The Bar 2015 Edition

[Captain Goddammit]

(ANOTHER reason why he's the Captain, and I'm just the Rhino)

Well really, other than having a boat the reasons are pretty minimal.
Important things like bacon and coffee weren't even on the test!

I know, WTF, right?!

[AntiM]

There's a test? I didn't study!

And I'm naked?! WTF?

[Simon of the Playa]

There's a test? I didn't study!

And I'm naked?! WTF?

i didnt know it was that kind of Bar

now i do...

[^Rhino!]

(ANOTHER reason why he's the Captain, and I'm just the Rhino)

Well really, other than having a boat the reasons are pretty minimal.
Important things like bacon and coffee weren't even on the test!

I know, WTF, right?!

[Oh, very yes.....he's wide open for this now....(Rhino rubs his hands together with glee....)]

But, ....but,.....YOU'RE THE CAPTAIN GODDAMMIT!

[magicmarty]

Had a "gully washer" yesterday and it just started raining again a few moments ago. More to come tomorrow and the next day. Yay!!!

Good to see you BBD. No time for grudges. BVB's quote is sooooo true!

Son coming by this afternoon and spending the night. Always good to be with him. He has curated an art show at the International terminal at SFO consisting of Rock Art Show posters from the 60's and 70's. Two 145 foot display cases full of the posters. The show opened in October will be up through March. Really impressive.

Rainy day is great to hang out in the NEB. Dives in

Hugs all around

(((LF)))

[Captain Goddammit]

There actually is a back story on my playa name...
My friend Phil, who originally got me into Burning Man, lives a few miles down the road. When I called his house (in the pre-everyone-has-a-cell-phone days, when you used to call someone's HOUSE, not call SOMEONE... ) often his wife would answer... I used to just say "God Dammit... " and she'd always say "What the hell!". It was the standard script. She would yell across the house "Phil!! It's GODDAMMIT on the phone!!!"
And about that time I built that boat. When you drive a boat on the playa, everyone calls you "captain". So it became Captain Goddammit, which had a ring to it and stuck.

(ANOTHER reason why he's the Captain, and I'm just the Rhino)

Well really, other than having a boat the reasons are pretty minimal.
Important things like bacon and coffee weren't even on the test!

I know, WTF, right?!

[Oh, very yes.....he's wide open for this now....(Rhino rubs his hands together with glee....)]

But, ....but,.....YOU'RE THE CAPTAIN GODDAMMIT!

[Elorrum]

I just took a nice long walk. Some rain some sun- perfect ingredients for a full arc of a rainbow.

[Thecatman]

What's steak cut bacon, you ask? Well, we have a smokehouse down the road west in California, Missouri, called Burger's smokehouse, that produces the most wonderful apple smoked bacon.
http://www.smokehouse.com/burgers.nsf/i ... acon-Steak <this is the stuff.

A local grocery store here in Dayton, Smiths Food & Drug, used to sell that. That was the only bacon I bought for the year or so they carried it.
Don't they suggest grilling it?

[^Rhino!]

Yeah, it'll withstand the rigors of cooking like that, but I like eating it as individual strips or wrapping it around a steak.

[lucky420]

Morning Bar!



I'll be back

[Simon of the Playa]

Morning Bar!



I'll be back

[trilobyte]

Good morning, bar! As it happens, I'm still drinking from the night before... shots all round (be they espresso, orange juice, or the hard stuff)... cheers!

Now back to the task of drunken texture rendering, but man that bacon sure looks good...

[The CO]

Good morning all. Who's got coffee?

[Thecatman]

Mornin All!

Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and bacon this morning.

Chilly (34) and frosty this morning.

Hang in there, thecatman. Hope you have a good day at work. Stay safe.

Thanks Rhino. It was an easy day. Cleaning storm debris from the freeway shoulders south of Reno. Had a good foot of sand and dirt for several hundred feet on the outside shoulder against the Jersey wall. from the wind on Friday
Supervisor was in a loader getting the bulk of it and I was following in an Elgin street sweeper.

[Molotov]

Thanks Rhino. It was an easy day. Cleaning storm debris from the freeway shoulders south of Reno. Had a good foot of sand and dirt for several hundred feet on the outside shoulder against the Jersey wall. from the wind on Friday
Supervisor was in a loader getting the bulk of it and I was following in an Elgin street sweeper.

Yeah, but who was the poor schmuck who had to drive the blocker truck? You know, the one with all the flashing arrows and the crash attenuator that people still manage to run into regularly? I bet his butthole puckers when he sees an 18-wheeler in his mirror not even slowing down or moving over.

[Thecatman]

I know what it's like to get hit. Believe me. Three years ago this September I was driving a crash impact attenuator truck backing up the striping crew and got rearended by an empty transfer dump at 72mph. The truck I was in got propelled 242 feet from the point of impact. It was a three axle and was grossing about 45,000lbs. The attenuator did it's job. I went to work the next day.
I had all strobe lights and chevrons on and it was on a straight away.
A lot of guys say "just don't look in your mirrors"

[Joeln]

Christ Catman that's a high risk profession!

[Elorrum]

There's a test? I didn't study!

And I'm naked?! WTF?

Oh, Lord, I hate that dream.

[ygmir]

There's a test? I didn't study!

And I'm naked?! WTF?

Oh, Lord, I hate that dream.

you have that dream too?
*high five*
I don't hate it, though: AntiM looks nice naked..........

[Elliot]

Yeah, probably my favorite Spencer Tunick photo!

[lucky420]

I'm back


It's raining right now. Quite nice

[Thecatman]

Christ Catman that's a high risk profession!

Yeah and I don't get hazard pay
The_Sheik is right, it's butt puckerin, who's ever in that truck will suck the driver seat up their ass several times

[robbidobbs]

Raining like mutherfuckin crazy right now. Was looking out the window just now and it was HORZONTAL. Gawd I love intense weather!

[^Rhino!]

Mornin All!

Biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs and bacon this morning.

Chilly (34) and frosty this morning.

Hang in there, thecatman. Hope you have a good day at work. Stay safe.

Thanks Rhino. It was an easy day. Cleaning storm debris from the freeway shoulders south of Reno. Had a good foot of sand and dirt for several hundred feet on the outside shoulder against the Jersey wall. from the wind on Friday
Supervisor was in a loader getting the bulk of it and I was following in an Elgin street sweeper.

Thecatman, I don't know if you've heard about this, but I'll give you a great tip: If you set up a bin at your maintenance yard for sieving the contents of the Elgin when you return to your maintenance yard, you can actually make money for NV-DOT if they're able to sell the sweepings, sieved, as select fill for areas behind retaining walls and stuff like that. You need contacts with your central office materials folks and the folks in design who write the specifications to allow it, but once you do, it's like selling surplused goods, you make money back for the state and are a responsible steward of taxpayer money at the same time. Big win-win all around for your unit.

Our crews out of ONE maintenance building in downtown St. Louis makes $10,000 every six months for the state this way. With the amount of sand and dust blowin' around Reno, you guys could do better! I wish you luck if you try it. If you want to contact me for details, drop me a line.

[^Rhino!]

Christ Catman that's a high risk profession!

Yeah and I don't get hazard pay
The_Sheik is right, it's butt puckerin, who's ever in that truck will suck the driver seat up their ass several times

Catman, I don't envy you one minute, but I've served my time in two areas much worse: St. Louis and Kansas City. St. Louis is far, far worse, when it's wall-to-wall-asshole-driving-80-in-a-60 on the Interstate 270 loop around the city from I-70, across I-44, and down to I-55. Take your pick: any one of the three interchanges are death traps. I saw a left hand exit ramp merge of a gas tanker onto I-170 (inner loop) southbound that went right over a lady and her kid in a subcompact. Wreck ensued, and the gas ignited. Semis were commandeered by the Highway Patrol to shield the wreck area from looky-loos and the press.

The first thing I did when I got back to the hotel that night: I cried.

I know guys who've had their truck-mounted attenuators hit, and they've lost it. One day they're fine at morning meeting, and the next, they're having trouble maintaining steady hands when they're talking to you they're shaking so much. We had a guy helping out providing traffic control on a job on S.R. 350 in western Kansas City one day, and the next day found him on the I-435 loop around Kansas City, north of I-70 and south of 22nd Ave. His truck was struck a glancing blow by a Winnebago making a last-minute lane change - the Winnebago had its side peeled open like a sardine can. What's worse, a man who had just retired and his wife were returning from a vacation, and the wife was killed.

I've seen the pointless deaths, and tell anybody and everybody I know: SLOW THE FUCK DOWN IN WORK ZONES!

Anybody who doesn't stands an even chance that, sometime in their lifetime, of killing me or one of my men. That's unacceptable to me.

Another thing: DO NOT UNDER ANY CIRCUMSTANCES TEXT WHILE YOU'RE DRIVING.

There.

Now back to your regularly scheduled bar activities.

[robbidobbs]

Thanks Rhino! don't even look at your phone. Just put it away if it's too distracting.
And headsets don't help, you will still have the reaction time as if you were drunk.
<Back to listening to the rain>

[Thecatman]

Thanks for the info Rhino. All I can do is inform the district engineer. Or at least my supervisors supervisor.

Semis were commandeered by the Highway Patrol to shield the wreck area from looky-loos and the press.

Looky-loos.
One of the many things I hate. Thankfully I haven't gone to a fatal in three years. The last one was March 2012, not as bad as what you went through with the tank truck, but still, a woman in her early 60s died in a rollover on I 80 west of town near the CA line. Myself and the DOT traffic/safety officer got roped into holding a white blanket of sorts to shield the womans body from motorists while the coroner examined her. Fuckin people were stopping to take pictures and some driving slowly by doing the same.
Five years ago during Hot August Night we had to close Pyramid Hwy ramp at I 80 for "the cruise". Shortly after closing the ramp we get called to a major accident at Glendale Ave possible k5. The driver of a car going S/B 395 at the time swerved to avoid a box that fell out of a pick-up truck, glanced the inside Jersey wall and barrel rolled into the N/B lanes landing on the roof and instantly getting T-Boned by an "SUV". The impact knocked the engine out of the car. One passenger in the car got ejected and died instantly and two others died in the car. But what pissed me off was myself and two others were assigned to try to keep traffic on the on ramp moving. After being there for three hours at the time, some bonehead walked up the on ramp. He didn't have any ID lanyrd of sorts that might ID him as being from the media so I asked him what he was doing. He said he wanted to see the accident and take pictures. I told him pedestrians are not permitted on the freeway. He said I just want to see. I walked over to an NHP officer and informed him of what happened. He walked to the trespasser and told him to leave and the guy argued. The officer physically turned the guy around in a 180 and pushed him and told him to leave. He did then. But fuckin people. I don't know what it is with their inhuman love affair with the suffering of others.
Please everybody. Listen to what Rhino said about driving in work zones. And texting while driving. Not just to TTITD, but all times

"Whew! Can somebody please wipe the sweat from Rhino and myself forehead"

[^Rhino!]

Thanks Rhino! don't even look at your phone. Just put it away if it's too distracting.
And headsets don't help, you will still have the reaction time as if you were drunk.
<Back to listening to the rain>

Thank you, robbi. Here's the skinny: not only is it dangerous to yourself and others when you text and drive when you lose touch with what you're trying to do in the vehicle and drive, but you're doing something that killed a friend of mine just a few years ago. Brandy was in our fire performance arts group and got killed a few years ago by a driver who was not only texting but over the legal limit of alcohol. He came right over a blind hill in the wrong lane and hit Brandy's car head on.

Word of the accident traveled like wildfire within our group, and over 20 of us showed up at the hospital when Brandy was brought in on life support to a Level I Trauma center. Her injuries were too extensive, and she died a couple of hours later.She was a fraternal twin with her brother, who was in the Marine Corps at the time at Camp LaJeune, NC. I remember it was a holiday weekend, and neither the USO nor the Red Cross could be reached on that Sunday, and they wouldn't be back until Tuesday to help him out with a trip home. To make a long story short, I got on the laptop and bought him a plane ticket out the next morning from Fayetteville. His parents wanted to pay me back later, but I couldn't. I just wanted to help in a time of need when speed was of the essence. Her brother was in his dress blues at her funeral.

When the time comes and you're needed, You HAVE to help. Or at least I did. I followed my conscience, which has proven to be a pretty good guide in life for me so far.

[^Rhino!]

Thanks for the info Rhino. All I can do is inform the district engineer. Or at least my supervisors supervisor.

Semis were commandeered by the Highway Patrol to shield the wreck area from looky-loos and the press.

Looky-loos.
One of the many things I hate. Thankfully I haven't gone to a fatal in three years. The last one was March 2012, not as bad as what you went through with the tank truck, but still, a woman in her early 60s died in a rollover on I 80 west of town near the CA line. Myself and the DOT traffic/safety officer got roped into holding a white blanket of sorts to shield the womans body from motorists while the coroner examined her. Fuckin people were stopping to take pictures and some driving slowly by doing the same.
Five years ago during Hot August Night we had to close Pyramid Hwy ramp at I 80 for "the cruise". Shortly after closing the ramp we get called to a major accident at Glendale Ave possible k5. The driver of a car going S/B 395 at the time swerved to avoid a box that fell out of a pick-up truck, glanced the inside Jersey wall and barrel rolled into the N/B lanes landing on the roof and instantly getting T-Boned by an "SUV". The impact knocked the engine out of the car. One passenger in the car got ejected and died instantly and two others died in the car. But what pissed me off was myself and two others were assigned to try to keep traffic on the on ramp moving. After being there for three hours at the time, some bonehead walked up the on ramp. He didn't have any ID lanyrd of sorts that might ID him as being from the media so I asked him what he was doing. He said he wanted to see the accident and take pictures. I told him pedestrians are not permitted on the freeway. He said I just want to see. I walked over to an NHP officer and informed him of what happened. He walked to the trespasser and told him to leave and the guy argued. The officer physically turned the guy around in a 180 and pushed him and told him to leave. He did then. But fuckin people. I don't know what it is with their inhuman love affair with the suffering of others.
Please everybody. Listen to what Rhino said about driving in work zones. And texting while driving. Not just to TTITD, but all times

"Whew! Can somebody please wipe the sweat from Rhino and myself forehead"

You're welcome to any help I can give you with ideas, catman. The lesson to all of us is that we're BURNERS. We stick up for our community, better than any other community I've ever seen. And that's why I choose to be here.

I could've used the sweat wipe the week I got my name. It was the summer of blood, sweat, and tears that nearly destroyed a lot of us. A hundred and twenty in downtown St. Louis, and we were working out on the pavement in the sun. Really high humidity, too...I'll never forget that week.

[lucky420]

But did you have shoes?^^ ^^