Thursday

Another extremely nice day in the QCA. Met a Criterium Financial vendor for mid-morning coffee at SB's and sat outside, and worked up a sweat. Not too often that that happens in November.

2 and I are back on the training schedule tonight. Two weeks to the TT.

3 and friends made a random decision and are in C-town for a concert tonight. John Legend? All I know is that his CDs are on sale at SB"S. With a return trip tonight, it will be a long day for that crew.

I went on a tour of the factory facilities on the RI Arsenal yesterday. With the Base Reallignment And Closure (BRAC) threat still out there, the civilian managers at The Arsenal are doing some things to try to improve utilization of the space and equipment on the base. They have over 1.5 million square feet of space under roof that they want to keep operational. So they are out recruiting local, or not so local, businesses that may have use for some of the manufacturing capabilities on the island. My pal Roy has several companies that conceivably could use these capabilities, but it's not like he's out looking for anything right now. But they wanted to give him the royal treatment, and I was included at his request.

The most staggering thing we observed on a tour that last more than an hour was how much excess capacity that exists in their factory. There were row-after-row of huge pieces of manufacturing equipment, presses, lathes, and more. Some fairly basic in function, some computerized and very sophisticated. From actual activity going on that we could observe, less than 25% of the stuff was being currently used. I'm not sure if that constitutes waste, but it definitely smacks of government operations. Not enough accountability.

The gal at the contractor's visitor entrance was about as unfriendly as they come. As has been the case when I have ridden my bike on to The Arsenal for the Memorial Day ceremonies, these low level government employees in positions of authority have a tendency to get carried away with their own importance.

I suppose I need to get going. 2 doesn't like to be late on Thursday nights. I wonder why? Oh, I know...ESPN football!

The radio spots I ran this Fall were done incorrectly. The sales gal had to admit that to me today. We had had the spot recut to correct some pronunciations, and the producers used the original flawed spots . They will give me some comp time as make-ups.

So have a great night.

Be careful out there.