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| Progress marches ever onward (so try to stay out of its way...). The destruction of the mill, lime plant, smelter, refinery, tank house, and shipping facilities is now complete. All that remain (other than a few auxiliary building that are slated to be spared for some unknown fate) are the stacks. There have been a multitude of dates proposed for their demise, but so far, the wiles of the omnipresent bureaucracy have been their salvation. Stand by for late breaking news. The other ongoing project is spreading some sort of stabilizing mixture over the tailings, and that may take a couple more years... |
As part of our QC/QA protocol at work, each day we backup (onto a CD) the result of all the analyses we run. In fact, each back up contains all the information we have generated since installing our Laboratory Information System. With time, we create a multitude of mostly redundant CD's, each containing slightly more information than that of the previous day. Medical records contain information that, by federal law, is protected. Even though it takes relatively rare software to access the information contained on them, it is never-the-less necessary to use some discretion in disposing of these CD's. The thought occurred to me that it might be useful to try burning these CD's--the old fashioned way.
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They take a lot of heat but don't support a flame very well. I started the conflagration just after dark, and the pile of roughly 100 CD's (impaled on a piece of re-bar driven into the ground) was still smoldering (and smoking) as I left for work the next morning. Still, I doubt much data can be recovered from them at this point...
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AJ fancies himself a mechanic, and undertook to change the clutch in my Geo Prizm. Disassembly went fairly well (if you disregard the fact that the car fell off the jacks and temporarily trapped AJ in the pit) but reassembly proved a bit more problematic. As I suspected, the clutch material was entirely missing from the side of the clutch facing the pressure plate, which was itself somewhat scarred. This necessitated replacement of the entire clutch unit--more money, but the same amount of work.
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I suppose that being the youngest and having to prove you have the same abilities as your older siblings could be a bit of a burden, but for whatever reason AJ was driven to get the job done. He got the clutch assembly in OK, and even managed to get the transmission partially in (only missing a couple of bolts), but at that point his confidence disserted him, and he waited for Saturday when I could again help. So... it was with some chagrin that he watched me put in the missing bolts in a matter of minutes. Our 30 mm socket (necessary to change the CV boots) was just slightly too shallow (don't you just hate shallow people and their tools?...) and Checker Auto didn't stock that size, so the vehicle still sits awaiting my attention this coming Saturday. I just love working on cars...
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I had hoped to take an extended ride in August, but due to various circumstances (BJH illness, vagaries in my employment, etc.) that did not happen. I did, however, accomplish one of my interim goals. Here I have just finished riding from San Manuel to Oracle. For a fat old man, that is not too shabby. Actually, it was a bit anticlimactic, and not so difficult as boring. The 12.7 mile ride took 110 minutes, which can hardly be described as breakneck speed. It is definitely faster than I can walk, but I prefer to see the scenery change as I pump the pedals.
Monday Sept 4, was a holiday, and I invited Dave Ellis to ride with me to Sam's (34.7 miles) for a four berry Sunday (a new product offered there). I arraigned for Barbara to pick up us up about two hours after we started, figuring that would be sufficient time. It wasn't, but we ate ice cream anyway. On Saturday Sept 9, I repeated the ride, this time making it in 1 hr 44 min (average speed of 18.8 mph). I again arraigned for Barbara to pick me up, but she transferred the assignment to Sabrina and Braxton, who met me there. Again the ice cream was good. In the not too distant future, I want to try riding to the bottom of Salt River Canyon (about 100 miles). What an outrageous goal...
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Speaking of "vagaries in my employment," we had a flood over the weekend of 19-20 August. The bracket supporting our water de-ionizing unit came loose and the entire structure fell off the wall, rupturing a plastic, quarter inch, water line. Water flowed onto the floor of the lab (and thence through out half the clinic) at the rate of 2.3 gal per minute for somewhere between 5 and 60 hours. Monday morning, we staunched the flow and squeezeed most of the water out the door, but some small sections of carpet (particularly in the pharmacy) were wet. At that point, the fact that there is no one in charge at the clinic became problematic, and the maintenance man (Steve Hughey) teamed up with the chief pharmacy tech (April Lujan), and seized control. Instead of calling Guytons (a local carpet cleaning service) to come and vacuum up the water in the carpets, they appealed to the yellow pages, and called a flood damage and restoration company out of Tucson. The results were disastrous. The "professionals" tore paneling, desks, cabinets, and paint off the walls, set up fans and dehumidifiers, and generally made a huge mess. There was no one here in charge here to say, "enough already," and the clinic was shut down completely for a full week. The next week, we were open, but several sections of the building were off limits to patients, as they were still being "dried." The head nurse insisted that we move the lab to the other end of the building (which, as it turns out, was a really bad idea). It is now almost 4 weeks later, and we still don't have our LIMS (laboratory information system) fully functional. Again, since no one would make decisions, employees were asked to, "stand by the phone" to learn if we were to report to work that day. These calls seldom came before 10 am, and some days didn't come at all. The company has a policy stating that if an employee doesn't work 40 hours during a week, any accrued vacation time is used to fill the deficit. The result was that I burned a fair amount of vacation waiting for the phone to ring. I trust your vacation was more exciting than mine.
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This is the photo we submitted with AJ's mission application. Doesn't he clean up nice? His papers went in on August 20, and the Stake President estimated he would receive his call in 1.5 to 2 weeks. There has been no word yet... There are, however, those who are predicting a call to a hot, fish eating, spanish speaking mission... |
This is one of those photos that tell a complete story: The headless, tailless, body of a rattlesnake lying next to two empty shotgun shells. Anyone out there have trouble filling in the details?...
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Earlier this year, everyone was talking about our terrible drought. Then the first week in July summer rains started, and since then there may have been two days when the forecast was something besides isolated or scattered thundershowers. The result (other than high weeds in my yard) is that the country is a green as I remember seeing it. How about this photo as evidence that at least occasionally we get water?
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Barbara has been having a lot of dental work (>$3000 and not near the end). If you look closely, you will note that the front teeth don't touch each other. What you are seeing are temporary caps, in place until the permanent crowns were installed. She was quite pleased when her toothy grin was finally replaced.
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Again with apologies to Ameilia who doesn't like nature photography, I include these last three shots as images that I found interesting, and that I think would make great background for a desktop. If anybody agrees me, I would be happy to furnish them a full size image.
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| Dad. |