Thursday, July 31, 2008

Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On


Like my vacations and events and such that attend, I also feel compelled to rate the recent earthquake. I'm pretty sure I did this a couple years back for a smaller one, too. This quake ROCKED!!! Hard!!! Didn't seem to go on very long, but what it lacked in duration, it more than made up for in intensity. Whittier narrows and Northridge were both longer and shakier, but the shaking was more gentle, the kind where people describe it as a rolling motion. This one it felt like a huge sideways and down jolt or drop or some such, followed by a little bit of the classic rolling motion. Strike-slip faulting is what they say, and that name seems quite apt.

I was working, and was on the first floor of the bin structure. I wasn't up a row, and if I were I probably would have made my way out of it quickly. Everyone from all the different levels described it about the same, felt like something ran into the bins, hard. Moments afterwards, the evacuation alarm started going, and I started heading out. I noticed that I seemed like the only one going, several other fillers were bracing themselves in the entrances to the rows. Didn't take them long to get going, though. I noticed that the upper level fillers didn't seem to hesitate to get going. It struck while first shift was at lunch, and something that hadn't occurred to me before, the cafeteria has huge glass walls. Around half an hour later we headed back in, just about the time second shift should be going to lunch. We met at the first floor cross aisle while they figured out the course of action. Someone asked about second shifts lunch, and they decided to let everyone go to lunch and meet back at one. Something that worked out good for me, they asked the second and third shift workers to come in an hour early. First shift scored all around, they got two lunch breaks and didn't have to work an extra hour.

No actual damage to the premises, but in the rack area, I heard there was quite a bit of merchandise that fell off, and these racks are about as tall as the bin structure, so that's quite a fall. The quake led to some speculation about what would happen if there was one big enough to cause the bins to fall. One girl was wondering if they'd pancake. The consensus was probably not, but it could collapse to the side, or aisles could domino. I actually think that with the exception on the merchandise falling off the shelves (99% is in boxes anyway), the bins are probably one of the safest areas in the plant. It is constructed of heavy wall box steel, braced this way and that. Like being in a roll cage. I hope.

By the way, the image is stolen from the Washington Post. You'd think I'd find a decent earthquake graphic more locally.

More detail about the Northern Cali trip next post, I promise!!!

Sunday, July 27, 2008

Back in Town

Back from four days in Northern California, primarily for the Gilroy Garlic Festival. Great vacation!!! It's already too late, I'm beat and have to go to work tomorrow, but here's some vital statistics about the trip:

$334 cash spent
42 bills to enter on WheresGeorge when I got home
284 pictures taken
87 video clips
238 miles on the rental car
19 E mails when I got home
13 E Mails deleted without even looking at them
4 quite satisfied travellers

We had a lot of great times and adventures on this trip. There is a possibility that we'll be back next year. The younger boy said his favorite part was the airplane trip.

Monday, July 21, 2008

SWOON!!!



On both Thursday and Friday, the paper had pictures and a little bit of story about this production. Australia's Strange Fruit performing "Swoon", the most notable thing about it being that it is performed atop 4 meter tall fiberglass poles!!!



It was being shown at no charge in downtown Los Angeles from Thursday to Saturday. One of those things that, after hearing of, I just had to see!!!



It was quite a spectacle, well performed, along the lines of a mime show, but much more acrobatic!!!



In addition, I got to explore some previously uncharted areas of my city and take a great deal of photos!!! Seriously, I ended up with over 200 shots in my camera by the time I made it home. I also videoed the performance, and may upload that at some point.


Tuesday, July 15, 2008

How I Spent My Weekend

Oh, what a weekend!!! I had to take Friday off to go to court. Shockingly, one of the two defendants actually showed up!!! The judge was not too amused that the other didn't, and couldn't be bothered to inform the court in advance. I could have proceeded with my case, but it could have been vacated. I figured I'd just go with continuing the case while I could attempt to schedule it away from my vacation times, rather than the inevitable vacating and rescheduling while I'm out of town.

I was home fairly early, and had plans!!! Since we're into summer, Universal has the weekends blacked out on the annual pass. Fridays are good to go, though, so that's where we were heading. On the way home, at the top of my street, there was a spill of sand where my street comes down from the street above it. I hit it, locked up the front end (not having the wherewithal to ease off the brakes and steer out) and before I knew it smacked the front wheel broadside on the curb. Damit, I just had it aligned after doing the brakes!!! Thing was pushed in a couple of inches on the bottom edge.

Got the idea on the way home to haul the recycling to the recycle yard on the way to the train station. It's right on the way, about a block from the station. Got home, and had the boy load up the trunk. Ended up with $26.00 from it, not bad!!!


We had great luck with the trains going there!!! Being a weekday, the lot was near full when we got there, and I dropped the family near the platform, gave my wife the money to get the passes, and parked in the back of the lot. Just as I was getting to the platform, the train was there!!! Actually vaulted the rail to make it. Same thing on the next train, just as we got to the bottom of the escalator it was getting ready to pull out. At Universal, the tram up the hill got there within a minute of our arrival at the stop.

First ride was the Simpsons ride again. The youngest didn't want to go, so we did the kid switch thing. I don't know what his problem with it is, it's not that intense. That ride is one of the best simulators I've ever been on!!!

Finally got to take the family on the "Backdraft" effects show they have. The older boy was impressed. The younger boy was scared.

The Mummy coaster again. That ride... Isn't the greatest coaster, but it has some very cool points to it. At the last part of the ride, it stalled out or got jammed or something on the boy and I in the dark.


We got to see the place where the fire was. The tour goes right by it. Don't think I made mention, but the King Kong burned, and apparently the earthquake part of the tour is off for now, too. Clock tower square from Back to the Future is also the town square in Ghost Whisperer, too, so I'd be interested to see what they do next season. Interesting to see where everything used to be, it's just charred ground mostly, with a few piles of rubble still being cleaned up. The fascinating thing, though, is how there's blocks and streets, but there are no utility lines where the buildings used to be.

One thing they added (I guess to make up for the King Kong and Earthquake part of the tour being out) was an actor done up like Norman Bates coming out of the Bates Motel with a bloody wrapped up body. He sees the tram, goes back in, and comes back in with his knife and advances on the tram as it pulls away. The youngest does a pretty amusing imitation of him now.

Saturday I got up a bit early and took the Maverick back to the tire shop. They said they couldn't do it, they have one car in already getting the whole front end done, and it'll take all day. They sent me to the Burbank store. I didn't want to drive it on the freeway, it felt unstable at speeds over 30 MPH or so. Ended up driving through Griffith Park, the same route that they do the Christmas Festival of Lights. That was interesting. I got there, and the guy comes out to look at the car. He bounces the front, and it stops after about a bounce and a half. "You need new shocks." Wrong thing to say, dude!!! I got rather loud: "Oh really?!?!?! These shocks need replaced?!?!?! These shocks that I put on two weeks ago are already worn out!?!?!?" He stammered a little, "These are new??? Oh, maybe they sold you the wrong ones..." Yea, or maybe you're trying to pad your repair bill!!! Anyway, there was a car ahead of me there, too, and it took them a couple of hours before they got to mine, plus the time to do the repair. That ended up taking most of the day, and I was pretty tired by the time I got home. Washed the cars, and that was about it for the day.

Sunday we had lunch with some friends we haven't seen in a while. Home Town Buffet!!! Nice seeing them, it's amazing how much the kids grow. Visited my parents after that, and went swimming. A very full weekend!!!

Wednesday, July 09, 2008

SPOONS!!!

This one tickled my funny bone!!! Know how comic strips will do a week or so long series??? This week, Brewster Rockit: Space Guy! has been doing a series on an advanced race of aliens... a whole 20 minutes advanced!!!

I think I may have to start calling people that!!!

Friday, July 04, 2008

cUpDate & The Cruise



Thought I'd try this: I did some artwork on my cup today, and not wanting to hassle with taking a picture or three, downloading the pictures, picking the best, editing it, and posting it here, decided to try using my webcam to get a shot of it. The pic came out to be quite good, I thought, with a shot of my piercing and my guitar shirt in the background!!! I didn't have enough time, but I was going to add red stripes and white stars on a blue field to the sails, but oh well. Also never got a chance to see if any of my co-workers got the significance. In case you can't make it out, the boat (actually a sloop) is named the John B. The meaning is related to the the Beach Boys song, "Sloop John B", where a recurring line throughout is "Let me go home, I wanna go home..." It was a good day at work, and I was on the middle shift today, so I did get to head home an hour and fifteen minutes earlier that usual. Whoo hoo, three days off!!! I get to do an hour of overtime on Monday, too. I haven't done much OT this year, so far only two hours.



It is late, but since I have began a post with a nautical theme to it, I will relate the story of the company outing, the Booze Cruise (aptly renamed by the guests). I started the day by heading to the bank. I had gotten the IRS stimulus check deposited, and was intending to take the boy's portion and add it into his portfolio. I got to the teller, and asked her if I could do a deposit into my son's money market account. Sure, no problem... Duh, I can't find that account.... Screw around for a really long ass time, asking other tellers, etc. Finally I was directed to see the manager, who, once I told him I was attempting to deposit into his money market account, tells me that no, investment banking isn't linked to your normal banking and tellers can't do that. Hey, stupid ass teller, I told you SPECIFICALLY money market account to begin with, so you'd know exactly what I was talking about!!! Of course, I didn't have his account number with me, and I don't have his SSN# memorized. He tried to find the account, but I was rapidly running out of time. COMPLETE waste of time!!!



I had decided to take public transportation down to the port. Cheaper to do that than to even park, much less burn the gas. Of course, the trade off is the length of travel time. I had wanted to stop by home again and pick up my camera and a bit of breakfast, as well as pick up the newspaper to read on the ride, but that would have put me in a situation where I might be late, and once the ship has shoved off, it would be a wasted trip. The ride was an adventure. I had never been on the blue line branch before, and had to take the gold to the red to get to the blue. From the red, I dashed up to the blue that was waiting in the station. It stayed waiting for another 10 to 15 minutes. The train was pretty full, and within the next few stops it was to standing room only. One of the first stops a very large, very smelly homeless woman got on and sat down a few rows up and across from me. It was bad. Very shortly the seat next to mine opened up, and the guy who had been directly behind her moved to the one next to me. "I had to get away from that stink!!!", he tells me. "I don't think it's much better here", I reply, to which he says that it's a marked improvement. She stayed on for most of my ride.


Made it to my stop in Long Beach with half an hour to spare. Nice, it's only a couple of blocks to the intersection the directions had. I hoof it over there, and there's NOTHING THERE!!! It's an intersection, no signs directing "TO BOATS", or anything with "COMPANY OUTING" or anything!!! There are parking structures on two corners, a bridge going to who knows were, and empty space. Naturally, the other thing I'd wanted to get from home was the paper about the outing. My spidey senses told me it was probably towards the ocean, so I passed through one structure and found myself near the entrance to the aquarium. I thought, "No, that can't be right", so I headed back to the intersection and headed up the bridge... No, that didn't look right either, but from midway on it I could see some moorings for boats past the aquarium. Back again (covering quite a bit of ground) and around the area. I don't see the specified boat, any signs, or anyone I work with. Naturally. I stop into a bait shop and ask them if they know where this ship sails from. The guy made a call, and five minutes later tells me he has no idea. I keep heading around, and finally happen on an information booth, and the lady there had just the information I needed!!! The other way, and keep going around. I make it there at almost the exact moment they were to cast off. Of course, they were probably about half an hour late shoving off, but that was fine with me.



See that??? I was actually able to find a photo of the actual ship on the web!!! Impressive rig, two enclosed decks, as well as an open deck on the top level and on the bow. As I boarded, I was given a glass of champagne and tickets to be exchanged for poker chips. After my breakfast of champagne and cheeses and crackers, I started on beer. Several friends and I made our way to the upper deck and drank several beers as we departed. Perfect weather, and a fuzzy warmth that only alcohol and friends can bring. They served a tasty buffet on the first level after we'd been asea for a bit, then had casino games and dancing on the second deck. We passed by a buoy with several sea lions on it at one point. Near the end of the cruise I made my way to the bow. I was past pleasantly buzzed at this point and heading towards fairly sloshed. Among the other passengers out there was one of my area's former supervisors, a pleasant chunky girl who I'd always had a good rapport with. She has been moved to a position in human resources, where I believe she is one of the main people in charge of putting together the code of conduct and anti harassment meetings. We talked, and caught up some. I have a vague recollection of playfully grabbing her by her pony tail (possibly twice) as the cruise was wrapping up. Probably not the best thing to do, and defiantly not the best choice of person to do it to, but I still had my job the next week, so I guess she took it in the spirit in which it was intended!!!

As we were heading off, one of my friends who lives in the area invited me to come over to her place to jump in the pool. Sounded like a good idea, a nice capper for the day (and a chance to sober up a bit). Instead, she and a bunch other of us headed off to a local watering hole and continued. On the walk over there, one of the group asked to see my piercing, so I obliged. I don't recall if I ever got my shirt buttoned back up or not. When we got there, I just drank water. I had my water bottle with me, and had it filled before we disembarked. Twice while I was there, I was told I couldn't drink from that bottle in their establishment!!! The second time they confiscated it, told me I could have it back on the way out. I showed them, though, I stiffed 'em on the tip!!! And I made them fill it before I left. Probably an hour and a half or two I was there, and amazingly I didn't seem to sober up much at all. I staggered my way back towards the train station. Unfortunately, I'd forgotten we'd headed a few blocks farther down to drink. Took a little bit before I found my way back. Once I got on the train, I snoozed for the better part of the ride. Every so often I'd awake and see where we were at. By the time I got to the final stop, I was able to maintain.

Good times!!!

Tuesday, July 01, 2008

Three Kegs, One Bottle of Chardonnay

Arrrrrrrrrrggg!!! It's been FOREVER since I've posted!!! At least I'm in good company.



Anyway, I had noticed over the weekend that the Maverick was getting ready to roll the odometer over to 200,000. Today it did, and I thought it a momentous occasion, and was rather amazed that it's that far along!!! However, after I took a picture of it to commemorate it here, I realized that this is an old school odometer, that only goes up to 99,999.9 miles, so it's actually up to 120,000.

Last weekend I adapted it to disc brakes. I'd bought the components some time ago, but finally made the time to get them installed. That very weekend, the Storm developed some kind of hinkiness to its front end, and it feels a bit unstable and unpredictable at high speeds. The front tires are shot, might be all it is, but the struts are gone, too. Screw it, I'm gonna junk it out. Ain't worth the hassle. A shame, as it pulls down a solid 25-30 MPG. Saw a Metro convertible with a raggedy top advertised today, got me thinking that way.

In other auto news, I FINALLY got the part for the Benz, hopefully that'll run fine after Friday. When I went to move the Falcon to do the brakes on the Maverick, found out the ignition switch has come apart. I managed to get it back together, but it only held long enough to get it moved. I hot wired it the next time I moved it, that was far easier. Ignition switches are purely to keep honest people honest on early Fords.



What else??? Besides the work outing and my nephew's wedding, a couple of weekends ago was the company picnic and my wife's birthday. I told her we were having a picnic in honor of her birthday. Here's some of the new construction in the bin structure. See how there's a third level to the red bins now??? Previous to this, there was only blue bins there. They have yet to be populated.



They had the open house tour again. There's one of my co-workers, they were working on the day of the picnic. Actually, in the background you can see the printer I was on today.



Here's the "quad" area I've referred to in past posts. The yellow plants in the foreground are Australian kangaroo paw plants.



And there's the birthday girl!!! Isn't she lovely??? This picture is actually when she'd opened a bottle of bubbles the youngest had won, and it sprayed her down. Turned out to be the best picture of her that day!!! She drank half a dozen glasses of wine there, which she waited until we got home to hork up. Three kegs, one bottle of chardonnay, that's what the server told me. The last time I went to get her a glass of wine, they had run out of the little 8 ounce cups and were using the 12 ounce beer cups. She stopped at a little more than half, and I made the "keep it coming" gesture. She complied, and told me that about the kegs versus the bottles.



Last Friday was the boy's sixth grade graduation. Good times.

More to follow... Hopefully...