Hi there!
Yes, I've moved my blog to my own WordPress server. Go to http://northerndean.org/blog, which redirects to https://dmw-droplet4.dyndns.org/blog. I've been doing some fun things with LINUX, IRIG-B time codes, and LCD displays... along with numerous other articles over the past couple of years.
See you there!
Dean.
25 June 2019
26 July 2016
April, May, and June: Travelling Man!
You know what, I don't travel nearly as much as my President & CEO-ish friend Jim Caldwell does, but I managed to rack up a few klicks this spring.
I got a chance to visit with Eric and James Douglas, and a brief chat with Sandy.
It wasn't all fun & games - mom had a serious medical scare while I was there, but it turned out to be a minor issue. Still, it was good that I was there to oversee the excitement, direct traffic, and keep everyone up to date!
I couldn't give up my passport until returning from Winnipeg on 03 May, so was pretty tight for a trip. With the passport out for Visa on 04 May, it came back 19 May (two weeks plus overnight transit), and I had planned on that, so was ready for travel to Brazil, plane ticket and all. So... the odyssey begins!
So. Do not assume that anybody in an international airport will speak English. Really. Yikes. Sao Paulo was confusing & difficult. I had a couple of hours, but it was crazy. I think I missed the luggage re-check belt after customs or something. Then I had to try to get my luggage onto the next flight, which, although booked through Delta and having a Delta code share, was actually a Brazilian airline, GOL... which is fine, except being fully Brazilian, very few people speak English. Finally I found the domestic bag drop line and got to the front... and found a woman who spoke a bit of English... and she cleared the way for me to the bag check station and got the bag on its way. Then, back to security, racing to the gate... just in time for the main call for the cabin... poor young ladies sitting beside me, I was sweating profusely from the stress and dashing through the terminal. Oh well, we survived!
Celso, my host colleague at Reason, was leaving Sunday morning for a quick trip to Stafford, England, to meet with other colleagues about another aspect of the same project. He was boarding his plane in Florianopolis while I was getting off of mine. Fortunately, he left me in good hands - Leo, taxi driver who does most of the driving for Reason services, who speaks pretty good English. Hotel. Sleep. Aaaah.
The first day at the office, on Monday, I nearly froze my tail off. On Tuesday, I wore my light jacket everywhere, but felt kind of silly. So I had Leo take me to a large mall to buy a sweater.
They treated me very well at Reason. And, kept me busy! Between meeting people, learning about their roles, and seeing how their systems & processes work, I barely had time to worry about anything.
Leo drove me everywhere, but I wanted to wander around a bit too.
One of my US cards is a chip card but I have no PIN, so it was rejected flat out. US banks, in all their wisdom, are using chip & signature instead of the chip & PIN like the rest of the world. The other US card was rejected after a delay. It turns out that they flagged it as a suspicious transaction, in spite of me having called them before going to Brazil. Ugh.
Oh well, the sweaters are nice, and no, there never was a problem with the expense thing. The card is in my name, and I just paid the US$40 myself. I never had any intention of expenses hanky panky.
It turns out, pretty likely. His workstation was right behind me the whole time! On our ride out to the manufacturing plant, he asked where I was from. When I said "Winnipeg", he said, "Oh, I spent a year near there - Carman - do you know where that is?" AAAAAH! Yes I know where that is!
I keep buying lottery tickets, but I can't beat those odds.
Well, apparently I do not know how to take it easy. I did not feel good by the time I reached the top. I had to rest, then felt rotten, then worse, then finally improved. It was too much - the heat, humidity, the climb - and not taking it easy. So Carlos's dad came, picked me up, and took me back to my hotel. So sad. I had a nap then walked a couple of km over to the shopping centre, where I bought some DP and some wine, yay :-)
The band member selection goes like this: there's a guy who plays great keyboards, so they make him play the drums. There's a guy who plays guitar, so they make him play the keyboards. And so it goes. Doesn't matter, these guys are just getting together and having great fun.
I happened to notice, out of the top floor conference room window, that Reason has a few antennas on their roof. Something like my roof at home, ha ha.
Once we landed in Atlanta, well, it all OK, I could understand the language. Although, was a big delay in customs because I have to go in the "all others" line on account of my work visa - not the "US and Canadian Passports" line - made that mistake once - just once. I was behind a lot of people who spoke only Portuguese. They kept calling for Spanish interpreters at the wickets - joke's on them, Spanish is not Portuguese.
Some poor folks didn't understand the English directions, and forgot to dump their big items back onto the checked luggage conveyor - tried to get through the bag check line with big items - don't know what happened, but staff tried to tell them again and again, didn't seem to help. Sigh. I was tired but OK.
I got upgraded to first class on the last segment of the trip. It was nice, because ugh was I tired. That was a nice touch.
I got home and thought I would sleep for a week, but I didn't - only for about 14 hours. Then off to church, the next day at work, and after that, off to Winnipeg!
I had to renew my passport, and get a new 3 year TN work visa.
While getting back to the car from picking up my passport, I spotted this scene that felt like a throwback - hidden in downtown Winnipeg!
My passport was out for renewal, so I couldn't go right away, at least until I got it back. That would have been the 2nd Tuesday. I had a lot of arrangements to make, that would have taken up my Wednesday. I couldn't fly until Thursday... that means I would arrive on Friday afternoon... just in time to take the weekend off (no working in France on Saturday).
I took no clothes with me to Winnipeg, as I keep clothes at my mother's place. I just had a little carry-on that I used to carry the computer, my CPAP machine, tablet and a few other things. I had to go buy a suitcase in Winnipeg and take almost all of the clothes from my mother's. Hmm, the two pairs of pants that were there were rather ratty, so I bought two new pairs of pants too.
I also had to buy power adapters (just in case mine from Phoenix didn't arrive - still need to run my CPAP), and snagged magnifying glasses and safety glasses...
So, I finished out my week, went through the Emerson/Pembina border crossing on Friday afternoon and got my TN visa, and stayed with Eric in Grand Forks overnight. That let us go to the races!
At the airport, I tried to use my corporate American Express. Nope. My personal USA Visa. Nope. So I did a cash advance on my personal Canadian Visa. Ouch. Oh well, I'll expense it later.
When I got to France, I found out that American credit cards just don't work well there. I learned my lesson last year in France, and recently in Brazil, and took my Canadian Visa with me, just in case. I would guess that 3/4 of the time, the American Express card was flatly turned down. The rest of the time, only say 1/10 of the time did either one of my USA Visa cards work. Most of the time, I had to use cash, or put it on my Canadian Visa. My Canadian debit card worked like a champ too, then again, I don't have much in that account to draw on... so Visa it was!
Now, Hocine, the driver, spoke very little English. Oy. And my French isn't very good. I'll tell you though, my French got better over the 5 days I was there! Thank God for Google Translate, which I have on my phone. When I was stuck, I'd get it to translate, either way. It worked fairly well. There were times though, when he spoke so quickly that I was completely lost. It was a bit frustrating at times, but we got along OK.
It was quite convenient and efficient, but also expensive. Total cost was just under 1500 €... in cash! I had to use French bank machines three times to get further cash advances on my Canadian Visa. Ouch!
Hocine is from just outside Rouen, and is quite proud of the area. He picked me up later in the afternoon and gave me a brief tour of the city, including a lookout where I could look down on all of Rouen.
Apparently, this is a very romantic town - the place for lovers to go. Hmmm :-)
28 April to 03 May: Winnipeg, Manitoba
I zipped back to Winnipeg for a few days to be there for my mom's 76th birthday. James and his sons were there the week before, so I didn't have to fight for a bed :-) |
| Happy 76th, Mom - Flowers from Me & Eric, Orchids from James |
It wasn't all fun & games - mom had a serious medical scare while I was there, but it turned out to be a minor issue. Still, it was good that I was there to oversee the excitement, direct traffic, and keep everyone up to date!
21 May to 04 June: Florianopolis Brazil
We have a sister GE/Alstom division Reason Technologia (RTB) in Florianopolis, Brazil - the south of Brazil - where it is winter right now. They design and manufacture complementary equipment to ours here in Phoenix. We are undertaking a joint effort... of course I can't say much about the details! But I needed to get to Florianopolis to get things kicked off. In mid April, the call came to go visit. Well what do you know, I need a travel visa. Well the visa takes 2 to 4 weeks, and I already have a trip to Winnipeg scheduled for 06 to 18 June (Men's Camp and other things), so time is tight.I couldn't give up my passport until returning from Winnipeg on 03 May, so was pretty tight for a trip. With the passport out for Visa on 04 May, it came back 19 May (two weeks plus overnight transit), and I had planned on that, so was ready for travel to Brazil, plane ticket and all. So... the odyssey begins!
21/22 May: Getting There
Ugh. Well you know that I don't sleep on planes, mostly because of my sleep apnea and the need for the CPAP machine. Well plus, it's not all that comfortable in cattle class anyway. So with the 4 hour time difference, a layover in Atlanta and in Sao Paulo, I left Phoenix on Saturday morning and arrived in Florianopolis on Sunday morning. Ugh.So. Do not assume that anybody in an international airport will speak English. Really. Yikes. Sao Paulo was confusing & difficult. I had a couple of hours, but it was crazy. I think I missed the luggage re-check belt after customs or something. Then I had to try to get my luggage onto the next flight, which, although booked through Delta and having a Delta code share, was actually a Brazilian airline, GOL... which is fine, except being fully Brazilian, very few people speak English. Finally I found the domestic bag drop line and got to the front... and found a woman who spoke a bit of English... and she cleared the way for me to the bag check station and got the bag on its way. Then, back to security, racing to the gate... just in time for the main call for the cabin... poor young ladies sitting beside me, I was sweating profusely from the stress and dashing through the terminal. Oh well, we survived!
Celso, my host colleague at Reason, was leaving Sunday morning for a quick trip to Stafford, England, to meet with other colleagues about another aspect of the same project. He was boarding his plane in Florianopolis while I was getting off of mine. Fortunately, he left me in good hands - Leo, taxi driver who does most of the driving for Reason services, who speaks pretty good English. Hotel. Sleep. Aaaah.
22 May: Where's the Beef? Everywhere! (and Beer too)
In Celso's absence, a couple of my other Reason colleagues picked me up later from the hotel and we went for burgers. Bleh, you say - burgers. No, no - these are serious burgers. Amazing. Well crafted, gourmet burgers, quite good. Then you match them up with beer... |
| Where's the beef? Yup, here it is. Beer, too! |
23/24 May: Freezing?
It turns out that I was not prepared for the weather. It's beautiful, because Florianopolis is an island "almost" attached to the mainland, and jutting into the ocean - but it's humid, so when it's +15C overnight, it feels quite chilly. They don't have heat in the hotel, because, well, if it never dips below +10C, why would you ever need heat?The first day at the office, on Monday, I nearly froze my tail off. On Tuesday, I wore my light jacket everywhere, but felt kind of silly. So I had Leo take me to a large mall to buy a sweater.
They treated me very well at Reason. And, kept me busy! Between meeting people, learning about their roles, and seeing how their systems & processes work, I barely had time to worry about anything.
Leo drove me everywhere, but I wanted to wander around a bit too.
24 May: At the Mall! Valentine's Day coming in June?
Yes it was a beautiful evening, Leo took me to the Beira Mar shopping centre. Something like eight stories! But, only 4 levels of stores - the rest is access to parking on all sides. What's with all the hearts??? Valentine's Day in June. Well it's not the same Valentine's Day as in North America, subtly different, but it's in June! |
| Top Level of Eight |
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| Valentine's Day coming up in June!?! |
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| Nighttime view of road along waterfront, from top of Beira Mar shopping centre |
The Credit Card Blues
So we found a sweater that fit me - well, actually two sweaters - and they were a good price - but my US credit card was declined! Both of my US credit cards were declined! Argh! I had to put it on my company Amex. Hope they don't invoke the "zero tolerance for personal expenses" thing!One of my US cards is a chip card but I have no PIN, so it was rejected flat out. US banks, in all their wisdom, are using chip & signature instead of the chip & PIN like the rest of the world. The other US card was rejected after a delay. It turns out that they flagged it as a suspicious transaction, in spite of me having called them before going to Brazil. Ugh.
Oh well, the sweaters are nice, and no, there never was a problem with the expense thing. The card is in my name, and I just paid the US$40 myself. I never had any intention of expenses hanky panky.
25 May: Checking out the Manufacturing Plant
Leo took me and two of my Reason colleagues to visit the Reason assembly plant, and their local PCB assembly contract manufacturer. Very cool. Who wouldn't love those zoot suits? |
| Cute Disposable Clothes for Touring the Plant |
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| Very Nice Factory Floor at Reason manufacturing plant |
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| Electronics PCBA CM - Produza |
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| Beautiful Produza Production Floor |
25 May: Surprise, it's Carlos!
Sandy had mentioned that their family had hosted a young man from Florianopolis some years ago, and asked that I let her know if I met him. Ha ha ha, millions of people, what's the likelihood of that?
I keep buying lottery tickets, but I can't beat those odds.
OMG Not going to Starve in Florianopolis!
Yes there were fantastic meals. Lots of meat! When Lucas says meat, he means meat - beef - and lots of it! Here a re a few selected meals - OK not all beef, but always plenty to eat.
26 May: Touring the Island with Lucas and Jamilly
Although I missed the Memorial Day holiday in the USA, the first Thursday in Florianopolis was the Corpus Christi holiday. My colleague Lucas and his girlfriend Jamilly took me on a day-long tour of the north half of the island. It is so beautiful! Although, being winter in the southern hemisphere, it was a little chilly on the beach. I've been advised that I have to return in January, when it's summer, and then I can see how beautiful the women on the beaches - oops, how beautiful the beaches themselves - really are :-)
28 May: Not-so-successful Cycling Trip (or, Carlos Tries to Kill Me)
Ha ha, after talking to Carlos about the wonders of cycling, he invited me to cycle with him and his friends, 30 km to the south of the island and back, on Saturday morning. Well, it was threatening rain (hmm, it was always threatening rain while I was there) so he decided we'd take the shorter route to the north. Hmm, I just went through there with Lucas and Jamilly yesterday - doesn't that involve climbing up through a high mountain pass? No worries, just take it easy! |
| I don't look too bad - but looks can be deceiving! |
29 May: A Lovely Dinner with Celso at Sergio's Home
The engineering manager, Sergio, invited my colleague Celso and I to dinner with him and his wife. We had a lovely time... what a meal! And, what a house! These photos do not do it justice. Wine, food, yum!
31 May: I Play the Designated Drinker / Garage Band Groupie!
It turns out that Lucas and a few of the other staff at Reason set up their own rock band, and they practice most Tuesday evenings in the "Garage Band Room" in a condominium that one of their relatives lives in. How cool! Lucas claims they don't play so well, but after a couple of beers, I cannot tell. Still trying to get them on track with BTO's "Takin' Care of Business". They say they will play it next time I am there, ha ha!
Business? What Business?
Oh yes, and I did attend a few business meetings while I was there. |
| Anybody who complains about my antennas, I'll show them this picture. |
03/04 June: Travel Back
The return wasn't quite as tense as the way out. Just as few people spoke English at the Sao Paulo airport, and I almost lost my exit visa (dropped it on floor at bag check and someone handed it back to me) - that would have meant going to a police station and getting a new one! But I didn't lose it, got to the gate "just" in time but the crew was late because of Sao Paulo traffic in the rain :-)Once we landed in Atlanta, well, it all OK, I could understand the language. Although, was a big delay in customs because I have to go in the "all others" line on account of my work visa - not the "US and Canadian Passports" line - made that mistake once - just once. I was behind a lot of people who spoke only Portuguese. They kept calling for Spanish interpreters at the wickets - joke's on them, Spanish is not Portuguese.
Some poor folks didn't understand the English directions, and forgot to dump their big items back onto the checked luggage conveyor - tried to get through the bag check line with big items - don't know what happened, but staff tried to tell them again and again, didn't seem to help. Sigh. I was tired but OK.
I got upgraded to first class on the last segment of the trip. It was nice, because ugh was I tired. That was a nice touch.
I got home and thought I would sleep for a week, but I didn't - only for about 14 hours. Then off to church, the next day at work, and after that, off to Winnipeg!
06 June to 18 June: Winnipeg Manitoba
Yes, it was time for my annual June trek back to Winnipeg for Men's Camp and other fun things.I had to renew my passport, and get a new 3 year TN work visa.
While getting back to the car from picking up my passport, I spotted this scene that felt like a throwback - hidden in downtown Winnipeg!
10 & 11 June: Men's Camp 2016 - the Last One
Yes, attendance has been dwindling. We've lost so many of our older attendees who pass on each year, more in ill health and can't get away for the weekend, and others still who have such hectic lives that they can't make it out. So this year, we did it - we closed down Riding Mountain Conference of Churchmen. Sigh. 51 years. It was a good topic, very much enjoyed. But that's it. |
| Attendees at the 51st and Last Men's Camp |
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| James Douglas, in full flight! |
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| Tim Olfrey sharing a devotion |
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| Harvey Douglas, chair of last Men's Camp |
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| Speaker Presentation |
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| Path to the Lakeshore... kind of like life... can't see clear path, but that's OK! |
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| Clear Lake |
09 June: Getting the Call to Go to France
I had a suspicion that I might have to go to France, or maybe do some tech support from Winnipeg, so as a minimum, I brought my office desktop computer. Good thing. Within a few days of arrival, I was asked to go to France immediately to work on RTE Poste Intelligent installation.My passport was out for renewal, so I couldn't go right away, at least until I got it back. That would have been the 2nd Tuesday. I had a lot of arrangements to make, that would have taken up my Wednesday. I couldn't fly until Thursday... that means I would arrive on Friday afternoon... just in time to take the weekend off (no working in France on Saturday).
I took no clothes with me to Winnipeg, as I keep clothes at my mother's place. I just had a little carry-on that I used to carry the computer, my CPAP machine, tablet and a few other things. I had to go buy a suitcase in Winnipeg and take almost all of the clothes from my mother's. Hmm, the two pairs of pants that were there were rather ratty, so I bought two new pairs of pants too.
I also had to buy power adapters (just in case mine from Phoenix didn't arrive - still need to run my CPAP), and snagged magnifying glasses and safety glasses...
So, I finished out my week, went through the Emerson/Pembina border crossing on Friday afternoon and got my TN visa, and stayed with Eric in Grand Forks overnight. That let us go to the races!
17 June: World of Outlaws
I booked advance seats, so we got a prime spot, up high, down to the west end. Not perfect, mind you - that would be further to the west, with the sun setting behind us - but they were pretty good. Lots off thrills, spills, and yellow flags! We had fun.18 June: Flying Away
On Saturday, instead of driving further down the road to Fargo and flying back to Mesa, I left directly out of Grand Forks, through Minneapolis-St. Paul, and off to France. Yikes.19 June to 24 June: Rouen France
Taxi! Taxi!
Mehamed told me that there was no way that I'd get a rented car in France, since the Euro Cup football (what we call soccer) tournament was on. Not a single rented car in France, wow. Not that I wanted to drive in France - I don't know the region, don't know French all that well (not well enough to make decisions at 110 km/hr), and the road signs are different - not a great recipe for success. So, Mehamed arranged a taxi & driver for me. But, he said to bring ca$h with me. Yup, 1000 € in cash! Ouch.Money Changing and Stupid Credit Card Tricks!
So 1000 € is a lot of money - something like CA$1500 or more. Where am I going to get that? Well, there's a big money changing place in downtown Winnipeg, they can easily do it. I went downtown, paid for parking, waltzed in, and asked for 1000 €. No problem. I have CA$1500 in cash? Heck no! Well then, off to the airport with you. Sigh.At the airport, I tried to use my corporate American Express. Nope. My personal USA Visa. Nope. So I did a cash advance on my personal Canadian Visa. Ouch. Oh well, I'll expense it later.
When I got to France, I found out that American credit cards just don't work well there. I learned my lesson last year in France, and recently in Brazil, and took my Canadian Visa with me, just in case. I would guess that 3/4 of the time, the American Express card was flatly turned down. The rest of the time, only say 1/10 of the time did either one of my USA Visa cards work. Most of the time, I had to use cash, or put it on my Canadian Visa. My Canadian debit card worked like a champ too, then again, I don't have much in that account to draw on... so Visa it was!
A Personal Driver with Car
It turned out that Mehamed arranged for a private car with driver, for me personally. He picked me up at the airport and drove me directly to Rouen, where I was staying, about a 2-3 hour drive west out of Paris.Now, Hocine, the driver, spoke very little English. Oy. And my French isn't very good. I'll tell you though, my French got better over the 5 days I was there! Thank God for Google Translate, which I have on my phone. When I was stuck, I'd get it to translate, either way. It worked fairly well. There were times though, when he spoke so quickly that I was completely lost. It was a bit frustrating at times, but we got along OK.
It was quite convenient and efficient, but also expensive. Total cost was just under 1500 €... in cash! I had to use French bank machines three times to get further cash advances on my Canadian Visa. Ouch!
Rouen - A Magnificent City with History
The hotel that I stayed at was literally 1/2 block away from the Rouen Cathedral. What a magnificent building! Unfortunately, I didn't get inside - I slept a bit on Sunday afternoon after getting to Rouen, and by the time I was up & around again, it was closed for the day.Hocine is from just outside Rouen, and is quite proud of the area. He picked me up later in the afternoon and gave me a brief tour of the city, including a lookout where I could look down on all of Rouen.
Dieppe - A Beautiful Coastal City
On Monday evening, Hocine insisted that I had to see more of France. We did a small detour to Dieppe. It was unseasonably cold, but still quite nice. Again, so much history.Apparently, this is a very romantic town - the place for lovers to go. Hmmm :-)
Work on Remote Site
The actual work site is well north of Rouen, actually closer to Amiens. It's about a 45 to 55 minute drive each way, right near Restaurant le Coq Gaulois at Gauville.Briefly in Paris
Travel
24 April 2016
24 April: It gets hot in April! Too much exertion?
Ted Raguso has been on my case for a while, to go for lap swim after church. I did a few times last year, and it was great... but then again at that time I was driving to church. These days, I tend to cycle - but I took my swimming suit this morning, and figured I'd drop by the pool after service.
It's a bit of a trek - something like 35 km (21.8 mi) according to the Google!
Right from the get-go, I felt tired this morning, not sure why. But I got onto the bike and got rolling in decent time. The service was fine, although, yikes, that last hymn - the Americans went and changed the tune for a familiar hymn, we sounded rather thin!
After he service, I cycled over to the aquatic centre and had a nice swim in the pool - outdoor lap swim pool - I need to get some polarized swimming goggles or something! I was only able to do 1/2 of my regular 60 lengths / 1500 metre swim - 30 lengths / 750 metre total. I was tired when I got into the pool. and you know that I was even more tired when I got out.
I left my swimming trunks on, put on my shoes and my cycling shirt, and headed for home. Oof, I could not believe that I had no reserve, couldn't kick it up when coming up on traffic lights.... and that hill at 13th Street, about 4 km (2.5 mi) from home, which is always a tough slug on the way home, was almost impossible! I had to stop at the top for a minute, down a bunch of water, breathe deeply and let my heart rate recover :-) But, I made it!
It took 1/2 hour at home before I could get up to shower. I was going to jump in the pool, but it's still a bit chilly - 24.2 C - I really want 25 C before I even think of going in. After my shower, I was so whipped that I slept on & off for another hour. Zounds, that's not like me, to sleep in the afternoon. Oh well.
According to my weather station, the temperature peaked at about 35 C around the time that I got home (2 PM). No wonder I was a little zoofed after the ride :-)
I'm still fighting to avoid turning on the air conditioning, save energy, save money, and all that stuff. I bought a couple of box fans on Thursday, and put them in the windows all night, blasting away. At the peak of the heat outside, it was 25 C inside, which is OK if you aren't exerting yourself - with little to no humidity, 25C feels just nice.
It's a bit of a trek - something like 35 km (21.8 mi) according to the Google!
Right from the get-go, I felt tired this morning, not sure why. But I got onto the bike and got rolling in decent time. The service was fine, although, yikes, that last hymn - the Americans went and changed the tune for a familiar hymn, we sounded rather thin!
After he service, I cycled over to the aquatic centre and had a nice swim in the pool - outdoor lap swim pool - I need to get some polarized swimming goggles or something! I was only able to do 1/2 of my regular 60 lengths / 1500 metre swim - 30 lengths / 750 metre total. I was tired when I got into the pool. and you know that I was even more tired when I got out.
I left my swimming trunks on, put on my shoes and my cycling shirt, and headed for home. Oof, I could not believe that I had no reserve, couldn't kick it up when coming up on traffic lights.... and that hill at 13th Street, about 4 km (2.5 mi) from home, which is always a tough slug on the way home, was almost impossible! I had to stop at the top for a minute, down a bunch of water, breathe deeply and let my heart rate recover :-) But, I made it!
It took 1/2 hour at home before I could get up to shower. I was going to jump in the pool, but it's still a bit chilly - 24.2 C - I really want 25 C before I even think of going in. After my shower, I was so whipped that I slept on & off for another hour. Zounds, that's not like me, to sleep in the afternoon. Oh well.
According to my weather station, the temperature peaked at about 35 C around the time that I got home (2 PM). No wonder I was a little zoofed after the ride :-)
I'm still fighting to avoid turning on the air conditioning, save energy, save money, and all that stuff. I bought a couple of box fans on Thursday, and put them in the windows all night, blasting away. At the peak of the heat outside, it was 25 C inside, which is OK if you aren't exerting yourself - with little to no humidity, 25C feels just nice.
23 April 2016
SRP Perkins Substation Installation
This was interesting. A 500 kV substation. Everything overhead is humming and buzzing, 24 hours a day. Only our little section of the substation is powered off, the rest is still working. We installed some equipment in an outdoor cabinet, and also in a rack indoors. We're doing a bit of a joint demonstration of digital substation technology.
One of the challenging things about this kind of work is that the guys start soooo early. They generally arrive at 5:30 AM. We'd show up 6:30 or 7 AM, just as the sun was coming up. I understand why they do it, of course - there's no shade out there, and the sun is unrelenting & hot! Hard to believe it until you feel it!
One of the challenging things about this kind of work is that the guys start soooo early. They generally arrive at 5:30 AM. We'd show up 6:30 or 7 AM, just as the sun was coming up. I understand why they do it, of course - there's no shade out there, and the sun is unrelenting & hot! Hard to believe it until you feel it!
01-03 April: Trip to New Mexico
I've been repeatedly invited to Albuquerque by Don Bartrip, president of Winmer Technology Innovators, a former customer of ours when Jason & I were at Norscan Instruments. The Trinity Site, where the world's first nuclear bomb was tested, in the middle of White Sands Missile Range, is only open two Saturdays a year - once in April, and once in October.. and the NRAO Very Large Array radio-telescope site has guided tours on certain Saturdays. They coincided (probably not a coincidence), so I went for a drive to visit Don and see them both.
I took Friday off, so I could have lunch with Norbert Wegner of ERLPhase (visiting family here from back home), then make a leisurely drive up to Albuquerque, but alas, it was not to be. We were in the middle of an installation at SRP's Perkins Substation, and my part wasn't functional yet - so I had to drive up and do a couple of hours' work on my day off. I had to make a 70 minute drive in about 45 minutes, and still ended up being 15 minutes late. Sorry, Norbert! We had a good chat anyway.
Then, off through Peyson, onto Interstate 40, and going east. And east. And east. Just as I crested the plateau northeast of Peyson, my car threw a "service engine soon" indication. ARGH! If you know me, you know that I can't stand a SES light on my dashboard.
The next chance I got, which was Holbrook just before going onto I-40, I whipped out my handy OBD-II bluetooth adapter, plugged it in, fired up my tablet, and got the code out - it appeared to be a temporary "engine too lean" indication, probably due to the change in altitude together with the push of passing on a hill, so I cleared the code and moved on. Yay!
This site is deep in the middle of the White Sands Missile Range. You turn off the main two lane highway, go down another paved 2 lane road for a couple of kilometres, until you come to a fence and gate, guarded by armed MPs. They look at your passport and wave you through. From there, you pass a group of buildings, and head out across the desert. All side roads have pylons to show they are closed. There's the odd vehicle with armed MPs, watching. You go about 8 km and turn off onto a sand road, and after another couple of km, it opens into a huge parking lot. There were probably about 1,000 vehicles there. You walk about 2 km to the actual site, which is about 1/2 km in diameter, well fenced off. In the centre is a cairn with a plaque, which is apparently at ground zero - where the tower sat on that fateful day in July 1945, that they set off the world's first nuclear bomb. They apparently didn't know how well it would work - or even if it would work - but it put out something like three times the expected energy, and vapourized some recording equipment that they weren't planning to vapourize. Great planning went into the work - multiple sets of monitoring & recording equipment at various distances from the blast. The light from the blast was like a second sunrise when seen from a great distance. People demanded to know what it was, but the government at the time (and for long time later) just waved their hands and said, "nothing to see here, move along" :-) As well they should have, I suppose!
About 4 km away from the Trinity Site is the McDonald ranch house. All this land was expropriated from ranchers during the war, and this house and its outbuildings were left behind. The military used the house as an office, a lab, and assembly building. There are artifacts and displays inside. Outside, the other outbuildings are gone, just remnants remain.
They have nasty fine sand here. I dropped my camera, and it started misbehaving. You will see later pictures where the lens didn't fully open. So sad. I had to spend the rest of the day checking each time I opened the lens, to ensure that I could get an unimpeded picture!
Next, we dashed to the other side of Interstate 25, and onto Highway 60 headed west (yes, the same highway 60 that goes through Mesa and Phoenix, and continues up to Kingman). From a ways off, you can see the little dots in formation - wow, that's a big arrangement of satellite dishes!
It turns out that there are 27 dishes, each about 25 metres across and each mounted on a large heavy tripod arrangement and having bearing & azimuth drive. There are railroad tracks going out in a "Y" formation some 34 km in each direction from the centre. At various intervals, there are small (10 m?) spurs off the track, and a site pad where a dish can sit on three foundation pads. They have a special carrier vehicle that goes down the railroad track, puts down its feet, turns 90 degrees to get onto the spur, then goes out under the telescope. They support the telescope then unbolt it from the foundation pads, pick it up, and (slowly) move back onto the railway track and down to where it needs to be. Wow.
There are four formations, "A", "B", "C" and "D" (how imaginative), where the 9 dishes in each arm are spaced at different distances from each other. They change the formation nominally every 4 months, and, depending on the distance of the change, it can take up to 2 weeks to change over!
They have a supercomputer (built by the NRC in Ottawa?) inside, that takes the signals from the 27 dishes, correlates them, removes noise, integrates over time, etc., and they come out with images that rival the best visual images from Hubble! Wow.
The radios used in these radiotelescope dishes are all built & maintained on-site. They are unique in the world. Cryogenically cooled, they are low noise and very sensitive. The signals are brought back to the central computer by low loss cable, which they know the exact characteristics of, and the exact length, so they can compensate for everything when they do their calculations. Cool.
They do observations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In pre-Internet days, researchers lived on-site during their observation period. Now there's just the bare minimum crew out there, keeping the system going.
Time slots for observations are assigned on a merit basis. You don't have to be some high end scientist to get time on the system. They schedule the observation, and then queue them up on the computer. Often they are 1 or 2 hours each, but can be more or less. The on-site supervisor makes the final call, perhaps adjusting due to weather or other circumstances.
At the end of the tour, we went out and stood under the closest dish. It was huuuuge! As we stood under it, an observation changeover occurred. It was wild, seeing these huge dishes moving (almost) silently, all perfectly choreographed. These dishes are no slouches - I would estimate that it takes 60 to 90 seconds for them to go 180 degrees rotation, or from full low azimuth to pointing straight up. Pretty impressive.
There were people showing up constantly to take pictures and get their picture taken. A beautiful blonde lass with an Aussie accent agreed to take my picture. We chatted briefly, she was finishing up a bit of a road trip with her (much older) lady friend, going back to Denver and from there back to Australia... Hmm, too bad that I was going west instead of east. Oh well, I've got other issues to deal with :-)
I took Friday off, so I could have lunch with Norbert Wegner of ERLPhase (visiting family here from back home), then make a leisurely drive up to Albuquerque, but alas, it was not to be. We were in the middle of an installation at SRP's Perkins Substation, and my part wasn't functional yet - so I had to drive up and do a couple of hours' work on my day off. I had to make a 70 minute drive in about 45 minutes, and still ended up being 15 minutes late. Sorry, Norbert! We had a good chat anyway.
Then, off through Peyson, onto Interstate 40, and going east. And east. And east. Just as I crested the plateau northeast of Peyson, my car threw a "service engine soon" indication. ARGH! If you know me, you know that I can't stand a SES light on my dashboard.
The next chance I got, which was Holbrook just before going onto I-40, I whipped out my handy OBD-II bluetooth adapter, plugged it in, fired up my tablet, and got the code out - it appeared to be a temporary "engine too lean" indication, probably due to the change in altitude together with the push of passing on a hill, so I cleared the code and moved on. Yay!
Trinity Test Site
This site is deep in the middle of the White Sands Missile Range. You turn off the main two lane highway, go down another paved 2 lane road for a couple of kilometres, until you come to a fence and gate, guarded by armed MPs. They look at your passport and wave you through. From there, you pass a group of buildings, and head out across the desert. All side roads have pylons to show they are closed. There's the odd vehicle with armed MPs, watching. You go about 8 km and turn off onto a sand road, and after another couple of km, it opens into a huge parking lot. There were probably about 1,000 vehicles there. You walk about 2 km to the actual site, which is about 1/2 km in diameter, well fenced off. In the centre is a cairn with a plaque, which is apparently at ground zero - where the tower sat on that fateful day in July 1945, that they set off the world's first nuclear bomb. They apparently didn't know how well it would work - or even if it would work - but it put out something like three times the expected energy, and vapourized some recording equipment that they weren't planning to vapourize. Great planning went into the work - multiple sets of monitoring & recording equipment at various distances from the blast. The light from the blast was like a second sunrise when seen from a great distance. People demanded to know what it was, but the government at the time (and for long time later) just waved their hands and said, "nothing to see here, move along" :-) As well they should have, I suppose!About 4 km away from the Trinity Site is the McDonald ranch house. All this land was expropriated from ranchers during the war, and this house and its outbuildings were left behind. The military used the house as an office, a lab, and assembly building. There are artifacts and displays inside. Outside, the other outbuildings are gone, just remnants remain.
They have nasty fine sand here. I dropped my camera, and it started misbehaving. You will see later pictures where the lens didn't fully open. So sad. I had to spend the rest of the day checking each time I opened the lens, to ensure that I could get an unimpeded picture!
NRAO Very Large Array
Next, we dashed to the other side of Interstate 25, and onto Highway 60 headed west (yes, the same highway 60 that goes through Mesa and Phoenix, and continues up to Kingman). From a ways off, you can see the little dots in formation - wow, that's a big arrangement of satellite dishes!
It turns out that there are 27 dishes, each about 25 metres across and each mounted on a large heavy tripod arrangement and having bearing & azimuth drive. There are railroad tracks going out in a "Y" formation some 34 km in each direction from the centre. At various intervals, there are small (10 m?) spurs off the track, and a site pad where a dish can sit on three foundation pads. They have a special carrier vehicle that goes down the railroad track, puts down its feet, turns 90 degrees to get onto the spur, then goes out under the telescope. They support the telescope then unbolt it from the foundation pads, pick it up, and (slowly) move back onto the railway track and down to where it needs to be. Wow.
There are four formations, "A", "B", "C" and "D" (how imaginative), where the 9 dishes in each arm are spaced at different distances from each other. They change the formation nominally every 4 months, and, depending on the distance of the change, it can take up to 2 weeks to change over!
They have a supercomputer (built by the NRC in Ottawa?) inside, that takes the signals from the 27 dishes, correlates them, removes noise, integrates over time, etc., and they come out with images that rival the best visual images from Hubble! Wow.
The radios used in these radiotelescope dishes are all built & maintained on-site. They are unique in the world. Cryogenically cooled, they are low noise and very sensitive. The signals are brought back to the central computer by low loss cable, which they know the exact characteristics of, and the exact length, so they can compensate for everything when they do their calculations. Cool.
They do observations 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. In pre-Internet days, researchers lived on-site during their observation period. Now there's just the bare minimum crew out there, keeping the system going.
Time slots for observations are assigned on a merit basis. You don't have to be some high end scientist to get time on the system. They schedule the observation, and then queue them up on the computer. Often they are 1 or 2 hours each, but can be more or less. The on-site supervisor makes the final call, perhaps adjusting due to weather or other circumstances.
At the end of the tour, we went out and stood under the closest dish. It was huuuuge! As we stood under it, an observation changeover occurred. It was wild, seeing these huge dishes moving (almost) silently, all perfectly choreographed. These dishes are no slouches - I would estimate that it takes 60 to 90 seconds for them to go 180 degrees rotation, or from full low azimuth to pointing straight up. Pretty impressive.
Visiting Winmer
On Sunday morning, Don and I did lunch at Hello Deli, a one-of-a-kind nice little breakfast & lunch spot. Then we dropped by his office, Winmer, which brought back memories of the last time I was here, I think it was 2009.
The Drive Home
I stopped a few times :-)Airway Beacon
Don told me about the airway beacon system from the 1920s, and that there was one at the air museum at Grants Airport. So, I stopped by! Cool. The museum was closed (Sunday afternoon, after all - and actually it's open once a week), but I wandered around and stood at the base of the replica tower.
Standin' on a Corner in Winslow Arizona...
Yes, it is interesting how a pop song, itself a product of culture, can influence culture in a feedback loop... oh wait, that's the engineer in me prattling on again :-)
There were people showing up constantly to take pictures and get their picture taken. A beautiful blonde lass with an Aussie accent agreed to take my picture. We chatted briefly, she was finishing up a bit of a road trip with her (much older) lady friend, going back to Denver and from there back to Australia... Hmm, too bad that I was going west instead of east. Oh well, I've got other issues to deal with :-)
Winslow Crater
Yes, there's a meteor crater not far west of Winslow. I knew that it had closed at 5 PM, but I figured that I'd stop by and see it anyway. Nope. I went about 8 km sound on a narrow 2 lane paved road through a cow pasture (yes had Texas gate to enter). Had to stop to let some cattle cross the road. Then I crested a hill... and saw the crater's rim standing tall in the desert. It was obvious that it was laid out in such a way that I wouldn't see anything without being there when it was open. Unfortunately, I didn't take a picture of the crater rim from the outside - should have :-)And then home...
Then headed west toward Flagstaff, and south to home.
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