Forrest Gump goes to heaven

The day finally arrived. Forrest Gump died and went to Heaven. He was at the Pearly Gates, met by St. Peter himself.

However, the gates were closed, and Forrest approached the gatekeeper.

St. Peter said, 'Well, Forrest, it is certainly good to see you. We have heard a lot about you. I must tell you, though, that the place is filling up fast, and we have been administering an entrance examination for everyone. The test is short,but you have to pass it before you can get into Heaven.'

Forrest responds, 'It sure is good to be here, St.. Peter, sir. But nobody ever told me about any entrance exam.. I sure hope that the test ain't too hard. Life was a big enough test as it was.'

St. Peter continued, 'Yes, I know, Forrest, but the test is only three questions.

First: What two days of the week begin with the letter T?

Second: How many seconds are there in a year?

Third: What is God's first name?'

Forrest left to think the questions over..

He returned the next day and saw St. Peter, who waved him up, and said,'Now that you have had a chance to think the questions over,tell me your answers.'


Forrest replied, 'Well, the first one -- which two days in the week begins with the letter 'T'? Shucks, that one is easy. That would be Today and Tomorrow.'


The Saint's eyes opened wide and he exclaimed, 'Forrest, that is not what I was thinking, but you do have a point, and I guess I did not specify, so I will give you credit for that answer. How about the next one?' asked St. Peter.


'How many seconds in a year?

Now that one is harder,' replied Forrest, 'but I thunk and thunk about that, and I guess the only answer can be twelve.'

Astounded, St. Peter said, 'Twelve? Twelve? Forrest, how in Heaven's name could you come up with twelve seconds in a year?'

Forrest replied, 'Shucks, there's got to be twelve: January 2nd, February 2nd, March 2nd.... '


'Hold it,' interrupted St.. Peter, 'I see where you are going with this, and I see your point, though that was not quite what I had in mind....but I will have to give you credit for that one, too. Let us go on with the third and final question. Can you tell me God's first name'?

'Sure,' Forrest replied,

'it's Andy.'


'Andy?' exclaimed an exasperated and frustrated St Peter.'Ok, I can understand how you came up with your answers to my first two questions, but just how in the world did you come up with the name Andy as the first name of God?'

'Shucks, that was the easiest one of all,' Forrest replied. 'I learnt it from the song,

ANDY WALKS WITH ME,

ANDY TALKS WITH ME,

ANDY TELLS ME I AM HIS OWN.'


St. Peter opened the Pearly Gates, and said: 'Run, Forrest, run.'

We get more done before 7 AM

than most people do all day. Remember that Army ad?

Feeling that way today myself (in a small way). Came out early to a dead diesel. No cranking power. 2 batteries in the system to crank the 7.3 liter engine.
Did quick charge, put batteries on my load tester (looked good/marginal), followed by another charge and it started up.

Yup. Dead Alternator. Big ticket item on this engine. Easy swap though. Had it off and swapped with a re-man'd one at the local auto-electric rebuilder by 0900. Cheapest route is buying direct from the rebuilder and I know they do good work. Been using that same shop over 20 years now.

Got it buttoned up and back on the charger for the day. We'll see what those batteries look like after a few hours of charge. Here's hoping -- two big batteries don't come cheap. The vehicle is a 2002 model. I replaced the factory originals 2 years ago.

Word o' Day

Gold Embrittlement.


A little peek at some of the fun from last week with supplier in the Bay Area. That's chip soldered on a printed wiring board with failed solder joints cracking out at the interface to our board. Too much gold on the surface makes the solder brittle and fail early. In this case -- immediately at assembly.

The supplier built it with the thickness of gold specified. Our guys specified it wrong.

If our guys had gone through out standard design loop it wouldn't have happened but they didn't want to be slowed by us "detail" folks. Nevermind we would have turned the design faster than the outside service they used. Now they're short parts and having to work around.

Yep, that whole "we're smarter than you old guys" worked out pretty well for them.

Those pesky suppliers -- supplying what we specified instead of what we needed.
/heh

there's always hope

A rare bright spot (flicker) these days on the political spectrum is the 10 Amendment buzz that's starting.

It might not go anywhere or might not go fast enough but, of late it's some of only reading that doesn't make me despondent (outside of morning devotions in Psalms :-)).

http://www.tenthamendmentcenter.com/


Clinging to hope...

Now hear this! All hands muster on station!

"Attention to Quarters"

1st formation and quarters for Cal Maritime Academy Class of 2013. All 261 of them. Wonder how many will be there at first muster after Christmas break for 2nd semester.


Division 6 at attention. Mechanical Engineers in the center column. The Son&Heir in last rank.

Looking sharp. That week of ROTC camp got him a good start on military bearing and drill.




"Leeeft... FACE! Division Officers inspect your division."

Blondie (female) in the column behind the Son&Heir was without a clue. She was in a state of shock -- apparently unaware what the "Academy" in Cal Maritime Academy stands for. /heh

Let go and let God

back at the homestead after driving to the Bay area to drop the son&heir for college. Been quite a week -- not exactly free of emotion. Let's see if he makes the first semester without getting a ride to the Marine enlisted recruiter. Beyond that it's anyone's guess.

Got a day of work in up there. Drove from Vallejo down to San Jose to meet at a supplier. Straightened out some details.

1300 miles all told; much of it in heavy stop&go or slow&go traffic.

I'm ready to unplug for a couple days and refresh.

Cats in the cradle

Opening day for doves this morning but we're not in the field this year. The Son&Heir and I are packing the car and heading north to his college in the Bay Area (Vallejo) today. At least we'll be passing through some prime dove habitat.

Classes start next week but he's got 3 days of orientation this week: everything from dorm check in, to swim tests, uniform fittings and bonding/social mixer type events. I'm staying for the parents orientation program on Friday and my wife will fly up Thursday on a 1-way ticket for that. We'll make the roadtrip back together. Hopefully the LA forest fires don't interfere with our route up I-5.

Between now and Friday I will just be hanging in the area and being the "Bank of Dad" for last minute dorm purchases/Costco/Walmart runs as needed (printer, fridge, micro as needed).

Managed to get one day of meetings scheduled up in the general area so will be able to expense at least one day of the trip.

Maybe next year...

"We'll get together then son. You know we'll have a good time then..."