[Today’s run: 6 miles]<\/p>\n
We ran this morning on the eastside-northbound lanes of the soon-to-be-divided Highway 45S.\u00a0 They have the lines painted and the signs up.\u00a0 Everything is just about complete.\u00a0 There were a couple of crews working at 6 AM on tidying up the shoulders at intersections.<\/p>\n
After running we went and visited a neighbor to see their new baby llama and a colt.\u00a0 They have a very nice place.<\/p>\n
And the big task of the day was to get the FM radio station antenna up on the tower.<\/p>\n
I ended up climbing the tower twice.\u00a0 The first time was to put in place a stub vertical element with a pulley on it.\u00a0 Then I rappelled down and rested a bit.<\/p>\n
I used the pulley to raise the new vertical piece with the attached FM antenna. I got it pretty close to the top then climbed up myself.\u00a0 This second time up things seemed to go more smoothly.\u00a0 I was able to get the new piece attached.\u00a0 I did drop one nut which I will need to replace soon.\u00a0 And I was dressing out the feed line when I discovered I had not brought a pair of pliers to work on the coax connections.\u00a0 So we called it quits there.<\/p>\n
One part which I was afraid would be difficult was removing the stub vertical with the pulley. That actually went pretty well.\u00a0\u00a0 The stub was an old piece of multi-section military aluminum antenna mast pipe.\u00a0 The sections fit together by having a sleeve on the upper section go over the the lower section.\u00a0 It happened that this sleeve also fit passably over my heavy aluminum mast on the tower.\u00a0 It was a tight fit.\u00a0 To remove I took a short piece of steel angle iron and slid it up along the mast pipe as a sort of hammer against the sleeve.\u00a0 That got the job done.<\/p>\n
I cleaned up all of my mountaineering straps and carabiners and rappelled down again.\u00a0 We got the ropes all coiled up and put away and finally got myself out of the climbing harness.\u00a0 That was that.<\/p>\n
Tomorrow I need to go to Lowes and get a replacement nut or two, then back up to finish the job.<\/p>\n
The rappelling worked out pretty well.\u00a0 I had been down-climbing.\u00a0 That takes a long time and is nearly as tiring as climbing up.\u00a0 The rappelling takes some concentration on my part to make sure I don’t let go of the brake-side of the rope.\u00a0 On the second trip I remembered about putting in an emergency follower<\/a> which will halt me if I mess up.\u00a0 I may put some gloves in the took bucket next time too, rappelling makes the rope hot.<\/p>\n
![\"GE](\"http:\/\/w0ep.us\/OM\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/08\/GEDC0403-700x468.jpg\")
<\/a>