Recently we put a phone system in a new custom home.  As is normal in the residential market the vendor that installed the home theatre and home automation hardware and software wired the house.   So when we arrive we just hope everything is where we need it.  On this job for the most part, there was plenty of wire.  At the front door however, although a wire was put in for a door phone, no box was cut in.  During the final phase of the building someone discovered that there was no box and attempted to cut one in.  Big problem, they were not artists, they were rough carpenters.  So they damaged the stucco, made the hole out of square and knocked a couple of extra holes in the stucco.  It seemed to me that they just did not take the time to do a nice job, or they did not know how to do a nice job.

So no matter how I try to do a nice job, make it look nice, their work reflects on mine.   Well I did my job, it just doesn’t come up to my level of workmanship.  It really upsets me.  

Yesterday afternoon we received a call from a customer.  In an attempt to reduce his sprinkler system monitoring services, he wanted to change from wireless to wired service.  In order to do that he would need telephone lines at the sprinkler system alarm panel.  Unfortunately there was no phone wire available and no conduit near the sprinkler system alarm panel.

We went in this morning and using our Genie personnel man lift we installed 160 feet of conduit from the building terminal to the sprinkler system alarm panel and pulled a wire in.  Now the sprinkler alarm monitoring company has wire, and my client can save some money.  Yeah!

Recently we got a call from Kurt Winn of National Wood Products.  He gave us a call to help with expansion of their data network and phone system to accommodate some new employees that had recently joined them. 

When we arrived we found an eight year old phone system that cost almost as much to expand as to replace.  We gave them a couple of options Kurt agreed with me.  It makes more sense to replace it than to invest in expanding an eight year old system.

So a couple of days later after closing we removed their old system and replaced it with new state of the art VoIP enabled hardware.  The following morning at 7AM we were there to help the employees adapt to the new look and feel of the phones.   National Wood Products is now has phones to support the new employees and we have a new customer.    

Thank you Kurt! 

RD

Got a call from an old customer, let’s call him Red.  He had moved to Florida and now he was back in good ole Las Vegas and was in the market for a new phone system.  Red said he called because when he had his last business in Las Vegas, I always gave him a straight answer.   Anyway, he called me up and said I need one of the new NCP phone systems.  I asked the usual questions, how many lines and how many phones, what are you trying to do and …… question after question reinforced to me that he did not need a new Panasonic NCP.  I would have loved to sell him one… sales are slow right now for everyone.  That said; it is not part of my nature to sell things that people don’t need.

I told him, please call my friend, to be nameless her.  He can get you a VoIP phone, a toll free number and ….. do what you want.  When you are ready for that NCP, let me know, I will be here.  Right now though all you need is to talk to my nameless friend.   Mr. Red said, when it is time, I’ll see you, Thank you.   

There is a place for VoIP, it is not the solution for everything or everyone.  The way people are spinning it, you would think so…not true.  See the comment here. 

Bonneville Salt Flats Monday

Monday morning I slept in till 5:30, got ready, breakfast, cleaned up, packed up, filled the car with fuel, and headed for the salt.  I arrived to find I was early, neither of the two teams I have been following, The No Gear Racing Team and Team Northern Blast had arrived.   I always go to the impound area, to see what and who is in impound, it is a good indication of who has broken records and is waiting to back them up.   While in the impound area, I found out that a long time team had a fatal accident on Sunday evening.  It really takes a toll on everyone.  Everyone knows that any sort of racing is dangerous, you just never expect it.  Went back to the pits to check on my teams and Team Northern Blast had found a spot on the side of the pits right next to the return road and in perfect view of the long course.   So I helped them fold up the sun shade, and move it to the new spot, a perfect spot for watching the races and preparing your vehicle.  Sunday Team Northern Blast made a run, however they did not come close to the record.  They were happy with the results, they passed tech inspection, got to make a run, got the timing slip, they were part of Bonneville 2009.  They will be back next year.  Team Northern Blast consisted of Pierre La France, Joclyn Blais and Patrick Juteau.

I went over to the pit area where The No Gear Racing Team was working.  They had also made a couple of runs, after the first run they changed the gearing to see if they could improve on their time.  The gearing change did not make a difference, so no more runs for them.   David said he was satisfied, he also got do participate, he told me he would see me at El Mirage.    They call themselves the No Gear Racing Team because they run a Motobecane motor scooter with no gears.  It has centrifugal clutches, not gears.  The No Gear Racing Team consisted of David Tiger of Monterey Peninsula Pastries, Salinas, CA as owner driver, Phillip Sand, fabricator, and Hank Dakis, of Hank’s Painting in Salinas CA.

Keep an eye out here for pictures. I will be adding some of my pictures and movies shortly.  The vastness of Bonneville is breathtaking.  If you have not be, you need to go, if even for only a weekend.   RD

The weather was unseasonably cool, on Sunday we had a high of 77, even though, you need your sun block, or you will get burned. The white salt reflects the UV rays everyone is susceptible to get burned.  Last time I was at Bonneville I had tan lines on my legs at my sox line that stayed with me for the remainder of the summer.  If you want to visit, and I recommend everyone that love motorsports, hot rods and going fast visit. Click here for Randy’s list of thing you must bring to Bonneville, and then click here to be redirected to the SCTA site, there you can find out more about all the LSR (Land Speed Record) events.  If you plan on attending be advised that Wendover Nevada and Wendover Utah do not have enough rooms to accommodate everyone, so, either plan way ahead, or plan on camping.  There is free camping near the entrance to the Bonneville National Park, no one is allowed to stay on the salt overnight.   Plan ahead, it’s worth it.   Contact me if you want to attend, maybe you can help us with our entry in 2010.  

Personal items:

Bring lots of cash, there are not too many CC machines on the Salt.

Sun Glasses, that wrap around your face.

Sun Block 40-70, as high as you can get.

A hat, not one with mesh in the back, cotton, straw, preferably with a brim.

Light weight long sleeve shirts.

Long pants.

Comfortable closed toed walking shoes.

Camping supplies:

A cooler capable of holding a lot of ice and water, soda, beer, whatever you drink.

Some food for lunch, unless you want to eat at the flats, there are some reasonably priced vendors of cold and hot food.  You can always drive back to Wendover to get lunch it is about 13 miles, 8 from Wendover to the salt, and 4 to the pits.

You at least need folding chairs and an umbrella; a sun shade is better, don’t forget the hammer and stakes to hold it down.  A tarp to put down under where you sit, eat and drink, to keep the salt clean.

An AM/FM or CB radio so you can listen to the broadcast of what is going on.

Binoculars or a spotting scope.

Camera.

Bonneville Salt Flats Sunday

Sunday I arrived late, 7:30AM, teams start arriving at 5AM.  Speed Week is amazing there are over 600 teams preregistered, no one seemed to know how many just show up and register.   Each team must have at least 2 members, most have 3 to 5.  Some of the big teams have 20. This means in the pits there are upwards of 3000 people, and then there are SCTA officials everywhere.   Now count the spectators.  The distance from the pits to the starting line, is over 5 miles, except for one small section where the fuel station is, it is lined with spectators, thousands.  Kids are riding their bikes up and down, there are more hot rods and rat rods than you have ever seen, driving up and down parading.  It is truly amazing, something to see.  Unlike the NHRA, NASCAR and so many other sports Bonneville doesn’t seem to have the structure you would expect.  You never know what to expect one moment a Streamliner going 350 MPH on the long course, and next is a 50cc vintage bike trying to break a 38MPH record.  They did by the way.

I went directly to the No Gear Racing Team Pit, no one was there, their tools were out, and so I surmised they were at the starting line.   Headed over to the Team Northern Blast pit, same story, but they hadn’t been there. Then I went to the starting line of the special course.

 The special course is where rookies and slower vehicles make runs from.  Both the short course and the special course are five miles long, one mile to get up to speed, one mile of timing and a second mile of timing and two miles to shutdown. The long course is reserved for cars and bikes that will exceed 175MPH.  It is 8 miles long, the first two miles are to get going, and the entry timing block is at mile two, then there bocks at three, four and five.  You then have three miles to slow down.  I saw a streamliner do 389MPH on Friday.  I don’t know if they backed up their run.  If you make a record run, you will be required to back up your run.  You must proceed to the impound area where your vehicle will stay until you make your backup run.  If you succeed and match or exceed your record run, then the tech inspection team will verify you meet the displacement, fuel, and other things.  It is your responsibility to follow the rules, or you get to try again. 

I started into the Pit area and found a team that was running a 50cc moped.   The No Gear Racing Team,   they all spoke French!  They were warming up the bike and it just puttered to a stop.  David had that inquisitive look, like… what happened?  I saw it happen, the nut holding the ignitions internal rotor came loose and the ignition got out of time.  So I showed them what I saw and they were surprised.  I left shortly thereafter because I heard a car start up next to us that I had been admiring.   A bit later David comes over and taps me on the shoulder and motions me to follow him.  We headed back to his pit area.  I don’t know what transpired while I was gone, but needless to say, the rotor got put back on without getting the timing spot on.  Now the rotor was on the crankshaft taper tight and he did not have a puller.  He did not have 6mm bolts, nothing! 

I was the ultimate scrounge when I was in the U.S. Navy and I put myself to work.  We found some 6mm bolts elsewhere on the bike, and someone else found a piece of flat stock steel, we drilled some holes in the steel and as the French would say…. Voila!     The No Gear Racing Team gets everything back together and head to the starting line. 

While they are gone, I begin my wanderings, there is so much to see.  I came across a Canadian group, Team Northern Blast working on their Production entry a Buell Blast, they drove 2350 miles from Montreal, and they speak French.  So I have chosen to dedicate my Saturday visit to Bonneville to the French language.   Unfortunately Team Northern Blast mistakenly ran the bike without enough oil in the transmission and this damaged the primary chain guide and chain tensioner.   Pierre LaFrance said he was going to get the part.  They had already found out that the Harley-Davidson dealer in Salt Lake did not have it. Pierre has it in the shop in Montreal, but it wouldn’t get here until Tuesday.  So I got on the phone and called Las Vegas Harley Davidson.  Turned out that Las Vegas Harley Davidson had a set, problem was that even on a good day, it is 5 ½ hours to Vegas and They would be closed before he could be there, and they open at 10AM on Sunday.   Someone told them there was another team on the salt running a Buell Blast, they found them, and they had one, theirs was slightly damaged from running the transmission without oil also.  I was told that the transmission is shipped dry and there are no tags indicating the transmission is empty.  It is a common problem.   Team Northern Blast begins reassembling the bike.   I head back to town to call it a day.

It was a hectic Friday AM at the office and I finally got on the road heading to Bonneville at 2PM.  If you don’t stop, and push the speed limit by 3 or 4 MPH it is a 5 ½ hour drive.  Add that to Wendover NV is 1 hour later, I arrived late and crashed. 

Saturday morning came early, got a quick breakfast and headed to the Salt.  Lines were not too long, paid for an event pass and made the long drive into the Pit area.  It really is amazing to see miles of white flat salt.  Racing did not start at 8 or 9 as I expected so I thought something was up.  I headed over the tech inspection area and they told me the event was holding to make sure the salt was dry, as it had rained at the flats Friday evening.