Michael Vick revisited

I wrote a post a couple months back, advocating Michael Vick being given another chance. I read in this morning's news that the Philadelphia Eagles have signed him for a two year contract. I am glad he is being given this opportunity. I was somewhat dismayed that the local animal rights activists are being so negative about it, though. I do not think any of them have read or heard about what Mr. Vick has been doing to demonstrate the changes in his attitude about animal cruelty.

Obviously, time will tell, but for now, Michael Vick is saying and doing the right things. I hope he can prove that people can change for the better. Good luck, Michael, continue to listen to and heed the advice of people like Tony Dungy, and you will prove the naysayers wrong.

A Week's Respite from the Heat

We spent last week in Colorado. A new destination for us. We had been thru the Denver Airport before, but never got out to explore. I had a show to work at the Colorado Convention Center, the AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference. Lots of engineers and scientists who specialize in rocket propulsion and spacecraft attended the conference and a few actually came into the exhibit hall to look at the various booths from vendors like Lockheed, ULA, and Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne. Some even stopped by our booth to look at the engine testing equipment and high precision rocket parts we make. My lovely wife accompanied me on this trip, and we took a few days of vacation after the conference concluded.

We drove up to Breckenridge, and had a nice lunch in the cool mountain air. There was a small street festival going on that seemed to focus on the gold prospecting history of the area. The ride back to Denver was brutal though, as I-70 was packed with people heading back east, out of the mountains.

We also had a chance to have dinner with some old friends we hadn't seen in a long time, Tom & Julie retired in Littleton a few years ago. It was great to see them again. We had a great time dragging up old memories of our days as young test engineers, and comparing notes on how our families have grown up.

We drove up to Ft. Collins, and spent a few days with our friends Larry & Amy, whom we haven't spent much time with since we both retired from the big aerospace firm in November of '06. They are doing just fine, and gave us the grand tour of Ft. Collins, the New Belgium Brewery, Estes Park, Rocky Mountain National Park, the Big Thompson Canyon, and even a herd of buffalo. We got to see their new grandson and their son & daughter-in-law, as well as Larry's brother and sister. All-in-all, a really fine time was had by all.

Our flight home was uneventful, and even though we had a great time, it was good to get home and see the doggies and sleep in our own bed again.

Interesting Headline

"Gay penguins break up after 1 goes straight"

It should have been on National Inquirer instead of CNN.com, or perhaps the anti-gay movement will seize on it as their latest argument in favor of banning gay marriage. Oh well, at least it shows that MJ's death is starting to take some perspective in the stage of world news.

A Weekend in the Big Easy

To celebrate our 40th Wedding Anniversary, which was a few weeks ago in June, we drove over to New Orleans last Friday. The trip took a bit longer than I thought it would, maybe 6 hours. We stopped at a little roadside restaurant just before we got out of Texas, called the Spindletop Diner. Excellent food, very well prepared, and reasonably priced. The staff were also very friendly.We stayed at the Maison Dupuy, a nice hotel right in the French Quarter. We stayed there many years ago, when driving across the country from Florida to California, and had good memories of our stay. We were happy to discover they are doing well after the hurricane. As is most of the area. As we walked from the hotel to see the sights on Saturday morning, we noticed freshly washed sidewalks. How nice! Then as we approached Bourbon St, it became apparent that washing the sidewalks is a necessity. After most every evening, the sidewalks are a bit messed up with the results of folks over-enjoying the many bars on Bourbon St. and throughout the Quarter.

A carriage ride from Jackson Square gave us a broader perspective of the French Quarter, with some historical background filled in by the carriage driver. We tried to take a river cruise, but it was lunch time, and we were more inclined to fend for ourselves to eat. We went back to the hotel and got the car, so we could cruise the Garden District and the University area just west of that, all along St. Charles Avenue. Very pretty, lovely old buildings, mostly well kept or restored. We spent some time at Harrah's Casino after that, and I actually made a slight profit at the Blackjack Table. Cool!

That evening, we dressed up a little bit from shorts & sandals in order to "dine" at the Court of Two Sisters, a famous restaurant. The food and service and ambiance were every bit as wonderful as we hoped it would be. On the way back to the hotel, we had intended to stop and listen to some Zydeco music, but Bourbon Street was in full swing, and things were more than a little rough around the edges. We had a few nightcaps at the hotel instead.

Sunday, we drove towards home, leaving New Orleans by US 90 instead of the Interstate, in order to see a little of the countryside, Cajun Country. It was okay, not nearly the hustle and anonymity of the Interstate. But we had to join up to I-10 again at Lafayette, and made it home just fine.

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!