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ITT Employment

9/15/2005 / Matt

I reached the end of my six-month “temp-to-hire” contract with ITT this week. As it happens my co-worker resigned last week to pursue another opportunity so there was little question about whether ITT would hire me or not. Overall, it has worked in my favor. This makes me the senior engineer and it will allow me to influence the environment more than I could earlier.

ITT has a nice benefit package and I ended up with a nice salary. Plus, I managed to wrangle an extra week of vacation out of them. I officially start on Monday. I will be plenty busy for awhile as I take on responsibility for more of the projects we have in the plant.

Our primary product is the design and manufacturing of systems that manage, control, and otherwise support the Defense Satellite Communication System. Here is a spiffy brochure if you want to see more.

On the road again….

8/9/2005 / Matt

Josh and I made a very long drive from Clearwater, FL to Colorado Springs via Des Moines, IA. Josh flew down to Clearwater early in the week to finish his outprocessing with the Coast Guard and to load up his stuff into the moving truck. He was able to attend a friends wedding on Friday and then pick me up at the airport around midnight.

It took me three hours to fly from Denver to Tampa… and it took forrrreeevvvvverrrr to drive back! Our basic plan was to drive through the night and all the next day. Josh picked me up at the Tampa airport in the truck and off we went through the night trying to make it out of Florida before morning. It became apparent rather quickly that this was going to be long tiring jouney. The truck which, while nice and shiny new, was not loaded enough to smooth out the ride. Bouncy does not quite describe it. Nevertheless, the miles melted away although not as fast as we would have liked. The truck also had another little surprise, a regulated top speed. It would only go 65 mph. This was somewhat annoying considering the speed limit was anywhere from 70-75 mph.

We finally made it out of Florida around 7am the next morning and pushed on through AL, and MS before we finally stopped just over the AR state line west of Memphis, TN. We were both exhausted and slept quite well that night. The following morning we pushed on up through St Louis and finally arrived at the Taylor farm around 7:30pm where we loaded up a bunch of things we had left in storage. Finally made it to my folks house in Des Moines around 10pm. We loaded up a few more things that Kristina wanted to send back to CO, visited for little while and crashed in bed again.

Next morning was the final leg. Off we went, again enjoying good weather, made it out of Iowa, and hit the worst stretch of road yet! Nebraska was just miserable. Something about the spacing of the pavement made for the worst ride yet. I thought I was going to go crazy a few times. It took forever but we finally put NE behind us and decided to take the back roads down to Colorado Springs. That worked out pretty well as there was very little traffic and the roads were decent for the most part. We finally made it in around 8pm and enjoyed a nice supper that Ronda had prepared for us.

I had to be back to work the next day so I missed out on the unloading detail. Ronda helped and they got it all taken care of. What a journey! I sure don’t plan on repeating that anytime soon.

Buffalo Peaks Wilderness

7/28/2005 / Matt

gee… the site has been neglected for awhile. We finally got out and did a little camping last weekend. Josh, Ronda, and I packed up the Jeep and went in search of some 4-wheel drive roads to get away from the traditional campground scenario. We headed over toward Buena Vista and worked our way up some pretty rough roads toward the Buffalo Peaks. It was gettting late and we finally ran out of road around 11,500 feet. Josh got out and started exploring trying to find a good camp site.

He found a real winner but it was a half-mile or so into the woods. We all grabbed as much as we could carry and hiked in. It was a beautiful spot and we left Ronda there to set up the tent while Josh and I went back to the jeep for another load. On the way back we found a jeep trail that looked like we could use to get a little closer to the campsite so we carefully guided the Jeep up this trail. By now it was dark.

We grabbed a bunch more stuff and headed toward the campsite. Or so we thought. It did not take long to become hopelessly lost in the woods in the dark. It’s rather embarrassing to admit but we literally stumbled around for an hour or so dragging along a bunch of gear and getting a bit annoyed. Finally, through a little celestial navigation (North Star) and the ol’ “Marco” – “Polo” trick we made our way back to the campsite. We had a good laugh afterwards and dubbed it our “sherpa training”.

We finshed setting up camp and then enjoyed some very nice stargazing before retiring. It got a bit cool during the night and sleep was elusive for me. We really need to get some decent gear. We had a visitor or two by our tent early in the morning but never actually saw what it was. Most likely an elk. After breakfast we went on a short hike to gain enough altitude that we could see the continental divide which was just west of us. Then we relaxed in camp until we unanimously decided to pack up and go home. The weather was suppose to turn rainy (which it did) and we felt we had enough fun for this weekend.

Oil Creek Tunnel

6/25/2005 / Matt

We finally got back to our mystery hike over Fathers Day weekend. Enough snow had melted that we were able to make our way all the way to Oil Creek Tunnel. Kristina came with us as she was home for a visit. She rode the Amtrak train out from Osceola to Denver and spent the weekend. It was great to have her home and back out on the trail with us again.

Oil Creek Tunnel was constructed in the late 1890’s by a Cincinnati company as a prospecting venture. No, not for gold, but for flourine quartz. The tunnel bores straight into Pikes Peak right at the treeline at an elevation of 11,285 feet. It was not a particulary successful operation and they gave up after boring through 1,593 feet of solid granite. The tunnel is about six feet high and eight feet wide for the most part but there are sections that are lower and it’s easy to bonk your head since most of your attention is on where you are putting your feet.

We had a nice hike into the area and were able to find the cabin ruins without much trouble. But beyond the cabin the snow was still drifted pretty heavily and was not passable in many places. We knew the tunnel was in the rock face so we split up and started looking for it. Ronda was the first to spot it and we all converged on the area. The tunnel itself was still covered by the huge snow drifts coming down off the mountain, although there was a small hole from where the warmer air had melted through. The main giveaway was the old steam boiler that is still intact and the stream coming out of the snow. Continue reading

Dust Devil: 1 Dust Bin: 0

6/17/2005 / Matt

I was outside for my afternoon walk on Thursday when I saw an interesting phenomena. I try and get away from my desk and computer mid-morning and mid-afternoon to stretch the legs and get some fresh air. There is a lot of parking area behind our building and a number of vacant buildings in the complex which makes for a nice stroll. I had just started out on this nice warm sunny day when I noticed a number of papers swirling around about a quarter mile away. The papers were several hundred feet up in the air going around in a big circle and climbing.

I stopped and watched it for a bit then realized it was coming my way. Immediately, I was faced with one of those annoying decisions… should I go on or turn back? As it came across the parking area it started picking up quite a bit more loose sand and dirt and I could tell I was definitely in the way of it’s path. For a dust devil it was not very well defined but with the sand and dirt it was at least visible. It went up and over the nearest building and as it came down the other side it flipped over a double-size steel dumpster and picked up a bunch more sand.

I was suddenly convinced of the correct course of action. I knew I would not make it back to our building but the parked cars were not too far away so I trotted over and crouched down beside the Jeep and closed my eyes as it went through. It passed by about twenty yards away and I got pelted pretty good with sand. It reminded me of our trip to the Great Sand Dunes several years ago. First time I’ve ever seen or experienced a dust devil. It was pretty cool.

A New Trail

6/3/2005 / Matt

We ventured out on Memorial Day weekend to reconnoiter a new trail that leads to an interesting destination. The destination shall remain undisclosed at the moment since we were unable to complete the trip. The trail begins at the 12,000 ft level on the slopes of Pikes Peak.

At this level you are just entering what is called the “alpine zone”. Another way to look at is “the treeline”. The trail starts out through a wooded area and we soon encountered what would ultimately force us to turn around… deep snow on the trail. Most of the snow is gone but it is still drifted in many places up to 3 or 4 feet deep. Trying to walk over these places in your trail runners can get pretty dicey. We were able to walk over most of them but still sank through in a lot of spots. Abby fared some better as she is a lot lighter but even she had troubles. Needless to say, our feet were soaked by the time we got back to the Jeep.

The trail comes out of the woods and crosses a large scree field, shown in the picture above, and then passes through more snow drifted woods before descending down the back side of the ridge. Here the trail descends swiftly and comes out in a flat area between the two ridges. The trail forks here with one segment going around the opposite ridge and joins up with the Barr trail that many people use to climb Pikes Peak. The other segment (the one we wanted) was buried under lots of snow and we really could not quite pick out where it went. We saw some tracks made by someone with snowshoes but trying to follow those was hopeless. So we turned around.

On the way back up the trail we saw some abandoned mining gear (hint) laying beside the trail. We made our way back through the snow drifts and partway across the scree field and decided to explore an interesting rock outcrop for a good lunching spot. We were successful and had a nice bite to eat and rest while taking in the view down the valley. On the way back up and across to the Jeep a snow squall came along and pelted us with snow! It was short-lived but fun.

A New Ride!

5/31/2005 / Matt

Post from Josh:
Well, the Eldorado served me well. But I never really liked it. Now I have a car that I like! This car just about shouts “luxury!” when you look at it. My wonderful dad loaned me the money, and I am now the proud owner (well, not yet) of a 1989 Lincoln Town Car.
This car is so comfortable I can’t even really explain it. The leather seats are huge, and it just glides down the road on it’s airshocks. It’s so quiet that when you shut the door, all the noise of the city just goes away, even pesky 18 wheelers and harleys are only a whisper.
The trunk is quite huge. It’s begging for subwoofers. But that will come later.
I am quite pleased. People even report getting 25MPG on the highway!

MistyCastle