And then it was Tuesday..

Tuesday was slightly less than spectacular. We grabbed a quick breakfast at McDonald's and headed to class. The classes have been pretty intense as company training goes. Maybe not drinking from a firehose, but certainly like a well-pressured garden hose. Most of the guys in the class are actually instrument techs fom major production facilities, so they have a technical background that we lack. The class is well organized, though, and we've been keeping up with no issues. We'll certainly have a first-rate understanding of our equipment at the plant. Lunch at the school was Tex-mex, and was fair except for the corn tortillas which had the texture of well-worn Nikes.

After class I sojourned off to Mellow Johnny's bike shop in downtown. For those of you that don't follow cycling, this is the local shop owned in part by Lance Armstrong. The shop was huge, and very nice. They have an on-site coffee shop and training facility with computer linked stationary trainers and huge screens. They also have a commuters area with showers, lockers and support equipment. They have a real focus on commuter gear and support overall, and not just the trendy no-brakes-fixie kind. The staff was also very friendly and helpful, something that's rare in the high-vis celebrity store. I could actually see shopping here if I lived inthe area.

After the bike shop wechanged at the hotel and headed off to the legendary 6th street. It was dead. I think there were fewer bars open than there were on Sunday. After driving around and finding nothing interesting that was open, we ended up at Joe's Crb Shack. I try to avoid chain restaurants, and now i remember why. Overcharged for crappy food, annoying staff and watery drinks. I won't even give them the dignity of a real review.

Monday in Austin

Monday in Austin dawned gray and misty, but warmer than i would expect for December. We braved the I35 up to Reaseach Blvd (the 183) and grabbed a quick bite at an IHOP near Emerson's facility. Traffic wasn't too bad, but from hearing the locals talk, I'm guessing we were just a little early - and lucky.

We're taking a process control hardware troubleshooting class, so at least the classes are fairly hands-on and not endless lectures. I'm very impressed with Emerson's setup here. Everything is top notch, including the eats for the class. In the hall / break area outside class there is a free-for-all vertical cooler stocked with water, sodas, juice and so on. They also have Starbucks coffee in the tureens, and the put out pastries, fresh fruit, and biscuits and gravy about 8:30. Lunch is included in the classes (as it should be for the price) so I was expecting typical fare. I was happily surprised to get a light buffet with a small fresh salad bar, artichoke hearts baked with onions, roasted acorn squash and a nice spaghetti carbonara. Man, that's first class eats. They also kept rotating out snacks of small pastry, trail mix, Chex mix and others throughout the afternoon.

After classes we headed back south but took a detour around the 360 Loop. This was kind of unplanned. When visiting new places I often get a wild hair and take off in unknown directions with little hope of recovery. We didn't even have our nifty hotel-provided map, but, hey, it's a loop right? We have to get back around eventually...

Let me say eventually can be a long time in Austin at rush hour. Okay, it wasn't that bad and we did get to see some of the countryside. After seeing lots of hills, rocky cuts by the roadside and LARGE homes, we made it to the south side of town and to South Congress Avenue. I saw many road bikers out torturing themselves on what would be a grinder ride in heavy traffic. I also saw several guys on knobby tires that didn't look to be commuting. South Congress eventually crosses the lake back into downtown, but just before the bridge is a great, funky little area of shops, bars and restaurants. We ate at a highly recommended place called Guero's Taco Bar.








The outside seating in a dirt courtyard covered by ancient Spanish oaks wrapped in white lights was absolutely out of sight. With a local band on the small stage, I could certainly imagine whiling away many a summer night in the soft glow of the antique lights. Unfortunately, imagining it was all I had since they weren't running service outside and the stage was empty.

The inside of the restaurant was a hodgepodge collection of various south-of-the-border decorative memoribillia that has become the go-to style for casula dining. Somehow, they managed to do it right and the whole place had a great ecclectic, slightly worn feel that made it a welcoming place to hang out.

I ordered a Don margarita that was notable for the smoothness of the the smoothness of the tequila but otherwise un-noteworthy. For appatizers we opted for the guacamole and queso dips, both of which were good. My entree for the evening was a taco plate - 2 large soft shell tacos on homemade tortillas with your choice of about 8 different fillings with rice and beans on the side. I decided to try the renowned Al Pastor (slow roasted, marinated pork with grilled onions, pineapple bita and fresh cilantro) and the Al Carbone (chicken marinated in orange juice and peppers.) The tacos were very good, if a bit dry. A condiment bar with fresh limes, salsas, and so on was available and probably would have moistened them up nicely, but I wanted to try the flavor in it's purest form. The Al Pastor was particularly nice. The beans were fair, but the rice was simply delicious. I can't say enough good about it. To be honest I was thinking pretty highly of the meal until the check arrived. I guess a big-city-surcharge is too be expected in the trendy areas, but I felt a little overcharged even with the quality of the meal. But hey, it was good eats.

Austin - the journey begins

Today my coworker and I departed the cold rainy south for one week of training at the Emerson facility in sunny Austin Texas. Having always heard good things about the other A-town capital, I have been looking forward to the trip. Tag along in spirit, and I will try to keep you updated.

The trip through Atlanta-Hartsfield and the flight out were unremarkable, other than being downgraded to a CRJ-700 for the flight. It's not quite the Miata of commercial jets - more like the bottom rung Camry I guess. Not quite roomy, not quite sporty, but it will get you there without any drama. The view from my cramped window seat was of the top of a flat white cloudbank to the horizon. So I read a book.

The clouds burned off just as we started descending for Austin. The land I could see was flat - a green and brown patchwork of farms and small neighborhoods dotted frequently with water. Small ponds, creeks and rivers seemed to be everywhere, but that could be the result of the aforementioned retreating clouds and rain. The Austin airport is significantly smaller than Hartsfield, but I guess most are. We picked up our rental car (I upgraded us to a nice Mercury Milan - Shh, don't tell anyone!) and headed for the Holiday Inn at Towne Lake. The Hotel is older but has been updated. The room strangely doesn't have a full-drawer dresser, but there are a couple small drawers in the entertainment center that will function. Other than that, it is fairly nice - clean and comfortable. Here's the view:

We drove over to the training center, just to locate it, and then drove back to 6th street downtown to hunt some grub. Sixth Street is the bar and party district of the city, and most of the bars were open. The scene was pretty laid back given that it's Sunday night, but you can see how much fun it could be. The street is in old downtown, so the buildings are all great old brick that have been fixed up to varying degrees. There are bars, curio and tshirt shops, a couple hotels - all kinds of stuff. If you doubled old Cherry Street in Macon, and then stocked it with the Buckhead section of Atlanta and then threw in Little Five Points in Atlanta for the weird factor, I think you'd be approaching Sixth Street. I think if I had gone to college or turned 21 in this town, I would have spent way - WAY - too much time down there.

We ate at Paradise, a nice sports-bar kind of place recommended by Fthr. Chad, a recent Austinite who is now rector at St. Francis in Macon. As per his word, the catfish tacos were outstanding and the bar was nice. They were displaying large original artwork all over the old brick walls, giving it a nice twist in atmosphere. Good art and a mohawked bartender are a rare combination, but it seems to work. The Fireman's 4 pale ale was good, but not outstanding. It was very cold, though, and that's always worth a mention. As it was, I could only drink two.

We'll be exploring several places through the week that were recommended by Chad's lovely wife Amanda, so stay tuned. And if you happen to have a favorite Austin hangout, let me know. We're always looking for something cool to do...

Mark it off the bucket list

Today I accomplished something that I've been wanting to do for some time. I rode my bike to work. And then I rode it home at the end of the day. Ever since I started biking seriously I've looked for ways to ride more and drive less. Well, sort of. I've always thought it would be cool to live in an urban area that put home close enough to work and shopping that I could do most of my daily travel by bike. Living in suburban hell and working 25 miles away kind of put a damper on that, but I'll admit I didn't push to hard to commute to the few local places I shop.

But now I work just less than 14 miles away, and most of those miles are rural roads. Ever since I took the job I've been toying with the idea of riding in. Today I did it and had a pretty good ride, but I don't think I'll be doing it again anytime soon.

I learned a few things on the road today.

Number One: An hour long commute sucks, even if it IS on a bike. By the time I got near the house, I was just pissed off that I was still not home. Honestly, the ride was pretty enjoyable, but 14 miles is just too far for me to do it often. If I lived 5 miles closer, it would be hard NOT to ride to work. It was great to watch the sun come up while on the bike. Riding an hour home after a full day's work on the other hand was just a chore, and that's not what I want riding to be.

Number Two: Road riding for me is a very social activity. Riding an hour by myself sucked - I started talking to myself (well - more than normal) on the way home. I think it would be better with an iPod at least. The experience really made me understand that interacting with my friends - even the limited talking in a fast pace line - is a big part of why I ride.

Number Three: There is a heck of a lot of traffic on Houston Lake Road in the afternoon. Don't any of you people WORK?

So, there it is. I did it, but it will be a while before I do it again. I might consider doing a half-and-half commute. Drive in with the bike, ride home, ride in the next day and then drive home. That might not be so bad. Plus, if we ever move for employment, I know my ride-to-work radius is about 10 miles when buying a house.

Canon Image Stabilizer makes my pics BLURRY??!!

Back yard at sunset

Jobsite at sunrise

The above images don't have anything to do with the post title. That's below:

My new Canon XSi DSLR camera came with an EF-S IS lens. The IS stands for Image Stabilizer. It has a mechanism built in to negate camera shake. I noticed that my first longer-exposure, low light shots had some blurring in them. This specifically showed up while shooting on the tripod. I figued my tripod was crappy and started pricing more solid versions. But then I noticed an odd effect whilst shooting the wine glass on the tripod last night. The image moved around in the view finder, noticeably, while the camer and tripod were rock steady. I then turned the IS off (there's a small switch on the lens.) The image in the viewfinder became still.

Strange.

To confirm this, I shot four images back to back tonight. I zoomed the lense all the way out (55mm) then shot with and without the IS. I also repeated the process using the mirror lock. The internal mirror is what allows you to see through the lens when looking in the viewfinder. It snaps out of the way when you take the picture, causing the loud click most people associate with taking a picture. Locking the mirror makes taking a shot a 2 step process. The first button push flips the mirror up. You let the camera settle, then press the button again to take the picture. This avoids any blur from the vibration of the mirror moving.

So, here's the result:

Details: shot on A-DEP profile with center weighted average metering and auto focus. A wired remote trigger was used. All were shot off a tripod with all legs in shortest position sitting on a table. All shots were taken within 5 minutes. Interestingly, the auto exposure, auto focus didn't choose the same shutter speed or f-stop on any of the photos. Before you cry foul, the sharpest shot was actually the longest at 15 seconds. The shortest shot was the no mirror, no IS image at 8.5 seconds. I don't know if the IS function in the lens affects the automated choice of shutter and aperture. Even if it does, it seems like it should make choices that minimize blur when the IS is ON, and that's not what shows up here.

So, if I'm shooting on a tripod the IS will definitely be turned off. Maybe it does help when hand holding the camera, I'll have to test that to find out.

Here's a few shots of my favorite models, workin' the black and white

Sitting on the deck tonight enjoying the b-e-a-utiful weather and a few adult beverages, my lovely wife said "hey, look at the reflection in the wine. That would make a cool photo." Well, a half hour later she finally got to finish that glass of wine. She was right, it made for several cool photos. Interestingly here, you can see the progression from first snap shot through the photo shoot with the light changing as the sun set. These are the high points of the experiment.

For more info on Three Sisters Vinyards, Georgias best wine, visit the website.

We recommend the Fat Bot Red, the Fat Boy White, and the Blood Mountain Red.

More pics

a few pics from Kat's house

I am lucky enough to have friends and family that encourage my artistic endeavors, as wacky as they may be sometimes. Thanks to all those that contributed. Maybe this time's not quite so wacky.

This is the first crop of images from my new Canon Rebel XSi digital SLR camera. For the uninitiated, it's a digital camera that gives you all the creative control of an old-school 35mm pro camera. I always have an image in my head before I take a picture. This camera gives me the control to make that image a reality. Click to enlarge.

Snapshots of the recent past

Finishing out the construction of the new facility has been hell of a journey. I've been pulling a lot of hours over the last few months and haven't had the energy for long discourses on the blog, but I think we're close to crossing the finish line. We've got the system and the new mill up and running, we've had our grand opening, now we're waiting for someone to make some sales. Far too much has happened for me to recount, so I thought I'd throw out some mental snapshots that have stayed with me.



Brian, Terry and I are standing behind the mill building. When we look down, we experience a concurrent ohno second. There is a perfectly silent second while we all look at the white foam and water creeping out from under the wall from inside. In the silence I hear Brian say "Where's that coming from?" We're all running suddenly for the inside of the mill room with his wods visibly hanging in the air behind us. Skittering into the mill room we find six inches of pretty white foam blanketing the concrete floor across half of the room. The half million dollar mill unit looks quite nice silhoutted against the fluffy white clouds of soap mix, and for one weightless second, we all enjoy the spectacle in silence as our stomachs fall into our boots.


It's five minutes past sunset on Monday night, and I'm still at the site - by choice this time. I'm sitting in a camp chair with a cold beer and the clouds are slowly darkening overhead into evening. Fresh killed dove breasts wrapped in bacon are sizzling on a charcoal grill and the wild hog quarters have just finished almost a full day on the smoker. It's my birthday, and I'm pretty sure it's the best one I've had in years. My wife and my friends are gathered in a field, cooking things locally caught, laughing a great deal and taking a deep breath before the circus starts. I'm thinking that for once, I'm right where I should be.


The next day has come, and it's D-day, the grand opening of the site I've worked months on and was hired to run. The sun is breaking through clouds, spiking the temperature in brutal humidity. I've just led the heads of state from three different companies on a tour of my site that they paid for. They are satisfied, perhaps a little in awe of the site and (I hope) it's captain. As we walk back across the truck scale toward the circus, I look back at the red scoreboard readout for the scale. It's crystal clear at that moment that the numbers on the readout in no way tally the weight that these men carry. And they love me.


At the end of a long day and a longer night, it's 4:30 AM and I'm watching the sun get lighter on the eastern horizon. Standing 30 feet in the air on our load tower and listening to our first real load of product pumping into the semi trailer below, I think that this is a rare view. Not many people get to see this, a job completed after an all night haul, just like not many people see a humpback blow in an Alaskan sound. I'm almost sick to my stomach from lack of sleep, but the product is right, the customer is happy, and we came through in a pinch. I hope I don't have this view again any time soon, but it's one I'll treasure.

This one is just for Kathleen

Crouching Tiger, Hidden....um...Tiger.

Because Kathleen is tired of seeing snakes on my blog, we get saccharine instead.

I TOLD you that was a big snake!

So, I cleaned some stuff out of the garden shed today, the same shed where I found the ... ahem....large snake. He was gone, but he left behind a present. Apparantly I was right about him shedding his skin. This is laid out on a six foot table, and the tail end of the skin was missing. I'd guess there was another 10" of skin somewhere.

This is the middle of the skin, just to give some perspective. The belly scales were almost 2" wide

The head of the snake was just as big as it looked in the earlier pictures

You may not realize that a snake's skin stretches as he sheds it, so the actual snake is never as long as the skin you find. Still, considering the skin was over six feet if you include the missing tail portion, that means the actual snake was just north of 5 feet long.

Told you that was a big snake.

Always Rotate Your Tires

It's time to replace the tires on the pony car. The tire shops always want to charge me a fee to dispose of the tires. I had a different idea....

Crikey that's a big snake

So, having been gone a week, I had to do some lawn work. With as much rain as we've been getting, mowing weekly seems to be the name of the game, at least for the front yard. After mowing, spraying some herbicide and weed slaying, I took a stab at cleaning up my garage a little. As part of the process I took the yard tools that had collected in the corner and moved them back out to the storage shed.

Let me explain about the shed. This is one of those little 8x8, prebuilt sheds that are kind of barn shaped. You can buy them at most of the major home improvement chains. This particular shed was purchased by the previous homeowner to store his yard stuff in. There are assorted chemicals, grass seed, and some small tools and stuff out there. I'm not sure what all may be there, because I've never done more than open the front door and throw a rake or two in. It seemed fairly mouse infested, and cleaning it out was a pretty low priority. It's probably been six months since I opened it.

So today when I carried the garden hoe, 2 shovels and rake out, I was in full cleaning mode. Looking around the shed from safely outside, I noticed an open cardboard box sitting in the top of a two-wheeled push spreader full of grass seed in the back corner away from the door. Sticking out through the hole in the box was some shredded pieces of trashbag. Now, I'm thinking, If I was a mouse I'd be camped out in that box and setting up housekeeping. Nice and cozy, right on top of the buffet. So, being the kind of guy I am, I decide to whack the box with the garden hoe and scatter the mice.

Whack. Box rocks up on one side. Nothing.

Whack harder. Still nothing. That box seems heavier than I expected. Hmm....

So I lean in to the shed a little where I can see into one of the holes a little better. Wow that trashbag looks like.....scales.....

Is that a SNAKE??!!

No, he'd have bailed out after I shook it....I think. Well, I'm at the other end of a garden hoe, maybe I can pull the top of the box toward me and look in.

Holy CRAP, that's a SNAKE!!! **drop box**

man, the coils on that thing had to be two-and-a-half inches thick.....that makes him four feet or better, depending on what type of snake....

What kind was he? That's a good question... Hmm...Very dark, but I think I saw a pattern....That could be a black snake...or something poisonous.....crap. If it's a four-foot-plus poisonous snake, I'm going to have to figure out a way to kill it, for my safety and my dogs'. I wonder what a shotgun would sound like inside that shed. This could get messy. I'm going to have to look again. Ehhh, crap.

Okay, tilt the box, gently....little more....Okay, dark black with just a hint of a pattern, that's a black snake. Good, non poisonous, but that means at 2.5" thick, he's pushing six feet long. or better.

That's a lot of snake. And he's looking at me. Um, .... hello. Yep, oval head, non poisonous. Seems pretty calm as much as I've harassed him. Eyes are clouded, he must be about to shed his skin, so he's laying low.

Okay big fella, smile for the camera.....

Now, you stay in there and eat all the mice you want. But stay out of my garage, mister. Please.

Shuffle off, Buffalo

Once again, I'm at the gate 2 hours before my flight. I guess I've got time to grab some munch before the flight, and offer my last thoughts on Buffalo (and Tonawanda, et al.)
Buffalo is a good solid town. I've enjoyed being here. Contrary to expectations, everyone i met was extremely nice, maybe nicer than the average joe back in the sunny south. It's very obvious that this is an area with a long history of hevy insdustry. I've never thought about how the economy of an area impacts the aesthetic, baut I really saw that here. The town is worn around the edges, a little beat up and kind of....gritty. Buildings are close together, the atmosphere bustles without seeming overly tense. It's almost as if the entire area is one big factory. The colorful, homey touches you see in the local restarants and bars remind me of the personal items you invariably see tacked up at work stations on a production line. People go a little out of their way to knock the edge off the hard edged, heavy equipment town. It's a pretty neat place because of the people. There's a sense of pulling together on a small group basis, be it with family or the folks that immediately work together . I think this is the reult of generations of hard daily work and god-awful weather conditions. Survival (and sanity) meant tight knit relationships through months of lake effect snow. It still hangs on.

I did notice some differences in people here. Foul language is much more prevalent and accepted. I found it fairly entertaining at times. People here are generally better drivers. Most of the downtown streets have a double yellow center line but are two lanes wide on each side. The fun thing is that there are no lane dividers, and no real lanes. Traffic organically flows from two wide, back to one around turning and parked cars, with no accidents witnessed in a full week. They also know how to merge with no drama, no wrecks and in very short distances with no disruption to traffic flow. It was refreshing and amazing.

After almost a full week here, I can say I'd love to come back. If the winters weren't so god forsaken, it wouldn't be a half bad place to live. I could be happy here if they could fix that.

But don't come here in the winter.