Thankful

I am so thankful that we were able to go to San Jose for Thanksgiving. Glen and Amy opened Hotel Steele for the 6 Steele's and our friend Steve. Sean and I had a very smooth trip out to California on Wednesday and stayed until Monday morning, when we took a very early flight back home. The days included wandering around Los Gatos, eating a very yummy turkey, a visit to Trader Joes so I could get my favorite chocolate truffles, snacking and drinking tea, a day in San Francisco, a little wine tasting at several local wineries, the Body Worlds exhibit at the San Jose Tech Museum, and dinner at the Cheesecake Factory near Santana Row. Besides all of the tourist-y activities, we enjoyed family (and Steve) time back at house, while the men rocked at Guitar Hero. Amy and I made a valiant attempt, but were booed off by the cyber-fans on the game. As it always is, vacations must come to an end. Sadly, Sean and I made the trek back home with ease. It wasn't until we got our car and started the drive home from the Baltimore airport that we experienced any delays. We hit rush hour traffic on the beltway. Welcome back to reality!

Thanks, Glen and Amy, for a wonderful time.

Click here for some photos of our trip . . . Thanksgiving Vacation

Painting Again

After a little hiatus from the painting, we began again. Our brilliant white walls were causing us to feel as if we lived in an institution. Sean suggested we spend this weekend painting. Here we go again. I had Friday off of work, so I managed to do the entire lower level. That includes dining room, entry way, hallway and part of the stairs. On Saturday, Sean joined in and we completed the upstairs hallway. This was a bit treacherous since the one wall is two stories tall. I made Sean take care of that. It was his idea to paint and not hire someone. I have to say, he did a good job. We finished around 4:00 Saturday afternoon. The painting prompted a decorating binge so we went out and bought a rug for the entryway and Sean created a little "area" on our landing. Next on the agenda, the red study. I can't wait.


Some snapshots of Sean . . .

Planes, trains and cranes?

So this past week I had the opportunity to go on a little adventure. And since people are always asking me what I do for a living, this little story will help clear things up.

In a nutshell, I sell Cummins industrial diesel engines. Big ones, small ones, new ones, reconditioned ones, for everything from road paving equipment, agricultural machines, military equipment, power generators, cranes, forklifts, dump trucks, mining equipment, logging equipment, hydraulic pump equipment etc etc etc.

A few weeks ago, one of our customers asked me if it would be possible to re-power (in simple terms, replace the engine) in a container stacker. That machine looks like this:


The job of this equipment is to run around a rail yard, and unload containers off of trains, and onto and army of waiting trucks.

Cool, isn't it.

That's the neat part of what I get to do, one day I'm in a rail yard, the next day I'm in a factory. One day I found myself in the bottom of an open pit coal mine, standing in the bucket of a huge shovel.

Well, the only issue with this project is that the machine is located out in Columbus, Ohio - a 6 hour drive from home.

"That's no problem" our customer, Keith told me.
"We'll just fly out on my plane"
"Your plane?"
"Yes" he replied, "I have three of them, you know"

Next thing I know, Wednesday morning I am standing outside a hangar at Lancaster Airport, ready to board.

Here is his airplane:

Sweeeeeet.

So we flew, first class, all the way to Ohio in just under 2 hours. Flying in a small plane is much more fun. You really feel like you can reach out and touch the clouds.Mike (our resident engineer) came along for the trip, here we are sitting in the back seat.


The flight back was even better, we flew out in between these beautiful, huge, puffy, cumulus clouds. They were like giant castles in the sky.


Anyway, here are a few more pictures of the Crane. Mike and I had to climb up to the top of the thing to take a look at their electronic setup. This is the view from up above, where the driver sits - not for those afraid of heights!!!


Here is the engine compartment, this is what we are going to take out and replace with a shiny new Cummins.

Anyway, so there is a day in my job. Here is the shameless plug for our corporate website:

www.cummins.com

Big thanks to Keith for being a great guy, and a class act.

Sean.