Farewell to a Good Man

Farewell to a Good Man:

 

Hello,

I hope this holiday season of Thanksgiving, Advent, Christmas and New Years is a good one for you and yours.

 

Tonight before New Years Eve, my post will be about the passing a great friend and a true gentleman.

 

On December 20^th Col. Randolph Eugene Pettit passed away from natural causes.

Gene had been by friend for many years. He was a fixture in the electrical industry for many more.

I could always call Gene for advice on anything, work or personal and get a thoughtful honest opinion.

I also worked for Gene at the Glynn-Pettit Company and Elliott Electric. Gene made those two jobs the best. He always treated all his employees with respect. Lots of managers and lots of companies say they want to be viewed as doing the right thing and treating their people well.

I have found that those who say it, don’t do it. Gene didn’t say it, he did it. Gene always strove to do the right thing first. He did the right thing when people were not watching and stood up for his employees when his managers were wrong.

Gene also made work fun. In fact Gene made life fun for those around him.

I found some great friends working for Gene. He created a positive environment of fun and respect. We could compete with anyone and win, we just needed to work hard and do the right thing. That did not always get us the sale, but we never felt we needed to do anything wrong. We did slay some giants.

Chivalry, respect, manhood, duty, and honor all are more than empty words when describing Gene.

Those of use who worked for or with Gene are better men and women for it.

It was an honor and a privilege to work for him and then to become his friend.

 

My prayers are with you and your family Colonel.

 

Obituary

http://www.legacy.com/obituaries/houstonchronicle/obituary.aspx?n=randolph-pettit&pid=162014128

 

Two songs about his beloved Texas

http://youtu.be/sTuu6-ouy2E

 

http://youtu.be/cYAKJy3OuhA

 

 

 

Alan Powell

HappyThanksgiving Y'all

Hey Man,

Happy Thanksgiving y'all.

It was been an eventful week.
I lost 20lbs and got over the bug that help me loose weight over the holiday.
But alas I missed the Autorma car show in Houston.

We followed the great USGP in Austin, TX with the F1 final in Brazil and it was a great race.
I love the coverage on SPEED. Formula 1 is why I have cable. I hope the new NBC sports group can follow in their footsteps.

Locally historic Robertson Stadium is closed. In 71 years Robertson Stadium hosted not only Houston Cougar sports, but many other events for the community as well.
We in the College of Technology Alumni Association shut it down in style with Rib-Plazooza.
Thanks to No Label Brewing of Katy , TX for the great Blonde Ale donation!
We had a great tailgate turnout, the game was a Houston Cougar win and the stadium closing ceremony was fun.

Today after the F1 race we saw the Houston Cougar basketball team go to 5-0 against TAMU/CC.
The next two games are also against A&M system schools, first Prairieview and then College Station.

Electrically we are shipping some exciting new products that we will be able to talk about soon.

cheers


the electricAlan

Blogtoberfest

Hey Man,

You knew one of my post this month had to be named that.

Satuday was a long one. The day started with a trip to office to work OE quotes and then off to the game.
With UH vs UAB stating at 11:a.m. the pregame tailgate started at 9:a.m. UH dispatched UAB and the Coogs are starting to look like a team. This win evened your home tams record to 3-3. The Coogs could realistically win out. Let's hope so, that will give us one more game at the Rob befroe it is demoed to make room for the new stadium.

In NASCAR Brad Keselowski tried to stretch his fuel to far and ran out of gas. An uncharacteristic mistake for a Penske team. That mistake gave Clint Boyer the win and tightened up the championship race.

After the John Conlee concert at Cypress Saloon it was back home to watch the F1 GP of Korea live.
The start of the race saw some action as Kobie smashed through competitors. Massa had the quickness to battle his teammate and Ferrari brass gave out teams orders holding him back,
Red Bull won the day with Vettel finishing ahead of team mate and pole sitter Mark Webber.  Ferreri got third with Alonso. Hamilton finished the day dragging around a piece of Astroturf the line course.

Well the I panned on going to football. But the Texans didn't make the game.

cheers

The ElectricAlan

Another Mid Week Marvel

Hey Man!

How 'bout those Houston COOGS & TEXANS.
Our Houston Cougars and back on track and the TEXANS are undefeated!
Two fun wins to watch and out College of  Technology Alumni tailgate party was outstanding.

Over in the world of motor sports F1 opened with a wild wreck and NASCAR closed with a wild wreck.
Massa ended a long drought with a podium finish that Ferrari needed. Both the NASCAR and F1 titles are closing up a bit.


Electrically speaking a lot is going on.
I heard about a great new product today, that I still can't tell you about.
Sticking to my guns and selling cutting edge material is fun and frustrating.
The initial documentation for the new NEMA 7 cast XP enclosures I just sold was not totally clear and we had to move some things around a bit. But that order will soon ship.
On the tantalizingly close side, we have cleared CSA certification on a new product. We have made the first sale to the first customer. It will rock the IECex world.
I know, how about something specific Alan?
Well I have that too. My field configurable, stainless steel Adalet panelboards arrive next week! These feature through the cover operators like a NEMA 7 box.
Now in true Houston instant gratification you can have the stainless steel panelboard you need, NOW.
We will have the inventory right here in Houston.
Eagle Ford shale play are you listening?

cheers

The ElectricAlan

Mid Week News

Hey Man,

This week we have a few new things.

This link will take you to the ABB news letter and an Arc Flash White Paper download.
http://www.lvpinfo.com/204/copied/345bddb6-495c-47c4-a71d-7b7405bf78c9

Sola has sent out notice of the new SHP power supplies.
Call me after the 15th webinar.

Siemens has added new control power lug options for the VBII switch family. This is not in the new SPEEDFAX.

Speaking of SPEEDFAX updates there is more. Now we have an update online for the VL breaker family.

http://www.industry.usa.siemens.com/topics/us/en/vl-circuit-breaker/Documents/SIE_PC_SpeedfaxSupplement.pdf

This replaces a section of the SPEEDFAX, check it out.

The past weekend gave us some ups and a big downer. Legendary reporter Chris Economaki died last week. The Windtunnel show on SPEED did a great tribute on their show.

After that is was a good and interesting weekend in sports. Lewis Hamilton is leaving McLaren for Mercedes for what is said to be about the same money. Not a good career move Hammy.
IndyCar came on windtunnel to announce their 2013 schedule, and it's great. We will have a double header race weekend in Houston at Reliant Park.

Football wise our Houston Cougars got their first win of the season in their first conference game.
Houston beat rice to retain The Bayou Bucket. After that the Texans beat the Titans to go 4-0.

It's back to the electron mines for me.

Cheers

The ElectricAlan

A Sporting Post

Hey Man,

Tonight is mostly a sporting post.

Dave Despain had Mario Andretti as his guest tonight on Wind Tunnel.
My favorite TV show, and tonight is a great on. Jimmy Johnson and Mario are interviewing each other.
We got updates on this season's F1 race in Austin, TX as well. Mario on his relationship with AJ Foyt was
also fun. Too bad U-Verse lost the signal.

NASCAR had race two of the CHASE. Denny Hamlin won with JJ second for the second race in a row.

The F1 race from Singapore was more fun. u-Verse didn't lock up during that event. Felipe Massa of Ferrari  showed some wild car controls skills. http://youtu.be/_a3MSoVcELI

In football our TEXANS won, and my Houston Cougars had a much needed week off.
This week we are looking forward to the Bayou Bucket game that feature Rice vs Houston @ Reliant Stadium.

In the world of work it was a busy week.
The week will turn it up a notch.
Last we was a rush with a Caribbean project being released and a major domestic project about to kick off.
New blankets are coming up to bid and this will be a week of long hours

cheers

The ElectricAlan

UL Changes BIG

Hey Man,

How was your weekend?
Outside of college football mine was OK, maybe my Houston Cougars will have the kinks worked out by the next game. More sports later, let's talk UL now.

Here is a link to the UL news room. It is a pretty good one bookmark.
http://www.ul.com/global/eng/pages/corporate/newsroom/newsitem.jsp?cpath=%2Fglobal%2Feng%2Fcontent%2Fcorporate%2Fnewsroom%2Fpublicnotices%2Fdata%2Ful-and-ulc-announce-important-changes-to-certification_20120912090000.xml
Or just search UL news room and see lots more.

Basically UL reviewed their standard for UL 2196 fire rating and decided it should be changed.
The link states that UL knows of no failures in the real word.
As a result all Electrical Circuit Protective Systems constructed with Fire resistant Cable (FHIT) have been removed from the UL certification directory. UL has a FAQ list and contact information at UL.
UL and ULC will no longer offer certification to existing programs for UL2196 and ULCS-139.
No new cable made marked as such.
If you were using type RHW cable for fire pump installations this hits you.

What will your local code changes be?
This just popped up September 12th 2012, so keep your ear to the ground on this one.


Weekend sports
Well as I mentioned before, my Houston Cougars are still in transition from last year's record crushing season. We have next week off and need it.

In motor sports we saw the first race of the NASCAR Chase.
Brad Keslowski won the first race and JJ had to settle for second. I am hoping for better from Mat Kenseth next week.
Ryan Blaney became the youngest winner in the NASCAR Camping World Truck Series with his win.
Over in the IndyCar Ryan Hunter-Reay closed the deal and won the championship.
Congrats RHR, you earned it.
F1 was off this week, but returns the 23rd from Singapore.

This will be a busy week at my office with big project and blanket quotes due on top of a lot of sales calls.

cheers


the electricAlan

Happy end of Summer Holiday

Hey Man!,

Well spell check was almost done when I erased it all.

This weekend saw the start of college football and tailgating. For us University of Houston fans our high expectations were met at the tailgate party and dashed on the football field. Next week we will be back at home again for the final season in our old stadium and our final season in C-USA. The tailgating will be great and I am confident the team will bounce back.  Go Coogs!

In motor sports there is a lot going on.
This coming Wednesday ALMS & GRAND-AM are set to merge, This should help road racing in North America. Tuesday we will see Matt Kenseth officially be named to the Joe Gibbs team for 2013. I hate to see him go to a Toyota team, but at least it is with Joe Gibbs. There is a lot of moving and shaking going on over at the IndyCar series. Ryan Hunter Reay is in demand.
In the Belgiun F1 from SPA we saw promising driver Romain Grosjean behave so stupidly he should be sent back to F2 for the rest of the season. As open wheel racing cars and tracks have become safer, young drivers have lost the respect for the dangers of the sport. Actions still have consequences. In the 1960s era cars Romain would have gotten himself and several others killed. In todays cars in a lower spec series, he could have put a team out of business and got some people fired.   Romain needs to come run some short tracks in the USA with Tony Stewart to get his head right.

Electrically speaking we are seeing a pick in the demand for IEC spec MCCs here in Houston. Fortunately we have the best solution in the market so I hope that continues. I will have more on that in a dedicated post.
If you have a project now, call now, we can ship.

cheers

the Electricalan

Mid August Blogdate 2012

Hey Man,

It's just our normal heat in Houston this year. I'm glad it's not as blistering as last year and now we have rain.
If it is under 100 in August in Texas, be thankful.

We held the University of Houston College of Technology Alumni Association annual meeting.
Every year we have several things we must do here.
We present the new officers and B.O.D., we award our scholarships, get a college update from the Dean, and have a speaker.
We presented the officers and board, then awarded our scholarships. Next the Dean gave us an update on the college. Our college is one of the oldest and largest at UH. We are recognised internationally as a leader and well on our way to regaining our recognition as the top College of Technology in the US.  Our speaker was Chuck Richards of CA Richards and Assoc., Inc. Chuck is an expert in the subsea arena. Chuck and his family have been involved with the OTC for many years and he provided some great insights into the show. The focus of his presentation was the Remotely Operated Vehicle industry. He gave a history of the R.O.V. industry and where it is now. It was technically interesting, yet still engage able to the layperson.
Thanks to No Label Brewing for providing bottled beverages their first day on sale in bottles.

In the sports world we still have F1 on summer break. But the last two weeks of NASCAR Spring Cup have been great, especially the race last week at Watkins Glen. A lot of us Houston Cougars were watching the Texans preseason game vs the 49ers and were disappointed by how little Case was in the game.

Cheers,

The ElectricAlan

Don't let the heat of summer compromise Arc Flash safety & and some racing

Hey Man,

It was hot out here this weekend! While I was working on the garage at the folks house in the heat, I got a call. A rig was down in Louisiana and they needed some ABB relays. But they were not sure which ones.
Eventually they solved it without me driving over. That got me thinking about Arc Flash safety in the heat of Summer. We are the Houston STOCKING distributor for OEL Worldwide. http://www.oelsales.com/ So it is better to buy from us that online. Last summer when we started with this line one of my clients was looking for some new Nomex suites. He wanted safety with enough comfort that his crew would wear them. The new OEL suites we have are made in America from a new DuPont fabric lighter than Nomex. Having worn a black Nomex suite back in my racing days in the SW, I can understand the importance of comfort. check out the link.
There was some fun racing this weekend.
I got up really to watch the HHungarian F1GP. No vampires, but it was fun. I was hoping to see Kimi win with that charge to the front, but it was not to be. The pit exit Kimi make to keep ahead of his teammate Romain Grosjean. The 32-year-old Raikkonen is still a hoot to watch.
Hamilton won and Fernando finished ahead of Webber to maintin his point lead. I would really like to see Webber take the championship this season. I would also really like to see Kimi Raikkonen return to victory lane at classic venue.

NASCAR brought us the Brickyard 400. Don't let the empty seats in the stands fool you. They still had close to 100,000 people there. The place is just so big. Today "5 time" a.k.a. Jimmie Johnson got his 4th win at The Speedway. J.J. is amazing. Had it not been for the Indy/Champcar split, he would of gone on to win in a unified Indy Car series. J.J. is smooth, to understand him, think of Rick Mears. J.J. is not "too corperate" he is a laid back SoCal off road racer that went open wheel and then NASCAR.
To "get" Tony Stewart, think A.J. Foyt.

cheers

The Electricalan

Back to the Blogmines!

Hey Man!

Wow time has flown since our last posting. I just got back from a Saturday morning at the office.
As I write this I am watching the 24 Hours of Le Mans steaming. There was just a massive crash caused by an Ferrari driver. Across the room I have SPEED showing  NASCAR qualifying for tomorrows race.
So far his year F1, NASCAR and IndyCar have been a blast to watch. This past Memorial Day weekend was great for racing. Indy and Monoco were great fun to watch along with the Coke 600.
Tonight NASCAR has added another practice session due to high speeds at Michigan. Marcos Ambrose set the third fastest pole ever today.

In our electrtical world things have been hopping. Since my last post we have had ABB Power & Automation world in Houston, the Offshore Technology Conference, and a blockbuster deal in EATON buying Cooper Industries.
ABB APW was a great event, everyone I know that attended found it worthwhile.
OTC was not only a good time to cacth up with friends form overseas and new technology, it was a time I made a couple of good deals.
EATON may have been driven by acquisition envy. The typical generic claim of cost savings is b.s. as usual. The only real savings will come from lower corporate tax rate. The USA has a suicidal corporate tax rate now driving trillions of dollars overseas. EATON maybe able to watch the Euro and the EU collapse before regulatory approval of the purchase of Cooper. Many large EATON customers compete with Cooper so the real long term results will take a while to develop.  If you had stock or are one of the people putting this deal together, you should of made some money. It will be a pain ofr everyone else.
What other blockbuster deals are in the works?

cheers

The ElectricAlan

Oxford comes to Houston?

Hey Man,

First, Happy Easter.
Today no sport, & no electrical stuff, just an educatioanl opprtunity for those of you in Houston Texas.
If you ever wanted to sit in a lecture at Oxford, but like most of us could not, an opportunity will come in Houston this week. One of the premiere Old Testament scholars from Wycliffe Hall at the University of Oxford speak on Jesus’ favorite book in the Hebrew Bible: Deuteronomy. There is no book from which he quoted more. Why is this? Should we be paying more attention to this the last book of the Pentateuch? How does Jesus see Deuteronomy pointing to him as the Messiah and Savior of the world? Come and have these questions answered and grow as a disciple of Jesus. For more information on this event, please contact the Rev. Reagan W. Cocke.

Contact information: 713.354.2229; rcocke@sjd.org

Well tomorrow back to golf and work.

chees

the ElectricAlan

Raychem by any other name is the......

Hey Man,
Raychem by any other name is still world class. While the company that makes Raychem products has changed their email addresses again, their great products have stayed the same. We stock Raychem here
at HD Supply in Houston. We carry a large inventory of low and medium voltage products for OEM, utility and construction applications. We recently convinced Raycehm to offer a new width in MVFT for one of my OEMs. That should be in the next catalog. It is Friday night and I am blogging from the office
while I wait for a vendor to call me back.

cheers

the electricAlan

High Speed Fuse Solution Houston

Hey Man,
After being called out several weekends in a row, I solved it. Our stock of Buss 170M6417 1400 amp fuses has arrived. Now more than one rig can blow all it's fuses.
Well back to the wind turbine project.

cheers

the electricAlan

Quick fun facts about The University of Houston

Hey Man,
UH has grown endowment wise.
http://www.nacubo.org/Documents/research/2011_NCSE_Public_Tables_Endowment_Market_Values_Final_January_17_2012.pdf

On the athletics front UH did pretty well this week on national signing day.
#2 of the schools not currently in the BCS,  #1 in our final year of C-USA and #4 in the New Big East.
http://footballrecruiting.rivals.com/content.asp?CID=1327040

On campus 26.1% of the student body voted in the referendum on a new student service fee to help with the new football stadium and renovation of the basketball facility. 73.9% voted yes.


cheers

the electricAlan

ABB to aquire Thomas & Betts in revenge buy

Hey Man,
Yes it is a revenge buy. Not long ago ABB tried to by Chloride at a hefty premium and was blocked by Emerson. Perhaps Emerson paid more of a premium for Chloride than they realized. ABB will still get a UPS company with T&B. But ABB will get much more. ABB now will compete with Emerson in many more segments of the electrical market. If Emerson, Hubbell or Cooper try to buy T&B, they would likely face anti-trust issues. With the FED and US govt working to devalue the dollar we will see more of these buys from foreign firms. While a weaker dollar can help exports, it also makes it easier for firms from overseas to buy US firms and resources. Will a cheap dollar spur more acquisitions by Group Schneider?  Can US based firms afford to buy more competitors?
I do wish that I had owned some T&B stock last week. I wonder who made the insider score on that?

cheers

the electricAlan

Start of the 2012 sports year and ongoing basketball season

Hey Man,
The weather has been great in Houston this weekend.

Your Houston Cougars are in the heart of conference play now. It took going to overtime, but The Cougars were able to overcome a large lead by UTEP and win at home this Saturday. UTEP had to bench tww of their key players due to fouls and that helped. The other factors were that the Cougars didn't quit and made their free throws. How I wish our glory days teams had made their free throws!

The 2012 sport year got started with the 50th running of the 24 Hours of Daytona. Over 75,000 fans packed the infield camping area for the biggest attendance ever. A.J. Foyt was to be the Grand Marshall, but he was still in the hospital in Houston, so Sir Jackie Stewart filled in.
The race was a classic, lots of cars and lots of stories.
In the top Daytona Prototype class the we saw the new spec cars take the pole and the lead. The all new Corvettes were expected to be fast, but they all failed. The Fords had a 500 RPM restriction this year, but were still faster than the Corvettes or BMWs.  A. J. Allmendinger  brought home the 1st place overall and DP class trophy for Michael Shank Racing with Curb-Agajanian. 'Dinger and McNish traded some paint NASCAR style on the high banks and that is not something you see everyday in endurance racing.
In GT we saw an army of Porsche GT3s overwhelm the rest of the field. There were RX8s, Cameros, a Corvette, a Viper, 5 Ferrari 458s, a couple of Audi R8s and a lone Mustang Boss 302, but Porsche ruled the day. In the end Magnus Racing pulled out a win over TRG and Brumos Racing. Risi Competizione of Houston fielded a couple of 458s.
cheers

the electricAlan

End Of The Football Season Post

Hey Man,
What a Season! Your Houston Cougars finished 13-1. The Coogs wrapped us the season with a pounding of Penn State. As our new HC Levine said, the 1 loss was a fluke, not the 12 wins.

The Ticket City Bowl was a blast. Cougars from all over shook off the blahs of the loss to Southern Miss and showed up in happy prides. The stands were electric with Houston fans. Not only did the new fans show, but lots of "old time" Coogs were there as well. Olympic Champion Carl Lewis was in for the game, and he is excited about Houston Cougar Football! He still talks to the fans like a regular guy. A lot of athletes who have done a lot less have a lot to learn from Carl in dealing with people. After the game I spoke with Audray McMillian, this All-American College player and NFL stand out is excited about Houston Cougar Football.
He is also really high on how Zach is playing. Audray also has good things to say about our new Head Coach.
Now football is over and it is time we focused on on other sports. We have begun conference basketball play and the team seems to be improving. We have to get ready to join the best basketball conference shortly. Big EAST here we come.

We will have more technical features like "do I need a load center or a panel board on tap soon.
Additionally we have some more "Networking Hours" out and about as we mix in coverage of motor sports and college basketball.

cheers

the electricAlan

Happy New Year

Hey Man,
I hope you all had a happy and safe new year.
Now it is time to get rolling.
 What will you do this year to make the world a better place? Everything starts with one man or one woman.

On a lighter note remember your Houston Cougars take the field Monday at 11a.m. CST to face Penn State in the Ticket City Bowl. Big offense vs big defense.


cheers

the electricAlan