While I snoozed away this morning, a bear was on my street. They eventually caught up to him in a doctors office a few miles down Southern Ave. KOB has video and the Albuquerque Journal has an article.
Install Of My Living Room Ceiling Fan
I installed a ceiling fan in the living room today. It’s the simplest, most basic ceiling fan I could find, an 60″ industrial ceiling fan from Home Depot.
This fan is controlled through my home automation computer like the other fan. Unfortunately the only PLC compatible fan controller that exists is the Lightolier Controls Digital Fan Control (CCWHISPLC) which costs over $100, I have one for the kitchen ceiling fan and it works great. Besides the high cost of the CCWHISPLC it is also X10 only. I’ve decided to use a SwitchLinc V2 Dimmer for the living room fan. Dimmers don’t make good fan controllers. They usually cause a humming noise and can damage the fan.
To eliminate the hum from the fan controller I could implement a work around by Ed Cheung. It’s a passthrough device that properly switches the speed without humming or damaging the fan. The cost of this device is about $50. A Switchlinc is about $45. Together I’m getting close to the price of the CCWHISPLC, but at least it would still not be X10. I’m still pondering this option.
The last problem with this fan is it hangs a bit low. My ceilings are 8 foot high and this one hangs about a foot down. I think I can cut down the 6″ rod about 4 inches which should help.
Late Night Visit By Rio Rancho's Finest
I’m sleeping on the couch tonight because I have a bunch of crap on the bed. I get settled in and start to doze off when I get a loud nock at the door. That freaks me out. I don’t have unannounced visitors at the house at this time of night. I look through the crack in the blinds and I see a Rio Rancho Police patch.
Yikes! I search around for my pants. I open the door and there are two Rio Rancho cops with flashlights out. They ask my name then ask me if I know a few other people. Never heard the names. Then they ask how long I lived here, if anyone else lives here, etc. Eventually, they realize I’m not the droids they’re looking for.
Another lady comes out of the darkness with paperwork and they start discussing it. Not sure what was going on but I suspect they were trying to serve warrants. They ask me a few more questions then they decide to leave. I’m sure they also ran my plates since they asked if that was my truck.
I’ll give them this, they sure are stealthy. I heard several cars drive off but I didn’t hear a single thing when they came to the house, except for nock on the door.
Now I have to try to get back to sleep.
Kitchen Storage Solution, Open Shelving
When I bought this house, the first thing I worked on was the kitchen. I had hoped that I could keep the cabinets and refinish them up but they were in too bad of shape. I didn’t have a lot of money. I installed the majority of the cabinets that I could afford, plus I needed to do some construction before I could put all of them up. I used the Mills Pride brand from Home depot.
Here we are a year and a half later and I’ve have some money to put up more cabinets. Home Depot is apparently not carrying Mills Pride anymore, in fact Mills Pride’s website says it’s under construction. I’m not about to trash the cabinets I already put in and start over, so I decided to use some open shelving.
There’s an area between the microwave and the wall I plan to nock down. I’m dying to nock down this wall, but I’m not quite ready yet. I really need some shelving here to hold food related stuff when I’m cooking. My “pantry” was next to my sink, which was an original cabinet and a pain to access. By placing open shelving in both of these locations I can easily access things that I use frequently and hide the rest in normally closed cabinet. I like steel wire shelving. Normally shelving like this is expensive so I used less expensive shelving normally used for closets and made them adjustable.
So far it’s working out much better than I imagined. Having the extra cabinet space and having easy access to spices while still having them off the counter has been terrific. Cost of materials for 3 shelves 27 inches long, 3 shelves 31 inches long, 12 brackets and 4 wall mounts was about $80.
Bill Richardson's Somewhat Humors Iowa TV Ad
New Mexico Govenor Bill Richardson, who is running for president, has a kinda humorus ad for people in Iowa.
Conan OBrian Visits Intel Santa Clara
Intel sponsored Conan OBrian when he was in San Francisco. He thanked them by visiting the Santa Clara site. Everything he says is funny and sadly true.
Update 7/8/07: Evil, money grubbing NBC forced YouTube to remove the clips.
New Mexico Scorpions Still Loosing Money
An Albuquerque Tribune article discusses how the Scorpions didn’t make enough money during their first season in Rio Rancho to cover costs. They didn’t make enough money when they were in Albuquerque, either.
I can certainly see why they would thing the grass will be greener here in Rio Rancho, really what did they have to loose? I’m still concerned, how long will they continue to loose money? What if Rio Rancho’s growth doesn’t happen as fast as it needs to? Real fans are already driving to Rio Rancho to watch the games, what else will be done to attract new fans?
I’m still surprised to hear people complain about the drive to the Arena. Unser Road did suck, but it’s mostly better now. Any major city with major league sports have much worse traffic problems than Rio Rancho. I don’t think people know how good they have it.
1000 People To Be Laid Off At Intel Rio Rancho Plant
RIO RANCHO, N.M. (AP) — Intel Corp. said Tuesday that it expects to cut more than 1,000 jobs at its Rio Rancho plant as the company ends production of an older silicon wafer technology. Intel will stop making the 200-millimeter wafers at the plant by the end of August, and affected employees will be offered severance packages or can apply for other jobs within the company, spokesman Jami Grindatto said.
Anyone who works at the Intel Rio Rancho plant knew this was coming. I know a large number of people that have been waiting to for a chance to get out with a severance package. Still, this sucks. One fifth (20%) of the people that work at this plant will be gone wether they like it or not.
The AP article doesn’t mention when Intel expect to have everyone out but this KOB article say they start in August.
A article from the Albuquerque Tribune says:
Larry Waldman, a senior economist with the University of New Mexico’s Bureau of Business and Economic Research, projects the layoffs expected to come in August could cause the loss of another 1,000 jobs in places such as the retail and service sectors. “It’s not going to be just 1,000 jobs when you look at effects on other parts of the economy,” said Waldman, referring to retail and service jobs that might supplement Intel workers. While that may not be the rosiest picture, Waldman said the losses will have only a minor impact on the economies of both the state and Albuquerque metro
Update 5/7/07: From the Trib:
U.S. Sen. Pete Domenici has asked Labor Secretary Elaine Chao to assign staff from her agency’s Dallas office to coordinate job placement programs for the 1,000-plus workers expected to lose their jobs at Intel Corp.’s Rio Rancho plant.
New Mexcio Real Estate Roller Coaster Ride
The declines were greatest in the cities of Albuquerque and Rio Rancho. In the Duke City, 223 permits were issued in March compared with 524 in March 2006. For Rio Rancho, just 124 permits were obtained this March compared to 336 a year ago.
New home permits plunge by more than 50 percent – New Mexico Business Weekly.
First Space Launch Successful From Spaceport America
The first successful launch from spaceport america occurred today.
The rocket launched amid clear weather conditions from Upland, between Las Cruces and Truth or Consequences. The rocket contained the ashes of hundreds of people, among them, James Doohan, the actor who played “scotty” in the popular “Star Trek” series. Also on board were the ashes of L. Gordon Cooper, who was one of NASA’s original Mercury astronauts.
The first launch was a failure, this one had to be successful since it carried the remains of lots of people, including James Doohan “Scotty” from Star Trek.
Doesn't Fit In 