Brown and Out

Today K&A Wags came over to hit up the pool for a bit and have a little bite to eat courtesy of their wonderful host...me! Just as we were heading to the pool, the typical summer weather pattern of the Gulf Coast opened up in a small downpour. Clear blue skies to the north, east, south, and west. Directly above...ominous rain clouds!

The storm was actually good as it cleared out the pool area allowing us to nearly have our own pool. Water felt amazing and soon though, it was time for the third jewel in the Triple Crown to be run...the Belmont!

I was pulling for Big Brown to steam roll the competition like he did two weeks ago, but unfortunately Big Brown had nothing. AT a mile and a quarter the jockey pulled Big Brown up and glided him down the home stretch, placing last. I'm not sure what happened, maybe Big Brown just did not feel like racing today. Maybe he was nervous and slept bad. Who knows. All I know is that it has been 30 years since the last Triple Crown winner, and we'll have to wait yet another year!

Stealth Update

Water is Mightier than the Sword
The Dept. of Defense today concluded the moisture in a key sensor brought down the $1.2 Billion (US) plane in Feburary in Guam.

The report said that moisture had seeped into sensors on the front of the airplane and confused the computer into thinking the plane was in a dangerous dive when the plane was actually on a normal trajectory. The plane’s flight system took over from the pilot, pulling the bomber into such a steep climb that it caused the engines to stall. The plane crashed seconds later, after the pilots ejected.

This is one of the potentialities of having such a sophisticated aircraft that cannot physically fly without the aid of computers. This was the first crash in the aircrafts 20+ year history (yea, these sweet planes are Cold War relics)and luckily nobody was hurt. With the crash of this plane, the US now has only 20 of these high tech billion dollar planes.


Stealth Bomber Crash in Guam

Going Going Gone...

Sigg Sold Out
I have touted in the past the virtues of shifting from plastic based water bottles (disposable or Nalgene style) for ones made of aluminum or stainless steel. I was needing a new SIGG for a member of my family and well...SIGG is sold out. Due to the drastic increase in demand over the last few months, SIGG no longer sells its water bottles via the web. It is running around the clock to fill back orders. I only know of two stores here in "The Rouge" that carry the bottles and one was sold out. Luckily Whole Foods saved the day! Love that place! So, if you were wanting a SIGG, now is not the time to buy one, unless of course you live near a Whole Foods!

Run...Motor...Run

Varsity Hump Day Fun
The summer here in "The Rouge" brings out the heat, humidity, and the Hump Day Challenge series. Its a small 2-mile race series that takes place throughout "The Rouge" every other Wednesday night. tonight was the first race of the season!
First though, I did a nice light easy 5-mile run with the Varsity Sports group which was a lot of fun. I love this group as it has a true southern charm that is hard to describe. Its one of the few things I TRULY enjoy down here.

After the 5 mile run (which was a new course...yikes!) I had to motor on over to the Jefferson Hwy BREC park to make registration. Luckily I was already dressed to run so no worries there. Paid my bucks (5 to be exact) and then headed to the starting line, which I just barely made. Lined up and decided to start out relatively fast for this race and see where the chips fall.

Passed through the first mile in a decent 5:38 but I was rather winded at this point and many people started to pass me up. One dude in particular would surge then die, surge then die, surge then die. Almost made me dizzy at the number of times I passed him. With about a half mile to go I passed him for good and finally started to feel ok and was able to pick up the pass. Finished 12th overall and ran 11:37, which was faster than any of the times I ran last year at these races. Happy? Sort of...Need to train more? For sure!

7.78 Million Pounds of thrust meets a brick wall...

Shuttle Pad Damaged
Inspection after the launch of the Space Shuttle has revealed the tremendous power that the shuttle has at take off. The Apollo era launch pad suffered significant damage at launch and has concerned NASA officials who plan to use the pad in October. There are only two working shuttle launch pads and both must be operational in October when the final non-International Space Station mission is flown to repair the Hubble Telescope.
Since all remaining missions are flying to the ISS, the need for a rescue ship is negligible as the astronauts can use the ISS as a safe haven until help arrives. With the mission to the Hubble, no such safe haven exists, therefore a second shuttle will be on the other launch pad to serve as a rescue ship. Crazy power equals crazy damage. Will be interesting to see in the near term what comes to be.

Records are meant to be BROKEN!

"Bolt" of Lightening
Usain Bolt of Jamaica came to the US this week with something to prove. He was out to prove that the 9.76 he ran in the 100m in Jamaica two weeks ago was not a fluke. Boy did he prove that. In what he calls "training" and "speed work" has led to a new 100m world record at 9.72. Set in NY, following a weather delay and a false start, who would have believed that a world record would be had? Bolt outclassed Tyson Gay (Current world champion and favorite in Beijing)and beat him by .13 seconds. The former world record holder, Asafa Powell, also Jamaican, will likely face Bolt at the end of this month at the Jamaica national trials. I know I will be tuned in. While your at it, check out how sickening fast and easy Bolt made this look...pure power!

Usain Bolt Seting new 100m Record


California Dreamin' of GOLD
There are runners, there are good runners, then there are those who just leave you speechless. There have been some great great GREAT individual performances in HS track and field over the years. Jim Ryan breaking the 4 minute barrier while as a HS. Alan Webb breaking his record then in 2001. You can insert so many great performances in this spot, but I think I have something that might just top them all. A truly remarkable double effort that left me gawking.

German Fernandez did what most HS athletes dream of...twice. He started off his final California State meet with a state meet record in the 1600m with a winning time of 4:00.29. There were some crazy times run in this race, with 5th place running a 4:16. That would have won state in a majority of classifications in several states. German then followed it up with a blazing 8:34 3200m to set a new HS record at that distance. CRAZY! I hope that he will have a good collegiate coach, because would love to see this kid run at the next level. But who knows, all it takes is one bad coach and German can become just another "amazing story" that was only reserved for HS. Good look, and DANG thats fast!

German Fernandez setting new National HS 3200m Record

Joey Mod Completion!

Yesterday I started what is called a "Joey Mod" on Calie (my car) and so I woke up today bound and determined to get this modification done! So after baking the parts so that I could get into the reflector, I masked off the silver reflector (this is what projects the light out in front) and the orange turn signal lens.

The next step was to buff the chrome plated plastic so that the primer and paint would get good adhesion to the plastic. After this was three coats of primer and four coats of satin black








I decided to bake the paint for about 6 minutes at 170 degrees F so that it had a good setting period and hopefully good adhesion! Doesn't it look tasty?








Here is the semi-completed product. All the tape is removed and I think it looks pretty good. Time to get those clear lenses back on!








Here is the completed project, minus the car. Total time...about six hours and total cost was about $7...not to shabby if I do say so myself. My finger tips though, hurt like heck after peeling and sticking countless pieces of tap to get the mask job just right! Its worth it though...








And here are the lights back in the car...wahoo! Looks good to me! What do you think?