> *** Quoting Bj”rn Forsstr”m from a message to Carol
 > Shenkenberger ***

 > BF>> Well, the difference between day air and night air is
rather big here,
 > BF>> especially now in August, not at all what it's like in
Thailand for ex
 > so
 > BF>> I can actually understand him, but 80 F, that's 26.5 C and that is
 > warm.

 >  CS> We are in long sleeves here.  It's dropped to 90F.

 > BF> Jeezzz....

 > ;-)

 >  CS> station they use is inland on a mountain.  Normally they read 10F or so
 >  CS> cooler than we do. I just checked the thermometer and it's warming up
 >  CS> nicely to a decent 94F (34C looks like).

 > BF> Decent 94F.... then we're sweating our guts out.

 > Well, remember also I dont deal with cold like you do.
 >  I'm not used to it like you are.  My acclimation for
 > that stops at 30F (-1C?  Might be called 0C though
 > it's just a touch under freezing water at 32F).
 > Anything under 40F, and I dont walk anywhere unless I
 > have no choice (such as going to work).

 > BTW, most of the time when I get to Thailand, it's
 > high summer.  Unfortunately, normally when I get to
 > Darwin, it's summer too.

 > For me, anything up to 42C is quite workable.  The
 > summer months in the gulf back in 2004 were pretty
 > rough though as we were often over 50C and that sucks.
 > (for the C challanged out there, 50C is 120F). 50C on
 > a steel ship is no fun.  The worst was when I had to
 > climb the aft mast to do a maintenance check.  The
 > 'goop' we use on the antennas was melting at all the
 > connectors and we had to scrape it off and reapply it
 > several times.  We used a belaying rope to haul water
 > up and i'd stop the guys every 15 mins and make'em
 > drink then send them down to swap out with others
 > every hour but I had to stay up there once for almost
 > 3 hours.  At that point, I said screw it and took us
 > all down because I was at my end limit and getting
 > dizzy and my boots were getting soft all along the
 > bottom from the heat of the metal I was standing on.

I assume it wasn't safe to do this at night when it was cooler, and/or not
safe to wait until then.

 > It was about as much fun as having to do the HF's on
 > the stack on another ship I was on, when underway.
 > You have to wear an SCBA because of the stack gases.
 > (Firefighters breathing stuff=SCBA).  3 man job and
 > all but 2 others were just flat out too scared to even
 > try it so I was the 3rd 'man' (actually, one of the
 > others was also a woman.  Funny thing is, women
 > generally have a better head for heights on average).
 > We had to keep comming down to change out bottles so
 > the job took longer than it would have in port, but we
 > got it down.

 > Lowering the fan-wires isnt alot of fun either but
 > hooking them back up again is a bear and you end up
 > some 100ft (30M?) above the nearest 'ground' suspended
 > from a rope with half your body upseide down and just
 > pray you dont drop any tools on the heads of the folks
 > below (you actually tie the tools to your harness and
 > hope the leads hold if you drop one).

 > BTW, in addition to being able to handle heat, I am
 > one of the better ones with heights.  I've seen grown
 > men bust out in tears at the mere idea of having to do
 > some of these checks, so I learned how to do them
 > because I just cant assign one of my men to do
 > something I wont, and I would rather not assign
 > someone to do something they are really scared to do
 > when I can do it and it doesnt scare me.  (Ok, long

My feeling here is that such people might likely have grievous accidents
brought on by overpowering fear.

 > sentance there but you got the idea).  Anyways, my
 > guys loved me because they knew this although I think
 > it shocked them the first time to have this itty bitty
 > female Senior Chief up on the mast with them, learning
 > from them how to do antenna maintenance .  Small
 > shop on that ship and 2 of the 6 were terrified of
 > heights.  I didnt have the upper body strength of the
 > men but that was seldom needed.  Even with the fan-
 > wires, we rigged ropes and the 'muscle' was from guys
 > standing on the deck 100ft or so below me (yes, I was
 > the upside down critter swinging in the breeze and
 > cussing the Officer Of the Deck (OOD) when he shifted
 > direction to put the sun right in my eyes).

 > It was funny though the second time I did that.  I was
 > swearing and sweating and then they moved the ship
 > just wrong and my glasses fell off.  I'd forgotten to
 > loop the tie to my harness and they smashed to itty
 > bitty bits below me. The CO had come out to watch and
 > saw it all and yelled up 'now what ya gonna do
 > Senior?' to which my reply was unprintable for this
 > echo but in translation as I swung around on my lead
 > was 'dunno, got any ideas?'.  My guys hauled me back
 > up to the yard-arm where I perched for a bit til they
 > could run my spare glasses up then (chuckles) duct-
 > taped them to my face and sent me back down (rotten

I'm really surprised that the duct tape didn't just slide off your face in
that heat.  You must have been dripping.

 > ^{at}%&{at}%& {at}#%$%^ with delusions of ^#&#& the
&#&#&).  I
 > gather my comments to the CO were fairly amusing and
 > he didnt mind me talking about his ancestry at all
 > under the circumstances .

 > Life in the Navy can be quite interesting at times.
 > I'm glad I chose it, but it's not for everyone.
 >                                        xxcarol

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