dcyrilc
Elite Member
:laughing::laughing: Unfortunately, the ballasts would still draw power. I don't really want the OT, but the thought of new toys does at least make it bearable.:laughing:
An Old Goat Ranch in Texas
- Thread starter terry.dinerman
- Start date
- Views: 171124
:laughing::laughing: Unfortunately, the ballasts would still draw power. I don't really want the OT, but the thought of new toys does at least make it bearable.:laughing:
dcyrilc
Elite Member
Your killin' me Terry. :laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:
I thought I was the only one who had those kinds of days. :laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing::laughing:
CurlyDave
Elite Member
Oh, the joys of renting equipment.
I have had the same experience -- 90% of the times I have rented equipment of any kind, it has been far less than 100% of what it should be. Constant breakdowns, requiring much time lost to get a chewing gum and baling wire repair, followed by a much less than 100% job.
I will always opt for using the tool I own, even if it is undersized, underpowered and slow as molasses.
In this case you had no choice, but the price of rental equipment is measured in time & frustration as well as money.
I have had the same experience -- 90% of the times I have rented equipment of any kind, it has been far less than 100% of what it should be. Constant breakdowns, requiring much time lost to get a chewing gum and baling wire repair, followed by a much less than 100% job.
I will always opt for using the tool I own, even if it is undersized, underpowered and slow as molasses.
In this case you had no choice, but the price of rental equipment is measured in time & frustration as well as money.
OP
terry.dinerman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 405
- Tractor
- 1990 - JD 870
The Great Underground Power Massacree 3
"The Big Coverup" continued, continued:
Delivery Dude was quite amused at my reaction to the "Little Yellow Digging Machine" he rolled off the truck...
You see, tho I have operated a lot of heavy equipment, the most modern track-hoe I ever touched had a cluster of levers in between your knees and two pedals...I've NEVER operated one of these new-fangled joy-stick jobs...and I gave him a pretty confused look when he handed me the key...
Delivery Dude was a either a very good teacher, or these machines are close to idiot-proof, because with about 10 min of OJT, in the time it took for him to load the trencher and chain it down, I had the darned thing hopping and bopping like I was born in one.
I cleaned up the front bit near the road crossing and then skedaddled back to the far end and finished up the segment from the transformer pad to the meter pole....and that made the trench DONE....!
I started putting conduit in the ground....the section from the meter pole to the pad was already glued up, so it was in the ground in a flash....
Then it was a matter of gluing up a tube-turn and lowering the pipe into the trench....and by the time it was getting dark, I made it to the junction box pad, halfway to the road-crossing.
I slept deep that night...
After my usual "working" breakfast of a bowl of tylenol tablets in yogurt washed down with black coffee, I got back over to TOGR...
The mornings have been pretty cool the last week or so, and the trench is so deep, it puts a pretty severe angle on things as the pipe goes into the ground, and rather than risk cracking a glue joint or even the pipe, I figured I would bury the pole to transformer segment and round up some shoring boards for the conduit ends while things warmed up a bit....
...the inspector requires the last couple of feet of each segment be left exposed to verify depth, marking tape and that a long sweep 90 was used to make the tube-turn so shoring of some sort is needed to keep the dirt away from the ends of the conduit, and I have plenty of half-rotten old fence pickets and scrap lumber in my materials pile for this sort of thing
By the time I had put in the shoring at the transformer pad and meter pole and then buried that section of pipe, it was warm enough to put more pipe in the ground.
I had to do a little "adjusting" by pulling the pipe a bit with a come-a-long to get the spacing between the front and rear conduit runs where they met at the junction pad to sit just right...but I am only going to do this ONCE....may as well do it right.
I have this bad habit of following engineering drawings as close as reasonably possible...but I am sure the engineers had a good reason for spacing the risers they way they did...
The longest run of continuous pipe was from the junction to the road crossing, and it slid into the ground slick as a cat on ice....by late morning all the pipe was in the ground, the junctions were shored up and I was ready to backfill.
Just one thing I had to do before that tho....Delivery Dude was going to be back for his excavator, and there was NO WAY I was going to let that thing go before I rescued my auger from it's current sad state!
I got hooked up and tried to simply pull it out the way it went in....and nothing happened....
I heard the deer laughing at me....
So...drawing on my vast stores of construction / destruction experience, and my newly acquired operating skill with this wee digger, I slapped the boom around and yanked every-which-way until I saw some movement....and then wrenched the auger right out of the ground...
It left a nice post-hole too...
That'll show those snarky darned deer...
So...With that annoyance taken care of, I ran the excavator back up to the front of the property and parked it for Delivery Dude.
If I should happen to have an extra $20k laying around, I have GOT to get one of these!!!
The afternoon was spent looking over my shoulder as I pushed half of the fill back into the trench, and strung out the warning tape...
The "Little Green Giant" made it all very easy....even without a hydrostatic drive, the gear-box on this machine is so smooth, I got into a nice rhythm pretty quickly....and by quitting time, all the tape was down, I had completely backfilled and smoothed out the front half of the driveway and I was beginning to feel good about the progress again.
Neighbor Joe dropped by and told me he was going to nominate me for Road Commissioner....he said anyone who can smooth out a driveway that nicely with a box blade and a piece of old railroad track on a chain ought to be able to do some good....
Joe is nice like that....
"The Big Coverup" continued, continued:
Delivery Dude was quite amused at my reaction to the "Little Yellow Digging Machine" he rolled off the truck...
You see, tho I have operated a lot of heavy equipment, the most modern track-hoe I ever touched had a cluster of levers in between your knees and two pedals...I've NEVER operated one of these new-fangled joy-stick jobs...and I gave him a pretty confused look when he handed me the key...
Delivery Dude was a either a very good teacher, or these machines are close to idiot-proof, because with about 10 min of OJT, in the time it took for him to load the trencher and chain it down, I had the darned thing hopping and bopping like I was born in one.
I cleaned up the front bit near the road crossing and then skedaddled back to the far end and finished up the segment from the transformer pad to the meter pole....and that made the trench DONE....!
I started putting conduit in the ground....the section from the meter pole to the pad was already glued up, so it was in the ground in a flash....
Then it was a matter of gluing up a tube-turn and lowering the pipe into the trench....and by the time it was getting dark, I made it to the junction box pad, halfway to the road-crossing.
I slept deep that night...
After my usual "working" breakfast of a bowl of tylenol tablets in yogurt washed down with black coffee, I got back over to TOGR...
The mornings have been pretty cool the last week or so, and the trench is so deep, it puts a pretty severe angle on things as the pipe goes into the ground, and rather than risk cracking a glue joint or even the pipe, I figured I would bury the pole to transformer segment and round up some shoring boards for the conduit ends while things warmed up a bit....
...the inspector requires the last couple of feet of each segment be left exposed to verify depth, marking tape and that a long sweep 90 was used to make the tube-turn so shoring of some sort is needed to keep the dirt away from the ends of the conduit, and I have plenty of half-rotten old fence pickets and scrap lumber in my materials pile for this sort of thing
By the time I had put in the shoring at the transformer pad and meter pole and then buried that section of pipe, it was warm enough to put more pipe in the ground.
I had to do a little "adjusting" by pulling the pipe a bit with a come-a-long to get the spacing between the front and rear conduit runs where they met at the junction pad to sit just right...but I am only going to do this ONCE....may as well do it right.
I have this bad habit of following engineering drawings as close as reasonably possible...but I am sure the engineers had a good reason for spacing the risers they way they did...
The longest run of continuous pipe was from the junction to the road crossing, and it slid into the ground slick as a cat on ice....by late morning all the pipe was in the ground, the junctions were shored up and I was ready to backfill.
Just one thing I had to do before that tho....Delivery Dude was going to be back for his excavator, and there was NO WAY I was going to let that thing go before I rescued my auger from it's current sad state!
I got hooked up and tried to simply pull it out the way it went in....and nothing happened....
I heard the deer laughing at me....
So...drawing on my vast stores of construction / destruction experience, and my newly acquired operating skill with this wee digger, I slapped the boom around and yanked every-which-way until I saw some movement....and then wrenched the auger right out of the ground...
It left a nice post-hole too...
That'll show those snarky darned deer...
So...With that annoyance taken care of, I ran the excavator back up to the front of the property and parked it for Delivery Dude.
If I should happen to have an extra $20k laying around, I have GOT to get one of these!!!
The afternoon was spent looking over my shoulder as I pushed half of the fill back into the trench, and strung out the warning tape...
The "Little Green Giant" made it all very easy....even without a hydrostatic drive, the gear-box on this machine is so smooth, I got into a nice rhythm pretty quickly....and by quitting time, all the tape was down, I had completely backfilled and smoothed out the front half of the driveway and I was beginning to feel good about the progress again.
Neighbor Joe dropped by and told me he was going to nominate me for Road Commissioner....he said anyone who can smooth out a driveway that nicely with a box blade and a piece of old railroad track on a chain ought to be able to do some good....
Joe is nice like that....
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terry.dinerman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 405
- Tractor
- 1990 - JD 870
I am here-ta-tell-ya....
"...Frustration..." doesn't seem quite the word I would choose for it...
Equipment failures are enough to drive a fellow to drink and swear...
...oh WAIT....I already DO drink and swear...:laughing:
Whatever...
I always try to build in a little slop in my plans to account for the breakage, and just to be fair to the Rental Dude, I do generally run equipment right at the ragged edge of destruction no matter WHO owns it...
Rentals will be part of my life until I have a spare $20k laying around once in a while....and you can be sure if THAT happens, Precious Bride will have a few plans for before I get to buy any heavy equipment.
She is always wasting our money paying off bills, socking it away in Rat Holes and keeping us square with the Gummint....
Til I have that Spare Change to toss around I am glad I found a Rental Dude with a sense of humor about me breaking his stuff...
Be Safe Dave....
jinman
Rest in Peace
- Joined
- Feb 23, 2001
- Messages
- 20,387
- Location
- Texas - Wise County - Sunset
- Tractor
- NHTC45D, NH LB75B, Ford Jubilee
Well Terry, remember the difference between the rental yard and the $20k piece of equipment you own is when the rental breaks, you have somebody to call to come and get it.:thumbsup:
I was glued to your story of the little yellow mini-excavator. I was sure with your luck that it was going to be loaded and on the way back to Rents-R-Us before you thought of digging out the auger. I should have known you were more situationally aware than that. Did ol' Joe crack a smile when you showed him the U-turn you'd made out of his pipe wrench handle?:laughing:
I was glued to your story of the little yellow mini-excavator. I was sure with your luck that it was going to be loaded and on the way back to Rents-R-Us before you thought of digging out the auger. I should have known you were more situationally aware than that. Did ol' Joe crack a smile when you showed him the U-turn you'd made out of his pipe wrench handle?:laughing:
OP
terry.dinerman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 405
- Tractor
- 1990 - JD 870
Yeah BOY....I LOVE them rentals....it sure is nice to have someone to call and gripe out when the machine doesn't work OR I break the dang thing...not to mention that all the rental fees I've paid so far on that trencher and excavator wouldn't touch PART of a monthly payment for either...
Between those realities and Precious Brides darned fiscal responsibility, I figure I need to keep on the Bull Goose Rental Dudes good side...
Now, situational awareness just became second nature what with the conditions in some of the neighborhoods I have frequented over the years ...you learn to keep your eyes open to opportunities or threats and you learn to always have a PLAN...
The Chief always preached about having not one, but THREE plans for any situation...
Primary, Contingency and Escape and Evasion....
...since the Chief made it thru some much WORSE neighborhoods than I ever dreamed of and lived to a ripe old age....you gotta give credit to the old dog...
Joe found out about his wrench when he came back around and found me pounding it back into shape on a piece of railroad track with an 8 pound hammer...
He just laughed and helped hold it down while I "adjusted" it....
....of course he made some snarky cracks about me being hard on the equipment and how he "...just follows the sound of destruction..." when he wants to locate me on the property....
I love that guy...:laughing:
BTW....his wrench still had a bit of a dogleg just under the adjustment screw when he pulled me off of it...
We agreed that it now resembles one of those high-dollar angled Stillson wrenches, so I gave in and quit banging on it before I broke it....
Smart fellow, Joe...
OP
terry.dinerman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 405
- Tractor
- 1990 - JD 870
Well....it is INDEED a small world My Brother....
Thank you for the wonderful compliment of reading the WHOLE thing...you must have some time on your hands....!
From where I sit typing this, I can see the flares of rigs sitting just across the border...with a scope I could probably pick out the strobe on your bird...
I'm glad you found some humor / truth in my whining about the joys of travel...I generally just nod and smile when folks at home remark on "...how exciting..." my work must be...if I tell them the truth, that is....
A lot of times I just tell people I work as an autopsy assistant and I can duck the subject of "excitement" entirely as they recoil at my descriptions of the joys of THAT line of work....
(It reminds me of the times I used to tell women around Houston that I was a shoe salesman, cuz they sure as H--- were not going to buy any stories about being a Deep Sea Diver....!)
It's hard not to like pilots....I always try to keep on everyone's good side, not just the busdrivers....but over the years I have had to conduct a few medivacs in some fairly inclement weather....both man-made and natural occurrences....and I have met some darned fine pilots in the process....
I could tell you some stories about the aircraft and the Ukrainians that flew us around in Iraq and Liberia that you would probably get a kick out of....
GAWD...."Shellbacks"....once you get past your initiation it isn't so bad being the fattest guy on board...tho I got tired of feeding the polliwogs raisins...
...you remember how THAT works, right?
...ew....
"Good Old Boys" like Joe and the rest of the crowd there in town are half of the attraction of moving to "Small Town" Texas...they are quite a collection of eccentrics...but it is especially nice knowing I have a Marine covering my flank...
He doesn't see so good these days, so we may be about equal with a rifle but I wouldn't want to take him on with a knife...He fights dirty...:thumbsup:
You are right to miss Texas... Tho I am an immigrant to The Great State of Texas and still revert to my native language in times of stress (New Yorker) I was greeted with open arms, provided with all the opportunities one man could desire and have been showered with riches of all sorts as a reward for faithful service...as long as I kept a sense of humor about people poking fun at my accent!
Fair trade if you ask me....
Well...I shall keep writing if you keep reading....
Check in once in a while and like the Old Philosopher said...
"...straighten up and fly right..."
Be Safe!
Terry
Last edited:
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terry.dinerman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 405
- Tractor
- 1990 - JD 870
The Great Underground Power Massacree 3
"The Big Coverup" continued, continued, continued:
I got a good early start, no need to wait for things to warm up....so I hit the saddle fast and by 8 AM I was so far along I figured I was ready for the inspector to make his first visit and check depth etc so I could close up the entire system and set the transformer pads.
I called the Commissariat of Power and made the request...but it seems that "Joe the Inspector" had to fill in on a line truck and make some "Trouble" calls, so it would be sometime after lunch before he could make it to my job.
So....I started a bit of general clean-up around the place and got things looking nice and tidy.
I was smoothing out the back end of the driveway when a Commissariat pole truck came growling thru the gate right about 1 PM and "Joe the Inspector" and his sidekick "Bubba High-Tension" climbed out.
Joe and Bubba were a GAS....they had no idea that I was an Owner/Builder and not an electrical contractor...
I explained my status as "The Most Dangerous Man In the World" and how the District Engineer had spent a lot of time schooling me on the Commissariats specifications....they were tickled....
The boys appreciated the way I shored up the holes so they could check things out quickly, and gave me an excellent tip on moving my ground from the meter-box to my main disconnect box, to save me a service call fee if I ever have to modify my ground for any reason. (The "Official" drawings showed it on the meter box)
They cleared up a couple of misconceptions I had about mounting the transformer pads, (I thought they were surface mounts, but they are designed to be partially buried) and that I was responsible to run the wire from the meter can to the disconnect (the specs did not make that point clear)....
And then we shared a little cool water and some sea stories....once we get moved up here we will be more "Crow Fly" neighbors instead of "Stone Throw", but close enough....
More Nice Folks....
So....with "Joe the Inspector" and "Bubba High-Tension" satisfied, we scheduled the final visit for the next afternoon and I bid them goodbye.
Then I got right on the phone and called the rental yard to get that nice little yellow excavator back out to dig the footings for those transformer pads....with the ground as hard as brick I figured I was going to be nice to myself for a change....and I had a few other spots that could benefit from a little excavation if I had time for it....
The Bull Goose Rental Dude dispatched Delivery Dude and they had my machine sitting on my driveway in a little under two hours....
What awesome folks....
It was a Good Thing that I opted for the machine....every time I put the bucket into the ground I came up with rock-hard clumps of adobe the size of my head that I had to crush in order to refill the holes....this would have been torment with a pick and shovel....
I got the bases set, leveled, backfilled and compacted and then groomed a few spots along the right of way that I couldn't reach with the tractor....got done just as the sun was getting low...
With everything looking good, I put the machine up, and spent a few minutes scattering a little corn for the deer and tossing some "snickerdoodles" to the "Pasture Posse", who have been feeling pretty neglected the last few days...all the activity usually means a daily treat....but alas, I have been remiss in my duties.
It's a wonderful tonic to get all the way back into the back corner of the property and spend a few quiet moments with an appreciative crowd...they started off a bit snippy due to the delay, but we got squared away pretty quickly, and once everyone had a jawfull of goodies everyone's manners improved quite a bit.
"Buck" has an especially endearing habit of picking up his foreleg and tapping on the gate to get your attention...and "Pancho" will sing like a canary in answer to my whistle...you can hear him clean across the county...
They are quite a bunch...
So - It was back to MIL and FIL's where MIL had a lovely "All Day Stew" waiting for me....FIL had shot a nice plump doe on Opening Day and I talked him into saving the bits he normally tossed into the grinder for sausage and allow them to spend the day resting comfortably amongst some onions and carrots in a low oven....
I had already made a couple of loaves of my fresh yeast bread and with a couple of gallons of iced tea to wash it all down, it all made a pretty good feast...made a convert out of FIL too...pieces of meat you could hardly cut when raw were now as tender as backstrap... :licking:
Gonna sleep Gooooood tonight!
"The Big Coverup" continued, continued, continued:
I got a good early start, no need to wait for things to warm up....so I hit the saddle fast and by 8 AM I was so far along I figured I was ready for the inspector to make his first visit and check depth etc so I could close up the entire system and set the transformer pads.
I called the Commissariat of Power and made the request...but it seems that "Joe the Inspector" had to fill in on a line truck and make some "Trouble" calls, so it would be sometime after lunch before he could make it to my job.
So....I started a bit of general clean-up around the place and got things looking nice and tidy.
I was smoothing out the back end of the driveway when a Commissariat pole truck came growling thru the gate right about 1 PM and "Joe the Inspector" and his sidekick "Bubba High-Tension" climbed out.
Joe and Bubba were a GAS....they had no idea that I was an Owner/Builder and not an electrical contractor...
I explained my status as "The Most Dangerous Man In the World" and how the District Engineer had spent a lot of time schooling me on the Commissariats specifications....they were tickled....
The boys appreciated the way I shored up the holes so they could check things out quickly, and gave me an excellent tip on moving my ground from the meter-box to my main disconnect box, to save me a service call fee if I ever have to modify my ground for any reason. (The "Official" drawings showed it on the meter box)
They cleared up a couple of misconceptions I had about mounting the transformer pads, (I thought they were surface mounts, but they are designed to be partially buried) and that I was responsible to run the wire from the meter can to the disconnect (the specs did not make that point clear)....
And then we shared a little cool water and some sea stories....once we get moved up here we will be more "Crow Fly" neighbors instead of "Stone Throw", but close enough....
More Nice Folks....
So....with "Joe the Inspector" and "Bubba High-Tension" satisfied, we scheduled the final visit for the next afternoon and I bid them goodbye.
Then I got right on the phone and called the rental yard to get that nice little yellow excavator back out to dig the footings for those transformer pads....with the ground as hard as brick I figured I was going to be nice to myself for a change....and I had a few other spots that could benefit from a little excavation if I had time for it....
The Bull Goose Rental Dude dispatched Delivery Dude and they had my machine sitting on my driveway in a little under two hours....
What awesome folks....
It was a Good Thing that I opted for the machine....every time I put the bucket into the ground I came up with rock-hard clumps of adobe the size of my head that I had to crush in order to refill the holes....this would have been torment with a pick and shovel....
I got the bases set, leveled, backfilled and compacted and then groomed a few spots along the right of way that I couldn't reach with the tractor....got done just as the sun was getting low...
With everything looking good, I put the machine up, and spent a few minutes scattering a little corn for the deer and tossing some "snickerdoodles" to the "Pasture Posse", who have been feeling pretty neglected the last few days...all the activity usually means a daily treat....but alas, I have been remiss in my duties.
It's a wonderful tonic to get all the way back into the back corner of the property and spend a few quiet moments with an appreciative crowd...they started off a bit snippy due to the delay, but we got squared away pretty quickly, and once everyone had a jawfull of goodies everyone's manners improved quite a bit.
"Buck" has an especially endearing habit of picking up his foreleg and tapping on the gate to get your attention...and "Pancho" will sing like a canary in answer to my whistle...you can hear him clean across the county...
They are quite a bunch...
So - It was back to MIL and FIL's where MIL had a lovely "All Day Stew" waiting for me....FIL had shot a nice plump doe on Opening Day and I talked him into saving the bits he normally tossed into the grinder for sausage and allow them to spend the day resting comfortably amongst some onions and carrots in a low oven....
I had already made a couple of loaves of my fresh yeast bread and with a couple of gallons of iced tea to wash it all down, it all made a pretty good feast...made a convert out of FIL too...pieces of meat you could hardly cut when raw were now as tender as backstrap... :licking:
Gonna sleep Gooooood tonight!
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terry.dinerman
Gold Member
- Joined
- Oct 11, 2009
- Messages
- 405
- Tractor
- 1990 - JD 870
The Great Underground Power Massacree 3
"The Big Coverup" continued, continued, continued, continued:
It was a nice bright morning, high wispy clouds and dry for a change....none of the fog of recent days... so my "spider-sense" and seafarers intuition started to tingle as I sensed a change in the weather coming on...
...OK... "The Weather Channel" helped a little....
It was nice to be able to head on out without having to clean the windows off and have to stop and LISTEN for traffic at the end of the driveway, cause you couldn't SEE it, the last few days....
It was also nice not to wake up and have to oil my joints like the Tin Man for a change...Something about being able to do some of the scut work from the seat of a machine makes my back a Happy Back...
I headed into Huntsville to the Big Electrical House again, to pick up some 2/0 wire and a few sundries....MIL and FIL and Good Neighbor Joe were all in good shape this time....
This store has a great "Bargain Bin" and I wound up buying a couple of insulated screwdrivers as well....got one with that square/slot combination that all the electrics seem to sport now...
Cool....
I nearly had to take a pill when the bill for 20 feet of wire, a roll of white tape and a couple of screwdrivers came up to a little over $50...
But after the scalding we just took at the Commissariat of Power I just forked over the cash and kept my mouth shut...
Since I was throwing money around recklessly this morning, I stopped and got a Starbubbas "Triple-Shot-o-What-the-heck-ziato" with extra calf-slobber and a shake of free-range-organic-fair-trade-nutmeg....
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBOY.....dats good....!
(Does "Venti" REALLY mean "Garbage Can" in Italian?)
Wide awake now and wondering why I was suddenly grinding my teeth on such a mellow morning, I headed back to TOGR...
The wiring went in "..quick like a bun-yay...", as Marcel Johnson used to say...the full-sized box had plenty of room for the big wire...
I buttoned up the boxes and wandered up to the front where I fired up the little yellow digging machine and dug some tree-planting holes that me and Precious Bride had staked out earlier so they could weather a bit before she planted in them and then cleaned some brush and debris away from a spot we want to put a gate in for a drive-thru in the front-most pasture...
Good fun....
Right about the time I was creeping out of the woods, Delivery Dude came rolling up and I bid a sad farewell to my new little buddy...
The excavator....not Delivery Dude...tho I am sure I will be seeing more of each before it is all over...
With all the lessons of the pan-delirium of the past few days in mind and with my deployment rapidly approaching, I figured I better just sit on my hands for a while and wait for Joe the Inspector....
The deer were no-where to be seen...
Foo..
Right at the appointed time, Joe the Inspector and Bubba High-Tension rocked up in their pole-truck....
Each transformer pad, the terminus at the road-crossing and the wiring at the meter can all received a nod of approval....
And suddenly the torment was over....
Joe promised to file the completion approval and schedule a crew for the hookup so I would have power by the time I got back from Africa....Bubba just laughed at all the "WOOO HOOO" -ing and jumping around....
:cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2:
Just to be on the safe side, in case he got run over by an Ice Cream Truck before he got back to the shop and filed my work order, I got Joe to pose for a shot at the meter-can....he don't smile much, but he gives a fine "Thumbs Up"....
So Joe and Bubba rode off into the distance and I stood there for a few moments hugging myself...
WOW - We are so close to having the power I can't STAND it....
I made a few phone calls to give Precious Bride and MIL / FIL the good news, then I had to get busy cleaning up.
I got my truck turned to, and all the tools put away, then drove the tractor down to the "Serve-All" convenience store to fuel up....at only a mile down the road, I would rather just roll on down there rather than lug fuel cans...
...I get to wave at MIL and FIL as I go past their house....they say I look pretty natural on the seat of a tractor for a guy with a "New York City" birth certificate....
....and this time I got to visit with the local Dean of Curmudgeons, "Doc" Price, who was seated in his Seat Of Honor on the Bench of Wisdom out in front of the Serve-All and dispensing....well, wisdom...
It is always an occasion to visit with Doc....You can NEVER have enough wisdom...
...at 96 years old, he has a bumper crop...
I harassed him for driving too slow and he called me a "...Fresh Kid...!" and poked me with his cane...
...see...I learned something....It ain't WISE to pester "Doc"....
A real treasure there....
The ride back and forth to the "Serve-All" knocked most of the dirt off the tractor, so I cleaned off the zerks and greased the Little Green Giant...put the PHD back on it, then drove it over to leave it with Good Neighbor Joe so HE can see how deep he can bury it while I am away...
It's only FAIR, right?
I parked LGG in Joe's pasture and hid the key under that monster pipe wrench on his porch...he'll NEVER look for it there!!!
I walked back to my place thru Joe's pasture....I had tucked few snickerdoodles in my pockets for Buck and PITA, so we made a nice trio heading back to the rear gate...
A few rain-drops started coming down....the weather had held off and let me finish something for a change....
Gotta love THAT...
With deployment so close, I figured I would do my pre-trip shopping up in College Station....they have every Big Box Store you would care to name, and that would give me a chance to stop off and do a little "Glad-Handing" at the Rental Yard as well...
I may not be MUCH of a politician, but I ain't above saying "Thank-You" when warranted....
MIL and FIL and Joe were all topped up, so I drove out to College Station for my own rat-killin....
Stopped at a the first bakery I found and loaded up a great BIG box of goodies for the Rental Yard crew and had a nice visit there...got to meet the Bull Goose Rental Dude's boss, too...
Like most "service" companies, they get far more "@#$%-You's" than "Thank-You's" so everyone was pretty pleased....and like the boys in the back pasture...they ain't gonna turn down "snickerdoodles"....and I almost got to see one guy squirt a Big Red out his nose laughing at my war-stories...
THAT would have been worth the ride by ITSELF....
I managed to find 99% of the stuff on my list...I travel out of just what I can fit in a backpack and we since get a 90 pound baggage allowance, I always bring a duffel-bag of stuff back to the ship each trip and try to include a few luxuries for me and my counterpart as well as some goodies for our shipmates...I tucked in a bunch of small Christmas gifts for some of the guys who are working thru the holidays...
I have done my share of those trips over the years and what would be the smallest comfort any other time becomes huge at Christmas...
Like-em or lump-em, we are all the family we got out there...
Lately, I have been bringing our Filipino deck-men some good sturdy folding lock-blade knives and they have been bringing me all sorts of cool knick-nacks back from home...I have quite a collection of carved wooden brick-a-brack in my office...some NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER VIEWERS....if you know what I mean...
We have a few Rascals in the bunch....
I drove back to town (small "t") got cleaned up and invited MIL and FIL to let me take them out to the slightly larger town (still small "t") for supper....
A bit of a "Thanks" to them for putting up with me for the last couple of weeks....
It rained like a kicked-over bucket all night...ending just before dawn...you don't need a weather station to tell you it's raining when you sleep in a tin building...!
I packed up the truck and mucked out the "Guest House"....and a nice leisurely breakfast turned into spending most of the morning talking....about everything it seems....all too soon, I had to hitch up the trailer and get on the road if I was going to get home in good order...
It was sloppy-muddy at TOGR...but that didn't matter now...I got hooked up and went on about my business.
So with "Good-byes" made and in expectation of Rural Electrification in our near future, I headed south, once again....
Do I need to even mention how much I enjoyed the ride...?
Be SAFE everybody.... :cloud9:
"The Big Coverup" continued, continued, continued, continued:
It was a nice bright morning, high wispy clouds and dry for a change....none of the fog of recent days... so my "spider-sense" and seafarers intuition started to tingle as I sensed a change in the weather coming on...
...OK... "The Weather Channel" helped a little....
It was nice to be able to head on out without having to clean the windows off and have to stop and LISTEN for traffic at the end of the driveway, cause you couldn't SEE it, the last few days....
It was also nice not to wake up and have to oil my joints like the Tin Man for a change...Something about being able to do some of the scut work from the seat of a machine makes my back a Happy Back...
I headed into Huntsville to the Big Electrical House again, to pick up some 2/0 wire and a few sundries....MIL and FIL and Good Neighbor Joe were all in good shape this time....
This store has a great "Bargain Bin" and I wound up buying a couple of insulated screwdrivers as well....got one with that square/slot combination that all the electrics seem to sport now...
Cool....
I nearly had to take a pill when the bill for 20 feet of wire, a roll of white tape and a couple of screwdrivers came up to a little over $50...
But after the scalding we just took at the Commissariat of Power I just forked over the cash and kept my mouth shut...
Since I was throwing money around recklessly this morning, I stopped and got a Starbubbas "Triple-Shot-o-What-the-heck-ziato" with extra calf-slobber and a shake of free-range-organic-fair-trade-nutmeg....
MMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMBOY.....dats good....!
(Does "Venti" REALLY mean "Garbage Can" in Italian?)
Wide awake now and wondering why I was suddenly grinding my teeth on such a mellow morning, I headed back to TOGR...
The wiring went in "..quick like a bun-yay...", as Marcel Johnson used to say...the full-sized box had plenty of room for the big wire...
I buttoned up the boxes and wandered up to the front where I fired up the little yellow digging machine and dug some tree-planting holes that me and Precious Bride had staked out earlier so they could weather a bit before she planted in them and then cleaned some brush and debris away from a spot we want to put a gate in for a drive-thru in the front-most pasture...
Good fun....
Right about the time I was creeping out of the woods, Delivery Dude came rolling up and I bid a sad farewell to my new little buddy...
The excavator....not Delivery Dude...tho I am sure I will be seeing more of each before it is all over...
With all the lessons of the pan-delirium of the past few days in mind and with my deployment rapidly approaching, I figured I better just sit on my hands for a while and wait for Joe the Inspector....
The deer were no-where to be seen...
Foo..
Right at the appointed time, Joe the Inspector and Bubba High-Tension rocked up in their pole-truck....
Each transformer pad, the terminus at the road-crossing and the wiring at the meter can all received a nod of approval....
And suddenly the torment was over....
Joe promised to file the completion approval and schedule a crew for the hookup so I would have power by the time I got back from Africa....Bubba just laughed at all the "WOOO HOOO" -ing and jumping around....
:cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2: :cool2:
Just to be on the safe side, in case he got run over by an Ice Cream Truck before he got back to the shop and filed my work order, I got Joe to pose for a shot at the meter-can....he don't smile much, but he gives a fine "Thumbs Up"....
So Joe and Bubba rode off into the distance and I stood there for a few moments hugging myself...
WOW - We are so close to having the power I can't STAND it....
I made a few phone calls to give Precious Bride and MIL / FIL the good news, then I had to get busy cleaning up.
I got my truck turned to, and all the tools put away, then drove the tractor down to the "Serve-All" convenience store to fuel up....at only a mile down the road, I would rather just roll on down there rather than lug fuel cans...
...I get to wave at MIL and FIL as I go past their house....they say I look pretty natural on the seat of a tractor for a guy with a "New York City" birth certificate....
....and this time I got to visit with the local Dean of Curmudgeons, "Doc" Price, who was seated in his Seat Of Honor on the Bench of Wisdom out in front of the Serve-All and dispensing....well, wisdom...
It is always an occasion to visit with Doc....You can NEVER have enough wisdom...
...at 96 years old, he has a bumper crop...
I harassed him for driving too slow and he called me a "...Fresh Kid...!" and poked me with his cane...
...see...I learned something....It ain't WISE to pester "Doc"....
A real treasure there....
The ride back and forth to the "Serve-All" knocked most of the dirt off the tractor, so I cleaned off the zerks and greased the Little Green Giant...put the PHD back on it, then drove it over to leave it with Good Neighbor Joe so HE can see how deep he can bury it while I am away...
It's only FAIR, right?
I parked LGG in Joe's pasture and hid the key under that monster pipe wrench on his porch...he'll NEVER look for it there!!!
I walked back to my place thru Joe's pasture....I had tucked few snickerdoodles in my pockets for Buck and PITA, so we made a nice trio heading back to the rear gate...
A few rain-drops started coming down....the weather had held off and let me finish something for a change....
Gotta love THAT...
With deployment so close, I figured I would do my pre-trip shopping up in College Station....they have every Big Box Store you would care to name, and that would give me a chance to stop off and do a little "Glad-Handing" at the Rental Yard as well...
I may not be MUCH of a politician, but I ain't above saying "Thank-You" when warranted....
MIL and FIL and Joe were all topped up, so I drove out to College Station for my own rat-killin....
Stopped at a the first bakery I found and loaded up a great BIG box of goodies for the Rental Yard crew and had a nice visit there...got to meet the Bull Goose Rental Dude's boss, too...
Like most "service" companies, they get far more "@#$%-You's" than "Thank-You's" so everyone was pretty pleased....and like the boys in the back pasture...they ain't gonna turn down "snickerdoodles"....and I almost got to see one guy squirt a Big Red out his nose laughing at my war-stories...
THAT would have been worth the ride by ITSELF....
I managed to find 99% of the stuff on my list...I travel out of just what I can fit in a backpack and we since get a 90 pound baggage allowance, I always bring a duffel-bag of stuff back to the ship each trip and try to include a few luxuries for me and my counterpart as well as some goodies for our shipmates...I tucked in a bunch of small Christmas gifts for some of the guys who are working thru the holidays...
I have done my share of those trips over the years and what would be the smallest comfort any other time becomes huge at Christmas...
Like-em or lump-em, we are all the family we got out there...
Lately, I have been bringing our Filipino deck-men some good sturdy folding lock-blade knives and they have been bringing me all sorts of cool knick-nacks back from home...I have quite a collection of carved wooden brick-a-brack in my office...some NOT SUITABLE FOR YOUNGER VIEWERS....if you know what I mean...
We have a few Rascals in the bunch....
I drove back to town (small "t") got cleaned up and invited MIL and FIL to let me take them out to the slightly larger town (still small "t") for supper....
A bit of a "Thanks" to them for putting up with me for the last couple of weeks....
It rained like a kicked-over bucket all night...ending just before dawn...you don't need a weather station to tell you it's raining when you sleep in a tin building...!
I packed up the truck and mucked out the "Guest House"....and a nice leisurely breakfast turned into spending most of the morning talking....about everything it seems....all too soon, I had to hitch up the trailer and get on the road if I was going to get home in good order...
It was sloppy-muddy at TOGR...but that didn't matter now...I got hooked up and went on about my business.
So with "Good-byes" made and in expectation of Rural Electrification in our near future, I headed south, once again....
Do I need to even mention how much I enjoyed the ride...?
Be SAFE everybody.... :cloud9:
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