Ahhhhhhhhhh......

That's the sound of...

• hugging and kissing your wife
• taking a shower in your own bathroom
• sleeping in your own bed
• playing with your cats again, and
• sitting on the porch with a cold beer and a cigar.

It's been a long month away from home. It's good to be back. :-)

New Addiction...

I have a new addiction, my friends, and it is called a Blackberry...I've been angling at work to get one for some time and have finally gotten my clutches on one. I now completely understand why they're called 'crackberries.' The coolest part is that the new ones also work as a broadband modem for your laptop, which means I'm no longer at the mercy of wi-fi connections in airports, restaurants, or any other places anymore while I'm on the road. Can I get a hallelujah???

Great Day at Hoover Dam

My buddy Shawn & I decided to go to Hoover Dam today on our day off. I've been wanting to see it for the longest time, so the fact that it's only 40 minutes from Vegas made it a perfect short day trip.

We took the tour to take a look inside some of the tunnels and see the power plant. It was definitely worth it. The scale of the place is breathtaking. I found out that the concrete that makes up the base of the dam is 660 feet thick! Dam(n)... :-)

I took these photos with my phone. They didn't turn out too bad.

View from the parking deck looking at the face of the dam.

Looking south down the Colorado River

8 of the 17 generators that make up the 2080 MW generating capacity of the power plant. These are on the Nevada side of the river.

Lake Mead. The white line on the banks is where the water was in 1983. It hasn't been that high since.

These are the intake structures to the power plant. The water that goes to the turbines enters through the grates on the sides of these towers. There's 4 in all.

Another perk of life on the road - big bundles!

What would you do?

OK...I get 1 day off a week out here in Vegas (Sunday). For the last few, I've basically slept in, done laundry, and watched TV. I felt pretty good about it too. Well, this is the first week I have a co-worker out here with me and he wants to do something Sunday. With all of this in mind, I'm taking a poll.

What would you do this Sunday?

1. Stay local, sleep, and recharge the neurons.
2. Go gambling on the strip, lose money, and look at all of the goofy mid-westerners
3. Drive ~1 hour each way to Hoover Dam / Lake Mead
4. Drive a long way to the Grand Canyon (don't know exactly how far but guessing it's at least 3 hours).

Happy weekend to all of you who will get 2 days off starting tomorrow. Have a drink for me :-)

Greetings from Mercury, NV

I'm working in the Nevada desert not that far from Yucca Mountain and Area 51, but I'm staying in North Vegas because there's not much else around besides Joshua trees, coyotes, and tumbleweeds. As long as I have a quad-latte from Starbucks at 4:30 AM, the drive isn't too bad...

Here's a sample view of what I see for 60 miles each day to & from NTS to Las Vegas.

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Sent from my Verizon Wireless Samsung SCH-U740 device

Finally Doing the Facebook Thing...

I finally decided to take the plunge and start a Facebook profile. Beth ahs been on it for a while and was extolling the benefits of reconnecting with old friends. Well, under a stint of inspiration fueled by my upcoming 20-year HS reunion (no old guy jokes, please!), I decided to give it a try to see how many Lemon Bay HS grads were on it.

Based on what I've heard from others, I should have seen this coming. In one week, I've gotten reconnected with over 30 classmates, old friends, and colleagues that I hadn't spoken with in many years. It's really very easy to find people and get to know them again.

From the viewpoiont of a reformed skeptic, give it a try. I bet you'll be as surprised as I've been in he very first week of trying it.

p.s. glad to be back...:-)