If only for a day...
I attended an all day seminar with my crew, the Bosses and Human Resources, and Prinoth's Snowcat Demonstrator at My Mountain Thursday.
The morning session was introductions, team building basics, a brief history of My Moiuntain, and Customer Service guidelines.
I quizzed HR about our "Hired Gun Weatherman"'s prediction for the Winter, and so far, he's equivocating because it's another La Niña Winter.
Lunch was take-out Round Table Pizza.
After lunch, the Prinoth portion of the day began, featuring a slideshow augmented Operator's Manual Tutorial. Many questions were answered about the snowcats' future. Prinoth will continue to produce the original BR350 cab until no more customers want it.
We spent some time demystifying the "Glass Cockpit" on the new cab Bisons. Lots of pages of info you can scroll through. I made my annual plea that the displays be more night vision friendly. As is my usual MO, I snarkily reminded the Prinoth guy that the Prinoth engineers work the day shift in well lighted offices, while their creations work all night long...in the dark.
After a solid two hours with the manuals, we headed outside to do the "Preflight Walk-Around" demonstration. There in the bright Autumn sun sat my Old Faithful BR350, fresh from her Summer Service.
She was resplendent in rebuilt tracks, sporting fresh paint on her implements. New track belts, and shiny new cutter bars back under the tiller. The Boss confirmed that Old Faithful was the most reliable cat in the fleet last season. The only down time she suffered was due to burst hydraulic hoses and front wiper problems. None of the hydraulic maladies were drive-related, these were hoses on the blade and stinger. I'm looking forward to running her up to 10K hours this season!
On this beautiful Fall morning, I remind myself that it could be as soon as five weeks until I become a full-time Groomin' Human again.
Friday, October 21, 2011
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Counting My Chickens Before They're Hatched
I'm watching The Fall Classic on the tube. Game One of the World Series. It looks cold in St Louis...it's the third week of October in the Upper Midwest after all. Though I don't have a dog in the hunt, I always watch the Series, it's the last vestige of Summertime...I'm like a big ol' bear gorging on the last of the summer's berries and salmon before hibernation time...only winter is my busiest time.
After running into town for my mail and some groceries this morning, I looked around the internet for my daily dose of news and information. How did I miss the announcement of the 2012 Tour de France Route yesterday?
I know, I know...it's more than eight months until a pedal is turned in anger in the 99th Tour de France! Hell, the eggs that bear the chickens I'm counting aren't even laid yet!
I'm not discounting Winter and Ski Season at all...I'm craving redemption, closure, even healing in the wake of this year's crash-marred Tour. I got my clock cleaned...no, disinfected...no, sterilized in TdF Fantasy Racing, and I'm looking forward to rising a sub-basement or two towards The Light. The cellar I was dwelling in was so deep I could smell the sulfur, and feel the radiated heat from the Lake of Fire!
There's a different look to next July's route. Two Individual Time Trials totaling almost 100 kilometers, with the longest the day before the finish in Paris. No Team Time Trial this edition. Not so many mountaintop finishes, but more Big Climbs than last year (25, up from 23). The iconic L'Alpe d'Huez is MIA this year, but as is the norm, the Tour will largely be decided in the mountains.
The long time trials favor three time winner, Spaniard Alberto Contador, but I'm liking Luxembourger Andy Schleck's chances again next year.
Two-time runner up, Schleck is teamed with directeur sportif Johann Bruyneel in the wake of the merger of Schleck's Team Leopard-Trek and Bruyneel 's Team Radioshack. Remember that Bruyneel was directeur sportif for all of Lance Armstrong's seven TdF victories. Even given Armstrong's gifts, there's no discounting Bruyneel's direction, preparation, strategy, and assembly of the supporting cast to shepard the team leader to the top of the podium in Paris.
It's many months before the teams name their TdF Squads, but it's going to be very interesting to watch the chess game between Schleck's Johann Bruyneel and Contador's SaxoBank-Sungard manager Bjarne Riis .
Bruyneel said the race is “missing a classic summit finish like the Ventoux or Alpe d’Huez”, but suggested that there will be plenty of chances to attack, sometimes not in the most obvious of places".
“It’s a good course for Alberto,” said SaxoBank-Sungard manager (and 1996 winner) Bjarne Riis. “There might not be many summit finishes, but the climbs are hard. Even if the stage finishes in a valley, the differences will be made on the climbs like always.”
Well, I've got all Winter and Spring to contemplate my TdF navel. Before anything is set in stone, there's baseball's Spring Training, Opening Day, the kickoff of Formula One Racing, IndyCar Racing, even NASCAR racing, not to mention night after night of (hopefully) Hero Snow.
Hens, sit!
After running into town for my mail and some groceries this morning, I looked around the internet for my daily dose of news and information. How did I miss the announcement of the 2012 Tour de France Route yesterday?
I know, I know...it's more than eight months until a pedal is turned in anger in the 99th Tour de France! Hell, the eggs that bear the chickens I'm counting aren't even laid yet!
I'm not discounting Winter and Ski Season at all...I'm craving redemption, closure, even healing in the wake of this year's crash-marred Tour. I got my clock cleaned...no, disinfected...no, sterilized in TdF Fantasy Racing, and I'm looking forward to rising a sub-basement or two towards The Light. The cellar I was dwelling in was so deep I could smell the sulfur, and feel the radiated heat from the Lake of Fire!
There's a different look to next July's route. Two Individual Time Trials totaling almost 100 kilometers, with the longest the day before the finish in Paris. No Team Time Trial this edition. Not so many mountaintop finishes, but more Big Climbs than last year (25, up from 23). The iconic L'Alpe d'Huez is MIA this year, but as is the norm, the Tour will largely be decided in the mountains.
The long time trials favor three time winner, Spaniard Alberto Contador, but I'm liking Luxembourger Andy Schleck's chances again next year.
Two-time runner up, Schleck is teamed with directeur sportif Johann Bruyneel in the wake of the merger of Schleck's Team Leopard-Trek and Bruyneel 's Team Radioshack. Remember that Bruyneel was directeur sportif for all of Lance Armstrong's seven TdF victories. Even given Armstrong's gifts, there's no discounting Bruyneel's direction, preparation, strategy, and assembly of the supporting cast to shepard the team leader to the top of the podium in Paris.
It's many months before the teams name their TdF Squads, but it's going to be very interesting to watch the chess game between Schleck's Johann Bruyneel and Contador's SaxoBank-Sungard manager Bjarne Riis .
Bruyneel said the race is “missing a classic summit finish like the Ventoux or Alpe d’Huez”, but suggested that there will be plenty of chances to attack, sometimes not in the most obvious of places".
“It’s a good course for Alberto,” said SaxoBank-Sungard manager (and 1996 winner) Bjarne Riis. “There might not be many summit finishes, but the climbs are hard. Even if the stage finishes in a valley, the differences will be made on the climbs like always.”
Well, I've got all Winter and Spring to contemplate my TdF navel. Before anything is set in stone, there's baseball's Spring Training, Opening Day, the kickoff of Formula One Racing, IndyCar Racing, even NASCAR racing, not to mention night after night of (hopefully) Hero Snow.
Hens, sit!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Transition Time
Last week at this hour, it was snowing in Truckee. Today was shorts and T-shirt weather all the way.
I traveled to Reno for my annual haircut. I fleshed out the trip with provisioning. I had the A/C running the whole time. It was 75°F out, but the telltale signs of Autumn were everywhere to be seen on my way back up the Truckee River canyon.
In the lowering afternoon sun, all the alder and aspens were lit up like beacons against the mountainsides. Bright yellow puffballs against the evergreens and gray volcanic soils. A pall of smoke from a downwind controlled burn gave the light an extra warm tint. I really wanted to pull over and take a few photos, but the best scenes were right at the end of miles of CalTrans repaving work, and I didn't want to be another traffic hazard for hurried motorists to contend with.
My season starts Thursday. We're going to a Prinoth Operator training session, and Employee Orientation at My Mountain. Much better to get it all in before the season starts...I hated fighting to stay awake during these things after working all night and killing an hour in the morning waiting for the show to begin.
Thursday NOAA's Climate Prediction Center issues their monthly 90 Day Climate Outlook Discussion. I'm looking for confirmation of a "Deep La Niña" to begin the season. I have seen some background noise about an El Niño forming once La Niña scoots along...it's getting close to about time to "call" the upcoming winter weather...I'll make my call by November 1st.
I'm assuming that the World Series will be wrapped up by then
I traveled to Reno for my annual haircut. I fleshed out the trip with provisioning. I had the A/C running the whole time. It was 75°F out, but the telltale signs of Autumn were everywhere to be seen on my way back up the Truckee River canyon.
In the lowering afternoon sun, all the alder and aspens were lit up like beacons against the mountainsides. Bright yellow puffballs against the evergreens and gray volcanic soils. A pall of smoke from a downwind controlled burn gave the light an extra warm tint. I really wanted to pull over and take a few photos, but the best scenes were right at the end of miles of CalTrans repaving work, and I didn't want to be another traffic hazard for hurried motorists to contend with.
My season starts Thursday. We're going to a Prinoth Operator training session, and Employee Orientation at My Mountain. Much better to get it all in before the season starts...I hated fighting to stay awake during these things after working all night and killing an hour in the morning waiting for the show to begin.
Thursday NOAA's Climate Prediction Center issues their monthly 90 Day Climate Outlook Discussion. I'm looking for confirmation of a "Deep La Niña" to begin the season. I have seen some background noise about an El Niño forming once La Niña scoots along...it's getting close to about time to "call" the upcoming winter weather...I'll make my call by November 1st.
I'm assuming that the World Series will be wrapped up by then
Friday, October 14, 2011
Another Tax Year is In the Books
Mom's taxes...Done! We meet with the Tax Accountant Sunday afternoon.
Two days and I'm ready...one day to gather the documentation together...one day to compile the deductions and plug the numbers into their respective Forms, Schedules, and Worksheets...
I dream that this next election will change things up enough to spur our elected representatives into reforming the Tax Code...70,000 pages of Federal Tax Codes is crazy...Flat Tax...better yet Fair Tax...
You can say I'm a dreamer...John Lennon RIP
Now, Playoff Baseball and Formula One Practice and Qualifying from South Korea
Two days and I'm ready...one day to gather the documentation together...one day to compile the deductions and plug the numbers into their respective Forms, Schedules, and Worksheets...
I dream that this next election will change things up enough to spur our elected representatives into reforming the Tax Code...70,000 pages of Federal Tax Codes is crazy...Flat Tax...better yet Fair Tax...
You can say I'm a dreamer...John Lennon RIP
Now, Playoff Baseball and Formula One Practice and Qualifying from South Korea
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
Sticky
No rest for the wicked I always say! It's muggy like the Tropics in the Inland Valley today.
Monday I traveled down the hill and across the Big Valley. Try as I might, I couldn't outrun the rain. It was mostly uneventful except for one tipped-over semi truck on the north side of Sacramento. Stop and go traffic for a mile or so...all up, a delay of maybe ten minutes...I didn't suffer...
It was a good thing I traveled Monday, the tipped over trucks on Tuesday burst into flames and closed Westbound Interstate 80 all day! No one was hurt, but CalTrans detoured traffic down Hwy 20...boy I'm glad I missed that! Columbus Day traffic was a piece of cake!
Tuesday SisterK and I escorted Mom to the monthly Church Social...It was partly cloudy, and totally sticky! Miracle of miracles, the HVAC contractor was at the Church in full force...installing a new heating system with air conditioning. It's the first A/C since the church was built in 1917.
Errands, shopping, a tank of gas...and now it's Income Tax time!
Like I said...no rest...
Monday I traveled down the hill and across the Big Valley. Try as I might, I couldn't outrun the rain. It was mostly uneventful except for one tipped-over semi truck on the north side of Sacramento. Stop and go traffic for a mile or so...all up, a delay of maybe ten minutes...I didn't suffer...
It was a good thing I traveled Monday, the tipped over trucks on Tuesday burst into flames and closed Westbound Interstate 80 all day! No one was hurt, but CalTrans detoured traffic down Hwy 20...boy I'm glad I missed that! Columbus Day traffic was a piece of cake!
Tuesday SisterK and I escorted Mom to the monthly Church Social...It was partly cloudy, and totally sticky! Miracle of miracles, the HVAC contractor was at the Church in full force...installing a new heating system with air conditioning. It's the first A/C since the church was built in 1917.
Errands, shopping, a tank of gas...and now it's Income Tax time!
Like I said...no rest...
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Laughing Myself to Sleep
I indulged in a Sports Saturday today...no, no college football. I didn't really start up with the sports until evening when Game One of the American League Championship Series began in Texas.
Even though my San Francisco Giants didn't make it into the Post-Season, I still like to watch September-October baseball when everything is on the line, and the best teams are playing their best ball. They don't call it the Fall Classic for nothing!
I wasn't paying that close of attention...I was having a ball on the internet watching the streaming snarkyness skewering the Occupy Wall Street protestors...that is until I saw the tarpaulins being pulled onto the diamond in a deluge! It wasn't that long until the ground crew was back on the field, rolling up the tarps. The skies opened up again, and the tarps were redeployed, and I began to worry that the ballgame might run late enough to interfere with the Grand Prix of Japan.
All up, the rain delay totaled 93 minutes, and the game didn't go into extra innings, so I was looking good Formula 1-wise. About 10 minutes before the Pre-Race, I tuned in SpeedTV. They were still showing something called The Bathurst 1000, a live Australian V8 Supercar road race from Bathurst, Australia. Speed had been hyping the event for a couple of weeks. It appeared to be running long, but it was entertaining.
It was running long! I looked at my racing Twitter stream...a long stream of Q&A from fans to SpeedTV trying to see the GP LIVE...contractual commitments were butting heads, and as always, American F1 fans had to pound sand.
In the internet age, if you get the race live on TV, you can get real-time Timing & Scoring via the internet. This really enriches the experience for serious gearheads...say if your favorite racer is back in the pack, you can monitor his movement up through the field even though he's escaping the TV camera's view.
Alas, the sublime synch-up was not to be tonight. Fortunately, my guy was on the pole and never got below third place, so no come from behind drama was missed. As a matter of fact, my guy Sebastian Vettel finished third, and clinched his second World Driver's Championship in a row...with four races still to run!
As usual, I was pretty invested in the Japanese GP. I caught practices P2, P3, Qualifying and the race. Something bothered me this race weekend though...the sound. Suzuka Circuit is a favorite of F1 drivers, fast and sinuous, with sell-out crowds of engaged fans. In practice sessions, there's usually less cars on track at the same time, than is typical during the race. With less overall cacophony, you can hear each car. The cars sounded awful! Off throttle they sounded like Harley-Davidsons with straight pipes on trailing throttle. Ouch my ears!
This year's F1 cars are all employing "Blown Diffusers", aerodynamic body structures that accelerate the airflow away from the underside of the car at the rear. Most of the rear downforce on the car is generated by the diffuser. The Blown part was an in-season development by the teams that increase the efficiency of the diffusers. It works by rerouting the exhaust gasses into the diffuser itself, adding that little extra bit of airflow to the diffuser for that little extra bit of downforce. On the throttle it works like gangbusters.
It didn't work very well in the corners, where you need the most downforce, so the engineers devised an engine mapping solution where the throttle wouldn't close all the way when the drivers lifted, but the electronic engine control would still feed some fuel into the combustion chambers while turning the spark off. The air fuel mixture would pass through the engine, enhancing engine braking, only to ignite when it entered the hot exhaust headers, accelerating the exhaust gasses through the diffuser, creating more downforce just when it's most beneficial. What an elegant solution...that sounds awful!
The Japanese GP broadcast was provided to the world by NHK the Japanese Public Television Network in High Definition. For years I've been reading about how technically great Japanese TV is. I guess they don't spare a single Yen on their microphones either.
Blown diffusers will be illegal next season under the Sporting Regulations, so I'll only have to endure the aural assault for four more race weekends.
After the race and the champagne spraying podium ceremony, I restarted my Twitter feed and found an amazing story from Venezuela. In an effort to shame the wild drivers in Caracas' Sucre district into behaving like civilized motorists, The Caracas Police Department is deploying 120 mimes dressed in clown suits, white face makeup, and white gloves to wag their fingers at scofflaws!
You can't make this stuff up! I laughed out loud, and thanked God I wasn't having a beverage! Minus the potential spit take my mind raced...I imagined the Mime Corps in Al Capone's Roaring Twenties Chicago...oh the humanity...bu-bump, bu-bump...Brooklyn...Philly...comedy blood in the streets, Heaven Help Me!
Look out for that clown!
Good Night!
Even though my San Francisco Giants didn't make it into the Post-Season, I still like to watch September-October baseball when everything is on the line, and the best teams are playing their best ball. They don't call it the Fall Classic for nothing!
I wasn't paying that close of attention...I was having a ball on the internet watching the streaming snarkyness skewering the Occupy Wall Street protestors...that is until I saw the tarpaulins being pulled onto the diamond in a deluge! It wasn't that long until the ground crew was back on the field, rolling up the tarps. The skies opened up again, and the tarps were redeployed, and I began to worry that the ballgame might run late enough to interfere with the Grand Prix of Japan.
All up, the rain delay totaled 93 minutes, and the game didn't go into extra innings, so I was looking good Formula 1-wise. About 10 minutes before the Pre-Race, I tuned in SpeedTV. They were still showing something called The Bathurst 1000, a live Australian V8 Supercar road race from Bathurst, Australia. Speed had been hyping the event for a couple of weeks. It appeared to be running long, but it was entertaining.
It was running long! I looked at my racing Twitter stream...a long stream of Q&A from fans to SpeedTV trying to see the GP LIVE...contractual commitments were butting heads, and as always, American F1 fans had to pound sand.
In the internet age, if you get the race live on TV, you can get real-time Timing & Scoring via the internet. This really enriches the experience for serious gearheads...say if your favorite racer is back in the pack, you can monitor his movement up through the field even though he's escaping the TV camera's view.
Alas, the sublime synch-up was not to be tonight. Fortunately, my guy was on the pole and never got below third place, so no come from behind drama was missed. As a matter of fact, my guy Sebastian Vettel finished third, and clinched his second World Driver's Championship in a row...with four races still to run!
As usual, I was pretty invested in the Japanese GP. I caught practices P2, P3, Qualifying and the race. Something bothered me this race weekend though...the sound. Suzuka Circuit is a favorite of F1 drivers, fast and sinuous, with sell-out crowds of engaged fans. In practice sessions, there's usually less cars on track at the same time, than is typical during the race. With less overall cacophony, you can hear each car. The cars sounded awful! Off throttle they sounded like Harley-Davidsons with straight pipes on trailing throttle. Ouch my ears!
This year's F1 cars are all employing "Blown Diffusers", aerodynamic body structures that accelerate the airflow away from the underside of the car at the rear. Most of the rear downforce on the car is generated by the diffuser. The Blown part was an in-season development by the teams that increase the efficiency of the diffusers. It works by rerouting the exhaust gasses into the diffuser itself, adding that little extra bit of airflow to the diffuser for that little extra bit of downforce. On the throttle it works like gangbusters.
It didn't work very well in the corners, where you need the most downforce, so the engineers devised an engine mapping solution where the throttle wouldn't close all the way when the drivers lifted, but the electronic engine control would still feed some fuel into the combustion chambers while turning the spark off. The air fuel mixture would pass through the engine, enhancing engine braking, only to ignite when it entered the hot exhaust headers, accelerating the exhaust gasses through the diffuser, creating more downforce just when it's most beneficial. What an elegant solution...that sounds awful!
The Japanese GP broadcast was provided to the world by NHK the Japanese Public Television Network in High Definition. For years I've been reading about how technically great Japanese TV is. I guess they don't spare a single Yen on their microphones either.
Blown diffusers will be illegal next season under the Sporting Regulations, so I'll only have to endure the aural assault for four more race weekends.
After the race and the champagne spraying podium ceremony, I restarted my Twitter feed and found an amazing story from Venezuela. In an effort to shame the wild drivers in Caracas' Sucre district into behaving like civilized motorists, The Caracas Police Department is deploying 120 mimes dressed in clown suits, white face makeup, and white gloves to wag their fingers at scofflaws!
You can't make this stuff up! I laughed out loud, and thanked God I wasn't having a beverage! Minus the potential spit take my mind raced...I imagined the Mime Corps in Al Capone's Roaring Twenties Chicago...oh the humanity...bu-bump, bu-bump...Brooklyn...Philly...comedy blood in the streets, Heaven Help Me!
Good Night!
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