A habit forming?
I seriously don't do this often, but the Laphroaig seems to have quite the kick this evening. Whee! It's kind of like drinking a campfire, as the neighbor who introduced me to it (hospitality after I helped him get a printer set-up under Ubuntu on his PC, after I did a bit of excavating work for him) described it. Yeah, I seem to have a habit of assisting neighbors for compensation in the form of socializing & adult beverages, not necessarily the best business model, so it's a good thing I still have a day job.
I'm listening to a little Johnny Horton, who I guess is one of the last famous ballad singers. I guess what motivated this was watching a Seconds to Disaster documentary on the Bismarck. Of course, one of Johnny's bigger hits was "Sink the Bismarck", but I couldn't just stop there...
Guess I may as well make a proper update.
I sold one of the MCI buses, as planned. I made a great contact in that buyer, I haven't had a customer like him in close to two decades. I'm keeping in contact with him well after the sale, which we made a few months ago, and we converse often and help each other out. He's primarily an enthusiast, which is pretty much what I am when it comes to the buses as well.
I took the bus I'm more-or-less keeping (retired RTD unit 1911) on a decent road trip to North Little Rock, AR, back in October with the Dobermans. I removed nearly all of the seats so it's just a cavernous cargo hold that looks like a bus from the outside. It was somewhat a business trip for my own side business, picking up a few hundred fixed-mount fire extinguishers which I bought at GSA auction, including nearly 100 clean agent FM-200 extinguishers (FM-200 is the modern replacement for Halon, which is not ozone friendly) and a bunch of dry powder ones as well. Fixed fire extinguishers are mostly used in automated fire suppression systems in vehicles, these were military surplus used in military MRAPs and the like, a state asset agency in AR bought them thinking they were handheld extinguishers which could be placed state buildings, not realizing they were completely inappropriate for that use. This trip reminded me how much I like driving huge vehicles cross-country, it's been all I can do to stay committed to my day job and not just quit to get more into trucking...
Shortly after that, I bought a 20 year old American LaFrance pumper fire apparatus . It's another of those things that one just has to buy when one has the opportunity. My plans for that are hopefully profitable resale, but I might take parts from it (AC inverter, Kussmaul charger, and any other potentially useful systems) for use in converting 1911 into more of an RV setup. equusfur mentioned that he noticed I'd bought a fire truck, I hadn't really mentioned it, but my sister had posted photos of my nephews & niece on it from when I took them for a little ride in it on Facebook. I'd forgotten she took some photos of it and never noticed them in my feed there. Anyway, according to her, one of her sons said that it's "the coolest thing someone can own". Heh. I cannot disagree.
I haven't been super happy with work through the latter half of 2016, having been expected to do a lot of managerial work with neither managerial compensation or actual authority. That situation is changing, so right when I was about to kick my job search into high gear, the (real) management seems to have gotten their asses in gear. I'll give it a chance a little longer to see how the new system pans out. I also play a lot of Summoners War (a silly little mobile device online RPG) which a couple of my coworkers also play and sort of got me into. It's pretty complex and well-executed for a mobile device game, complete with a number of folks who appear to make a living creating Youtube videos relating to strategy and such.
Not much else is going on, I guess. I still don't exactly have a robust social life. Outside of work, it's still just me and the dogs, and the occasional emergency page.
I'm listening to a little Johnny Horton, who I guess is one of the last famous ballad singers. I guess what motivated this was watching a Seconds to Disaster documentary on the Bismarck. Of course, one of Johnny's bigger hits was "Sink the Bismarck", but I couldn't just stop there...
Guess I may as well make a proper update.
I sold one of the MCI buses, as planned. I made a great contact in that buyer, I haven't had a customer like him in close to two decades. I'm keeping in contact with him well after the sale, which we made a few months ago, and we converse often and help each other out. He's primarily an enthusiast, which is pretty much what I am when it comes to the buses as well.
I took the bus I'm more-or-less keeping (retired RTD unit 1911) on a decent road trip to North Little Rock, AR, back in October with the Dobermans. I removed nearly all of the seats so it's just a cavernous cargo hold that looks like a bus from the outside. It was somewhat a business trip for my own side business, picking up a few hundred fixed-mount fire extinguishers which I bought at GSA auction, including nearly 100 clean agent FM-200 extinguishers (FM-200 is the modern replacement for Halon, which is not ozone friendly) and a bunch of dry powder ones as well. Fixed fire extinguishers are mostly used in automated fire suppression systems in vehicles, these were military surplus used in military MRAPs and the like, a state asset agency in AR bought them thinking they were handheld extinguishers which could be placed state buildings, not realizing they were completely inappropriate for that use. This trip reminded me how much I like driving huge vehicles cross-country, it's been all I can do to stay committed to my day job and not just quit to get more into trucking...
Shortly after that, I bought a 20 year old American LaFrance pumper fire apparatus . It's another of those things that one just has to buy when one has the opportunity. My plans for that are hopefully profitable resale, but I might take parts from it (AC inverter, Kussmaul charger, and any other potentially useful systems) for use in converting 1911 into more of an RV setup. equusfur mentioned that he noticed I'd bought a fire truck, I hadn't really mentioned it, but my sister had posted photos of my nephews & niece on it from when I took them for a little ride in it on Facebook. I'd forgotten she took some photos of it and never noticed them in my feed there. Anyway, according to her, one of her sons said that it's "the coolest thing someone can own". Heh. I cannot disagree.
I haven't been super happy with work through the latter half of 2016, having been expected to do a lot of managerial work with neither managerial compensation or actual authority. That situation is changing, so right when I was about to kick my job search into high gear, the (real) management seems to have gotten their asses in gear. I'll give it a chance a little longer to see how the new system pans out. I also play a lot of Summoners War (a silly little mobile device online RPG) which a couple of my coworkers also play and sort of got me into. It's pretty complex and well-executed for a mobile device game, complete with a number of folks who appear to make a living creating Youtube videos relating to strategy and such.
Not much else is going on, I guess. I still don't exactly have a robust social life. Outside of work, it's still just me and the dogs, and the occasional emergency page.