Some relief

After several weeks without A/C upstairs, we finally enjoyed a cooler more comfortable evening at home last night. The new upstairs unit was installed and the house feels cooler. The downstairs unit is getting cooler air into the air handler from the air return upstairs, so it takes less work to get cool. Now let's hope the downstairs unit can keep up the good work.

Summertime in Sugar Land

We have been experiencing some rather sultry weather. That's southern for "Wow! It's HOT!!!" It has been right around 100 every day for the last 5 weeks or so, and very little rain. And to make it interesting, our upstairs air conditioning unit has given up and died. Fortunately, we have a home warranty that came with the house, so its going to cost us just over 10% of the $3,000 or so that the new unit will cost. It is just the wait for all the paperwork to be right for the warranty company and the a/c contractor.

As a result of the upstairs unit being inoperative, the downstairs unit has run nonstop and at max during this time. Our electric bill was just over $600 last month and may be more this time. Both units are about 20 years old, with a SEER of only 8 or 9. Modern units are much more efficient with a SEER of 17 or more, but very costly. So we will live with this for the time being.

Another thing that we noticed is that the swimming pool temperature is higher than refreshing at 92 or so in the afternoons. In the morning it is a chilly 88 and feels better. But it still feels good when you are in it. Even if the water is warm.

The heat has affected other things too. I don't walk the dogs until 8 or later in the evening as the sidewalks are too warm for their paws. And it is better for me to wait until the sun has set a bit too. I have been told it will cool off a bit in September.

A week on the road

A couple months ago, I proposed a new device to a customer, and they agreed. This week I helped to install and test it. It is a system to measure the thrust of an installed engine. That task is normally reserved for a test cell. This particular customer has no traditional test cell, but is doing heavy enough maintenance on his engines that a more in-depth test of the engine's performance may be warranted, at least according to some folks in the government. Anyway, the theory behind the system is based on using a strain gage instead of a load cell. There is a slight decrease in accuracy compared to a load cell, but it is still within reasonable limits of a half percent or less. There is a tremendous difference in cost between the system I designed versus a traditional brick & mortar test cell, which can run as high as $30M.

Anyway, we installed the system and did several tests with an engine that was run in a calibrated test cell. So we know that engine's performance characteristics. Now I am trying to make sure what we measured with the new system is accurately reflecting how the engine is running. It was pretty neat being in the cockpit of that aircraft, a B747, and watching the thrust readout change as the throttles were moved around. Sometimes its fun to be an engineer!

Michael Vick

I read that Michael Vick has been released from federal prison today. And he expects to start playing professional football again if the NFL will have him back. And I heard some talking head on the radio trying to get people to express their opinions on whether that should be allowed.

I for one, think he should be allowed to return to playing football in the NFL. What he did was indeed serious, but he was tried, convicted, and served his sentence. He is also working with the SPCA and Humane Society to help curb interest in dog fighting, especially among the youth.

His criminal activities were not directly related to the game, as were the sins of Pete Rose, for example. And I suspect that becoming broke and bankrupt has forced him to accept the fact that there are consequences to bad behavior, poor judgement, and hanging out with criminals. Let him have a chance to demonstrate that he has learned his lesson. He may go down in flames like Mike Tyson, but he deserves the chance.

Road Trip

This next week will be occupied with a trip to Oklahoma City, as several of us from work will drive to a conference there. On one hand it will be interesting to see a lot of folks I know from my prior career, both civilian and military friends. And I hope to see a couple of my wife's cousins who live there. But on the other hand, it is a long drive in a big old rented truck, as we are carrying some examples of our products. And I will miss the company of my wife and our comfortable home.

Why did GM decide to kill Pontiac instead of Buick?

The Pontiac brand seems to have lost its way and its identity these past few years. We all remember the exciting years of Pontiac’s history, starting in the late 50’s with Pontiac’s participation in auto racing and the introduction of the Bonneville in 1957. Their reputation as the “excitement” brand of GM was never more justified than during the introduction of the GTO in 1964. Amazing innovation that catalyzed the baby boomer generation to want this new type of automobile, a “Muscle Car!” It was too cool for words, only the music of the times could capture its spirit. Every other carmaker tried to copy it.

Only a few short years later in 1967, Pontiac offered the Firebird. But it was an “also ran”, eclipsed by its Chevrolet counterpart, the Camaro. Pontiac’s other models began to suffer from lack of individuality as well. To be fair, GM was doing it (and continues to do it) across the whole lineup, trying to sell the same car, SUV or truck as a Chevrolet, a Buick, an Oldsmobile, Pontiac or Cadillac. Rebadging the same car or truck with different trim levels. As the muscle car era reached its zenith, Pontiac had already given up the edge of being the innovator. Even Buick produced a better muscle car in the GNX.

A big part of GM’s problems has been their reluctance to develop new things. Perhaps the best example of that is their approach to engines. The rest of the world long ago recognized that dual overhead cams and four valves per cylinder were necessary to compete. Performance improvement in terms of horsepower, torque and fuel efficiency were very quickly realized with these modifications. GM can’t seem to get there. They are still making the 3.8 liter V6 pushrod engine more than 30 years after it was introduced. Their flagship V8, the 350, is not significantly different than its original ancestor, the 265 V8 introduced in 1955. And their sales continue to suffer as a result of these and other failures to keep up. They can’t seem to make a cheaper, less expensive car that doesn’t look and feel cheap.

Recently, Pontiac tried to reintroduce the GTO. That is actually a bit of an overstatement. Pontiac did the worst marketing job I have ever witnessed for introducing a new car. The car itself is quite a performer, even with the latest version of the 1967 era 350 cubic inch V8 engine. It is quick, powerful, and nimble. But it is almost invisible. There is nothing about it that is visually or viscerally exciting. GTO’s of the past had a street presence, even the Firebird TransAm finally became distinctive, almost gaudy. Other than the most subtle of hood scoops, it is hard to distinguish a new GTO from any other anonymous honda-esque coupe out there. When they were introduced, I tried to find one at my local dealer. He told me the only way to see one was to special order it. It seemed to me that Pontiac dealers actually were trying to not sell GTO’s or any other sport vehicles. They were instead marketing sport-y vehicles: boxes on wheels with plastic cladding panels and styling features reminiscent of pre-teenaged boys’ crayon drawings. Witness the Pontiac Aztec. Now to be fair, Pontiac was actually selling quite a few of these vehicles. They actually outsold Buick (and Oldsmobile). But Buick never stopped seeking and developing its identity. They have developed a loyal following of the over-60 crowd in this country and a prestige market in the Orient. Buick might sell half the cars of Pontiac, but they make twice the profit. And that was the deciding factor: profitability. The only way Pontiac (and Chevrolet) can sell cars is to underprice them almost to nonprofitability. Chevy’s truck and SUV sales are the only reason (in my opinion) that the brand will survive.

So good bye Pontiac. We have been missing you for way longer than you have been dying.

Scientific Experiments!!

On a recent business trip, I happened to have an unusual cocktail, a Tangerine Margarita. It was in a bar named "The Tangerine Bar" located just across the street from Disneyland in Anaheim, CA. (Thank you very much to the staff at the Tangerine Bar. They were all quite nice, attentive, and made our evening there quite pleasant.) The drink was quite tasty, almost dangerous in that it tasted like more... a lot more! After I got home, I searched for some recipes, but when I tried some of the ones on the Internet, I was less than impressed. So I ordered a bottle of Tangerine-flavored tequila from our local purveyor of spirits. The brand name was Margaritaville, so how could I go wrong? Parrot-heads unite!

Well, the quality of the tequila will always be evident, and so it was here. The drink I prepared with this stuff was quite metallic-tasting. I remixed it with Cuervo Gold and Cointreau, and the results were much better, but still lacked that special tart tangerine flavor I remembered. So we took a trip to Whole Foods and bought a half-gallon of Tangerine Juice.

The results were very good indeed. The taste of the drink was quite nice, and very close to what I remembered from my trip. Here's the recipe:

2 oz Cuervo Gold Tequila

1 oz Cointreau Orange Liqueur

3 oz Tangerine Juice

1/2 oz Lime Juice

Mix well with ice, or blend with ice for a slushy drink.

Serve in a glass with lightly salted rim and lots of cracked ice.

Be careful, though. They taste like you might want another fairly quickly.