Oh Boy! Why?

Why couldn't I have been more driven to more domestic deeds? Say - something like - creating the nicest yard in the neighborhood? Or - how about - one heck of a good home handy man? Sigh.....

It's not to be. These things interest me not at all. Instead my drive has always been toward endeavors of a slightly more extreme nature requiring a certain amount of physical endurance. Evidence? Professional rodeo - bareback broncs, climbing - both big wall and technical alpine, sailing - as in the mast in the water at 3AM kind of sailing, motorcycles - really fast mortorcycles, and last but not least - endurance sports, such as cycling 200 miles in a day or running marathons. Which brings us to the point of this post.

In less than 5 days I will be lacing on the racing flats and dragging my ass to the start of my 3rd marathon in 12 months. Apparently I'm not the only idiot that's going to do this, I'll be accompanied by 5,500+ runners, all with the same idotic goal; To run 26.2 miles in as short a time as their only slightly prepared bodies will let them. In all fairness, I'll only be running with a small portion of these runners situated very solidly in the middle of the pack. There will be a couple thousand running ahead of me and a couple thousand running behind me that I'll never see except maybe at the start or finish areas. The finish area won't count because I really won't be seeing anything except indescript volunteers prodding me along the finish chutes as if I were livestock. Gotta make room for that other half of the runners that are going to finish behind me you know.

I'm really not feeling very prepared for this one. I've only run ~460 miles this year in preperation of this race. My shins have been bothering me a lot and the leg muscles just never seem to fully recover. I've also been fighting a nagging cough issue since the beginning of March. My last long run was a disaster. Of course, heat, humidity, hydration, and fuel played a large part in that disaster and will be easily avoided this weekend with a little focus. But, it was a crash none the less, and these kinds of things do a lot to destroy confidence.

I will finish though. It will be painful. But I do know that my training has pretty well prepared me for a solid mid-pack finish. So now all I need to do is focus on resting for the rest of this week, get my fueling plan for the race in place, and concentrate on the positive aspects of this idiotic endeavor.

And I'll be able to add another "finisher" medal to the other sport paraphenalia hanging on the wall.

One of those positive aspects will be the calorie burn. I'm thinking 25-30 good ales worth!

So, it won't be long before you see one last post concerning this particular marathon and it will include a run report. Oh, and just to show how stupid I really am..... I just signed up for the Portland Marathon in October. Maybe I'll run it barefoot!

A picture of an actual runner from the Seattle Marathon..... Damn!

Cheers!

Kerrel: So Long Washington

So Long Washington, I am on my way to France to visit with my daughter, go to a couple volleyball games, be on vacation, and open my mind up to new cultures.

After 4.5 hours flight to Toronto, CA. (2,081 miles…we could convert that to meters for you Canadians = 3, 349, 044.864 meters) I found myself eating lunch/dinner/breakfast (depending time zones) listening to the well known Candadian favorite "Do The Hustle", and multiple renditions of songs by Paula Abdul. (Pop Hits ?? Canada vs. America )

Ending in France, total travel time 16h 40 min, 30 min waiting for luggage, 1 minute for a THOROUGH investigation ("har har") by French immigration authorities (did they even look up from my passport?) and I was nervous about this part of the trip?!? ( Hey Jason, go Air Canada on time all the way!)

Thankfully relieved to see my daughter at the gate in Paris, hence "All systems were a GO for launch in France!"

While trekking through the Parisian Metro (underground rail) and intertwining streets I thought I found myself in a Motorcycle Show…in fact no, it was typical center of the street parking downtown Paris. (Ron/Bob/Casey too bad you all cannot park your motorcycle's in the street in front of the office!)

After dropping off my luggage at the hotel, I was off like "I was shot out of a gun" on a daughter-guided tour of "Centre-Ville" Paris. Here is a shot of the Champs- Elysee with the Arc-de-Triumph, my daughter and I are not sure what happened to the girl on the bicycle but we didn't hear any sirens so she must have survived.?

For all you unlucky people working in America, here's the Louvre, one of the most famous museums in the world and former living quarters of Napoleon and Louis V. If that doesn't beat your workday, I am going to have dinner with "my daughters adopted family" in Niort on Monday who's, grandfather has paintings of their family vacations in the museum on display. (Edouard Garrido for any Googler's)

Yes, they do sell Bud in France…

And YES they do sell Fords in France!! Though, both of them just a bit smaller!

Then Gameday in Niort France! Picture is of my daughter's team proclaiming on their legs "On Est En N2" (for all you none French) "We are in N2", which means to you American's that they are moving up to a higher level in the French Volleyball league after sweeping their current league and currently 19-0!

Honestly, this is the best team (men or women) I have ever witnessed in my entire life. Camaraderie, teamwork, communication between players and coach! Super star not one, but as a unit unstoppable!

Whether it was a team that I played on, coached ,or watched my kids play on, this group of girls are the Greatest! Photo Left to right "O" Raphael, "N" Aline, "E" Julie, "S" my Lacey (USA) ", "T" Aurelie, "E" Amsetou (Cameroon), "N" Juliette, "N" Anne-Laurent, "2" Anne (German).

They have one last game to stay undefeated…this coming weekend in Toulouse, lets hope for a perfect season. What a group of people in one spot at the same time from so many different corners of the world melded into one unit.

YOU GO GIRLS! ALLEZ LES FILLES!

……………………………………………………………………………………………

Two days from now off to Normandy to achieve a life time goal of mine to view the beaches where the Allied invasion occurred during WWII.

End of Stage 1 "THE FRENCH CONNECTION"

Cheers,

Kerrel!!!!

Sunny Skies... In California

Now that we are rolling headlong into spring, we’ve not only had over three months to “play” with our new Leica HDS Laser Scanner, but we now have two of our top guys with a full week of intense training under their belts. Casey and Jason spent a week at Leica Geosystems HDS USA Headquarters in sunny San Ramon, California during March for their in-house training program. The guys were most impressed by the mid-70s weather and the catered meals for breakfast and lunch… but I think they learned a few things as well.

We have all been impressed by the capabilities of the scanner ever since we purchased it at the beginning of the year. However, what our scanning crew has brought back from California is the incredible power of Leica’s software. The bulk of the training was centered on Leica’s Cyclone and CloudWorx software, both impressive programs in their own rights.

Cyclone is a massive program that is not only the interface for operating the ScanStation 2, but also the foundation for data processing, point cloud registration including point cloud overlap, traversing and resection functions, as well as providing a complete set of 3D modeling and topographic surveying tools. Cyclone allows us to slice and dice point clouds in any way we need to best extract the information our clients need… and then some! We can create complete and accurate 3D models of structures such as bridges, right down to the deformity of each steel beam. We can also create highly accurate Digital Terrain Models, including vertical DTMs complete with contours. The next time you’ve got an undercut cliff, a cave, or even a tunnel, and are wondering how to get that surface into CAD for your engineers, give us a call. Or, do you have a twitchy engineer demanding ground shots at 1 foot intervals and are wondering how to give them what they need without breaking the bank? We can do that too. On top of all that power, Cyclone comes with a host of publishing options to quickly deliver useful information to our clients at all stages of the project, from the afternoon we wrap up field work to the delivery of the final product. Very cool.

After processing the point clouds in Cyclone, we will most likely go to Leica’s CloudWorx software to create our AutoCAD or MicroStation deliverables. CloudWorx runs within both programs, and allows us to take advantage of the rich point clouds directly in the CAD software to create our standard 2D maps or easily draft in 3D for engineering design use. It’s a brilliantly simple concept, really. I’m sure those of you who use AutoCAD regularly are laughing… thinking of all the cursing and screen punching that would take place when we try to import millions of points into AutoCAD. But it’s not so! CloudWorx turns the point clouds into blocks, and even though we can pick on each individual node in those point clouds to create our maps and extract information, AutoCAD is tricked into thinking it’s only dealing with a few objects and speeds along quite nicely. Imagine… it’s like bringing the real world into the virtual 3D environment of CAD to use as you please. No more unclear notes to decipher, no more busted rods, no missed features… we’ve got it all. Brilliant I say!

Besides Casey and Jason, there were 3 other guys in the class: two from Southern California and one from Anchorage, Alaska. They were all involved in different types of surveying, from ALTA surveys for the private sector and mapping for the Bureau of Reclamation in California, to plant mapping for the oil industry on the North Slope of Alaska. It was interesting to hear about all the different applications scanners are being used for. Our guys also had the pleasure of meeting Joel Hurt, the Director of Business Development for Scanning, and Geoffrey Jacobs, Senior VP of Strategic Marketing for High-Definition Surveying. They both had a lot of interesting ideas and suggestions. Our guys even came back with aspirations of becoming crime fighters! See the Leica ScanStation on the A&E Real-Life Series, CRIME 360, a new series which features cutting-edge forensic technology.

Well, that’s it for now. I’ve got to get my guys off the sewing machines (they’re working on water-proofing their PGS crime-fighting capes) and get back out surveying.

Cheers!

Oh, I forgot I Had a Blog!

Someone just mentioned that I am supposed to keep this blog thing updated. Hmmmmm. OK.

Work:


Things are moving along but we are still not running at full capacity. Things do appear to be picking up and projects are trickling in a little more consistently the past few weeks. A backlog would be nice though.


We are currently running 2 crews full time and bouncing them around all over the state. Just a small sampling of our projects:

• Bellingham - Pipeline ROW retracements
• Olympia - Environmental monitoring project
• Port Angeles - Engineering design mapping
• Kennewick - ALTA/ACSM survey
• Redmond - Microsoft design surveys and construction layout
• Redmond - Microsoft ALTA/ACSM

The scanner is doing it's job very well. 3D Laser Scanning or HDS (High Definition Surveying) produces a very accurate, very dense 3-dimensional collection of point data referred to as a ‘Point Cloud’. The Power of 3D laser scanning is its inherent ability to capture extraordinarily complete and accurate 3D “as-built” or “existing conditions” geometric information quickly and unobtrusively. 3D laser scanning can be used for capturing high definition data sets for almost any conceivable use. If you can see it we can scan it.



We have been marketing and are now on several teams that will require our services in the near future. We do have some gaps in the field crew schedules so if any of you need some surveying or mapping now is the time to do it as these schedule gaps have been filling up.

Marathon:

Training is still on track. The Vancouver Marathon is just over 4 weeks away and I am nearing the end of full on training. The last 3 weeks are delegated to tapering and letting the muscles mend and recover from the intense training. I have been having a lot of trouble with my shins throughout the training and am looking forward to the tapering. Hopefully the pain and tenderness will go away and I'll be in tip-top shape on race day. The biggest trick for me (at my age) is to get through the training phase and to the marathon injury free.

I have high hopes of completing the marathon in under 3:30 and qualifying for the '09 Boston Marathon. How about a little marathon info for those smart enough to not be involved in the actual running of them?

• A marathon is 26 miles 385 yards. Every marathon.
• Early "official" marathons were closer to 40KM or just under 25 miles. (wish they still were!)
• The marathon is based on the legend of a Greek soldier who ran from the Greek city of Marathon to Athens to announce the defeat of the Persians.
• It is said that after announcing "We have won" the soldier fell dead of a heart attack.
• The world record of 2:04:26 was set in Berlin in 2007 by Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie.
• The "Wall" is the point where easily burned glycogen stores are depleted, usually between miles 18 and 20, and a runner suffers from overwhelming fatigue. (It hurts!)

In other news:

Kerrel is headed to France next week to spend a couple of weeks with his daughter who is a superstar, professional volley ball athlete. He is excited about visiting his daughter and seeing many of the WWII battle sites. We are looking froward to all of the stories he'll be bringing back. He promised to post his experience on this blog when he returns.

That's it for today. More later.

Cheers!