Resurgence

"Itself remaineth alone. But if it die, it bringeth forth much fruit. He that loveth his life shall lose it; and he that hateth his life in this world, keepeth it unto life eternal"

John 12:25

The Car Show

O.K. so I'm going to try this again . . .

Janie, Madeline, and I went to London this weekend to visit with her family there. While I was there I decided to take in the car show. Some of Janie's relatives were entering their cars in the show, and they convinced me I should put mine in too. I will say that while Phaedrus is a cool car, there's nothing special about it (it's just factory stock) so I wasn't sure it really belonged in a car show. But after a little waffling, I decided to do it and off we went.

When we got there, it was really cool. The people that put on the show were really nice and Janie's uncles had gotten there early and secured us a spot near a shade tree. We had all of our cars parked together.



That's Gerald's Pontiac alongside Jay's beautiful Mustang and Darrell's Camaro. Visitors to the Hive may recognize the Camaro as the Great Red Shark.

Here's a shot of Phaedrus parked alongside Wes's slick black Pontiac:



We stayed for several hours and had a good time until the sun beat us down. I was pleasantly surprised how much interest my car drew in consideration of all the cool cars that were there. In the end, I was really glad I decided to put my car in.

Today I'm off to the glass shop to get a new windshield for Phaedrus (yeh, it's busted). Looks like my luck with cars hasn't changed.

That's all for now. Adios!

Car Show

Well I just typed in this big post about the car show this weekend and lost the whole stupid thing so now I'm mad. I'll re-post later.

Greetings From the Hive

"And it came to pass, that when Elizabeth heard the salutation of Mary, the infant leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Ghost"

-Luke, 1:41

Been real busy lately (who hasn't been?) so as usual The Hive has suffered. Just wanted to let everyone know we're still here and still kicking!

Peace from The Hive. . .

Happy Father's Day

'Cursed be he that honoureth not his father and mother: and all the people shall say: Amen.'

Deuteronomy 27:16

Happy Father's Day from the Hive. I've had a great day, thanks to the special attention from my daughter and my wife, who worked very hard to make this a nice day for me. Lot's of good food, some great gifts, and a nice relaxing day rounded out my Father's day.

But I would be remiss if I didn't take a little time to recognize some special Fathers in my life.

My Dad: It becomes increasingly apparant to me how lucky I am that my parents never killed me :-). Truth be told, Dad worked many long hours and made many personal sacrifices to make sure that I had tghe tools I needed to make a good life for me and my family. Dad put me up (and put up with me) all through school until it was time to leave the nest. Through my education and upbringing, my parents empowered me to reach a higher level. There is no question I would not be where I am without the support of my Mom and Dad, and without my Dad's tireless efforts to help me achieve what I really could be. So thanks, Dad. Monetarily, I really can't ever pay you back for what you have given to me, but I hope that you recognize the undying gratitude that I have for the sacrifices that you and Mom made in order for me to get to where I am.

Mr. Dave: I met Janie's Dad it's been about 15 years ago and of course at the time I was just a nervous young punk and very intimidated by the father of my future wife. But over these years I've come to know and respect this man in a way I never thought I would. Mr. Dave is a self-made man, coming from rural Kentucky to become a successful businessman who has done his family well. He has served our Country in uniform, and served his family as well. We share many common values, including the belief in the value of hard work, and we both love our Moms, wives, and daughters. Mr. Dave has been a real inspiration to me over these years and it has been my pleasure to know you.

Since I'm on a role tonight, I'd also like to reach back a generation and recognize my Grandads, because they meant so much with respect all the positive attributes that I might possess:

Grandpa Hite: If you never met my Grandpa Hite, then I do not have sufficient time or space here to describe him to you. The bottom line is that Grandpa "Big R" Hite taught me in no uncertain terms the true value of hard work. You talk about lousy jobs, he could come up with them, but Grandpa always rewarded us when we worked hard. It was a hard lesson to learn, but by the time I was in college, I was starting to realize what he was trying to teach us. When I went out into the workforce, I took the value of hard work that my Grandpa taught me and it has in no small measure lead me to the success I enjoy today. Because of my Grandpa, I'm proud to be Hite and I'm proud to bring that legendary Hite work ethic into the workforce. Unfortunately, Grandpa left us before I really had a chance to show him that I could do it, but I think I would've done him proud.

Grandaddy Greenwell: My Grandad was truly a great man. He was a gentle giant of a man, and I always imagined that Abraham Lincoln must've been something like my Grandaddy Greenwell. He was a self made man, a tireless worker and a master craftsmen. And he was the kindest and gentlest person that you would ever meet. Grandaddy raised his big family (to include my Mom) and still found time along the way to become one of the finest rythm guitarists in the business. He was a self taught former Marine who took pride in his work and always found time for his family and the church. My Grandad passed away just a short time before my mom, and I sure miss them both, but they have given so much to me I only regret I didn't have the opportunity to make them proud.

So there's the synopsis of the Dad's in my life. Hope that the visitors to the Hive have had such a rewarding experience as I have. Take care and see you later.

Requiem for the Heavyweight

It's funny how quickly things come to pass.

Visitors to The Hive have seen my many posts on The Great Red Shark, my prized 2002 Z28 Camaro.
This is a great car that's always been an attention-getter and has always been a joy to drive. But lately, I was finding myself with less and less time to enjoy The Shark, and after long days at work and many hours in the driver seat commuting back and forth thereto, the notion of going on a "pleasure drive" in my "toy" car became less and less feasible.

Then it happened.

Ironically, we were out window shopping for a new car for Janie when I saw it. Janie is due for a new vehicle, and we have been planning to get one for quite some time, so we were out looking at what was available. I also knew it wouldn't be long before I would be looking for something for myself, so I had that thought in the back of my mind. That's when I spotted it, at the local dealership, sitting quietly by itself under the overhang.

Things happened quickly, and the next thing I know, I'm in posession of the future of our fleet. So meet the new sheriff in town, and his name, is Phaedrus.


A couple of things had to happen for this to take place. I traded my truck on the new car, so it's the first time in about 10 years I haven't had a truck in the fleet. Secondly, and most significantly, I've had to let The Great Red Shark go. Fortunately, I know it is going to a good home. You see, as it works out, Janie's uncle, who sold me the car originally, is going to buy it back. We plan to deliver it this weekend.

But before we sent The Shark back home, we got a shot of the past and future together. I thought it was pretty cool so I thought I would share it here . . .


All things come to pass.

The Hive Reborn

"Because he hath appointed a day wherein he will judge the world in equity, by the man whom he hath appointed; giving faith to all, by raising him up from the dead. And when they had heard of the ressurrection of the dead, some indeed mocked, but others said: We will hear thee again concerning this matter."

- The Acts 17:31-32

And so it is written so shall it be. After a nearly year-long hiatus from the Hive I am back, like Phoenix from the fire, to reflect on my daily musings to the 2 or 3 people who ever bothered to visit this site to begin with.

What has been going on? Well, in short, lots of work. LOTS of work. Long days, short weekends, and months ticking by like marker posts on the dragstrip in Tony Schumacher's Top Fuel Dragster. I'm not complaining, I'm not making excuses, just stating facts. Besides, it's better to be busy than stand around wondering where the next paycheck is coming from. Outside of work, not much earth-shattering has gone on. Still trying to play the guitar, still having fun, still getting fat.

Well, I was just summoned by Madeline to return the computer for a game of Zoo Tycoon. What can I say? All I can say is look for a future posting on the hive and until then take care . . .

Is there anybody out there?

Well by my reckhoning it's been about 3 months since I last updated my blog, so if there are any remaining visitors to the hive, you truly represent the hardcore. Unfortunately, with this post, I do not have anything profound, or for that matter, particularly entertaining to offer.

I will mention, however, that yesterday was an unusually good day for me when it comes to success. As you probably know, yesterday marked the annual running of the Kentucky Derby. My cousins held a derby party and so our family went to enjoy the festivities. Contrary to my traditional luck, I actually had good success picking the winning ponies. I picked the winner in the 6th, 7th, 8th, 9th, and the Big Daddy of them all, the 10th race, aka the Kentucky Derby. This is not standard fare for me. As a matter of fact, I seldom pick a winner, so I was so giddy with success, that I treated the whole family to carry-out for dinner :-)

To cap off the evening, we came home to watch the NASCAR race on TV. The race was at Richmond, which is one of my favorite tracks. If you may recall from an earlier post, I've picked a new race driver to root for this year (due to all of my earlier picks getting fired due to poor performance or loss of sponsorship) and guess what - he won!!! Yes, Clint Bowyer captured his second top-tier victory in NASCAR last night after an emotional finish. He promptly celebrated by baking the meats off of his race car:



So all in all it was a fun day for me. Race victories all around.

I realize this is a pretty cheesy post but I wanted to do something and I'm pressed for time. Thanks for hanging with the Hive and I hope to post again soon.

Ralph B. Peck, 1912 - 2008

February 18, 2008, Ralph Brazelton Peck died at the age of 95. Dr. Peck was Professor Emeritus at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, and one of the last living colleagues of Dr. Karl Terzaghi, the founder and guiding spirit of modern soil mechanics. These men, along with other prominent names in the profession, such as Casagrande, transformed soil mechanics and foundation engineering from what was, for the most part, an art, into a science based on reason, theory and judgement thereby essentially creating the science of geomechanics, and opening the door to punks like me who loved to play in the dirt and decided to make a living out of it.

Professor Peck wrote, among many other publications, two landmark texts that have defined our profession. We read Soil Mechanics in Engineering Practice (Terzaghi and Peck) and studied Foundation Engineering (Peck, Hanson, and Thornburn) in school, and my trusty old copy of Foundation Engineering still resides at my desk and remains one of my principal references.

Professor Peck alway emphasized the value of engineering judgement in practice, and I cannot recount here all of the case histories, papers, and text references that I have read and studied that have been credited to Professor Peck, but suffice it to say that his works remain some of the most highly respected writings in the sciences of soil mechanics and foundation engineering.

I had the honor of meeting Professor Peck on one occasion, when he was the Keynote Speaker at our local Ohio River Valley Soil Seminar (ORVSS) He was advanced in years, but the respect and admiration of the attendees was evident. Everyone brought their copy of Foundation Engineering (except for me - I forgot mine) for his autograph, and I found it entertaining that he would only sign the copies that looked as if they had been well-used.

Dr. Peck worked on such projects as the Chicago subways, the World Trade Center, and the post-failure study of Teton Dam, and has probably contributed in some form to virtually all of the engineering landmarks of modern times.

So in summation, the passage of Professor Peck represents the end of the beginning. Soil mechanics and foundation engineering has become the science and profession that it is principally in part due to the contributions of such giants as Ralph Peck.

Professor Peck, rest in peace, you may have never realized the influence your contributions had on the lives so many.

The Daytona 500!

I've said here before that there's an old saying something to the effect that "you can take the boy out of the country, but you can't take the country out of the boy" Today was another example of this. Today marked the 2008 running of the Daytona 500. Yeh, it's stock car racing at its finest. The superbowl of motorsports. This year, a kindred spirit won the event. Ryan Newman, driver of the #12 Dodge, won the race in a nail-biter exciting finish. Ryan Newman is an engineer and a Purdue alum, and I am an engineer and a former Purdue student, so we are sympatico! Ryan celebrated with a cool smoky burnout after his victory . . .



You may be thinking that NASCAR is not sophisticated or redneck, but in my mind, that is just fine. We had a great time with our friends at my brother's during his annual Daytona 500 party, and we are looking forward to another fun year of auto racing. So while we are having fun with everything else (playing Emma, listening to music, building models, reading, etc.) you can bet that there will be a NASCAR race on the TV in the background.

While we're on the subject, I've been trying to decide who I should pull for in the Sprint Cup series this year. You see, I have a reputation of pulling for the underdog, and each year the guy I've pulled for has always lost his ride. Well, this year, I've decided to pitch my spirit behind a new driver, and there's always hope that I'll change my record. So Clint Bowyer, in the No. 07 Jack Daniels Chevrolet, get that championship in '08.




Peace from the Hive

Some Clarification at the Hive

Greetings to all the faithful visitors to the Hive during our long dormant period. Contrary to theory, we HAVE NOT suffered Colony Collapse Disorder, rather just a little break from posting. So I hope all visitors hereto have been well since my last post.

Which brings me to the topic at hand. My last post referenced the book of Parilipomenon from the Old Testament. Several visitors were inquisitive of this reference, so I thought a bit of explanation was in order.

My Bible (Given to me by my wife-to-be for my birthday in 1997) is the Douay-Rheims Version of the Catholic Bible. The significance of this designation is that this version of the Bible was translated into English from the Latin Vulgate Bible, translated by St. Jerome in the 1st century A.D. from the original languages (Greek, Hebrew, and Aramaic). As such, in my mind (and that of many scholars), it represents the most faithful English translation of the Bible. This translation is considered a faithful word-for-word translation of the original manuscripts, many of which have been lost to history. By Approbation of His Eminence James Cardinal Gibbons this book is an approved version of the Catholic Bible.

As such, there are some differences between this version and modern versions of the Bible. The books of Paralipomenon are an example. In the modern Catholic Bible, these books are more recognizably referred (I think) to as the books of Kings (1 and 2) I have not done a cross-reference to verify this. Many of the names of the books in the Douay-Rhiems version are different from more modern translations, and I won't bore you with all of those now, but rather I'll save that for future posts.

Until then, thanks for keeping faith in the Hive. We're still here, we just get a little lazy about posting every once in a while.

Until next time, Cheerio!!

Steven's Neatest Hive

Happy New Year

"So do with me that I may build a house to the name of the Lord my God, to dedicate it to burn incense before him, and to perfume with aromatical spices, and for the continual setting forth of bread, and for the holocausts, morning and evening, and on the sabbaths, and on the new moons, and the solemnites of the Lord our God for ever, which are commanded for Israel. For the house which I desire to build, is great: for our God is great above all gods."

- 2 Paralipomenon 4:5

Happy New Year from the Hive.

Santa Claus is Back in Town

First of all, I'd like to wish everyone who visits the Hive a Merry Christmas. It's been a good year for us here and we are full of the Christmas Spirit. So much so, in fact, that we decided to exchange gifts with one another last night a couple of days early.

Now there is something I should point out before we go any further. 2008 is tenth year of Janie's and my wedding anniversary. So for Christmas this year we decided to splurge and spoil each other with a nice gift. So please don't think we go around buying stuff like this every day.

Which leads me to the point of this post. For those of you who don't know, I'm a beginner guitarist with lots of passion and enthusiasm, but at this point, very little skill. But a couple of things have inspired me to give the ol' six-string a try. Two were my Dad and My Grandaddy. My Dad plays bass guitar as well as guitar and he can really make it sing. My Grandaddy played guitar for years and was so good it just seemed like it came natural to him. Now I love the sound of live music, and hearing those guys play inspired me to give it a try myself. The third inspiration was my Grandaddy's guitar. I can't remember exactly what it looked like because I haven't seen it in years, and I don't know exactly what happened to it when he passed away, but I'm just almost sure it was a semi-hollow body. When I heard him play I knew that was the guitar for me.

And now I have one.



The bad boy you see me holding in this image is my new Epiphone Sheraton II archtop guitar. It's a semi-hollowbody, just like my Grandaddy's, and this is the same model ax that was slung by none other than John Lee Hooker. So I figure if it's good enough for the Boogie Man, then it should suit my needs. Pictures do not do this work of art justice. It is an absolute piece of beauty, and even on my cheap old amp it sounds great. I can't wait for the chance to plug it in on my Dad's big Fender tube amp and hear it the way it was meant to sound. Even a hacker like me can make beautiful sounds come from this instrument.

Now I new this one was special from the minute I picked it up. It took a ton of effort from Janie, the help of my brother and sister in-law, and Janie's Dad to get this guitar to me. There is a lot of soul in this instrument simply from the huge effort put forth just so I could have it for Christmas. For those of you that helped to pull this off I can't thank you enough. I can assure you that your hard work was not for naught. For years to come I'll be able to tell everyone about the journey this instrument took to get to me.

Lastly, if you ask me (or B.B. King), every guitar good should have a name, and the name for this one hit me last night like a ton of bricks. So from here on out, when I talk about Emma and when I play and sing, you'll know what I'm talking about.

Peace.

Evel Knievel

Well it's been a long time since I've made a post here at the hive. About 2 months by my reckoning. So I don't know how many hard-core fans are still hanging on. But this is one of those nights where I can't sleep, so I thought I would make a post for all of you who still bother to check in.

In case you haven't heard, Evel Knievel passed away yesterday. The young folks probably are saying "big deal", while the older folks, for the most part, are probably saying "big deal". But my perspective is a bit different.

You see, as you have probably figured out from previous posts here at the hive, I'm pretty much a kid at heart. Always have been. And I remember, as a kid, seeing footgage of Evel jumping his motorcycle over busses, cars, canyons, pretty much anything that needed to be jumped. I just thought that was the coolest thing.



I even had all of the Evel Knievel toys when I was a kid, and as I recounted to Janie, I actually wore my Evel Knievel toy motorcycle out jumping it over anything I could find. Later in life, I got really interested in riding dirt bikes and for meny years enjoyed jumping myself (although I neverd measured up to Evel's standards) so the daredevil spirit lived on. I also thought it was cool that Evel rode a Harley Davidson (American made) and wore a red, white, and blue suit.

Now there is no argument that Evel led a checkered life, and had a few brushes with The Law, along with some less-than-savory choices of action. But he did embody a few ideals that we hold sacred here at the hive:

-Work hard,
-Be good at what you do,
-If you fall down, get back up,
-Communicate effectively,
-Love your Country,
-Ride your motorcycle :-)

Rest in Peace, Evel, we here at the Hive classify you as a true American, and you have added a good slab of fun to our lives.

Neal is a Marine

The Hive has been dormant for quite some time now. As a matter of fact, I didn't realize how long it had been. But we're back, for now, at least to commemorate what I consider a notable occasion. Neal (my nephew) has graduated from basic training camp and is now a Marine. I thought this was a good time to revisit the Marine Silent Drill Team. enjoi

It Flies!!

The proof is in the performance . . .

Over the weekend, I steeled myself to 2+ years of painstaking construction and decided to try and take the helicopter for a flight. You are probably thinking this is no big deal (after all, it's SUPPOSED to fly, right?) and in the grand scheme of things, you are correct. But after assembling all of the cogs, gears, wires, and etc, despite all of the confidence one may have, there are always those feelings of trepidation . . . Besides, with all of that time invested, this has become a labor of love, and images of this thing chopping itself to pieces upon sudden and inappropriate contact with the ground were prevalant in my mind.

But,

It flew!!

Now I shouldn't make more out of this than it really is. Aside from the fact that this is simply a toy, for enjoyment, the first flight was less than spectacular. The helicopter actually lost purchase with the ground for no more than a few seconds, at which time I hastily (luckily) saved it from chopping itself to pieces in the aforementioned scenario. There are no photos of this event, because even if Wyatt Earp himself were on the camera's hair trigger, he would be hard-pressed to have captured the fateful moment. But hey, the Wright Brothers didn't fly from New York to Paris on their first flight, so I consider it the little accomplishment that it is. After all, here I was given this box of miscellaneous gears and electronics and I somehow managed to assemble them into this semblance of a flying machine.

Unfortunately, this inaugural flight proved out one thing; this machine has problems. A trip back to the workbench and several more hours of fine tuning are in order, not without the help of the accomodating German enablers who sent me my box of goodies. But it's all about fun, so stay tuned, as one of two exciting things will happen: 1) My helicopter will soar to the air with all of the majesty (reduced to 1:16 scale) of its full-sized counterparts, or 2) My helicopter will chop itself to pieces upon sudden and inappropriate contact with the ground. Either outcome is guaranteed to be dramatic. Stay tuned as this nail-biter plays out . . .

More Flying Machines

As we have said many times here at the Hive we are all about fun. So today I want to share with you another toy from my collection. Just like everything, this one has a story to go with it. When I retired from motorcycling a couple of years ago I took the proceeds from my last motorcycle sale and used some of it to buy a remote-controlled helicopter. I had researched these things some time ago on the internet, and thought it would be something that I could practice in our tiny back yard. The particular model that I settled on is from a company named Ikarus and is called the Eco 8. When it came it arrived in a box about the size of two large shoe boxes put together, if you can imagine. This is relevant when you look at the assembled machine:



It is not an exaggeration to say that this thing came in about 1000 pieces. Just to make it fun, the instructions were translated (very poorly) from German, and left me at times scratching my head. There were no curse words muttered during the assembly of this machine :-) I should've taken some progress photos, but to be honest, I thought a couple of weekends of rigrous yet satisfying building and I would have a brand new flying machine. Two years later, assembly is complete.

I haven't made my inaugural flight yet, as I just put the finishing touches on last night. I also rigged it up with some extra safety features to minimize damages when this thing finally takes to the skies.



Look for a future post to see how flying goes. After all of that time invested I'll have to admit I'm a little nervous. But I didn't build it to set it on a shelf, so we'll take 'er up and see what happens. Cheerio!!

Boys and Their Toys

There is an old cliche that goes something like "the difference between men and boys is the cost of their toys". While this may be cliche, I admit that in my case it is true. I remember a conversation with a good (and wise) friend of mine when we were in college. We were just struggling to get by, and the topic of fun things came up. I can't remember specifically what we were talking about, but my friend (you know who you are, Tony) said something to the effect "That's why we get these high-paying gigs... so we can buy our toys". I have taken those words to heart.

You have already seen posts at The Hive on my biggest toy, The Great Red Shark, that rests in our garage. And while The Shark is by far the most impressive, all of my toys are similar in one respect: they deliver the fun. I'm a sucker for fun things, toys and gadgets, and when it comes to these things, Janie and Madeline always deliver. Every year around Christmas and birthday, Janie and Madeline come up with something fun.

And this year was no different. Even better, I got and "advance" on my birthday present and got my latest fun gadget that you see here.



Big Deal, you may say, a toy aeroplane? Well there are two neat things about this little guy. 1. It is fully remote control, and 2. I can fly it in our tiny backyard!! It is totally fun! One thing I should mention here. I abhor flying as a mode of transportation, you might even say that I fear it. I simply do not travel by air. BUT, I am utterly fascinated with flying machines, just ask Janie and Madeline. Every year I get neat little gliders, helicopters, and model aeroplanes. I've even got a model remote control helicopter that has been under construction for quite some time (look for future post). So while I am fascinated with flight, I don't choose to partake in it myself, and all of these fun littly guys fill my enjoyment of flying machines, even if they are toys.

Here are some photos from my inaugural flight. As you can see, it was pretty sketchy, but I was hooked on the fun right off the bat.

Not exactly a 3-point landing


Somewhat in control:


Got the landing right this time:

The Post with no Name

Well -

I don't really have anything new to post, but I wanted all of the visitors to the Hive to know that we are alive and well.

Madeline and I just had a fun dip in the pool (check out the Hite House site for pool details) and I am relaxing with the computer for a few minutes before we turn in for the evening.

Maybe while I'm surfing I'll come up with something engaging.

Until then,

Cheerio,

The Hive

In Celebration of the Fourth of July

My nephew, Neal, is joining the Marines. My cousin Andrew will soon follow. In light of the recent holiday, and in tribute to them, I thought the Marine Corp Silent Platoon made a fitting post.

Scroll Down to the bottom and turn off the song before viewing.

MARINE SILENT DRILL TEAM

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