For the Gulf.

There are probably few things I would come to Rand Paul's defense on.  He's the Tea-Party nominee for Senate in Kentucky this year and he's 100% teabag.  In the middle of stupid prattle about how unfair we are to big business and how anti-American criticizing "free enterprise" is, he really drew outrage by suggesting that in the scheme of things, accidents happen and that despite working to fix the well and promising to make good on damage payments, BP is just becoming the dumping ground in the blame game.

While I can't say there is isn't blame to head BP's way on this...or Transocean's... or Halliburton's... or the Interior Department... or the state of LA....  the scale of this catastrophe is just too much.  Look at what is going on in the Gulf:

It's amazing it's taken this long.  What good does blame do?  What good is to now suddenly act shocked that left to its own for year after year, one government to the next, enormous corporations accumulate and reward excessive risk.  It's oil.  It's on all of us.

Please stop this well.  Hope and pray.   For my egrets.

About my new job, part 1

The blog began with me leaving a job, so it makes sense to relay a bit about the work I've ventured into.  My new employer is called Tenneco, and they are an auto parts supplier conglomerate of sorts.  They have two main businesses: exhausts (tailpipe to mufflers up to the engine) and suspension components (shocks and struts).  For each business they're the top American supplier and thus the bottom line is heavily tied to the Big 3.  I work with the exhaust side, which is all based in two buildings in Jackson County, MI.  My job is in Grass Lake, a tiny town right off of I-94 between Ann Arbor and Jackson.  25-minute door-to-door travel time for me, but a fair amount of miles every day.  Here's the as-the-car-drives-it commute for perspective:


View Commute TO Grass Lake in a larger map

So it's in the country.  Anyway, I still work on "diesel aftertreatment".  That's the specialized niche I've been in since I left locomotives and worked at International Truck.   The premise is that diesel engines are under a steady tightening of regulations that are bringing all of their emissions in-line with modern gasoline cars by 2013.  The first big new technology to enable this are "Diesel Particulate Filters" which are ceramic bricks that fit in the exhaust where the muffler would be and trap 100% of the black soot that diesel engines make.  For cars and trucks, these were mandated in 2007 and I've now worked on the first and second generations of this technology at my prior two employers.  The second new technology is called "NOx aftertreatment" which is a slightly-less-standardized technology to remove Nitrogen oxides from the engine exhaust.  Cars have had catalytic converters for decades to do this, but that technology will not work with diesels.  NOx causes smog in major cities and is poisonous in high-risk exposure.  So new systems were invented that use liquid urea sprayed into the exhaust to convert the NOx to harmless nitrogen.  These systems are just hitting the road now with cars and trucks and all engines must be all the way up to the regulations in the next couple of years.

So what's different than at GM?  Well, Tenneco is entering the business of selling complete aftertreatment systems to diesel engine makers to handle compliance with regulations.  While a huge company like GM develops the controls of system on it's own in it's own trucks, a smaller company that makes, say diesel forklifts or construction equipment doesn't have those resources.  So what I work on is intended to be a "bolt-on" system.  Right now I'm just working with the soot filters, but I have a project lined up later in the year for a NOx customer.

The technology is a little different at Tenneco.  With the soot filters the major challenge is how the soot is periodically cleaned out of the filter to prevent clogging.  This is called a "regen" and involves very high heat in the exhaust pipes, up to 1200 degrees.  Where GM uses extra fuel in the exhaust being oxidized in a ceramic catalyst to make the controlled heat while driving, Tenneco is offering a diesel fuel burner for the exhaust.  With an actual flame that I have to control - actually quite similar to that within a jet engine.  The advantage is that a burner can make heat without any changes to the operation of the engine.  So we keep our hands off of our customers engines and just work with the exhaust.

Here's a picture of the system, without any particular labeling, on the back of my Japanese forklift (counterweight removed).  It has new challenges to me and I think it's interesting work.  The way we're implementing a burner, it is the first of it's kind in the industry.

Work is boring, so enough for now... More to come

Furniture, part 7.

Nice days bring a change in attitude. Funny how it just takes a little bit to get the ball rolling. Stop thinking so negatively about things overwhelming you, and just making the most of each day - lining up the little projects that make your home a nicer place. I've done some work on my deck. A bunch in my garden-like areas. And of course, there's the garage.

I picked up a project I started back in December. It's like a bookcase merged into a dresser for upstairs. The design in my head was intended to complement the bed, which of course was a huge success a couple years back. Well, I have since added fancy tools and a much improved workshop. So I'm giving it a try as a earnest foray into what could be called cabinetry, as it will involve sliding drawers. A first try for me. Here's some pics in progress.

Start with a sketch and a neighborhood lumberyard...

Then dust things up with the miter saw...

Fire up the biscuit joiner (hey that's new!) and of course the palm sander and it's glue-up time...

Then it's a whole bunch of junk from the hardware store, some semi-careful measuring and it starts looking like furniture.

Norm from This Old House he'd be...  well... he wouldn't exactly be proud.  But if I gave him a six-pack of micro brew to drink in the corner of the garage while I did this he'd probably have something positive to say about my handiwork.   Eventually...  In between drunken slurred rants about the SAWKS and how they're WICKED GOOD this year.  Then he'd fire up the table saw and cut a bunch of fingers off and say something about "how 'bout them apples".   Then Richard the plumber and Roger ("Rawjahh") the landscaper would have to drag him to the hospital again....  Oh dear, my This Old House delusions are back!  help.

Music videos - they still exist...

And I can't stop watching this new one.  

A blog soldiers on

I'm not sure how to pick up this blog again.  So I'll just be random until I can find a way to write naturally (and interestingly) about my life.  I mean if I were unemployed and taking motorcycle journeys all over the world I probably wouldn't need any help.  But lets face it...  I am what I am.

There was food...

... right, and then there was the night I made the seafood gumbo and the cornbread.  With my notes from cooking school.  That came out real good.

That's called making a roux.  Fortunately for me I had a sous-chef that evening.

Et voila.

  That was a fun weekend.  One thing I remember was that meal.  Another was a guy who took my dopey enthusiasm for the BBC series "Top Gear" and one-upped it (times ten) with the story of how he and his brother went to Vietnam and rented Vespas and rode from Saigon to Ha Long, just like on the show's awesomest coolest (and least automotive) episode.  Yeah, that guy and the memory of how different and generally unpleasant my city is walking home across downtown at exactly 2AM Saturday in the middle of the semester.

Thanks for the visit Sister-Molly.  Evidently my old house is a bit drafty...

A Birds Nest

At the bottom of my stairs in my living room there is a window. It faces south, with a view of a tree (more of a bush really) that scraggily grows in the planter bed between the house and the driveway. The tree isn't much special, but it is healthy and has grown together with the similarly-sized, prettier-leaved, but slightly disease-stricken tree/bush across the driveway. Together they form a very nice arch over my driveway. And that's about all I ever thought of it, until this Spring when out this window I notice a bird's nest. With a robin parked in it. Hm. It's a shame that my first thought when I see birds nests is "well, I'm going to have to get the ladder and a garbage bag..." Yeah, not sure where that comes from. Anyway - this nest is right outside the window - like a foot. And the lady robin, whose name is Rosie, really doesn't seem all that upset by me in the window. She kind of stares at me, not moving too much.

 

Anyway, I'm distracted these days and to be honest, I very seldom think about birds. I sort of take them for granted - they're around. They don't get in my way, they don't jump in front of me on the road, they seem to come and go in the winters but not all of them. Some of them stay and are cold. I mean, really neat birds like the Sandhill cranes I see at my job - those I usually will admire and "appreciate". But I think its just because they have long legs. Why do they have long legs? I guess it's not just birds but nature around me in general - it's there but it's not part of my life. I don't bother it, it doesn't bother me. All this is my way of saying that while I noticed the robin and the nest so close outside my window it never occurred to me why the robin made a nest. It's not a place for her to sleep - or to have dinner worms with her husband (whose name is Jerry Seinfeld). No, its where they have baby robins. Ohhhh. Right. That's what those little puffing balls of tiny are under her in there. A-ha.

Good thing I have a camera. For science.

Introspective, in handy bullet-point form

It's Sunday night and I start my new job tomorrow morning, so I'd better put whatever remaining punctuation down on the New Orleans "Spring Break" trip there is bouncing around my head.  Here goes, at random:

• I didn't expect to make it all the way to Michigan on the bike.  I expected to stop somewhere in Tennessee and figure out a way to get it in the back of a u-haul.
• Yes, I had been planning to go to New Orleans to buy the Triumph.  I had my heart set on this bike for a while and was scouting out places that had this model (1) in-stock to satisfy my silly need for instant gratification (2) on sale as leftover 2009 (3) in a climate where I could expect a March test-ride and (4) east of the rockies.  There were options in suburban Dallas, suburban Houston and suburban Tampa.  And down-freakin'-town New Orleans. Let's see... yep.  Easy choice.
• Why a Triumph?  I don't know, maybe you can blame this guy.

• I didn't buy this bike for long-distance touring.  It's pretty stupid for that.  The vast majority of my riding is within 1 hour of my home, and it should be just fine at that, thank you much.
• That said, I really enjoy traveling on two wheels - you feel more like a traveler everywhere you go, even on the nights you're a shill using your fancy points at the corporate hotel chain.  I may even need to consider adding a more-fitting machine to pursue this beyond my weekend jaunts in the upper midwest on the Street Triple.  But that brings me to a key lesson-learned.  Things happen slower on a bike.  Back roads happen more than highways and anything but interstates.  Small towns and stretch-breaks happen more.  These are all good things.  But if I'm ever going to carve the canyons in California, I'm going to need six weeks off work.  At least.
• I said this after my GM trip last summer across the western states ending in Seattle.  I need to get a better camera and learn how to use it.  The Canon Powershot is a fantastic tiny point-and-shoot.  It fits in my pocket and can power-on and take a decent blur-protected shot in 3 seconds.  But it just simply doesn't do the scenery justice.  A digital SLR and a good-enough lens kit are serious money, but I think it's gonna be worth it.
• The next point, one any reader must be thinking, is that I'm going to have take someone along on my next trip so I have something else to take pictures of other than that stupid bike.  Sharp-looker though it may be... 
• I still struggle with seizing the moment and forcing people into my pictures - even if I'm thinking it, I'm still usually too shy to impose.  Objects and scenery are easy to picture but sometimes a face or two makes a better memory.  Something to work on I guess, and as someone once reminded me, probably the reason there are professional photographers in the world.
• After safely riding north out of all the "gunrack"-associated states and sitting home on my couch, I allowed myself to re-watch Easy Rider today.  Take it away, Jack...

• I liked writing about traveling here.  I think I might even have a few followers, which is neat.  I'd probably have done this just for myself but all the better if I can communicate a bit more than I have in the past.  I'd like to continue the blog in some form.  But I'm not sure what it'll be like.  I might take some time to think about it.
• The trip to New Orleans and the ride home had their minor breakthroughs, but I still struggle a bit with spontaneity and openness alone on the road.  I want to be a better traveler (not that I think I'm a *bad* traveler) but it's hard to do.  I think it has to start in the approach to day-to-day life, because at least on a two-week getaway, I can't just switch off my mood when I hit the road.  It stays with me for a while and maybe keeps me from being the adventurous-Andy or sociable-Andy that exists in my head.  And that's about all the introspective I care to be about that.
• End on a happy note: Egrets! Gumbo! Schwinn! Croissants! Abita! Dogs! Motorcycle!

View Spring Break 2010 - Ride Home in a larger map

Catching up - to the end

Friday was the last and warmest day in the midwest March warm-up week.  I did the ride home from Lake George in as straight a shot as I would do on a bike.  After 7+ days and 1850 miles in the saddle of a machine the manufacturer classifies as "urban sports", I'm ready for a break.  And, despite the warm sun, the west wind is really kicking today, steady over 25mph.  Also, as I roll US-12 through the Irish Hills, I'm watching a pile of sand roll by in the centerline of each lane.  I am in Michigan, after all, and it is still technically winter.  So it's an easy ride.  Tons of bikes were out on US-12.  Eventually the left-hand-salute that I always exchange with passing riders gets annoying , as just about every other bike out is a Harley and most (but definitely not all) of these guys see a non-Harley rider in proper protective gear and usually ignore them as if they were driving a Hyundai.  Anyway, home-again home-again, yippie.  Didn't honestly think I'd make it this far on the bike when I started out but it all worked out.  Lucky me because the weather Saturday turned to typical March gloom and chill.

View Spring Break 2010 - Day 14 in a larger map

Catching up - with family

Crossing Indiana on Wednesday and Thursday meant I could spend a couple nights with my family.  First stop was Wednesday outside Spencer at the Owen-Putnam State Forest where my Uncle Bill is the property manager.   It's several years too many since I've visited Bill and I got to catch up with his garage project.  He's been completely restoring rebuilding a '58 Corvette to authentic standards and is getting closer to the end.  It's a beautiful car and the effort he's put into the details (those window crank mechanisms got me) shows how this a long-term labor of love.  Or something like that - I'm sure he'd have a few other adjectives to describe the relationship...  Anyway, it's patience and persistence I've never had for mechanical work and I admire it.  The dashboard and windshield are set to go on, and with the window crank project, the doors will be ready too.  That pretty much makes it a car, and it will turn heads.

As a bonus, I also got to visit with my cousin Natalie there.  She's been staying at Bill's the last few months since moving jobs in December.  She left her communications position at Purdue's Engineering school to come over to IU into what is interesting new work for her in the newly-forming School of Public Health.  It's very exciting for her coming back to Bloomington and her alma mater, and, importantly, just as exciting for her husband Mike since they started out together there.  These days, however, are a bit tricky since she has to be away from Mike and the two boys back in Lafayette each week until they can make the move.  But if there's a better young family at dealing with this, I haven't met them.  Anyway, I got a chance to catch up on all the details of her move that I missed when I saw her back at Christmas.  Bill was a fantastic host, as always, grilling us some big pork chops and of course his signature roasted potato dish.

I intend to get back Bill's way this year so I can ride those southern Indiana roads again, and hopefully bring him and his Harley along.  From there it was the longest ride of the trip up to Grandma's house at Lake George.  Well worth it for the always-good home-cookin, which on Thursday was a roast along with mashed potatoes, asparagus, baked apples, and **Irish Soda Bread** (for St Patty's).   She also invited my Uncle Bob over, and I got to show the bike off to him and Laurie and her granddaughter, Tenacity.  Bob and Laurie have worked in Angola, IN for my new employer Tenneco for many years.  Their plant is under a different division, but still it's pretty neat that we'll be "coworkers" now.  It was a kick to talk about that and I think the little Triumph might have even impressed the ol' Harley guy!

Grandma and I went out for a nice breakfast on Friday morning before I hit the road.  She's eager for Spring, and we put out a few Easter decorations to help the season along.  She'll have some company from my Uncle Jim and Aunt Lorna to look forward to this weekend, and then I'll be back on Easter.  I probably won't be riding the bike that weekend, however.  I think Grandma liked it, even if it means one more boy to worry about!

Catching up - "Back home agaaaaiiinnnn..."

Wednesday AM is a bridge crossing at Owensboro into Indiana.  The Ohio is looking pretty angry right now.  Lots of logs and debris blasting by under the bridge, and some flooding on the uninhabited Indiana bank.  Also cool to ride over top of a tug pushing six barges of coal up-river against the muddy torrent.  Was very optimistic about the ride today, knowing that areas around the Ohio river provide superior road topography than most other locales in the Midwest.  Also, knowing that the ride would end with family and no hotel!  Set out for IN-66 east out of Tell City and into Hoosier National Forest.  This was the best road on the trip, as it had some serious combinations of elevation and directional change.  Pavement was in good enough shape and there didn't seem to be much sand.  Also, once in the forest the tree canopy was quite nice, and I can only imagine what it'd be like in the fall.  And there were no other vehicles!  Great!  What could be better?  Well, I soon found the reason I was the only one on IN-66 that morning when it returned to the bank of the river at Rome:

I suppose I probably should have made a better interpretation of this sign fifteen miles back:

Oh well, there were far worse things than running that stretch a second time in the opposite direction.  And it gave me a chance to experience IN-145 north from Tell City to Birdseye which was nearly as good a road.  It didn't quite have the dare-devil hills that the river road had but it did have fantastic pavement, no traffic and great 40-60mph twisties.  And no floods!  Followed that road north along to the resort town of French Lick.  I was hoping for some Larry Bird -commemorative stuff to photograph in French Lick, as that is what I always thought the appeal of this town was.  But it turns out it's a cute little resort town.  Whatever.  Sun is out beautifully now, so I can shed some layers and continue on toward Bloomington.  I try for some very minor roads out of French Lick which require me to slow way down in spots when gravel covers the road, and I did get a little lost, but the payoff is some nice southern Indiana scenery.

Anyway, I find highway 37 near Orleans and make tracks on the slab north since I'm running late.  I do make a quick stop in Bloomington to see the IU campus again on this beautiful day.  Couldn't take enough time to find a good photo spot of all the great limestone in the sun, so I had to settle for the law school right off the main gate and Kirkwood Ave.  It was Spring Break, btw.

Now just a quick ride to Bill's house in Spencer.  Thursday morning was another late start, as the clear night put a coat of frost on the bike in the morning!  But again the sun was out and things warmed up nice.  The ride on Thursday across Central and Northeast Indiana was not much to write about.  The whole way north on IN-13 was a battle with a steady 20mph crosswind.  I learned riding on the leeward side of the road that this is where semi-trucks have their most unsettling aerodynamic impact on the bike.  When they blast by the other way and cut the crosswind, it can be a little scary.  And if Indiana has a lot of something, it's wide-open corn fields and semi trucks.

Ended up the day riding through Amish country and Shipshewana, where I caught peak rush hour for the buggies.  East finally with the wind at my back on good old IN-120 to Lake George.  Here's the only ride picture from Thursday, the ubiquitous Indiana county-seat courthouse.  This one is in Wabash.

View Spring Break 2010 - Day 12 in a larger map


View Spring Break 2010 - Day 13 in a larger map

Catching up - riding to Kentucky

OK, well a few days behind as the trip winds to an end here.  One reason is I got away from the internet for a couple of days.  The other is blogger's block.  Good enough?  OK - so I left Jackson, TN Tuesday morning in the cool air and thick clouds that would hang all day.  This was the coldest day on the ride and it even scared me a bit in northern Tennessee (is there a "northern" part of this state?) when spits of rain went on and off.  The road never got wet, but I knew with temps just below 50, any water would put me out of the safe-riding wind chill range even with my gear.  I was layered up these days, with a t-shirt, a thermal, a long-sleeve shirt, then all three layers of the jacket (outer nylon, wind/water shell, quilty liner) - and similar layering on the pants.  I had a thin-but-helpful balaclava under the helmet mainly to keep the wind off the neck.  The rest of the head was OK under the helmet.  But still I had to tuck in most of the day to stay warm.  This would improve greatly when the sun arrived in Indiana.

A cold day at Tennessee River

I rode up the "trace" through the Land-Between-the-Lakes, which splits the dammed-up Tennessee and Cumberland Rivers from TN into KY.  I had the road all to myself and got some pleasant turns in the southern half of the park before it flattened out in Kentucky.  Grabbed some chili to warm up in Eddyville, KY and hit the back roads around and over to Owensboro.  Decent riding, but I'm sure Kentucky has much better to offer further east in the real hill country.

Owensboro was my last hotel night, and I decided to go with a points stay.  I booked it the night before real quick without checking that all they had left was a smoking room.  Ugh.  I kept it to save a hundred bucks cash, but man what a great use of all those miserable work nights earning points.  Owensboro, KY in a smoking room.  At least it was recently-remodeled and so there was only a couple months of cancer embedded in the mattress.  Also, dumpy hotel had no laundry which was my goal for the morning while I waited for the outside temps to warm up.  So I got to experience a coin-op laundry in Kentucky, with numerous pass-by visits from two large women walking a young boy... on a leash.

View Spring Break 2010 - Day 11 in a larger map