Monthly Archives: November 2017
Made In The Shade . . .
I noticed that, unlike our previous movie dates, Jan didn’t seem especially enthusiastic about going to see Blade Runner 2049. I figured that at least part of the problem was the fact that the movie itself is 2 hours, 44 minutes long. So with coming attractions, we’d probably be looking at over 3 hours.
And since the movie didn’t even start until 4:40pm, it would be almost 8pm before we were out, and going on 9pm before we got home. And since Jan often falls asleep on the sofa around 7:30, the movie might be problematic.
So I asked her to tell me the truth, did she really want to see the movie? After hesitating a couple of seconds and said, “Noooo.” She then said she was only going because she knew I wanted to see it, and in fact, she didn’t even like the first one. She said it was too dark and dismal, and it was always raining. Well, that’s the first I’m hearing about it in the 25 years since it came out.
I mean, how can you not like “Time to Die” speech?
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.
What a lot of people don’t know is that Rutger Hauer, playing replicant Roy Batty, ad-libbed a large part of this. The scripted speech was much longer, but Hauer cut out most of the lines, and then added in the last two lines, leaving this.
Made In The Shade . . . I noticed that, unlike our previous movie dates, Jan didn’t seem especially enthusiastic about going to see Blade Runner 2049. I figured that at least part of the problem was the fact that the movie itself is 2 hours, 44 minutes long. So with coming attractions, we’d probably be looking at over 3 hours.
And since the movie didn’t even start until 4:40pm, it would be almost 8pm before we were out, and going on 9pm before we got home. And since Jan often falls asleep on the sofa around 7:30, the movie might be problematic.
So I asked her to tell me the truth, did she really want to see the movie? After hesitating a couple of seconds and said, “Noooo.” She then said she was only going because she knew I wanted to see it, and in fact, she didn’t even like the first one. She said it was too dark and dismal, and it was always raining. Well, that’s the first I’m hearing about it in the 25 years since it came out.
I mean, how can you not like “Time to Die” speech?
I’ve seen things you people wouldn’t believe.
Attack ships on fire off the shoulder of Orion.
I watched c-beams glitter in the dark near the Tannhäuser Gate.
All those moments will be lost in time, like tears in rain.
Time to die.
What a lot of people don’t know is that Rutger Hauer, playing replicant Roy Batty, ad-libbed a large part of this. The scripted speech was much longer, but Hauer cut out most of the lines, and then added in the last two lines, leaving this.
It’s been said that at the end of the scene, after a few moments of stunned silence, the film crew erupted in applause, amid a lot of tears.
I may just catch the 10am show by myself Wednesday morning if I can.
Since the movie wouldn’t be taking up our afternoon, I decided this would be a good time to remove one of our window awnings to see about getting new ones made for our rig. I figured I’d take down one of the small rear window ones to take into a local shop.
First off I started by clamping the flange that connects to the torsion spring. This allows me to control the unwinding of the spring.
Next I removed the screw that fastens the flange to the tube.
Then I pulled the flange off the arm while holding the vice grips to keep the spring from unwinding. After lowering the arm to the side of the rig, I carefully unwound the spring, counting the turns so I would know how many turns to rewind it.
At this point I put the now-loosened flange back on the arm.
This let me now drill out the rivets so I could remove the spring.
Now pulling the tube from the other end, I could pull it off the bottom of the awning fabric.
So now I should have been able to pull the fabric off the top rail, but it wouldn’t budge. So I removed the screw right above the rail that holds the first link of the cover in place.
This let me pull the fabric and the cover segment out from the other side.
This let me see that the reason the fabric wouldn’t come out is the fact that the rail was crimped on each end.
Normally if they want to lock the fabric in place they just use a small screw through the rail and into the fabric.
But after I use a screwdriver and a pair of pliers to open the channel, the fabric slide right out.
So Tuesday, I’ll take it over to a marine canvas shop in Kemah to see what they can do. So hopefully the rig will soon look like this.
Tomorrow it’s back to work.
The Word of the Day is: Shilly-shally
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Thought for the Day:
Reality is the leading cause of stress amongst those in touch with it. – Jane Wagner
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A Piece Of Cake . . .
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After a really quiet, really nice morning, about 12:30 Jan and I headed up to the Clear Lake area for lunch, shopping, and package pickup.
Our first stop was at our long-time favorite, King Food.
As I’ve mentioned before, we’ve been eating here since December 1978. In fact it was December 18th. I remember the exact day because it’s where I ate my very first day at NASA.
I had been Chief Electronic Tech for Alabama and Georgia with Storer Cable in Montgomery, AL since 1975. (Storer later became TCI, with part of it split off into Comcast.) But back in October I had seen an ad in the Birmingham paper looking for technicians to work at Johnson Space Center on the Space Shuttle Project.
How could I resist that?
They flew me down to Houston in October and hired me on the spot, but I ask to not start until the 18th of December, the start of Chris and Brandi’s Christmas vacation. So the moving van came on Thursday, (NASA moved us. Nice!), I finished work at Storer Friday afternoon and then we hit the road for Houston along with my parents, a caravan of 3 cars.
We spent the night in Meridian, MS before getting into Houston around 8pm Saturday night. Of course now we needed to find a place to stay, and quickly, because the moving van with our furniture would be there Monday afternoon.
But luckily for Jan and I, we were used to coming into a strange town and getting set up ASAP. When we spent those years working for the DOD, we regularly moved to a new town and in one day had an apartment, and the utilities turned on. So Houston was a piece of cake.
So Monday morning I started work at JSC while Jan waited at the house for the movers. And when we all went out to lunch from work, King Food is where we went.
So we’ve been eating at King Food for 39 years next month, and as it happens we’re on our 4th owner, though the present ones have been here the longest.
As far as lunch, we started with our usual Hot & Sour Soup, the best we’ve found anywhere in the country during our travels. But somehow I’ve never gotten a photo of a bowl, I guess because we’re always in a hurry to dig in.
After the soup we both had our usual Chicken with Hot Garlic Sauce and Jalapenos, XXXXX Spicy.
It really doesn’t get any better than this.
Next up I made a drive-by to my client’s office which also doubles as my Amazon package receiver. I had gotten texts that said that several had come in so we stopped by to pick them up.
Then it was on over to Harbor Freight for a few things before going on up I-45 to Wal-Mart for a couple of prescriptions and some groceries.
One of the things that came in from Amazon was a new bottle of Biobor JF Diesel Fuel Biocide.
I use this to keep the algae from growing in our rig’s diesel tank when we’re parked for long periods in cold weather. We try to keep our diesel tank full during these times so that a cold snap doesn’t condense moisture in the tank, which leads to algae growth, which then clogs your engine fuel filters.
In the past I’ve found Biobor in the Marine sections of sporting goods stores like Academy and Cabella’s, since it’s used in marine diesel engines as well. But lately it seems they’ve stopped carrying it, which is strange since it’s actually made here in Houston.
Tomorrow Jan and I are planning to see Blade Runner 2049 before it goes away. It’s only being shown in one theater in the south Houston area, and that’s the AMC 30 one up by the Sam Houston Tollway and I-45. So I wouldn’t be surprised to find it gone next weekend with all the new movies coming out.
The Word of the Day is: Fortitudinous
Thought for the Day:
The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin. — Mark Twain
tyrty
