I Want My $5 Back

We waited in traffic for a bit over an hour to get into the Rennasaince Festival that I threatened to write about. It was worth it and I will go again next year.

Today I sat in a twelve mile back up for almost an hour to get where??

Delaware!! And they charged me $5 to get in. You aint even in there that long. There are no hills or curves that give you a thrill and there is no booth at the other end givng you your deposit back for not stealing anything. No wonder Washington snuck across the river at night. He didnt have an hour to kill and between him and the crew they couldnt come up with $5 cause they spent it on $2 bottles of water at the welcome center.

That said it was a long day. We started work today at 7 and finished the scans in Richmond VA. at noon. I packed my truck and headed back to the hotel to freshen up. Then I headed out to eastern PA for a 5 hour tour. When I hit DC I knew how Gilligan and the skipper felt when they hit the storm. I knew DC would be jammed up but I thought it would be a bit better due to it being Sunday. I wonder if anyone was left in the Northeast this weekend cause they were all headed home tonight.

My GPS said I would get here atbout seven. OK, She should have been a weather girl instead. I got in at 9. I am a it tired and it is another early 12 hour day tomorrow.

I wanted to share some pics but I didnt see any great color and driving thru DC was too hectic to shoot pics. I love my bloggers but I cant do but so much.

SO here are what I got.

Heres some color and a Denny's Pic for you know who you are. LOL





Here is the Air Force Memorial in Washington. There are better pics online.



Here is the Washington Monument with a little Orange and Yellow added in for color. LOL

Day two. We met at 6:30 this morn to head to the shop. It was a pretty good day. At the end of 12 hours I was ready for some quiet and some dinner. Ya dont always get what ya want.

We assembled the scanner first and got down to business pulling some scans. This shop is huge. I would post a pic of it but they dont allow pics. They have turbines everywhere that are being serviced or being reconditioned. They have 3 stories underground for testing. A guy across the isle was cleanining a turbine with compressed air. If you have ever been in a tire shop you know how loud air can be.

Here is a pic of the turbine and the scanner I built. We could shoot pics of our stuff. The turbine is about 30 ft long and 12 ft high.




When we came to a stopping point we headed to the Hotel. When we arrived there was am old car cruise at the Hardees adjacent to the hotel parking lot. They had a DJ and he was sooooo loud. I love old cars but after today I hated noise more. After getting cleaned up we headed back to the Steel Horse grille for dinner. Again the food was fabulous but things were different tonight.

We failed to notice the sign hawking $125 for the best costume. They should have listed Having the worlds loudest band. I love good country music and the band wernt bad but at the end of the day sometimes ya can only handle so much volume. I felt a bit out of place sitting there in street clothes amongst Alice in Wonderland and The half nekkid chick but all I had for a costume would have been my hardhat and some climbing gear. They were having a ball but once again we have to get ready for another early morn.

I hope to be out of here by 2 tomorrow and head to PA.
Time for bed.

Dinner and a Photo

Work went well today. Since the tech that was coming couldnt get here till tonight and my work was only going to take a couple hours I slept in. What a way to start a day. Well the complimentary semi-artificial omelet kinda tempered the overall mood. I still got there at 8 but that extra hour is always welcome. Even then I had my material sample out by 10. It took longer to pack all the equipment up. I was asked to stay and help him scan the turbine blade attachments so it seems I am going to be here in Richmond a couple more nights.

Below is a pic of the tool I made to pull the sample being used this morn. It is mounted between two wheels on a turbine. Excited? Yea, Me too. LOL






The tech arrived this evening and wanted to go to a place where he could watch the West-by-god-Virgina game so he and I went to dinner at a place called Steel Horse Bar and Grille. MMMMM The service was great. The food was delicious and the crowd was hilarious. Our waiter was on top of things and we had our drinks straight away. Withing 5 mins the owner was over asking about the service and when she saw a guy at the next table without a drink she asked why. He was actually visiting with friends from another table. Satisfied she continued her rounds. I had a Curry Chicken which seemed a bit out of place for this joint but it was delicious. It must have been a local favorite place. Everyone appeared to know one another. I call my daughters magnetheads because every pic they have with their friends have their heads stuck together like magnets. Well the flashes were going off like the 4th of July. Every table taking pics. Lots of heads stuck together. By the time we were leaving the bar was pretty loose. Hate we couldnt stay for the karaoke But early morn beckons.

Good Night

What to do, What to do??

I do enjoy traveling for work. I get to see new places as I drive by at 65 oh ok 75 mph. I get to eat good food on someone elses dime. I get to collect frequent flyer miles and hotel points. Problem is we work 12 hour days on the road. We get off site and by the time we cleanup and get out to eat is fairly late and we have an early day starting again.

So here I sit. Watching the World Series in a hotel room in Richmond Va. Tomorrow I will be in PA but I will be working with a crew.

What should I do with that spare time? After reading my blog list.

Heres to YOU, Cheers!

A recent study found that the average American walks about 900 miles a year.

Another study found that Americans drink, on average, about 22 gallons of alcohol a year.

That means that, on average, Americans get about 41 miles to the gallon!

Makes you proud to be an American!

It Went By So Fast

Today the wife and I are celebrating 28 yrs of marriage. It's been a pretty good run so far. We are going to celebrate quietly. Maybe a movie tonite after dinner. She has been hankering for some Carraba's. We went to the Rennasaince Festival last weekend. I'll have pics of that later.

They say a gift you made is special so I built her a brand nicky new computer with lots of bells and whistles. Now she can facebook with style and plow that Farmville garden in a jiffy without fear of locking up. If she could just figger out how to get the pics from her camera to the computer I would be a happy man.

Of coures it wernt a total surprise. Hers died last week and she has seen all the parts in my office the last couple days while I built it. I know I know you aint spose to give a gift that plugs in. I solved that. When I gave it to her I didnt have the cord attached. I wernt born yesterday ya know.

Gotta go, I'm making French Toast for breakfast. She loves that foreign food.

RaNDOM with Little a

Little A is my 8 year old. She is in 3rd grade but when you talk to her you can tell she has much older siblings that need to watch what they say around her. We have to constantly tell her that some things she has said were not appropriate. Every kid has said funny things. Here are some of her latest random things.

She and I went to breakfast the other day and she told me she needed to get a job and a boyfriend like her big sis’s.

She wants to know if she can have the minivan when she gets her license. We will see haow that goes when she gets older.

Big A was discussing a patient at work(She works in labor and delivery as a Surg Tech) that was force feeding the baby and Little A said, where is she at, someone oughta Jack Slap her. Where did that come from??

She told me she was writing in her journal and wanted to know how to spell “Total Drama”. It starts so early.

She has a friend that was afraid of the Tooth Fairy. When they lost a tooth they put it under their pillow on their bed and they slept downstairs on the couch. Even she thought that was a bit odd.

She held a Saturday tea party with the wife and me. I was in shorts and a sleeveless tee but had to wear a tie. She looked funny trying to hold her cup with the Pinky sticking out. That’s how you do it she informed us.

I told her she needed to get all her crap out of the middle of the floor. She informed me that she was not supposed to hear the word crap. This was the day after the Jack Slap comment.

She wanted to know why we named her an A name. I told her it was because the older 3 were A’s so we felt kinda obligated. She said we should have named her Courtney, Gwen, Penny, Jade or Kat.

She’s always a treat to listen to.