Wondering how many planets are out there. . .

It was not too long ago that astronomers discovered the first planet orbiting a star other than our own star, the Sun. Wow, the whole world was excited to hear the news and wondered what the planet was like and if it had life. Hate to tell you but those people should have known that the first planet to be discovered would have to a huge one and not capable of life as we know it. The first planets discovered were all very, very huge with close, fast orbits around their star. They were nick-named fast Jupiters. It wasn’t until a few years later that planets were discovered orbiting in their stars “habitable zone”; that is the area where liquid water can exist on a planet.



Just lately it was announced that astronomers have just discovered 50 new planets around stars and that 16 of these are super-Earths (planets like ours only larger) and that one is in its star’s habitable zone. We have come a long way in our ability to find smaller and smaller planets way out there. From that humble start back a few years ago with the discovery of the first exoplanet (one from a solar system other than ours) up until now a lot of planets have been found. In fact, astronomers now know of 700 such exoplanets.


You all have a great day orbiting around our own star, you hear?

Wondering when I will ever get done.

I am still working on that “rush” job. I started this small job way back on November 5th and it turned out not to be such a small job. I have worked every day except the day I purchased the Class-A and last Friday, when I took it in to get the oil and filters changed in the main engine and the generator. That, of course took longer than expected. At 09:00 I got started getting ready to take the RV down to Camperland, located just south of Conroe. Got it running and disconnected and made it down there by 10:00. They said it would take two hours, but by noon they had not finished and the guy that was doing the work went on lunch break for an hour. Finally got it done and headed back to the house. It was easy getting it out. Just make sure everything was unhooked, open the gate, and go. Getting back in was a different story.



I had to move the Class-C motor-home, which meant disconnecting it and moving it way up the driveway almost to the gate. (I have an elongated loop section of drive way near my house.) Then I had to move the Jeep, since it was sitting in my front yard where I have to pull up in to make my three or four back-ups to get the new one wrapped around and back in its parking spot. Had my wife come out with the walkie-talkies and help me get past that leaning tree. That took a few back-ups and pull forwards to clear it. BTW, a tree guy is supposed to call me about taking down that three. My wife says she does not want me to do it. Don’t know why, I have cut down lots of trees. I used to pound a stick in the ground and try to drop the tree I was cutting onto the stick. Hit it almost all of the time, even if the tree was leaning another direction. Now she says I am too old. I just want you to know I am not too old, but I am getting lazy so will have the guy give me a quote. If it is close to the price of new chain saw, I will go with him; a lot easier, right?


I guess I took a long way around just to say I got to get to work. I want to finish this project up this week. (Yeah, famous last words) You all have a great new week now, you hear?

Wondering which on is the “Monster”.

The day before we got the chance to purchase the Class-A we wanted, my wife bought a Toshiba Tablet, the big one that had an USB port, a removable battery, a big screen, and lots of extras. Then the next day we went down to South Houston and spent the whole day purchasing the RV and getting some minor things fixed before we took it home. Because of all that was going on, her new tablet never got set up correctly from the beginning and after everything settled down, she finally tried to get it set up properly. She could use the internet; of course the first site she looked at was QVC. Played a few games, etc. It worked fine on most sites but she couldn’t use it for email or download more apps, nor could she get it registered.



She had tried everything and nothing would work, it wouldn’t even take the serial number which is required to register it. She worked with it hour after hour, day after day, and got so frustrated she was ready to pull her hair out. But worse, it was turning her into a monster, and I don’t mean the Cookie Monster. She was getting so frustrated that it upset both our lives. She even said that the dang thing was turning her into a monster. I told her that I would take her back to where we purchased it and get help, but she would have to wait until I could find the time to do it. You know I was going to find the time, just to get rid of “The Monster” and I am not talking about the tablet.


One of my favorite stores is Office Depot and that is where we purchased the tablet. We went back there yesterday and they were so very helpful and got the thing straightened out. It took them quite a long time to do so, because the two techs that were helping her had trouble figuring out why it wouldn’t work right. This story has a happy ending. They got the problem figured out, the “Monster” shrunk down to her old self and size, the tablet works great according to the ex-monster, and they wouldn’t even accept a tip even though it took up a lot of their time. No charge and it works like a new one – wait, it IS a new one. Office Depot is still my favorite store.


You all have a good day and shrink all your monsters, you hear?

Wondering about speed.

Did you ever stop to think just how fast things move? I actually move pretty slowly, but there are slower things, like snails and the rate that a tree grows and the movement of tectonic plates, unless they build up pressure and move all at once – Earth Quake! But most things are faster than I am, except back when I had my 1957 Chevy Convertible with the souped up engine that would turn over 8000 rpm’s. Then I was fast!!! But there are a lot of things a lot faster than that. Really? Yeah, really!



The planet we live on is no slow poke. It moves along its orbit at about 18.5 miles per second; that is 66,600 miles per hour. If it speeded up it would move further away from the sun and if it slowed down, it would move closer to the sun. So far, there has been nothing to make it speed up that I know of but there have been some small things that may have slowed it up a tad. Anything traveling in our own orbit can neither catch us nor can we catch them. Therefore, any other object in out orbit would pose no threat of collision with us, unlike cars going down the road in the same lane.


Now we got that settled, but how do we get hit with stuff. Everything that hits us is moving in another direction from somewhere else in the universe or is in some kind of elongated elliptical orbit, like comets from the Oort Cloud. Also, something can be in the same orbit but may be going in the opposite direction and then can hit us head on at twice our speed. (Like some meteor showers do)


Everything, and I mean EVERYTHING, is moving, from large bodies down to atoms and particles. So, what is the maximum speed limit? It has always been thought to be the speed of light, and so far it has not been proven wrong that I know of. Some things, like very distant galaxies appear to be moving away from us at more than the speed of light. How could this be? Well, one explanation is that they are moving really fast, but of course they are not but if they were it would be no where near the speed of light. The actual space between them and us is expanding at a terrific speed. I don’t think it is expanding more than the speed of light, but if you were standing half way between the distant galaxies and the earth, both would be moving away under the speed of light, but standing on earth the apparent speed is doubled. Am I making myself clear? No? Ok, sorry.


You all have a nice SLOW day now, you hear?

Wondering about fall color this year.

It seems to me that the oak trees are showing a lot more color this fall than I have remembered them doing.  Do you suppose it has something to do with the drought and the rains we had in the last half of November?  In years past, it seemed to me that each oak tree changed color on their own schedule and not all at the same time.  Not that way this year.  Although they don’t get brightly colored, there is color tones to the brown they are turning; mostly a red tone to the brown.  Let’s see, that would be a rust color, right?  Here are a few pictures I took around the house:

Got to go get the newest addition motor-home ready to take down and get the oil and filters changed in the engine and the generator. Since I don’t know how many miles have been on the engine or hours on the generator since the last oil change, want its life with me to start off with fresh oil and filters. I know nothing at all about diesels, and I thought the gal told me on the phone when I made the appointment that it would take 12 gallons of oil. Wow, now that is a lot unless she meant to say quarts. I guess with that big of an oil reservoir, you could go quite a few miles before changing it. I didn’t get any information on the engine, but I did get info on the generator. Going to use Rotella oil. Everyone says that is one of the best. Anyone out there now what is recommended for a Cat engine? Too late to change oil types now, appointment is in two hours. That reminds me, I got to get going and get things ready.



BTW, I had to go to Houston yesterday to meet with my customer and agree on what was needed to finish up this job. We both seem to be satisfied with the answer. Have a great Friday, you hear?

Wondering about a cat story

I was reading Billy Bob’s blog and he was talking about a mean blue-eyed cat. He got some comments that told of injuries caused by cats. This caused me to remember what happened to a co-worker’s wife one day years ago. I have never forgotten what he said happened and I can picture it in my mind. Ok, enough prelude, here is the story, short and sweet.



My friend and his wife loved cats and was owned by several. One warm, sunny day his wife had been out in the back yard getting some sun. She was dressed in nothing but a skimpy bikini. She had just returned to the house when the front door bell rang. She headed to the door with her trusty cat beside her. When she opened the door, there stood a woman with a big dog on a leash by her side. My friend’s cat hissed and climbed up his wife’s mostly naked body and perched on her shoulder. The cat really tore her up trying to get to a safe place away from the dog. I imagine she still has scares. It just gives me shivers to think of that story. If you have ever had a cat sink its claws into you deep enough to support its weight, you know what I am talking about.


I am not even going to mention how cold it got last night. I will just say it was a hard freeze and stayed in the mid 20’s for many hours and is more like New England than the Gulf Coast of Texas. You all have great day now and keep warm, you hear?

Wondering when this job will ever end.

I have been working on this “rush” job for the last 34 days in a row. Long hours and things I want and need to do waiting for me. This customer wants to have three of these units in the field by the end of this year. The design of the basic unit is done, but not all the fabrication drawings are complete yet. There are still a lot of things that go on this unit that I don’t even have started yet and there is only three more weeks in this year. Most fabrication shops in this area have a back-log and I don’t see how this all is going to have a happy ending for my customer and I am getting burnt out. Dang, I really wanted to get down to Rockport to see Barney and Billy Bob before they left, but it isn’t looking too good at this moment. Maybe it is because I woke up knowing I have too much to do and not enough time to do it in.



Don’t get me wrong. I appreciate the work and I do like to work, but I don’t like to rush I don’t like to work on the same thing every day for over a month. But, I did say I would try to help this customer out, and my word is good. I just didn’t realize what all it was going to involve. OK, got to get back to the old grinding wheel. By the way, it is really cold here this morning – like 28 degrees!! You all have a great day now, you hear?