I want to beg your forgiveness for not posting as much as I should lately.
I've worked in Toledo for the last three years, and recently took an opportunity to participate in a startup our company is doing in Flat Rock, related to the Ford plant there.
I am now the Automation Engineer there (as I was in Toledo), and the Maintenance Manager.
This started at Christmas when we started moving machinery in during the holidays.
Before I took this position, I had argued that I could come up with a way of cutting the runners (those little tabs on molded parts like the "tree" your model cart parts came on) and flaming the edges to remove angel hair that might fall in the painting process.
I did, and this is the simulation of it.
So I've been doing two jobs since Christmas.
This week we are installing the equipment.
First, the model of the press came out wrong, so the dimensions of the robot placement were wrong.
We realized that as soon as we mounted the robots on their pedestals,
The pedestals had to be lowered 24".
When the robots were remounted in my absence, they were place 90 degree off and had to be removed and replaced correctly. We caught the big one before it hit the floor.
Today the conveyors arrived. Thank God. They only have to be modified a little. But everyone agrees they are beautifully made. They were supplied by a company repped by a salesman I've known for years.
This last weekend we moved some more processes up from Toledo. Very technical stuff with robots and vision cameras and ultrasonic plastic welders. Temperamental stuff.
Late Saturday we got one part through the line finally.
Sunday we spent 10 hours getting the line to run smoothly after identifying some intermittent equipment failures.
Today is the first day since Friday where I am not running a fever and breaking out in sweat it in my sleep.
Thank God.
Wednesday, February 27, 2013
Thursday, February 21, 2013
Monday, February 18, 2013
Sunday, February 17, 2013
Cowards Caving In
Olympic Arms, a manufacturer of semiautomatic rifles and AR-15-style firearms, announced Tuesday it will no longer be doing business in New York as a result of the state's new ban on assault-style weapons, according to the Times Union.
The company explained its decision in a post on its Facebook page: "Legislation recently passed in the State of New York outlaws the AR15 and many other firearms, and will make it illegal for the good and free citizens of New York to own a large selection of legal and safe firearms and magazines. We feel as though the passage of this legislation exceeds the authority granted to the government of New York by its citizens, and violates the Constitution of the United States."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2013/02/17/firearms-manufacturer-ends-sales-to-new-york-in-wake-new-gun-law/#ixzz2L9BOaoOh
Wednesday, February 13, 2013
Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah....
In listening to some of the SOTU after it was given (analysis), it occurred to me that he drones on and on.
We're worried about his use of drones.
His droning is killing me.
I also noticed he said stuff like "colleges must....", "we must...", dictating what we must do.
Dictating.
Rita, somewhere else online, said she couldn't bear to listen to "Charlie Brown's Teacher".
Sunday, February 10, 2013
How I spent my Saturday
Putting the finishing touches on this.
It's not much, but it's pretty important to the company I work for.
Gotta shorten some wires up and it's done.
By the end of the month I better have something impressive to post here
or some management types are going to be upset with me.
It's not much, but it's pretty important to the company I work for.
Gotta shorten some wires up and it's done.
By the end of the month I better have something impressive to post here
or some management types are going to be upset with me.
Friday, February 8, 2013
A Night to Remember
21 years ago, we said "We do".
That night, we ate here, at Haabs Restaurant.
.
This picture was taken in 2005.
They decorate for every holiday, so it was all done up for Valentine's Day.
We've had dinner there every anniversary except for two, when we were out of town..
Sunday, February 3, 2013
A Wonderful Testimony
There's a discussion at G's, and this was a comment in reply by FreeThinke:
"Have you ever pretended to care/love someone when you just didn't feel like it?"
Yes, indeed! Cynics might want to call that "hypocrisy," but I see it as one of our primary duties to perform in daily interaction with family, friends, business associates and perfect strangers.
The loving approach -- especially when we don't particularly feel like being kind, understanding, accepting and appreciative -- is the one thing that makes life not only more tolerable, it brings us joy.
Suspicion, resentment, distrust, disapproval, dislike, fault-finding, eagerness to punish, etc. breed more of the same and become self-perpetuating.
One of my great aunts, whom I have mentioned numerous times, was a woman who had great faith. She believed --absolutely -- that Jesus "walked beside her, and guided her way through every moment of every day."
She was poor, lived alone in New York City, and continued to work till the end of her EIGHTY-EIGHTH year, simply because she needed the money.
Obliged to take public transportation she firmly maintained the belief that every stranger was a friend she had not yet had the chance to know.
She was accosted several times in her career by young toughs -- thugs -- gangsters -- whatever you want to call them -- and each time she responded without fear. Instead, she always smiled up at the young men, expressed sympathetic concern for their well being, opened up her purse, showed them her money, and said she'd be glad to give them whatever she had, because she could see they needed it much more than she, and, then asked politely if they would please let her keep one subway token so she could get back home.
Each time this happened the boys backed off, looked chagrined, and apologized for bothering her.
Her focus was on THEM not herself. Her concern for THEM was real. Her active faith -- an approach to life shedeliberately cultivated through daily prayer made her fearless, kind and generous.
Those who knew her -- or encountered her -- responded accordingly.
I think she proved that a determination to express loving concern for the well being of others at every available opportunity was the most powerful "armor" anyone could wear.
Her faith made it possible for her to see beyond the surface, disregard undesirable behavior, and get to the heart of things by sedulously practicing The Golden Rule.
Many in the family would say she was crazy -- "a dotty old lady who looks at life through rose-colored glasses" -- was their opinion.
Well, with very little going for her she managed to be one of the happiest, most confident people I've ever known. She lived just a few weeks shy of her one-hundredth birthday, was never ill, was never forced to leave her little apartment to enter a nursing home, and died peacefully after a short bout with pneumonia.
It really doesn't get any better than that.
I asked if I may reprint that (which you can see I did), and FT replied:
Of course you may share aunt's story, Ed! How good of you to see the value in it!
I tried to get her to write a book about her life when she was in her early eighties. She tried, but Alas! was no writer. She was a professional accountant -- and had been a good concert singer in her youth -- but writing was not her forte.
Aunt's life was full of remarkable anecdotes. If I'd realized sooner how remarkable she really was I would have made it my business to tape record our conversations.
She was not only a sincere Christian who practiced her religion as few do, she also managed to be living proof that money, power and "position," do not necessarily give someone dignity, tact, good taste, and fine appearance. It's true aunt had started out as the daughter of wealthy man who made sure she received a good education (by the standards of the late-nineteenth-century), but when he died whatever money he had, apparently, died with him. Aunt and her mother were destitute. To make matters worse the mother promptly had a nervous breakdown. Understandable, maybe, but certainly no help.
This sudden reversal of fortune proved to be the cornerstone of the foundation of what was to become her life.
She never married, never made much money, but -- as far as I'm concerned -- her simple, childlike faith made her a big winner in The Game of Life.
"Have you ever pretended to care/love someone when you just didn't feel like it?"
Yes, indeed! Cynics might want to call that "hypocrisy," but I see it as one of our primary duties to perform in daily interaction with family, friends, business associates and perfect strangers.
The loving approach -- especially when we don't particularly feel like being kind, understanding, accepting and appreciative -- is the one thing that makes life not only more tolerable, it brings us joy.
Suspicion, resentment, distrust, disapproval, dislike, fault-finding, eagerness to punish, etc. breed more of the same and become self-perpetuating.
One of my great aunts, whom I have mentioned numerous times, was a woman who had great faith. She believed --absolutely -- that Jesus "walked beside her, and guided her way through every moment of every day."
She was poor, lived alone in New York City, and continued to work till the end of her EIGHTY-EIGHTH year, simply because she needed the money.
Obliged to take public transportation she firmly maintained the belief that every stranger was a friend she had not yet had the chance to know.
She was accosted several times in her career by young toughs -- thugs -- gangsters -- whatever you want to call them -- and each time she responded without fear. Instead, she always smiled up at the young men, expressed sympathetic concern for their well being, opened up her purse, showed them her money, and said she'd be glad to give them whatever she had, because she could see they needed it much more than she, and, then asked politely if they would please let her keep one subway token so she could get back home.
Each time this happened the boys backed off, looked chagrined, and apologized for bothering her.
Her focus was on THEM not herself. Her concern for THEM was real. Her active faith -- an approach to life shedeliberately cultivated through daily prayer made her fearless, kind and generous.
Those who knew her -- or encountered her -- responded accordingly.
I think she proved that a determination to express loving concern for the well being of others at every available opportunity was the most powerful "armor" anyone could wear.
Her faith made it possible for her to see beyond the surface, disregard undesirable behavior, and get to the heart of things by sedulously practicing The Golden Rule.
Many in the family would say she was crazy -- "a dotty old lady who looks at life through rose-colored glasses" -- was their opinion.
Well, with very little going for her she managed to be one of the happiest, most confident people I've ever known. She lived just a few weeks shy of her one-hundredth birthday, was never ill, was never forced to leave her little apartment to enter a nursing home, and died peacefully after a short bout with pneumonia.
It really doesn't get any better than that.
I asked if I may reprint that (which you can see I did), and FT replied:
Of course you may share aunt's story, Ed! How good of you to see the value in it!
I tried to get her to write a book about her life when she was in her early eighties. She tried, but Alas! was no writer. She was a professional accountant -- and had been a good concert singer in her youth -- but writing was not her forte.
Aunt's life was full of remarkable anecdotes. If I'd realized sooner how remarkable she really was I would have made it my business to tape record our conversations.
She was not only a sincere Christian who practiced her religion as few do, she also managed to be living proof that money, power and "position," do not necessarily give someone dignity, tact, good taste, and fine appearance. It's true aunt had started out as the daughter of wealthy man who made sure she received a good education (by the standards of the late-nineteenth-century), but when he died whatever money he had, apparently, died with him. Aunt and her mother were destitute. To make matters worse the mother promptly had a nervous breakdown. Understandable, maybe, but certainly no help.
This sudden reversal of fortune proved to be the cornerstone of the foundation of what was to become her life.
She never married, never made much money, but -- as far as I'm concerned -- her simple, childlike faith made her a big winner in The Game of Life.
Saturday, February 2, 2013
Time Has Come Today
It's time to desert the GOP.
I was opposed to this earlier because a fragmented party would not be able to challenge the Dems.
Well it seems that they can't anyway.
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