6 or so times in the past 6 years. I rolled out of bed in pain this morn my knees ,back, and fingers hurt. Heck I hurt all over. My only relief? She has a 1 year lease. At least that is what her roommate offered up for consolation. At my age one year aint that long.

I should have known something was awry when they showed up with a 26 foot truck. We loaded my daughters stuff up in about 30 mins. It took up about 4 foot of space. She didn’t mention we were swinging by roomies old place to get her stuff too. OH my goodness, the girl has got stuff. We pretty much filled the rest of the truck. BTW, Roomy weren’t feeling good so she didn’t do much aside from deal with the cable guy.

I wanna take a moment here to ask. Can girls not live on the bottom floor? They both lived on the second floor. Well that aint so bad coming down. Let do the math. 2nd floor plus 2nd floor must mean we gotta move to the 4th floor. Are you kidding me?

I am so stupid. When she asked if the wife and I could help her move we couldn’t come up with a good excuse. Then the little one came down with flu like symptoms Friday and the wife volunteered to stay at home with her. Her friends that were coming to help with the moved called to say they would be late because they had to take their dog to vet to get its anal gland squeezed. What?? I gotta get me a new excuse book.

Sticks And Stones

We battled ants this year. They came in the front door. I sprayed so they came in the back door. I sprayed again. They came in the upstairs hall bath. I sprayed so they moved to the master bath. I sprayed again. I decided to take the battle to them. I sprayed the perimeter of the house and the yard and the woods. According to the experts it was because it was extra wet this spring. Then it got dry and according to the experts they were coming in to get water.

EXPERT, Lets break it down. Pronounced: Ex – Spurt, EX Means Has been, Spurt is a big drip under pressure.

Well back to the other pests, the ants. When they came into the bedroom the wife went to Lowes and spoke with their lawn person. He recommended “TERRO Ant Killer”.

It is a liquid bait system and you put a drop on little cardboard squares along their little parade route. They take it back to the nest and they all die prolly from obesity because they love this stuff. It must be like trying to walk by the Funnel Cakes at the fair. They line up around the edges like cattle around a watering hole. The Lowes guy said it worked on all kinds of ants. Boy was he right.



The stuff appears to work as long as you keep the goo coming. I am not sure if it is actually killing the ants or if they left all pissed off at being called names.

I missed Halloween this year due to my business trip. Big A came over to help and give out candy while the wife and the little one went out Trick or Treating. I know they are a week late but here are some of the things I missed.

They carved a pumpkin.



You don’t get the full effect till you light her up.



Little A dressed up as a witch. To be honest I didn’t realize it was her in the pic till they told me. Is amazing what a bit of makeup can do.



Our neighborhood is great for Trick or Treating and they racked up on the candy.

Wish I could have been here.

Simply Stuff

I am beat. Yes again. I would have posted last nite but I left my laptop bag in the work trailer. The long days are wearing on me. I aint used to this stuff. In the same breath I have had a ball. I have had a few issue with the new machine but have been able to trouble shoot and git-r-Done.

It is cold and dry and my fingers are splitting and sore. All my muscles are sore or have just refused to move. LOL

I think I get to leave tomorrow. We have to do a sweep of all the points we tested. There are always missed points.

I spent the last two days in the penthouse. It is the little room at the top of the boiler. It has the upper headers and I needed to take samples there. It is 116 steps up then climb down 15 rungs of a ladder. You crawl across an inclined edge to crawl into a 18 x 24 hole. It 4 foot tall room and the floor is pipe and the breeze blew thru. It is hard to explain and I didnt take pics cause I didnt want to carry anything else up but it is rather unpleasant. That said it was a great experience because I make equipment for the guys and I have a better appreciation for what they go thru.

Here are the pic of the day.

Here is the plant. It is a gas fired unit coupled with a HRSG. It is very efficient.



This is another view of the cooling towers. Hour glass figures aren't just for the Nukes anymore.



Here are the facilities. Granted they did a great job keeping them clean but couldnt we have heated seats??? It was 25 this morn. Let's just say I had visions of the Christmas Story, tongue on the frozen flagpole scene in my mind.



I am going to miss being on this trip. It was great for blogging. Well for me anyways. Hope y'all found something to enjoy.

Today was a pretty good day. It started cold and ended cold but was comfy in the middle. The sky was a gorgeous blue as you will see in the pics.

I just got in and am whooped so this is going to be a bit short on words.

This is my newest piece of equipment I developed. We are trying it for the first in the field today. The jury is still out right now but the first sample I cut out went well



This Is the area I was working in. We were up about 50 feet. Nope thats not me.



We have a great view from the scaffolding.



Glad I dont Have to climb up there.



I never dreamed I would ever post my pic but here ya go. My cheeks are beet red from the cold wind. The hard hat aint warm but I have a fleece do-rag. Coverall and layers help.



Tommorrow may be my last day. We work in the penthouse. It aint what ya think. LOL