Why can't people just ATFQ?

(That's Answer The Fucking Question for those who didn't understand.)

 

I just finished a long, frustrating conversation with another city employee trying to get a straight answer to a simple question.  In my job I have to put restrictions on what people want to discharge to our system.  We have a major new building that needs to flush out their chilled water system and all I need is what maximum flow rate to give them.  This is about the fourth discussion I've had with him about this project; it's in an area that has some real capacity issues that won't be fixed until about 6 months from now.  Three times during this discussin with one of the city engineers I asked, "What maximum flow rate?"  And three times I didn't get a numerical answer.  Finally, when I suggested a number (x) he said, "Rather than that, give them x+100 GPM because that's what we promised them for normal operations."  Why the Fuck didn't you tell me that in a previous discussion?  Or one of the three times I asked during THIS conversation?

 

Urge to kill!

Field work

I'll be out in the field pretty much the rest of the week.  So if there are no posts, that's why.

 

A good decision out of SCOTUS on the Second Amendment.  Now come the endless lawsuits over what is a "reasonable restriction" on gun ownership.

Webber's aerial antics

It's a good thing my wife is out of town.  When Webber hit the back of Kovalainen's Lotus and went airborne I yelled out loud.  They were both at fault; luckily neither was injured.

When I was racing (and when I get back to it) I'm in the slowest class In my run group.  It's part of the slower car's driver's job to keep a close watch in his mirrors for overtaking cars.  BUT, almost every racing rulebook puts the onus on the overtaking driver to avoid contact.  To do that, he needs to know that the driver he's overtaking will hold his line.  Heikki didn't do that.

Both at fault, both out of the race, both cost.their teams an assload of money.

Mortality

That's what I'm pondering today.  Mrs. Bristol's dad will be coming home from the hospital tomorrow so he can die at home.  It really sucks, but it's been coming for some time now.  Mrs. Bristol has been there for almost two weeks and it looks like she'll be staying at least another week.  Her mom is really struggling, understandably and Mrs. B is doing her best to help where she can. 

When my dad went 8 years ago it was over in a couple of days, this has been going on since October.  She's on her 4th trip to the opposite corner of the country.  Meanwhile, her useless brother, who is only 2 hours by car, has only been there twice.  And those have been for less than 2 days each.  I almost wish I was there just to kick him in the add and tell him what a moron he is.

European GP

F1 designers are just figuring out that using the energy of the exhaust in a diffuser is good? Go to an SCCA autocross and take a look at the A Mod cars. These are cars designed by some guy in his garage and built on a budget that wouldn't support Scuderia Ferarri for a day, yet most of them use the energy of the exhaust.

Time to go back to the body shop

Mrs. Chart's car is done so I need ot go up and pick it up. When she gets back next week all evidence of her vehicular interaction with the fence will be gone (except for the hole in the checking account.)

Finally!

The official temp hit 75 yesterday. That hasn't happened since September last year, a new record. Might get there today too.

No photos today

I spent a good part of the morning doing phone updates and it didn't go as well as hoped. I spent some time on the line with Verizon Wireless and it looks like things are as they should be with the new handset, but only time will tell.

I could really use a nap to day too; though I went to sleep and got up at my normal times, I just don't feel rested.

Sunny!

It's sunny outside and that means I'll have to mow when I get home.  But it's in the 60s so it won't be too bad.

That pico de gallo really cleaned me out.   Starlets pay big money for a cleansing like I got, maybe I should buy it in bulk and go into business.

Continued attack

The pico de gallo is tearing me up, but damn it's tasty.

Incendiary

I got some kick-ass pico de gallo at a local carnecaria yesterday when I stopped in to get some chicharone and it's making me pay the price.

Phone

You may have noticed that the photos are back in portrait orientation.  That's not because I figured out how to do it,  but because I have a replacement phone.  I finally managed to get to a Verizon store while it was acting up and got a warranty replacement.   The new phone still has the old OS so photos are stored in the orientation the phone was in when taken.

A cool, wet Spring

That's what we've had here near Seattle.  We've set a record for the longest stretch without officially hitting 75 degrees.  And it doesn't look like we're going to hit that this week.  Right now at my house it's 53 and raining with a predicted official high of 62.  While many are complaining, I love it personally.

NASCAR road racing

I love watching the Sprint Cup guys run around a road course like they are doing at Infineon Raceway this weekend.   Unlike years ago,  most of them are actually pretty good.   You used to be able to pretty much predict which of a few drivers would win, but now there's much more parity.

It's too bad that NASCAR throws a fill-course caution for what should be a local yellow.  There are elementary school kart racers out there who understand local yellows, aren't these bubbas smart enough?

Top Chef is back~

And Tom and Padma.  While Kelly Choi is cute and bubbly, she just doesn't hold a candle to Padma.  And by the way, motherhood seems to agree with her; she has reached MILFdom!

Late start this morning

I sept in this morning until 0930.  Last night I took Mrs. Chart to the airport and put her on the redeye to the east coast.  She'll be at her parents' for about two weeks.  It'll be quiet around the house, just me and the cat.

You hear the lonesome whippoorwill

He sounds too blue to fly

The midnight train is whining low

I'm so lonesome I could cry.

 

 

Monday!

Yep, it was a Monday all day.  Now I'm exhausted and ready for some scotch.

Mission (mostly) Accomplished

I mostly fulfilled my plan yesterday. Would have completed in full if Mrs Chart hadn't said, "I'm out of x, y, and z, you need to go grocery shopping." I do essentially all the shopping and cooking; trust me, it's better that way.

One of the things I watched was qualifying for the GP of Canada. Almost a RBR front row again!

Lazy Saturday

My plan today is to pretty much do nothing but watch TV and play WoW.  I took yesterday afternoon off and did about 5 hours of home repair work.  I plan on getting a dumpster in and de-crapping in the next couple of weeks.  Then over the spring/summer a new driveway, front walk, water supply line and a large shed.  Then I can move the race car out of the garage and stop renting the storage unit.  Oh yeah, I need to paint the house too...

Weather!

Actually had some exciting weather around here yesterday afternoon. I live in what's called the Puget Sound Convergence Zone, the area north of Seattle where the prevailing winds that come in off the Pacific and split around the Olympic Mountains tend to come back together. So we tend to have more dynamic weather than the rest of western Washington. But yesterday was really active.

We had a couple of thunderstorm systems come through that were worthy of living in the southwest desert or even the Great Plains. At one point when I was driving home from work the wipers were on high, I was driving <20 mph and could barely see the road in front of me. There were cars that had been driven too fast through deep water in intersections stalled out along the side of the road, or in the middle of those deep waters, there may have been some hail in the deluge, but I couldn't tell. I couldn't hear the radio over the pounding of water on the car. It was REALLY cool!

We might get some more of that today, we'll see.

Edited to add:

I talked with the City's Surface Water folks to see what the actual intensity was. I was told we got 0.84" of rain in 19 minutes (or 2.65"/hr). No wonder the storm drains couldn't keep up.

Battling the Green Monster

I battled the green monster that was my lawn yesterday afternoon, and won!  There were places where the grass was nearly knee-high, but my Troy-Bilt mulching mower just plowed right through it - though I did have to slow down at times to give the blade time to do its magic.

 

Shortly after I finished, it started raining again and has been raining ever since.  So I hit the sweet spot to get it done.  The last time I mowed was just before I left for Phoenix about 3 weeks ago.  I try to not let it go more than a week or so, but travel combined with rain every day I was home kept me from mowing.  Next step, pave the whole damned yard!

Some thoughts on Vegas

I had no choice about when I took my latest trip to Las Vegas.  I was there to help spread a relative's ashes in the desert and that's when his wife wanted to do it.  Had I a choice, Memorial Day Weekend wouldn't have been it.

 

The signs of the economic downturn were everywhere.  The Lady Luck is still closed; Binion's has closed its entire tower - though the casino is still open; an entire wing of the D Terminal at McCarren is closed; lots of empty storefronts.  Even with that, the tourist areas were packed.  There were a lot of things going on over the holiday weekend; the WSOP was getting rolling, there was a major UFC bout, a holiday weekend with associated shows, and a casting event for Jersey Shores - you'd have thought an Oompa Loompa convention was in town with all the orange people around the Mirage.

 

I did manage to get together with some friends and got to see Gloria Gaynor on Fremont Street.  Spent a lot of time people-watching.  And I even walked away up; gambling balance leaving was up ~$35!

Turkish GP

OK, finally watched it.

I love Turn 8!  I want to drive Turn 8!  Anyone willing to fly me there and rent me a formula car so I can drive Turn 8?

That said, both Webber and Vettel are morons.  The number one rule of professional motorsports is, "Never take out your teammate!"  Yeah, Vettel was quicker and Webber should have made the pass easier.  And Vettel should have waited a couple of turns until he could do it cleanly.  So, a pox on both of them!

It is nice

To be home.  I really do enjoy traveling, but it's always nice to get home to my own bed.  Even if I'm returning to an overgrown lawn, a car that needs some work (a simple, but safety related problem), and a garage door opener that broke while I was gone.  Plus many hours of recorded TV including the Turkish GP, which I've managed to avoid hearing the outcome of.  I've watched practice & qualifying, now time to sit down and watch the race.  Coffee's done, gentlemen start your engines!

Too Damned busy

No time to write for this photo taken this morning.

Maybe tomorrow.

Back in the office

Trying to catch up with the pile that accumulated in the last week.  It was nice to get away, but the incoming stuff doesn't stop while I'm not here.

 

Also getting back to my normal eating habits.  Vegas has a way of seriously impacting good habits.  :-)

Last few hours

Last few hours  in Vegas, it will be nice to be home.  There are good friends here, but it's not where I belong.

Cell phone and restaurants

Rude people with cell phones on restaurants really hack me off.  Well, rude people in general but give a rude prick a cell phone and they become John Holmes.  I generally set mine to vibrate and ignore it.  If I'm expecting a call I'll look at it and if I need to take it (usually because it's Mrs. Chart), I get up and find a quiet place to talk so I don't bother other diners. 

This morning while eating breakfast I got to listen to a woman talk about her brother dying, a guy arguing with a business associate and some girl talking about not getting picked up last night.  Maybe I should have offered myself, but wasn't all that attractive and had really bad teeth.  Besides, I'm a happily married man, even if Mrs. Chart isn't here in Vegas with me.