Lots of Hot Air

Reminiscing ...or a written down oral history

2011-02-23T18:26:00.004-05:00

The other day somebody mentioned the elementary schools in Logansport when we were growing up. At the time I just let it pass but like a burr under the saddle it continued to "bug me" that they had placed the wrong school in the wrong part of town.

If I remember correctly (and I am SURE my sisters will correct me if I am wrong) there were seven public elementary schools in Logansport during my kidhood. I don't think they have that many now. I attended Longfellow (on High Street) of course, since it was only a block from home. The other six were Fairview (co-located with Fairview Junior High) next to Fairview Park off South Cicott Street on the southwest side, McKinley (on the north side of the Wabash River on the west side of Cicott Street), Franklin on the northwest side (I have no idea what street but I could drive to it), Columbia (co-located with Columbia Junior High) on North Third Street, Tipton on Smead Street I think near 15th or 16th, and Daniel Webster at 24th and Market. The third and final Junior High was Lincoln which was co-located with the High School for many years and moved to the new building south of the High School's Football Stadium (the Berry Patch of course) when I was in about 4th or 5th grade. I think that Lorraine went to Lincoln and then moved to Columbia when the new Lincoln opened.

I don't remember that I was ever in Tipton Elementary (maybe for a Science Fair one year) but I played basketball at Daniel Webster, Fairview, McKinley, Columbia and Franklin. Or should I say the team played at all of those locations. As well as at our "home" gym at Longfellow. I was either the 11th or 12th player on a 12 player team. To this day I vividly recall guarding a guy who drove to his left from the top of the key when we played at McKinley. I had NO idea that there was a guy setting a pick at the end of the free throw line. In what may be my only career entry in the scorebook I got my money's worth on that foul as I completely ran over the kid setting the pick. I don't recall that I ever scored a single point. The very epitome of the "practice player", guy kept around so that you could practice five on five.

But what might be even stranger is the "end" of my basketball playing days. At the end of the season when I was in 7th grade I was 5' 2". At the beginning of the season in my 8th grade year I was 5'10". I am surprised I could still walk. I made it until the final cut (one of the last 2 or 3 told that there wasn't a spot for me on the team). At the time I had no idea what he was talking about (and I was so ticked that I have completely blocked his name from my memory - other than behind his back we called him Jungle Bob - short, pudgy - fun build for a basketball coach). He pulled me aside, in the little hall next to the gym that ran from stage right of the stage out to the main hall across from the locker room at Columbia Jr. High. And, proceeded to tell me that I 'needed more experience'. Looking back SEVERAL years later I realize that he meant that I should play more playground ball, work on my "game" and maybe play in some Y or AAU leagues and try out again in 9th grade. But as I walked away all that I could think was that cutting me from the team was a strange way for me to get more experience.

Of course, I didn't do any of those things that he had implied and with the influx of the kids from the Catholic schools (who had played on their 8th grade team) I was out of the running for the ninth grade team and I knew it. So in just a couple of sentences at the end of practice before the season even began....I was done.

Where am I???

2010-10-05T18:02:00.003-04:00

So little to write about that months go by....literally.....between blog posts.

They have decided that they can't keep me busy with design tasks at work so they will keep me busy running all over the country. I now have a VERY firm grasp of the term TDY (Temporary Duty Station for those non government folks....I know, it isn't even a real acronym). I have had "temporary duty" in four states the last five weeks (Maryland, Vermont, California and now Ohio). Most of these have been to attend presentations by vendors of technology or services that our department might want (or just keeping up with technology so that some one in the department is up to date). Interesting stuff but I have seen enough airplanes and airports for a while. Of course, when I get back to the office I am betting it will only be weeks before they come up with another trip.

Meanwhile, think good house selling thoughts for me if you will!!!!

The big and the little

2010-05-10T18:35:00.004-04:00

Yesterday, both vehicles were parked in the driveway and I decided a picture was in order. I wish that the picture more clearly showed their difference in size. But note that I was only about 20 feet away and you can see both bumpers on the Suburban. :-)

Since we bought the little guy in November I have put over 6000 miles on it. That's 6000 miles that didn't go on the Suburban. And with the difference in gas mileage almost 200 gallons of gasoline that I didn't purchase. We're getting pretty darn close to breaking even on the purchase. And yes it is kind of like the circus clown car has come to town getting in and out of it. And no it will NOT fit in the back of the Suburban.

Playing with my new toy

2010-04-05T18:02:00.002-04:00

While sitting in the parking lot of the Bloomfield Library! Yep, my birthday present arrived and I can get internet access while sitting in my car and I don't even need to get on one of those PUBLIC computers :-)

I also have skype downloaded but no one to skype with (try inltapilot).

BigTen Champs!!

2010-03-07T11:08:00.002-05:00

Well, they are kind of limping at the last (I saw Robbie Hummel walking around yesterday and he wasn't limping literally but the team????) BUT they have now won a share of the Big Ten championship! HOORAY!!

And, to top it off Keaton Grant scored enough that he now has 1004 points for his career. That means they now have four members of the current team that have scored more than 1000 points in there career. There were only 43 guys in the history of the school that had scored that many at the beginning of the year (including E'twaun Moore one of the current players). Three guys Jajuan Johnson, Robbie Hummel and Keaton have joined that "club" this year. Neat stuff. And out of all of the guys who have ever played at Purdue Keaton has played in more victories for Purdue than any other player. Mainly that is because there weren't many upperclassmen when he came in so he played a lot as a freshman but it also means that Purdue has won a lot of games the last four years.

Ah well...I should keep my posts to myself

2010-03-04T18:06:00.003-05:00

Of course, less than 4 days after my last post one of the best players for the Boilermakers tore his ACL. They are a very good team but missing Robbie they don't have nearly as much firepower. He has been described as the "heart" of the team. Well, in their next game their fumbled and bumbled away a chance for the sole possession of the league championship. They then came back and won their next game to put themselves in the position that if they win their last league regular season game (on Sat.) against Penn St. (they have won 3 league games all year versus the Boilers 14 so far) they will tie for the league championship. Everybody think good thoughts on Sat.

And hope that they figure out how to play without Robbie. :-)

How 'bout them Boilers

2010-02-21T14:23:00.003-05:00

As most of you know I am a VERY avid Purdue basketball fan. They had a small slump back in early January but since then they had won 9 games in a row and because of an implosion by the Michigan State Spartans they find themselves alone in first place in the BigTen with five games to go. It is a good time to be a Boilermaker fan :-)
I sure hope that we can make it home by 4pm next Sunday. They have a game Wednesday night that I will miss (it is on the BigTen network again and it doesn't seem to reach the San Luis Valley of Colorado). Of course, I get to meet Master Wesley instead. Pretty darn good trade. But their next game after that is Mich. St. at home next Sunday. Hopefully, I can catch at least part of that game.
And to top it off Villanova just lost another game opening the door even wider for Purdue to grab a number 1 seed in the Big Dance.

Like I said, it is a good time to be a Boilermaker fan!

Wesley Isaiah...

2010-02-07T13:42:00.002-05:00

Welcome to the family little guy!!

Too bad I haven't gotten to meet you yet but I hear good things about you. And you even up the boy/girl ratio again, so that it good.

For those that haven't heard I have a new grandson (An Intro to Master Wesley ). I sure am looking forward to meeting him!!

Let it snow....I guess

2010-02-05T15:43:00.002-05:00

It is my RDO (Regular Day Off for those non Dept of Defense/gov't acronym types out there-I work 9 hour days so that I have a Friday off every pay period), I've been to the grocery, I have my all day, on-line, annual ballooning Safety Seminar tomorrow, and the Super Bowl on Sunday. I don't have to leave the house until Monday morning when I go to the dentist for my follow up visit for having my wisdom teeth out. I suppose that means that Sunday afternoon (before the Super Bowl) I will have to try to find the driveway. But between now and then it can snow all it wants.

Bleahhhh, I hate snow. Almost as much as I hate rain.... I guess this means I need to live in the desert.

Well, I am not as wise as I was....

2010-01-31T14:36:00.003-05:00

Friday morning I had all four of my wisdom teeth pulled. Not fun. Luckily my neighbor Paul volunteered to drive me to and from (I think that there was a little arm twisting but he is retired and wanted to go down to the airport and check on his plane anyway - he dropped me off and then came back).

I'm doing okay...but I haven't bothered to get dressed for two days either. I am thinking now that I will take "sick leave" tomorrow and not actually drive down to Bloomfield until tomorrow evening. Get all of the pain meds out of my system before I try driving. I don't feel too bad but I don't want to push it either.

I am still alive...

2010-01-13T19:07:00.002-05:00

sorta. Work is INCREDIBLY boring right now. Working on my DAWIA certification but that is the cure for insomnia. Going to get some training on a language that I don't really want to use next week....but it could be useful I suppose.

In the meantime I continue to be amazed by the wildlife sanctuary that is my workplace. Every night this week between my office and the gate I have seen multiple deer in multiple places. For example, this evening I saw one deer about 20 feet off the roadway at one point. And within a half mile I saw a group of four or five at the edge of the trees. Before I got off the base I saw two more groups (3-5 per group). And a flock (20+) of wild turkeys. I saw another flock of the turkeys on Monday about three miles from where I saw them tonight. Might have been the same ones, they all look alike to me. And last night I saw a fox.

What a whirlwind.....

2009-11-06T17:30:00.002-05:00

Last Thursday very late in the afternoon I found out that I was going to a meeting in Sunnyvale, CA for work. On Monday of this week a little voice popped up with 'JetBlue' has really cheap tickets from the Bay Area to Long Beach'. After some quick checking with my boss and the travel folks I had them change my return flight from San Jose to LAX and grabbed myself one of those cheap tickets and here I am :-)

Certain little curly haired tot is napping right now but we have been very, very busy with going to the park and the zoo and reading books. She sure is a cutie but I wish that I had brought a camera.

And now we return to "real" life

2009-09-20T13:02:00.002-04:00

Well, last weekend was pretty darn good. This weekend.....sad to say more normal. And six hundred dollars later the Suburb has a brand spanking new radiator. Guess I know where my ballooning budget just went. Sigh.....maybe next year will be better.

WOW!!

2009-09-13T10:01:00.004-04:00

Two flights in two days!! My dear wifey does love me :-)

And Mother Nature has decided to behave. Nick and Ruthie mentioned last night that a week or so ago that they flew six nights in a row. But I will gladly take my two nights in a row. Other than Alice we had a completely different crew from the night before. And if I was going to be trying for a third night in a row (which I can't) it would probably be yet another crew. It is good to be flexible I suppose.

This flight we actually went over Morse reservoir. The other three balloons all went low and played with the boats. I heard a rumor that Gary tried washing the bottom 18 inches of his basket. I stayed high because I wanted to get west of the water so that I could practice a couple more approaches. I ended up landing about 200 yards to the right of where Nick landed (of course he was 500 yards further downwind) so my staying high didn't buy me much. But I did get a couple of approaches down to inspect the soybeans from close range.

The landing wasn't as smooth as the night before but this landing site (another new subdivision without houses) had a lot more obstacles in the form of lot signs and stakes. I was kind of indecisive about where to put it but when I put it we stuck it pretty firmly. With more experienced crew I would have been less hesitant to use my drop line but these guys were pretty much rookies all around. So we just "crash landed" with a thump. But we didn't come close to hitting anything either. Alice did a nice job of "spotting" the one stake during the deflation and we packed it up and headed that a way. But not before watching Geoff give his passengers the full flying at dusk experience. But that is another story....

So I am almost caught up for now. Of course, in a couple of weeks I'll be "itching" again.

Also, one of the Friday night crew guys and his 15 year old daughter took a BUNCH of photos and posted them at http://www.pbase.com/dowleyk/jaydotyballoon . Go have a look.

Back in the air!!

2009-09-11T22:31:00.002-04:00

HOORAY!! For only the second time this year Trouvie got to get out of her trailer.

It was a very good flight with a very good "new subdivision" landing site.

Man! But it is neat to glide along, chat with the folks out in their back yard and with only a small pucker when I came up over a tree line (lining up on a great side yard for a landing spot) only to discover that the field between the trees and the side yard has four horses in it. I was already burning to get up over the trees. I just burnt about 10 seconds longer than I had planned and hoped that was enough to let me "coast" past the horses. Of course, it scrubbed the yard as a landing spot but none of the horses got "jumpy" so that was a good thing.

SMILE!!

The State Fair Balloon Race with out me...

2009-08-15T22:48:00.002-04:00

Well the Indiana State Fair Giant Hot Air Balloon Race has come and gone for another year. And, unfortunately from my point of view, it came and went without me. :-( Since I have had a grand total of ONE flight this year I didn't meet the "eligibility" requirements that Nick and Ruthie were forced to add a couple of years ago (long story). So I went this morning and crewed for an out of town pilot who came without any crew (not even a driver - strange, that). For those who have been around awhile it was the guy who years ago flew the Early Times Whiskey Bottle special shape. But this year he was flying just a regular balloon. He was impressed however when his crew picked out a landing site for him before he got there. We told him about it and he flew right to it.

The amazing part was that every pilot that flew threw their baggie and had it scored. Well except for Nick. He was the last one over the X and he just landed even though Ruthie warned him it would mean he was disqualified. If I remember correctly the furthest baggie was something like 131 feet from the X and there were only two or three over 75 feet. Two years ago I was sixth at 75 feet and last year not a single baggie was scored because we all missed the field where the hare landed. This year fifth place was 68 inches.

Finally, the first flight of the year.....

2009-07-08T17:31:00.002-04:00

Yeah, so the title of the blog isn't so "true" right now. With me being down here and the balloon being up there (and for example, the weather being great right now and a crummy forecast for Saturday - the only day when the balloon and I are in the same place) it makes it difficult to get flights in. In fact, last Friday was my first flight of the year. The sandbags enjoyed it as much as ever and I REALLY appreciated that Ann, Sarah and Dan served as the primary crew with my lovely wife as the driver. Raley and her Grandmother came along as "interested observers". And, Jamie and James came for the launch.

Good flight but I sure could tell my "skills" were a little rusty for the first approach or two.

Now, if I could just figure out how to get the weather to cooperate so that I could get another flight in.

And the new job continues to "amaze" me...

2009-05-23T14:53:00.005-04:00

Yesterday I learned yet another new term. Administrative leave. Yeah!! Apparently, The Captain (doesn't matter what his real rank is as the commander of a Naval installation his title is "The Captain") has the discretion to award all of the people that work for him up to 59 minutes of administrative leave. One hour or more requires at least one layer higher in the chain of command. So yesterday, if you had clocked in to work you were awarded 59 minutes of leave (to be taken yesterday only) as a "thank you for working hard and let's kick off summer". So my "short" day (every other Friday I work eight hours - Mon-Thur I work 9) got even shorter. I won't argue. If yesterday had been my RDO (Regular Day Off for you non DoD folks - that would OBVIOUSLY be the Department of Defense) like several of the folks in my group, I would have "lost out" on the 59 minutes. Of course, I wouldn't have been working either :-)

The other news is that, in an apparently very unusual twist, I may get to help a department that works in the building across the street out of a bind. Seems that usually the various departments don't mix at all, especially not at the project level (due to the way things get funded). However, this department is in a bind because the main guy who had been working on the VHDL for this particular FPGA was notified recently that he was being deployed to Iraq. I am not sure if he is National Guard or Reserve but, not surprisingly, there are a lot of both on the base. They thought they still had it "covered" but his backup had a heart attack and died last weekend. Suddenly, they have no one in their department that knows VHDL at all. I don't have a lot to do right now, they have funding to pay me (my boss likes that aspect a lot) and I get to learn FPGA design by doing. And, in a few weeks, I will be able to add FPGA design to my resume. Sounds good to me. Now if I can just make the FPGA work. I have casually looked through some of this guy's code and it appears that there are some holes big enough to drive a truck through (shall I say software guy with little hardware experience writing what he considers software - they always seem to forget that the objective is to make hardware). But, alas, I HAVE seen this kind of stuff before and the chance to play with the FPGA programming software is just too tempting.

Now my desk can be happy!!

2009-05-14T15:59:00.002-04:00

I have now received new pictures of my lovely daughters and their handsome husbands and the cutest grandbaby in the world to put on my desk!!! Hooray!!!

Now if I just had enough work to do to. Hmmmmm.......

In the meantime I also hauled my bike to Bloomfield and back this week so that I could start riding a little more often. What I have discovered so far is that there is nothing resembling "flat" around Bloomfield that isn't a U.S. highway. And that while I can't do anything about the "old" part, I am working on the out of shape part. But, boy, am I out of shape. And hills don't help my ego.

I am sad...(eeyore voice)

2009-04-04T10:45:00.001-04:00

I have a new desk and the only picture on it of my girls has Sarah in her wedding dress.

No pictures of son-in-laws.

And, no picture(s) of Raley.....

VERY SAD!

Well, durn......

2009-03-27T10:16:00.002-04:00

Or something like that.

Going into the game none of the "pundits" gave Purdue a chance but they hung in there and had several chances to tie or even take the lead but could never get over the hump. The Boilers needed to do several things well to win the game. They needed to play their normal really tough defense and they did that. They needed to hold their own in the rebounding but they got out rebounded by a fairly large margin (48-33) and they needed to shoot a pretty good percentage of their shots but they missed several open shots (that they normally hit) and had a lot of shots influenced by UConn's big center. They ended up shooting only 36% and they needed to be in the mid forties. They also fouled too many times (UConn out scored them 19-6 from the free throw line) which was a direct correlation with the fact that the UConn players were just bigger and stronger than the Purdue players.

Given all of that the guys showed that they were really competitive. And they have the advantage that their top six players are all underclassmen and will be back next year. And they have some pretty good looking recruits coming in. Things are looking good for Purdue basketball.

And on to the Sweet Sixteen!!!

2009-03-21T21:14:00.002-04:00

Whew!!

Just barely! The Boilers built a big enough lead and then hung on at the end. Washington came back to within two points on several occasions but Purdue always found a way to push it back up to 4 or 6. And then they made enough free throws towards the end of the game and JaJuan Johnson had two very timely blocks to hang on. And, oh yeah, there was a GREAT story in the Indy paper about how JaJuan's mom's co-workers in the kitchen at one of the schools here in Carmel took up a collection and bought her (a single mom) an airplane ticket and a hotel room so she could go to the games in Portland, Ore.

And now they get to play the team from U Conn. Hmmmmmm.....

I guess you have to beat the really good teams if you want to win the tournament.

Big Ten Tournament Champions!!

2009-03-15T21:42:00.002-04:00

After an up and down season (looking pretty good on occasion and down right terrible on others) the Purdue Boilermakers won the Big10 tournament today. They played three very good games and even though they fell behind in the second half today they came back and won. WooHoo!!

Of course, the NCAA tournament committee didn't exactly reward them. They must have watched the games last week. Purdue pretty well stunk up the last week of the season. So they have no one to blame but themselves. They ended up as a fifth seed (the tournament has a record of 5 seeds losing to 12 seeds in their first games). And if they win their first game they will likely have to play the Univ. of Washington in Portland Oregon. That's only about a three hour drive from the UW campus. And a plane flight from W. Lafayette. Ah well. If you are going to do anything in the tournament you have to beat good teams. They did at least get Thurs/Sat games so I don't have to worry about missing the game to go to the airport :-)

And now a couple of GIANT steps....

2009-03-11T18:07:00.002-04:00

and then maybe we'll see how long it is until we can take the next one.

Last Friday I called and accepted a "tentative job offer" to be a Department of Defense (usually called DoD) employee working at Crane Naval Surface Warfare Center. It is a HUGE facility located about 25 miles southwest of Bloomington, Indiana. Step one...

And, last night I finished filling out a huge form of background info for the first part of the process to get my security clearance. Step two.....

I am not sure after talking to the nice lady in the security office this morning when they will actually start the process of doing the background checks. I thought before that they had to complete at least the first round before I could start working but she implied that they would only look at the paperwork itself but that I had to physically present myself (and get fingerprinted - I've never done that before) before they could actually start the background check. They stressed over and over again that I should present myself for that on the first day of work. So, anyway, at some point several folks are probably going to be getting phone calls.

So, as I understand it, the security folks will now give the HR folks a green light and then the HR folks have to send the paperwork back to the regional office (in Philly I think) and they have to do what ever it is they do and THEN we have to mutually agree on a start date. Which means in the meantime that I get to march in place for a while. Hurry up and wait.

Back to baby steps...

2009-02-20T11:50:00.003-05:00

So being the pushy kind of guy that I am I invited myself down to visit them. Yesterday I drove down to get a tour and an hour or so of the guy who would be my branch manager's time. He would be my boss's boss. We discussed the workings of the federal pay system and a tour of the facility (including the cubicle that my future boss has already claimed for me). They have lots of expensive toys that our tax dollars have paid for. But not enough parking.

So now it is back to waiting for the machinery of government to get around to the next step(s). Sigh. I sure wish I was more patient.....but I am not.

...and if we aren't careful we will take a full step!!

2009-02-13T21:36:00.003-05:00

I had my phone interview today. Of course, being the government they can't officially offer me the job, only HR can offer me the job. But, we spent nearly 45 minutes talking with him doing most of the talking explaining what they do and a little bit about how they are organised and asked if I had any questions. I asked a couple that I had written down ahead of time and got pretty much the answers that I had expected. Though the salary that he "proposed" isn't quite what I was hoping for it is sufficient. It said right in the job description that they would not pay any moving or relocation costs however we did discuss the possibility of a "signing bonus" that we could apply to the moving costs. It seems that moving costs come out of the HR budget while he thought that he might be able to get them to figure out how to get the signing bonus out of his department's budget. It is strange to contemplate taking a job when I have never seen the place....maybe I should have broached a "tour" as a possibility...

So now the ball is in HR's court and we wait until we hear from them. No rush, of course......arrgh.

...and another tiny step....

2009-02-11T22:15:00.002-05:00

Well, I got confirmation today that I am having an official phone interview on Friday morning. Not the first (I have had a several others with recruiters and one for the contract position in Longmont that "went away") but this is the first with a hiring manager of permanent position.

I also learned that only one other person applied. Here is hoping that one other person isn't a disabled veteran :-)

Think positive thoughts for me on Friday!

A tiny baby step...

2009-01-31T19:32:00.004-05:00

Well, it is said that a journey begins with a single step. So on Thursday (delayed from Wednesday because they hadn't plowed the street yet on Wednesday) I mailed off the application "package" for the job that was posted last week. I am expecting a call some time this next week to talk about the next step.

Meanwhile, I am trying to fan a flame out of another tiny spark that occurred about a week ago. This would be for another job here in Indiana but I suspect that the company is balking at how much they feel they would have to pay me (based upon what I was making at Thomson). Of course, they haven't asked me yet. In fact, I am not even sure that the recruiter who I talked to has even presented my resume to them yet. And when I tried to call him I got a call back from another recruiter in his office with the lame "well, he's been out sick". And, she didn't even know what job he and I had been talking about. Hopefully, I can fan that one into some sort of flame so that I can have an "option" to consider.

Bottom line is that things are looking up but there is still a loooooonnnnnnggggggg way to go to get to that first paycheck. But ya gotta start somewhere.

And now, it is back to work...

2009-01-04T20:46:00.002-05:00

Well, the travelling was a pain in the rearend but the time spent with my girls (and their hubbies) and especially with Miss Raley was WELL worth it. There are some who say little Miss Raley has her Grandpa wrapped around her little finger. Not quite. But almost :-)

And now it is back to the "grind" of trying to find a job. Sure hope that more pops up now that the first of the year has arrived. Only time will tell.

Lots of travel

2008-12-21T14:06:00.002-05:00

And lots of nice visiting. Jenna and Sarah both have very nice houses. Completely different. At Jenna's I shoveled a path through the snow to get to the truck. At Sarah's we arrived to the sound of the lawn care guys mowing the neighbor's yard. Of course, Sarah only has had the boxes from the moving company for a few days. Still lots of boxes around but you can tell that the house will have lots of neat family memories. Lots more room than their old house. And Jenna's has that very comfortable feel already and they still have much potential. Great houses.

Now if it weren't so darn many miles between them. And between them and our house. And if I had a job.....another story.

Okay, so let's try something different...

2008-12-11T23:29:00.003-05:00

Tomorrow we hit the road. I'll keep checking e-mail and the voicemail here at home and do just enough job searching to keep the unemployment folks happy. Who knows. Maybe less is more.

And so we sit...

2008-12-09T18:53:00.002-05:00

and wait and wait....

At least the nasty little bug has been beaten back into the background. I am still not sure that it is completely gone (and I am SURE that Alice is not sure she has it beaten back yet). But we are both WAY better than we were. I haven't had that bad of a bug in a LONG time. I was flat out miserable.

And the folks in Colorado still haven't made a decision on whether they want me for the contract job and have given no indication which way they will decide or when. At least, when they reviewed the interviews that they had already with the contract company they didn't say that I was "unacceptable". They didn't say that they wanted me either. Just noncommittal. Bleah.

And the folks at Crane still haven't posted that job.

And so I know NOTHING! Which is driving me crazy.

A pretty nasty little bug...

2008-12-04T12:55:00.002-05:00

All I can say is wow. From Sunday evening until now (and yes it is ongoing though less) my body has been turned into the Saudi Arabia of "natural gas" production. I am not talking polite little belches, I am talking Homer Simpson, mouth wide open, vibrating the tongue, darn near flame throwing belches. And, yes, Virginia the gas does come out the other end too. All in all not a pretty sight. Yesterday, I finally resolved to drown the little rascals and doubled yet again my liquid intake and finally this morning it is "better" but that is only in a relative sense.

And meanwhile the job hunt drags on with nothing definite.......sigh

Hurry up and wait....

2008-11-25T16:56:00.002-05:00

Out of no where yet another "opportunity" has arisen. Of course, nothing is concrete, nothing has been offered, YET. I haven't even talked to the hiring manager yet. But hope springs eternal in the optimist.

So for those keeping score, I now have two permanent positions in less than optimum locations "simmering" on the back burner. And this new contract possibility that came out of nowhere already on the verge of boiling that is dead center in the middle of a "target rich environment". If I were there, I think that it would be much easier to work the connections to find that elusive permanent position. And, besides, six months from now who knows what the economy will be like but I am betting that the companies will have figured out how to deal with it by then. But, alas, no boiling yet.

I am finding (or reaffirming) that I am NOT a very patient person.

Happy 82nd (a few weeks late)

2008-11-14T10:48:00.003-05:00

A couple of weeks ago we went up to see Pop and take him and Loretta out to eat to celebrate his birthday. The next morning we took a couple of pictures before we left. Happy 82nd Pop!

A rose between two thorns for sure!

Weekly update...

2008-11-05T20:50:00.003-05:00

Okay, so another week has gone by. I got my hopes up when I found not one but two new job listings to apply for and a phone call from a head hunter with an interesting sounding job and since then.......nothing. No feedback. Just silence. I tried to call the headhunter back and first she was at lunch and then when I tried the second time she had 'left for the day'. So the receptionist put me through to her voice mail. Hopefully, she will call back tomorrow. I also called the guy that "interviewed" me at the Raytheon Job Fair a couple of weeks ago. Of course, it really shouldn't have been his job to get back to me (he is the manager that I would have been working for) but he gave me the 'uhhhh, we've already made all of the offers that we are going to make at this time....if you haven't heard from us......' You could tell he was REALLY uncomfortable but I would have been too in his place. Just another reason to be disgusted with HR people the world around. There were probably 150-200 people that showed up at that job fair and each of us had to fill out a "questionnaire" to get in the door. Why didn't some HR flunky take that stack of papers and cross check it against the list of people that had been made offers and send out "ding" letters? Because HR people just can't be bothered with doing their jobs I guess. End of today's rant.

Like some other people I try not to discuss politics but just can't stand to let the opportunity by to say, like the old saying, be careful what you ask for. I heard the word "change" bandied about a lot over the past few months. That is a lot different than "improve". I guess it just depends on your point of view. I hope that the changes lead to improvements for all of us but I fear that somebody is going to end up footing the bill for all of those changes and for them the change might simply be that they get to pay higher taxes. It is just not clear to me who that somebody is but I have a sneaking suspicion that I know who....end of that rant, too. :-)

An experiment.....

2008-10-27T22:23:00.002-04:00

Okay, I decided to allow myself to post when I was logged into my gmail account, not just when I was logged into blogger using my old aol account. Isn't this exciting :-) NOT

Of course, even more exciting is that I just figured out that at least the first two Purdue basketball games are going to be on the BigTenNetwork. The first game is this Saturday at 9pm EST. Sports bars near you should have the game on!

Just for those of you who don't follow them, the Purdue men's basketball team was voted by the media (one guy from the newspaper in each city where there is a Big Ten team - and maybe one guy from the closest TV station) that they are favored to win the BigTen this year. I am READY for basketball to start since football has been so terrible.

A new post....

2008-10-26T12:08:00.002-04:00

Well, Alice told me that I needed to make a post on my blog and since I ALWAYS do what Alice tells me to.....here is a new post.

Maybe the reason that I hadn't posted is because I have nothing to say?

At the end of last week I completely tore apart my resume and completely changed the format. I have sent it out to a couple of places so far. We will see if it gets any different results. The final nail in the coffin that killed the old one was that a recruiter called and told me, literally, that it was terrible. He didn't really have a job that I was interested in but we must have talked for half an hour with him giving me pointers. At the end of the conversation he also gave me the e-mail address of a person who he probably shouldn't have. But, at this point, I will take help where I can find it. We will see if I can have any luck with the new resume when I send it to this lady.

As most of you know I am a BIG Purdue football and basketball fan. I even went to BW3 yesterday to watch the football team because good old Brighthouse took ESPN Classic off our cable. Let's just say that I am sure looking forward to basketball season.

Still sitting...

2008-09-30T23:36:00.002-04:00

At least I am not painting.......at least not at the moment. I think that we have finished painting for a while. Now it is just getting rooms finished. For instance, we could scrub on the tiles in the master bath all day and not be done. And we could pack up the quilt machine (after we find the quilt machine again). And we could start packing the books in the study. We haven't even started the study. Ugh. And I have to put the basement ceiling back together (now that I have run the new water line for the ice maker - even though we aren't hooking it up to the fridge because the ice maker in our current fridge is broken but we could hook it up if we wanted to). And, of course, sometime in the next day or two I need to mow the grass again. Beats raking leaves I suppose.

And I have gotten a little bit of response in the job looking area. No interviews let alone no job offers but at least I am starting to get a little response in the way of e-mails from real humans instead of just the computer generated ones. Who knows....something IS going to come along......someday.

Here we sit....

2008-09-11T18:41:00.002-04:00

Well, yesterday I finally got the quarter round down around the floor in the kitchen and the molding around the tops of the cabinet (where they meet the ceiling). We keep trying to forget the one inch strip above the back splash below the new range hood that is one inch shorter than the old one. We gotta do something about that one of these days. Alice is talking about the curtains for in there (I am pretty sure she got the material today). Then we will be DONE with the kitchen. Much more work, and much more time than I ever would have guessed.

This afternoon we started packing books in our bedroom. I hope we can finish that tomorrow. Then we will have to rearrange the furniture. We presently have too many dressers but the new night stands should provide some "stash" space since they each have a drawer and a shelf with doors. And what won't fit gets packed. Simple really. NOT!!

The job hunt continues. Got an early tinkle of a lead today. More like a rumor really. I have applied to several companies and for a couple of the jobs I sound like a perfect fit (at least to me) and the companies haven't even acknowledged that I exist. I am now working harder on the few contacts that I have in companies there. We will see....

Meanwhile in better news. I have lost a few pounds. Stress is not exactly the recommended weight loss program but I am also trying to watch the portion sizes (yes, daughters I can hear you).

Busy, busy....

2008-08-26T22:14:00.003-04:00

An emergency appendectomy is not what I was expecting last Wednesday. No, not for me but for Alice. Surprise! Luckily she listened to her body and we got to the hospital and she got it taken care of BEFORE it burst. Burst appendix is a MUCH bigger deal. Of course, nonburst appendix is still a deal. She is feeling better (I can tell just by looking) but she is still moving pretty slow. It will be another week or so before she is really back at it.

Well, my new resume is ready and I have started "officially" applying for new jobs. Seven applications since last Thursday. And those are just for the ones that have real job openings listed and there are probably another two or three that I will apply for in the next day or two. Then there are another 15 places or so where I will submit my resume even though they don't have an appropriate job listed but I know that they do the kind of work that I am looking for. Who knows maybe it will hit somebody's desk and I will get lucky. That is through the front door. Next I have to start working the connections. Contacting people that I have worked with over the years to see if I can get an intro to folks that are in the right place to hire me even if they don't have an opening. Maybe I my resume will spur them to open something up?? Who knows. And meanwhile I am starting to hear from headhunters. Maybe they will have something.

And, meanwhile, work continues on the house. The kitchen is coming together. Counter tops are done, floor is scheduled and cabinet doors and drawers have been primed (at least their fronts). Door painting will continue tomorrow. Hopefully, by the end of the week everything will be done in there and we can move everything out of the family room back into the kitchen where it belongs. Except there are going to be some leftovers. After we get done painting (doors and drawers) there will be more room in the garage. And the excess furniture and more boxes will probably go there for now. We really need to make a decision on the storage options. I will think about that tomorrow.

Another year has come and gone

2008-08-06T15:18:00.002-04:00

Well, it is official. Another year. The Indiana State Fair Giant Balloon Race is behind us once again. And I tied for fifth!! Of course, it was a 24 way tie for fifth. Only four guys managed to get their baggies in the same field with the hare and none of them were actually close enough to score with a 200 foot tape measure. We are talking several hundred feet. But I had a good flight ably assisted by great crew and somebody else paid for the propane. And I actually managed to stumble across a really nice landing area where one of the other pilots let me use his tarp to keep the envelope dry.

Now it is back to painting. Blehhh!

Unemployment is a roller coaster...

2008-07-26T15:38:00.002-04:00

Yesterday I got invited back over to Thomson (along with all of the other guys who got layed off plus about ten people that are still employed by Thomson) to hear a presentation from the manager of the group at ADI that would manage the ADI Indy design center if such a thing were to come into existence. Listening to him he is very convinced that such a design center will exist. Of course, there are MANY questions regarding how many people such a center will employ and WHEN those people will be employed and would I be one of them and so on....

Every week we hear that we will know more in a couple of days or next week. This has been dragging on. I have now given my resume to two different head hunters (guys paid by the companies to find specific job skills). I am thinking that it might be time to start talking to the paid (by me) head hunter that can start to get my resume out there. I am not sure that we can get our house ready to be on the market before Grandma has to go east and I am not sure that she can get it ready by herself if I have found a job in Timbuktu after she comes back. Ahhh something will work out. The mystery is to know what it will be....

Sometimes you get all dressed up...

2008-07-24T07:57:00.002-04:00

and discover you have no where to go.

The "development" that I mentioned yesterday was that I was asked to go back to Thomson for an hour or so to to discuss my "skills" with two guys from Analog Devices (aka ADI). Their company has been considering purchasing remants of the old Thomson Silicon Components group for some time and this is another step in the process. All of us who were laid off last Friday got together last night for dinner to discuss the discussions and we were all confused by process. It seems that these guys that came in yesterday were plucked from their offices on Tuesday and told to go to Indy for these "skills discussions" yesterday. They had no clear information about the prospects of this deal going through and even less information about what shape it might take if it does go through. We have heard lots of rumors but I fear that most of them seem to be based upon wishful thinking.

Bottom line, one of these days this might turn into an opportunity. The big question is whether we can afford to wait long enough for it to do so????

Think good thoughts my way this afternoon please

2008-07-23T09:56:00.002-04:00

More update later but there has been a "development".

Please think good thoughts my way this afternoon and I will post more this evening with details.

The end of an era....

2008-07-18T22:30:00.004-04:00

I don't know how else to describe it but today was my last day at RCA/Thomson. I had an eerie thought the other day that about three years ago the managers in Indy all started spouting the same "we are not RCA any more, we are Thomson" speech. We had been Thomson since 1986. Since they all started doing it at about the same time this had to come down from on high (from France). What a coincidence that at about the same time is about the time that our division started spinning around the drain. Ah well, can't be bitter here.

We did get to live in France for two years (and play tourist like crazy). Growing up as a "hick" in Indiana I NEVER even imagined such a thing. And there were some great people to work with (and a few that were "challenging"). But overall it was a good bunch.

But it was/is still VERRRRYYYY bitter sweet to walk out the door for the LAST time.

Time flies...

2008-06-18T22:45:00.002-04:00

not only when you are having fun but it seems to fly ALL the time. I just notice how long it has been since I posted. Of course, with all the excitement of Sarah and Raley being here kept me distracted.

I decided last Wednesday that I would call and "pull out" of the balloon race in Muncie. There was just too much standing water everywhere (makes it tough to find either launch or landing sites that don't either trash the balloon or get the truck stuck in the mud or just tear up the field and leave ruts). And, I wasn't "current" (FAA-speak meaning that I haven't done enough take-offs and landings within the previous 90 days to take a passenger). And with all of the stress from my dad's surgery, all the extra people in the house (over and above Sarah and Raley), and my job situation I just decided that I had too much going on to go. I sure wish I could have gotten a couple of flights in (I am guessing that most of the guys that showed up did-though I haven't heard) but, as the old saying goes, discretion is the better part of valor. I have often said that the hardest part about learning to fly the balloon was to learn when NOT to fly the balloon. The bottom line is that I am "content" with my choice.

On a lighter note, I have been riding my bike again. I rode last Saturday (14.5 miles) and Tuesday to work and back (14.8 miles and 8.9 miles). On the way to work I took the "scenic" route and rode by Jamie and Alex's new house. Of course, from the street you can't tell much but it looks like a nice neighborhood and the neighborhood pool was already bustling at eight 0'clock on a weekday. I haven't been nearly as regular riding as the last couple of years but I am going to try harder.

Today I took a "personal business" day from work and stayed home to meet the realtor. She presented us with a nice binder with statistics on other houses in the neighborhood and said that she and her "assistant" (who accompanied her today) would put together a "marketing" plan and get back with us before we leave for our cruise. Interesting stuff.

Who is it going to be???

2008-06-09T21:15:00.002-04:00

At the bottom of the column on the left of the page there is a counter that is counting visitors. At last look it was at 995. Who is going to make it go to 1000? And how will I know???? It seems kind of like cheating when I check back because that bumps the count (I think).

What a week!!!

2008-06-06T19:52:00.003-04:00

WOW!!

My dad had open heart surgery last Friday (of course, must of the folks who read this already know all of this...but it is probably good to write it down).

The night before surgery I got about two and a half hours of sleep. And it went down hill from there. I am still working on catching up. However, he went home from the hospital today and I think that he will probably behave himself for the first week or so. After that, it is a crap shoot. He will expect himself to be able to do more than he is capable of. I fear that it will be VERY difficult for Loretta to keep him "under control". Prayers might be in order.

And, news from work just "sucks". Conformation is probably coming next week. But it looks ominous. And that probably means LOTS of work on the home front. To coin a phrase just for Reid "I'm getting too old for this crap".

Another ride to work

2008-05-21T17:47:00.002-04:00

and home again too :-)

No National Ride to Work Breakfast today but I rode anyway. Good to leave the Suburb home though.

Today I went the "medium" route both ways. It frustrates me that I have to literally stop and wait until I get a break in traffic to make a dash past one house to get from the exit of a subdivision to the beginning of a bike path (where it meets the Monon Trail). No sidewalk, nothing, past that one house. Luckily, there is a stop light a quarter mile away and when it changes you get a break in the traffic. And you dash. Other than that there are a couple of other places where there are 100 yards where a bike path would be nice but the traffic isn't nearly so bad. Patience works. I'm generally not in THAT big of a hurry. I can wait thirty seconds or so for that break in traffic.

On the way home I had a pretty stiff headwind. On the way to work I was just pokey. It took me about 37 minutes each way (its about 8.5 miles - or 13.1 mph).

National Bike to Work Day

2008-05-16T10:35:00.003-04:00

Well, it was a tad bit chilly this morning (with a breeze out of the northwest that is almost always a bad sign) but this being National Bike to Work day I had to ride today. I even stopped for my free bagel at Carmel's Central Park and got to talk to our esteemed mayor (cough, cough). Anyway, his office is making a big push to introduce new bike routes in Carmel. The only problem is that they have money to put up signs but nothing else. So the streets are still too narrow but Real Soon Now they will have a pretty sign designating them as an official bike way. I am not sure what that accomplishes but maybe a little public education will be a good thing. Anyway, it is six and a half miles to work the way I came this morning (I might take the long way home tonight - less traffic). A pretty easy ride. And it leaves the Suburban parked at home where it isn't burning four dollar a gallon gas.

Limbo

2008-05-14T20:10:00.002-04:00

Hmmmm....an update.....but what about? There is exactly NO news from work, it has been raining every time I turn around to think about either biking or ballooning. I did stop at the shop this morning and spend a hundred bucks getting the serpentine belt replaced on the Suburban.

I guess the only "news" that I have is that I went with my dad (and Loretta) down to talk to Dr. Fehrenbacher about his surgery. I told the doctor that I remembered him as a much younger man. He did my mom's first bypass surgery 24 years ago. He laughed and said we were all a lot younger then.

Just stuck in limbo waiting for something to happen at work.

LOTS of turmoil

2008-05-06T16:57:00.002-04:00

And it is amazing how much the "view" of the future hasn't really been cleared up all that much. My impression is that most people are pretty darn sceptical that any of our jobs have much future but on the other hand we haven't been laid off so here we sit. Hopefully meetings with my project leader this week will help clear up some of the murkiness but I am not all that hopeful. As somebody said earlier today 'we're all just hanging on by our fingernails'.

And to top it off we got a call late Saturday from my dad and he ended up in the hospital. Yesterday afternoon he had a heart catherization. Of course, the doctor pronounced his heart (with the exception of his aortic valve) is "disgustingly healthy". Bottom line, they scheduled him an appointment with a cardiovascular surgeon on May 14th. In all likelihood he will have surgery sometime soon thereafter to get that valve replaced. But other than the valve he is in very good health and therefore he has many less risk factors than most patients his age.

I am sure glad I don't have any stress in my life :-)

The boom has been lowered....

2008-04-16T14:25:00.002-04:00

and it missed me.....for now, at least.

As most of you know by now 18 people in my group here at work were layed off yesterday. This is out of a total of 56 people, so it was a pretty significant chunk. I wasn't one of the ones layed off though I had been offered the option beforehand to "volunteer". Sitting around in the aftermath one almost wonders if I just shouldn't have. It is very strange to talk to some of the folks who were layed off (their layoff date is actually May 2nd and they were given the option to come in and "finish" up things if they wanted and they had a meeting this morning to discuss their benefits during their "layoff" -so many of them have been around today). And it is equally strange to talk to some of the folks who are still here as we try to comprehend both what was said and what wasn't said by the managers here. And, of course, some of the comments that have been released to the press have been dissected looking for "meaning".

Meanwhile, life goes on....and we have to figure out what that means.....

another nice day...

2008-04-06T19:20:00.002-04:00

I got an update on both daughters (always a good thing) and I went for another bike ride.

In the first half mile my legs were asking if I REALLY wanted to do this again???? So I decided to take a couple of my "shortcuts". I went around the same basic loop but left off a couple of the little side loops. I still expected it to be slower. However, when I got home it was 8.1 miles in 32:15 for an average of 15.2. I was surprised but I'll take it. Now the question comes getting rides in during the week without freezing in the morning.

Anyway, it feels good to have started another year.

It's about time....

2008-04-05T18:40:00.002-04:00

Finally, sunshine and warm on a weekend.

I went for a bike ride today (9.5 miles in 39 minutes or 14.7 mph). I would like for it to go a little quicker and it will. The key is to get out there a work up a sweat and get the heart rate up a little. Today I did both. Tomorrow is supposed to be even better weather. I'll probably go pretty close to the same route again. Just trying to work up some endurance (and cut out the "coasting").

I'm really looking for news from both daughters. I'm thinking that they are both busy today (I can't figure out which one is busier but I am guessing that Jenna gets the nod today).

A post for Jenna

2008-03-31T12:41:00.002-04:00

Yep, just because she asked :-)

Playing with Raley is good. She went to see the Dr. today. Pretty good all round apparently but I will leave that update to her mommy (hint, hint).

I shovelled a LOT of compost yesterday but Dan and I together only made it through about half of the rather large pile in the front yard. Apparently, the city "advertises" this as mulch but a much better definition would be "ground up leaves compost". Not much sticks and bark. More leaves than anything. It would be really good stuff if you wanted to roto-till it into your garden. It will keep the weeds down though and in a year it will all be gone. But so will Dan and Sarah. So it will work out.

Awww shucks....

2008-03-23T10:55:00.003-04:00

Well, the Boilermakers couldn't quite pull off a trip to the Sweet 16 but I think that they far exceeded most reasonable expectations for this year.

But next year could/should be even better. Out of their top nine guys they only lose one senior who only averaged about 10 minutes per game (except in the tournament where he finally started playing much better than he had for the previous two seasons). They have back all five of the starters. And they should be all a year older, bigger and smarter. One of their biggest "problems" this year was the inability to finish "strong" around the basket. When they got a rebound they often got the "putback" blocked. Next year I hope that they will be much better rebounding in general.

And who knows maybe by next year Brighthouse will even have the Big Ten Network so that I don't have to be such a regular at BW3.

That was refreshing!!

2008-03-20T17:59:00.002-04:00

A lot of the pundits kept talking about how 'Baylor scores a lot of points' & 'The Big 12 is a lot "quicker" game than the Big 10' & 'The Boilermakers are all so young they will be "dazzled" by the big stage'. And of course, the young "slow" Boilers came out and scored 46 points in the first half (and blew a golden opportunity at the end of the half) and were up by 19. I don't think that the Big12 must play much defense. The Boilermakers had lots of wide open three point shots and they were clearly very frustrated that they couldn't do the "one pass and shoot" offense.

Purdue kind of struggled for a couple of streches in the second half but the lead never got under 10 and in fact the final (90-79) might have been as close as Baylor got.

On to the second round against Xavier. I don't know much about them but they are the #3 seed in the bracket and Purdue is the #6. Apparently, the committee that seeded the bracket thought that they are better (I did hear that they are very "similar" to Purdue just "older"). Hopefully, Purdue's defense can frustrate them too. That game is Saturday @ 4:45 (ET) or so. Please don't call during the game :-)

THUD!!

2008-03-15T19:11:00.003-04:00

That is the sound Purdue made in the BigTen Tournament. Hopefully, they "learn" from this that tournament play requires a bit more effort.

They didn't "show up" at the beginning of the game and let the Illini have some early success. When they tried to "turn it on" they just couldn't get it done. And, they let a 31% 3 point shooter go 6 for 6 on 3 pointers for the day. And just enough bone head plays at the end to let them get the game to overtime (Purdue led by 5 with 90 seconds to go in regulation time).

Sigh. I let them get my hopes up again....

I think that they really need to "find" an inside presence before they will do much. I don't know if that means that Jajuan Johnson needs to grow into his body he is a freshman that plays like it (unlike some of his teammates) or if they need to go out and find a "big" body.

Ah well, at least I at pretty sure that they are going to the NCAA tournement just not as highly seeded as I would have hoped.

And now we have conformation!!!

2008-03-10T23:28:00.001-04:00

Welcome to the world Raley!

At 7:18 this evening I became a Grandpa. I bet you'll hear more about her here soon.

Yeah for good times!!

2008-03-10T21:20:00.003-04:00

Fabulous!! Purdue won and IU lost. That is the very definiton of a good day.

Then at 8 this morning we got a call that means that today could be even better! But so far we are still waiting for conformation.....

I think that I saw that coming....

2008-03-04T22:32:00.003-05:00

For those that don't keep up on such things the Boilers lost in overtime tonight.

Sorry to say but Purdue's young guys just haven't learned how hard you have to go to get wins on the road in the BigTen. Of course, it was a very emotional game for the Buckeyes too. They needed it and in the end wanted it more than the Boilers. Their seniors knew that they needed to win this game to revive their hopes of getting in the NCAA tournament. Hopefully, though this will be that "wake-up" call that gets the young Boilers focused because real soon now they start the "lose and go home" part of the season.

I have to say that it sure seemed that Purdue's shooters were "off" tonight. And, tOSU didn't take advantage of their size inside as much as they could have. Wierd game. Who knows maybe they will meet again in Indy.

A new year (and a little help)

2008-03-02T17:52:00.002-05:00

When I started writing this blog I said it would probably involve four things, my family, hot air ballooning, bicycling and Purdue sports.

Today is the time to add the first post about one of those topics. About 4 o'clock I looked at one of the TV channels that said the local temperature was 68 degrees. I decided that it was time to get out the bike. I did some streching and added air to the tires and proceeded around the neighborhood just to see if I could remember how. A whole whopping 4.4 miles in 18:45 for a average of only 14.3 mph. But after not riding since October not so bad. It got the juices flowing and I sure didn't want to overdo it and regret it in the morning. Once I get in "shape" (I know it doesn't look like I have been in shape for the last twenty years) I should be able to ride my nine mile loop in just a touch over 30 minutes (or almost 18 miles an hour) and for longer rides (30+ miles) at 16.5 or 17 mph. Looking ahead it is supposed to be near 50 next weekend too. If it is sunny I might get another ride in then. So my total distance for the year so far is 4.4 miles. I'll see what I can do to add to that.

On another of the four topics the IU Hoosiers got creamed by Michigan State today. This was their third loss in the conference. Purdue and Wisconsin still only have two losses apiece. There MIGHT be a conference championship in the Boilers future. I am looking forward to the game on Tuesday :-)

Another one down...

2008-03-01T18:34:00.003-05:00

In all honesty the Boilers should have won the game today and they did. It was a little tense in the first half as they didn't play very good defense and didn't shoot the ball very well. That seems to be a recipe for a bad game. But they did much better on both counts in the second half and won rather easily. Now comes probably the toughest remaining game. They have to go to Columbus and play some team in red and silver (or maybe scarlet and grey...or something like that :-). Some how I think that will get a rise out of somebody.

Another one in the win column!!!

2008-02-28T20:28:00.003-05:00

Well, it wasn't the "prettiest" game and they got out rebounded by a bunch but they offset that by forcing Minnesota to make more turnovers. And so they moved back into a three way tie for first in the Big Ten!

This is turning into a VERY good year.

sigh....disappointed I am :-(

2008-02-19T23:03:00.003-05:00

But guess what? When you shoot less than 35% for the game (and less than 25% for three pointers and ony 11-20 FTs) you generally end up losing. There were positives in the game but not enough of them.

Due to the knucklehead scheduling in the Big Ten however they don't get to have a rematch at Mackey this year. Shucks. I really believe that if these teams played 10 times Purdue would win seven of the times. Ah well, now they have a full week off before their next game (and the next two are at home). Still a shot to win all four of their remaining games (even though they probably will be underdogs at tOSU they should win the other three and they MIGHT win all four). Then they get to go to the BigTen tourney. And in all likelihood the NCAA (I don't see them not making it but weird things have happened).

And the games they just keep getting bigger....

2008-02-19T12:54:00.002-05:00

Tonight the IU-Purdue men's basketball rivalry gets back to where it used to be. In the 60's and 70's it wasn't uncommon to say that your favorite two teams were Purdue and whoever was playing IU. Also, a common sentiment was POTFH (Pee on the blank hoosiers for the less informed). Tonight both teams are ranked. They are tied in the loss column (though Purdue has played and won more league games) for the lead of the Big Ten. And it is the only time that they play this year (BAD move by the Big Ten to allow this to happen). AND it is on national TV (ESPN). Lot's at stake but nothing as important as just beating them in anything at anytime.

Of course, I will be watching (and just a little bit of "discussion" with the referees I am sure :-)

Now if I could just breathe.

WOW (but watch out - danger ahead)

2008-02-12T21:52:00.002-05:00

Okay, I admit I was talking to the TV a bit in the second half but the Boilers pulled out a tough one tonight. They now have a HUGE game next Tuesday night at the house that Bobby built to the south (also on ESPN for those interested :-) but on Saturday they have what the commentators are starting to call a "trap" game. They play Northwestern. The Northwestern of the highly unusual offense (like nobody else in the BigTen for sure) and who happens to be winless in the BigTen this year. I sure hope they aren't looking past the Wildcats to that game next week.

I am starting to think 15-3 in the BigTen or maybe even 16-2. I say again WOW! And what fun!!!

And yet another Boiler update

2008-02-11T20:48:00.000-05:00

YEAH! Jenna's rooting (see the comments) worked. Now they are in first place alone!! A really surprising win AT Wisconsin. Now they get Michigan State at home. But I think that they can win this one. They only lost by three when they played them early in January and one of Purdue's best players missed that game with the flu. And they get to play them at home this time.

At the start of the season I really didn't know what to expect. Now I am expecting them to get to the NCAA tourney. Maybe this time next week I will be expecting them to win the BigTen. VERY SURPRISING but a lot of fun too :-)

And how about them Boilers

2008-02-08T11:46:00.001-05:00

Look quick! The Boilers are tied for first place in the B10!! Of course, tomorrow they play the other team that they are tied with .....on the road. Big game. The winner has the inside track to win the conference. Of course, they played a couple of weeks ago at Purdue and Purdue pulled out a narrow win. I kind of expect Wiscy to return the favor tomorrow but maybe not if we all root hard enough!

Old project update

2008-02-08T11:37:00.000-05:00

Good news this morning. Our friends in Rennes actually succeeded in decoding and displaying several frames of video using our new chip. This shows that about 75% of the IC functions in at least one mode. There are a just a couple of major functions that haven't been excercised yet. Of course, now they need to buckle down and start checking all of the nooks and crannies of the ICs and those obscure functions that while necessary in a real system either don't directly influence the major operation of the IC or are just yet another mode that the IC can operate in. Lots of work left before we can actually sell any ICs but still "refreshing" to see early good news.

More work stuff...

2008-02-01T21:32:00.000-05:00

Sorry I lost you guys on the solder balls. But they are kind of "neat". The packages that we are using now for ICs have too many connections to the outside world to be made by the old style little legs that stick out of the side of the package. So somebody came up with the idea that they would open up a grid of very tiny openings on the bottom of the package and then heat it up just a little bit and dump a whole bunch of little tiny balls of solder onto the package. The little holes provide a spot for each ball to roll into (or rather a ball rolls into each hole and the excess roll off the edge and get used on the next package). The heat (just the right amount) makes the balls "sticky" when they find metal (they don't stick to the plastic of the rest of the package). Then when the package cools you can pick it up and the little balls provide an electrical path into the package. And when you line it up the right place on the printed circuit board and apply just a little more heat again they both stick down and make the electrical connection. Neat technology that is simple in concept but complex enough to do the job. The "old" leaded packages ran out of pins at about 160 pins (40 on each edge). The design I am working on now has an array of the little balls that is 22 by 22 (or 484 "pins"). And the last design I worked on has an array of 28x28 or 784 pins. Lots of those (on both packages) get used by power and ground because each little ball doesn't handle much current but the old package had the same problem.

In other EXCITING news, I actually got to touch a working oscilloscope this week! For the first time in about 4 or 5 years. It is still really neat to see one of these things that we work on for months and months (and in some cases years) actually get put on a board and DO something. I realize it is a yawn to all of you guys but we were measuring how much jitter there was in one of the clock signals that the chip produces. Needless to say we were impressed that it was only about 300 picoseconds of jitter (on a 5 nanosecond clock period). VBG!!!! I am SURE that you are all impressed too :-) That will have ALL of you saying 'What?????' A clock is a signal that SHOULD have a positive going transition once per clock period. In this case, every 5 nanoseconds (in other words 200 MILLION times per second). Due to noise and other "bad" things sometimes if happens in less time and sometimes it takes longer than it should. The jitter is the measurement of how much those "bad" things affect the clock period. Over time (hundreds or maybe thousands of those cycles) things average out but the "shortest" of those clock cycles is the time that is allotted to do any specific job so it is a pretty important number to know.

Even though I have moved on to a "new" project, I am keeping pretty close tabs on the "old" project. They just got our first samples a few days ago and it is coming up really, really fast and with no known issues yet. Of course, if will take weeks and weeks (actually months probably) to get all of the software written to run on it and to try out all of the wierd corner cases but it is still neat to see it come to life.

Precocious boilers

2008-01-27T15:08:00.000-05:00

How about them Boilers? I thought that the freshman class would be pretty good but who knew they would be this good. I think in general it is a "down" year for the Big Ten in men's basketball in general but here they are tied for second a third of the way through the conference season. And they SHOULD win their next three games (or at least be favored going into them). Exciting times once again for the Boilermakers.

Work has been "interesting". They always say that you should never volunteer for anything but in the past couple of weeks I just had to squeak loud enough that I finally got greased. Unfortunately, there was no one who was paying attention to the task of making sure that the final arrangement of the little solder balls on the bottom of the package (the ones that make the connections to the printed circuit board that the part is mounted on) was acceptable to be laid out on the PC board. If it isn't then our customers can't build a cost competitive product and they don't buy our ICs. This would be bad. Of course, once you decide how the solder balls are to be arranged you have to make sure that the places on the edge of the IC that we are designing are in the correct order to mate up with them. And then you have to make sure that the signals on the chip are assigned to the correct pins so that the IC itself can actually be arranged. The IC we are working on has about 450 bonding pads of which about 200 are power and ground (both digital and about eight different flavors of analog which have to be kept separate). This is one of those jobs that nobody wants (there is a LOT of grunt work getting all of the data gathered and a LOT of messing about with spreadsheets to get all of the data organized) but the guy that they had assigned the task had no idea what was involved and he had about three times as much work as he could possibly do assigned to him anyway and he was just letting it slide. It is not hard but its just messy. It gives me something to do :-)

On the home front I think that I have finally recovered from my cold (only coughed half a dozen times in the last 24 hours) and I think that there is light at the end of the tunnel for Alice and her cold (though she is still fighting it). We've just been pretty quiet home bodies trying to fight this thing all month.

Random thoughts while I munch my lunch....

2008-01-17T11:59:00.000-05:00

How's about them Boilers? They have gotten off to a pretty good start in the conference with an actual honest to goodness road win last night. The grumbling that you heard last night was probably me concerning the lack of the Big Ten Network on my cable. I am getting to know the folks at BW3 though (the Parmesan Garlic wings are mighty tasty).

It is now official though. I have withdrawn my consideration of living in Alamosa Colorado in the winter. Minus 35 degrees? You HAVE to be kidding me!?!?! Hmmmm, summers in Colorado and winters in southern California? I don't know how I am going to afford two houses so I might have to have a chat with my dad about that whole snowbirding thing. Or maybe my daughters can work out the "in-laws" quarters thing??

Playing with blogger....a first picture

2008-01-10T09:44:00.001-05:00

I am trying to "play" by inserting a picture. This is a "random" shot that I happened to have on my computer of a flight. Yes, that is my balloon (with me flying it - in other words I did NOT take the picture :-)

So let me try it...

and see how the post looks.

My boring life...

2008-01-09T14:02:00.000-05:00

I listened to the Boilers on the radio last night because the cable companies and the Big Ten Network can't get their acts together. If they had played the first ten minutes like they did the last 30 it would have been an easy win. As it was they dug too big of a hole and just couldn't quite pull it out. I was encouraged that they didn't fold after they got behind but came back. I sure wish I could see more of the games....sigh.

Meanwhile, the folks at the video card support claim that the problem with getting the new card installed is a hardware problem with the card and that I should send it back so that they can exchange it for me. Hunh???? I sure don't see how that could possibly be but then I have been surprised before.

I stayed home from work yesterday and today I am pretty much dragging. Sure wish this cold would go away. I think that I am "better" today than I was Sunday and Monday but I am ready to move on.

A grey morning....

2008-01-07T10:33:00.000-05:00

Wow, it is amazing how a cold can just drain you.

Saturday morning I went over and helped hang some drywall in Matt M's garage. They have a nice new house and his new garage is almost as big as my whole house. Afterwards, I came home and watched the Boilers win (it was a game that they should have won and they did). I then went to sleep and other than a few minutes here and there watching football and the Amazing Race I have been asleep ever since. And I still feel like crap. I am thinking today might be a half day at work and go back to bed.

Wow, what a week (or ten days)

2008-01-02T12:24:00.000-05:00

Well, the bad thing from the last post meant that my dad and Loretta (I have a tough time calling her my step-mom though she is married to my dad - but she is REALLY nice and great for him) flew in for a few days and stayed with us while the girls were here. Great to see them all together. It seems that every time I see him the past few years he comes up with another story from his past that I had never heard.

In this case, it was another Leroy and Dianna story. They were my parents best friends when I was a kid and after all the kids left home my parents took them on vacation a few times (since they had never travelled much and my parents wanted an excuse to go). This time he said that they passed a horse who had her foot caught in a fence. They stopped at the next house and tried to find the owner but those folks didn't know anything. They then went back to the where she was and flagged down a pickup truck that was driving by. With the guys from the truck they got her loose but she was on the road side of the fence. After prancing about a bit she ran over to another fence and backed up against it much to the interest of the stallion inside that fence. The stallion pawed the ground, snorted and generally displayed his interest (the old phrase "hung like a horse" comes to mind). Dianna asked Leroy why the stallion didn't just "do-it" through the fence, to which Leroy replied 'I don't think that I would risk it either'. Dianna is the very definition of the city girl and Leroy had the quickest, driest wit of any one that I have ever known.

Meanwhile, both girls brought their parents the gift of a cold. I think I got Sarah's and Alice got Jenna's. Thanks LOADS!!

But even though it was hectic, it was GREAT to see them and get to spend some time with them. I sure would like to strike a balance of getting to see them more while not necessarily seeing them too much. It was good to hear from both of them that they got home safely.

Now it is time to get back to work and settle into the grind waiting for the next big event (scheduled for the end of March).

A really good thing....and a really bad thing..

2007-12-22T18:47:00.000-05:00

Today is the first day in months that I get to hug both of my daughters. It is too bad that they both live so far away. But that is modern life. But today I get to see both of them. HOORAY!!

But on the other hand we got news that my brother-in-law passed away. We just saw him at Thanksgiving and he looked (and acted) pretty much the same as he had for the past 10 years. Quite a shock actually.

Exactly what I feared....

2007-12-20T12:18:00.000-05:00

nothing to say.

I guess it is appropriate to continue what I started yesterday.

Grandma Fry always had a "huge" live Christmas tree (funny how we call it live after we cut it down). Of course, the fact that her son who literally lived on the adjacent property had a Christmas tree farm probably had something to do with this. On the other hand, Grandma Hobaugh (my paternal grandmother who was widowed when my dad was a boy and remarried a few years later) always had a very tiny (maybe two feet but only if it and the yard stick had an understanding) "fake" tree. She always placed it on a table next to her front door (between the door and the front window). We always went to her house (notice that Henry - I never called him Grandpa - none of us did - also lived there but it was "Grandma's") on the Sunday before Christmas . But as I write that I remember that occasionally we hit both Grandma's on Christmas Day - that must have been when it fell on Sunday - greatly aided by the fact that it was about seven miles between my Grandma's houses.

Christmas memories from my kidhood...

2007-12-19T12:39:00.000-05:00

I grew up in a big old barn of a two story house. Pretty early on my parents hit upon the idea of putting one of the lower branches trimmed from the bottom of our live tree (from Uncle Homer's Christmas tree farm) at the top of the stairs (there was a bit of a "wide-spot" in the hallway there). We would put a few small ornaments on it and called it the "upstairs tree". Then Santa would leave each of the kids a present under that tree (usually a book but sometimes a small toy) that we could get whenever we got up. But we had to take it back to our bedroom. We couldn't go down stairs until after our parents got up. But the "token" present gave us something to do so that we could let them sleep in.

After unwrapping our presents and maybe taking a break for breakfast we all had to get dressed in new Christmas clothes and pile into the car to go to Grandma Fry's house (Grandpa Fry lived there too but it was still Grandma's house). Command performance, attendance required. You HAD to go to Grandma's on Christmas Day. Of course, by the time I can start to remember some of my older cousins were already bringing "significant others" if not spouses. With my grandparents, their 8 kids and their spouses and the 22 first cousins and half a dozen or so of their spouses it soon became a spectacle to see nearly 50 people in essentially two rooms of Grandma's house. Their were a couple of cooks in the kitchen but no one in the bedroom (that was reserved for the coats on the bed - usually a pretty impressive pile). That left the "dining" room and the "front" room. Basically everybody had to find a seat and you were stuck there (the origin of the phrase 'move your feet, lose your seat').

Of course, a few of the youngest cousins (Linda, Cindy, Dave, Mike, myself, Ken and Mel) would escape upstairs. But there wasn't any food up there :-) It did get us out from under foot and let us move about a bit. Downstairs was definitely not "kid" friendly.

Grandma always had a present for every grandkid. Usually Lorraine got recruited to go out to Grandma's house a week or so before Christmas to help wrap.

And the big decision of the day was who was to host the family New Year's Eve party. Usually there were at least a couple of volunteers but all of the aunts had to get together and decide whose got the "privilege" of hosting the whole crowd a week later. There wasn't any set rotation but it seemed to rotate fairly equally. Of course, the fact that Carl and Margaret lived 60 miles away and the rest lived within 15 miles of Logansport made it possible to get to whoever's house was the designated party spot.

Everyone has to start somewhere

2007-12-18T20:24:00.000-05:00

Where better than here?

I think that I am just going to play here for a bit and see if I like the concept.

First, the name. I am a licensed hot air balloon pilot. I am also not a "small" guy. Therefore, to participate in one of my favorite activities requires no small amount of hot air. Of course, some folks would say that all I need do is open my mouth and I can supply a fair amount but the propane burner does a much more efficient job.

I am also a husband, a father (and SOON a grandfather). A big fan of Purdue University football and men's basketball. I enjoy bike riding in good weather (trying to lose a few pounds but it isn't working), reading and watching sports (of almost any sort). And, oh, by the way, an electrical engineer who designs integrated circuits for a living (ya gotta do something to keep a roof over your head).

I am betting that all of those topics will be mentioned from time to time.