Working Near Home Again

Well I have been working for Hawk Installation and Construction now for about a year and a half. Two months ago I took a position with them as Safety / Quality Manager. I now have a 30 min drive from home, and it is great. I still have to travel some, but only enough to just break the monotony of going to the same place every day. I know that Maw likes for me to be able to be home and take care of more things around the house. As we get older, the things that are important now are not the same things they were 30 years ago.

Second Day of Spring!!!!

Well to look outside today you would not know it was the second day of Spring. It started snowing last night and it is still snowing this afternoon. They cancelled Church today so I grabbed the camera and took a few pictures of the beautiful white covering.

There were even a few cute little birds out trying to find some food in the snow.

The snow is pretty to look at but I am ready for it to warm up, and dry up. This has been one of the wettest and coldest winters we have had in a long time.

Grand Baby Number 14 is here!!!!!

Well this weekend we got to go up to OKC and visit with our new grand daughter. Kylee was born last week at 8 lbs 4 oz and 22 inches. She is a very beautiful new baby, but I may be just a little biased, so I will let you look at a few pictures for yourself.

Maw thought see was very cute and enjoyed the cuddle time she had with Kylee.

Kylee's hair is red and you can tell where she gets it with the picture of her and her Dad.

Of course when we go to visit our new grand baby number 14 we can't forget about grand baby number 13 and we had a great time with Kai.

Family is so great!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Meeting Kai

Well I was very excited when I finished work today and got to go over to Nancy and Ray's house. Yes they are back from China with my new grandson Kai. I could tell that he was a little timid at first, but after we broke out the stacking cups it was all fun from there. Well the McDonald's french fries, and the Cheerios didn't hurt. By the time I was getting ready to leave he was sitting in my lap and singing to me. You can tell he has been sung to by the orphanage workers.

Kai is so lucky he has such a wonderful Mom and Dad that already love him so much. He will learn that he will find love from everyone in his new family. As much as Kai is lucky, we are lucky to have him in our family. He is very funny, alert, and very much a young BOY.

I look forward to many bonding moments with Kai, and all of my other grandchildren.

Back at Work

Well I have entered the ranks of the employed again. This job may only last for a few months but it is nice to have a positive cash flow again. I am working for a company only 30 miles from Happy Road, but the project I am working on is in Oklahoma City. We are dismantling a can plant and shipping it to China. I am working on tagging all of the equipment and getting it ready for the manifest to be shipped.

This work is interesting, but after being off for so long it is hard to go straight into 10 hour days, 6 days a week. It is just real nice to be doing something again. I hope this turns into more work after this project. The company is family owned and seems to be a good group to work with.

My work is only 5 miles from Nancy's house, and it was nice to go and get a great meal the other night.

Well it is late and I need to get to bed and get my rest for tomorrows day at WORK.

UP, UP, and Away

Last Saturday I was able to work with a group of people from the Dallas area to launch a balloon from the Clarksville Texas airport. Well you may be thinking that is what a little kid does before he gets in the car as they are leaving the fair. This is much more complicated. These balloons are designed to go to very high altitudes, and they carry several pieces of electronic equipment. Some of these packages are radios that allow people to make contacts from all over the country while at the high altitudes.

ARBONET III was the designation for this balloon launch. ARBONET stands for Amateur Radio Balloons over North East Texas. The balloon flew for about 2hrs and 44minutes reaching an altitude of over 80,000 feet. From the report filed online at http://www.arbonet.net/ The descent after the balloon burst was fast and furious. At the high altitudes there is not enough air to open the parachute. Then when it does hit the denser air the parachute opens, and it is like slamming on the brakes when going at a very high rate of speed.

Several pieces of the equipment failed during the descent, but because of a Ham Radio operator in Alabama who had experience with over 300 balloon flights, he was able to use computer programs and calculate the landing area which was SE of Shreveport LA. The landing area where the balloon was found was 20 miles from where the last electronic position report was given. This equipment may have never been found with out the help of this Ham Radio Operator in Alabama.

I learned a lot about Amateur Radio Balloons, and I am looking forward to next year for the launch of ARBONET IV.

"This is not good"

Last Friday we went to Dallas to pick up some new suits I was having altered. We went to to the Church bookstore and picked up a few new books. We had a good lunch at Furr's and everything was going well. We had a good drive down and back to Paris. Then when we turned into the driveway I saw water running down the driveway and coming out of the garage. I told Virgie "This is not good", and wow was I right. When we opened the garage door a large rush of water came out like a dam had just broken. We got in the house and found water about ankle deep in the kitchen and flowing from room to room through the house. I located the leak under the sink in the kitchen and tried to turn off the valve and it did not shut off the water. I then had to go out to the meter box and dig out the valve and get the water turned off.

Well after all of that we got a plumber out and it only took him about 30 minutes to fix the problem. It was a gasket that had blown out of a fitting on the line to the faucet. Then the next contractor showed up and started pulling up carpet and placing fans all over the house to get things dried out before everything started to mold. On Saturday the contractor came back and started tearing out baseboards and cutting holes in the drywall.

Then with all the fans running you can't hear anything in the house and we have to watch out what we turn on or we will blow a breaker because of all the fans running. Virgie came to me this morning and said there was water on the floor in front of the freezer. I told her "That is not good", and what I found next was that the contractor had unplugged the freezer and did not plug it back in.

Well tomorrow I am flying to Florida to interview with Florida Power and Light and I know things are going to get better. We all have trials and we are graded on how we handle them and get through the test we have before us. Tomorrow is another day and "It will be good".