Out at the Dam
Mood:  a-ok




Hello all,
I work for a private communications company. Some of our work is with the the Army Corps of Engineers. I did work in a control tower on a dam. Cut and paste the link below to See the Taylorsville dam.

http://www.lrl.usace.army.mil/tay/

I got to find out a lot on how some dams work.

A. In case the power goes out, a generator is used for backup.

B. Telemetry equipment is used to monitor such things as lake levels, gate levels, and water temperature.

C. The hydraulic pumps are used to open and close gates.

D. Large hydraulic pistons open and close the gates. The largest gates are at the bottom level. They are 6 feet by 15 feet big. The piston itself is 2 feet wide and 30 plus feet long.

E. The manifolds direct the hydraulic pressure where it needs to go. There are 15 gates at the dam.

F. During the winter, the water is cold top to bottom.. In the warm months the lake is warm on the top and cold on the bottom.

G. Gates are built at different levels.The reason for this is that fish need oxygen and correct river temperature at the tail water. Oxygen is always at the top. In the winter, upper level gates are open. When it warms up, various gates are open to get the right temperature.


____________________________________________________

I got to see my daughters twice on Saturday and that made me happy. My oldest went with me, the Baronette, and her daughter, to see the Baronette's son in CATS the musical. We had a good time. I'll try to put up Cats pictures on my next post.

Until then
TBB

The Ways of a Controlling Person
Mood:  happy
Hi Readers,






I had to show you something. Just when I thought my ex couldn't find a stronger way to assert her ersatz control, she does. Though my daughters are with their mom right now, I'm picking up my oldest girl Saturday to go see a high school musical with me. The musical starts at 8:00. My ex has planned a dinner which ends right at the latest time (7:15), I could pick up my daughter and get us to the musical on time. I complained that 7:15 is hardly enough time to get to the musical on time. She says it is.

To justify her point she sent me this email...

____________________________________________________

Blue, ( not real name )

Though I haven't been to Providence High School, I did, since you said 45 minutes would not be enough time to drive from here to there, check yahoo maps and according to them, it should take you 14 minutes to get from my house to Providence High School. Which more closely jives with my recollection of how long it takes to get from here to Clarksville.

I'm not sure what route you were considering, but here's the page to give you a better route. As such 7:15 should be fine. That gives you 30 EXTRA minutes to get there in case of traffic or time to park, etc.



Matty (not real name)

____________________________________________________

What takes it over the edge is she went to yahoo maps and researched the route and time it would to get to our destination. She linked the route to me. I can't show the link because it starts at her house and who knows, one of my friendly readers may be tempted to write her a not nice letter.

Talk about controlling

She must have spent a few good minutes typing the email to me and looking up the yahoo map route. Darn it Matty, I could have used those few extra minutes to get us to the musical on time

Everything else is good. The Baronette is well. I've been doing some side computer work. A little extra money helps.

That's it for now. Take care,
TBB

Wider than Ever
Mood:  not sure
Hello Readers,

Today is an ex rant. I have time on my hands so I decided to sit down and type.

I was feeling good and decided I would make an attempt to be on mutual nice terms with my ex. I sent an email to her with good intentions. In her special way, she fired back with verbage countering my request. We shot several emails back and forth. Soon I didn't want to be friendly at all. My ex thinks she can argue her way because she's good at it. This is wasted on me, I know her too well. Now we're still at square 0. Lesson learned, let her alone. She wants me to still be contrite it seems but I can't respectfully look her in the eye with the way she is.

She right now selfishly has the kids each Christmas. She threatened a long ugly court battle if I didn't concede to this at divorce time. Now I'm trying to undo this so I can have the kids every other xmas. She cries "you promised". My ass, I never made a promise. Remember how mean you were dear? What she reaps she should sow.

Even the doc is a little upset. Still he is just a social misfit who sits in theshadows and lobs blog notes. He's a non sequitor and always will be. I don't even feel like lampooning him in a cartoon anymore he's so lame.

Hey thanks for letting me vent.

The Baronette (Jodi) is great as ever. A joy to be with. She works on her Benrik blog occasionally but I have slacked off on mine.

That's it for now. Take care,
TBB

Moods for the Day
Mood:  mischievious
Hello Friends,



This will be a generally light hearted blog, but 1st. a response to a recent t-shirt post on the ex's blog.

























I had a very nice weekend with the girls. I bought Amy, my 6 year old, her 1st. real bike. She was happy. She practiced riding it. The helmet shadows make her look like a superhero.

We all went to Thunder over Louisville. It's a big fireworks show leading into Ky.Derby time. We had a fantastic view in the back yard of the Baronette's parents house. I tried to spend quality time with all the daughters. I took the 2 big girls on long motorcycle rides Saturday.

At a thrift store I found a worn f hole acoustic guitar. I built a pickguard and touched up the paint. I had to secure the neck and glue it.

I got a new set of strings. It plays ok. It's not really a quality.


The Baronette (Jodi) is fine. She's a great lady. It's fun to be with her.

That's it for now. Take care.
TBB

Ex Rantings
Mood:  a-ok
Now Playing: Dirty Work
Hi Folks, sorry I haven't written lately. I've been hanging with the Baronette. My Benrik blog has had some of my attention as well. That's where I do most of my light hearted stuff.

The ex has posted a long validation, freudian rant on her blog about me, her, and the divorce. It's understandable that someone so recently divorced will reach out to justify what she started. Rest assured it doesn't bother me. In time she will lighten up. I think she's trying to see if I do read her blog. Yes dear, I do read your blog.

We both use stat counters so to some degree we track who reads our stuff.

That's it for now. I've got to get to work. Take care and I'll write soon.

The Blue Baron

Testing Thumbnails
Mood:  lazy
Hello All,
I found this new way to add thumbnail pictures to a blog. It's called www.imagevenue.com

You register than upload pictures to a folder you create. Imagevenue turns around and lets you paste html code into a blog. When the thumbnail expands you get some ad trash at the top but it's ok. Using imagevenue allows me to capture my pics from the web if I'm at another pc. Seems to work ok.




I went to dinner and a movie tonight with the Baronette and 2 of her great kids. We had a nice time. Tomorrow I'm going to work on my yard. Gosh! it needs it.

I hope everyone is well. Things seem ok for me at the present. I made an arrangement about custody with my ex. I will have my girls for 5 less days than I originally arranged. I put in it the schedule that suits the compromise I wanted. Still I love my girls and want the flip flop time back. I'll work on that later.

Take care,
The Blue Baron

Silly Signs
Mood:  mischievious
Hello Friends,

I've already posted these signs on my "Klump" blog at...

www.benrik.co.uk/content/blog.asp?blogID=3935


I thought I might show you some here.

Would be vegetarians don't be swayed here.

This check cashing business must be a great party place.

If the fleas and ticks are here, is this where you want your pet?

I think they meant "bargain". If not, I can imagine an entrance door squeezed full of people at opening on Wednesday.

I will have more later on.

I've been to one custody mediation with my ex and there is at least one more to come. I agreed to concede some of my position but she gave nothing.
I'm sure she thinks she's doing right for her kids but I think she's putting them in the middle and using them for her own agenda. Tomorrow we will sit down with the two older daughters and discuss things. In the end us 2 adults will decide. It may yet go to court if she doesn't concede any of her position.


That's all for now folks. See you next time.
TBB

Great Times
I had a great time Sunday March 19th. I and my kids were invited to a party. The Baronette's oldest son Joseph had a combo birthday and Confirmation party. Here is a dapper Joseph,

The Baronette's parents hosted the affair. They have a beautiful quaint home high up in the hills of southern Indiana. Here's a picture of Jodi (the Baronette) and I.

Finally here is a nice picture of me and my girls. I can't get over the view. Jodi is used to it but I found myself staring at it a lot.

Now the ugliness as of late. Mediation is pending over child custody and the seething ex. My lawyer will try to negotiate with her lawyer so we can wisely save some money. I would still take it all the way if I had to but if a compromise works out I may settle up. Issues need to be addressed. I'll let you know more later on.

Take care,

Weekend Wildness ( well relatively )
Mood:  energetic
Now Playing: Steely Dan, My Old School
Hi Readers,Lurkers,

I've been real busy. I have my wonderful kids back for these 2 weeks. We're enjoying each others company a lot.

I've been doing some double blog duty. I have a new blog on Benrik

This is my light hearted spot where a lot of fun is poked around. I leave the dark stuff here on this blog.

Speaking of the dark stuff, I have custody mediation coming up. My ex and I will do our best to bolster our positions. I've done some research and think I have myself ready. We'll see how it goes. Give a little, take a little.

The Baronette and I met for a fish fry at a local church. We're both Catholic and eat fish on Friday's during Lent. She brought 3 of her 4 kids and I brought my 3 kids. We came back to my place and had a real fun time. The kids played so well I got to sneak off with the Baronette for some nice alone time.

Here are 2 pictures of 3 of her kids and 3 of mine.

The order is, Aaron, Kelly, Rachael, Joseph, Amy, and Tina. 2,5, and 6 are mine and the other 3 are Jodi's ( Baronette ).

Tonight we're all going to a movie together. I need to get off my blog creating so I can cook dinner.

Take care readers, I'll shout out again soon.

TBB

Amy's Art Gallery
Mood:  happy
Now Playing: the quiet of kids in bed!
Topic: Fun at the Baron's house
The Baron beat me to this...I wanted to write about painting with Amy! (pout)
My kids were gone this weekend, which always makes me a little sad...i mean, i'm glad to have some free time, but i feel so funny when i go to bed...the house seems so empty!
Anyway, the Baron's girls came back Saturday and i was privileged to hang out at their house for the weekend...delicious dinner cooked by the Baron himself, play restaurant with Amy, a movie with the big girls, and a funny book before bed.
Amy was in an artistic mood Sunday morning so she, her dad, and i created this lovely art gallery....she was so tickled to have her art displayed, that her dad had to take a picture! What a sweet girl! As i told the Baron, Amy puts the "E" in energy! (laugh)
All in all, a great weekend and my kids are now back safe and sound. I am looking forward to next weekend when we are all going to be together.
The Baronette