So today is opening day for the annual Johnny Appleseed Festival here in the hotbed of civilization- but as I type at approximately noon, it has been constantly raining at one level or another SINCE 4 AM. So with JAF postponed for me until tomorrow, I have a boring story and some fungus pictures taken in the woods.
The story begins with a visit to Arlee Bird's blog mere moments ago, where part of his story was about memories re-arranging themselves chronologically as you age. And my favorite example of this was my very first Major League Baseball game, some 39 years ago in Detroit. Among the things I remember that didn't happen were the game being on a Friday night (it was a Wednesday- June 22nd, in fact), and 3-3 and 5-5 ties that never occurred. But as I went through the play by play, my memory wasn't ALL that far off...
My sister's brother in law took my nephew (11) and me (15). He was a huge Yankee fan, and entertained us on the way with lots of Yankee stories. We weren't all that big of Yankee fans (I was an A's fan- still am- and Troy liked the White Sox), but neither of us had been to a game before, and seeing giants like Reggie Jackson and Mark "the bird" Fidrych was a real thrill- even if Fidrych only ever warmed up and Reggie was greeted every at-bat with choruses of "Reg-gie-sucks" that literally shook the stadium. I had a special eye out for guys like Tiger 3B Aurelio Rodriguez and his black glove, Tommy Veryzer, and the incredible prison-to-MLB story Ron LeFlore.
(Note: Yes, I know some of you aren't big sports fans. But this is a special moment of my life and I feel like sharing. So take it for what it is, and if it doesn't meet your interests, enjoy the nice pictures.)
The top of the first saw Veryzer boot a grounder, Thurman Munson hit a two-run triple, and Reggie knock him in on a groundout for a 3-0 lead. Munson, who would die in a plane crash two years later, amazed me how fast he was on the bases for a catcher, and I became a fan of his despite myself.
The Tigers scored on LeFlore's leadoff triple and a single by Tito Fuentes; but unlike my memory, which says the home team tied the game, it stayed 3-1. Until the top of the 4th, when the Yanks added two and went up 5-1. The Tigers retaliated with my first ever home run- Jason Thompson's 12th of 31 on the year. Here my memory says, the Tigers tied it at 5, but again it would be wrong.
In fact, it was proven wrong quite quickly, as a walk and a Cliff Johnson HR led off the next inning and put the score at 7-2. But here, my memory pulls a comeback.
Yank pitcher Ken Holtzman was greeted in the 6th with a a double by "Big Red", or as the Montrealers say, "Le Grande Orange", Rusty Staub, followed by a 2-run Steve Kemp HR that cut it to 7-4. Then after a strikeout, Mickey Stanley singled, and John Wockenfuss (who tapped his fingers on the bat grip before every pitch, which we thought was neat) doubled him in to end Holtzman's night. Dick Tidrow came in, struck out another Tiger, before pinch-hitter Phil Mankowski homered to tie things at 7-7. THAT I remembered right.
In the bottom of the 7th, the old gang struck again; Kemp doubled, Stanley singled him in, and Wockenfuss hit just his 4th HR (Mankowski's was his 2nd, BTW), and the home boys were up 10-7. "Uncle Dave" cursed a bit.
34-year old reliever John Hiller was on the mound for the Yankees' 8th, and it was obviously past the old-timer's bedtime. A pair of singles sandwiched by two outs led to Graig Nettles' at bat. Nettles was another Yankee I loved despite hating the team; his fielding was nothing short of magical. He hit a 3-run home run and the game was tied; but the Yanks weren't done. Munson singled, and hustled to third on Chris Chambliss' single right afterward. That ended the night for Steve Foucault, who had replaced Hiller, and Bob Sykes got to face Reggie, who had grounded out, doubled and scored, and hit into a force-out. These were the moments he was born for, and he doubled in two runs and put the Tigers behind 12-10.
It came down to a bottom of the ninth last stand. Reliever Sparky Lyle was in, and he got 2 quick outs. But then he gave up singles to Kemp and Stanley, and was pulled after going 2-0 to Wockenfuss, who Ken Clay finished walking to load the bases. Chuck Scrivener, a pinch hitter who would collect 6 hits all season, bounced a ball to Willie randolph at second- who booted it, and a run scored- 12-11. But 6th inning hero Phil Mankowski, who stayed in to take over for Rodriguez at third, popped up to Bucky Dent to end the game.
After that, all I remember was falling asleep until we were about 5 miles from home, and this song being on the Radio...
...which in itself was somewhat iconic for me. I had discovered Song Hits magazine, which printed lyrics to hot and up-and-coming songs. And though I knew the lyrics from the magazine, it was the first time I actually heard the song.
Welcome to September 16, 1964. Wait, didn't you say last time it would be 1962? Well, yes, but then I realized I did 1962 fifty one weeks ago- The Four Seasons won in a landslide with Sherry- so I did a bit of recalculating and here we are. And what are we doing today? Why, we're watching the very first episode of the pioneering music show Shindig! Shindig! launched today with musical guests Sam Cooke, The Everlys, and the Righteous Bros, along with "house singers" Donna Loren (who was the "Dr Pepper girl" and did events for Pepper all over with Dick Clark), Jackie (Miller) and Gayle (Caldwell, castoffs from the New Christie Minstrels) and (pre-fame) Bobby Sherman. The host was DJ Jimmy O'Neil from LA's KFWB, and the dancers for this episode included Caroline Barry and Brenda Benet, who was married to Bill Bixby before her suicide in 1982. The show itself was aired from 1964-66, featuring guests shots from everyone who was anyone- including the Beatles, the Stones, the Beach Boys, and Elvis! It lost it's spot on ABC to make room for that classic TV hit:
POW! BANG! OOF! Welcome to this week's Time Machine, were this time we feature a tight race on the Panel Four (how about 3 points separating the top three?), the almost-return of all our regular features, and all the usual fun, without graphs this week!
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This week, our lovely Panel consists of: KOVO Provo UT, KPAY Chico CA (was this cable radio, lol?), WNIA Buffalo, KNAK Salt Lake City, CKPT Peterborough ON, WIBG Philly, WHOT Youngstown OH, WXYZ Detroit (I wonder if the call-letter jingle made Detroiters check their flys), KQV Pittsburgh, WLEE Richmond, KIMN Denver, and WOKY Milwaukee. They piled in 22 different songs, including #1 votes that didn't make the P4 from the Supremes' Where Did Our Love Go (Provo), J Frank Wilson's Last Kiss (Salt Lake and Detroit), The Four Seasons' Save It For Me (Philadelphia), Gale Garnett's We'll Sing In The Sunshine (Denver), and the Beatles with If I Fell (Richmond).
On the subject of the Beatles, this was one of their off weeks for 1964. A Hard Day's Night collected three votes- one shared with the flip I Should've Known Better- including a #3 from Richmond.So of course I looked to see how the Fab Four did up and down the various charts. Outside of Richmond, If I Fell was 14 in Provo and 38 in Denver; A Hard Day's Night was 18 in Provo, 3 in Peterborough, 11 in SLC, and 30 in Milwaukee. Also charting were the two sided Matchbox/ Slow Down, which was 23 in Provo, 15 in Chico (Matchbox solo) , 20 in Buffalo (Slow Down solo) , 10 in SLC (Matchbox solo) , 50 in Peterborough, 13 in Ohio, 37 in Richmond, 17 in Denver, and 17 in Milwaukee; Ain't She Sweet, 32 in Provo; And I Love Her, 10 in Peterborough; and the two sided I'll Cry Instead/Happy To Dance, which was 34 in Peterborough. Oh, and the entire Something New lp was at # 15 in Pittsburgh. Out of our 12 panelists, the Beatles were shut out only once- in Detroit.
The low charter from the Panel belonged to the Hondells' Little Honda, which was on the way up at #71. And the Panel Picks:
At #4 with no #1s but 17 points, the national #5, Ronnie and the Daytonas with GTO.
At #3 with 25 points and the #1 of Youngstown, the national #3 as well- and my least favorite here- the Newbeats and Bread And Butter.
At #2 with 26 points and the #1s from Pittsburgh and Milwaukee, the national # 2 as well, Roy Orbison and Oh Pretty Woman.
How about that- the Panel is going to be just one place off the national chart! Because at #1, with 3 #1s and 28 points, the national #1- stay tuned!
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One debut this week, and it is from a band that is high up on this week's M10 as well- New Zealand's Shakes, with a tune that will be heading up pretty fast itself:
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Now I'm not quite doing the "how low can you go" list, since I knew none of the bubbling unders this week. Instead, how about I give you the five strangest titles in bubbling under land- because they are some beauts:
In order of weird:
#5- Dern Ya, by Ruby Wright, sat at 113.
#4- how about the Young World Singers who were at 107 with Ringo For President.
#3- The Four-Evers with (Say I Love You) Boo Dee Bum...
#2- The Spats with a dinner menu of Gator Tails And Monkey Ribs (Yecchhh...)
And at #1- Bobby Goldsboro, of all people, with Me Japanese Boy I Love You. What?
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Today a word from colonizer of Africa Cecil Rhodes:
I have found out one thing and that is, if you have an idea, and it is a good idea, if you only stick to it you will come out all right.
And I have a great one! Let's all...
10- Marianne Faithfull had the hit version in the UK of the Stones' As Tears Go By. She would make our chats next January.
9- The Cashbox #4 this week- the Supremes and Where Did Our Love Go.
8- The CB #9 this week, Manfred Mann and Doo Wah Diddy.
7- Yet again, we have a sighting of The Bachelors, this time with I Wouldn't Trade You For The World, which would peak here at #69 next month.
6- And another sighting of Dave Berry, whose biggest hit was this week's The Crying Game.
5- The Four Seasons were #1 here back in July with Rag Doll.
4- Next up come a couple of hits that would peak on the US pop charts in December. The first is a country crossover from Jim Reeves- I Won't Forget You. It would hit #3 both in the UK and on the C&W charts.
3- The other is Herman's Hermits with I'm Into Something Good.
2- The Honeycombs were sitting at #97 back home with Have I The Right.
And top of the pops?
...the Kinks and You Really Got Me, with would peak on our charts in November!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
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I am about to give you a list of songs with one thing in common with the 6D victim.
Monday Monday, Mamas and Papas
Valleri, Monkees
I'd Really Love To See You Tonight, England Dan and JF Coley
Up Up And Away, Fifth Dimension
and Superstar, Carpenters.
And the thing these five + the 6DV have in common:
Bassist Joe Osborn. Another one of those guys that were everywhere, he was a member of the famed Wrecking Crew, Rick Nelson's band... oh and the band for Johnny Rivers in his Whiskey-a-Go-Go sessions, including the song at #11 that got no Panel Love- his cover of Chuck Berry's classic Maybellene.
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Wow, time for the M10 already! With Shakes installed at #10 already, the rest of the group looks like this:
The former #1s are falling- The Explorers' Club to #9 with California's Callin' Ya, and Phantogram to #8 with Fall In Love.
M.A.G.S. holds at #7 with My Love, as does Heatwave for Wild Ones at #6.
Break out yer toothbrush! Castlecomer moves a quick 4 to #5 with Judy.
Dinosaur Jr lumbers up one more spot to #4 with Tiny.
Dent May moves up 5 fast spots with Face Down In The Gutter Of Your Love at #3 this week.
Holding at the runner up spot, Keane's Somewhere Only We Know.
And at the top?
M10 says...
...a second week for Shakes with Strange Tides- making the M10 a big Shakes sandwich!
And on the Panel Four...
...the Animals and House Of The Rising Sun!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Okay, I think I'm safe this time in saying 1977 next time! And we'll see just how many slices of that Shakes sandwich they manage to gobble up...
Hah, gotcha. This is not one of those touchy feely FB quizzes which takes your personal info and gives you a totally random answer. I'm talking about political animals.
This weekend, Hillary Clinton pushed herself a bit too hard with pneumonia and paid the price. My thesis here is, why would she do such a thing? Well, if you add in "first major woman candidate", "Having to work harder as a woman to prove herself", "Can't afford to show weakness", etc, she had a few good valid reasons, in her mind if nowhere else. The facts that she, as not only a woman but a soon-to-be-elderly woman, and being very sick, possibly for weeks now, didn't figure into her (or her planners, whichever) plans. But they should have.
They didn't because she knew just what was going to happen- her enemies were gonna pounce. They've been discussion her health for weeks now, and admitting she was actually sick (even if it wasn't the apocalyptic plague some are trying to say it is) would be admitting a weakness that she could not allow.
Since when? Since we let the media and the spin run our news cycles. Being that human was too much of a risk. And she was right, to her thinking, because look what has happened since. Now she's "too sick to run," "what if she dies in office?", etc. Not to mention the inevitable memes including a few really tasteless "Weekend at Bernie's" wannabes.
So is that the kind of animal you wanna be? Where a person can't allow themselves to be sick, or else they're a cadaver? I did see one post on FB urging people from all political affiliations to pray for her- and soon after, saw a comment that was a "prayer" that she recover so that her time in prison wouldn't be so miserable. Really? This is what we've come to?
And you know it's both sides. I was on a thread discussing the horrible things being said about her "just because she's a woman." I happened to put in my two cents that I hoped this wasn't going to be another "if you don't support Hillary, you're a sexist" like Obama was "if you don't support him, you're a racist."
This of course led to a little rough and tumble, in which one lady and I were forcefully, maybe not quite politely, but certainly respectfully, going back and forth.
And then a lady- the comment since deleted- came in and basically said she had "looked at my page" and that I was proud to be one of the "basket of deplorables" that Hillary described (leadership from the top?), and that they should stop wasting time with "this racist, homophobic, misogynistic, jingoistic basket case. (AKA me)" Which sadly is what you get about 60% of the time when you argue with a "liberal" on FB- and sadly more and more when you argue with a "conservative" as well.
Those of you who know me know that none of those epithets apply to me. But this woman decided, here's my chance to be a troll for my cause. Congrats, you made yourself look like a horse's ass, and I'm not surprised you took down your comment and went scurrying back under your bridge, awaiting the next chance to pop out and go, boo. What kind of animal were you, again?
Y'know, a lot of people have made the comment that this election has the worst candidates ever. Even the Libertarian, someone who DESPERATELY needs to look intelligent, apparently can't tell the difference between a 3,000 year-old city in Syria and a brand of dog food. And you wonder how we came to this?
Because we DESERVE it. All we are is a nation regurgitating the latest sound bite or coming up with "clever" rejoinders. Count the bright comments vs stupid comments on social media, and tell me where we aren't getting exactly the candidates we would scientifically extrapolate from the crap that comes out of our mouths.
So, in closing, I ask you to do what I have done today, PRAY for Hillary Clinton. Not for her to get whatever misfortune is connected to the funniest meme, but for a human being who is ill. A human being that is in just as wretched state spiritually as you are, and who needs God's mercy just as much. Pray for someone who very well could be President and needs to be at the top of their game for our country's sake. Pray for Donald Trump. For Barack Obama. Paul said pray for all men. Not just the ones you agree with or support, or share values with. Be the right kind of animal.
Today we arrive on Sunday September 9th, 1973- Two days before Salvador Allende is murdered by a military coup in Chile; one day after Arnold Schwarzenegger won his 4th straight Mr Olympia title; and right on the day that Willie Mays played his last game. He drew two walks, struck out once, and his Mets won as the opposing Montreal Expos scattered 13 hits so evenly that never once did they threaten to score.
Or in other words, nothing earth shaking occurred- did I mention it's Sunday? Anyway, welcome to this week's Time Machine, in which I will have a couple of intertwined special reports, along with a 6D that went all Columbo on me...
"Just one thing- does this put me in the Beauty Contest?"
Er, No, no it doesn't. As I was saying, AND the first M10 #1 (to my knowledge) mostly written on a toy keyboard! Extinguish all smoking materials and climb aboard!
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This week's list is brought to you by the following distinguished Panel:
WFMJ Youngstown OH; KCPX Salt Lake City; WCWC Ripon WI; KKDJ Los Angeles; WAKY Louisville; WKXY Sarasota; WSLQ St Louis; WWCO Waterbury CT; WQAM Miami; WLLL Lynchburg VA; WHJB Greenburg PA; and WBBM Chicago. These worthies collected a mere 18 different songs, which led to NINE songs scoring in double figures, which means you get a Top Nine this week! Even with 9 entrants, we still managed two #1s that didn't make the list- the DeFranco Family with Heartbeat-It's A Lovebeat (Salt Lake city) and Cher's Half Breed (Los Angeles). Heartbeat also doubled as the low charter by only being at #74 this week on Cashbox's national chart. Or, if you please, it was the Carpenters' Yesterday Once More, which dropped off last week but was still #5 in Connecticut.
Speaking of low, the Under the Limbo Stick gang this week looks like this- and some of them did escape the bubbling under chart:
10cc's Rubber Bullets at #94;
Marie Osmond and Paper Roses at #97;
A re-release of They're Coming To Take Me Away by Napoleon XIV was stuck at #102;
Marshal Tucker Band's Can't You See was at #115;
But this week's how low can you go champ is Todd Rundgren with Hello It's Me, down here at #128!
And now, the Panel Nine:
At #9 with 10 points and the #1 of Chicago, the national #7, Wings and Live And Let Die.
At #8 with 11 points but no #1s, the national #4, Grand Funk Railroad and We're An American Band.
At #7 with also 11 points and the #1s of Youngstown and Greenburg, the national #9, Elton John and Saturday Night's All Right For Fighting.
At #6 with 13 points but no #1s, the national #5, Paul Simon's Loves Me Like a Rock.
At #5 with 15 points and the #1 from Louisville, the national #13, Diana Ross' Touch Me In The Morning.
At #4, with 18 points but no #1s, the national #3, the Stories and Brother Louie.
At #3 with that same 18 points but a #1 from Ripon, the national #6, Tony Orlando and Dawn with Hey Has Anybody Seen My Sweet Gypsy Rose?
At #2, with 22 points and the #1 of Sarasota, the national top dog, Helen Reddy and Delta Dawn.
And at #1, with 30 points and 4 number ones, the national # 2.... stay tuned.
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Last week, Shady made this comment:
It's amazing that major hits like "You're The One" by the Vogues and Len Barry's signature song "1-2-3" began their chart journey at or near the bottom of the Bubbling Under basement. It might be fun for you to identify records that have climbed the greatest distance up the chart to get to the top 5 or to #1, or the ones that took the most weeks to do so.
So I do like a challenge, so I started on a two-headed research project: Head A- which number ones started chart life the lowest (in the Martin Era, of course); and Head B- who took the most Hot 100 weeks to get to the top? Now the first was a bit challenging- I had to look at the #1s first week at the top, see what week on the hot 100 they were in (and record it for the second part), and then backtrack that many weeks plus one to see if they did time on the bubbling unders.
One thing I will tell you- the Beatles won't win this one. In fact the only time I saw them on the bubbling unders at all was an EP in '64 that had their first wave of big hits. Generally, they were 3-5 weeks to the top, and none longer than 8 weeks. But anyway, back to the low chart side of things. In about mid 1970, Cashbox began moving the bottom of the bubbling under up from 150 to 120, then 100, then 50. So when it stopped being 150, I said, "I'm done! The rest of this will be a snap!" That didn't happen, but we'll get to that later. So anyway, that left me with these being the #1s that started chart life the lowest:
10 (tie)- David Rose's The Stripper and the Box Tops' The Letter at #143;
8 (tie)- Leslie Gore's It's My Party and Nino Tempo and April Stevens' Deep Purple, #145;
5 (tie)- The Archies' Sugar Sugar, The Four Tops' I Can't Help Myself, and Kyu Sakamoto's Sukiyaki, #146;
4- Paul Mauriat's Love Is Blue, #147;
3- The Association's Windy, #148;
And a first place tie at #149:
The Tornados, Telstar;
and Aretha Franklin, Respect (ironically enough).
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Three debuts grace the M10 this week, and the one at #10 belongs to a Canuck by the name of Daniel Romano:
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The other head of my research project had been easy to that point- in the 7 1/2 years of the sixties encompassed by the Martin Era, only 22 songs had taken 10 weeks or more- and the longest was the first- Chubby Checker's Limbo Rock taking 15 weeks to get there.
That song, for the full ME, was tied for 26th. What the hell happened?
Well, there was an explosion, and I mean an EXPLOSION, of songs taking their sweet ol' time climbing the charts. I made a graph that shows the percentage of #1s that took 10 or more weeks to reach the top, with the sixties in blue and the 70's in red...
As you can see, while the sixties averaged just over 10% 10+ week number ones, the seventies averaged just under 60%- and the years 1972-76, which EACH had more than the '60s combined- averaged almost 80%. I will allow those of you who actually care try to dope out why this happened (I have my theories), but to move things along, let's find out who actually DID take the longest to hit #1:
A 6-way tie for 7th with 18 weeks- The Miracles and Love Machine, David Essex and Rock On, Crystal Gayle and Don't It Make My Brown Eyes Blue, Samantha Sang and Emotion, Andy Gibb and Love Is Thicker Than Water, and John Denver's Take Me Home Country Roads.
A three-way tie for 4th with 19 weeks: Frankie Valli's My Eyes Adored You, Rita Collidge's version of (Your Love Lifted Me) Higher And Higher, and Nick Gilder's Hot Child In The City.
A two-way tie for second at 20 weeks- Billy Preston's Will It Go 'Round In Circles, and Robert John's Sad Eyes.
And the longest, at 22 weeks-
And there you have it. Only two acts in the '70s consistently raced up the charts: Elton John, who almost always made it in 9 or less, and Paul McCartney, who did about half-and-half. And just for totals, there were, as I said, 22 10+ weekers in the ME '60s- and 195 in the '70s.
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Debut the second, at #9, another new one from my Aussie boys Castle Comer:
Well, that was a mouthful!
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So yet another failed attempt to do a 6 D, as the victim this week, War's Gypsy Man which was at #11 nationally but unloved by the Panel, was not just brimming with trivia. But what I did find was that, back when the band was starting out with Eric Burdon, they had a gig with a very famous sit-it: Jimi Hendrix, in his last public performance. On the 15th of September 1970, he was invited to sit in with the band by Burdon, who was a friend, but when he got there he was too toasted to take the stage. So they tried again the next night, and sometime after midnight- making it the 17th- Jimi sat in for a couple of songs- one of them Tobacco Road, which you can listen to here if you like. The night of the 18th he was dead from sleeping pills and a bottle of wine. But as I looked into all this, I kept hearing the allegations he was murdered. The killer was supposedly men hired by his UK manager, who had taken out a life insurance policy on him. But as I looked into the story, I found that basically it was a glorified roadie who decided to make a buck 40 years after the fact who made it up, including in the lie apparently the ME that examined the body, who claimed "I never saw so much wine come out of a body; we'd pump some out, and more would gush to the top". The star's American manager says that the "author" told him he needed a hook for his book, and this was it. When the manager protested, he supposedly said, "Who's gonna know? Every one involved is dead now." And now the internet is full of idiots listening to this twerp, screaming j'accuse at a case that was nothing but a money making lie.
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Final Debut this week kicks off our M10 this week. The guy who looked more like me than Dave Edmunds, Dent May- who had a hit earlier here with Born Too Late, is back with probably the favorite of mine of all the song titles the M10 has had- Face Down In The Gutter Of Your Love.
At #7 M.A.G.S. slips a notch with My Love.
Wild Ones Move up a pair to #6 with Heatwave; Dinosaur Jr does likewise to #5 with Tiny.
In their 7th week on the chart, the Explorers Club drop a single spot to #4 with former #1 California's Callin' Ya; A newly former number one, Phantogram's Fall In Love, slides out of the top spot to #3.
Keane moves up two more spots into second with Somewhere Only We Know.
And at the top?
M10 says...
Shakes with Strange Tides!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I am told that this song was written on the beach using a toy keyboard, and punched up later at the studio.
And the Panel says....
...Marvin Gaye and Let's Get It On!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Apparently either I forgot to put the correct time for Time Machine in at scheduling, or Blogger just ignored it, so anyway, stay tuned for this week's Time Machine at 5:34 PM EDT! Oh, and BTW for Shady- every time you have a rave... I gotta work for sure Saturday AM, so I'll drop by to help clean up later.
(And yeah, I could prolly fix it, but it's already 3:30 anyway and I have a bad case of don't give a craps today -the better to survive work with, my dear- so see ya in 2 hours!)
So let me tell you about all the different ways a day at work can go off the rails. To set things up, I'll let you in on a couple of issues that started last week. Right now, the program we use for the engineers to make the markers that I cut is transitioning from accumark to something called optitech- or NC for short (don't ask me how). So we are slowly getting more and more NC markers although we still do plenty of accumark (which I will shorten to AM for the duration). So this involves switching the cutter to the proper "wizard" to bring the marker up properly, as well as choosing the proper file set if I have to bring it up manually instead of just scanning it over.
That said, last week my machine (the legendary Haney) decided it was no longer going to bring up NC files properly- it would only give you an out-of-bounds error, no matter what you did (except, briefly, if you didn't switch the wizard over to NC). So we shifted all the NC stuff to the other cutter, being run now by a newbie whom we shall call T-man. After a day of this, the Haney decided one problem wasn't enough, and it started going out of calibration. This means that my little circular wheel-blade wasn't going down the line straight, and thus was cutting crooked in the seconds before it shattered altogether. The Maintenance guy and I fixed it Thursday, ran fine all day, but friday morning it went AWOL again, and with anyone who knew how to fix it already on Labor day getaway, I fiddled with it myself, got it running right- for 2 hours before it went bad again and we shut it down. That, as I said, was last week.
Tuesday, all the proper people were assembled and they got it going again. By this time, I had lost faith in the Haney and remained at the other cutter whilst T-man got to deal with it. That brings us to this morning. Tuesday evening the "powers that be" had a meeting about the machines, and were looking into my suggestion for a fix- running a system restore. But, as meetings do, all that was accomplished (and so far) was talk. I came in with a note that I had to cut a missing part first thing. It was an NC, and when I tried to open the marker I was greeted with something new- a little "NC import selection" box, on which I had to choose the magic checkbox to get the marker to open. I showed that to the lord of the Realm- he took a picture and sent it to our guy that's supposed to know about these things, and by the time I had it cut, they were all gathered around my machine- and a good thing too, because just then the Haney went askew and broke yet another blade. That went on most of the day, with the diagnosis being a failed sensor "which was on order".
Moving along, we start to hit the highlight about 10 AM when our floor boss gave T-man a marker to cut, hot prototype. He got the error, and I said, yeah, that's an NC, it won't cut on the Haney." So they gave it to me, and as I was cutting it- actually, just as I had finished the fuzzy patch that goes with it- out came the Big Boss again with three more of these "furniture covers" to do. The first three went okay (these things are a colossal pain but the customer wants them, so), but when I went to do the fourth...
See these first three were one marker, but the other one was the same as the one I had just did for T-man. Only thing was, now I was getting the error, even though it had cut fine an hour and a half before. Nothing I tried would get it to work, and so I told Big Boss- just as he was bringing out another one, so "hot" they hadn't even worked up proper paperwork for it, just pull it open manually and go. So while he goes back to guy-in-the-know, I go ahead and cut the orderless marker- not noticing the little "-05" on the paper I got, meaning that it was out of a different color. With an order, I woulda caught this. Without, with 15 distractions going on, and just awaiting the next disaster, I cut out of the wrong color. S'okay, just another wasted 23 yards of fabric, and there have been so MANY today...
By this time, I had also acquired the fuzzy patch and vinyl patch for another previously cut (by T-man) marker that a) the fuzzy patch was backwards, and b) the vinyl was cut wrong side up. After proving to Big Boss that fuzzy patch was in the system backwards, I was then greeted by guy-in-the-know (henceforth GITK), who played with my machine before determining that the one marker, indeed, was not going to work on my side. Just on a hunch, he went over to T-man and the Haney, where- despite refusing to cut the same marker 2 hours before- now IT would cut the damn thing. Good enough, here's your paperwork and your fuzzy patch, have at it. It was at this time that sew boss came over and informed me that I'd cut the one out of the wrong color.
So that gets recut, and soon after I am told that the fuzzy patch for the other three- which I had scanned over- were now backwards. Later, I heard it was two out of the three. WTH? A few intrepid souls decided to go cut them by hand (thank God), and by then we were ready to unscrew the fuzzy/vinyl problem. Did that, and then I went to do my next thing. When I opened the wizard, lo and behold, I saw next to the one I was doing, a canopy marker. I didn't scan a canopy marker. T-man didn't scan one. NOBODY scanned a canopy, and as a matter of fact, neither I or T-man even saw an order for one all day, and yet, there it was.
Finally, it was 15 minutes to quitting time- just about enough to cut one more cover. Just as I start, T-man says, "Uh, I think my label printer ran out of paper." (Each marker has to print a box label.) Well, he had plenty of paper- but the five labels he had printed- and five more, when he tried to get them to "print" a second time- had wrapped around the roller on the way out. Not an uncommon problem, and not a big deal when you catch it after one or two. But TEN of them? That required time I didn't have and my scissors to cut them out. And of course a couple of attempts to reset since the idiot ink ribbon ALWAYS has to get misaligned during such a venture.
Nonetheless, all finally got done, barely before the buzzer. And as I staggered out the door, I told the Big Boss for the umpteenth time, "If you woulda JUST got the priest in to sprinkle with Holy Water before we moved the machines this spring..."
Big Boss, as he always does, just laughs and says, "Fair enough..."
So before I give you the low-down on the best Labor Day a Booogle could have, I have to tell this story. I was gathering the last of my immediate news from good ol' WANE.com and found two interesting things- though not newswise. First- and this is the second time I have spotted this-
Check out the second most popular story- "Page not found". I know that sometimes our local news is a little spotty, but I didn't think it had gotten to the point that people go to pages of nothing just to escape.
Next, I saw the announcement of the "I Love The 90's" tour coming to Fort Wayne. How it is that someone actually loves Coolio, Color Me Badd, Tone Loc, Young MC, Salt N Pepa featuring Spinderella, and Vanilla Ice is beyond me, but that as they say is not the point. Because I looked off to the side and I saw:
So a 90's hip-hop show is considered a close match to invasive algae. Covers it for me...
Scrappy's great Labor day started Sunday night with his very first bonfire...
"Are you excited?"
Examines the brazier
This fire brought to you by Pepsi and Dr Pepper
throwing the nerf football
"Should we be out there with those guys?"
Had to do some finagling as it got darker...
At'sa my grandson dead center wrapped in mommy
We did a bunch of stargazing too- Jess had an app on her phone that you could hold up to the night sky and it would automatically show you what you were looking at. Laurie tried downloading one on hers- but first try it was showing what was behind you, and second try put everything at a 45 degree angle. They also had some bug spray that nearly killed us all, and a good time was had by all.
Labor day started with a good morning walk, followed by a backyard picnic with deli sandwiches, chips, and ho-hos. After enjoying the late morning and early afternoon, we retired inside to watch the reds make a mockery of yet another ball game. And then, we went to Culvers for some ice cream (well, frozen custard) of which Scrappy had his own bowl PLUS plenty of ours.
We finished by watching the GOOD half of the Ole Miss/FSU game. I had a pretty good idea the Seminoles would come back- Kelley has a habit of folding once the other team figures out how to put pressure on him- so I watched the Rebels get their big lead and went to bed.
A lone man looking for means of expression in a tsunami of information. Seeking truth justice and the American way in the perspective of a Nixon conservative. And the Commissioner of the free world's smallest and best fantasy football league.
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