Good morning St Louis

St Louis

Well we made it. After a 45 min delay in Chicago because the flight crew was late, we arrived in St Louis. 

Here are some pics from the trip:

Plane selfie

Downtown Chicago

Green grass and a football stadium 

And then we waited for the rental car shuttle. And then to get the car. By midnight we had the car and were on our way. (We is Rui and I). 

I punched in the hotel address into the GPS and started driving. There was no traffic so it was smooth sailing until 1.5 miles from the hotel when I took the wrong lane and ended up crossing the River. To my defense, the GPS said to take I70 east so I stayed in the I70 east lane. However the map must be out of date...

We ended up in Illinois (right across the river) and driving through East St Louis. This is not somewhere you want to be at 1230 at night...

We made it to the hotel unscathed. 

I'm blogging while sitting in this:

Well time for bed. It's going to be hard to get up in 5 hrs...

Cinco de Mayo

I just got back from my first Cinco de Mayo celebration. As it was explained to me "cinco de mayo is just an excuse for people to get together and party/drink, sort of like St Patricks day."  I found that humourous because as I drove to Jason and Katie's place, the radio was all about the $2 beers and $3 tequila. 

Speaking of beer and tequila. I asked what I could bring to the party today and we decided I should bring some beer. So Katie told me to go to Frys food and drug because they had a sale on beer and tequila for Cinco de Mayo. She wasn't kidding - 12 Dos Equis amber beer and a 26 of tequila for less than $15. Total. So, I'll be packing the tequila in my bag to bring back and add to my collection. 

Tomorrow should be a busy day as the medical staff are arriving and will have a million questions and suggestions on how to do things differently. I will need to remember the popular moto "keep calm and carry on". As much as I have enjoyed the trip down here, it has been a pretty colosal waste of time. I've spent more time coordinating and working on projects that could have better been ran while in the office but the customer wanted me here in case there were questions. Of the 4 days on site, I've had the following:

Day 1. Stating that no, our design wasn't flawed which would cause the frequency covertly to arc internally and melt a hole in the metallic casing. If it was a design problem, the circuit breaker would have popped or the wires would have burned up. 

Day 2. Saying that In order to run all of the interior systems on the ground with only the APU running, you need to disable the following systems (most notably hydraulics which take up more than 40% of your power). Sure, you won't have breaks but you can use wheel chalks instead. 

Day 3. Answering "Sure, we can add more detail to your maintenance manuals. How much detail would you like? The level of detail will directly relate to your cost."

Day 4. Stating that Yes, the fact that the tracking cabinet won't lock in place is a safety of flight issue.  (After looking at it), no it doesn't appear that the problem is ours, the cabinet that you purchased seems sort of defective for the spring that forces the lock pin into position when you release the cable. Perhaps the cable routing is a part of the problem. 

Overall, nothing earth shattering nor anything that couldn't have been answered over the phone ( except for today I guess). 

Anyways, I'm looking forward to coming home Wednesday, even if only for a short time before going to St. Louis on Thursday afternoon. Then, back home Friday evening so we can go to Morden to celebrate Devins birthday and probably some El Dia de la Madre celebrations. 

This coffee is not wearing off.... Need to try to fall asleep. It's going to be hard to switch back 2 hrs on Wednesday. Luckily I will probably be the most awake player on Wednesdays hockey game ;)

My Tucson family

Today was pretty relaxing. Got up, ate breakfast then sat outside by the pool for an hour or so.  After a quick swim, I came back inside and watched Armaggedon that was on tv and texted Lola. Then, a short walk to subway to grab a sub and then watch the hockey game that was on NBC. 

After the hockey game, I went to the gym to lift some weights and loosen up my back. Sitting in front of a computer all day tends to create tension in your upper back. Then, back outside and another swim. 

After 30 mins outside, I was done and needed to go inside to cooler temperatures, and a nap. Then, shower and off to do some quick shopping. Here's a pic of the temperature to prove it was warm:

After some items were purchased, I went to visit my Tucson family. Jason and Katie invited me to Katie's parents place for dinner so I showed up with a bottle of wine and had a great time.  

Katie's parents live out of town on a ranch (basically) with three horses and a dog. They have a nice ranch style house (3500 sq ft I think they said) and a pond with cacti nearby:

That's my buddy Riley swimming back after getting the ball that I threw into the pond.

A view looking to the south, palm trees and a bit of the mountain. 

A picture from the otherside of the house, looking out at the mountains.

Katie's parents are originally from Canada. Her mom, Sandra, is from Winnipeg so she loves to talk to me about things "back home". Today the topics were surrounding costs for food. In Tucson, you can get a gallon of milk for $1.89 apparently... I said that's what I pay for half a gallon... 

We also got talking about houses. There was one advertised - 5 bedrooms, 5.5 bathrooms, 5400 sq ft with thre garages for a total of 16 cars on 25 acres. Price? $1.65 million. Oh, did I mention it was at the foot of Mt Lemmon?  Crazy!

Tomorrow is Cinqo de Mayo - May 5th (which never crossed my mind until Katie told me yesterday...). Cinqo de Mayo is basically like Mexican Independence Day. So, Katie and Jason invited me over for dinner (tacos and margaritas) with her parents and some of their friends. 

It's nice to have "family" away from home - makes it easier to pass time.

Car show

Today was pretty good. I spent the morning doing work and then this afternoon went to a car show with Jason. 

We liked into his Shelby and drove to a restaurant called hot rods. 

The Shelby interior 

The inside of hot rods

Hot rods was pretty interesting. It is basically a huge restaurant that overlooks a restoration garage.  The service wasn't the best as it seems that the kitchen output is quite low so they only fill half the restaurant but the food was good. 

The M&M Nascar

After some wings and a burger we toured around the car show. Here are some for the sights:

A Duster

Auntie Krystal's Maverick didn't look like this...

Jason's car. Lol. 

When we arrived, we parked and started walking towards the restaurant. In that time, people were already gawking at Jason's car so he asked if he could park and show it off. The organizers said sure. So, Jason backed in and popped the hood. It was pretty funny, people started flocking over to see the car. 

After the show, we headed back to Jason's.  About half way there, we noticed a sound. It sounded like something was dragging. So we pulled over and saw that his lower air dam / skirt was dragging. We suspect that someone might have stepped too close and cause the dam to pop off some of the push in fasteners. Then, driving at highway speed the air caused it to further release, flipping down and dragging on the highway. Here's a pic of the dam:

No longer smooth at the lower edge. 

Once back at Jason's we hung out with his fiancée, Katie, before her shift. Katie is a nurse who's parents are from canada. I've had dinner at their place a few times in the past and was invited again tomorrow. 

After we dropped Katie off at work, we went back and removed the dam from the Shelby. Then, we went to oreganos for wings and drinks. We were there for a few hours and had some good conversations about work. Then, back to Jason's and I drove back to the hotel to text Lola and blog. 

Tomorrow should be relaxed. Should be mid 90's and I'll try to spend time outside to get some more colour. 

Goodnight from Tucson. 

Friday!

Well I've been here for three days and finally there are some questions starting. It would have made more sense for me to come down this coming Monday than this week. Oh well, all to support the customer. 

Looks like a decent weekend coming up:

Too bad I have work to get done. Luckily it should only be a few hours and I hope to get that done tomorrow morning so I can relax for the rest of the weekend. 

It also sounds like I will be going to St. Louis for Friday next week for an inspection. The fun never stops!

Too bad I'm missing my hockey game on Sunday, I'm just getting back into things. I'll be back for Wednesdays game thankfully and if I get some runs in this weekend I shouldn't be out of shape.