6/3/08

Holy crap-a-rolly! I've been running fast and hard since 0700 h this morning! First off, I was late for my 0700 h meeting, but it turned out ok since they didn’t really start until 0730 h or so. I got to this side of campus and parked in THE parking spot. It is on a curb on one side and a “no parking” striped zone on the other. Best. Parking. Spot. Ever. I came up to my desk and got to “work” answering e-mail and stuff. Then I did a stupid thing, I answered the phone when it rang at 0730 h. I thought it might be my dude in the TOB, the 0700 h meet, but it wasn’t. No, it was a guy from Kansas who is in charge of the Frontline Supervisors Meeting. You may remember the FLS meetings from a few years back when I had to set and strike the 150 laptop computers in the TOB once a week. Well, since that first year they have been holding the FLS meetings at the Radisson on Meacham Blvd. Apparently the A/V guy they hired this year didn’t show up so they wanted me to come over. Yes, they wanted me to give up THE parking spot and come help set up their stuff. I was annoyed to say the least. I went over there and spent an hour or so helping out. We called Jeff in to babysit them the rest of the day as well. Once Larry was happy I headed back to the main campus. Oh, I also got a call about a bad cable while I was over there so as soon as I got back I took the shuttle across to the TOB to swap them out. Oh, I had to park on the roof of the parking garage, about as far away from my desk as possible by the way. The shuttle was just pulling away as I rounded the corner so I called him. He sounded distressed that he’d have to come back for me to si told him to go on. He came back anyway. Apparently, he had been trying to get into the bathroom for half an hour or so but people kept needing rides. Oops, sorry. I swapped out the cable and headed back to the shuttle pickup point. He was just rolling out as I rounded the corner, again. This time I took off “running” to the door I knew he’d pass next. I shot out the door and what do you know, he took off out a different exit from the parking lot! I walked back in and sat on the sofa to wait. Five minutes or so later I saw him across the street going towards the Visitor’s Center. “Did I miss the shuttle again?” I asked the other dude sitting there. He affirmed that the shuttle had not swung back by the door we were watching so I shrugged it off. When he did finally show back up I noticed he took a drink of water while I was walking out. “He must have made it to the bathroom,” I thought. I got in the van and said, “The one time you go out that entrance, I'm coming out that door to catch you!” Oh, I pointed to the two salient ingress/egress points as I spoke by the way. He told me that as soon as he dropped off the last dude he took off to building “B” to take a pee. He knew that unless someone called there wouldn’t be anyone waiting for him there. There was someone waiting for him there! It was one of the Lanier Copier guys so he felt he could make him wait. Just as he was stepping into the bathroom the phone rang telling him to go to building “B.” We had a laugh at that story and moved on. Well, I need to take a projector to someone right quick. Let’s see how long it takes for me to get back with y'all. Ok, that wasn’t too bad. It was long enough that the screen saver kicked in. Of course now I don’t… wait, I do have something to say. Yesterday after work I took the head I've been carrying around for the last week into Automotive Machine to get a quote. On the way there, Gregg and I talked about the pistons, and heads, and stuff like that. From that discussion, I had just about convinced myself that I needed to bring the head that came off the engine in instead of messing with the one in the trunk. I went ahead and spoke to Steve at AM though. While waiting for him to serve me, I further convinced myself that the original “numbers matching” head was the better idea. While we discussed it I finally convinced myself it was the right way to go and left with the other head in hand. By the way, it looks like that is a brand new head off of one of those crate engines George bought a few years ago. That would explain why it was so clean except for the head gasket residue. As I left, I called Gregg back to discuss the situation some more. We decided that since Steve has experience with A-series engines (he built a badass A-14 for his B-210 some time ago), we’ll just bring the work to Automotive Machine. I'm going to bring them the head that came off the engine, and that other one just like it, to see if either one is good. I'll have them unshroud the intake runners, port the thing, and run it on the flow bench. I'll take the intake manifold too so it can be flowed as well. I'll have them shave a few thousandths, or perhaps hundredths, off the deck to bump the compression, after cc’ing them of course. I think I'll spring for the ceramic barrier coatings as well, while I'm spending money. I'm still torn about the head studs and exhaust manifold situation though. I guess I'll burn those bridges when I come to them. And on that note I think I'll call it a rant. Have a day.