and reading posts semi-daily. I know, lame, but I've still been here all along.

Really, I have a shortcut on my toolbar for my friends page and I check it regularly.

That is what I got for Christmas. :-P That and Wii Speak. Okay the first one was a joke. My wife and I really don't do Christmas gifts instead focus more on the children's gifts ( Read more... )

That is the detonation velocity of Data Sheet. The following image is of a paper clip that was traveling at that speed from a desk and it was found embedded into the ceiling of the room. The one ounce of data sheet that exploded was under the clip and resting on the desk top. It was one of many clips in the ceiling.
( lj-cut )

That is how fast the explosion travels away from C-4 after it is detonated. We watched a 4 lb. device that had galvanized nuts taped to it. Here is a small sampling of what is left of the nuts after they fly 26,400 and go through clothing, wood etc...

( Looky Looky )

We blew up some stuff yesterday. They placed small amounts of commercial and military grade explosives on small wooden tables. They said that they kept the amounts down so we could see what the different explosives did to the wood. We stood behind a big sand dune that was up the mountain and were behind a thick steel bunker that had very thick ( Read more... )

I am here for a week long training class. (Incident Response to Terrorist Bombings) The entire tab for the training is paid by Homeland Security. The flight out to Albuquerque was by a Boeing 373-200. The two hour flight was quite bumpy due to the strong winds from the north. We a (co-worker and I) picked up a rental and drove the final hour to ( Read more... )

Hurricane Ike left one of our big pine trees damaged. The top 20 feet had fallen out during the storm and our insurance company did not pay us for it's removal. The tree was left damaged from a lightning strike several years ago and a good portion of the trunk at the top was rotting and being hollowed out by woodpeckers. The tree is pretty close to ( Read more... )

Tonight I picked up a large takeout pizza on the bike. I strapped it down to the rear rack with two bungee cords. *Flexes muscles!* :-P

My parents have finally opened their bed and breakfast. It is called The Rocking H Bed and Breakfast and is south of Caldwell and north of Brenham Texas. I mentioned it as "the ranch" in previous entries. It is the other side of their deer hunting business that is called the BH Whitetail Ranch. The hunter's bunkhouse and the bed and breakfast rooms ( Read more... )

Yesterday I made a trip to the grocery store on my mountain bike. I went with the Burley trailer in tow to transport the groceries. We have two large thermal bags to transport the frozen/refrigerated goods in. The trip is less than two miles so there isn't much threat of spoilage anyway. Yesterday was my second such trip this week. I can see many ( Read more... )