Month: October 2011

Luck

Published on by Russ BowmanLeave a comment

“I’d rather be lucky than good.” – Lefty Gomez

My wife was out of town last week. Out of the country, actually. She and several others from the church we attend went on a mission trip to Mexico. Their team distributed over 200 pairs of eyeglasses that we’d collected, filled & passed out bag lunches to hungry school kids, arranged for medical care for many of the town’s residents, and all came away “a little bit changed,” she said.

We live in Cincinnati, but air travel is notoriously expensive from our local airport, so they flew out of Columbus, Ohio, instead. On their way back, they ran into a snag with their travel arrangements – bad weather in Houston, Texas, led to the cancellation of their return flight on Sunday afternoon, and nobody could assure them with any confidence as to when a flight might actually be scheduled. There was, however, a flight later that evening, into Cincinnati. Thing is, our van was in the long-term parking lot at Port Columbus Airport.

I started wracking my brain, trying to think of someone who might owe me a favor worthy of a four-hour round-trip through some of the flattest terrain in the state. That’s when I got lucky. I have a friend who lives in Cincinnati, but is on a long-term work assignment in Columbus. He stays up there during the week, and comes home on weekends. I caught him with an hour or so to spare, and due to the aforementioned “flattest terrain in the state,” he was about as happy to have some company (even if it was me) for his weekly commute as I was to get a ride to my vehicle, some 120 miles away. Win-win.

It wasn’t my intention to contrast the plight of the poverty-stricken with my “challenge” of retrieving one of my two automobiles. It did make me consider the subtle differences between being “blessed” and “lucky”…and really put them both in perspective.

Russ Bowman
Application Engineer
EXAIR Corporation
(513)671-3322 local
(800)923-9247 toll free
(513)671-3363 fax
Web: www.exair.com
Blog: http://blog.exair.com/
Twitter: twitter.com/exair_rb
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

Just What Do We Do at Work Anyway?

Published on by Kirk Edwards2 Comments

Well, isn’t that a good question? Sometimes it’s hard to explain but I’ll give it a try….

First and foremost, today I went out to lunch with girlfriend (of fifteen years who also convinced me to say “I do”). I also managed to wrestle (literally) both boys out of bed this morning; had I known it was a tag team match I would have enlisted their older sister.

Oh, right – what did I do at WORK – sorry about that.

I arrived, clicked on my Lava Lamp and got right down to all the hard work…

I sent out a tweet (@exair_ke) about a super hero guy in Seattle named Phoenix Jones who used mace to apparently break up some kind of unlawful gathering of street dancers. I do believe I referred to him negatively – Please accept my apologies Mr. Phoenix, I neglected to recognize the need for masked crusaders in homemade super-hero outfits to protect us from unruly dubstep dancers.

I also helped clean up from the birthday party we threw for Mr. Spock. Yes it was a bit late but who in their right mind would miss this occasion. With Professor Penurious and the like around here we took the opportunity to celebrate when we got the chance, and today was as good as any. Look for some of the celebration in the Professor’s next video due out later this month! (see more of the Professor, and other helpful videos here)

"I am endeavoring, ma'am, to construct a mnemonic circuit using stone knives and bearskins."

I also looked at our latest Facebook entry of “Office Toys” – pictures of the toys and stuff we currently use to amuse ourselves around here.

And I did complete a “Compressed Air Safety” guest blog entry on UniTherm’s blog this afternoon, you should check it out – great topic and UniTherm is doing a nice job with their blog.

I also succeeded in helping a customer solve a static problem on
headlight assemblies, assisted another customer with a 3D drawing so she could
fit it in to her machine assembly, and outfitted another customer’s 1/4″
copper tubes with our Super Air Nozzles #1102 (which saved them about 25 SCFM
per tube x 10 tubes for a total of 250 SCFM, they run one 8 hour shift which
equates to 3,000,000 SCFM per year and $750.00 in savings – not bad for a
$260.00 investment, instant ROI!)

Oh and I also wrote a blog trying to include all of our social
media efforts of the day – ah, the sweet smell of success.

Have a great day,
Kirk Edwards
Application Engineer
kirkedwards@exair.com

The Cicadas Told Me

Published on by 1 Comment

Here in the Cincinnati area we had our first frost which I predicted back on the first of August. Well actually I didn’t the cicadas did. Folklore is that 10 weeks after the Cicadas are in full swing will be the first frost. In early August we were in triple digit heat with no signs of relief. My co-workers scoffed at me so I put a note on my calendar to prove the point. I love it when they have to eat crow.

In modern times we have controlled our environment so much that we have forgotten any of the signs that nature sends us of pending weather. All we have to do is watch the 6 o’clock news. But when you are out and about in nature, do you know what to look for? I remember a time that we were fishing the Shenandoah River. I noticed the leaves on the trees were turned upside down – a sign of oncoming rain. I told our guide that we should be thinking of working our way back to the cars because it looks like it is going to rain. He said that there was no rain in the forecast. He and  the others in the group were not going to quit fishing based on some old wives tale. As it turned out, not only did it rain, but a tornado touched down in the area! We got drenched and feared for our lives.

If you’re interested, here are some other weather folklore signs :

Ring around the moon – A halo around the sun or moon is caused by the refraction of that body’s light by ice crystals at high altitude. Such high-level moisture is a precursor to moisture moving in at increasingly lower levels, and is a good indicator that an active weather system is on its way.

Birds on the roost – low pressure air is less dense so birds find it more difficult to fly and they tend to sit it out. Low pressure is a sign of pending weather front.

Dew in the morning – no rain today.

I hope you found this informative if not entertaining.

Joe Panfalone
Application Engineer

Phone (513) 671-3322
Fax   (513) 671-3363
Web: www.exair.com
Twitter: www.twitter.com/exair_jp
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/exair

Weekend Warriors

Published on by Brian FarnoLeave a comment

I know everyone has that list (that hangs somewhere in your house or in your head) of things that need to get done.  Something that has jumped to the top of my list to get done this weekend is installing an electronic brake controller on my brother’s 2009 Chevy Silverado.  Along with race prepping the bike for the final track day of the year.  (It’s ok if you cry.  It’s a sad time of year when we don’t get to ride anymore.)

While I am no stranger to electronics in vehicles through my experience as a MECP Installer, I am always a little hesitant to deal with the electronics which handle the brakes for the vehicle.  So I checked out all the installation instructions and wiring diagrams and found an easy “How To” video that will help me to install the unit.

Then once the unit is installed I will have to test drive with the race trailer empty just to ensure the trailer brakes are in fact working and something like below doesn’t happen.

As long as everything is good then next weekend my friends and I will be on our last trip to Putnam for the year and we will hopefully all be coming back with our MCRA Race License.

Brian Farno
Application Engineer
BrianFarno@EXAIR.com
@EXAIR_BF