I picked up a new mount Saturday night and planned on installing it on Sunday. As is typical on weekends, we got busy finishing other projects (things that had to be completed before the CFO heads out of town again) and I didn't get around to installing the mount until the sun was starting to drop below the horizon Sunday evening. The loss of daylight savings time sucks... I do not like it getting dark at 5 pm!
Of course a simple task of undoing four screws and replacing the old with the new wasn't going to be that easy. After taking off the old mount, I realized that the screws that came with the new one were smaller in diameter than the ones that I used on our old mount, so they wouldn't tighten up in the existing holes. No problem, I thought, I'll just use the old screws. Wrong... The new base plate is thicker than the old one, so the screws that I had used before were too short for the new base. Seriously? I quickly sorted through my container of extra screws and found that I didn't have 4 that were the right size with matching heads on them. Of course the screw heads had to match, even if no one else would probably ever notice if they didn't. I would know and it would drive me crazy.
In need of new screws, I decided that it was time to run to make an evening run to Lowes. I hopped in the Miata and dropped the top, even though it was below 40 degrees outside. I got a lot of strange looks driving around with the top down when it is "cold" outside, but it isn't too bad with a hat on and the heater on full blast. Not to mention that winter is closing in and I'll have to put the Miata away for the winter. After returning home with the proper screws, I put on my headlight and finished attaching the new flag holder in the dark. Mission accomplished.
Since today is Veteran's Day, I thought that I would mix it up by posting a couple pictures of the ship that my dad was on when he was in the Navy (images borrowed from the ship's website, a link is provided below). He was on the USS Horne DLG-30/CG-30, a ship that was commissioned in April of 1967 (my dad was part of the original crew) and decommissioned in 1993.
Here is a shot from the commissioning ceremony, dad should be in there somewhere:
And here she is sitting in San Diego Bay, where the CFO and I were last week (we drove over the bridge in the background)
And here is a random crew photo from the website that just happens to have dad in it (in the back, in case you don't notice the resemblance):
The heading under the photo said that they were "punching tubes" in the boiler, so I did a little bit of googling to see what exactly that meant. I found this explanation on the website for the USS Franklin D. Roosevelt:
Cleaning watersides required draining the boiler, isolating it from the rest of the steam plant (with two valve security, chained and locked) and then climbing into the big water drum and “punching tubes.” It is not for the claustrophobic or even the faint of heart.
“Punching tubes” means putting a circular wire brush driven by an air rotor down each tube as far as the apparatus would reach. It was dusty, dirty work and the sound was reminiscent of a visit to the dentist.
That does not sound like fun...
After being decommissioned in 1993, the Horne went into storage until 2008, when she was used as a target during a training operation. After sustaining multiple missile strikes, she eventually sank to her final resting place, 3 miles deep at the bottom of the ocean off the coast of Kauai, Hawaii. There is a video of the missiles hitting the ship here: http://youtu.be/jCkf3ogkFxo
If you are interested in reading more of the history of the Horne or want to look at more photos of the ship and crew, the ship's website is: USS Horne
Happy Veteran's Day! Thanks to all of the veterans out there.
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