Ramblin' Man

[Aberzombie]

Not for me. Today is going to be f-ing miserable. I don't feel well. It's raining. It's going to get steadily colder as the day goes on. And it's Sunday, which means tomorrow is the start of the first full work week of the new year.

[Aberzombie]

At least I finished getting the outside stuff ready for below freezing temps. Of course, the only thing I had left to do was disconnect the backyard hose and cover the connection with the little thermal pouch I have for it.

[Aberzombie]

Speaking of cold.....Much like the rest of the country, it seems, we're going to have some (for us) vicious cold over the next week. This is one reason I typically dislike January.

[Aberzombie]

If I continue to feel bad, or get worse, I might go over to see a doctor. Right now it's mostly just some muscle soreness.

[Aberzombie]

And at least I got the kids to help me take down the Christmas Tree and inside decorations yesterday. That just leaves laundry and a bit of dish washing (by hand) for me to get done today.

[Aberzombie]

I got around to my usual time sink posting a little later than usual today. To be honest, I kind of forgot until just a little while ago.

[Aberzombie]

I spent part of my morning doing some map work on the computer. The rest of the day will hopefully be spent doing some reading. Maybe a bit of bagging and boarding. In between chores and meals, that is.

[Aberzombie]

Stoopid rain!

[Aberzombie]

Also....Stoopid dog. Yesterday she ate one of the two hand towels I use for the downstairs half-bath. Snagged it right out of the washing machine.

[Aberzombie]

Anyway...time for lunch now.

[Aberzombie]

Sunshine, finally. Cold temps are coming with it, however. So it’s a trade off. At least until later in the week, when we get cold temperatures AND rain. Oh, joy.

[Aberzombie]

Happy/Miserable Monday!

[Aberzombie]

The state of the day, of course, depending on whether or not you're me.

[Aberzombie]

The rain went away (for now), and the cold moved in. It also got very windy yesterday, which has continued on to this morning. I still feel blah. The cold triggered the tire pressure warning in one of my tires. And I forgot to bring the wheat bread for my breakfast toast.

[Aberzombie]

Luckily(?), I had a bag of pecan halves stashed in my desk here at work. So I at least have something for breakfast. And something healthy-ish, I suppose.

[Aberzombie]

Minus a few idiots, my drive to the office was pretty decent. Of course, that'll change Wednesday, when the small humans all go back to school. So I have that to "look forward to".

[Aberzombie]

Hopefully, those asshats in New Mexico will finally finish "processing" my paperwork (consisting of one letter and a check) and FINALLY deign to give me my PE license. Nearly three months isn't too bad a time, I suppose.

[Aberzombie]

In case you couldn't tell that last line was pure sarcasm.

[Aberzombie]

I expect the week to be fairly busy. We're definitely trying to get at least one package Issued for Approval. Of course, we also suspect the client's operations team will take this opportunity to request complete changes to some aspects of the design. Which is fine by us. That'd mean Change Order and more money we can charge them.

[Aberzombie]

That, I think, is something most people don't understand about engineers in the energy industry. Sure, we prefer oil and gas. It's more cost beneficial. It's vastly more reliable than wind, solar, or geothermal. And it's safer than nuclear.

In the end, however, I'll engineer almost anything if someone pays me to do it.

[Aberzombie]

Anyway, I suppose I should go finish my usual posting, then try to get some work done.

[Aberzombie]

Happy Tuesday!

[Aberzombie]

For someone else, anyway. I don't see it being a happy day for me. I didn't sleep well last night. Since I was already feeling blah, today is going to be a particular drag. And later tonight I've got a scout meeting, so it's going to be a long day as well.

[Aberzombie]

And those damnable bureaucrats in New Mexico still haven't finalized my PE license. I'm tempted to check with the company and see if they check we sent has been deposited. If it has, then I'd say we might have a good case for fraud.

[Aberzombie]

Of course, I'm no lawyer. And considering they are bureaucrats they're probably very well protected against punishment for screwing over We the People.

[Aberzombie]

Yesterday was the first pretty much full day with everyone back in the office. There was at least one of my people working from home (dentist appointment), but other than that it was all hands on deck.

[Aberzombie]

Cold again this morning. The wind wasn't as strong though. So it wasn't as bad as yesterday. And there was still enough of a breeze, combined with very little moisture, to keep the ice off my vehicle.

[Aberzombie]

And the traffic gods were pretty nice today. I caught one light I was hoping to get through but then made it through the next light just at the last second. So there was balance. The rest of the drive was decent enough.

[Aberzombie]

And I thank the powers of the road, once again, for whomever invented heated steering wheels.

[Aberzombie]

Happy Wednesday!!!

[Aberzombie]

We'll see, anyway. The kids are back in school, I so I was at the house about 20 minutes longer than I prefer. Still, I had a pretty decent drive in to the office. Minus a few meager idiots.

[Aberzombie]

Work should be pretty decent today. I've probably got at least one meeting. And enough stuff to keep me busy.

[Aberzombie]

And I finally found a pretty decent youtube video discussing underground pipe modelling in Caesar II. That's the pipe stress analysis software we use. It basically tells you where you'll need to restrain or support the pipe as it operates.

The UG modelling had me worried for a bit. I had never done it, and the only guy who knew left the company several months ago. Yet after watching the video, it doesn't seem all that bad.

[Aberzombie]

Kind of reminds me of the time my Trailblazer suddenly had these instances where the headlights would stop working for a few seconds. Not fun when you're driving at night, on a barely lit street.

Anyway, I searched YouTube and found the exact problem and the simple fix for it. It was basically a big fuse under the hood that needed to be replaced. Easy peasy lemon squeezy.

[Aberzombie]

Now there's a phrase from the bygone era of my youth.

[Aberzombie]

Anyway, with the small humans back in school, I fully expect the dog to unleash her inner BADNESS today. Moreso than usual.

[Aberzombie]

I had to make the boy shave again last night, in preparation for his return to the place of learning. There's no way I'll allow him to have facial hair until he turns 18. Then he can do what he wants with his face.

[Aberzombie]

Happy Thursday!

[Aberzombie]

Somewhat happy, anyway. The weather is a tad bit warmer, but we're supposed to get rain the next two or three days. And the overnight temps might possibly lead to ice on the roads.

[Aberzombie]

Luckily, I don't have to come into the office tomorrow. Work from Home Friday is a bit brighter than usual.

[Aberzombie]

Yesterday I successfully taught myself how to use the underground pipe modeler in Caesar II. So there's that.

It actually seems to have been much easier than I initially thought it would be.

[Aberzombie]

And I had a somewhat decent drive to the office this morning. There were quite a few more cars than usual, along with the requisite increase in stupidity. For the most part, it was better than I expected.

[Aberzombie]

I did almost get side-swiped, however. This was on the interstate feeder road, right before I turned onto the road my office is on. I was in the far right lane and the dumbass in the middle lane started to get over as he was right next to (and slightly behind) me. Luckily, the moron realized at the last second that another vehicle was already occupying the space he was trying to get into.

[Aberzombie]

Seems like there's a "that's what she said" joke in there somewhere.

[Aberzombie]

Anyway, once in the office, I had to get my coffee, log in to my computer, order a copy of Yaira #2 off the Rippaverse website, then go potty.

[Aberzombie]

Now I've got to finish up here, then go put in my timesheet for yesterday.

[Aberzombie]

Hopefully, today will be as good as, or better than, yesterday.

[Aberzombie]

Happy Friday?!?

[Aberzombie]

Certainly a very wet and cold Friday. The rain started yesterday, and continued through most of last night. The temps also dropped a bit further, with the wind chill sometimes being as much as -11 degF. My phone is telling me the current temp is about 38 degF, but that it feels like 29 degF.

No thank you. Go away, Winter. You're drunk.

[Aberzombie]

Anyway, yesterday I was able to complete the pipe stress analysis on one of my projects. The other one was a bust, however. Despite many attempts to fix it.

Somehow the model got screwed up big time and wouldn't give us a file that could convert to the Caesar II format. Without that file format to import, I'd have to build the entire model in Caesar myself, which would take probably into next week (at least Monday). And civil needed that report to move forward with their side of things.

Luckily, the other mechanical and I sat down with the civil engineer and went through the model ourselves. We did a basic analysis and came up with the most likely scenarios for changes to the system that would prove a successful model. So the civil engineer should be able to move forward now.