The Generator works
even when I try to turn it off!
Just after midnight, it’s cold and a little windy but nothing different than the rest of our weather for the last dozen winters, and then: power outage for more than 30 seconds, then the standby generator comes on, and the house electricity is back.
15 minutes go by, still riding the generator, probably, and looking out the windows gives me second thoughts: everyone around us has electricity. Everyone. But the generator runs on.
Doubt is my constant companion, add mechanical systems and electricity and my doubt is exponential. I reason that the transfer switch (automatically shunts pow...
Source: GruntDoc - February 26, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Amusements Family Source Type: blogs
Tesla’s Waco Supercharger
Visited this the second week of February, 2014.
8 stations, all empty when I was there:
Parking was marked as ’60 minute’; is this at all the superchargers?
If that’s not the norm, I suspect it’s because there’s a hotel immediately behind the supercharger, and there’s some concern someone would plug-in and then turn-in.
It’s at the Collin Street Bakery which was clean, had nice bathrooms, many food choices, and cheap coffee. Also, fruitcakes.
Free WiFi at this one, done in a low-tech fashion:
Not a bad location!
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Source: GruntDoc - February 23, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Announcements Source Type: blogs
Grandpa’s little dentist
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Source: GruntDoc - February 20, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Announcements Source Type: blogs
I have a blog?
It was pointed out to me (very politely) that I’ve left the blog fallow for more than a month. That’s a first, and hopefully a last.
I have some excuses, and while they’re stronger than ‘the dog ate my homework’ they are still excuses, and I owe the nine of you better. Mea Culpa.
Something I didn’t talk about after the Christmas Cruise was the disappointment of the missing travelers: my folks, for their first cruise. Not quite a total tragedy, but not good. We’d planned ahead, bought the recommended trip insurance from AAA Travel, and we were going to spend a day in Miami before bo...
Source: GruntDoc - February 19, 2014 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Amusements Source Type: blogs
Happy Anniversary honey!
Thanks for the 24 terrific years. I love you.
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Source: GruntDoc - December 31, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Family Source Type: blogs
Weird things I notice
Carnival cruise lines took some hits recently with ships that had power problems. I figured they’d overcome those issues, but didn’t know how.
Now I know. On both of the Carnival boats we saw on a recent cruise, there’s this:
So it’s easier to see, here’s a cropped one:
Yep, it’s a Caterpillar generator. There was one in the same place on both boats, which seems a pretty clever way to provide emergency power. Kudos.
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Source: GruntDoc - December 30, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Current Affairs Source Type: blogs
A rare Disney screwup
The family (minus a couple) went on a Disney Cruise lines cruise for Christmas. It was the Happiest Boat on Earth while we were there, and a good time was had by all*.
Astonishingly, I accidentally walked into a bar on the ship, which had just come out of a refitting period which had redone this particular lounge. It had the most jarringly-bad decor, a very non-disneylike screwup:
(Hint: there’s no lone black key on a keyboard)
Chatting with the lounge staff, they said they were aware, and had been told it’d get fixed ‘sometime’. Heh. For the record, the decor bizarreness didn’t affect the qu...
Source: GruntDoc - December 30, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Amusements Family Source Type: blogs
By my brother’ book: Think Fast Enchilada Edition
Until today, Think Fast – The Racer’s Why-To Guide to Winning was available exclusively in paperback form. Here is the link to the Kindle Edition of Think Fast. Everything in the print edition is in there – it’s the whole enchilada, but one that you can carry in your pocket. The dedicated web site for Think Fast has numerous excerpts to give you a sense of what it’s like. The unanimous positive feedback that I have received means that it must be one of the better racing books in print, and the Kindle Edition is yours for a lower price.
via Think Fast Enchilada Edition – Think Fast Engineering.
I recommend i...
Source: GruntDoc - December 19, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Family Source Type: blogs
Last minute shopping for a gearhead?
Look no further than KaleCoAuto.com !
Any place that has both blinker fluid and heavy duty clutch belts has just what you need for the speed freak in your life.
(Seriously, how does somebody have the time and talent to make a site like this?)
Via the AerospaceGenius
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Source: GruntDoc - December 14, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Amusements Source Type: blogs
Birth Day for brother and niece!
For my little brother (who’s taller and smarter than me, thank goodness I’m better looking):
He’s a touch older than in this picture (he was the lead mechanical engineer making this thing fly, in one year):
The Aerospace Genius and one of his creations.
And, to my niece Annie! I have no pics of her with an airplane, but when I get one, I’ll keep it for her next birthday.
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Source: GruntDoc - December 12, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Family Source Type: blogs
Joy to The World, USAF Band style, at the Smithsonian
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Source: GruntDoc - December 7, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Amusements Announcements Aviation Source Type: blogs
Pearl Harbor
If you meet a Pearl Harbor vet, thank ‘em. They’re pretty rare (an 18 year old then would be 94 now…).
Thanks to our Pearl Harbor vets.
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Source: GruntDoc - December 7, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Announcements Source Type: blogs
Hilarious Tamiflu side-effect
Okay, it’s not hilarious, it’s funny that it’s included as a side effect of Tamiflu (treatment for influenza):
I’m not a huge fan of Tamiflu (for the neuropsychiatric side effects), but I saw this last night on my pocket brain, and had to look today to see if it’s really listed.
It is, that’s off the Tamiflu full-download of the medication information (Link on the official Tamiflu page).
So you know, when patients are in studies, basically everything that happens while the subject is taking the medication has to be reported to the FDA, which is how all that oddness gets enshrined as les...
Source: GruntDoc - November 26, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Amusements Emergency Source Type: blogs
Why the Zero Defect mentality will never work
At least, not in real life:
…
The idea that “failure is not an option” is a fantasy version of how non-engineers should motivate engineers. That sentiment was invented by a screenwriter, riffing on an after-the-fact observation about Apollo 13; no one said it at the time. If you ever say it, wash your mouth out with soap. If anyone ever says it to you, run. Even NASA’s vaunted moonshot, so often referred to as the best of government innovation, tested with dozens of unmanned missions first, several of which failed outright.
Failure is always an option. Engineers work as hard as they do because they understand t...
Source: GruntDoc - November 25, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Policy Source Type: blogs
Happy Birthday USMC!
SemperFi
I post this every year, and I still enjoy it…
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Source: GruntDoc - November 10, 2013 Category: Emergency Medicine Doctors Authors: GruntDoc Tags: Announcements Source Type: blogs
