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BlogPendant Automation Diary – Summer’s End

Pendant Automation Diary – Summer’s End

By Gary Stokes
September 5th, 2022

“Summer’s lease hath all too short a date” – W. Shakespeare

I write this on Labor Day, 2022. Whether you think of Labor Day as the end of summer, or go by the astronomical date, or the meteorological date, summer is coming to a close.

Reviewing our summer at Pendant provided us with a few stories you may find interesting.

Pendant Day

June 24 was the annual Pendant Day, held this year just outside (and inside) our panel shop. In a summer of firsts, at least for Sai, he tried his hand at the hotly contested cornhole competition, and acquitted himself well.

Sai winging it!

James and Shmedley battling for cornhole supremacy

Rob handed out this year’s batch of Pendie’s, claiming to not want to offend anyone whilst proceeding to offend everyone.

As you can see from the second photo, the food trays were practically licked clean by our hungry horde.

There may have been a card game or two, and there were rumors of some goofy game called Can Jam.

And just to offend those that demand quality writing, a good time was had by all.

 








One Chip Challenge, the Sequel

You may recall last year’s one chip challenge, in which the participants attempt to eat a ridiculously spicy tortilla chip. Last year, James and Cassie took it on, and the results were, well, I’ll just let the photos tell the story.

Oof!

Never again…

Unfortunately I don’t have any photographic evidence of this year’s challenge, but two intrepid warriors, Michael Dorsey and Pete Krajewski (Cry-eff-ski for the uninitiated), ignored Pendant precedent and went at it.  While the initial results were promising, both later succumbed gut-wise to the measly little chip, but in much less dramatic fashion than last year. I think they have gone on record to say, nope, no sir, not again.

Michael Collins is already talking about next year’s challenge, which is rumored to be spicier still.





The Outing – Whiskey Creek

James and Gary made it to the beautiful Whiskey Creek Golf Club in early July, accompanied by Gary’s son Harry. For Gary, it was one of those days where golf is just a good walk spoiled.  But James was on his game all day, pounding drive after drive, until…

They say all’s well that ends well, but what do they say about this?








The Outing – Big Gunpowder Falls

James and Gary spirited Sai away for the day in mid-August so he could try his hand at fly-fishing for trout, another first for Sai. Sai on the water

For Gary, it was one of those days where fishing is just a good walk spoiled, but James got on the board quickly with about his third cast of the day and landed a pretty little brown trout.

To his credit, Sai fished hard all day, but the fish weren’t buying what he was selling. He still has a lot to learn, especially about managing the line, but he’ll be determined to figure it out. Which means of course that he’ll have to give it another shot after he returns from his first trip to India in three years.


Hawaiian Shirt Day

Cassie inaugurated Hawaiian Shirt Day, inspired by Bill’s Hawaiian shirt, by asking everyone to don a Hawaiian shirt on Fridays this summer.  Who knew there were so many different interpretations of what constitutes a Hawaiian shirt? We’re going to ask you to offer your opinion on an especially controversial entry worn by Brad, aka Shmedley, who swears it was described as a Hawaiian shirt online where he purchased it.  Admittedly, Brad looks dashing in this shirt, but is it really Hawaiian? And if not, what exactly is it? Look at the photo, please, and comment below.

Shmedley sporting a Hawaiian shirt?

 

So there you have it. We’re moving on very soon to the fall wherein we’ll work on some more stories to share.