Almost to Utah

So, we made the trip over the Continental Divide to the west side of the Rockies. We passed over the divide through the Eisenhower Tunnel. How weird is it to go through a tunnel at 10,000'AMSL? Anyone?

Kinda funny though, I drove trucks for a short period back in the mid 80's and thank goodness I never had to use a runaway lane. Especially not one like this.

And while it is deadly serious, If you've lost your brakes, buy new ones here!



And if you are taking incoming Rifle Fire and you need protection from it, There's an entire district devoted to just that. This would be Downtown Rifle CO. Yes I suck at taking pictures from a moving vehicle. I know that.



And, if you hadn't figured it out by now from past postings, I work in a Wind Tunnel. So, when this guy passed us, I HAD to get a picture of it. For those who live in caves, this is a Scion xB most often referred to as an XBOX since it is a box on wheels.
The sticker on the left says "aerodynamics are overrated" That tips my giggle box over right there.




Tomorrow, should be an Ogreish day if not Monsterish. Stay tuned for a post of the days adventures.

The Other side of Pikes Peak

Although we had a net mileage of 0 miles progress yesterday, we drove around a bunch. Did some shopping here in Colorado Springs, drove out to the brothers then through the mountains to Divide CO. Got pictures of Pikes peak from our Hotel. Then drove around The Springs a bit and for you LotR fans, we came across the ENT federal Credit Union. Didn't know they had their own credit union but I guess that's pretty cool. Then drove out to the Brothers and got some more more pictures then headed out to divide. Problem is, there is only one road through the Rockies out here and someone lost control of their car and crashed head on into the cliffs on the side of the road, flipped over and came to rest upside down in the roadway. Caused quite the traffic backup and there was only one lane around them after the local FD got debris cleaned up from the one passable lane. Once we finally got out to Divide, we got a great view of the west side of Pikes Peak. Not the most often seen view.

WHEW

14 and a half hours, 900 and some odd miles, some diesel fuel, one horrendous crash and a bunch of anti-lopes and we are in Colorado Springs. So, would somehting bad happen if you crossed lopes with anti-lopes?

Once I get the actual miles off the truck and we fuel up again I'll have real miles and mileage.
Coming into Wichita Falls TX, there was a little black car coming east on the highway that ran clean into the end of the guard rail, spun around, hit the guard rail on our side of the highway then bounced back into the center median. Both airbags deployed and both occupants out and standing around waiting for the law to show up. That was a sight to see. Unfortunately, we didn't have the camera out yet and didn't take any pictures.

Pretty uneventful for us if not just really tiring. Our good friend Chimera is living at Casa De Geek while we are gone to look after the wildlife and critters. He had his own fun getting settled in and the inside monster cat deciding he wasn't paying enough attention.

Anyway, need rest! More tomorrow.

Zooma Soona

So, the Mrs and I are vacationing soon. We've got a friend coming out to live at the Casa De Geek while we are gone to look after the livestock and such. Expect to see a couple posts from the road for the first few days then a distinct absence. We are unplugging for a week up in the mountains in Montana. The nearest power line will be a few miles away that also means no Intrawebs. We may wander off the mountain and hit a hotspot in Helena while there.

Which brings up, if you are in the Colorado Springs area or Helena MT area, post a reply and we'll see if we can manage a get together.

Turned me into a Newt she did!

As a response to Breda posting a picture of her Newt Kung Pao, I took a picture of mine.

Newton John has been with me for 20+ years. Bought him as a pup. Fed him a diet of frozen blood worms, live black worms and pinhead crickets over the years. He rules over a 75 gallon terrarium in our living room that he shares with two Fire Belly Toads that we picked up a few years ago. There were originally three Fire Belly Newts but in the last few years the other two passed away. Still, Newt, toads and two goldfish call the terrarium home.

Randon Rotorcraft Sightings

So, today we had visitors from the United States Marines. You know, the guys that staff a can of whup ass? They came through at lunch (probably Freebirds) and stopped in for a short bit. At least long enough for me to snap a couple pictures.



I heard the N model Huey pass overhead and ran out to see what model it was (nothing makes the same sound as a Huey), then caught sight of the Super Cobra as he made a low pass around the south of the hangers on his way to the helipads.

This is the first Cobra I've seen with these particular exhaust ports. All the Super Cobra's I've seen previously has the ports vertically not horizontally. There is a distinct addition to the tail end of the engine housing that changes these from vertical to horizontal. Guess I need to do some reading up on the latest variants.

Lack of complete news coverage?

Last week, an athlete who was graduating High School fell asleep on his way home from the prom and crashed head on into another vehicle killing himself and the driver of the other vehicle. This was evidently no ordinary graduate as he had been signed already to Texas A&M to play basketball. The news has been full of coverage of his memorial and the fact that A&M's coach went to his memorial. The local TV and paper even put out the address to send cards and make contributions to his memorial fund.

THERE WAS NOT ONE MENTION OF THE NURSE HE KILLED. In a week of coverage there was no mention other than "one other driver was also killed in the collision" in any of the news reports There was a third vehicle that he hit that the driver was injured. Again no mention of him or his condition in any of the reports. No one mentioned that the person he killed by his negligence was a nurse at MD Anderson Cancer Center and Hospital there in Houston and was on her way to work.

SWAT RAID and Gun went Off

So, a SWAT raid to arrest a murder suspect ends with the suspect in custody but a 7YO girl dead. The first article headlined and said the officers gun went off as he entered the apartment killing the little girl. WoG has it as one of his Only Ones posts and yesterday I saw that Shoothouse Barbie has a post up on it as well.
I had refrained from posting on it as information came in to wait and see what really happened. The second article I found mentioned the entry officer ran into a female adult just inside the door and a physical altercation of some sort took place and that is when his gun discharged. Subsequent articles have quoted the female (grandmother of the victim) as saying she did not fight the officer and he just shot her little baby.

Is the officer telling the truth? Is the grandmother telling the truth? Is the truth somewhere in between? We just don't know yet. The grandmother was related to the murder suspect and he was in fact found hiding in the apartment. Was she knowingly protecting him from the law?

There is just too much unknown at this time for anyone in the public to make a judgment on this one.

Shoothouse Barbie raises a good point though. There are some people who shouldn't be allowed to have guns, and some of them are cops. To add to that though, some of them are school teachers, some of them are actors, some of them are drug dealers, some of them are murderers, some of them are politicians, some of them are deacons for their church. By the same token that same description applies to child molesters. There are good and bad people in all walks of life and there are competent and incompetent people in all walks of life. Problem is how does anyone determine who is or isn't competent or good or trustworthy?

This opens a huge can of worms. If the officer is found to have negligently discharged his weapon during this raid, he should be held accountable. However, if the grandmother interfered with the arrest of a murder suspect on a properly executed search and arrest warrant and her granddaughter was shot directly due to her interference, she needs to be charged with murder and held accountable for her actions.

it's called Personal Responsibility! Where have I heard that before?

AND NOW, there is word that a film crew was following the officers for the a reality TV show. The entire raid may be on video. There are allegations that the officers fired form outside the house at teh start of the raid. This could get very interesting quickly but there should be more accurate information available eventually.

Black Powder Manufacturer Explosion

News is that the MDM Muzzleloaders factory in New Hampshire has exploded and three people are missing. This is sad news indeed. They manufacture black powder substitute. No idea what went wrong yet. The fires are still burning and they are still searching for the three missing employees.

Guns in America

I previously posted about a grad student at that other university here in Texas that was working on a project concerning New Media. He came out to AT-7 (Force on Force) scenario training and shot video of class and interviews.
He has now setup his website to show his work. I may be biased (a little) but looks pretty good so far. I'm amused that I didn't break his camera.

That Star Spangled Banner yet Waves

So, last night was Commencement here at A&M. As my previous post explained, Gen Patreous was the commencement speaker. More moving for me than his speech was the National Anthem. We've all been to or seen and sometimes unfortunately heard MultiPlatinum Grammy Award Winning Recording Artist "Whosie Whatsherface" butcher the National Anthem in the name of "Making it her own". What a load of poo! IT is not theirs to make it their own it is the countries. That means yours and mine. I'm old enough to remember going to games with Dad and singing the National Anthem. It was a matter of pride and respect. Well, at last night ceremony, when the Director of Choral Activities @ Texas A&M sang the National Anthem, the entire crowd sang. Not mumbled through it in pretense of singing but rang out loud. Pretty much right on par with singing The Spirit of Aggieland. Anyone who has ever been to a sporting event with the Fightin Texas Aggies involved knows just how loud that gets. Yet the National Anthem ranked right up there with it last night. That brought tears to my eyes, and I am not at all ashamed to admit it.

Not so Random Aircraft

So this little beauty would be the sweet ride of one General David H. Petraeus. He was the guest speaker at Convocation last night here at A&M. The whole experience was slightly overwhelming but not for the reason many might suspect. That is the next post.

NO IT DIDN'T

Gun Goes Off Inside Desk of Third Grader

Sorry but that is the standard load of poo that the main stream media and anti-rights folks spew all the time. The GUN. DIDN'T. JUST. GO. OFF! The miscreant in question put his finger on the trigger and supplied sufficient pressure to cause the gun to fire as it had been designed. Word that the police are investigating the father of the kid in question is a DUH moment. Where did the kid get the gun? How is it that he came to have both the gun and ammo in his desk at school? WHY did he have this gun at school? Why did he think it was a good idea or even acceptable to bring a gun to school and play with it while loaded in his desk in the classroom?

UPDATE: At least the local bird cage liner is more honest with "Boy fires gun in classroom" article. Still appears that they don't have an idea how the boy got the gun.

Another interesting but not unexpected twist, in comments at one of the other TV stations website, there is one claiming info is out there that Dad is a convicted felon out on parole so not legal to possess a firearm.

And another TV station says it was a four shot .22 revolver. Sounds like an NAA micro to me.

Something Foul in the state of Egypt

So, a guy is busted in Egypt getting off a plane from JFK with guns, ammo and other weapons in his checked bags.

Aren't ALL bags checked and x-rayed by the TSA before they are put ON a plane? Why the Hell weren't these things caught on this side before the plane took off? Or, where they declared and the proper customs paperwork with ATF and Customs filed and Egypt didn't know?

Sorry but with the expert eye of the TSA watching out for our safety (is that for the children?) how the hell could this have happened? I guess since the guy hasn't had penis enhancement he wasn't a suspect.

Talk about Low

WOW! When the lefties lost their lawsuit against American Veterans and the Memorial Cross in the Mojave Desert, their reaction is to come in the middle of the night and cut it down.

WOW, just WOW! there are some people out there that really are lost.

Follow along over at This Ain't Hell.

What I want to know is, WHY THE HELL ISN'T THIS NATIONAL NEWS?

Front Page kinda stuff. This memorial has been the target of the loony left for a while and for them to stoop so low as to steal it since they couldn't get the Supreme Court to whack it.

Oh, that's right, it's not important.

UPDATE: It's been picked up by FoxNews at least. We'll see how long it takes for the others to chime in. Since the CBS locals have already said it could just be someone interested in the scrap value. Yeah just like the Times Square bomber was a tea party member.

BOYCOTT MA

So it would appear that a few cities in Massachusetts decided to waste taxpayer money and their time by boycotting Arizona over their enforcement of immigration law. Jay G has a post up in which he suggests it would be a good idea for Texas to Boycott Massachusetts because of their assault weapons ban.

I am with him and fully support his boycott. I call on all Texans to boycott anything made by or affecting interstate commerce with any Massholes or products of Massachusetts.

Having been sentenced to employment there for a year and living near Derry NH while working in Andover MA taught me enough about the state and the powers that be in that area of the country and how things are done the Boston Way. Kinda like the Chicago Way that the rest of the country is finally learning about now.


BOYCOTT MA!!

Just One Vote

How many times have you heard someone say, I'm only one vote, what difference will that make?

Multiple races in the local elections this weekend were decided by just that. ONE VOTE! What if that person decided to stay home?

I've said it before and I'll say it again

Every time you call a magazine a clip, a gun angel dies! No amount of clapping or shooting will bring them back.

Robb puts it in perspective. HEH!

Space Geekin

One of the many tests we did for NASA was testing the Pad Abort system for the new Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle. Today, it got a full size test and the first video is up at NASA.GOV.

This is a really cool system similar to the old Saturn rockets used for the moon missions. The PA is designed so that if something goes wrong on the pad, it can lift the entire crew capsule off the rocket and high enough for parachutes to deploy and bring it back to earth safely.

This test darn near killed me, literally. We use high pressure air flow to simulate the rockets firing and these are not your fathers compressors. (2500+PSI)! We had a hose failure during the test and I was in the room with the line when it let go. Let's just say there is a reason I keep a spare set of clothes at work. I had hearing protection on but the sound of that line going a couple feet away was enough to scare me senseless.

More illegal immigrant nonsense

The Texas A&M student senate is considering a bill that would register their opposition to allowing illegal immigrants to pay in state tuition for public universities. They have even set up a Facebook page specifically to rally support for the resolution.

It's amusing to me that this is even a topic of discussion. If you are not here legally, how are you enrolled in school anyway? Why do immigrants that come here legally and are enrolled on a student visa have to pay foreign rates of tuition but if you are here illegally not on a visa of any kind, you can get in on in state tuition?

I know someone form California that wants to escape the PRK and come to A&M for school and is investigating how to get his Texas residency so he can attend for instate rates. So he would have to start by paying out of state rates by coming here legally but if he moved to another country and got citizenship there then came here illegally, he could pay in state tuition. For some reason this makes no sense to me. ANYONE?

Whats really funny is someone I know that came here legally and busted his butt in school to become a success and is pretty much living the American dream, kinda went off when I brought up the subject. He wanted to know as well, how the hell are illegals enrolling in school in the first place? Why can't they come in legally and be a part of the American experience like he did? Why aren't the immigration laws enforced and illegals removed and made to do things in the proper legal manner if they wish to be part of this great country?

Just too funny that as soon as anyone calls for enforcing IMMIGRATION LAW, they are accused of being racist. Even immigrants that came here legally. You want to know who is really pissed at the special favors being handed out over illegal immigration, find a legal immigrant. They're even more upset by this than native citizens.