New Bike Rack at Work

I started riding to work occasionally in 2005 and ever since then the bosses have had issues with the bikes being inside or leaning up against the building or some other foolish complaints. When our new office manager started last year and rode most days of the year, the seed was planted for a real bike rack. Presently we have 3-4 people ride regularly and 4 more have done it sporadically. That's not to bad for a company with only 17 people in it.

After much research the bosses wanted a rack that had some style and wasn't just a hoop sticking out of the ground. They decided on a six bike Dero Helix Rack and that those of us using it would install it. Good thing I'm handy, eh?

Today in the rain

Before

Digging Holes

Pouring Concrete

Curing Concrete

It looks pretty neat to me (but I'm style challenged) and since everyone who has seen it likes it, I'll claim it as a success.

Old Bike - New Name

I don't normally name objects. Sometimes possessions attain monikers due to certain characteristics i.e., Exploder = Explorer (Ford had a recall for a fuel issue and my Explorer being the big wheeled, short wheel base, death trap; the name just seems appropriate).

My bikes have mostly been known by their color or function: Red Bike, White Bike, Blue Bike, Road Bike, Mountain Bike, etc.

A friend and canoe building instructor once wrote several posts about how small boat names need to be earned in his classes; whats in name , and yet another name , pick a name any name and of course "the blue streak" (some of you may recognize my dog and living room)

Anyhow, my 4 year old road bike finally has a name: Broken Spoke.

The name is an old indian name meaning "one who breaks lots of spokes." This is it's second in less than 200 miles. The LBS is recommending I bring it in and have the rear drop out alignment checked. Couldn't hurt.

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Lack of Prior Planning...

...On Your Part, Does Not Constitute an Emergency on My Part.

At work, I was pulled off of a side track, of a side track, of a side track, twice today for things that absolutely had to be done that instant. This is normal. However where would these guys be if I didn't come in? I probably shouldn't have come in today for various reasons.

I'm essentially a department of one. No one else will pay attention long enough for me to even explain the file system I use.

How would they have gotten their pretty pictures for the proposal that was due today? Just because they've had the proposal for weeks now doesn't mean anything should be mentioned any earlier than the due date, does it?

Who would have talked them off of the ledge and advised against ordering a duplicate part just because they don't want to take the time to figure out the existing parts' code? Spending money solves everything, right?

Who would have contacted a service vendor and started the scheduling process for a job and transferred a pile of information between our customer and our vendor?

Where would they be?
hmmm

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The Eagle has Landed....

...In the throne.

WoooHooo, DaGirl pooped in the potty voluntarily!!!!

Last night she did her evening business in the potty and not in her diaper. She was so proud of herself she went back into her room and told Scrappy "pooped in potty, pooped in potty."

It was so freakin cute!

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Tolerance for Ignorance - Dwindling

Once upon a time I had no tolerance for ignorance. Over the last several years I've learned to change and have some compassion toward those who can't be bothered to pay attention to anything.

That compassion is dwindling rapidly.

Today, Tech 1 at work is frantically trying to find some cables and I overhear this. I ask him what project it's for and he gives me the answer I expected. I then ask him if he checked the boxes under the cart the project is sitting on....."uh, no".

Two weeks ago after I finished the rough assembly (I assemble all of the components onto the framework because these "people" can't be bothered to read a print and would call me over anyway), I went over the basics with the Tech 2 and made a point of telling him that when I ordered X, I ordered all the cables he wanted to operate X and they are in the boxes on the bottom cart the system was sitting on.

I ask Tech 1 "Did you look in the boxes on the cart below the system?"

Tech 1 - blank stare

I explain "I ordered everything Tech 2 wanted that was used in the 'previous' system".

Tech 1 scurries off.

I follow a few minutes later just to confirm my expectations.

They had it all along, not 5 feet from them, and managed to get themselves, a software person, and a network tech all worked up and searching for a red herring over nothing.

Like I said, my tolerance in dwindling.

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ER Visits

I am tired of hospitals.

Since January 2008 we (the 4 of us) have been customers at hospitals a total of 8 times!

The Rundown for posterity:
Jan 08 - DaMom is pregnant with the flu, she gets dehydrated and requires 3 bags of fluid.
Jun 08 - DaBoy is Born.
Jul 08 - DaMom has an emergency appendectomy.
Aug 08 - DaGirl tries to climb up the side of the highchair and it falls on her splitting her head open.
Sep 08 - DaBoy has a high fever and the pediatrician sends us to the ER.
Oct 08 - DaGoof cuts his fingers on the table saw.
Mar 09 - DaMom cuts her finger with the razor knife.
Apr 09 - DaBoy goes to the ER for a high fever.

This list does not take into account regular or emergency visits taken care of by the pediatrician's office. There were plenty more of these.

Astute readers will notice the void in emergency visits between October 08 and Mar 09. I believe this was because my father's long term stay in the hospital was acting as kryptonite against the forces that draw us into the ER.

The April 09 visit was last night and has us quite PO'd with our pediatrician. Late Sunday, DaBoy started with a fever of 103°F. Motrin knocked it down (100°F min) for a while but it spiked back up to 104°F by Monday afternoon. He was not a happy camper and wasn't comfortable in his own skin.

With a fever that high in a 9 month old no one is going to mess around so we call the pediatrician and get an appointment for 7:30pm. They check him out and can't find anything wrong. They give him more Motrin since he was due for his next dose anyway and send us to the ER claiming they can't do any lab work at this time of night.

Off we go to the only pediatric unit around which happens to be at the busiest ER in the area. We wait and wait and wait and wait and then finally see the triage nurse. By this time (2 hours) he's due for his next dose so they give it to him. We then go and wait some more. In a relatively short time we get called into the pediatric unit and wait some more. Finally we see the doctor who isn't willing to take blood for labs but will only take a urine sample. How do get pee on demand from a 9 month old? One word that makes men cringe that I shall not repeat here.

They rule out a UTI and send us home......WTF!!!
4 Hours in the ER, another hour at the pediatrician's office, $65 in co-pays and what did we get in return? One very pricey sippy cup and a popsicle he didn't eat!!!!

We got home at 12:30 this morning. DaBoy and DaGirl were both up at 3:00 looking for diapers and cuddles. I didn't get back to bed until 4:30.

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Barn Razing

We bought our house in 2001. On the property was a 12' x 20', dilapidated two story barn. I always had plans of rebuilding the barn but the original woodwork was almost to the point of no return and lack of funding prohibited any major work on it at the time.


This winter the roof finally gave way and started taking some of the floor with it.

It was now truly unsafe, especially when a 2 year old thinks it's a great place to play around.

So what do you do when a structure is too unsafe to systematically dismantle?
You hook an old pick up truck to it an pull!

But sometimes things don't go as planned. On the first pull, I ripped a hole clear through the middle of the barn but left the sides and roof intact. To think I was worried about them falling down on their own?


The second tug proved more dramatic but I forgot to get some pictures of it, oops! Once again, things went a little wrong. The floor dropped and I basically pulled it through the brickwork on the back of the barn.




Not bad for one day of work! I still have to clean out the junk inside the brickwork but that can wait for another day.

And a special shout out to C.B.! Thanks for your help!!!
And with any luck gangrene won't set into your foot.... ;-)

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