Day 53 - 18 October 2012

Managed to get up around 0545 this morning and was able to talk to Taylor before he went to bed. He told me what he did at school and proclaimed, "I'm not going to tell you what I had for lunch!" He told me about his day and I told him that I flew again. The other day, when I told him I was going to be flying somewhere again, he said, "You're always flying around all over the place!" Anyhow, I had a good conversation with him and Meagan...always a good way to start the day! :)

After talking to Meagan and Taylor, my stomach was growling...unusual, since I usually skip breakfast...so, I decided to go grab a bite to eat. I had a hard boiled egg, bagel, biscuit and gravy, and some bacon. Not a bad meal to start the day!

I headed into the office where we are working at to hang out for a bit before the action starts. Today, we are replacing a radar system that has been giving us fits since I arrived. The problem? This thing is on a 40 foot tower and we have no lift truck or crane to help us out. So, the two of us devised a way to use our mast ropes to hoist the old one down and the new one up. We're just hoping it goes as smoothly as we are playing it in our minds! Wish us luck!

Job Complete!

So, everything went very smooth today! When we lowered the radome down, it was pretty simple. We just let gravity do its job and used four of us to slow its progress. Now, getting the new one up was a bit more of a struggle. I'm certainly glad we had the muscle power of four guys on the tower to get it to the top! We got it all squared away, just in time for lunch! We're going to go grab a bite to eat and come back to finish hooking everything up.

Lunch was pretty good! I had Stromboli (beef and chicken), beets, three-bean salad, and salad. They basically had a pizza bar today, which was pretty cool. This place does a lot of stuff like that. They'll have an Italian bar, Asian bar, etc. And, I think I ate too much...

After lunch, we headed back to work to finalize all of the setup for the new radar. We had to hook all of the cables up, update some passwords, and then talk to the network guys to make sure our data gets back to the forecasters. This was a very good trip and, on the positive side, I am getting more and more familiar with this radar! The fact that I am familiar with Linux is a definite PLUS! ;)

I went back to the room to take a short nap before dinner. Today has worn me out a bit and I didn't sleep that great last night; so, a little shut-eye was nice!

Dinner was excellent! BBQ beef brisket, carrots, rice, potatoes, hush puppies, and a salad. I probably could have passed on the rice or potatoes, but they both looked good. The potatoes, however, had a lot of kick to them! I'm guessing they cooked them with jalapenos or something!

I headed over to the MWR for a little bit to see if Meagan was home yet and check email. She said it would be a bit, so I sent her some stuff about the home loan via email, checked Facebook, drooled over cars, and came back to the tent. I'm going to kick back and watch another movie before bed. That said, I will sign out for today. Tomorrow is another early morning, as usual! Night all...God bless!