J box, Matlin, combustion
Here are some pictures of the J box that I made, it is all done (at least for the moment) and works quite well, The circuit boards I made myself, quite proud of that I gotta say. The problem I am having now is the software (labview) that connects my computer to the box. It seems that most of engineering is learning new programs, and the ones you already know get "updated" to very different versions. I am now currently learning labview, not the most user friendly software in the world, in fact it kind of stinks. Brandon is now working for the labview company and I have a direct line to him, so I might have to contact him shortly or send him a strongly worded email.
I also included a picture of young Mathew to show off his broken arm. I have learned that some of his family is now reading my blog, (thanks to a carefully placed email with the blog address and description of Matt's bike). If you will notice the Powercat on his white board, that was drawn by me. I take most every opportunity to place a powercat. Matt is running to try to stay in shape, he is worried that I will be able to finally flog him after he gets back on the bike. by the way the 6 hour race is this sunday and I still do not have a partner. Several people have shown interest until I mention the 6 hour part. We have to go to Tulsa on Saturday for a symposium, I am not real excited about this either. We may try to see Aunt Van on the way back, she always a hoot.
Today is Thursday and that means that the combustion lab across the hall is in session, This is the only part I don't like about my office because it is loud on Thursday mornings from the droning of the engines. I am thinking about sabotage.
some old pics
Here are some pictures that I took at that old familiar dental office. The know me pretty well down there, and even let me use the employee bathroom. One thing I do like there is that they have the massage chairs with the optional heating package. Very nice after riding there on my bike on a snowy day. My tooth extraction is healing well, still weird having a hole there.
Not much new here, Judah was up a lot last night again. not sure why, but we are thinking it is more habit than anything. Good thing that he is so cute. otherwise he might have to find himself a new living arrangement.
Zeke Quote
Zeke "Mommy I am not going to say you big, cause that may hurt your feelings"
Thought that was funny, but I should have waited to laugh. I am home right now, Angie is sewing the boys are in bed and I am making more circuit boards. I really dig making those things. I am still trying to put a K State Powercat on it, Angie thinks that I will get my funding dropped because of it no sense of humor here in Norman.
I am still debating about the race, KPS are you guys coming? I probably will do it nomatter what, I just don't know about doing it by myself.
I am speaking at some sort of Oklahoma student symposium in a week or so, in Tulsa. I need to work on that, we will see what a powercat will do to the mood in that room!
I weigh a little less and have a hole in my wall of teeth
Well I did it, I got the tooth extracted. Much like everything else with me there are several stories to tell along with the extracted offender. Last Friday I was supposed to go in and have it done, we had my wonderful parents come to watch the kids and help Angie. Friday morning rolls around and I am worried about throwing up due to a empty stomach. So I have a small bit of biscuit (homemade by my mother), crumbs actually. We get to the dental office, Angie with her books preparing for the wait, and the lady asks if I had anything to eat or not..... I wonder what I should have said, I guess the truth but it sure did hurt. I said that I had a little bit of biscuit, her head snapped up with a look of horror and asked how long ago! I said about an hour (the crumbs would already be through my system) Well we wait in the lobby and the nurse calls me up and says "you had a biscuit!!!" in a very loud condescending voice, like I had just eaten two helping of biscuits and gravy at Denny's before we got there. She gave me a lecture and sent us our way with a rescheduled appointment for today. I don't know much about medicine or dentistry but I really doubt that the bits of biscuit I had would have done anything, it is not a white and black line that if you cross you die.... eat nothing you live, eat a crumb you die. I am lucky they let me breathe after midnight. and what is up with the attitudes?, I realize I lost some of their time but are not I the customer in this venture, but am I not paying for this service? Isn't part of the price the hassle of dealing with people like me? There is my venting, it was not losing the appointment that I was upset about it was the rescheduling of babysitters that bothered me. I realize they must have rules so they don't get sued if someone chokes on something they ate, I am not mad at them, just the system that lets us sue so easily.
Anyway I go this morning we found a college girl to sit for us and I went in, without eating anything mind you. I thought about holding Angie's capuchino on the way in just to freak them out, but I knew that was a bad idea with the prevailing lack of sense of humor there. They called me back, after a few minutes in the lobby where I caught up on Brad and Jolina (they bought another kid you know according to people magazine), I sat in this chair and they hooked me up to many monitors, I remember being disappointed that it wasn't more like a surgery room. I did get an IV and a air mask. I thought about taking my picture there but again the atmosphere was not real conducive to pictures. I probably would have to signed something saying I wouldn't use the picture to sue them. The doc came in (just a few years older than I am) and "gave me the good stuff" two surenges of something that made me forget most of the morning. I remember small pieces like when I asked Angie "did they save my tooth for me?" and trying not to look too sick for my boys when I walked in the door. I slept for about 5 hours and my mouth was dry and I was hungry (because I didn't eat anything for days). Angie has been regaling me with funny things I said the whole way home and in the office. She said that when we walked by a bunch of switches and lights in the hall I reached up to start playing with them, I don't remember that. I haven't much to eat today, just some soup, oatmeal, and apple sauce. I plan on gorging myself on ice cream tonight. There is not much pain so far even after the drugs wore off (due to me not eating food beforehand maybe??? whatever) it feels weird not having a tooth there, I am afraid my tongue will try to escape and get caught in the surrounding teeth... where did that thought come from? must still be the drugs. I told Zeke that I weigh less so I should be able to beat Matt Roman in bike racing now. All the help I can get although the ice cream might mitigate that one advantage. Having less teeth does give me more of a connection with my Arkansas roots, so it isn't all bad. And it is one less tooth to cause me pain later on. I still haven't decided what to do with the hole. I could go for a bridge or an implant, or just leave it and machine something out on my own.
Speaking of riding Matt and I went riding again Saturday night, it was beautiful outside (about 65) and a lot of fun. We rode the supposed course of the upcoming race. It is extremely fast and fun. Matt's light once again was inadequate, so I rode behind him and lit up his path. My light works well but for only about and hour if it on the lowest setting. A Lot of fun.
still hurting
I am reminded of the Bible story where Jacob wrestled with God and God ended up cheating and touching Jacob's hip joint to where he had to limp there on out. I think that happened to me, although I am still looking for my blessing like Jacob got. God didn't really cheat, it ended up being best for Jacob....hmmm is me having to ride my bike to the bathroom at work what is best for me or is it a consequence for playing games with younger guys? blessing or curse, still up in the air. There is a definite bruise on my hip so it must have happened when I crashed. Also I am having some trouble with my stomach, I am wondering if that 800 mg of ibuprofen after the race was a good idea.
I have to go show my progress to my boss right now.... could be a long meeting. I will hobble a little extra to gain the sympathy vote!
I went thru 17.2 miles of ****
Here is the synopsis of the race this last weekend, I will try to account for the race as well as its effect on me. Those who don't know I was in a 17.2 mile race this last Sunday morning at the wichita mountains.
We started off at the line with 726 fellow riders, the day was cool and windy but fair. with that many people the start gun went off and it took about 30 seconds for us to start rolling and even then it was a crawl. Matt and I had agreed to try to stay together throughout the race to help each other finish, although now I see he had trophies in mind. After the first hill he took off and left me like the true friend he is. On the down slope of the first hill I washed out and got slapped into the rocks, everyone around went "oooohhhhh" That is when I started to question the idea of racing again. I think that I must have hit my hip and cut my leg at this point, I am not sure. for those of you that have been in this race you will remember that it is mostly pushing your bike up hill and then struggling to keep it from crashing on the way down, oh yeah and dealing with seven hundred people also is a big part. Well I caught up to matt again a ways down, I could hear him yelling my name as I was peddling up past him. shortly after that I had to stop and push, I would like to think that someone was in my way and I had to stop, which honestly was the case in many instances. Well Matt got on his bike before I did and took off, that was the last I seen of him. It is here that I regret not getting on sooner and trying to stay up with him.
The course is through Fort Sill and you ride past danger signs saying impact area lasers might be in use. At first you hope that you stay clear of the lasers then after riding for 2 hours you start to hope that you get hit by a stray laser and put out of your misery. I soon fell into a pace that was rough but manageable. still no sign of Matt, punk. I did notice that my bike was very unstable on the loose rock more than it should have been. I am riding a 17 inch (a little small for me) with basically a slick on the back and high pressure on both wheels. I could be riding and my front or rear tire would wash out suddenly and send me careening off the course. After a while I compensated (rode slower) and did better. The jagged rock, that was not loose, my bike did excellent in, also in the single track through the trees. I like the trees and single track the best, but there was not much of that on this course. And when I was on the single track I was stuck behind someone so I could not advance. In the trees you hear distant yells and screams behind you, you know that the course has taken down another rider. You grieve and keep riding, and then rejoice that it wasn't you. I noticed that there are some people that like to scream out "low bridge" "big hill" "loose log" while going along for the benefit of others. I think that this is admirable, but maybe a little annoying at times. I found myself trying to add humorous things such as when someone would yell "log!" I would ride up and since there were several logs I would say "zzsss" trying to add a plural to their warning.
I stopped at the way station (water, snacks, etc) just for a few minutes to get my power snacks out of my backpack and then off again. I started to stop more at this point and rest, usually after pushing my bike up a huge hill and then seeing another bigger hill with riders all pushing their bikes. These times were the low points of the ride, very demoralizing. Apparently the trail planners don't understand about switchbacks. One time I stopped and sat down to enjoy my wife's homemade trail mix. One rider stopped and said "I will give you five thousand dollars for a handful of trailmix" I shook my head and said "come here you go you can have it for free" like I was their parent taking care of them. some may question why I didn't take the 5K, I knew that he didn't have it on him and I wasn't into making loans. Matt said that I should have traded him bikes... I should have done that. After my snack I felt better and continued on. I must say that everyone was really nice, mostly they were just trying to survive so we all were in the same boat. I learned something about humans, or at least was reminded of it. That we are drawn together in adversity, that comfort and ease are not all we were made for. Trouble and pain are not something to run to, but also are not something to necessarily run from either. There were a few jerks but there always are. I talked to several people like we were long time friends.
I noticed that my bike seemed a lot harder to peddle than before and I was sure there was something wrong with it, Matt experienced the same feeling. After about 3 hours the people on the side of the road said it wasn't long to go, maybe .7 miles. they encouraged me, then I looked up and saw that it was .7 miles uphill, that discouraged me. When I rolled across the finish Matt was there sitting waiting for me...punk, he had rolled in 15 minutes ahead of me. I can't remember what place I got, I think I was mid pack for my age group and maybe a little ahead of mid pack for the whole race. I am glad I did it but I did something to my hip and I am waddling around like a penguin. I have s
everal abrasions on my leg (I am quite proud of). I took 800 mg of Ibuprofen last night and went to bed on top of a heating pad. I haven't seen Matt yet today so maybe he is really suffering....all because he left m
e! On the way home we stopped at Meers to eat at the famous Meers rester aunt with food as big as your head. it was a good end, I had a hard time getting out of the car.
Watching like God does.
So we went to Bartlesville Oklahoma to see my niece perform (she is in a travelling group) It was pretty loud so Judah and I went to the cry room and watched everyone which I must say turned out to be rather entertaining. The "young" people would come by and look at themselves in the mirror (it was a one way mirror) and check themselves out. Most is not all of the people were on my nieces traveling team. I was so entertained that I started taking pictures. I got better at catching them in the act but I missed quite a few. There was one guy who loved to see himself in the mirror, he returned several times I call him "frosty" cause of his highlights. Here are some pictures. I think a movie would have captured more, maybe I will do that next time. Right now I am sitting on the couch in the lab a little burned out on school.... actually I think it is just that I am really tired. Our little darling baby will not sleep and it has been several months since I got a full nights sleep, it is starting to take its toll.
Next Thursday I am going to go get a tooth extracted, I will be put out for this which I am thankful for. Angie will have to drive me home and take care of the kids while I catch up on all the sleep that I have been missing. Mom dad you guys are welcome to come help if you want.
Well have to go to the bathroom.
DAn
