I'm sitting here in the terminal at Minneapolis Airport killing time waiting for my next flight. I'm headed to Portland for a work conference all week. This is the trip I take annually and I love this part of the country. So scenic and very different landscape than Wisconsin. Mountains, huge evergreens, ocean, desert all within a few hours drive.
I'm head to Skamania Lodge for the annual Cascade Users Group Conference. It's a great conference and I've formed some good relationships with the other users over the years. I'm the only employee from MGE going; I like it that way because I can do my own thing in my free time. I plan on doing some hiking and maybe visit Mt. St. Helens which is about an hour or so away.
What's new with Zeke???
My life's been pretty crazy lately. I would say that this is the busiest I've been in my working career at MGE. But it's not stressful and I'm seeing a lot of my projects coming to fruition. I'd take busy over bored any day. I've also started being one of the sound techs at Blackhawk Downtown which is held at the Majestic theater in Madison. To get things up and running I'm working sound every Sunday for the next few months. We need to haul in, setup and tear down every Sunday! But I'm happy to serve and it's neat to be a part of something that is so new and "uncharted territiory"ish.
I'm also training for a marathon in late October. I'm running in the Middleton Haunted Hustle on Oct. 30th. Training is going well. I've already done a 20 miler and I'll probably do another next week. I have the Fall 50 relay race in Door County the weekend before so I really hope I don't injure myself!
I've started taking piano lessons this fall. I've wanted to learn proper technique and expand my songwriting palette, if you will. The Madison Music Foundary is where I take my lessons every Thursday afterwork. So far so good and I think I already have better fingering technique!!
The Lonshots season is coming to a close. We went 5-5 in the summer league and we are currently 2-2 in the fall league. Our last game is next week which I'll miss. It's a been a long season but we made it to the championship game which was unexpected! I really love the guys on the team, definetly some HQHs (High Quality Humans).
Amber and I have started year #5 in our marriage! That's crazy. But all is well. Many more to come!
Alright, gotta catch my next flight. Enough about me! Later.
Sunday, September 26, 2010
Tuesday, January 26, 2010
Blue
Here's some lyrics for a short song I wrote on a bitter cold night in January, not unlike tonight, when I was longing for summer....softball, cool evening runs, frisbee, concerts. I can't wait for summer.
Blue (1/9/10)
Sky, night, clear, bright
Summer's here, summer's here
Dust on a ball, strike, good call, two-six at the plate
Can this go on and on and on?
Cool run on sidewalk
Summer's here, summer's here
Wind in my face, keep the pace, let's get up the hill
Can this go on and on and on?
The sun's come back around
on sleepy downtown
And there's one more summer day
but this feeling can't just go away
Bruce guitar on radio
Summer's here, summer's here
Disc in hand, all my friends and a stereo
Can this go on and on and on?
This feeling can't go away
The moon will make it stay
Blue (1/9/10)
Sky, night, clear, bright
Summer's here, summer's here
Dust on a ball, strike, good call, two-six at the plate
Can this go on and on and on?
Cool run on sidewalk
Summer's here, summer's here
Wind in my face, keep the pace, let's get up the hill
Can this go on and on and on?
The sun's come back around
on sleepy downtown
And there's one more summer day
but this feeling can't just go away
Bruce guitar on radio
Summer's here, summer's here
Disc in hand, all my friends and a stereo
Can this go on and on and on?
This feeling can't go away
The moon will make it stay
Tuesday, December 22, 2009
The Coming of the Messiah
This is an excerpt from the Daily Bible that I try to read everyday. This is the prelude the author wrote from the beginning of the New Testament. It's awesome.
All is now ready for the most important event in human history. It is an event planned even before the creation of the world. It is the keeping of a promise made to Abraham over 2000 years earlier. It is the fulfillment of a host of prophecies regarding a Messiah who would come to establish his kingdom. Most importantly, it is the beginning of a dynamically new relationship between God and man. The event is the coming of the Savior of the world, the Messiah - or, as referred to in the Greek, the Christ.
The Christ is not to be just another world leader, as Cyrus, Alexander, or Caesar. He is not to be just another great man of God, as Abraham, Moses, or David. He is to be God himself in human flesh! The Lord of heaven is to become a servant of the earth. God, who has previously made himself known through a nation and a law, is now to reveal himself in the most personal way possible - in the form of a man. Until now God's blessings have been reserved mostly fot a chosen people, but now they are to become available to all people in every generation.
Who is this Christ, this Messiah? His name is Jesus. His symbolic name, Immanual (meaning "God with us"), signifies his deity. He is man, to be sure, but God as well; and he is God - the God of Creation - but man as well. God lowers himself so that man might be elevated. He leaves heaven so that man might enter it. To man, who cannot begin to understand the ways of God, it is clearly a great mystery. But what a marvelous and wonderful mystery it is!
Wow! Now that has got to get you excited! I read that back in October and I said to myself that I would post this right before Christmas. It's very encouraging and full of hope. Merry Christmas!
All is now ready for the most important event in human history. It is an event planned even before the creation of the world. It is the keeping of a promise made to Abraham over 2000 years earlier. It is the fulfillment of a host of prophecies regarding a Messiah who would come to establish his kingdom. Most importantly, it is the beginning of a dynamically new relationship between God and man. The event is the coming of the Savior of the world, the Messiah - or, as referred to in the Greek, the Christ.
The Christ is not to be just another world leader, as Cyrus, Alexander, or Caesar. He is not to be just another great man of God, as Abraham, Moses, or David. He is to be God himself in human flesh! The Lord of heaven is to become a servant of the earth. God, who has previously made himself known through a nation and a law, is now to reveal himself in the most personal way possible - in the form of a man. Until now God's blessings have been reserved mostly fot a chosen people, but now they are to become available to all people in every generation.
Who is this Christ, this Messiah? His name is Jesus. His symbolic name, Immanual (meaning "God with us"), signifies his deity. He is man, to be sure, but God as well; and he is God - the God of Creation - but man as well. God lowers himself so that man might be elevated. He leaves heaven so that man might enter it. To man, who cannot begin to understand the ways of God, it is clearly a great mystery. But what a marvelous and wonderful mystery it is!
Wow! Now that has got to get you excited! I read that back in October and I said to myself that I would post this right before Christmas. It's very encouraging and full of hope. Merry Christmas!
Thursday, December 10, 2009
Bird Dogging
I worked until 7 last night, which isn't too bad considering we had about 7000 customers out like 20 inches of snow. I had to drive around and do this thing called "bird-dogging" where we get a list of addresses of customers who have wires down or partial power and verify if they are MGE wires or just cable or telelphone wires. So I was walking around in peoples backyards with potentialy dangerous wires laying in the snow right next to me. No big deal. Then when I came home I had to shovel the heaviest snow ever for 2 hours. Made my night. My arms are so sore now. Then it took 2 hours to drive to work this morning, perfect. Lets just say I'm a little on edge right now and the 2 cups of coffee I just had probably isn't going help.
Monday, November 23, 2009
The Finer Things
Are you familiar with the Steve Winwood song "The Finer Things"? Boy is it good. I first discovered this song in high school when I used to check out CDs from the old Neenah Public Library. I got "Back In The High Life" because I knew the hits such as "Higher Love", and the title track but when I came across this song that I heard many times before, something about it was just perfect. Is it the quiet unassuming keyboard intro? The sweet bridge? The catchy chorus? or the rad synth solo in the end? Regardless, it's totally 80s in every sense. I think the only really instrument on the entire song is the drums. I especially love synth bass. I downloaded this song on iTunes and I forsee adding this song to a lot of a mixes coming up. Perhaps I'll put it on the "Rewsta Flo Jamz" CD I'm making Amber.
Check it out:
Cheesy video, great song.
Speaking of great songs with cheesy videos...
Stupid, stupid video. Ringo ruins everything. And Tom Petty is not a good looking person.
Check it out:
Cheesy video, great song.
Speaking of great songs with cheesy videos...
Stupid, stupid video. Ringo ruins everything. And Tom Petty is not a good looking person.
Monday, October 12, 2009
A Day in the Life...
I'd say that my worklife is about 95% productive, stressfree days. Some may even say cushy; hour lunches, 8-4:30, good paycheck, great location, freedom to go in and out of the office as I see fit. The other 5% is crazy, no fun, high stress, intense, will-I-make-it-out alive? kinda days. I will put today into the 5% category.
It should have been a perfect week. My boss and our senior engineer are out of the office all week on business so it's just my co-worker Steve and I holding down the fort in Substation Engineering. The morning went well; very productive, sent out a bunch of emails, was on the horn making things happen. Noon came and Steve and I drove out to Culvers for a burger for lunch. We almost got back to the office when Steve got a phonecall saying that we should come out to a substation by East Towne Mall to check out a problem some of the guys were having. I told Steve to go back to the office first as I had to check email quick, go to the bathrrom and grab my hardhat. So, at about 2:00 we get to the site.
We find out that the problem we're having is a DC ground. I won't bother you with the details of a DC ground on your system, but it's a pain in the butt to troubleshoot. You basically have to switch off control and protection breaker by breaker until you don't see a DC ground anymore and then you've isolated it. Once you isolate the panel it's coming from you trace it to the component or wire level.
Well, we traced this problem to the cable going to a 14,000V circuit breaker in the switchyard. We knew the problem was not good. This kind of problem could inadvertantly trip open the breaker at anytime and there is a major customer on this particular circuit. So we knew we had to get the load switched off this circuit so we could properly and safely address the problem.
We set up our table outside, found the wiring diagrams and schematics for the substation to we could start tracing the wires back one by one. 3 of us were right next to the breaker, doing nothing to it mind you, when BANG! the breaker opened up. Now, these breakers are about 15 ft. tall, carry 400 gallons of oil and are freaking loud standing a good distance away from it. So you can imagine when I heard it from only 2 feet away that I thought the world was ending.
I sprinted about 30 feet from the breaker so to get out of the way if things started flying apart. There is a major customer on this circuit not to mention a ton of streetlights. Not too soon after, we heard sirens which meant that police cars were going to controlled intersections to keep traffic going. We figured that the problem is in the cable from the control house to the breaker. This cable is "direct-buried" which means it is not in conduit, just laid in the ground and covered up with a bunch of other cables. So tomorrow, the crews have to start digging up the 60 ft. stretch of cable to replace it being careful to not dig into about 25 other cables right beside it. So this is my day tomorrow. At least there is no rain in the forecast.
And poor Amber; her car was having problems on Sunday so we took it to the shop this morning and I dropped her off at work. I couldn't pick her up as planned so she had to take the bus to the repair shop to pick up her car. And she missed her pilates class. Of all the days for this to happen...Murhpy's law, right?
I actually worked until 6pm tonight, that never happens!
It should have been a perfect week. My boss and our senior engineer are out of the office all week on business so it's just my co-worker Steve and I holding down the fort in Substation Engineering. The morning went well; very productive, sent out a bunch of emails, was on the horn making things happen. Noon came and Steve and I drove out to Culvers for a burger for lunch. We almost got back to the office when Steve got a phonecall saying that we should come out to a substation by East Towne Mall to check out a problem some of the guys were having. I told Steve to go back to the office first as I had to check email quick, go to the bathrrom and grab my hardhat. So, at about 2:00 we get to the site.
We find out that the problem we're having is a DC ground. I won't bother you with the details of a DC ground on your system, but it's a pain in the butt to troubleshoot. You basically have to switch off control and protection breaker by breaker until you don't see a DC ground anymore and then you've isolated it. Once you isolate the panel it's coming from you trace it to the component or wire level.
Well, we traced this problem to the cable going to a 14,000V circuit breaker in the switchyard. We knew the problem was not good. This kind of problem could inadvertantly trip open the breaker at anytime and there is a major customer on this particular circuit. So we knew we had to get the load switched off this circuit so we could properly and safely address the problem.
We set up our table outside, found the wiring diagrams and schematics for the substation to we could start tracing the wires back one by one. 3 of us were right next to the breaker, doing nothing to it mind you, when BANG! the breaker opened up. Now, these breakers are about 15 ft. tall, carry 400 gallons of oil and are freaking loud standing a good distance away from it. So you can imagine when I heard it from only 2 feet away that I thought the world was ending.
I sprinted about 30 feet from the breaker so to get out of the way if things started flying apart. There is a major customer on this circuit not to mention a ton of streetlights. Not too soon after, we heard sirens which meant that police cars were going to controlled intersections to keep traffic going. We figured that the problem is in the cable from the control house to the breaker. This cable is "direct-buried" which means it is not in conduit, just laid in the ground and covered up with a bunch of other cables. So tomorrow, the crews have to start digging up the 60 ft. stretch of cable to replace it being careful to not dig into about 25 other cables right beside it. So this is my day tomorrow. At least there is no rain in the forecast.
And poor Amber; her car was having problems on Sunday so we took it to the shop this morning and I dropped her off at work. I couldn't pick her up as planned so she had to take the bus to the repair shop to pick up her car. And she missed her pilates class. Of all the days for this to happen...Murhpy's law, right?
I actually worked until 6pm tonight, that never happens!
Friday, October 2, 2009
Oregon
Tomorrow morning, Amber and I are heading out to Sunriver, OR for a work conference at the Sunriver Resort. As I've stated before, I love the Pacific Northwest; big trees, mountains, lakes, temperate climate, etc. But I was looking at the weather this morning and there is a chance of snow on Sunday while we're there! A bit early if you ask me. We are hoping to go to a fall festival in Bend, a city nearby on Sunday, but I guess we'll see where the weather takes us. We have a fireplace in our room so we'll have to cozy up to that if need to. There will be a casino night as well; I have no idea how that's going to work as most people probably aren't going to gamble, but maybe I'll toss a few bucks on Red at the roulette wheel. One of the cool things is that on the 3.5 hour drive to Sunriver, we will be on Hwy. 26, which is the old Oregon Trail; it'll take us right past Mt. Hood. Let's hope it's not too curvy, otherwise there might be vomit.
The Longshots season is complete. We went 5-10. Not that great. I'm going to beg MSCR to let us stay in League #22 for the entire season this time so we can have us a winning season. I couldn't have asked for a higer quality group of guys though. I think I would prefer that over winning everyday. I turned my first double play at the last game (kind of). I got the toss from short stop, got the out at second, then everybody started telling me to throw it to first. I made the throw, but the guy was injured so he was barely running in the first place. It wasn't how I had pictured it; but it did the job and ended the inning.
I'm reading this cool book now called "Same Kind of Different as Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. I'm about halfway through but it's starting to get the interesting stuff. It's a pretty popular book right now; it's about 2 guys, one very rich and one very poor and how they become lifelong friends and how God worked in their lives. I don't want to give away too much about the book in case you would like to read it.
I saw Sufjan Stevens on Monday night at the Majestic. Really great show. The trumpet player had this neat effect that made it sound like a whale, I don't know how to describe it. Oh, and of course I saw U2 a couple weeks ago. That was a looooong night. It took me 4 hours to get there due to traffic, then I got in lane for cabs only so I made it to Soldier field but had to turn around and spend the next hour trying to find a parking spot. I found one abouta 1.5 miles away. I missed Snow Patrol, but got there about 5 min. before U2 started. Check out the photos. I stood the entire show, then walked to my car, got home at around 2:30, woe up the next morning and ran 12 miles, then stood for 9 hours working at Ironman Wisconsin. I couldn't walk at the end of the night. Exhausting 2 days.
But the long run must've paid off as I ran like a cheetah at the Fox Cities Half Marathon with a time of 1:37:57. I don't think I've ever felt so good during a race before. It was perfect. I did everything the opposite of what I normally do. I got new shorts and shirt, I wore a running cap and I had a Garmin GPS I borrowed from a co-worker to keep my pace. And I loaded up on these electrolyte Jelly Beans w/ caffiene and man, they worked. Just a great day overall. Everyone did really well; Shawn got a PR by 20 min., Dobbins ran a 1:29. Heather did her first half faster than what she was hoping for and Sarah and Mr. D got PRs as well. I'm going to start taking George Costanza's advice and start doing the opposite of what my instincts tell me. Sound like a good idea? I thought so.
Anyway, perhaps I'll post from Oregon, but with the way this blog's been going, probably not :-)
The Longshots season is complete. We went 5-10. Not that great. I'm going to beg MSCR to let us stay in League #22 for the entire season this time so we can have us a winning season. I couldn't have asked for a higer quality group of guys though. I think I would prefer that over winning everyday. I turned my first double play at the last game (kind of). I got the toss from short stop, got the out at second, then everybody started telling me to throw it to first. I made the throw, but the guy was injured so he was barely running in the first place. It wasn't how I had pictured it; but it did the job and ended the inning.
I'm reading this cool book now called "Same Kind of Different as Me" by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. I'm about halfway through but it's starting to get the interesting stuff. It's a pretty popular book right now; it's about 2 guys, one very rich and one very poor and how they become lifelong friends and how God worked in their lives. I don't want to give away too much about the book in case you would like to read it.
I saw Sufjan Stevens on Monday night at the Majestic. Really great show. The trumpet player had this neat effect that made it sound like a whale, I don't know how to describe it. Oh, and of course I saw U2 a couple weeks ago. That was a looooong night. It took me 4 hours to get there due to traffic, then I got in lane for cabs only so I made it to Soldier field but had to turn around and spend the next hour trying to find a parking spot. I found one abouta 1.5 miles away. I missed Snow Patrol, but got there about 5 min. before U2 started. Check out the photos. I stood the entire show, then walked to my car, got home at around 2:30, woe up the next morning and ran 12 miles, then stood for 9 hours working at Ironman Wisconsin. I couldn't walk at the end of the night. Exhausting 2 days.
But the long run must've paid off as I ran like a cheetah at the Fox Cities Half Marathon with a time of 1:37:57. I don't think I've ever felt so good during a race before. It was perfect. I did everything the opposite of what I normally do. I got new shorts and shirt, I wore a running cap and I had a Garmin GPS I borrowed from a co-worker to keep my pace. And I loaded up on these electrolyte Jelly Beans w/ caffiene and man, they worked. Just a great day overall. Everyone did really well; Shawn got a PR by 20 min., Dobbins ran a 1:29. Heather did her first half faster than what she was hoping for and Sarah and Mr. D got PRs as well. I'm going to start taking George Costanza's advice and start doing the opposite of what my instincts tell me. Sound like a good idea? I thought so.
Anyway, perhaps I'll post from Oregon, but with the way this blog's been going, probably not :-)
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