Life in and around S.S.F.

This first on is about how a pro football player was shot three times by police. I’m absolutely sure every one will jump all over the police about it. No way will the pro football player accept any responsibility for his actions that escalated to the shooting.

Steve Foley, shot by police.

The second story is about an escapee that shot two officers. One has died. I’m absolutely certain that if the escapee is shot and killed, an investigation will be made into why lethal force had to be used.

New York State Trooper Shot by Escaped Convict Dies

I got a late voice mail on Friday. Basicially the last of three instruments started having problems. All three are down. They are Metrohm Titrators. Since we didn’t have plans for the night I decided to work late and see if I can get them going again. I got to work with nitric acid. Not being a chemist in the least, I was able to get some help from some lab people. I soaked all three probes and that didn’t help. After some testing I saw that the moisture value climbed when reagent was added. The moisture value is supposed to go down as reagent is added. I replaced the desiccant for the reagent, hydronal and reaction chamber. The desiccant is supposed to remove moisture from the air before it goes into the system. That seemed to take care of it. At least for two of them it did. It was 11:30 P.M. at that point so I called it quits. That takes a lot of pressure off of Monday morning.

 I have fifteen work days left. Jeremy is going to do a great job while I’m gone. I think he’s a bit nervous though. I’ll take him to lunch a few times between now and when I leave to give him some direction. That is a lot more than I got when my lead went on sabbatical two years ago.

I got a new driver. It’s a regular flex, light shaft with an Alpha head. It will be ready next week. I can’t wait to hit the range and course with it. With the other incorrect driver I only hit two fairways and shot a 92. If I can hit 8, 9 or even 10 fairways, my score should drop pretty dramatically. I’m hoping to get down to mid 80’s. Something like an 86 would be awesome.

I still haven’t been given an offer for the supervisor position. I don’t think anyone else interviewed. The manager told me he didn’t think it was necessary to interview anyone else.  Meanwhile back at the ranch, the group is coming along. Jeremy is growing in his skills and ability to handle emergencies. He’ll do fine while I’m gone for ten weeks.

The trip is mostly bought and paid for. I just have three more flights to book in Italy. I made reservations for Lunch with the Disney princesses on the Fourth of July, our first day in Disneyland. I also made reservations for Goofy’s kitchen on the fifth. Lot’s of fun in store and can’t wait to get started.

 Went golfing on Sunday afternoon. What a great wife!! Shot a 41 on the front nine and 51 on the back. I’m getting real close to that magical 90. I need a different driver to hit a few more fairways and I’m sure my score will drop 4 or 5 strokes.

I interviewed for a supervisor position at work. I got a free lunch at Dominic’s at Oyster Point. Had a house salad w/ bleu cheese, grilled crab and shrimp sandwich with fries. That is always a great meal. The interviews were very informal because I know them and they know me. The manager cancelled at the last minute. I guess he wasn’t feeling well. I’ll be meeting with him tomorrow. I think it’s going to come down to compensation. I like what I’m doing now and could be perfectly happy for a long time. The concern would be who would be my supervisor if I don’t take it.

Golf game is coming along. I’m in the market for a new driver. I need to get into the fairway more frequently and with a little more distance. It’s mostly my swing that needs some tweaking. I think I’ve got it figured out and am eager to get out there again.

Our friends had their baby. We know them through our support group. They lost thier first child within a few minutes of being delivered. We are so happy for them and expect to be friends with them for a very long time.

Sabbatical is only six weeks away. Making the final air travel purchases for Italy and back home. Disneyland, Texas, Florida, Italy and back home in five weeks. What fun that will be!!

Well, the family is sick. Colds and general not feeling well. I have been successful in avoiding it so far. I need to find someone to ride with for church tonight since I’m the only one going.

I started on my resume the other night. The supervisor position isn’t going to get posted until my manager gets a new boss. Hopefully by the end of the month. It’s weird writing a resume to be a supervisor. Professional qualities are hard to not sound arogant. I’m excellent at this and that. Highly skilled at everything. They know who I am. They already know my strengths and weaknesses. The big question is can I be happy being a supervisor instead of a technician.

I’m working on a special project with a mechanic. Manufacturing puts room temperature batches of product paste into freezers. The freezer has to work to hard to bring it down to -72 Deg C. Eventually the freezer may never get down to the correct temperature or simply breakdown. There are about 20 freezers like that.

The mechanic’s solution is from an upgrade that sells for about $1100. We think it can be done a lot simpler and cheaper. Basically a seperate control circuit for liquid nitrogen (LN2) or Liquid CO2 back up. LN2 in liquid form is about -195 Deg C. When the liquid is exposed to anything above -195 it boils and produces an offgass in vapor form. That vapor can keep a freezer really cold. We only need it around -72 so it’s just a matter of controlling when the LN2 supply kicks in and stops.

Safety is a key issue and that’s where I come in. The mechanic asked me to figure out how to monitor several points in the process in order to present data. Monitoring temperture is simple because our recorder takes thermocouple inputs. Monitoring the status of an A/C solenoid valve is also easy since I had a cable made up from a previous application. The A/C signal turns on or off a relay. The relay contact is monitored as a temperature at ambient. Ambient equals valve on. Open contact equals valve off.

The next tricky item is monitoring the current through the compressor. I found a clamp on ammeter that outputs a proportional A/C milli-volt. The problem is the recorder doesn’t read A/C milli-volt. I need to convert it to DC milli-volts. I asked a few other techs that couldn’t give me any ideas. Of course lefty was able to send me down the correct path. I should be able to use a 9v battery to run a circuit. The circuit will be an op-amp set up with feed back to give a gain of 10. The output will be 10 times more than the input. It’s still an A/C signal at that point so I jus have to run it through a resistor and capacitor. The cap will charge to what ever the output is. That will give me a DC voltage to feed into the recorder. As the current through the clamp-on ammeter goes up, the out put will increase. My circuit will convert that into a DC voltage for the recorder. We’ll see next week.

So tomorrow I’m suppose to attend an all day meeting for the Centerpointe project. At the same time a service rep from Texas is suppose to be here two days starting tomorrow for a PM on the mass spec. I can’t be two places at once people!!!

 I’m going to split the day in two. The Centerpointe stuff in the morning, mass spec in the afternoon. That way I get breakfast and lunch, then I can learn more about the mass spec on a full tummy.

Weekend was full. Met up with big bro Mike at the Golden Gloves boxing in S.F. A number of people recognized a friend from church that came with us. Luisito Espinosa was great at one time but now he’s retired. Good thing for him. His last few fights were not pretty. He was just trying to get a paycheck.

Saturday, Sarah and I went to Devin’s birthday party. Here are some pictures. We hung out a long time so Sarah and Devin could have some special time without all the other kids around.

Sunday we had church in the morning. Then went to Em’s party in Pacifica. Lots of fun food. Erica’s blog is breaking down the menu.

That’s it for now.

The wife has been commenting on how I haven’t posted in a while. There, I posted…

It’s just a week away. Since I celebrated my 39th birthday this year, we will be playing 39 holes at Paradise Cove in San Rafael. There are seven confirmed and a couple more still trying to get the day off. I played 18 holes today and didn’t do to well. I’m really looking forward to seeing all the guys and ribbing each other.

Sarah got the pukies at 12:30 am. Nothing like cleaning regurgitated cherry pie in the middle of the night. She is getting better at it though. She had the sense to lean over the bed and hit the floor. At dinner tonight she said it was because she didn’t want to get her stuffed animals yucky.

The whole family took Jenna to the new dog park in San Bruno. It’s right next to Commadore Park. It has two sides to minimize the pack mentality in dogs. It’s was still muddy so the girls and I gave Jenna a bath when we got home. Instead of stinky dog, she smells like wet dog. She had a lot of fun playing with the other dog. She is napping on her bed now. Probably dreaming of stealing the frisbee from the other dog.

Thanks to everyone for the birthday wishes through comments, messages, emails and e-cards. Although I had to work it was still a great day. I have an awesome wife that loves me, children that adore me, friends that humor me, and a God that does all of those.

Being a Christian means we will be pursecuted. We are called to turn the other cheek, pray for our enemies and to love our enemies. Most Christians in the U.S. have never received real persecution. The strongest I’ve ever been pursecuted was when I quit my job and moved to Portland. Our church started a new ministry up there. I was single with no debt. It was a great experience. I had a coworker write me a letter that called me stupid. That’s it, I was called stupid. I’ve been called stupid for a lot of other things too. Like smoking a cigerette while pumping gas, drinking, climbing things, jumping off of those things and various other stupid acts.

Right now Muslim’s all over the world are being asked to observe today as an international day of anger. Why? Because some cartoons were published in a Danish newspaper that depicted their prophet Mohammed in cartoons. Here are the cartoons that some are willing to become murders, kidnappers, torturers and terrorists for:

They don’t show Mohammed in a glass of urine, covered with feces, or as a homosexual like what has been done with Jesus.

Come on Muslims. It takes a lot more faith and conviction to not respond than to go on a rampage. You are suppose to be a religion of peace. If you oberserve this international day of anger, you will show the whole world a heart of hate and evil. Get a grip would ya’.