Re: Excrement does however occur

>> This morning I called and asked if everything was OK and Charles told me
>> he was going to call me. He had just returned from Louisville, KY where he
>> was attempting to inspect the remains of all of the machines he had
>> shipped. Seems the semi rolled over and the insurance co. won't let him or
>> anyone else near them until the finish with their investigation - maybe
>> Wednesday.
>
> Just to prove something to myself I would ring the guy and ask him for the
> Insurance Co's number or the Police precinct or whatever you have there, so
> that you can see if you can get these guys to move .
> Base your future decision on the reply.
>
> May I have permission to use these excuses for myself?
> They are far better than any I have had to use <g>
> --
>
> Regards,
> John Stevenson
> Nottingham, England

It does happen though. I remember ordering a $15,000 air-floated table
for my lasers and had a big job coming up which needed the larger more
stable table .... (of course, waaaaay behind on the time table). After
much nervous waiting and chewing of nails I called the company, "Where
the heck is my table?!!!!!" The answer was "Well Mr. Jenkins, near as
we can tell it's in a ditch in Texas" .... and indeed it was. You would
be right to guess the extreme "precision" of the table (accurate return
to position within 1/4 wavelength of light when disturbed) was somewhat
altered by the encounter with the ditch. :-P

One of the main reasons I needed the table was "the genius" who originally
set up the lab put it in a building named the "Railview Building" (named
for the spectacular view afforded of the tracks) a "less than ideal"
location for performing processes which require no vibration. Some of
the stuff we did was so sensitive we located the laser in a separate
room and fired it through a tiny hole through the wall into the lab
because the heat from it created convection currents if kept in the
the room. These air-currents would "jostle" the optics on long exposures.
After leaving the room we would wait 20 minutes for the air to settle
before opening the shutter. Fun stuff.