RWO

I am a new grandpa

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 08:56:43 GMT

Tonight, or should I say this morning I am a grandpa. Kevin Randy Morales was born right after midnight tonight and weighed 8 Lbs, 6 Ounces. Judy went in last night at 8 PM. They were going to induce labor. I hung around until I found out that they were not going to start until about 10:30 PM and visiting hours for grandparents is from 9 AM to 9 PM each day. So I came home and slept down stairs so I would hear the phone if they called.

This morning I went ahead and bought some breakfast for Carlos and got there at 9 AM. They still had not induced labor as every time she had a contraction his heart rate would slow. About 1 PM he sort of got the hang of things and so about 2:30 the gave here the shot to induce labor.

Kevin did not want to cooperate and so they had to give her another shot to slow down the labor.I stayed until about 7 PM and by then my back was giving me fits. Also I started falling asleep as i did not sleep well yesterday. Rose was there and we were really hoping the baby would be born on the 28th which is Rose's 50th birthday.

Anyway since they were not expecting her to go in to labor and since i was going to have to leave at 9 I left about 7;30 and headed home. I immediately put my back massage thing on and massaged my lower back and legs and fell asleep on the couch. I was talking to Laila as I was catnapping and was waiting for Judy or Carlos to call.

About 11 PM Judy called to say they were going to try and induce again and then she called back about 11:30 to say that Kevin was not cooperating again. At 11:45 or so she called to say they were going to do a c-section and I told her i would head for the hospital. She told me to stay home as they would only let Carlos be there as he is the father.

At 12:25 Carlos called and said the baby was born and Judy and the baby are fine. So now I guess I will have to wait until tomorrow morning at 9 to get some pictures and see who I get to bring home, as well as finding out when judy and Kevin can come home.

I am glad it is all over and now I am looking forward to them all getting back to the house, though i am not looking forward to the loss of sleep i will be getting as my room is next to theirs.

I would like to thank God for looking after them and keeping them safe and I am looking forward to being an active grandfather. I will try and post some pictures tomorrow.

Started good but turned not so good

Fri, 14 Aug 2009 02:59:17 GMT

Well this morning I was in a good mood. I got out of bed early, got out of the shower early, and got downstairs a little early. I was able to update stuff in four of my online games and Laila and I got our prayers done. So it was starting out to be a great day.

Since I am starting DAMA today and the first three lessons are on power point I figured I would do the intro today and let them loose for the day so I could finish up the lesson 4 power point which I will not be teaching until Monday.

I got here a little early and lit off the lab. I updates out lab light off procedures yesterday and my new sheet for lighting off the simulator and Master Control Station worked really well with no bugs at all.

I then lit off the bays. Yesterday I was having a huge problem with number 5 but it came right up this morning. In fact 3, 5, and 7 all came up really quick and 8 was being fussy. It took an hour and a half to come up. I then started bouncing some things around in my head about that situation and now that I remember some of the history, the last bay and it can be any of the four always takes forever to come up. So now I am thinking that it might have something to do with our software. It can not be the bays themselves and I do not think it can be the Master Control Station so I am thinking maybe something is limiting us in the software. I am afraid to mess with that or I might take the whole lab down, so I will just continue to have patience until ET1 Moore and I can look at the software.

I was just lighting the lab off so I could show them what the overall system looks like with everything on and talking back and forth so it was not that big a deal. I will just have to come in a little earlier on lab days to make sure it all comes up before the students get here in the morning.

I got through this morning lecture. It was a long one as the new curriculum combined the first four lessons into one large lesson. It took up the whole morning, but it was a bunch of fun to be teaching again.

I then sent them home and then tried to open up the power point I found yesterday a guess what. I opened it up and it said click to add slide. In other words that power point is blank so I have to go back home and find the real one that I was working on. And it had better be there or I am going to be really angry at myself.

So the boss just came through and old us we could go home for the day, great news, so I will go home and look for and then work on that file for Monday.

I hope I did not delete something

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 22:48:32 GMT

Life can be frustrating at times. Especially, when it comes to computers and where I put stuff. Well frustrating for me anyway.

A while back I corrupted my operating system on my laptop. I downloaded a video viewing file and even though it said it was going to mess with my Active X and asked me if I was sure I wanted to do it, I said yes and immediately got a virus, or so I thought.

I had recently loaded Norton 360 Antivirus on the laptop in place of McAfee. I removed the McAfee but as I found out later some of it had remained and was fighting with my Norton 360 and causing me problems.

I went ahead and was going to load Windows 7 on the laptop so I backed up all my files to my PC. I then later after Laila's son straightened out the laptop went ahead and just kept my XP.

So I had all my work power points backed up on the PC and my PC at work. The PC at work died a couple of weeks ago as I blogged about. And I thought I copied all the power points back over to the laptop.

Today we tested out of the WSC-3 and will be starting DAMA tomorrow. The guy I have been observing asked me to teach the First DAMA class and he would teach the second one once he felt a little more confident.

After they tested out I came over and checked out all the DAMA equipment for proper operation and then broke out the laptop to review the lessons, but my new DAMA power points are not on the laptop. I do have the first two new lessons on the DAMA classroom computer but the other new lessons are not here.

I am worried that I might have accidentally lost them while transferring stuff, and that would be awful. I put a lot of time into some of them, especially the operation of the unit power point. So the first thing I will do when I get out of here for the day is go home and look for those files.

I have everything I was using to make the power points on the laptop. All the pictures are here. The IG is here. The old power points are here. If I overwrote those files I will kick my own butt. It is not that I can't teach the lessons or anything. I just put in a ton of work to make these power points really simplify a few difficult areas of the course.

Well time to get the classroom the rest of the way ready for tomorrow.

I am safe. I came home and did some checking. There was a file I forgot to copy so I am all set now, thank God.

The weekend is almost here

Thu, 06 Aug 2009 22:46:52 GMT

The end of the week is almost here and I can not wait. The period between the July 4^th weekend and Labor Day weekend is always a bad time for me. It is the middle of summer making it hot and uncomfortable. Then there are no holidays to break up the monotony.

I guess I could have maybe scheduled some vacation time but our class schedule right now is such that I will not be able to take the time off so I really value the weekends during the summer.

At least I am fortunate enough to work in an air conditioned building so that makes things a little better. I could hardly imagine how bad it would be should the air conditioning go out with all the equipment lit off and operating.

So now as the end of the week approaches I usually feel really run down. I know I do now and I still have the rest of today and tomorrow to look forward to. I have been resting a lot more when I get home in the evening. I have set most of the stuff I play on the internet to allow me to stay away from the PC for a while and I set the volume controls on Skype so that I can still talk to Laila.

Tonight is crap night on TV with nothing worth watching on any of the networks. I wonder what happened to Thursday night primetime TV. It used to be the best night of the week and now it is just crap. Wednesday�s have pretty much went that way too with nothing but game shows and competitions. Friday and Saturday are rerun nights of the bas stuff that was shown during the week.

I guess they have decided that ratings do not count any more. Maybe it is time for some of the sponsors to look at what shows they are sponsoring and maybe transfer their advertising to another network. If I were spending millions of dollars on network advertising I would much rather sponsor a rerun of �NCIS� than �Blind Date� or some of the other crap being served up during prime time.

Well I guess I have complained enough for the day. Lunch time is almost over and it is time to get back to work.

Ouch

Wed, 05 Aug 2009 22:45:36 GMT

Well another work day is here. Today we will give them the Receiver test and then start on the overall transceiver performance tests. I hope it will be a light day as yesterday I did another no no.

On my way home I went grocery shopping and they had a sale on some dog food our dogs like. I bought a huge bag of it and I am a bit sore this morning after fighting to get it into the grocery cart. Carlos carried it in from the car and David loaded it into the car, but when I bought it there was nobody to help so I wrestled with it myself.

At least it is just a bit sore and not really injured. After the store run I really did not feel like doing much of anything when I got home. I kind of panicked when I first got home. David was at work and Judy�s car was not there when I drove up so I though I would have to unload my car all by myself.

I went to unlock the door and discovered Carlos was home so I was lucky. We got everything in the house just as Judy drove up so she helped us put everything away.

The morning test and troubleshooting is done and now the afternoon is upon me. We are a few days ahead so we let the class go for the day and I took the first part of the lunch period to go ahead and take care of a few minor problems. We had a few transceivers that needed some minor adjustments. So that is all taken care of.

I have a weird rack problem that I was looking at and it looks like we have a wiring problem from the J3 transceiver cable to the Junction box on the rack. I have the -12 VDC coming from the radio coming out of J3 but it is not getting to TB1 Pin 18 of the rack. I am only getting -2VDC so that tells me I have a break somewhere in between. I am not sure if it is going through any of our fault switches or not. We tried to trace it out but we have several black wires, none of them labeled or course so it is going to be a job that we will have to do when we have more time.

We can us the rack for right now so I will wait until we get into antennas before taking everything apart. I do not want to do it right now as I need that particular bay for the class. I would have to put it back together at the end of each troubleshooting session soit is better to wait for right now.

Last night was finally a half decent night for television. We watched �Hell�s Kitchen� and then �America�s Got Talent�. I find it funny that people who make severe blunders in the kitchen are always pointing the fingers at some of the others. Last night the lady they voted off was very deserving. She has screwed up every week since this season started and it was finally her time to go.

On the other side they brought back someone from last season that left for medical reasons. He was in contention last season when he left, but this season he is really blowing it. Oh well, such is the drama of the show.

�America�s Got Talent� had some acts that I did not believe should have gotten this far and they voted off a few that I thought should have gotten through. They are having two acts a show that they voted off come back for a second chance and I am interested to see which of the acts get to come back.

A few of the acts change their program so much that the act was totally different and would have kept them from getting this far. I like the magic act and the country singer. I was turned off by the group of drag queens. There are also far too many groups this year. The guys on roller skates are OK I guess, but all the basketball acts and cheerleader acts are a little annoying.

Well darn, lunch break is about over and it is time to find something to do. I will figure something out to keep me busy.

New games

Tue, 04 Aug 2009 22:43:32 GMT

Sorry folks I did not blog yesterday. I was planning to but by the time I got done loading faults in the transceivers and taking care of minor technical glitches the class was here and it was time to roll right into the work day.

I would like to congratulate the folks who have been selected for promotion to Chief Petty Officer. The results are out and now the fun and games begin. Have fun folks.

Things are going well at home. Over the weekend I spent some time cleaning upstairs and got all my ironing done. It was hot and it took a lot out of me so Sunday afternoon I kind of took a break from the PC and the games and just laid down on the couch and watched TV. I feel a little bit more rested this week over last week, but then it is only Tuesday.

These Facebook games are fun but they are also a pain at times. All of them have one theme. The more people you link to the better your chances and the more advantages you get. Along with inviting people you do not know comes the flooded e-mail in box, the many people that ask how do you know me?, and having to constantly invite people to be your buddy.

Laila, Judy and Carlos are really into it so I guess I will have to continue to play. Besides I am moving up quickly. Not as fast as Judy but I think she is playing at work.

Well the folks are starting to show up so I had better get this closed up.

My Condolances to the people of the Philippines

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 10:20:07 GMT

I feel really bad tonight as I heard about the death of Cory Aquino. She was instrumental in getting rid of the Marcos regime in the Philippines and while her presidency was not a total success she did her best as a housewife thrown to the wolves of politics.

When I served aboard USS Vancouver (LPD-2) I lived with Carlos Aquino, her nephew. He was my roommate when she toppled the Marcos regime and I have to tell you that man was one proud individual. He taught me alot about what was going on there and how she would fix things.

It was hard for her since when Marcos left the Philippines he also took the treasury with him, but she did her best. Most Philippine people still call her Tita Aquino which means Aunt Aquino.

The world lost a very important and very honest person when she passed on. She did not know how to be president and she admitted it, saying she was just a housewife.

But her people loved her and I am sure there is a ton of sorrow going on there. As Gloria Arroyo keeps trying to do everything she can do to stay in power including changing the Constitution, Cory from her death bed opposed it.

God help the people of the Philippines and God, please welcome Cory into your kingdom.

My condolences go out to her family and all the people of the Philippines.

This morning was hard

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 06:04:11 GMT

This morning was one of those mornings when I could not seem to drag myself out of bed. I need to start going to bed earlier or something. Actually I did go to bed a bit early for me last night, but only about 15 � 20 minutes.

The clock went off this morning and I hit the snooze a couple of times. I then actually got out of bed and brushed my teeth. Than I looked at my watch and figured I could lay down for another five minutes. That turned into 15 minutes and so I was a little late getting online with Laila.

When I got downstairs and fired up the PC Skype was giving me fits but finally loaded. I had my coffee and we did our morning routine. I got out of the house on time, got to work a bit early and lit off all the equipment for the labs today. I have enough time to go get breakfast but on the way in today I started getting heartburn and feeling a bit sick so I will skip that. If I start feeling any worse I will maybe take a sick day. I drank some water and that seems to have calmed the stomach down.

It looks like the weather is going to be a bit cooler today. That will be great as it has been really hot here for about the past two weeks. I have not used the AC in the house yet this summer since we are trying to save a bit on electricity. I haven�t checked the bill for this month yet, but we have managed to cut it in half in the past three months and I owe that to the cooperation of the kids.

Laila had me sign up for another game last night and it is another one that I will not have time to play. It is one where you get more points as people sign up for it and I signed up so she could get her points but I will never have time to play it. I am already on game overload.

I think one of the reasons I am so tired is that I was taking a nap for an hour or so when I came home the past few weeks. Now I have been coming home and going straight to the PC to get caught up on the games. I need to get that nap back into my schedule.

Last night my long awaited new week of �Hell�s Kitchen� came on and all the fire trucks and stuff were staged as part of the next chore. Both teams on the show need to start working as a team. We then watched �America�s Got Talent� and it was quite the disappointment. Rather than show any acts it had the judges eliminating folks. Judy stopped watching and went to her PC. After it was obvious there would be no acts I turned it off and watched �NCIS� which I had recorded on the DVR. It is a shame when a rerun gets more interest in the household than a new episode of something.

Yesterday I blogged about how the networks are just putting crap on. How many versions of these dating games do we have to be subjected to? I don�t watch them but now you have one where people meet in the dark, last night was one for overweight folks. Enough all ready with the dating games, I don�t believe anyone watches them anyway.

Well folks are starting to show up now so I had better get ready to start the work day. I usually get here about half an hour before everyone else does because I hate being late. It also gives me time to get everything prepared for what I am going to do that day. Now that everyone is coming in I have to get this closed up and get ready for the work day which actually does not start for another 15 minutes. I just have this as a normal habit that I have carried on since my Navy days. Better to be an hour early than 1 second late. So let me get this saved and get ready for the work day.

Bad timing

Wed, 29 Jul 2009 06:51:45 GMT

Last night I made a slight timing mistake on one of the new games Laila and Judy have me playing. It is a Facebook game called Farm Ville. It is a game where you prepare your land, plant your crops and then harvest them. What you plant will determine how long they take to grow and complete. You then have to harvest them before they rot on the vine.

Pumpkins take 8 hours so I plant them before I go to bed and they will be ready when I get up in the morning. Rice takes 12 hours so sometimes I plant that depending on how much time I will have.

Last night I planted some pumpkins and when I got up this morning I misjudged harvesting by 10 minutes. Since I usually give myself plenty of time to get to work I stayed and harvested them before I left the house. I still made it to work in time and all. I guess I will have to pay a little more attention on the time at night before I go to bed so I plant things on time.

So now I am here waiting for the students to get here so I can get started for the day. A couple students got in some trouble last week and have to go to a Disciplinary Review Board, so the guy I am sitting in on has to go to that, so I will be teaching today. That is cool as I hate sitting in. I will get to teach until he gets back anyway.

I guess that is about it for now. It is time to get ready for the students to show up.

It is lunch time now and I had a blast this morning teaching the PSK Detector, PSK Logic Receiver, and the AFC Sweep Module. It is such a drag sitting in and watching someone else teach something that you have been teaching for years. I guess it is all part of the job though so I have to live with it.

Tonight will be fun and I can hardly wait to get off work. First off we have finally started an offensive in the war game I play. I got tired of waiting on the other leaders so a fe of us got together and are attacking.

The other thing I am excited about is that I have been waiting for this weeks �Hells Kitchen� to come on and see what happened between that rude obnoxious guy and Chef Ramsay. Last week when they left off it looks as though they were heading towards the parking lot for a fight. Also in the next weeks episode thing they were showing fire trucks and all so it looks like someone caught the place on fire.

Network TV has gotten so boring lately and �Hells Kitchen� is one of the bright spots. What I also find sad is that everyone is heralding their Emmy nominations and the shows that they say have the most nominations are stuff I don�t watch. I have tried to watch stuff like �30 Something� and �The Office� but switched them off.

I am anxiously waiting for the new season of �NCIS�, �CSI�, �Dexter� and a few others. It seems that everything is either a game show, a singing or dancing competition, or a reality show. I get stuck watching them because my kids like them and there are no good alternatives.

I do like the �Amazing Race� and �America�s Got Talent�, but the rest are a waste of time. Some of it I just watch for background noise while I do my computer games with Laila.

The USA network has a few good shows like �Burn Unit� and that one about the doctor (The name evades me at the moment). A lot of the time I would rather watch reruns or the new USA shows than turn on the networks. I think USA is better than NBC and I think NBC owns the USA network. They should move some of those shows to the parent network.

HBO and Showtime have a few series but other than �Dexter� I don�t bother with them. Sometimes I think the pay stations just put on the grossest stuff they can because the networks can�t air some of it.

Well I suppose that is about it for today. This entry has managed to get quite lengthy and is covering too many different subjects. Laila always gets on me when I start talking about something and then end up writing something else. I hope everyone is having a great week.

Borders

Mon, 27 Jul 2009 23:26:06 GMT

This morning as I approached the gate there was absolutely no traffic at all. I thought there was a holiday that I did not hear about. No such luck though, it is a work day and some of the guys were already at work when I walked in.

So now it is the start of another work week and we are starting the receiver side of the radio. Last night I got a surprise phone call from one of my old High School buddies. He just moved to Oregon from Fresno. We talked about the old days a bit and hopefully once Laila gets here we will be able to drive up the coast and visit him.

I know I said I was not going to get political but something happened over the weekend that has me hopping mad. Friday night or maybe it was Saturday a border patrol agent was shot and killed chasing down some illegals. The Mexican authorities caught 4 guys in connection with the shooting and one of them even had the border patrolman�s weapon.

I did not follow the news enough to find out if Mexico was going to turn these guys over or not. Usually they will not as they do not turn over anyone that would be eligible for the death penalty. I guess we will see what happens with that in the next few days.

What makes me mad is that on the Local, State, and Federal level they are not deporting illegals when they catch them. If that is the case why do we even have a border patrol? Why are these people putting their lives on the line? What is the secret agreement our government seems to have with Mexico?

The government is broke cash wise at all levels. If they are not going to protect the sovereignty of the nation, a constitutional requirement by the way, then just disband the border patrol and save all the money that the organization costs us. Get rid of all border checkpoints and just set out a �Welcome to America� welcome mat. Set up welfare and Medicare booths at the border to make stealing benefits easier. Give them all a Social Security Card.

The government is doing all kinds of things that it is not empowered to do by the Constitution. Where does it say anything about taking over the auto industry, the banking industry, or providing health care? It does say our borders will be protected though. We are protecting the borders in Afghanistan and Iraq but not the borders of Texas, Arizona or California.

California is going through a huge financial meltdown but the Governator will not cut any benefits to illegals. What the heck is with that? There has to be some secret agreement with Mexico. People in congress must be making money off this somehow, or something would be done.

OK I am off my soap box now. I need to get this wrapped up and saved. It is time to get to work and earn my paycheck.