Big Changes, Jimmy 5

Winter is upon us. There's no use throwing temper tantrums about it anymore. I've enjoyed having warm weather as long as we have. We had one day of snow but it didn't last long. Today we have probably 6 inches which all came last night. If I had to choose a way for winter to come it would be just like this, though. I hate when it's just bitter cold, icy, and wet. I wish it would just snow instead of that. So I guess I got my wish. We have had pretty nice weather for all of fall semester. Which brings me to another point of great excitement: school is out til January! We made it through finals at last.

This next semester will bring lots of change to our home. Well actually it starts Monday. I applied for a second job here in Logan doing drafting and mechanical/electrical engineering type work. The company is called evsource and they make all the parts you'd need to make your car run on battery power. They're not mass producers though and the cars they've made so far are for small trips ie to and from work if you live in Logan. They run for like half an hour on an 8 hour charge so it's not a replacement for your car more of a commute car that doesn't need gas. Anyway, I emailed the guy Monday and Tuesday, interviewed Wednesday, and on Friday he offered me the job! I'm committed to work 15-20 hours a week and I'm really excited for the job. It will be hard to work both this job and cadanswer in the school year but this job is only a 2 month project. It could be more but it's not a guarantee at this point. I can't believe how everything just fell into place so quickly. It will be really nice to work in Logan and not go to Big Piney or Rock Springs all the time. I already had things in place to not go up to those 2 places next semester because I have to take a class Tuesday and Thursdays so I can't take a day off to go up there. But that means less work for me so this job came at just the right time. My current drafting job (Cadanswer) is really slow right now. I've just been doing sales calls because there is nothing else to do. And there is no drafting work in the future til mid-January. Well that's probably enough about that, let it suffice that I'm really excited and we are really blessed that everything came together like it did.

Also, next semester Sara will be taking off from school to work full time so we can pay off some bills and get more caught up with our finances. She may or may not return to school next fall. We will figure that out when it gets closer to the time. It's a big sacrifice for Sara and I'm glad I have a wife who is willing to do that to put me through school.

In the drafting class I took this semester we had a final project to draft this robot in 3d and make it work in the CAD program SolidEdge. When I got the thing drawn in CAD it looked pretty good but when it actually runs it is pretty skwirly. (However you spell that I'm not even gonna try.)So I'm posting both movies - one made in SolidEdge and the other of the robot in action.

He mostly walks in circles on a level surface. He can run on battery or solar power. I once thought I'd set him free on main street and just let him walk to salt lake or something. He could just walk when it's day and sleep at night wherever he is when the sun goes down. That may not be so bad as long as he doesn't spend the night on a crosswalk. But anyway that plan won't work because he just goes in circles. And plus, he can't take terrain changes very well. He just bellys up when he sees a little rug in our kitchen. But we are taking a liking to him and have decided to name him Jimmy 5 in honor of his great-great-great-great-great grandfather Jonny 5 from the movie Short Circuit. Oh and by the way our camera doesn't record sound so there is nothing wrong with your computer.