I had a great day today at Woodcraft in Centennial, CO taking a CNC class. I have been interested in CNC for a while and have contemplated for years getting a CNC machine that we could use for our custom arts/craft business. Things have been stagnant lately and we need to do something new. This has possibilities, but is a major investment.
The CNC machine allows you to carve wood, etch metal and glass, or etch acrylic. The software is the greatest part of it. The VNC Carve software allows you do do the entire design process and preview without damaging a single piece of wood. Really neat and exposure to that is worth the price of the course by itself.
The above video is an example of the design test process.
I had some others but they were not good enough to share, and there are two of them that I may want to use in the future for a commercial project.
Sorry, not much more for today, other than tomorrow is a new month, new goals, and new adventures to come.
I am going to say goodnight here and take a while to just read and enjoy sitting down. Talk to you tomorrow.
I feel like I made progress today! The only thing still not done, and I will get it done before the evening is over, is to upload and enroll all of the new technicians at work onto our training platform, but I need to wait until the end of the business day to do that. Anyways, today started out pretty normally, I got my morning routine done, the dogs normal routing done and spent most of my morning doing pricing and cause of loss determinations for our processing team. Then I had a number of tech support issues to take care of.
I decided to escape for an hour or so around 10:15am (I am on Mountain Time) to try to get to the Rec Center to spend an hour in the pool. Nope, that wasn’t happening. I have decided that I always have to have a backup plan when I am going to the pool. Today when I got there, they had 2 people swimming per lane and one lane with a water walker in it along with two people swimming. Then there were people waiting. I am really struggling to find a time that I can count on to get my workout in.
Anyways, I decided that I was going to do my steep trails today to try and get my workout in and continue on my weight loss efforts. I am now 12 pounds away from my goal of 210 pounds. I will make it before my next well visit physical around June. That puts me out of the “at risk” BMI. I don’t totally buy into BMI so I will probably pay for a DexaScan visit before then so I have some concrete body imaging to go on. Anyways, I spent about an hour over at Switchgrass Park and Spring Creek Park.
They between these parks and trails they have a some nice hills that are coming very close to a hike and I wanted to get some climbing type work in today. I have no idea what the Flat 14ers sticker is, I guess that’s a reminder to look this up. Well…. there is nothing listed for the Flat 14ers in the Aurora area online. So I am not sure. I guess I will have to try and figure this out some other way.
Total distance: 5.54 mi Max elevation: 5749 ft Min elevation: 5637 ft Total climbing: 617 ft Total descent: -611 ft Average speed: 4.24 mi/h Average cadence: 57 Average heart rate: 110 Average temperature: Total time: 01:18:54
Had a nice walk, and got my hills in. After that I was able to go home and finish out the day without getting too stressed out. I have to figure out this pool issue, I feel at home in the water, more so than any other workout I can get. But, the trails are nice as well.
Tomorrow I am spending the day learning something new, for the fun of it, and I guess we will see. I will post more tomorrow about tomorrows activities. Anyways, I am done for tonight, I don’t want to think too much. I am going to take care of that one outstanding work issue and then head “offline”.
And it’s another Thursday and almost the end of this short month. It’s always strange to have a 28 day month instead of 30/31 days. I woke up this morning around 4:30am, of course that has to do with being on Eastern Time for the last few days, I was able to fall back asleep until our normal 6:20am getting up (or should I say mine). Got up, got the dogs out, and our coffee made.
Sat down and logged into work, before I even had a single cup of coffee I already had a technician trying to reach me. I didn’t answer him and sent him a text that I would call him after I had my first cup of coffee as I was on Mountain Time. He was having login issues, for some reason the iPhone attempts to pre-fill password blanks on Safari and this is very confusing for some people, the correct thing to do is delete that out and select your own secure passwords. That way you are not tied to the Apple Infrastructure.
Just realized I forgot to tell everyone that I did receive a promotion at work. I was brought in as a Technical Field Manager about 5 years ago. Over the years I have been more and more in a support role with technicians and processing. I have added the online education component to my world, and technician procedural and technical training. So, as of February 1st (though we just finalized all the paperwork on Monday) I am the Operations Support Manager for StrikeCheck and HVACi, all part of Alpine Intel. I am happy with the role.
I went out for my morning workout, did a little over 5 miles, and finished another one of the monthly challenges for Garmin. I like the Garmin challenges as it keeps me motivated to push myself.
Total distance: 5.91 mi Max elevation: 5652 ft Min elevation: 5474 ft Total climbing: 686 ft Total descent: -683 ft Average speed: 4.29 mi/h Average cadence: 57 Average heart rate: 114 Average temperature: 23.6 Total time: 01:23:32
I have completed all of the February swimming challenges and then a majority of the February Walking and Health Challenges. Today I finished the one that has been eluding me, the Running Climb (vertical distance during runs). I did the power line trail today from the bottom to the top and fixed that issue. The photograph below is looking up towards the top of Power Line Trail, I had already done an equal climb from the bottom to the point I was standing.
I have made an honest effort on the February running challenges but had to cut back on that as we may be having some weird heart issues (not deadly, really not that dangerous, just irregular – it has been diagnosed, now we have to figure out if it’s worth doing something about). But, I am happy with the challenges I have completed.
I took Climber out to play in the backyard a little bit today and she was doing great, but when she went to the backdoor and stood there waiting to go in she held up her right front paw and started yelping. We crated Res real fast (we do not want a dog fight) and got her inside. She was back to normal almost immediately. I am having a really tough time figuring out what is going on with her. She was perfectly fine until she stopped. And then 5 minutes later after some water and laying down she was fine again as well. This is just really strange.
So, Res got a lone walk today, I wasn’t going to take a chance on taking her and having a problem in the middle of the park. I am starting to think she has something going on with her back, but I am not at the vet visit point yet as it could be something simple as needing some crate rest and no running.
Right now everyone is napping for the evening.
I will leave this open on my laptop to see if there is anything else I want to add for today, probably not, but maybe. Anyways, that’s it for today. I will talk with you all tomorrow.
Today was a travel day. Eat breakfast at the hotel, take a few moments to catch up on my email, and head to the airport to drop the rental car, drop bags, and get through security. I hate Orlando’s airport. It is crowded, lots of kids, and on outbound flights the kids are all tired and cranky.
I was able to find a quiet chair in the airport hiding next to one of the columns and get a whole bunch of work done prior to boarding. My objective was to make a good effort to address the Technician Support Tasks that I had over 60 of. I got a whole bunch completed and have some others in progress.
And, then it was time for my flight home. Unfortunately I was not able to get a seat in the front of the plane for this trip home, I had to deal with seat 28C near the back. I will never do that again. The guy in front of me was bouncing back in his seat to try and break the stop so that it would recline further. Needless to say it was bouncing off of my knees. Of course every time the flight attendants walked by he’d stop, but his entire goal was to bust that seat. Didn’t work. Of course I had a really hard time getting anything done on that flight. I really count on being able to work on my flights, and it was a difficult thing on this leg of my trip.
I was sort of afraid he would break my laptop. Teaches me a lesson, if I ever have to fly like this again I get an exit row or a bulkhead seat, or just pay more. And my thoughts of “no kids visible” on this flight….. yeh, that didn’t happen. At least I was able to get something to eat, they had BBQ Burgers as on of the options. I was able to balance that and a Aha Blueberry Water on the tray table that was bouncing up and down thanks to the guy in front of me.
Got back to Denver and my welcoming alien. Bags were pretty quick showing up and then headed down to the train to go to Gateway Park Station where Jesse met me.
Got home in time to say, “hello” to Res and Climber, get mauled by Climber’s enthusiastic greeting, and we took them for their walks. Time to sit down and write some of my blog and then get the pack fed. Now it’s time for their after dinner nap and our dinner. Whatever Jesse is cooking it smells really good.
Yup, it was Chicken Gumbo and it was really good! Had 3 bowls of it. Also, Jesse got he recipe from Weight Watchers so it was low on calories and WW points. I am thinking that I spend a lot of time tracking WW points and as long as I don’t eat a ton of junk food I am usually within may calorie goals as I do a ton of swimming, walking, and jogging.
The routine after dinner is Jesse goes and does his shopping and I spend some time with the pack. Res goes to sleep, and it’s a 50/50 tossup to see what the Wild Child will do. Sometimes she goes to sleep, and sometimes she goes nuts. Let’s see what today is?
Ready… Set… Go!Toys!Toys!Toys!Naptime!
And with those final photos, I say goodnight and I will see you tomorrow.
And today was just another work day, while traveling. These days typically follow the same patterns. First, I get up, have a cup of coffee and log into work. I do a quick browse through my email and my tickets/tasks that have already come in, are past due, urgent, or need immediate attention due to the urgency of a file. Then, I take my laptop with me to go have breakfast downstairs.
Home2 Suites usually has a pretty good breakfast selection so I can usually find something good and something that works within my diet. Today was an everything bagel with fried egg, 1 slice of bacon, and a slice of Swiss cheese. Each sandwich was around 400 calories, and combine that with coffee by breakfast was right at 926 calories. The goal was around 700, but I am still OK.
After breakfast I went and did my morning inspection at another hotel nearby. It’s one of the chains that I do stay at, but I learned the lesson a long time ago, no matter how much I like the hotel, do not stay there the night before you do an insurance claim. That particular lesson was taught to me when a desk clerk figured out who I was, got the manager, and they put my into a room without any air conditioning in the middle of a Miami, FL Summer day. I think they felt it would help sway my opinion that their maintenance department actually did something. In this case the manager was awesome, probably would not have done that to me, and had a valid loss. Everyone knew they had a valid loss but they were wanting to verify repair vs replace.
In this case, as toasty as it was, it will probably be a replace.
Once I got done with the inspection and submitted my findings I realized that I was very close to the Rosen Aquatics Center. This facility used to be part of the YMCA, but during COVID the Y almost abandoned it. During COVID the Y just about lost everything, they really screwed up when they did not allow “traveling” members to travel. So Mr. Rosen purchased the facility to keep it open. I used to swim here about once a week or so when we lived in the area. It was almost a 40 minute drive, but when this pool is setup in Long Course (50 meters) it was well worth it.
This was the training home of Rowdy Gaines and many other future Olympians and would have been a loss to the community not to have it any longer. Anyways, $10.00 poorer for a day pass, I was able to get my swim workout in. I had to give up at the 2000 meter point because I was starting to worry about how much work was accumulating, and I had taken my one hour lunch break.
I was happy with it, would have liked to do another 1K to get myself to 3K in one session, but I really had to get back to work.
Spent the rest of my afternoon working, and then had some dinner, came back and read a little, listened into a net on one of the repeaters locally, bunch of old guys talking, and then uploaded my greyhound-data races for the last two weeks.
Now just sitting around watching TV, writing this blog post, and trying to plan tomorrow’s travels. At least on this trip I did not have a massive travel change and I am headed home tomorrow.
I think this is goodnight for the evening. I will see you all tomorrow.
Climber was a lot better this morning. When I got up and let her out of her x-pen (yes, she is in one at night) she attempted to race me down the steps. There is still a little limp, but I really think she is just sore. She loves her walks and perhaps she had a little too much walk yesterday. Anyways, got up with the dogs and did our morning routine: outs, snacks, and then Res goes back to bed, Climber stays downstairs with me. As today is a travel day, I had to get my stuff together. I did most of my packing last night, but I still need to do the cords, the power adapters, and try and figure out if I forgot anything.
Jesse took me to the A-Train and then that is my ride to the airport. Takes me less than an hour from leaving the house to get to the airport, luggage dropped, through security, and to my gate. I love flying out of Denver. Once all the required stuff was done I was able to walk the terminal and get my steps in for the day. I forgot to start my indoor walk activity so I guess the time does not count, the steps will.
Flight boarded and we almost go out on time. Minor delay when they had a hydraulic indicator up front, but that was resolved in 15-20 minutes. I like when things are resolved quickly.
We are now probably an hour or so out of Orlando.
Arrived in Orlando about an hour late. Took another hour to get my luggage, and then it is off to the rental car lot and then the hotel. I have absolutely no idea why GPS took me the way it did back to the hotel, but I saw some new areas of Orlando that I have not seen before.
Anyways, I am in for the evening, so I am going to say goodnight, and tomorrow is another day.
Happy Sunday! Happy USA Hockey won the Gold Day! First time since the miracle on ice in 1980, in 1980 the NHL did not participate in the Olympics, this win was complete with NHL players on both teams. This did not make it less impressive, congratulations guys!
Started off my day with a few cups of coffee and then taking Res and Climber out for their walks. Res wanted to go further this time and I let him, but we had our normal problem with him getting about 50% through the walk and he wants to give up. Anyway, we finished, he did close to 3 miles.
Total distance: 2.65 mi Max elevation: 5653 ft Min elevation: 5564 ft Total climbing: 157 ft Total descent: -153 ft Average speed: 3.55 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: 91 Average temperature: 21.9 Total time: 00:47:47
Once I got Res back home Climber was raring to go! She was carrying on so bad we had trouble getting a leash on her. I did a slightly different walk with her today, but when we ended back up on Power Line Trail with her Prairie Dogs she knew exactly where she was and almost walked herself home. She acted like I was holder her back. She did over 4.75 miles.
Total distance: 4.73 mi Max elevation: 5657 ft Min elevation: 5522 ft Total climbing: 334 ft Total descent: -314 ft Average speed: 3.79 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: 98 Average temperature: 21.1 Total time: 01:18:10
Jesse and I had breakfast (well, brunch) and I finally had a chance to get to the Central Recreation Center for a swim. I had really wanted to get a 3K yard swim in, but the pool was very crowded and I had to share lanes with other swimmers, and that always causes problems since I swim breaststroke and that is a very wide stroke compared with freestyle. At least I didn’t kick anyone. I did get 2K yards in, I am happy with my workout overall.
When I got back we had a little problem, Climber got up and was very wobbly and was limping a bit, actually a lot, and her back was arched pretty badly. We worked with her a bit, I went over every bone, every joint, and everything I could think of. I was finally able to get her onto a leash and walk her around the backyard. We made the decision not to take her to the ER Vet as she was acting a lot like Leona when she would hurt her back and neck. Jesse and I talked about it and decided that we would give her a carprofin and see how she was in the AM. I think she will probably need one more carprofin tomorrow afternoon and then she will be fine.
I think her a little over 3 miles yesterday and 4-1/2 miles today may have been a little much for her, I bet her muscles are hurting her a bit. We will see what it looks like in the morning.
I had to pack for my trip tomorrow as I had to list the number of bags I am dropping at my check-in. I decided that I was going to break out “Big Bertha” – the largest suitcase we have in the house and was going to try to do one bag. It worked, I am right under 60 pounds, I am allowed 70 pounds per bag. The reason I want to go to one bag? It’s getting to the point that two bags are really rough to handle sometimes. Of course I may curse that decision when I have to lift the thing into the back of a rental car.
We decided that at the afternoon walk time that Jesse would take Res and I would stay home with Climber. She slept through the walk, and was ready for dinner. I did have to lift her food bowl up a bit for dinner because she was having issues stretching her neck that far down. It’s almost like she ran into something, but neither of us saw what she ran into. This is going to be a “crate rest and leash walk” type of injury.
She was slightly better at our 9pm out time, and she is now resting in her crate. She will be handled very careful over the next 48 or so hours.
I spent some time with my Packet Radio station today. It has become abundantly clear to me the packet station on this property will not work. We are in a topographical hole in with the neighborhood around us. I am also starting to wonder if there is a connection between the radios and some of the growling Res has been doing at night. The timing almost makes sense, he growls early in the evening about every 10 minutes and that is the time period of the beacon systems on the station. OK, the radios are off for now as I just cannot figure out how to resolve this issue. The real answer is a very tall antenna, but let’s get real, that is not possible right now.
Anyways, that’s a wrap for tonight. Tomorrow is a travel day and we will see what comes up.
Anyways, it’s that time of the evening to say goodnight, and I will see you all tomorrow.
I was happy to be home yesterday, I was wiped. I don’t have that much a problem when I am traveling and everything goes smoothly, but when things don’t go well, I start stressing out. Not much I can do about it, it is just the way it is. But, after a good night of sleep, I got up at my normal time with dogs, we all did our normal morning routing which includes coffee for me and some treats for the dogs. We only do our feeding in the evenings and the all get a small snack in the mornings.
After Jesse got up I took Res out for the first walk, we did about a mile and a half. He smelled just about every clump of grass along the way, but we made it.
Total distance: 1.62 mi Max elevation: 5619 ft Min elevation: 5562 ft Total climbing: 116 ft Total descent: -110 ft Average speed: 3.31 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: 92 Average temperature: 20.8 Total time: 00:31:20
Next up was Climber. Climber really likes her long walks and she is adventurous, so we go and “explore” ares she has not seen before. She seems to like the adventure and appreciates it in ways Res really doesn’t. Res has a tendency to want to go and then about 50% through the walk he starts acting like “are we there yet….. I don’t want to walk no more”, but Climber wants to go and will finish her walk.
Total distance: 3.65 mi Max elevation: 5693 ft Min elevation: 5573 ft Total climbing: 255 ft Total descent: -262 ft Average speed: 3.43 mi/h Average cadence: Average heart rate: 95 Average temperature: 19.9 Total time: 01:08:07
After we had a brunch I decided to go visit Ham Radio Outlet. I am dead set I am going to figure out the satellite and DMR (Digital Mobile Radio) repeaters. I have sort of decided HF radio in my area just is too difficult with all the noise, so I am going to start trying some alternatives. I bought three things over the last few days:
An Any Tone AT-D890UV Radio
The Arrow Antenna (portable) 146/437-14WBP
A carry bag for the portable antenna
I sort of hesitated spending that type of money, but I haven’t spent that much over the last year on a hobby, so I decided to do something for myself. My YouTube earnings will pay for it in the next few months. And…. I deserve it.
Spent time this evening setting up the radio and copying my programming over from my GD77 radio, I also was able to import some additional repeaters and things for Colorado, Southern Wyoming, and the Four Corners area. I was going to start setting up Orlando, but I may do that next week while I am in Orlando. But, I really ant to figure out the Satellites next. There are so many features on that radio I am not sure I will ever use them all.
I also had to get the laundry done from last week, I am traveling again for 3 days (2 nights) this coming week and I need to do my packing tomorrow. I will need to go through my tool bag and clean up TSA’s usual mess, and then change some items out because next week is a fire investigation of an HVAC system and I think I packed for an electrical inspection on my last claim. Slightly different set of tools required.
Jesse has started to go through a book that I found on one of my trips last year to Portland, OR. I had the chance to visit Powell’s Bookstore and found a book named DIY Hydroponic Gardens and it has all sorts of information on successful hydroponics. We really believe this is how we are going to have to grow most of our veggies this year. Water is going to be a real issue this next Summer and hydroponics allow us to control water use and not loose a lot into the soil or areas that we don’t grow things in.
In other houses we have had great success with hydroponics, last year we expanded things a bit and had some growing pains, but we think this is how we are going to have to do things moving forward. Weeding and water is much better with hydroponics. We will see…..
I think that just about wraps up the day, I did not get a chance to go swim today, I am going to go do that tomorrow, but that was OK. I also don’t think I will get the 10K this weekend or the 15K that is the challenge for next weekend on Garmin Connect, but I am flat out of time. I really want to get the swim challenges done for the month, those are more important to me than the run challenges. Decision made. Have a great evening and I will see you all tomorrow.
Today started a little early. For some reason I woke up around 5:30 and couldn’t go back to sleep. So, got up and started my morning routine.
Spent about 4 hours working during and after a quick breakfast. Then had to head out to the airport. I really shouldn’t have rushed.
Snow!
We were delayed. The inbound flight could not land due to visibility. He circled for a while and then had to go to Grand Junction to refuel. Then due to the large number of aircraft being diverted to Grand Junction it took them a while to de-ice and get back in the air. I did want to add the shout-out that I sent to United.
Hey! I just want to shout out to the Captain who operated flight UA352 from Montrose to Denver this evening. Yes, it was delayed due to weather, but it was nice for him to be at the gate, with the gate agents, keeping everyone informed of the incoming flight status. He was updating more frequently than the United app and the screens in the airport was, it was nice and I know he didn't have to do that.
I also watched when he helped several frustrated passengers from his and other United flights in similar situations with trying to figure out timing of connections in their apps and he looked up a few schedules for them on his own phone. Again, he didn't have to help, but he did. The agents were swamped and he made a difference to a few people risking missed connections.
So often United is criticized, employees such as this deserve to be recognized. United is my hometown and go-to airline out of Denver.
Finally boarded and waiting for the rest of the people to finish boarding. We are now 3 hours late. Thankfully this is a very short flight, a whole 36 minutes.
Made it. As I said it is a very short flight over from Montrose to Denver, if it were summer I would not have flown it, but Winter is another story. Even with the flight delays i am still better off than driving it.
I am now waiting for baggage under the watchful eyes of one very tired….. alien. YES! Paying homage to the alien works! Mine were the first two bags off the belt. That is a first. Success!
Down to the train, train to 63rd and Gateway Park Station.
And Jesse is there to pick me up for the ride home. I can take the R line closer to the house but when I have two bags with tools it gets a little heavy to do the on/off the light rail side of the world. The A-Train is commuter rail with high platforms.
Home to excited dogs and a weekend off. I was able to get all of my work done prior to leaving from Montrose. All in all, even with the weather related travel delays, it was still better than a drive. We are having Chinese for a late dinner – I am having my beef and broccoli and then it is time to relax.
I am going to leave it here and say goodnight and see you tomorrow.
Today was a decent day. After yesterday’s weather delays and other such issues I was lucked out on several fronts today.
Got up around my normal time of 6:20-6:30am. Did my normal morning routing of starting my coffee, and getting logged into the work system. Went and had breakfast, I always like Holiday Inn Express breakfasts, usually have egg white and veggie omelets, I broke down and had some bacon today as well. That’s probably not good for my diet. At all.
After my breakfast I sat down and answered a number of processor questions, and talked with a few techs that I have been trying to reach. All good stuff. And then around 10am MT I had to leave for my appointment, it was an interesting two hour drive through the mountains. This is where I say I lucked out. The rental car they gave me does not meet Colorado’s traction law requirements for Winter travel. It was not 4 wheel drive and I did not have chains in the car. I was very fortunate that the mountain pass was clear and not slick. Also, Colorado for some reason does not believe in guardrails along their roads. So, narrow shoulder, 200FT drop. Don’t slip off the road or your car will need wings. I guess it’s the Darwin principle. Survival of the fittest?
Anyway, I saw some beautiful scenery in both directions. I did not stop too much on the way going, but I made a few stops on the way back. Here is one panoramic view that I wanted to share. I did not bring my drone on this trip, it was just too much to carry, and it may have been a little too windy to use it anyways. Click into the photograph below and look around.
By the time I was on the way back the sun had been on the road long enough to clear things up. Here are my travel photos for the day.
By the time I got back to the hotel it was about 4pm. After that I did have about two hours of work left to do, just because I am in the field my office work does not cease to exist. Got that mostly done, the only thing I did not get around to was making a bunch of tech phone calls and doing some follow-up on open support tickets. I try not to call the techs too late in the day, and time-zones are a thing.
No workout today. I tried to get on the treadmill, but honestly I HATE treadmills, and they never seem to be calibrated properly. The speed is weird, and the belts usually slip. In my mind this is a good way to get hurt. I much prefer to be outside, but darkness and timing didn’t allow it. I am looking forward to spending some time in the pool on Saturday or Sunday.
On other news, last night I broke down and ordered myself a new hand-held radio. I have decided that most of the high frequency ham radio communication from our property in Aurora is impossible. I have started to explore the world of Satellite communications and it is really starting to intrigue me. My handheld radio will not properly do Sat work as it is only half-duplex, I would need two of them. One to transmit on the up-link and one to receive on the down-link. The experts in this area of amateur radio work told me about the only full-duplex handheld radio on the market today that will work. They are in short demand, but I was able to find one, new (amazing). and it will arrive on Saturday. More as I learn more. This may be a series of pages rather than posts.
So, I am done for the day, tomorrow I fly home, weather willing, and then I have the weekend at home before I head to my next destination on Monday. Have a good night everyone.
