Das Wookie

Another new record, dammit!

2009-12-03T21:04:48Z

{grump} Well, my appointment this AM with my Oral Surgeon says I have "a new record setting displacement of the TMJ disk" that he's ever seen in all his practice. It confirms his pre-MRI diagnosis based on my description of what has been happening, and that surgery is my only real option. He said that he is actually quite surprised I can open my mouth as much as I can (which isn't saying much) for how bad the disk dislocation is. Apparently I've managed to over time stretch the ligaments that hold the disk in place to the point that after the surgery he'll have to shrink them (aka form scar tissue and shorten them) by heating / burning them with a special probe to shrink it all back up. The one plus side is he says that the scar tissue is stronger than the ligaments so re-occurrence of the problem is extremely unlikely.

So, it seems that as of now I'm on a soft food only diet until I can get surgery scheduled (pending insurance approval; generally a 2 to 6 week process with UHC) and then it's a 2 hour surgery, followed by another 4-6 weeks recovery, still with soft foods only. After all of that I should be able to finally open my mouth fully again, chew without painful clicks (and pops... some of a *#$&@ those Pops!), and my jaw occasionally getting stuck open whenever I open "just a little too much" and the disk wedges stuck.

Doc says that it is hard to tell if the injury to the disk was caused by the tractor tire explosion or not, as that type of injury tends to be caused by a frontal impact (like head meeting steering wheel in an accident) and so the side explosion of the tire is an oddity for the injury... of course I also have no memory of what my body did after the tire exploded, so for all I know I may have still had a frontal impact (face meets ground) before I ended up on my back (my first memory after the explosion) from it all.

You know, eventually one DOES get tired of having ones doctor look at a scan, whistle, and say "Wow, I've never seen anything THIS bad before!" :(

Deer #1 for the season

2009-11-30T06:06:32Z

Taught my buddy Rob how to kill and butcher his first deer today:
http://midnightfantasy.com/cyber/projects/_Hunter/Rob_Deer_Hunter/

I took him down to the range last Wednesday and had him spend 45 minutes with the .22 LR before handing him the .22-250 getting comfortable with 100 yard range shooting and practice with my rifle and scope. 95% of his shots were in a 3" grouping. Not great, but good enough. I figured he'd be able to manage a broadside shot easy enough, so that's what we aimed for. He came out this AM and we talked a bit more about shot placement, and got out on the deck by 8:25am... Feeder went off at 8:30 (I know, this isn't "hunting" it's "harvesting", whatever) and by 8:35 he'd made his shot on a reasonable sized doe. There were 4 at the feeder at the time, 2 of which were reasonable enough to take, steady pull on the trigger, and BANG. Deer scattered, and 20 seconds later the 2 smallest ones were back and munching again. Heh. He thought she'd have dropped right there, so was SURE he missed. I told him lets see if 4 come back to the feeder or not... 2 minutes pass, no sign of more than the two, so we pack up and head down. Grab the license, and walk down to the feeder. The two small does went running, then a third, a few more steps and I saw... what was that, the same one or another. "OK there's 3, maybe 4". I hear "Four?!" in a disappointed and despondent voice. "Settle down Bubba, let's just get down there and see what we see!"

I'll tell you what, you should have seen how proud he was to have learned how to do it finally... and the sheer PANIC on his face when she ran off after he popped her and we walked down to the spot and didn't see any (immediate) signs of blood. I calmed him down from his "Dammit! Dammit dammit dammit!" fit and walked about until I found the first drop of blood. That calmed him down considerably. Then, just had to track her the 35 yards to where she was. After we went 10' and I had a general bearing I let him continue to follow the trail, while I just walked about a bit until I found her and made sure she was dead. Sure 'nuff... Then, I walked around a ways away came up behind him and told him "Good news, you killed yerself your first deer. Now, ya' just need to find her." LOL

He went another 15 feet following the trail, looked up, and spotted her.

Another hunter has been added to the ranks... on the way to the processors after he had her butchered and in the cooler he was already talking about "OK, for my next deer I'm going to...." :)

Damn Dogs!

2009-11-23T20:04:48Z

I got a call the other morning. A rescue dog in foster care needed to be retrieved, now, from a foster home, for a Husky rescue I help out with... I don't get calls from them often, but when I do, it tends to be last ditch and if I say no, there are no alternatives. My answer usually is "I'm on my way, now tell me where I'm going." LOL Anyway, pup was retrieved, but had nowhere to go until transport could be arranged to Houston. No problem. We've got an isolation kennel, and the weather is temperate enough that an arctic dog would have NO problem hanging out for a few days. It's 10'x10'x20'... plenty of space, and plus 3 or 4 half mile walks a day, keep MOST pups perfectly happy. This kennel has kept the most creative of velociraptor contained, so I didn't think twice about using it for 3 days for Stella...

Well, of course, as the old adage goes, no plan survives contact with the enemy. Our adventures in puppy sitting was certainly NOT without this rule of war today! Dear lord, what a mess Stella decided to make of herself! You see, it's been raining here, FINALLY!, and rather hard. This isn't a real problem... the kennel has a solid tin roof and is plenty dry for half of the total structure. So a decent 10'x10' section, plus the dogloo. Last night, with the storming and the lightening, I decided to let Stella spend the evening inside after she woke the wife up with expressing her displeasure of being "a poor ignored puppy, locked out, in the rain. Wooooah, woah is me! Woooooah!" After my darling wife smacked me with a pillow a fourth time I threw on some boots, grabbed my robe, a flashlight, and slogged on out into the cold wet night. I walked her around the house to potty her, and then into the laundry room she went. She did just fine once she settled down. Fast forward to the morning... No accidents, so potty training seems to have been done, yeah for that, and she's been fed breakfast, walked a half mile, and the rain has slowed to a light sprinkle. I decide to let her back into the kennel while I'm at work. This was The Plan(tm)... it was a good plan. This was the plan from the previous day, and went off without a hitch.

Oh no! This was NOT going to be acceptable. Clearly "House Dog Stella" didn't properly express herself the previous evening. Sometime after I left for work at 10am, and when Jodi got home at 6pm, she dug out of the kennel. No easy feat mind you... we've got 1" of "topsoil", if that, before one hits solid limestone. The kennel panels, which number 8 in all, are all bolted together and have to weigh at least 75lbs, each. The "hole" Stella dug, has to be about 1.5" deep, and passes under the door into the kennel. I would have a VERY difficult time even so much as getting the toe of my boot through this, but somehow she managed to squeeze out of the kennel through it... I can only guess by also lifting the kennel panels up as she did so. There is no other way out. None.

Now, don't panic. Stella is safe and sound, and again safely absconded away in the laundry room and adjoining kitchen. This is of course, after the BATH. Now you see, squeezing through a 1.5" opening, which is filled full of mud, water, and grass, is no easy feat. I don't know how long it took her, but she had no less than half an inch of solid mud on her and in her coat, packed solid all the way into her undercoat, from stem to stern. I was alerted to this fact when I got a call on my cell from my darling wife who started the conversation with "I just pulled up to the house. Stella, the mud monster, appears to be waiting for you to get home. She's standing in front of the garage in the driveway. No, wait, she's just ducked under the door as it opened and is now standing by the door into the house." {sigh} "I'm on my way home!"

I didn't get any pics before the bath unfortunately... what with being too busy trying to get dinner cooked, our pair of pups wrangled up, get Miss Stella into the bathroom and then the tub without coating every square millimeter of the house ALSO covered in mud, et cetera. You'd never know it from the looks of her that she has lurking in her an Evil Mud Monster!

Damn dogs! LOL

It Lives!!!!1

2009-09-03T14:55:22Z

The mower is fixed!!!1 I figured out what the problem was with the safety kill switch. The lever had the spring somehow get onto the other side, which is what was causing it to work backwards. I must have done that when I took it off, and it looked right when it got bolted back on. I don't know how it would have flipped over to the other side as I had to use a screwdriver to pry it up and over the lever, but sure enough, the polarity on the wire is correct now and it shuts the mower off as expected! So, it's now completely 100% repaired!

I rule! LOL

Who knows how long the repaired connection rod will last... I may have to cast a replacement if/when it fails, but it seems the manufacturer of that engine went out of business in January and there are no replacement parts available... Shame to toss a $400 mower out simply for a $30 part tho! At least for now I was able to fix the rod with a little creativity (220 wetdry sandpaper, then a little muratic acid, then bolt it onto the crank with some home made lapping compound (bearing grease and molding sand of clay and VERY find sand) and slowly tighten while working the rod back and forth until it finally seated completely and was fully tightened.

Then I just had to fix the carburation and electrical that I futzed up while disassembling the motor completely...

But, she lives and mows again!!!!!11

Squeeeeeeeeek!

2009-08-30T03:10:14Z

So this AM, while about halfway through mowing the side yard... I heard the sound that EVERY moto-head knows, and fears:
"Squeeeeeeeeek!"

Motor instantly died.

Shit.

I tried pulling the starter cord. Made it about 1/3rd out and seized up good and solid.

Checked the oil level, a little low, but still above the minimum low mark. Crap! So, into the garage... it went. Great, ANOTHER project! {sigh}

I've got motor bits scattered all over the garage. The crank is clean. I hit it with a little muratic acid and spun it on the drillpress to clean up the various gook. Looks like new now.

The bigend of the conrod however, not so much. I tried to clean it up with muratic acid a bit, but it's an aluminum rod. Not even a bearing to be seen... seems to be the rod is the bearing, which makes no sense to me, but that's what's there. No signs of disintegrated bearing to be found... just ba bit of smear and one gouge.

Anyway, I ended up taking some of my molding sand (clay and very fine sand) and axle grease to make a faux lapping compound after cleaning it up as best I could, and eventually got it to the point that the conrod now spins freely on the crank again. I don't detect any discernible play, but I suppose that will expose itself with a telltale knock Knock KNOCK sound if/when I get it running again.

I've got the mower buttoned back up, oil in, and gassed up... but, I can't for the life of me figure out how the damn throttle on the carb works. There isn't a throttle cable, but there are two rods, one with a spring, which attach to... nothing. I don't have any extra parts, nor do I remember seeing them hooked up to anything. {shrug} I suppose worst case is I'll toss it in the back of the truck and drive it down to the boys at Hill Country Power on Monday morning and ask them how the dang throttle hooks up... and while I'm at it, order a new conrod for when this one WILL eventually fail I'm sure.

I won the HCC Photo contest! :)

2009-08-08T15:17:15Z

I just got notice that one of my submitted photos won the Hill Country Conservancy photo contest! :) Sweet!!! :)

The particular photo is my favorite photos of lightening I've taken:

This makes this the fourth time this photo has gotten acclaim. :)

HCC said that should be on the website soon, and will also be featured in their next newsletter. They like it so much that they are also going to use it for an article they will be publishing on rain (or lack there of) in the Hill Country sometime in the next few months... Happy happy happy! :)

Rescue Relay, the Speedbump, and Lessons Learned

2009-07-25T18:53:28Z

Well, yesterday was quite the day for rescue work! Two animals, just shy of 200 miles driven, and quite a few new lessons learned:

Rescue Relay

A Husky rescue group I help out with from time to time up in Dallas needed a hand with getting a rescue relay setup for a dog they had pulled... a red male from San Antonio who needed to get to his new foster mom just North of Dallas. I found a gal who commutes between DFW and Austin each week, and arranged a 4 leg relay:

Leg 1: San Antonio to San Marcos - 50 miles

Leg 2: San Marcos to North Austin - 60 miles

Leg 3: North Austin to Arlington - 172 miles

Leg 4: Arlington to North Dallas - 45 miles

I drove Leg 2, but there was a problem. The Leg 1 driver was late. VERY late. 2.5 hours late! I had wiggle room in my schedule as I was to pickup the pup (Dodge) at 11:30am and deliver him at 2pm. I was supposed to get a call at 10:30am when he was leaving SA. By 11, with no call still, I called. No answer. I called again at 11:30, and left another VM. At 11:45 I called again, and finally reached him. He hadn't left yet, but said he would in "45 minutes or so". {sigh} So, at that point I left work, and headed for lunch with a few cow-orkers along the route I needed to go anyway. He called just as I was paying, perfect timing... well, of a sorts. I raced South. We were meeting at an outlet mall which is 2 miles long... I kid you not... located right off the I-35 freeway. I asked which entrance was he at (there are 3, South, middle, and North) and he said "the first one." He was coming from the south, so I (incorrectly) assumed that would mean the South entrance. Coming down from the North, you have to go under an overpass to get on the other side of I-35. That delivers you to the center entrance. I fight through traffic, slowly as my quickly dissipating patience will allow, and finally arrive 5 minutes later at the South entrance. I don't see him, or the store he said he's in front of. I call him back. He tells me I'm at the wrong outlet mall. There is only one. He's confused. "Which exit did you take?" I ask, trying to not be huffy. He doesn't know. I pull out my map, and see there are two exits. He must have taken the 2nd one, which takes you to the NORTH entrance. I work my way back out to the Interstate, jump on the surface road, and race the 2 miles to the North entrance. I find him right away. We transfer Dodge from his truck to mine.

It's now 1:50pm. On the way down, I had called the Leg 3 driver. She had to go to her apartment to load up her dogs for the trip back North, so, I'd meet her there instead. Problem was, it's another 10 miles North, through rush hour traffic. She HAS to be on the road by 3pm to make it back to Arlington to make it to a wedding she's attending. I tell her, I'll do the best I can, but if I'm not there by 2:45, to go on and I'll figure out what to do with Dodge for a week until she is heading back North again.

By 2:30 I was in South Austin. Traffic wasn't moving, but I can weave and dart with the best of 'em. I hit the surface streets and backroads, making far better time than sitting on the interstate. At 2:40 I was 2 miles away. I called the Leg 3 driver, and told her were I was. We decided to meet at a Target which was on her way from her apartment to the highway. That saved me 2 stoplights and a few blocks. Poor Dodge probably thought I a madman, but we pulled into the parking lot with 1 minute to spare. I had him out of the crate, and headed for the grass for a potty walk. Cynthia arrived just as Dodge was finishing up. We got leashes and collars exchanged, and I went back to the truck to fetch Dodge the leg I'd brought him to chew on. He hadn't touched it, but I brought it over just in case. Poor Cynthia had a look of shock on her face when I put the leg bone down on the dog bed in the back of her minivan for him. LOL I keep the deer legs, spinal columns, and hips from deer season, and use them as dog bones during the year. They still have the fur and hooves attached... and while we are quite used to it, and the dogs LOVE 'em (well, normally, at least not when they are being relayed across Tejas, by a driver 2.5 hours behind schedule... heh) but it has led to more than a few looks of discomfort from house guests, UPS drivers, and the occasional fellow rescue worker, when they come across who legs being chomped away on by the pups... LOL I figure folks know where the bones come from for their dogs, but many are indeed probably not used to seeing the hoof and hair still attached a well. LOL

Anyway, Dodge delivered, off they sped for Arlington on Leg 3 of the relay. I headed back to work, took care of a few things, and finally headed home.

Little did I know, I wasn't finished with rescue work for the day!

The Speedbump

Pulling onto our property, and heading up the driveway, I found a newly installed and quite mobile speedbump:

http://www.midnightfantasy.com/cyber/projects/Turtle/

Now I've spent more than my fair share of time dodging road "turtles" / speedbumps on my motorcycle, but I've never had to dodge one that was MOVING.

An emergency left turn into the pasture avoided the little guy. I had to chase the FAST running little Turtle Pal down, but caught him eventually... I deposited him in the back of the truck and drove the rest of the way up the hill (our driveway is 3 blocks long) and parked in the shade. Once inside I informed Jodi that my rescue efforts for the day were not complete and that I had something to show her out in the truck. We love our wildlife on the acreage, be it our little lizard pals, froggie friends, deer, snakes (of the non-rattler variety), hawks, raccoons, possums, et all... and while a Turtle is something new to the property, just as good a buddy as any... but our property is no place for an aquatic reptile... No idea how he made his way to us, but we could do something about that! :) First order of business was to see if we could get him comfortable. I tried letting him get drink some water, first in the pups large 16" water bowl. He wanted NOTHING to do with that. So, I filled the VeriKennel 500 up with a few gallons of water, and let him loose in there.

http://www.midnightfantasy.com/cyber/projects/Turtle/

He was MUCH happier, and splashed about for a while before hunkering down in the back corner of the crate. By then, Jodi had finished getting changed, and I had to figure out just where to take the little guy. None of the streams or rivers have ANY water in them right now what with our 2 year drought. Poor guy probably hasn't seen water in months, at best. I wanted to go someplace where I knew there would be water, habitat, and other Turtle Pals. There was really only one logical choice, so we headed downtown for the Colorado river / Town Lake / Ladybird Lake in the center of downtown Austin. There are thousands of other red-eared sliders in the lake, so one more seemed like the best option. 30 minutes later, at the short of the lake, we had the dog crate unloaded and carried it to the edge of the water.

http://www.midnightfantasy.com/cyber/projects/Turtle/

I put on leather gloves, emptied the water that made it with Speedbump, and grabbed a hold of him. {HISS} {HISS} {HISS} "Yeah whatever! You're welcome." :) and I lowered him down into the lake. Off he swam, quick as can be... hopefully MUCH happier and feeling far better.

As we were loading the crate back into the truck, I noticed folks pointing and talking. One guy worked up the nerve to come up and ask what we had released. I told him we lived out in Dripping Springs where all the rivers had dried up, and I found a turtle in the driveway. He thanked us, gave a thumbs up to the onlookers, and walked over to tell 'em what we had done. A few folks waved as we were pulling out, everyone seeming content we hadn't done something like release an alligator or something... LOL

So, with all my rescue duties finally all finished for the day, we made our way to one of our favorite downtown TexMex joints for dinner.

All in all, not a bad days work, even if there were a few hiccups along the way, a bit of hissing, and a delayed dinner.

Lessons learned

1) When working with a relay, make SURE everyone knows to be on time!

2) Always have wiggle room on schedule for the middle legs!

3) Red Eared Sliders have SHARP claws!

4) They are VERY fast, even on land!

5) When you DO manage to catch one, they HISS like crazy at you! LOL

The Damned Armadillos(tm)

2009-06-05T03:51:29Z

Despite my tendency towards accidents and explosions, last night we safely dispatched yet another Damned Armadillo(TM) in the yard last night! :)

For those who can't stand the thought of one of natures critters meeting a less than natural fate, I am sorry, and ask you to stop reading... now.

My darling bride took the dogs out for a walk about the backyard after we got back from an evening of the Savage Vanguards Dionysium... I had hunkered down on the couch to rest my back, when all of a sudden there was a flurry of activity. The dogs had flushed out the Damned Armadillo(TM) that has been wrecking havoc upon the wife's flowerbeds and my vegetables! I jumped up and ran to the door, but by the time I'd gotten it open, everyone was in the side yard... so, close that door, rush over to the other one, and everyone is back again by the first door. {Sigh} OK, close THAT door and back to the first!

Getting the door open, I see dogs running around like crazy, the wife in a low stance yelling "Get it, get it guys! Yeah!!!" I hollered out "What the heck is going on?!" She spun, with glee on her face, and exclaimed "It's the Armadillo! The guys almost got it!" It was then, she uttered the words that first entrapped my heart forever so many years ago "Get a gun!"

Now, this being Tejas, and this being her, when she tells you to fetch a weapon, you do so, and promptly... and never you mind first looking for pants! I saw that the dogs were rushing back and forth through the ornamental grasses which surround the 250 gallon propane tank. Terrific. So, upstairs I rush... surveying the inventory of choices, I select the safest option. My varmint .22 Longrifle. I know that worst case there is a zero chance of one of those rounds penetrating the thick steel of the tank. I drop 5-6 rounds down the tubefeed, toss on a pair of sandals, grab a flashlight, and head for the tank where the wife and the dogs are still furiously involved in the hunt.

The 'dillo had dug itself in under the tank by the right concrete support column, and was feverishly headed for China! I could see paws occasionally flashing under the tank as they tried to dig and catch up to the 'dillo which was doing a fine impression of a German U-Boat diving for the English Channel depths. I hollered at her to get the dogs inside, something the pups were NOT at all happy about, what with wanting to continue to play with their 'dillo chewtoy. She finally got a hold of Nautka, locked her in the house, and came back out for Sebastian. I was getting worried, as the 'dillo had started to dig deep enough and at an angle, that I would soon no longer have a shot. Finally, with the dogs now safely absconded away, holding the flashlight in one hand, and the rifle in the other, I flicked the safety off.

{Crack}

Let me tell you, if you've ever fired a rifle, even a small plinker like a .22, into a 'dillo at point blank range, the muzzle inches below a 250 gallon tank of propane, it makes one heck of a sound. The report of the shot echoing around in the tank, reverberating as if someone had struck the tank mightily with a sledgehammer, and I'll tell you what, it gives one a bit of pause... or at least, on would think it SHOULD. Someone who is sane would have countless tales of Darwin Awards nominees or yore go through ones mind... stories that would fit right in with "A man and woman were killed last night in an apparent Murder Suicide by Propane Tank" all the while, an Armadillo is seen digging up yet another tomato plant in the background, laughing. Yes, these are the thoughts one SHOULD have, and it's almost enough to have one reconsider their actions when ones darling wife yells "It's still moving, shoot it again!!!"... almost!

{Crack}

"That one was a good shot!" I think, as I see a good trail of blood coming out... I put a few more in him, just to be sure. I don't want the bugger to suffer, and I can't even tell what part of him I'm shooting into... so I try taking a few more various angles and different locations, of the small bit of the critter I can see. {Crack} {Crack} {Crack} "OK, that should do it" I tell the wife, and start to gather ourselves up.

We go in the house... The pups are VERY proud of themselves, but no match for the praise my dear wife has for them! "Good guys!!!!" and everyone gets snuggles and cookies in reward! After 4-5 minutes, I figure it's got to have finished being bleed out by then, and we get ready to go extract the corpse. First tho, I head upstairs. Probably time that I actually get some pants on. :) After all, if a neighbor comes up to see what the heck is going on and what's up with all this shooting, probably better if I'm not actually just standing there in my underpants and sandals and holding a rifle... it may be Tejas, but the neighbors already think I'm not right... no need to add fuel to THAT particular fire this evening.

I tried pulling it out with the three pronged cultivator, no joy. Next we tried the winged weeder... I was able to hook a foot and expose the tail, but he was just wedged in there too tight. She tried the BBQ Tongs, no joy either. The armor on them is just too slick to get a hold of without much more clamping force. I head into the garage and get a pair of long needle-nosed pliers and a pair of channellock tongue and groove pliers. Eventually, using the needle-nosed pliers while she reached into the hole from one side of the tank, and I talked her into the target holding the flashlight from the other side, we are able to get the damned thing extracted. If not, we were sure the dogs would have kept at it until dawn, or they managed to get it dug out and brought it in through the dog door to show us just what great hunters they are! So, it was unceremoniously tossed out into the prairie to the west of the house. The next meal for the various ants and buzzards on the property.

Now, with the yard finally eradicated of the Damned Armadillo, this weekend the wife can finish weeding a remaining section of the flowerbeds. We can put down more mulch, knowing it won't all be dug up to hell, tossed all over the lawn, and look like a moonscape each and every morning.

Photos of dead Damned Armadillo(TM) here:

Good puppies!

Rain!

2008-11-29T19:12:04Z

It's FINALLY raining... not much, but something! It's very sporadic, and nothing like the usual deluge I had hoped we would get... but, it's RAIN:

I'm hoping we get more... we desperately need it, or rather the trees and critters. I refilled the water trough again this afternoon. It was bone dry, and after just 4 days again. The deer are standing by it nearly every time I look, and it's quite common to also see squirrels, birds, raccoons, et all also all gathered 'round getting a drink. My neighbor also came by and filled up two 40 gallon trash cans and took them over to fill his trough up (he doesn't have a well on the property as it's just bare land) it's been so dry. The drought has been bad this year! :(

The aquifer levels have been in the red for so long I think people just think that's the normal level. Last summer folks wells were drying up. We seem to be lucky that ours has had no threat so far, but we really need a deluge. The last 2 times it's rained it hasn't even managed to get enough water down to get the creek to show any water at all. It's been dry for 2 years now. The first few years we were here it ALWAYS had water in it.

... and yet, EVERY application for water which is applied for is granted by the Lower Colorado Rive Authority. It's like they seem to think there is an endless supply. Despite the trend over the years for the level in the aquifer to drop more and more each year and while it does come back up, it never comes up as high as it was before the previous drought. One day, it's not going to bounce back, and we are all going to be totally fucked! :(

Black Friday aftermath...

2008-11-28T20:01:28Z

T-day was a success, mostly.

It was actually QUITE busy for me... I cooked dinner, cast some aluminum parts (first time I've fired up my foundry in months!), took some pictures, and got a bunch of chores around the house done (mostly woodworking), and in my spare time, won 2 more games of scrabble against the wife and my best friend in Seattle. LOL

Dinner was great. My plan of cooking the bird on the BBQ on the rotisserie were foiled when the motor wouldn't turn. :( So, it went in the oven instead.

The bird this year was just a turkey breast, so cooking time was just 90 minutes and it came out QUITE juicy! I baked the pumpkin pie right next to it, which was also terrific. Add a bit of fresh baked cornbread:

which was then promptly diced up and tossed in the crock pot with onion, celery, spices, and a bit of chicken stock and presto... cornbread stuffing! Yummmmmmmy! Add to that the gravy from the turkey drippings (and a bit more stock), cauliflower "mock mashed potatoes", and olives, rounded out the rest of the t-day dinner. T'was wonderful... and by the time I'd woken up the next morning, the wife already had the entire kitchen cleaned up! She's a keeper!!!

One of my parts, the mounting ring for the softbox mount, ended up deforming while I was pounding out the metal studs I'd used to leave the cores for the rods, so I'm going to have to rethink how to do that! :( I'm guessing I will either:

1) Use screws so I can just clamp the part in the vice and screw them out

or

2) Not bother with cores and just drill the holes in the aluminum AFTER it's been cast. Much harder, because of the complex shape of the part, but may be my only option.

I'm going to try casting two more one with the bolts and another with nothing, so I've got two more shots at getting it right... but I'll have to wait for better weather. Hot aluminum at 1600 degrees and rain would make for a NASTY explosion if it started to rain while I was running my foundry!

The handle for linking the carriage to the back gears which was missing so I needed to make one. I took another handle from the other side of the carriage, and fabricated a template... then, I cast it in aluminum.

Sure, the original steel part would be better, but I can't get my foundry up to steel melting temps. I may recast it later in a zink alloy, or maybe brass, but for now, aluminum will do just fine!!! And, it came out nearly perfect!!! :) So I'll be able to resume my rebuilding of my ancient Monarch machine lathe! :) :) :)

I was also able to successfully cast a few other parts, one being another paddle for a friend who wanted one:

Of course I still need to clean up the castings... this is straight out of the sand! A little time with the angle grinder and sand blaster tho, and they will be damn pretty! :)

The other two items I cast also came out, so being 3 for 4 of parts cast, I'm gonna call it a success even tho I'm going to have to recast the part that actually spurred the entire casting session! Now I just need to come up with enough OTHER stuff to cast at the same time to make it worth while to get the foundry up to temp... as it takes about 5 gallons of propane to do a melt... whether I cast 1 item of 4-5... so best to make the most use of it each time!

So, by the end of the day I only got a few pictures taken... None with the softbox to show my new haircut... I was just RACING to get everything else done tho. My buddy who originally was going to help with the casting wasn't available as his kids were sick, thus I didn't get to cast on Wednesday (NOT the sort of thing you do alone!!!) so will have to try taking pics of the casting process another melt and another time... Once the rain stops that is, which has FINALLY started! Whew!!!

Casting, cooking, and pictures

2008-11-27T18:20:06Z

Today, I fire up the foundry again for the first time in FAR too long! I've got a number of parts ready to cast, and a few items for friends.

At the same time, I'm also cooking this evenings Thanksgiving dinner for the wife and I. The cornbread is in the oven now, which will turn into the stuffing for dinner. The turkey will go on the BBQ Rotisserie in a few hours.

Once the casting of parts is finished, I'll clean 'em up and be able to mount up the softboxes for my studio strobes and will take some pics of my new haircut... I probably didn't get it cut short enough, but it's WAY better now than it was before. At least I no longer feel compelled to have it in a ponytail 24/7! :) I'll see if I can finally manage to get a dark / black background! Going to try to see if I can talk the wife into a few pics as well... before dinner, when she'll be feeling at fat. LOL

Raccoon encounter in the yard

2008-11-17T21:55:20Z

So, this morning… while going to get the trashcan to take down to the cul-de-sac… I found a dead raccoon in the yard. It had obviously been on the losing side of a meeting with at least one, if not both, of the dogs. The grass around the carcass was torn up, so it obviously wasn't a quick end. I could find no injuries, to my astonishment, on either dog. The death was caused by a punctured lung at the very least, tho I found some internal abdomen injuries and some of the large intestines had been pulled out of the anus and obviously chewed up / eaten. It was recent, as rigor had not even set in yet. Probably while I was in the shower after my morning workout, tho I can't see why the 'coon would have been out at that time. I was up until 4am, and the wife was up at 5, so that was a PRETTY narrow window for them to have found it during the evening. Not wanting the poor critters life to be a total waste, I skinned it before tossing the rest of the carcass out into the field for the vultures and various other critters to feast upon. The body wasn't warm, but I have no clue how long such a small critter takes to cool to ambient temp when it's so cold out like it is in the mornings here in Central Texas right now. The skin, and head, are now in the freezer in the garage.

I'm thinking I'll need to swing the head by the vets and have the poor thing tested for rabies. However, I've never actually had one of the dogs take down a raccoon before. They have gotten close, but never actually gotten one on the ground. Luckily (for the dogs and plants) this time appears to have had no injuries… to the dogs, or landscaping, which is usually the loser when a raccoon finds it's way into the yard. I'm guessing in search of the frogs that love the yard what with the irrigation and small pond…

I have never had a dog/raccoon encounter end up like this before however... Anyone have a bit of an idea on how I should proceed or if my thoughts of needing to take the head to the vet for testing is warranted or not.

Oh yeah, and yes of course, both dogs are recently (yearly) vaccinated for rabies.

Coldsnap

2008-11-17T03:25:58Z

It's the forefront of winter in Central Texas. In the day, it's mid-70's or so, but at night the mercury drops. Last night, we had a freeze. Warning was known, so things like my Avocado plants could be brought indoors. The Yellow Bells in front of the dining room window, which were an explosion of color and vibrancy... now all wilted, dead or dying, and dried by the afternoon heat and winds. Driving home from a party last night, the temp on a reader-board for one of the mega-churches with the time & temp display showed 34 degrees... and yet it's still practically "summer" feeling by late morning, and one can still walk around in shorts and t-shirt... until the sun goes down!

It's just part of the amazing weather for here in Central Texas!

I guess this means it's time to dig out my electric vest... just in case I get stuck at work, and leave too late, for once the sun goes down, it QUICKLY goes from fully ventilated gear weather to winter gear needed with electrics!

High Fidelity Playlist

2008-11-09T23:55:27Z

I was honestly unhappy with 3/4rs of the question choices where none were songs I loved, so just had to pick the one I liked most of what was available...

Your result for The High Fidelity Playlist of Love...

The Rocker

40% tuner, 60% rocker, 0% old-timer, 0% songwriter and 0% hipster!

You've got a lust for Life, bearing with it a significant lust for Love. Ooh - and a lust for Lust! (Is that something?) Some might be content to settle into a stable, robust relationship, but you'd much prefer to find someone who'll rock your world every which way from Sunday!*

* Real good, all night long, like a hurricane, and all along the watchtower would have also been accepted.

Take The High Fidelity Playlist of Love

14 years... and she hasn't killed me yet!

2008-11-02T00:08:33Z

Today, the wife and I celebrate 14 years together. We started dating the day after we met at a Halloween party, WAAAAAY back in 1994. One of my good friends (and ex's) brought her to the party for me, and I was sprung! I had been dating a few other gals at the time, and stopped seeing all of them right then and there. I put 110% of all my efforts into this new chick and eventually convinced her to move in with me. The night we met, she was a psychotic axe murdering lumberjack. You'd have thought with all my observational skills I'd have picked up that she wasn't actually in disguise. :) We lived in sin for 10 years until one day she informed me not so subtly that it "was time that I proposed"... we eloped to Hawaii and got married on the beach.

It's been one hell of a ride... and much to my surprise, she hasn't managed to kill me... yet!

Here is to another 14 and more baby! I love you very much!

PS: When you finally do kill me, please use your shotgun (not your axe) and do it while I am sleeping! :)

Fasle Memories Meme

2008-11-01T03:44:41Z

If you read this, if your eyes are passing over this right now (even if we don't speak often or ever) please post a comment with a completely made up, fictional memory of you and me. It can be anything you want - good or bad - but it has to be fake. When you're finished, post this little paragraph in your LJ and see what your friends come up with!

I am officially a geek now

2008-10-27T22:51:31Z

Well, I'm now an undeniably *nix Geek now! LOL My very own sourceforge project got approved, and I have batched up my homebrew Intrusion Detection System under the name "Brutus-IDS":

http://sourceforge.net/projects/brutus-ids/

Simple Intrusion Detection System which monitors SSH login attempts and if hack attempt is detected, system is added to the firewall, and system administrators are notified for both localhost and admins of the specific system attempting the hack attempt.

I'm a member of two other projects, so it's not much of a milestone... but hey, it's contributing _something_ back to the community for something which was my own idea and my baby! {shrug} I wrote the scripts a few years ago to deal with the vast numbers of login attempts I was seeing with people trying to brute my system... thus, Brutus was born! I mean, what have YOU contributed to the community right? Of course, I had to sanitize the scripts... I didn't think folks would be too keen on running "fuckwads.pl" LOL

No Tripods allowed, NO PROBLEM!

2008-10-17T05:05:26Z

I was bemoaning my problems with shooting when I was in DC and NY, NY a while back where I kept getting chased off anytime any of the guards would see me with my tripod. Well, always the engineer, he dropped the bomb on me and I had the "Well DUH!" moment with his GREAT idea on how to get around that blasted "NO TRIPODS" rule... mount my ball head for the camera on a baby stroller with 30# of sand in the seat!

plus
==
Damn the man, fuck you Whitey, power to mah peoplez!!!!! :D

Rock stable, and they can stick it where the sun don't shine when they try to tell me I can't shoot anywhere I want to now with my "stroller" tripod with a Giotto ball head camera mount attached!!! LOL I'm going to start scanning the various thrift stores now (while searching for various photog outfits and props anyway) to see if I can find one that'll travel well on the motorcycle once folded up.

While I admit I'm not yet 100% sure how I'd make it all work, I'm sure I can figure something out... what's the point of having a foundry and a welder if you never make anything fun right? :) With everywhere I go is on a motorcycle being a strobist helps... backpack for all the main gear, and two Giotto soft bags for the tripod in one and light stands/umbrellas in the other. Mobile, easy to pack, and quick to setup/breakdown... Add to that a 4 wheeled baby stroller with locking wheels and a hefty rock or bag of sand, presto... a mobile tripod that can also double as a caddy for the two Giotto bags and backpack while traversing between locations. HA! Take THAT Mr. Security Guard...

{smile}

Heh!

Just figured I'd share that little Gem in case anybody else ever got chased off for the audacity of wanting to have a tripod where they have been otherwise deemed as verboten!

HA!

I think I've been talking to Hank

2008-10-07T06:32:53Z

...I wouldn't bet a wooden nickle that I ain't... I got goose pumps and dizzy and felt kinda faint... well I swear I've been talkin to hank!

Last night we caught the Henry Rollins show here in town at La Zona Rosa. The drive into Austin isn't the big deal, but the start time of 9pm on a Sunday evening was a potential killer given how long his shows last! Last night, was no exception. Hank never "Calls it in" and he does long and full sets. This one last night was two and a half hours of side splitting, hard hitting, kick your ass take no prisoners hilarity as only The Man Henry Rollins can bring. This is the 4th time we've seen him in Austin, plus the times in Seattle before moving down here. I never cease to be dumbfounded by his energy, his intellect, and his approach to life. If only I had a quarter of any of that energy!!! Of course, he also (self professed) spends WAY too much time alone, so I don't think I'm cut out for that level of self determination anyway! LOL

Anyway, after the show, we went back to the car and I grabbed my camera. We then spent a few minutes while I setup some basics on the camera to get it set for a simple PJ style shoot on the off chance he was going to hang out by his tour bus after and chat. Sure enough, by the time we made it back to the bus he had a crowd gathered around. The man had just done a 2.5 hour show, where I only saw him take ONE sip of water, and there he was, still going strong... telling jokes, answering questions, signing autographs on anything and everything, and generally proving he's everything you might have ever thought, and more. During his act he even did a spot on being recognized and the invariable problems with handing ones camera to a wife or girlfriend to have them take a picture for you, but they don't know how to work your camera. When one of those situations was hit where one guy handed his camera to another guy, and it was set to record video, I couldn't help myself but to make a crack about at least he was a pretty wife. Even Hank got a laugh out of that one and gave me a wink for it. LOL Anyway, we stood there for a good half hour, as question after question and autograph after autograph was dealt with by him. Eventually it was down to just 5-6 of us fans and Hank so I stepped up and asked to get a picture. I shot one with the wife and then handed my camera to her to do one of me and him. Of course, she sorta fumbled the shot... it was my own damn fault really. I left the camera focus on manual instead of setting it to automatic, so she got a crisp shot of the sign 40' behind and between us, and Hank and I were blurry with the f5.6 aperture. And of course our heads were Dead Center in the frame... Doh! For all her talk about composition and suggestions on how I could improve my shots, I have to be VERY careful to never make fun of her for the way she frames her shots... or it'd be a damn lonely night sleeping on the guest bed! LOL I suppose I COULD have tried to set it for something like f16 and set the flash to near full power, but with popping so many shots so close, I didn't want to blind everyone (especially HANK!) or risk totally nuking the exposure! I believe the shot will print OK on a 4x6, maybe even 5x7, but I'll have to forget anything larger or doing much of a crop. Oh well... live and learn! ...and if I try again after next years show, I'll be DAMN sure to do a full tutorial before OR just bring the tripod and do it all myself! :) Now that I know Hank is a fellow Photog (more on that soon), he might even LIKE to have a pro-level fan pic taken. I've got a full year to think about it I guess. :)

As for the wifes picture... obviously it's time for Yet Another Lesson with her about how to work my camera, and also likely finally time to get her a camera of her own... probably gonna be a G7 or G9 Canon.

Anyway, after my pics, I discovered... Hank shoots a canon as well. I took a shot for a guy with a mowhawk with his camera for him, and the flash wasn't going off. I knew the shot was going to be total crap, so was trying to fix it quick and try again but couldn't figure out how to turn the flash on. I apologized to the kid and said "Sorry man, the flash isn't working, and I can't figure it out" when Hank said "Just take one for him with your real camera then." LOL That's one of the HUGE things I love about him!!! Even when he KNOWS all those point and shoot and phonecam pics will look like crap, he still poses and does his "I'm a bad man" scowl no matter how long they take to do it. I took the shot, and the kid bounded off before I could hand him a card or tell him the website address... Dork!

Anyway, that's when Hank asked me "What are you shooting with there" and I didn't know (yet) he knew something about cameras... so I just answered "Oh, just my 16-35" and he replied that he's got one of those and a few other lenses in the bus. Oh reaaaaaaaaaally now?! LOL I could FEEL the wife's eyes burrowing into my skull, but couldn't help myself and the photog chat started! Heh! Turns out he shoots a Canon 1DS MKIII (Of COURSE he does, rich movie star type... what ELSE would he be shooting right?) and has the full range of wide angle, telephoto, and telephoto zoom L lenses. We chatted photog stuff for about 3 minutes before I felt "The Tug" from the wife letting me know "Knock it the fuck off and leave him alone!" :)

I put up my photos from the post show chat on the website here:
http://www.midnightfantasy.com/portfolio/_Clients/Henry_Rollins_show/

Might have to move them, as "Clients" isn't exactly a good fit, but I didn't know where else to put them on the pro site (I'd have just stuck 'em all on my personal page, but a few I took pics for with their cameras I then also snapped one with mine and told them my website address so they could get a good pic as well... I'll likely move 'em all in a few weeks onto my personal pages) tho.

So, an AWESOME evening! Hank, as usual, did a completely kick ass show, and THEN I even got to chat with him a few minutes to myself, as well as hang out and listen to everyone else chat with him for probably 30-40 minutes, get a signature on one of our tickets, and some good photos of and with him! I'll print the two photos with the wife and him and myself and him, and then frame them together with the signature on the ticket.

So, even tho I know Hank will likely never read this, thank-you sir! Thank-you so very much!

DOH!!!

2008-10-05T16:50:32Z

A few days ago while making the changes to the server to do the migration, I setup squid on the new server for the proxy tunnel from work by bypass all of the corporate web filtering... well, let it be henceforth known that I... am an ass. Yup, you heard it here... I had noticed the network speed at home seemed to be slowing down. I chalked it up to fluke. Then, on Thursday night, things took a turn for the worse. Speed was horrible!

I didn't have time to figure it out at the time tho. All day Friday and Saturday the network was so damned slow it was practically unusable because the network utilization was exploding... my poor DSL line was running practically wide open all day! My packet sniffer wasn't working still because the damned xserver on the new server was still acting up, and I'd just re-installed the OS on my primary workstation. Well, last night after the party I decided to figure out WTH was going on... So, back to just command line. Not as good as ethereal, but no xserver required, so I figured up tcpdump to see what was going on:
[root@cerberus squid]# tcpdump -i eth0

...and there it was, plain as day, squid traffic from EVERYWHERE... the poor proxy server was going bananas! Japan, Germany, Russia, hell even Bulgaria squid requests were POURING in from around the world! Hundreds of requests a minute!

Horrified, I SCRAM'd the squid process... die Die DIE!!! Then I looked at the squid.conf configuration file, and there it was in all it's glory:
http_access allow all
I just stared at it and blinked... REALLY? THAT was the default value... CRAZY! But, I didn't see it, and I was the dink who configured it to listen to both adapters, including the external network adapter eth0! doh, Doh, DOH!!!

That'll teach ME to not pay closer attention to the default configuration file when spinning up a new server... DOH! Since reconfiguration and adding the port to my external firewall, things have gotten MUCH better! Still need to make sure the configuration works from work but I think it should because I just need to allow traffic from inside the network... I can deal with that on Monday tho!

It started to degrade actually many months ago, but I never connected the dots... I had configured the old squid server to run on a non-standard port:

I'd always wondered why my utilization was higher than I expected, but I'd also spun up my pro photography website around then, and we'd been pushing advertising on the rescue malamute website more, so I had just always figured it was normal higher than anticipated HTTP web traffic. I never actually spun up a packet analyzer to see just what all the traffic was.

Luckily (or not) when I spun up the new server, I didn't change the port... while it seems some folks found my damned open proxy server last March, the WORLD found me on Thursday!

Whooops!

On the plus side, at least I finally found the problem, and my network speeds here at home should hopefully improve a bunch. The wife gets MIGHTY testy when her Pr0n browsing is slow! ...and, at least that's now fixed... :)

Now it's time for brunch with the grrls and then back to the migration work!

The nefarious BIOS bug that haunts my days and troubles my dreams!!!

2008-10-04T21:44:38Z

Hahaaaa! I found the BIOS bug! WO0T!!!!11

For the last week I've been racking my brain trying to do whatever I could to get my poor sick server here at home (Running an ASUS KFN5-D SLI board) functional again after a BIOS upgrade late the previous week that left it unable to boot with both SATA controllers enabled... On Friday, I finally sucked it up and went to Frys and bought a PCI-E SATA II controller, but thought after I got back to work, maybe I could still get it working without the new card (plus the cheap ass in me wanted no part of having to keep the $50 controller card when I had a previously perfectly functional 2nd SATA controller already onboard!

< GEEK >
I managed to fall back to rev 207 with a BIOS I programmed onto a spare prom at work... I figured if the fall back to 209 wouldn't work from either 305 or 404, maybe I could try starting with 207 and upgrade back to 209... low and behold, it worked! Once I got 207 loaded and was able to boot with both SATA controllers enabled, I figured I had a chance!!!

I took my remaining rev 305 bios (I had a small bag of 6 proms programmed with various revisions just in case) and cleared the CMOS, and dropped in one of my two rev 207 BIOS chips. Presto! The system posted, SWEET! I got everything setup as I needed to have both SATA controllers and disks detected, crossed my fingers, rebooted the 3rd time (multi-step process to get everything detected and boot orders set) and bingo, it was working. I probably scared the dogs with my Barbaric YAWP when I saw the grub boot-loader display after it cleared the "Checking NVRAM" stage of POST!!!

Once I was satisfied I had a functional system, I experimented some. I was able to update to rev 209 via the AFUDOS util, and I was back in business again to my previous state at BIOS rev 209. While adjusting the BIOS settings to my preferred settings, I stumbled upon the SATA controller failure again... backtracking through my changes, and I narrowed it down to the APM support. If APM is enabled, then both SATA controllers DO NOT FUNCTION! I checked with my backup copy of rev 207, and presto, failure there as well! Haha! So, dropped in my rev 404 BIOS, cleared the CMOS, booted and set everything how I wanted, but was SURE to change Advanced Power Management to Disabled! The trick is, it's disabled by default in 207 and 209, but at 305 and up it is enabled by default! So, with disabling it, bingo, both SATA controllers can function, even in rev 404!

So, the repro for the bug is:
Clear CMOS
Update BIOS to rev 404
Enable both SATA controllers and set the HDD boot order to boot to SIL the controller
Disable APM support
Observe system boots as expected
Reboot, and set BIOS APM support to enabled
Upon boot, system hard hangs at "Checking NVRAM" stage of POST
Cold boot system, set APM support back to disabled
System boots as expected!

So, the problem was the change in APM support defaults starting in BIOS release rev 305.

I'm running the system now with the BIOS rev 404, and have a workaround to enable both SATA controllers and clear the NVRAM check during POST... so now that I have narrowed down what the actual BIOS bug was, I'm 5x5 again! Sweet!!! :)

< / GEEK >

Wookie: 1
ASUS: 0

Let the Wookie win! :) Woooo!!! LOL

Some good doggie news for once

2008-09-29T23:57:19Z

Well, it looks like Nautka may just have a pinched nerve in her neck. Anti-inflammatories and I'll be sharing some of my pain meds with her for a week. Hopefully by the end of then the "crick in her neck" will be feeling better.

Damn dogs, it never ends!

2008-09-29T05:11:02Z

Nautka has been yelping in pain all day randomly. One can poke/prod her any which way, in seemly random locations, and she is just fine. Then, she'll go to roll over, or your just petting her as she's laying there, and she lets out a piercing yipe. She's never done this before. Just yesterday Jodi and I were discussing how we never seem to have old dogs. They always die, suddenly, and WAY before their time. When we lost Okashi, it nearly killed us both. Looking Kataru a year and a half ago almost now ripped our hearts out, and then Bear a few months ago from that Fucking Rattlesnake. I'll have to skip work tomorrow morning and take Nautka in to see the vet. My guess is it'll have to be x-rays and bloodwork to try and figure it out. I don't know what the hell it's going to be, but it's almost certainly going to be life threatening if our luck has anything to show for how things went with Kataru and Bear.

I swear, if we loose Nautka from this, I honestly fear how Jodi is going to take it and what may happen. Some days, it seems like all she's hanging on to things for is because she doesn't think the dogs would survive with just me looking after them... much as I try to show her that yeah, I can actually manage to get myself out of bed, showered, dressed, and feed them two squares a day. {laughs while shaking head}

For now, Nautka is at least still eating (we've learned, painfully, if a _MALAMUTE_ skips a meal, you RUSH them to the emergency room!) and is taking pain pills well enough that she's stable for the evening. It's cool enough out that we are able to open the windows and let the cool evening Texas summer air in. If she starts having more problems, her cries should wake us (if I'm able to get any sleep at all I suppose) but hopefully she'll continue to do well enough that we can just get into our regular vet tomorrow morning and get her checked out and figure out WTH is wrong with Jodi's baby.

Women!

2008-09-24T17:31:07Z

Women, I'll tell you what! So, I'm still waiting to go to the dentist… apparently last night Jodi decided she was sick of my shit, smothered me with a pillow, smacked me around until she broke my front left tooth, and then revived me so I wouldn't remember a thing. I woke this AM to discover that toothpaste stings.

She disavows any part of the aforementioned act.

It seems my front left tooth is now missing 1/4 of the bottom left side. Women, can't live with 'em, can't make 'em into soup and feed 'em to the homeless. The dentist is still trying to work me in and get it fixed.

The hell of post processing while in the hospital

2008-09-20T06:51:26Z

I'm still in the throws of post processing the shoot with Chrissy... we got some GREAT shots, but getting them all Just So(tm) and done is taking forever! Jodi had surgery today, and that left me with a lot of time to kill today tho. I manage to normally get 1 image processed in anywhere from 45 minutes to 2 hours. Even with my tablet, it still takes forever to get everything cleaned up just so with my meager PS skillz. If it can't easily be done with clone, heal, dodge/burn, or history brush, well, it likely means it's just not something that can be done by me. I did just finally figure out how the patch tool works, but even still it's not turning out how I expect as I get a funky result where it looks like it's an add, not a replace, so the underlying pixels are still there and more often than not just doesn't do squat. {shrug}

These were today's results:

This one, while being just the seemingly simple task of "remove the leaf":
to

That one bit took me probably two hours to do and have it not look like it had obviously been shopped. I'm happy with the results, but fook this takes a damn long time!!!