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November 11, 2014 - - - 6:27 a.m.

Paracelsus

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Today we celebrate the birthday of Paracelsus, born in 1493. He was a medical doctor who proposed the radical new and unheard of idea that we oughta learn how to treat sick people by observing what treatments actually work instead of reciting mystic incantations over Bronze Age holy scriptures.

Yesterday the tron undergrounders were back to the intersection just north of my place, using their horizontal boreholer up the side street a ways.

At one point I stopped to watch how they connect conduit sections together. They clamp the two pieces together, then they run a trimming tool between them to make sure the ends are perfectly true so they'll fit together. Then they insert a heating element between them and bring them to near the melting point. Then they take the heating element out and press the ends together and hold them until they cool.

Presto! The conduit sections are welded together!

I suppose all the details of how they do stuff is an awful bore to non-engineers. But I get my jollies out of knowing how stuff works.

One thing I haven't seen close-up is exactly how the boreholer operator steers the drill-bit head underground. I know that his compadriano, using a gadget called a Digi-Trak, walks along the ground detecting the progress of the drill-bit head and calls back steering instructions, but I don't know the exact mechanics of the steering mechanism.

Well anyhow, maybe they'll soon get to in front of my house.

Today is Veterans Day which is a holiday for the post office but probably not for much of anybody else. So I suppose the tron undergrounders and the Dominion Gas workers will continue merrily toiling away.

Happy Merrily Toiling!

OrneryPest

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