Venting while heavily caffienated...

Just fired email to "The Architect". It was long, angry and filled with delicious expletives.

That kind of thing will happen when you drink coffee from 0400 'till 1800 hrs, drive home through construction zones. Then switch from cafe' to barley pop.

Once I stopped gritting my teeth and typing all caps I realized I had a couple of topics to throw out for discussion as well as what started the day off...

"... I walked skull first into the trailing edge of a propellor..."

That sort of thing is going to happen when you spend tooo much time around airplanes. Sure we all try to practice good situational awareness, be cautious, pay attention, etc. And THAT is precisely why you will never see it coming. A stationary propellor will make you see God, from your knees. This morning He looked down at me and said, "Just trying to get your attention." I winced, squeezed my eyes shut and silently counted the hours between me and my first barley pop.

Props aren't the only things that are out there to get ya. Trailing edges of flight controls, landing gear doors, 'mud rudders', fuel vents, tie down rings. Some aircraft bristle with antennae that AREN'T installed on other copies of the same type aircraft!

I don't recall the last time I checked a prop. Kinda scary now that I think about the implications of that! BUT! I do recall the first time... 20 years ago.

I was still in school to (allegedly) learn all I needed to know about working on all sorts of aircraft. There were only a few of us employed by a small shade tree outfit. Someone said that the FAA was coming in. 'Great, I don't even have a license yet and I'm going to lose it!' This place was SHAAAaaaDY.

We commenced to doing housework. I was diligenty sweeping the hangar. Next thing I know my fists are clinched and I'm looking around for the guy that I am fixing to knock the hell out for trying to knock ME out. (I don't even look around much anymore. Once it's too late, I realize what I missed judged, usually.) Of course there wasn't anybody there but a 690 Commander with a 540 cubic inch six cylinder engines. The first plane I ever worked on but I'll save that for another time.

Funniest part was an hour or so later when a pilot waltzed through the hangar and said, "Hey man, you're losing some fluid there. " I looked around, looked back at him and he pointed to his forehead. Yeah, I lost some fluid alright!

FAA never showed.

Well, 20 hours outta the rack and I could still go on for hours but I know I would just degenerate.

Just to toss out some of the other topics from the email... Construction and Idiots, Women, Music and passive agressive people.

I think I'll have a toddy and crawl under a blanket. Maybe the swelling will be down by morning...

Whole lotta nada