Pictures as Promised

Here you go:

Canadian River Run 2009

I Survived (fill in the blank)

Sorry for the lack of posts...busy. Had my first severe weather event in my new office and it was a doozie. Arrived at the office at 8 am for my day-shift and our team issued the first warning shortly before 3 pm. Eventually we had multiple storms that were spreading the radar operator's attention then so we split our area of responsibility in half. I worked the southern sector of our area of responsibility while two of my co-workers worked the northern half. Unfortunately this also meant I had the figure out what to do with a storm munching straight towards the Hub City. Adding to the craziness; an office towercam that allowed me to actually see the rotating wall cloud on the storm as it approached. Nothing is more unnerving that knowing you have a 50/50 chance of seeing a tornado develop in the city you live in AND watch it unfold LIVE in front of you. We lucked out...no tornado. However, 1-2" hail throughout the southern part of the city did it's damage. Mother nature also decided to "ice the cake" by producing one confirmed tornado northwest of the city which one of our employees was urgently sent out to chase from his home (which I had to vector him in via ham radio and radar data). Turned out to be a stovepipe tornado that hit some power lines to light things up. Ended up leaving the office at midnight on an adrenaline rush and without a voice.

Trying to sleep was a chore since not only was coming down from an adrenaline high, but also the stress of working the event. A fitful 4 hours of sleep later, the alarm went off for me to head back up to the office for damage surveys. This is how we "rate" a tornado's intensity; by the damage that is done. When you watch the boob tube and hear the EF-scale, that is what they are talking about; the intensity of the tornado as rated by damage on the Enhanced Fujita Scale. Our survey team headed down to Justiceburg and outside of Girard. The survey out to Justiceburg resulted in multiple reports of large hail and the disturbing sight of 100-200 moble homes close to Lake Alan Henry (a disaster waiting to happen IMNSHO). Several reports of funnel clouds, or "fingers" from many of the folks we talked to (thanks Twister). As for the survey west of Girard; there was N O T H I N G for possible tornadoes to hit. Seriously. A few power lines, a few center pivots, a few mesquites, and LOTS of open fields. Again, no way to really confirm a tornado from the ground but aerial surveys are next to impossible to get nowadays thanks to guv'ment red tape. Once we returned to the home office, I rushed home to get things ready for our annual Canadian River Run.

Needing to unwind from the aforementioned severe weather event, I didn't want to make an early go Saturday morning and instead left Friday evening to have a full day of wheelin' and time with my good friends from across the U.S. It is always fun showing up when no one expects to see you...but not so fun trying to find a level spot for a tent in the dark! I did O.K. and although my feet felt as if they were frozen in blocks of ice, I collapsed after getting very little sleep over a two day period. Saturday morning, after airing down the tires and disconnecting the swaybar, the rock-climbing fun began! Wheel stands, aggressive lines, and even some interesting all 5 tires on the ground began to take place. After lunch however, I managed to have a good scare; I nearly rolled my Jeep down the trail when I was attempting to get un-stuck on a ledge. Based on the hoots and hollers, as well as my best friends eyes being as big as dinner plates, indicated that at some point I had the front two tires in the air at nearly a 90 degree angle to the ground. Expeditious use of the go-pedal safely planted all four tires on the ground but not before I nearly had a heart attack from adrenaline overload and fear combined. Needing a couple of minutes to recover, I sat there in the Jeep, said a few prayers of thanksgiving, and finally got up the obstacle...this time with a safety line attached. The rest of the day, well, lets say I decided to take the easier trails around the area.

So now it is back to the grind of shiftwork, unpacking from the off-road trip, seeing what all is broken on the Jeep (nothing so far!), and continuing to fight the battle with the home warranty company to try and finally get my drywall fixed. I'm working on the pictures from the River Run as I type this (figuratively of course...I needed a break from Photoshop) so tuned for those.

Flash Flood...In My House!

I spent most of Friday afternoon outside; I had the day off and it was a rare non-dusty day even though the breeze had kicked up. I figured it would be better to mow the lawn and choke on just the pollen and dirt that had been kicked around recently rather than add additional dust that had come in from New Mexico as was forecast to happen on Saturday. Having a three day weekend also made it a great time to get caught up and ready for our annual Canadian River Run in a couple of weeks as well as (finally) change the Z71 over to Mobil 1 synthetic to try and boost the gas mileage as much as I could. So, I had spent a full day outside, was covered in grass clippings, dust, and the noxious smell of gasoline and 2-stroke engine exhaust. The hot shower felt rather good!

Having forgotten a few items on my last grocery store trip as well as needing to get oil/filters for both the Jeep and Z71, I headed out Saturday afternoon to round up all the stuff. Realizing that I did in fact buy items needing refrigeration, I swung by the house since it was on the way to O'Reilly Auto Parts (WalMart was sold out of both 10W and 5W-30 oil!) but perhaps it was divine intervention (it turns out O'Reillys had the oil about $2 cheaper for a 4-quart container and 75 cents cheaper for 1-quart...but I digress). When I pulled into the garage, I noticed water pooled on the floor, along the wall, and in my garage closet. Several "colorful adjectives" flew out of my mouth in quick succession and I swung open the water heater closet doors only to find things dry as a bone. Running into the house, I could see where water had seeped under the wall and where the grout was wet in the laundry closet but all the hoses to the washing machine were dry. Thoughts went from leaking hot water heater to busted pipe in the slab. Next I ran into my bedroom to find that, yes, the carpet sounded like walking in the Canadian River mud...sopping wet.

Not knowing what was going on, I went and shut off the water to the whole house. Fortunately I have a homeowner's warranty from when I bought this house so the next call was to the warranty company to file an emergency repair order. Unfortunately the automated system wouldn't escalate up to an emergency so I had to spend 15 minutes or so on a second call trying to get to an actual person. Luck was on my side and I was able to get the service request upgraded to emergency after talking with a very helpful and responsive gal named Valencia (THANK YOU!). The difference you ask? Having to wait until Monday for a plumber to come out versus the next day. Once all this was done by 7 pm, I made one last trip over to Home Depot to rent a wet-vac since mine disappeared during the move (can't complain; was the most expensive of 3 items that disappeared...). The rest of the evening was spent trying to suck up as much moisture out of the carpet and pad as I could...about 2 full tanks of water.

At 11 am, the plumber came to the house and opened up the shutoff valve. Only problem was the meter wasn't spinning. I say problem; it was good because that meant it wasn't a leak in the slab. Bad news was he still had to track the problem down or I'd end up paying all the emergency fees. The next test was to run something through the washing machine and that did the trick. No sooner did he turn on the hot cycle and he could see water running underneath the water heater closet (it also holds my A/C and the return-air registers feed underneath there). Unfortunately came the part where he had to rip out some drywall.

Here is the culprit:
The leaking section was about 4 feet up from the elbow or about halfway between the hot water heater and elbow to distribute hot water through the house. Only problem was that the access to this busted pipe was through the laundry room wall:
After two hours, the leak is fixed and I now have hot water...but I lost an entire day of my weekend waiting for the plumber and continuing to try and mitigate the "flood" damage in my bedroom. I also have to wait for the home warranty company to schedule a drywall person to come in and rough-out patches to the drywall. The insurance adjuster will also be called Monday...unfortunately my attempt to vacuum up the water and then steam clean must not have been good enough even in this arid climate I live in. I'm starting to smell mold/mildew in there so it looks like I'll have to see what can be done. It never fails...just as soon as I plink down quite a bit of moolah for ham radio and stormchasing gear, something major breaks. My house now looks and smells ghetto...a cut up trash bag with painters tape covering the holes in the drywall with the smell of wet carpet in part of the house.

Hopefully it won't interrupt a trip to the Hill Country this week...I need the break!

How I Hate Parking

Sorry for the lack of posts...lots going on at work and on the home front. The weather hasn't helped; a cycle of one day warm weather and (relatively) calm winds spent outside (if not at work), then a day of strong westerly winds and blowing dust spent inside practicing on the electric guitar and enjoying my DVR (if not at work), then a day of strong northerly/northwesterly winds and colder again spent inside the garage or enjoying Fox Soccer Channel (if not at work), and then repeat on a 3 to 4 day cycle. It also seems that the nice days; warm temps and "light" winds; are usually when I'm having to work and the crappy days are when I am off. Oh well...such is the life of shiftwork.

Anyway, I had to make a grocery run the other day and I had to take the pickup out since the Jeep has some funky steering problems (likely a loose steering stabilizer or bad upper ball joint) recently. Although I've had the Z71 for three full months, I'm still trying to learn how to park it. Unfortunately the parking lot was pretty full but I saw what I thought was an open space. When I got down the aisle, well, I'll let my friends from XKCD explain my feelings and thoughts...