The great Los Angeles quake of 2009

Yes folks, it's true, I survived the massive 4.7 earthquake of 2009 here in Los Angeles. I was sitting at my desk preparing my timesheet for work when I heard a low rumble. At first I thought a large truck or maybe an Abrahms tank was driving by, but then the desk I was sitting at began to shake. EARTHQUAKE!
Wow, another life experience that I can check off my list. I've wanted to find out what an earthquake is like and now I know. It was interesting but since it was only a 4.7 it was rather anticlimatic. I went downstairs and outside just in case it was just a precursor to the big one, and called Dottie to tell her about it. I also called my son David who is stationed at Camp Pendleton in San Diego see if they had felt it and make sure that we weren't just feeling a major quake in their area. Several people were milling around outside also and we all asked the same question, "Did you feel that?".
We have had 2 aftershocks since but I didn't notice either one of those. Now I only need to observe a major tornado, from a safe distance of course; watch a meteor strike the ground, again from a safe distance; experience a total eclipse of the sun, see Bigfoot and a UFO and my list will be complete.

A wonderful weekend-Friday

Since I am here in Detroit Michigan where my youngest female sibling, Lori, lives I decided to contact her on my wireless communication device. She invited me to a sporting competition at which her youngest offspring, Danielle, would be performing. I accepted, so on the evening of the last work day of last week I entered my rented conveyance device and transported myself to her domicile. Her present life partner, Dennis, was recruited to trim the shrubbery at their place of worship, so it was just Lori and I left to attend the competition.
We arrived at the education establishment where the competition would be held about 90 minutes early, so we went in search of Danielle. We found her in what they called the Band room which was populated by a great number of perspiring and talkative child units, all of whom were consuming wedges of a flattened bread product covered with a red liquid substance and circular pieces of a meat product. My food processing organs began to emit random growling noises. We would have to eat soon.

After a short conversation with Danielle, Lori led me to the area where the evening's competition would be held. It cost 5 dollar units to obtain entry. Elevated rows of seating were located on either side of the competition area which was covered with artificial turf. This is obviously a well financed education institution. I recognized the odor of fire seared bovine and began to salivate. We followed the odor to a small building that was offering seared bovine and a tubular casing packed with bovine meat scraps served on bread products that were shaped to fit. I purchased the seared bovine, a small mylar package of a dried and seasoned corn product, and a short sealed aluminum tube containing 12 oz of a green sweetened liquid. This was offered for four and three quarter dollar units. What a deal.

This post is taking longer than I thought it would so I will continue it at a later date. I promise.

Back to Motown

Ok gang, I had to go back to Monroe Louisiana to finish testing the optical ring we installed. That placed me back in the deep south to wait and see where hurricane Ike would decide to hit. I got my testing done last Thursday afternoon and was told to head out to Detroit Michigan. I got here Friday night and was going to go watch Danielle (your cousin, my sister Lori's youngest) compete in a drill team competition but that didn't work out. The first hotel I checked into was having trouble with their internet so I had to find another one, which put me in a bad mood and took up too much time for me to make it. I'll be getting to spend some time with Lori and Dennis this week though. I'll get some pics of them to post too. That's all for now.

This is what I spend my time installing.

Finally

This is for all of you out there that are breathlessly awaiting a new post by yours truly (that's you Lisa). I'm in Conway Arkansas now, waiting for our customer to get their act together so we can finish this job. We are putting in 2 new optical rings for Century Communications and they have kept us waiting on them for many hours on this job. I was in Opelousas Louisiana just before hurricane Gustav hit, but I left in time to get a room here in Arkansas before all those Cajuns running north took them.
I've been in Memphis Tennessee, Little Rock Arkansas, Lake Charles and Ponchatoula and Monroe Louisiana, Longview and Tyler Texas on this job. I've put almost 10,000 miles on my rental car in the last 8 weeks. Lots of windshield time.
I'm glad to hear that Micah and DL are swimming good now. That's a must if you live in Florida. By the way, bowling is a specialty of mine so y'all practice up and when we get down there, hopefully pretty soon, I'll take all of you on.
I'm going to try and post some pictures of the equipment that I have been installing so you might get some idea of what I do for a living now.
Has everybody registered to vote? I hope so cause Barak Obama needs our support.......NOT! I'd love to see a black man get elected president, but not that black man. Go McCain-Palin.

Motown

Ok, here's my latest update. I was in North Carolina for about a month since my last post. One week going to a class for Nortel in Raleigh, and the next three weeks spent at home waiting for the work to pick up. I got the yard back in shape, but it will be very overgrown by the time I get back. It's now 3:00 am and I'm up listening to Coast to Coast AM, my favorite radio show. I'm in Detroit Michigan where we have 6 sites to build in the next couple weeks, but there are six of us assigned to this job so if we get all the material we need (50-50 chance) we shouldn't have any trouble. Nortel decided it would be cheaper to rent a car for me in Charlotte and have me drive to Detroit, so I spent last Tuesday driving up here only to find out that our customer, Verizon Wireless, had to put bar codes on all the equipment before they would deliver it to the sites for installation. They spent Wednesday through Friday doing that, so we should be able to start installation this morning. I did take advantage of one day off to go to the driving range in anticipation of playing some golf, but haven't done that yet. As usual I've spent my time hibernating in my motel room. Some things never change.

Bad Blogger, Bad Blogger!

That's right, I've been a bad blogger, or at least a lazy one. I've been in Boise, Idaho for the last 2 weeks and haven't taken the first picture or posted anything. I'm going to blame the weather (lots of rain), and the fact that I was working nights and sleeping all day. Yeah, that'll work.
I'm leaving this morning for a 12 hour odyssey to Opelousas, Louisiana. If I have the timing right I should arrive about the same time as the flood waters from the upper Mississippi river do. I hope their levees hold, but that would make for some interesting pictures wouldn't it? I'll try to start posting at least once a week from now on, even if I don't have anything interesting to say. Thanks for your interest.