Jim Medding’s Blog

Before there was video tape, DVD’s, and DVR’s, you typically saw a movie once, unless the move was really, really good. Then you would see it every time it was broadcast on TV. Occasionally, a local broadcaster would need to fill air time when the networks didn’t have a feed and nobody was watching anyway. Like late on a Saturday afternoon.

I’m pretty sure that’s when I tuned in to an old BW movie which had caught my attention. I was probably about 8 years old. I think what caught my attention was the fact that plot of the move had the US military, which I had the greatest respect for since they had won the war, was doing battle with an “ice age monster.” NOTHING was working against this hideous beast; the carnage was terrible. I was on the edge of my seat; it was not at all certain that would the US military prevail. Finally, the heroes figured it out and did the beast in. I’ll never forget that final scene; a giant claw slowly sinking into the ocean. I was creeped out.

I never understood why the move wasn’t shown on TV from time to time. Then, recently, I looked the movie up. Oh yea, I was pretty young then. Never mind.

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At a recent car show, I was delighted to find a 1964 Dodge Dart with push-button automatic transmission. To most onlookers, it wasn’t much of a sight, but for me it was special. This was the car that I had learned to drive in. And it has the one particular feature that I’ll always remember that car for: push-button automatic transmission. Ooh, I can still feel, and hear the operation of the parking lever and gear selector buttons.

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A friend of mine sent me this video clip. The quality is a bit low so it’s hard to figure out a couple of scenes. But still, it’s an amazing video.

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My experience with actually playing baseball is, well, limited. But I have been a lifelong fan of the game and have watched, and listened, to many games played by highly skilled professionals. So, I have just an inkling of how the game is played.

Back in September of 1999 when I still took a daily paper I opened the sports section of the Eastside Journal to find what I believe is the ultimate baseball photo ever taken. Not that it captures for all eternity anything like a major event. Quite the contrary, it captures a typical play-at-the-plate. While I find the anticipation of the play at the plate the best play in baseball, most people say “what?” when I mention my feelings about the significance of the play. In fact, the 6 paragraph game recap for game doesn’t mention play in the photo. Only this caption is provided:

Cleveland’s Roberto Alomar (12) slides home ahead of the throw to score a sacrifice fly in the fourth inning. Boston would win the game in the 13th inning.

What I feel is significant about this photo is how it captures the way that the game is played. The on-deck hitter intently staring at the scoring player and pointing for him to slide, the umpire also staring at the unfolding play while having his hand on the arm of the on deck hitter so as to move him out of the way if a better viewing position is needed, the catcher using two hands to catch the ball while attempting to block the plate with his leg, and, finally, the scoring player sliding past the leg of the catcher while reaching to touch the plate with his left hand.

This is a photo I’d love to have on my wall.

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On the 40th anniversary of the Apollo 11 Moon landing it seems as though everybody is participating in the celebration. Well, since I have a web site, I figured I’d pitch in. But what to blog about, that is the question. Yes, I remember (duh, I was 14 at the time) being woken up in the dead of night to watch the momentous event. And since I was a substitute paper boy for the Washington Post, I remember carting the extra (as in extra-large and extra-heavy and extra-try-and-sell-some-more-of-these) editions up and down the many stairs of the apartment complex on my route on what had to be the hottest day of the year.

But, what was so special about that? Everybody my age has the same memories.

Well, sometime later, I did receive something special from the Apollo 11 Moon landing. One day my grandfather came over to visit and I was called out of my bedroom retreat because he wanted to present something to me - a check. Having not been handed too many checks in my life at that point, this was novel, but I was pretty sure there was something missing in the important spaces on the front of the check. And I was pretty sure that the only mark on the check, a signature on the back, was important. I was at a loss as to what I had been given. The front was blank and there was a signature on the back.

After puzzling this for a moment, I blurted out “What’s this? A blank check?”

This generated chuckles from the adults present. Then I was filled in. It was Buzz Aldrin’s signature.

“Who’s Buzz Aldrin?”

“The second man to set foot on the Moon.”

I had my answer; I had the signature of the guy who finished second. But it was obvious that this was impressive. I kept the check, and still have it today. But most important, I’ve been proud to know the answer to a trivia question for 40 years.

Thanks, Grandpa.

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Camporee was one of my favorite campouts to go on as an adult volunteer for my son’s troop. Among the various reasons I enjoyed it, was that I had the opportunity to interact with some great young men. You see, as an adult leader, we were required to help with the skills stations during the competition. I usually worked the nature station; my responsibilities were to instruct the patrols when they arrived at the station, observe how the worked together during the challenge, score their answers when they were done and then tell them how well they had done. We could give a few points for how well they worked together.

One patrol I especially remember; it was obviously a new-boy patrol since all of the scouts were about the age where Cub Scouts bridge into Boy Scouts. Working on the animal tracks challenge, one of the scouts pointed out that the beaver’s tracks were left by an animal that had webbed feet. The conversation went something like this:

First Scout: “Look, it has webbed feet.”

Bossy Scout: “Ducks have webbed feet, it’s a duck.”

Third Scout: “What else has webbed feet?”

Bossy Scout: “It’s gotta be a duck.”

First Scout: “It has four feet.”

Contemplative silence…

Bossy Scout: “It has webbed feet. It’s a duck!”

They wrote down “Duck.” Needless to say, they didn’t score well on this part of the challenge.

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The first engineering assignment I was given, after my introduction to engineering change notice forms, was to create a mod procedure for rewiring the “computer” drawer of a SMTS dash 39 to a dash 51. This was something really significant and I was sure I could do it right. I had the wiring lists for both models and was told that one of the lab technicians, Ron, would help me out.

I spend hours, if not days in a room with Ron poring over the wiring lists making sure that of the more than a thousand connections in each drawer, I knew exactly which were common and which were different. Armed with this information, I wrote up the mod procedures and presented them to my boss, Larry.

Then, one day, I was called out to the production floor. When I arrived, I saw the bottom side of a computer draw turned upside down with the wires exposed. Around the draw were an assembler and two senior assemblers, Ethel and Pat. Ethel told me that my mod procedure required an operation which couldn’t be accomplished; I don’t remember specifically what it was, probably the removal of a wire that didn’t exist. Furthermore there were other problems, such as wires going to places where they shouldn’t have gone.

It was obvious to me that the dash 39 draw had not been wired per the wiring list I possessed.

What wasn’t obvious to me was what to do about it.

Let me digress for a moment and tell you a bit more about Ethel. Ethel had been with the company before they assigned employee numbers; when they did give out employee numbers, she ended up with a low two digit number because she had a last name which was near the top of the alphabetical list of employees (I had a “low” six digit employee number). I mention this because I suspect that Ethel had seen many problems like this before and she had saved many young engineers’ rear end.

Ethel, noticing my bewilderment, asked me what I was trying to accomplish. As soon as she realized that I wanted the wiring to match the dash 51, she suggested that they would go through the drawer connector pin by connector pin and make the wiring match. “You can do that?” I asked. “Sure” Ethel said, and I walked away with a deep respect for all senior assemblers. I worked for many years with Ethel and Pat; I believe we always had a good working relationship. I hope they felt the respect I had for them.

I learned something else that day which was more important in my career as an engineer. I learned to always be wary of your assumptions. This has been especially helpful when it comes to testing.

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I work with people from, literally, all over the world. Not long ago, our manager setup a “Root Beer Floats and Summer” meeting where, it turned out, she announced she was taking a job with a different group. On the way to the meeting, I had to explain to several people what a root beer float is and what root beer is. Fortunately, ice cream toppings were provided for those who couldn’t bring themselves to try the root beer-ice cream combination.

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I had a coworker who had had a very bad day; kind of like my day a few years ago. I pointed her to my blog posting thinking it might cheer her up, but when I received “How horrible” as comment back from her, I realized that that it hadn’t.

I also realized that my original posting might not have quite caught as much of the retrospective humor that I was hoping for. And there were some very humorous moments. One of the things I didn’t put in the blog is that I had Greg call my wife to let her know what was going on. The conversation went something like this:

Greg: “Hi Mom, were down here by the overpass”
Cindy: “So, you’ll be home soon”
Greg: “No”
Cindy: “Why not?”
Greg: “The van’s on fire”
Cindy: “What?”
Greg: “The van’s on fire”

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As a child, I believed there was no better food than a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I could not imagine life without at least one sandwich every day. I remember this because, much to my shock, I discovered my best friend, Earl, could not eat them. He was allergic to peanut butter. I remember the conversation with Earl when he revealed this hideous fact; it was the first time in my life when I felt complete and utter disbelief.

Jim - “What?”
Earl - “I’m allergic to peanut butter.”
Jim - “But it’s really, I mean, really good.”
Earl - “I can’t eat it.”
Jim - “You need to go talk with your mom, that can’t be right.”
Earl - “It won’t do any good.”
Silence

To this day I still pity Earl for missing out on all of those PB&J sandwiches.

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