Friday, a week ago, the driver that was delivering a load of diesel fuel to our fuel stop came in to tell me that the pumps weren't working. I checked the circuit breakers and both the 240 and 480 volt breakers were kicked out. Had him go ahead and pump the load off of his trailer with his tractor pump just to get him out of the way so I could check things out.

When he was finished I went over and disconnected both circuits at the pumps and threw the breakers back in. The lights dimmed, sparks flew, and both breakers kicked right back out!

Great!

There's a short circuit somewhere in the 260 feet of 3/4 inch conduit buried three feet underground! And part of that run goes under a road that's been widened 10 feet, and part of it's under 12" thick reinforced concrete. That also has three 90 degree elbows in it, so you would never get a fish tape through it to pull new wire through it!

Hmmmmmmm..............

So, in addition to.....

coming in at 4:30 am to heat naphthalene trailers

daily tank cleaning

EPA mandated paperwork

The faxing and the filing

and routine maintenance and housekeeping,

I've got a 210 foot ditch to dig, (thru a parking lot that's as hard as the proverbial you know who's heart) conduit to run, and wire to pull!

YAY!

The old 3/4 inch conduit line is marked in red. We didn't own the property next door 15 years ago, but now we do. So the new line, in green, will be a straight shot to the island, and about 50 feet shorter! I'm also running 2" conduit for the two power circuits and a separate 1" inch line for the computer wire.

Monday morning, the line is drawn.

The initial cuts were made thru the asphalt and concrete with a diamond tipped concrete saw.

Jack hammer came in handy here!

By Wednesday the backhoe was here and progress was being made, with the help of some of the guys from the garage.

That's Mark in the foreground, Jeff, and Dave back there on the backhoe.

Thursday evening, and we're ready to run the conduit and pull some wire!

That's part of the old 3/4 inch conduit with the six 12 gauge wires in it, attatched to the top of that new 2" work box. It's all good from there into the breaker boxes, so we're going to reuse it. At least we can get to it if we ever need to.

Friday evening at 4:30.

Done!

We're back in the fuel bidness again!

And, I'm heading home, because

!

May be beer:30 for the next 48 hours, too!

Feeling lazy today folks. Got spring fever, or sumpin.

Here's a little photo blog for your enjoyment.

Okay. That's done. It's beer thirty!

In Sept. 2008, this was all that was left of the largest, and nicest, flea market in the Tri-State area.

It's been rebuilt and reopened this spring. We went back for our first visit today.

Looks better than ever!

Nice to see that the wings are not all connected this time. Acted as a giant windtunnel during the fire. From the time smoke was spotted til there was nothing left was a little under 40 minutes as I remember. Luckily it was on a Wed. and no one was there.

I like what I see there. A state of the art sprinkler system! About every 6 or 8 feet, on both sides, and down the center, are sprinkler heads. In all the wings!

Impressive!

Found a booth that I really liked!

Met the owner and talked awhile about my dagger. While we were talking I realized I had talked to him years ago at a small flea market in Ky.

He owns the Norteastern Kentucky Museum. The link to his website is here.

He also buys and sells militaria and wants to see my Luftwaffe dagger.

Said he's been looking for a high end 2nd model for a while.

I showed him the pics on my camera, and he said he may able to go as high as $10,000!

OK, back to the tour!

Well, it is West Virginia, ya know! lol

Heart_beep and Seedsower would like these!

WTF? Did she live longer than they wanted her to?

Found some clocks for Angi!

A nice bunch of beer steins!

There's a used furniture and appliance store now.

Old furniture.

I walked around that place for three hours, and didn't buy anything.

Karen bought a pair of sunglasses.

We did buy our grand daughter something she's wanted for a long, long time, tho.

A horsie!

We are such good grand parents!

Came home and grilled some burgers on the deck and had dinner.

All in all, a pretty good day.

Did I mention he might go as high as $10,000?

WHOOT!

Didn't realize that I had so many of these.

Here's where they usually set around gathering dust.

 Wiped the dust off and lined up on the pool table to get a better look at em.

Seems every 2 or 3 years or so I get a new one for some reason, birthday, Christmas or whatever and the one I'm using goes on the shelf.

There's a 60th Anniversary Zippo (never used), a Y2K Zippo, Air Force, Steelers, a Marlboro Zippo, some Camel Zippos,  a couple of trench lighters, and asst. plastic ones.

That old Zippo to the right of the cue ball, with the peace sign scratched into it,  I bought in Thailand in 1969. I've lost it three times and it always comes back.

The lid is held on with a bent straightpin. lol

At VanSlam '76 in Richmond, Va. I opened it, and the striker wheel and spring flew out of it, not to be found on the ground anywhere. But, what I did find a few minutes later, was a new Zippo dropped on the parking lot. Picked it up and swapped the guts and put the new one back on the ground.

It still works to this day.

I think it's haunted!

Or possessed!

For Angi's Perfect Picture Search.

Horizons and Clocks

Here's a few cell phone pics

New Toy

Saw this at a flea market. Was hoping the lady didn't know what it was worth.

 She did.

Here's a clock even!

Me, goofing off at work!

Another pic of that dagger that I have.

And here's a few random pics from cooking with Buddly Crocker!

Shrimp Fried Rice

Baked Pork Chops

Roast Beef Hash

Old World Soup

Chili Dogs

Chicken Vegetable Soup

Blackberry Cobbler

Hush Puppies

Inch Thick Porterhouse Steaks

Beer Can Chicken

Grilled Pork Chops

Dammit, now I'm hungry!

Heading off to Kroger's, they have T-bones on sale for $4.99 a lb.

It's time to fire up the grill, Angi!

Have a great weekend, everybody!

My father was a 50 cal.machinegunner assigned to the "Rainbow Division" of the 42nd Infantry during WW2. In April of 1945 the 42nd liberated Dachau prison camp and Dad's squadron commander took him and two other machinegunners thru the back gate to set up emplacements.

The back gate at Dachau, taken by my Dad. 

Since the Nazi SS Officers and guards knew the American Army was only a day away, most had already fled leaving just a handful of enlisted personnel behind and they quickly surrendered.

Most of the activity that day was taking place at the front gate, so Dad took a walk around checking things out and found an abandoned staff car a couple hundred feet from the gate. On looking inside he found a Nazi SS banner and an officers dress dagger. He wrapped the dagger in the banner, stuck them in his knapsack and carried them the rest of his time in Europe, and eventually back home when he returned.

For 50 years the pair were kept in my mothers cedar chest and were passed to me when my father died in 1995. I've done a lot of research on Google and at Johnsons Reference Library and found that this is not an SS officers dagger, it is a 2nd Model Luftwaffe (air force) officers dagger.

Daggers like this one with the double etched Emil Voos blades were only issued to the highest ranking Luftwaffe officers.

But Dachau was ran by the Army, and they had their own very distinctive edged weapons issued to them! Why would an Air Force officers dagger be in one of the staff cars they tried to escape in???

Well, it was back to Google and the answer turned out to be pretty simple. There was a Luftwaffe officer at Dachau when the Americans arrived. And not just any officer, it was the commander of the Luftwaffe, Hermann Goering!

When Hitler went into the bunker towards the end and said that all was lost, the war was over, Goering declared himself Fuhrer!

Upon hearing this, Hitler had him placed under house arrest at Dachau, which was near Goerings home in Bavaria.

Earlier in the war Goering had been instrumental in the founding of the SS and was held in very high regard by the commandant and SS guards at at Dachau. Needless to say, house arrest rules for him were almost none-he dined with the officers, slept in their quarters, and was even allowed to carry small arms to protect himself from the real prisoners at the camp.

The night before the Americans arrived, Goering and the SS officers fled the camp altho he was later recaptured by American forces and eventually sentenced to death after the war.

But, the night that they were scrambling for their lives, did the staff car run out of gas? In their haste to find something else to escape in, did Goering overlook his dagger lying in the backseat??

Such a small thing would have meant nothing when you're in fear for your life!!

Any "serious" collectors of "The Edged Weapons of The Third Reich" interested???

Kenova, WVa's town clock.

Pretty neat little square!

There's a donors plaque on this one.

I like the way it says Kenova Towne Square on the face!

I think this one is my favorite so far.

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Ceredo WVa's town clock.

These two little towns are seperate entities, but they blend together with no distinct boundaries, and the locals all refer to them together as CK, Wva.

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The old Ohio is back in it's banks, tho not quite down to normal pool.

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And finally, a tree, just for good measure!

Have a great Monday folks, if there is such a thing!

And, new jeans and boots!

I feel purty!

A man comes to his doctor and tells him that his wife hasn't
had sex with him for 6 months. The doctor tells the man to
bring his wife in so he can talk to her. So the wife comes
into the doctors office and the doc asks her what's wrong,
and why doesn't she want to have sex with her husband anymore.

The wife tells him, "Money has been really tight for us lately,
so I got a job downtown. For the past 6 months, every morning
I take a cab to work. I don't have any money so the cab driver
asks me, 'So are you going to pay today or what?' so I take a
'or what'. When I get to work I'm late so the boss asks me,
'So are we going to write this down in the book or what?' so
I take a 'or what'.

Back home again I take the cab and again I don't have any
money so the cab driver asks me again, 'So are you going to
pay this time or what?' so again I take a 'or what'. So you
see doc when I get home I'm all tired out, and I don't want
it any more."

The doctor thinks for a second and then turns to the wife and
says, "So are we going to tell your husband about this or
what?"

Got home yesterday evening and realized I'd left the furnace on low when I left for work that morning. Since it was in the low 70's the house was pretty warm. Opened a couple of doors to air it out a little and started looking for something easy and quick to make for dinner that didn't involve turning on the oven!

Found some shrimp in the freezer, one carrot, a stalk of celery, and an onion. We always have rice and eggs, so I was in bidness!

  So, we got 1 pound of cooked shrimp (26 to 30 count), one carrot and one stalk of celery, sliced on an angle.

One medium onion sliced in half lengthwise and then into thin strips, 3 eggs scrambled well, Tomato and lemon for garnish.

Lets cook!

Three cups of cooked rice.

 I don't have a wok anymore, so I use my chicken fryer for the depth.

In 2 tablespoons of hot oil, stir fry (or as we pronounce it in America "saute") the veggies over med. high heat til crisp tender.

Remove the veggies to a bowl, add another tablespoon of oil, the three cups of rice, and cook over med heat for 5 or 6 minutes, stirring frequently. We're not trying to brown it, just drive out the moisture and add a great deal of flavor.

When done, make a crater in the center, turn heat to low, and add the eggs.

Stir the eggs a few times til set.

Reintroduce the veggies, fold every thing together with a spatula or spoon.

 Add cooked shrimp, turn heat to med. low and heat just til shrimp are hot.

 I spent my entire 21st year in Udorn, Thailand and have eaten a ton of fried rice. Shrimp, chicken, beef, pork, or combinations of all.

Every plate that I was served was garnished with tomato, lemon, and slices of cucumber. Didn't have any cukes in the house today so I did without.

I didn't miss 'em. I love 'em, but they burp me to death for days!

Garnish with some tomato and lemon, sprinkle with a little (or a lot) of soy sauce, and enjoy!

 Less than 45 minutes, feeds four, and almost no expense. Can't beat it!