Had an interesting experience on the way home tonight form work. I noticed ahead of me at the 63rd street exit a car coming towards my pack of cars. This would be unusual since cars typically use the freeway. Oh wait, he was going east in the west bound lanes! We all, almost simultaneously, flashed our lights at the guy. He then tried to get off the freeway at the next overpass which was 56th street. If you're unfamiliar with I-235 and Des Moines, or just plain haven't been on the freeway in 2 weeks, I should tell you that you can only get off going west and get on going east at that street. This means Mr. Braniac was trying to get back off the free way on an on ramp that doesn't even exist. His car got off, hurtled through the air, almost flipping completely over, and came to a rest on the up-slope to 56th street. I called 911 on my cell phone (which makes weird noises when it goes into emergency mode) and did my good deed for the week. I would have checked on the guy,but the ditch the guy had just leaped over was filled with water and the dispatcher told me not to go and see him anyway. He didn't want me to get into a conflict with a drunk guy. The dispatcher just told me to take off, so I did…before the cops even got there. I tried to listen in on my scanner to see how it turned out, but didn't hear anything useful. No ambulances were dispatched, so I'm assuming he was okay. I also called work, but they didn't have any photogs available. Maybe, still, I'll hear something about it tomorrow.
Archive for July, 2006
Yes, that's right, I posted the pictures from my trip within 5 hours of arriving back home. As usual, though, I generally forgot to take many pictures of things I did, and took more pictures of other people and things along the way. Included in the set are a bunch of pictures from the Audubon stop of RAGBRAI 2006. I especially enjoyed taking some of the more later evening photos. I'd try for more pictures tomorrow night, but I'll have to head off for Ankeny before it gets dark at all. By the time I'll be back, most people should be asleep. Although, I may still try to find a campground and see whether I can get a couple shots off from there, too.
I'm finally able to take a vacation day from work. I took Sunday off so a couple people from work and I could go up to Okoboji for a pre-RAGBRAI ride on a couple trails up there. On Monday we'll head back and drop one off at Audubon for the real RAGBRAI. So, yeah, it's a short vacation but it should be fun…and different! If you're lucky I'll take some pictures when I'm up there. If you're even luckier, I may remember to post them too.
Quite an interesting day at work today. The first problem came when I left the room for the first time to get a glass of water. Just as I pressed my glass into the ice dispenser I could hear the lights buzzing. CRAP! I ran back to master control. Apparently the buzzing was actually us coming back online. Quick footed coworkers had already pulled the building over to the backup power line. Luckily most things run on UPS, but the STL (studio to transmitter link) doesn't, so we were off the air for a bit as the thing power cycled. It then took us about an hour to find everything that had shutdown or at least reboot everything to make sure it was fine.
Then the storms came. That was a fun experience, too. The power flickered a couple times during the second storm. Luckily, we didn't lose it then, though, since the generator hadn't been hooked up yet to the primary line. In all, it was fairly painful but still turned out smooth. (That is, as long as you ignore my tape stopping on the air during Inside Edition.)
Anyway, to the title of this post. I needed gas on my way home. The cheapest station on the way was a full 6 cents cheaper than everyone else. So I stopped in and got out of my car. The pay at the pump slot was taped off. I thought crap, but I still needed gas anyway, so I just hit to pay inside. That's when I noticed no one else was getting gas either. Apparently the storms were totally screwing with their server that controls everything to do with the pumps. I waited around for a while and talked with some of the other customers who had stopped in and were waiting to see if they could get the pumps working. I'll have to admit, it was fairly pleasant watching someone else have to deal with the side effects of the storms, too. Anyway, they kept rebooting the gas pumps, which I wish I had my camera for, could have been for some interesting pictures. Finally they gave up when even their technician showed up and tried a few things. He had that "I have no idea what the hell is going on" look. So, I actually helped the kid that was outside with us cover up the pumps and took off. Tomorrow I'll try it again and redeem my free car wash. 
Well, quite a while since my last update, eh? That's because hardly anything has been going on. I got my memory for the computers, but guess what, the 512 sticks for the weather server were too big. I probably should have checked that out beforehand. 
In camera news, I'm still checking out some choices for what to do. I haven't completely decided yet, but I'm thinking the next camera will be a Canon Powershot. I just have to decide on a model.
Well, I'm home for a holiday. Yep, that's right, I finally made it home again for July 4th. I really can't remember, but my best guess is it's been since either my junior or senior year in high school that I was able to celebrate the holiday with the family. 7 years! Yikes! Anyway, it should be fun, and I've got my camera with me so look for a bunch of pictures when I get back home.