User:TundraDawg
From WWR
A bit about me
I was born and raised in Saratoga Springs, NY where I worked for a while as an apprentice aircraft mechanic. Once I realized I wasn't going anywhere with that job I joined the US Air Force. I lived in Idaho for 11 years, then in Iceland for a year, followed by 6 years in Alaska and most recently Oklahoma.
The Alaska Years: I lived in the town of North Pole. While not my favorite part of Alaska, Fairbanks and the White Mountains offer a few things to do that you will not find elsewhere, and the summers are beautiful. The most memorable period of my stay in Fairbanks was sharing a hospital room for eight days with musher and mountain man Charlie Boulding in late June of 2002. Talking with Charlie and his wife Robin gave me a glimpse into the Alaska I aspire to live in. I called "The Blue Marlin" my second home and met Larry Zarella and the rest of the "Cooks" there, along with numerous local personages who, while they may have been more colorful were perhaps less notable. One of whom was a woman from Talkeetna who played the flute and occasionally toured with a band that played there a time or two.
I traveled Alaska by road from Homer to Prudhoe Bay and flew into Juneau for a long New Years weekend that was all too short and way too much fun (HeHe). I suppose my favorite travels were weekends fishing and camping around Talkeetna, hiking the flower filled meadows of Hatchers Pass, hiking and fishing the Kenai Peninsula, or just goofing off in Girdwood or Homer. All of these activities were filled with fantastic people and excellent music.
If you are a user of Yahoo Messenger, I can be reached as aktundradog. Yes it's an odd and possibly pretentious name with a story of it's own...
So what brought me to Oklahoma?
Well, the road to Oklahoma was a long and not uninteresting one. I first enlisted in the USAF 1984 and I was trained as an electronics technician in ground radar. My first assignment was to Mountain Home AFB in Idaho. The first four years there were not much fun, then I discovered the local community and that you have to make the best of what you are given. I discovered alpine skiing and white water kayaking and rafting. I also rode snowmobiles throughout most of the Sawtooth mountains and crossed the continental divide in Yellowstone. Eleven years later I was relocated to Keflavik, Iceland. The following year I was assigned to Eielson AFB in Alaska for six years. Most recently, I was assigned to the Radar Operations Center (ROC) located in Norman, OK on the Oklahoma University's North Research Campus (aka Westheimer Airport). The ROC is a National Weather Service (NWS) headed DOC, DOT and DOD joint venture that manages the entire NEXRAD (NEXt generation weather RADar) WSR-88D radar network. The ROC provides "cradle-to-grave" support of documentation, sustainment, upgrade, maintenance and R&D for the next "next generation" of weather radar. I'm now retired from the USAF and working for a contractor to the NWS. I am still trying to figure out the local community... I guess you really need to be in an area that has fewer than 1 person per square mile to find folks who are willing to welcome strangers.
Anthow, my time here has been educational; I've had to learn UNIX, LINUX, Cisco Networking and a number of other disciplines that are outside of my specialty. My job had me pulling shifts on a 24/7 telephone call center where site technicians and meteorologists can call for assistance. If the problem could not be solved via phone, we traveled to the site to provide support, sometimes on very short notice. All in all it was a fantastic job, because I learned something new every day, and there was always something different happening.
The Oklahoma Music Scene
Music Festival Links:
Local Music Links of Intrest:
http://www.normanmusicscene.com/nmsindex.htm
http://lookatokc.newsok.com/music/
Latest News
Click here to edit your news page. Whenever you update your news page it will automatically be included on the Listener News page.
24 December 2008:
Tentative itenerary for the Places To Go Things To Do tour:
(aka: SP-36 Central Region HVAC controller upgrade)
Goodland KS, Boulder CO, Pueblo CO, Dodge City KS, Riverton WY, Springfield MO, Paducah KY, St Louis MO, Ft. Knox KY, Jackson KY, Indianapolis IN, Ft. Wayne IN, Detroit MI, Gaylord MI, Grand Rapids MI, Romeoville IL, Peoria IL, Davenport IA, Milwaukee WI, Green Bay WI, Marquette MI, Duluth MN, Minneapolis MN, LaCross WI, Des Moines IA, Omaha NB, Sioux Falls SD, Aberdeen ND, Grand Forks ND, Bismarck SD, Rapid City SD, Cheyenne WY, North Platt NB, Grand Island NB, Wichita KS.
- TundraDawg, you have some good places on that list. Do your homework and see if there is any chance of catching good music at any of those places. that probably won't be Wichita but Milwaukee, Minneapolis, St. Louis and Boulder ought to offer some good choices... and some of the other places, too! Safe travels! LuAnna (talk/contribs) 06:39, December 24, 2008 (AKST)
22 December 2008:
Happy holidays to all the wheatheads out there...
The cheap blended fuel is $1.44 the real stuff is back on it's way up at about $1.68 per gallon.
Well my first one-week long trip was canceled due to icy roads. We did manage to get to Wichita to check out the installation of the prototype and compare software builds. I managed to catch a chest cold from someone and felt rough all weekend. Been hitting the "honey, lemon juice, hot water & bourbon" all weekend, along with a bunch of vitamin C, echinacea and goldenseal. I wound up sleeping most of Saturday and today I am feeling much better.
Anyhow, I believe I will be starting out on 5 January for the start of our first 1-2 week trip, followed a bout a week later by the extended trip where we drive from site to site trying to finish 37 installations by 30 June. A neighbor's daughter and her fiancée will be "house-sitting" for my pets while I am gone. So I'm trying to pack up the more valuable pilferable items to put into storage. It's not that I don't trust the neighbor's daughter, but there's no telling who may be in the house and who they may talk to. So the art and gun safe go into storage along with various seasonal items, hiking/fishing gear and other things that were still in boxes from the move. I also have a new water heater to install... will it ever end?
17 December 2008:
Well I suppose I have been a bit remiss in my updates... First off, my laptop's hard drive crashed (possible interaction with a very strong electro-magnet. So I spent most of my free time reloading software. I also bought a HP home server at circuit city (50% off) and have been adding drives and setting it up. Now I have 1.5 TB of storage and an automatic nightly back-up of all my PCs...Woo...Hoo.
I started work a couple of weeks ago. We have finalized the physical configuration of an upgrade to the HVAC controller for the NEXRAD radars in the Central Region. Now we have to figure out why the programming is not working quite like the lead engineer thought it would. Frankly, we are running out of time, 37 sites to install between now and July. That's almost 1.5 sites a week, with no overtime... not sure how wee will make it. Anyhow we will head to Wichita on Friday to test some software. I will probably be back there near the end of June and hope to catch up with LuAnna at that time.
22 November 2008:
Well, I pestered and pestered them and I finally got a final offer and start work on Monday, woo hoo...income.
Last night I was looking for some stuff on You Tube and found http://www.livefromdarylshouse.com/ an interesting collection of music videos from Daryl Hall (of the 80's Hall & Oats), recorded in his house in England, his new place in Massachusetts, or on the road at various venues. Apparently this is an independent project of his (I suspect he's trying for a syndicated show like "Live from Abby Road"). There are a number of episodes available to view in the archives, including a few very nice sets with Scottish phenom KT Tunstall on Episode 5.
I also stumbled across PlayPay http://payplay.fm/browse with over 181,000 albums (songs are individually down loadable in MP3 format. Loads of great music, some of which is either out of stock or only available as a CD on CDBaby (sorry CDBaby folks).
14 November 2008:
Spent the last three days cleaning the garage and making some sense of it. I really need to build some cabinets and shelves to go over the workbench... Anyhow, today was spent cleaning the kitchen, touching up the ceiling texture in the garage and patching the walls (yes, I'm going to paint it, before building any cabinets) and starting on the living room. Tomorrow, I will hit the main bathroom and finish the living room.
12 November 2008:
Jombob read this post this evening while I was still editing it... I need to be more mindful in the future, as I really need to re-read things through a few dozen times to ensure clarity and intent before I post them...
I saw the very beautiful and talented Tracy Grammar in concert at the Performing Arts Center in Norman, Oklahoma on Sunday. The show started at 7PM and had two fairly lengthy sets (six trains passed by the station, but only two were during sets). Tracy spent a fair amount of time talking about Dave Carter and the inspiration for various songs he wrote. For the most part the show seemed to be a tribute to the music of Dave Carter rather than a showcase of Tracy's not inconsiderable talent (Please keep in mind I rank Dave Carter right up there with James Taylor).
I was interested in her narrative of the years following Dave's passing. She talked at length of the "second loss" she felt when the grieving lessened. She said that while grieving, she felt a certain detachment where literally everything grated against the rawness of her perceptions. She said this made everything seem much more immediate and tactile. Her grief raised her consciousness of what was really important; while paradoxically, being more detached from the world around her. This created a sense of clarity she wished to be able to reconnect to at will; a perception that diminished imperceptibly over time. She said the eventual recognition of this "second loss" was in some ways, as painful as the loss that brought it on.
She did not come out and say it, but it seemed she was trying to communicate some final lesson Dave Carter had to pass on: That while it is a part of the human condition to get absorbed in the trivia of the day-to-day, forgetting that there are things greater than what we perceive in the here and now; we need to remain mindful of the bigger picture, the ties that connect us to each other and to all of creation.
07 November 2008:
Starting to get a bit stressed about the new job. I have filled out all the paperwork, now they are waiting on funding??? Meanwhile my bank account is dropping ever closer to zero with nothing going into the plus column. If I don't hear from them by Wednesday then I'll call OU back and see if they were serious about the consultant work.
01 November 2008:
Well, time to buckle down and finish a few projects and get the house cleaned up. I'll be on the road quite a bit in a few weeks, so I need to get a house/cat sitter in here, which means that the place should be clean and livable. I'll be listening in while I work. I hope everyone else is enjoying their weekend. - Jim
29 October 2008:
Filled up the truck today, gas was $2.15 so I splurged.
25 October 2008:
I was offered a position at the University of Oklahoma in the Radar Innovations Laboratory. It is very interesting work, and if I was 10 years younger I'd be all over it, but I was offered much more money by a contractor for the National Weather Service to upgrade the HVAC controllers at the central region sites. As it is the OU benefits package (which is exceptional) does not exceed my veterans benefits plus the other offer. It was a very, very difficult decision for me to make, as I place a large value on job satisfaction/quality of life. So I guess I'm just a mercenary after all. Anyhow, the new job title is "Special Projects Engineer" and I will be on the road A LOT, with something like 68 sites to hit and two days at each site (by contract I have to return to Norman, OK between each site). I have until June to complete all the sites and they will supply tools, a vehicle, perdiem and travel expenses plus a "helper". When this project is finished, they will either have another "Special Project" lined up, or I will take another position with the same contractor. The university is still trying to set up a deal to hire me on an hourly basis as a consultant, which would eat into my free time (working two jobs when I'm in town), but I'd probably enjoy the work. Either way, I will probably continue to look for a civil service job at a Forecast Office(FO). There is an opening right now at the Boulder, CO office that I'd love to have, but the timing is not good, as I still have to finish the bathroom and a few other minor projects (the #1 mistake sellers make is putting the house on the market before it's ready). I'd like to finish and sell while the market is hurting though... OKC property values never went crazy so they have not dropped as much as most areas have, and I'd like to buy elsewhere while they are still low.
The bathroom... well I have all the lights/fans installed and the shower fittings are in (unless I change my mind again), I am waiting on some help to get the sheetrock installed, then I will get the floor tiled, and install the toilet and vanity. Then I will install the shower plumbing installed and get the walls up and the bathroom will be done. I still have to figure out just what tile/stone/marble/whatever I will use in the shower, which will affect the placement of the fittings, so this will be a longer process than I thought at first.
I spent today working on the yard. I needed a break from decisions and shopping. I cleared some tree limbs for a neighbor and re-stacked my woodpile. I also helped him get some of his stuff packed (he's moving temporarily and renting the house out (furnished). As of this moment I am sitting on the back patio next to a fire. It's nice and peaceful, but the street noise is bothering me, and for some reason, I do not think I will find misses right while sitting in my back yard. I have got to get back to the gym and loose the weight I put on since my terminal leave started. Somehow working on the house beats me up while I get more out of shape.
- Hey TundraDawg - thanks for sharing all this, and in such detail. You write well, making me feel as though I'm right there going through some of the same thought processes. It sounds like you have several good opportunities and you're obviously a thoughtful person, so I'm guessing everything is unfolding in a good direction. I don't envy the bathroom decisions - but here - I'll make it easy. Black. Like Henry Ford, just give yourself one color choice. Black. There - decision made.
Jim (talk/contribs) 04:10, October 26, 2008 (AKDT)
- Hey Jimbob... Jeesh, for a minute there I thought I was being taken to task. Black huh... I'll have to give it some thought. I was planning on using travertine, just like everybody else.
14 September 2008:
Had a fairly good interview at the university last week and a second one scheduled for this week. Also have a telephone interview at Duluth, MN later in the week. I may drive up next week to do a personal interview. So things are looking better in the job search arena.
Still working on the house. I've completely gutted the master bath and installed better insulation in the ceiling and part of one wall, new ventilation fans and ductwork (the old ones vented into the old blown insulation). Next is re-routing some plumbing, replacing the sheet rock and starting on rebuilding the shower.
The original shower pan was leaking quite a bit. Code calls for there to be a sloped bed under the pan liner so the drain is the lowest point, in mine the drain was the highest point, so water that penetrated to the liner ran to the outer edges. Also the walls were sheet rock instead of concrete backer-board; to make matters worse there was no waterproof barrier, so the insulation was soaked and growing mold as well. The new shower will have tile over Durarock and I'll use plastic vapor barrier, for extra insurance I'll put tar-paper underneath. I'll also be installing a seat and a second shower head with a hand shower attached.
08 August 20008:
Still waiting and hoping for the position at OU, they will not be reviewing applications until sometime in September though, which is longer than I am comfortable with, so I'll keep putting irons in the fire for a while yet. I've just applied for a position I'd also like up in Duluth, MN. I'd be nice to need a jacket again... I'd have to co6ntract out the rest of the work on my house, but the paycheck would make it tolerable. I'm also thinking of applying for a position in Tulsa as well, which would be closer to OKC and allow me to work on my house on the weekends until I can sell it.
31 July 2008:
Well the job in Boise did not pan out. It seems they could not wait an extra 30 days for me to show up. Oh well, it's their loss. I'm presently hoping for a position at OU in their Atmospheric RADAR Research Center. It would allow me to continue working on my house and add to my education (if I finish the house). There may also be a new job opening up at the radar operations center working with network and circuit administration that I'd like. If all else fails, I will look for positions at WFO's around the country. I was asked to apply at Miami if an opening comes up (possibly in December). My pension would just about cover my homeowners insurance down there, so it's an option.
Meanwhile, I will be taking all of September and October off from work and I may get to the Winfield festival.
Not So Recent News:
Well, I am all set to retire in November. I have an application in at the forecast office in Boise, ID that I've been told to expect to hear good news on. However, there is an opening at the tsunami warning center in Palmer, AK. It's not equipment I've ever worked on and it involves a lot of travel to really remote locations around AK. Frankly I am torn... I lived near Boise for 11 years and enjoyed the last five a lot. Desert, mountains, snow, rivers... Alaska, everything but the dust, far enough from Los Anchorage to allow me to have some acreage, but a few extra $$ to visit mom... I think I'll apply for the Palmer job and see what happens anyway...
The information below this line is from the Whole Wheat Radio databases and cannot be changed by editing this page. But you can add to or edit everything above this line!
| Photo |  | ||
| Nickname (set in preferences) | TundraDawg | ||
| Location | Oklahoma City, OK - USA | ||
| Songs ranked | 776 | ||
| Contributions |
|
| |||
| Birthday | Thursday, June 2nd | ||
| This year's birthday | 4 months, 21 days hence on a Tuesday | ||
| Zodiac sign | Gemini | ||
| Current Listening Status | |
| Other people at TundraDawg's IP | None |
| Last seen | 6 days ago |
| IPs used recently | 129.15.65.80 (roc065080.roc.noaa.gov) / 72.198.26.154 (ip72-198-26-154.ok.ok.cox.net) |
TundraDawg's Favorites
Request this show that TundraDawg is sure to like! Here are songs TundraDawg has rated 5 stars.
| # | Song | Artist | Image | Album | Lyrics | Length | Played count | Last Played | Overall | You | Tags | Single Request |
| 1 | How People Are | Amy Rigby |  |
Til The Wheels Fall Off | Lyrics | 4:53 | 21 | Sep 7th, 2008 |  10 votes 5 stars=BlueRidge / TundraDawg |
You have to login to give your opinion about songs. | Acoustic guitar / Romantic / Acoustic / Band |  |
2 | Danny Boy | Michael Chapdelaine |  |
Grapevine | Lyrics not applicable for instrumentals | 3:45 | 21 | Nov 7th, 2008 | 14 votes 5 stars=ReWoven / Half-pint / dolcefarniente / CooleyBufo / Kazookid / TundraDawg / Mert / DBB / Firewalk |
You have to login to give your opinion about songs. | Acoustic guitar / Instrumental / Fingerstyle / Acoustic | 3 | Land's End - San Jose | The String Cheese Incident |  |
A String Cheese Incident | Lyrics not applicable for instrumentals | 20:57 | 11 | Oct 13th, 2008 | 16 votes 5 stars=TundraDawg / Anagram / Doctordoug / Denali / German Oak / Mert |
You have to login to give your opinion about songs. | Jamband / Rhythmic / Instrumental / Electric |
| Total Time | 29:35 |
The current music queue contains 1 songs that will take 4 mins, 10 secs to play.
You must be a logged on user to request music. It's free and easy. Create an account here.
50 most favorite artists
Favorite artists: Antje Duvekot / Danny Schmidt / Nickel Creek / The String Cheese Incident / 3 Blind Mice / Dave Carter And Tracy Grammer / Robin Hopper / Larry Zarella / Sloan Wainwright / Harry Manx / Big Head Todd And The Monsters / Karen Savoca / Esther Golton / Kacey Jones / Allison Crowe / Gandalf Murphy And The Slambovian Circus Of Dreams / Dar Williams / Radoslav Lorkovic / Melissa Mitchell / The Victoria Warne Band / Trish Murphy / Deb Talan / Kris Delmhorst / Muriel Anderson / Amy Rigby / Alice Di Micele / Rachel Browning / Linda Dickson / Bet Williams / Eliza Gilkyson / Gangly Moose / Red Molly / Mark Erelli And Jake Armerding / Tracy Grammer / Jen Murdza / Michael Chapdelaine / Paul Kamm And Eleanore MacDonald / The Waybacks / Doug Geeting / Carbon Leaf / Michael Troy / Christine Kane / Panhandle Crabgrass Revival Band / Buster B Jones / Ellis Paul / Shane Henry Band / Chris Proctor / Clatterbone / Lucy Kaplansky / Stephen Bennett
Requests TundraDawg has made
| Last 25 song requests | |||
| Song | Artist | When | Dedication |
| Tenderness | Deb Talan | Thu., Jan 1, 2009 - 19:00:57 | |
| Don't Need Your Love | Pat Gahn | Wed., Dec 24, 2008 - 05:32:53 | |
| Campanas Del Alba | Muriel Anderson | Wed., Dec 24, 2008 - 05:06:40 | |
| Don't Forget To Miss Me | Harry Manx | Wed., Dec 24, 2008 - 05:03:02 | |
| Ship Of Fools | Harry Manx | Wed., Dec 24, 2008 - 05:02:21 | |
| Statesboro Blues | Lauren Sheehan | Mon., Dec 22, 2008 - 07:25:43 | |
| From Dacca | Eddie From Ohio | Sat., Dec 13, 2008 - 07:08:02 | (LuAnna) #3 of 3 in a 15 mins set. |
| Back To The Mystery | Johnsmith | Sat., Dec 13, 2008 - 07:08:02 | (LuAnna) #1 of 3 in a 15 mins set. |
| Trouble Comes Calling | Danny Schmidt | Sat., Dec 13, 2008 - 07:08:02 | (LuAnna) #2 of 3 in a 15 mins set. |
| Our House | Chuck McCabe | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 16:44:58 | |
| Carolina Moon | Caroline Herring | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 16:44:20 | |
| Stir Your Pot | Bill Wharton And The Ingredients | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 16:43:50 | |
| Chinook Blues | Alice Di Micele | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 16:43:09 | |
| Down On My Knees | Abbie Gardner And Anthony Da Costa | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 16:42:38 | |
| My Father's Piano | Kristina Olsen & Peter Grayling | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 15:18:29 | |
| Seven Bridges Road | Full Frontal Folk | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 15:12:57 | |
| I Don't Want To Believe | Trish Murphy | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 15:11:27 | |
| Poor Wayfaring Stranger | Natalie Merchant | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 15:09:07 | |
| Ride On | 3 Blind Mice | Thu., Dec 11, 2008 - 15:08:16 | |
| Mother's Little Helper | John Batdorf & James Lee Stanley | Sat., Nov 22, 2008 - 19:16:19 | |
| Wiskey Watered Down | Clatterbone | Sat., Nov 22, 2008 - 17:59:10 | |
| Linus And Lucy | Buster B Jones | Sat., Nov 22, 2008 - 15:29:24 | |
| California Dreamin' - Paint It Black - Runaway | Chris Proctor | Sat., Nov 22, 2008 - 15:28:14 | |
| I Never Loved A Man (The Way I Love You) | Allison Crowe | Sat., Nov 22, 2008 - 15:25:38 | |
| Girl | 3 Blind Mice | Sat., Nov 22, 2008 - 15:24:28 | |
| Top 15 artists requested | ||
| Artist | Times requested | Percent of 428 total requests |
| Robin Hopper | 9 | 2% |
| 3 Blind Mice | 7 | 2% |
| Danny Schmidt | 7 | 2% |
| Radoslav Lorkovic | 6 | 1% |
| Nickel Creek | 6 | 1% |
| Alice Di Micele | 5 | 1% |
| Dar Williams | 5 | 1% |
| Larry Zarella | 5 | 1% |
| Brobdingnagian Bards | 4 | 1% |
| Big Head Todd And The Monsters | 4 | 1% |
| Trish Murphy | 4 | 1% |
| Weldon Kekauoha And Tapa Groove | 4 | 1% |
| Johnsmith | 4 | 1% |
| Melissa Mitchell | 4 | 1% |
| The String Cheese Incident | 4 | 1% |
