Evacuation Orders

Well, there is a chemical fire north of town and the evacuation orders keep expanding south. While they haven't reached us yet, the border is the north limit of the airport grounds and the designated shelter is on the primary route home. So, I'm bugging out early and taking alternate route that goes south first. Wheeeeeeee. misbeHaven is supposed to be driving to Austin this evening which means driving west on Hwy21. Which is where the fire is and the road is CLOSED. Not going tonight even by an alternate route.

UPDATE: The entire city of Bryan TX is under an evacuation order and the cloud is drifting south into College Station. 10 people in hospital so far and we shall see where things go. Fortunately we are far enough out of town that it should not be an issue for us here at Casa de Geek.

Called a friend earlier that works out by the chemical plant that is burning and lives in the evacuation zone. He's in Vegas at a conference!

The entire county is mobilized and the decision is to let it burn. They can't get people in to fight it because of the chemicals involved and the location so they are waiting it out and letting the plant burn. Have to wait and see how long this drags on. University may be closed tomorrow from the way they are talking on the TV at the moment.

Serious Dweeb Geek Humor

So, in searching for a Laser Surface Deflection Measurement Device at work, I came across this publication titled Rotation of Microscopic Propellers in Laser Tweezers. You gotta be a serious photonics or nano-machinery geek like I am to really enjoy it, but just the title was enough to set off my gigglebox.

Media Bias Rant

Last week, a liquor store owner was shot and killed during a supposed armed robbery. Big news this morning was that the local PD had found the van used in the getaway and were still searching for the gun taken from the store during the robbery(sic). No mention of the search for the sub human piece of trash who murdered a good man over a few bucks. The concern was to get that gun off the streets not get the crap sack who has no respect for others lives. What is wrong with peoples priorities? (Don't answer that)

Defensive PIstol Skills

Saturday was all range goodness. We did a Defensive Pistol Skills 2 class and tried not to cook any students. IT was a long hot morning but everyone made it through with just a couple taking time out to catch back up on hydration and rest. Shooting on the move and effective use of cover were big topics of the day among other things. Running stages at the end of class where students can put it all to use showed people need to practice more to get these skills ingrained. We dump a lot of different skills and drills on them and it is up to the student to carry on with practice so they can get the skills down.
A good day on the range!

Random Aircraft Sighting

Last night, a Coast Guard HU-25 Guardian was at the airport late and was still sitting here this morning. Then at lunch today, this EADS HC-144 Ocean Sentry showed up and disgorged work crews and equipment. The Guardian is inside one of the hangers behind where the Sentry is parked so it seems pretty obvious the Guardian had issues and they flew in a maintenance crew to deal with it. I really think these mini-hurcs are cute. I wonder if they grow when watered?

Defensive Long Gun

So, Saturday was Defensive Long Gun class. While many schools specialize classes to shotgun or carbine, we approach it from the attitude that the task at hand is the same regardless of what you are armed with so you need to deal with the situation as appropriate with your weapon platform. The drills are run with the various guns on the line so everyone has to solve the same problem and learn the same skills. It also allows everyone to see the various ways of dealing with the problem and the advantages and disadvantages of the various guns in various situations.

Hot it was. Students showed up mainly with AR's but there were a couple shotguns as well as pistol caliber carbine. Despite the heat everyone stuck it out. Good class. Scenarios went well too. One student made themselves so small behind the bed that the bad guy had to step way into the bedroom to get any kind of sight picture and by then he was shot to pieces. Bonus points to the student for getting that small and out of sight.

One lesson learned, even when it is dead calm out, when you put out a portable shade stand, anchor it down as if a hurricane is coming. A freak gust of wind / down burst strong enough to blow over steel targets and barricades yanked the stand up and carried it over the berm to the next shooting bay! All of this in clear sky with blinding sunshine.

Otherwise, it was off to home to recover and paint. More on that as it happens, just think Peach. Even with only a small portion of the kitchen painted it is already much lighter in there. Can't wait to finish and get the lights changed out.

Life Gets in the Way

Sorry for the lack of posting lately. Remember that generator bearing failure? Well, things spiraled out of control from there. After getting the generator back and new main bearings installed we had to run double shifts to try and catch up. That meant taxing other systems harder than normal. Let's just say we found a few things that had weak spots in them. Finally we had two days this past week where nothing major went wrong. That was nice.
On the home front, there is always stuff to do here. Like closing in that cased opening between the kitchen and formal reloading room. Getting the house in some sort of presentable shape for a series of out of town visitors. Still trying to get stuff moved in from storage as we get various rooms finished remodeling. It just goes on and on. Need to get the new bed in the guest bedroom situated for the visitors.

Did I mention the promotion at work? Longer hours and more responsibilities, YEAH! And of course, I am now back to being exempt from having a life. I was exempt at one time and went back to hourly when we moved here. Now I'm back in an exempt position. Should be an interesting time.