Lake Buena Vista, FL
Well, I meant to go out Friday. But by the time I got home I was beat. I laid down to take a nap at 6pm and when I woke up it was midnight ! So I just kept on sleeping.
Saturday I changed the oil in the truck. Tried reading the boring tome about Thoreau, put it down and picked up a book about emerging diseases Plague's Progress. It is more interesting and I have already read half of it. I went out Saturday night, but I tired early and was back home by 10pm.
Sunday was my most productive day. I took the truck to the car wash, vacuumed out the floor, aired the tires (they were 10 lbs low!), put vinyl dressing on the interior, washed two loads of laundry, cleaned the kitchen and bathroom floors, scrubbed the bath tub out good. Picked up some boiled ham, bread, peaches, and sliced cheese at the grocery. Then I went to the pool and got some sun. I used sunblock, but still got a mild burn.
Sunday night I went out for drinks. Was out from about 7pm to 10pm. Drank water toward the end because I knew I had to work today.
Suspect things are going to get busy around here as people are frantically trying to spend end-of-year money now. I can already see it in my e-mail. It should be an interesting week.
Monday, August 30, 2004
Friday, August 27, 2004
Lake Buena Vista, FL
Finished Flight last night. I could hear Asplundh chipping up branches a few blocks over even as a very impressive-looking storm approached. Lots of lightning, not sure that it rained very much though.
Four kids were struck by lightning yesterday as they got off of their school bus. As they got off the bus they opened an umbrella and lightning struck them. All of them are in the hospital for observation, one kid was hurt critically.
A guy in Gainesville, FL was walking his dog in the park the other day. The dog was running loose and got down near the pond when an alligator jumped out and got the dog's head in its jaws ! The owner ran down and stabbed the alligator in the eye with his pocketknife and the dog got free. The dog ran home with just three bite marks in her head and neck.
Keeping Betsy's queue caught up here at work. This morning Matt took me for a walk and we went over to Building DC-3. The food people are going to a training session next week and they want me to watch the queues for about 12 purchasing groups ! Dear God, I will be busy with that stuff next week ! If I cannot make a PO or there is something fatally flawed with it then it will just have to remain in their queue until they return from training.
Trying to keep my carbs cut down. But I am feeling very tired in the afternoons. I am getting enough sleep. Maybe I need more exercise.
Keeping an eye on Hurricane Francine. I do not know if she is forecast to pass near here or not, but as you can imagine, alot of people in Central Florida are nervous about storms right now. Shoot, they still haven't gotten my Internet service restored from the last storm yet.
Decided to start reading the book about Thoreau, A Wider View of the Universe, it seems to be mostly about ecology.
Went to Save Rite lastnight. I got 24 bottles of flavored sparkling water, a pound of boiled ham, a bag of apples, some peaches, dehydrated tomatoes, peanuts, shredded cheese, and a loaf of bread.
When I get my money from Rinker I really need to go to Wal-Mart and get groceries. If I keep good things in the house I will not be tempted to eat the wrong things.
This is Friday ! I am going to go out tonite. Tomorrow I am going to change oil in the truck and get some sun. Maybe wash and wax my truck too. Then there is laundry to do and floors to clean.
Finished Flight last night. I could hear Asplundh chipping up branches a few blocks over even as a very impressive-looking storm approached. Lots of lightning, not sure that it rained very much though.
Four kids were struck by lightning yesterday as they got off of their school bus. As they got off the bus they opened an umbrella and lightning struck them. All of them are in the hospital for observation, one kid was hurt critically.
A guy in Gainesville, FL was walking his dog in the park the other day. The dog was running loose and got down near the pond when an alligator jumped out and got the dog's head in its jaws ! The owner ran down and stabbed the alligator in the eye with his pocketknife and the dog got free. The dog ran home with just three bite marks in her head and neck.
Keeping Betsy's queue caught up here at work. This morning Matt took me for a walk and we went over to Building DC-3. The food people are going to a training session next week and they want me to watch the queues for about 12 purchasing groups ! Dear God, I will be busy with that stuff next week ! If I cannot make a PO or there is something fatally flawed with it then it will just have to remain in their queue until they return from training.
Trying to keep my carbs cut down. But I am feeling very tired in the afternoons. I am getting enough sleep. Maybe I need more exercise.
Keeping an eye on Hurricane Francine. I do not know if she is forecast to pass near here or not, but as you can imagine, alot of people in Central Florida are nervous about storms right now. Shoot, they still haven't gotten my Internet service restored from the last storm yet.
Decided to start reading the book about Thoreau, A Wider View of the Universe, it seems to be mostly about ecology.
Went to Save Rite lastnight. I got 24 bottles of flavored sparkling water, a pound of boiled ham, a bag of apples, some peaches, dehydrated tomatoes, peanuts, shredded cheese, and a loaf of bread.
When I get my money from Rinker I really need to go to Wal-Mart and get groceries. If I keep good things in the house I will not be tempted to eat the wrong things.
This is Friday ! I am going to go out tonite. Tomorrow I am going to change oil in the truck and get some sun. Maybe wash and wax my truck too. Then there is laundry to do and floors to clean.
Thursday, August 26, 2004
Lake Buena Vista, FL
It really is surprising how many Purchase Orders I can process in an 8-hour day ! Most of them are small, ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. But, in a 10-minute period today I created two Purchase Orders (PO's) totalling over $91,000 ! I guess the end of the fiscal year is coming up and alot of the departments are trying to get FY04 money spent before October 1.
Still no Internet service at home. I read in the newspaper about how an Orlando council woman is upset about Brighthouse Networks and she is looking into having their franchise in the city revoked ! I bet THAT will get their attention. On the radio this morning they said that all Brighthouse customers will have service restored by Monday morning. We will see.
Everyone here seems very happy with how quickly I picked up SAP and was able to start clearing Betsy's cache out. I have it completely caught up and am even investigating sole source documents and bidding for PR's in excess of $25,000. Peggy was remarking this morning that it would be nice to keep me around to take care of miscellaneous jobs.
Talked with Matt during lunch and showed him my POP Training Manual that I got from Rinker. He wants to sit down and go through the Reports section of it me and be able to get detailed information about his purchasing groups. I know having some of that information would be like having ammunition when he goes to staff meetings. Now, how can I make myself invaluable around here ?
Almost done with Chris Kraft's autobiography, Flight. Not sure which book I will pick up next. I still have books about comets, motivating employees, a book about Henry David Thoreau, emerging diseases and plagues, etc etc.
As long as the weather cooperates I still intend to change oil in the truck and get some sun this weekend.
It really is surprising how many Purchase Orders I can process in an 8-hour day ! Most of them are small, ranging from a couple of hundred dollars to several thousand dollars. But, in a 10-minute period today I created two Purchase Orders (PO's) totalling over $91,000 ! I guess the end of the fiscal year is coming up and alot of the departments are trying to get FY04 money spent before October 1.
Still no Internet service at home. I read in the newspaper about how an Orlando council woman is upset about Brighthouse Networks and she is looking into having their franchise in the city revoked ! I bet THAT will get their attention. On the radio this morning they said that all Brighthouse customers will have service restored by Monday morning. We will see.
Everyone here seems very happy with how quickly I picked up SAP and was able to start clearing Betsy's cache out. I have it completely caught up and am even investigating sole source documents and bidding for PR's in excess of $25,000. Peggy was remarking this morning that it would be nice to keep me around to take care of miscellaneous jobs.
Talked with Matt during lunch and showed him my POP Training Manual that I got from Rinker. He wants to sit down and go through the Reports section of it me and be able to get detailed information about his purchasing groups. I know having some of that information would be like having ammunition when he goes to staff meetings. Now, how can I make myself invaluable around here ?
Almost done with Chris Kraft's autobiography, Flight. Not sure which book I will pick up next. I still have books about comets, motivating employees, a book about Henry David Thoreau, emerging diseases and plagues, etc etc.
As long as the weather cooperates I still intend to change oil in the truck and get some sun this weekend.
Wednesday, August 25, 2004
Lake Buena Vista, FL
Yes, I think I like this new job at Disney Sourcing and Procurement. My co-workers are very nice, the working conditions are heaven compared to my days at Rinker, the shifts are only 8 hours long... I spend most of the day turning Purchase Requisitions into Purchase Orders. Sometimes I have to call the customer, the requester, up and find out an item's cost or who they want the vendor to be because they forget to fill in the forms completely. Often the vendors call me with pricing or quantity changes... eg. customer wanted 50 trays, but they come 12 to a case, so change it to 48 trays, etc. I am doing a pretty good job of keeping Betsy's queue caught up and I stay pretty busy during the day with the work.
My little office is an inside room with a desk, computer, telephone, chair, and bookcase. The others have outside windows. I don't think I really care, I can hear it raining outside really hard right now.
Still do not have Internet service at home yet. 2500 people still don't have electric in Kissimmee, so I guess I should not complain about it just yet. Just hope that I am not missing anything important in my RoadRunner e-mail. I am expecting a pen plotter to be shipped from California soon.
During the 10 days without power I got alot of reading done (with a flashlight at night). Finished A Travelers's Guide to Mars, read through The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, Wonder Bread and Ectasy: The Life and Death of Joey Steffano, right now I am reading Flight: the autobiography of Chris Kraft, NASA Mission Controller. Also read this month's issue of Wired magazine.
This weekend, in addition to getting some more suntanning, I am going to change the oil in the truck.
"Go and live the life you have imagined for yourself." -- Henry David Thoreau
Yes, I think I like this new job at Disney Sourcing and Procurement. My co-workers are very nice, the working conditions are heaven compared to my days at Rinker, the shifts are only 8 hours long... I spend most of the day turning Purchase Requisitions into Purchase Orders. Sometimes I have to call the customer, the requester, up and find out an item's cost or who they want the vendor to be because they forget to fill in the forms completely. Often the vendors call me with pricing or quantity changes... eg. customer wanted 50 trays, but they come 12 to a case, so change it to 48 trays, etc. I am doing a pretty good job of keeping Betsy's queue caught up and I stay pretty busy during the day with the work.
My little office is an inside room with a desk, computer, telephone, chair, and bookcase. The others have outside windows. I don't think I really care, I can hear it raining outside really hard right now.
Still do not have Internet service at home yet. 2500 people still don't have electric in Kissimmee, so I guess I should not complain about it just yet. Just hope that I am not missing anything important in my RoadRunner e-mail. I am expecting a pen plotter to be shipped from California soon.
During the 10 days without power I got alot of reading done (with a flashlight at night). Finished A Travelers's Guide to Mars, read through The Leadership Secrets of Colin Powell, Wonder Bread and Ectasy: The Life and Death of Joey Steffano, right now I am reading Flight: the autobiography of Chris Kraft, NASA Mission Controller. Also read this month's issue of Wired magazine.
This weekend, in addition to getting some more suntanning, I am going to change the oil in the truck.
"Go and live the life you have imagined for yourself." -- Henry David Thoreau
Tuesday, August 24, 2004
Lake Buena Vista, FL
I know it has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote anything here. Alot has happened while I was away ! I will try to bring you up-to-date...
August 7
Only slept 4 hours on Friday - another bad dream about work. During the night most of the equipment ran pretty well. Around 3:30am we began to have trouble - the core bars in Doug's machine broke off of the cores... we were going to have to weld them back on again. At 4:00am we did the clean-up on Bob's machine. I cleaned the mixer myself. It went through the autowash cycle fine. Then, after it dumped the aggregate into the mixer it started making noise. It dumped mixer parts into the metering bin and onto the belt. So, I spent the next 4 hours rebuilding Bob's mixer.
Doug came in around 6am and he did not even come up and look at the mixer or say anything to us. I said to the guys helping with the mixer, "That's fine, this is the last damned thing I am going to fix for him!"
After I got done I went to the office and told him about everything that happened the night before. Then I told him to get someone in to help Walt Saturday night because I was not coming back.
I went drinking on a Saturday for the first time since July 4 weekend !
August 10
Wayne asked me if I was sure I wanted to quit. He told me to drive out to Cocoa Beach and tour the plant out there. Talk to Gary and Tim about the plant and John Schwalie. Wayne thinks that I had a personality conflict with Doug at Davenport.
If the job is what was bothering me, how would changing plants fix it ?
Now I am a man determined to find a new job. Interviewed at Spherion today for a mechanical assembly/quality control job.
August 11
Drove out to Cocoa like Wayne asked. Took 50 minutes. I do not see myself driving all this way everyday and working a 12-hour shift. Can't get out of my lease. The apartment will charge me $2400 if I break the lease now. By the time I was done visiting Cocoa I was pretty sure that I did not want to transfer.
August 12
Went job hunting this morning. Got an interview at Hanson Walter and Associates engineering office. Really opened my eyes to how much things have changed in the 10 years I have been away from the industry. In the afternoon I was beat and decided to take a nap. Could not get to sleep. Phone started to ring off the hook - calls about my resume and a recruiter setting me up to interview at Disney for a job writing Purchase Orders in SAP ! Phone interview on Monday.
Won an eBay auction for a drafting pen plotter. Got it for $202.00. Shipping is going to be another $100.00 from California. Paying for it from my checking account via PayPal.
August 13
Hurricane Charley is coming. When I laid down to take a nap around 2pm, the storm had 111 mph winds. When I got up 4 hours later the winds were over 140! Well, after 9:30pm I lost electric power. The winds were really making the trees dance outside ! The windows were shaking hard too ! I heard something hitting my front door and opened it to find roof shingles from next door blowing off and hitting my building. Very strong storm !
The next day the complex looked like a war zone. Roofs blown off. Trees uprooted. Lots of damage. The truck had a bedfull of shingles and a few scratches from shingles.
I did not know it then, but it would be 9 more days until I was going to get electric power back.
August 15
I got paid a full paycheck from Rinker. Olivia still has not processed my seperation paperwork.
Interview with Matt Thursam went well I think. Basically I think I can do everything he needs for me to do. In the afternoon Rob from Hi-Tec Associates told me that they want me and they want me to start on Monday, 23 August. Now I have my foot in the door!
August 24
Had a nice weekend off. Went out a couple of times.
Electric power came back Sunday night. I got laundry done, dishes washed, vacuum cleaner run, and a nice hot shower. Just in time for me to be ready for work on Monday !!
Everyone is nice here in the Distribution Center. Matt is the manager, there is Peggy, Dawn, Ana working here with me. Betsy, the person whose job I am doing is in Hong Kong helping set up a new park there.
Took most of the day to get my network access and SAP set up. Then the SAP took some figuring out to do... they run their SAP from a website and it is a little strange compared to what we had at Rinker. Nevertheless I got a couple of change orders and a couple of purchase orders done before the end of the day. I think I will do fine.
The nice thing was, when I came home I was not filthy and I was not exhausted. I even had a couple of hours to get some ironing done and read. Much better working conditions for me. I have to make sure that I can make this last.
I know it has been a couple of weeks since I last wrote anything here. Alot has happened while I was away ! I will try to bring you up-to-date...
August 7
Only slept 4 hours on Friday - another bad dream about work. During the night most of the equipment ran pretty well. Around 3:30am we began to have trouble - the core bars in Doug's machine broke off of the cores... we were going to have to weld them back on again. At 4:00am we did the clean-up on Bob's machine. I cleaned the mixer myself. It went through the autowash cycle fine. Then, after it dumped the aggregate into the mixer it started making noise. It dumped mixer parts into the metering bin and onto the belt. So, I spent the next 4 hours rebuilding Bob's mixer.
Doug came in around 6am and he did not even come up and look at the mixer or say anything to us. I said to the guys helping with the mixer, "That's fine, this is the last damned thing I am going to fix for him!"
After I got done I went to the office and told him about everything that happened the night before. Then I told him to get someone in to help Walt Saturday night because I was not coming back.
I went drinking on a Saturday for the first time since July 4 weekend !
August 10
Wayne asked me if I was sure I wanted to quit. He told me to drive out to Cocoa Beach and tour the plant out there. Talk to Gary and Tim about the plant and John Schwalie. Wayne thinks that I had a personality conflict with Doug at Davenport.
If the job is what was bothering me, how would changing plants fix it ?
Now I am a man determined to find a new job. Interviewed at Spherion today for a mechanical assembly/quality control job.
August 11
Drove out to Cocoa like Wayne asked. Took 50 minutes. I do not see myself driving all this way everyday and working a 12-hour shift. Can't get out of my lease. The apartment will charge me $2400 if I break the lease now. By the time I was done visiting Cocoa I was pretty sure that I did not want to transfer.
August 12
Went job hunting this morning. Got an interview at Hanson Walter and Associates engineering office. Really opened my eyes to how much things have changed in the 10 years I have been away from the industry. In the afternoon I was beat and decided to take a nap. Could not get to sleep. Phone started to ring off the hook - calls about my resume and a recruiter setting me up to interview at Disney for a job writing Purchase Orders in SAP ! Phone interview on Monday.
Won an eBay auction for a drafting pen plotter. Got it for $202.00. Shipping is going to be another $100.00 from California. Paying for it from my checking account via PayPal.
August 13
Hurricane Charley is coming. When I laid down to take a nap around 2pm, the storm had 111 mph winds. When I got up 4 hours later the winds were over 140! Well, after 9:30pm I lost electric power. The winds were really making the trees dance outside ! The windows were shaking hard too ! I heard something hitting my front door and opened it to find roof shingles from next door blowing off and hitting my building. Very strong storm !
The next day the complex looked like a war zone. Roofs blown off. Trees uprooted. Lots of damage. The truck had a bedfull of shingles and a few scratches from shingles.
I did not know it then, but it would be 9 more days until I was going to get electric power back.
August 15
I got paid a full paycheck from Rinker. Olivia still has not processed my seperation paperwork.
Interview with Matt Thursam went well I think. Basically I think I can do everything he needs for me to do. In the afternoon Rob from Hi-Tec Associates told me that they want me and they want me to start on Monday, 23 August. Now I have my foot in the door!
August 24
Had a nice weekend off. Went out a couple of times.
Electric power came back Sunday night. I got laundry done, dishes washed, vacuum cleaner run, and a nice hot shower. Just in time for me to be ready for work on Monday !!
Everyone is nice here in the Distribution Center. Matt is the manager, there is Peggy, Dawn, Ana working here with me. Betsy, the person whose job I am doing is in Hong Kong helping set up a new park there.
Took most of the day to get my network access and SAP set up. Then the SAP took some figuring out to do... they run their SAP from a website and it is a little strange compared to what we had at Rinker. Nevertheless I got a couple of change orders and a couple of purchase orders done before the end of the day. I think I will do fine.
The nice thing was, when I came home I was not filthy and I was not exhausted. I even had a couple of hours to get some ironing done and read. Much better working conditions for me. I have to make sure that I can make this last.
Friday, August 06, 2004
Kissimmee, FL
Yesterday we had to hand cube 329's. If the guy is not fast enough, the block machine stops because it runs out of pallets. Well, that probably caused alot of downtime for us. Eight hours after I backflushed, we had only accumulated five hours of uptime... one hour for the clean-up, but the rest of it because the man cubing was not keeping up.
Doug kept me late this morning to discuss my performance and training progress. First time he's talked to me at length since my Formal Warning. Makes me feel completely incompetent and useless. Never anything positive... nothing about anything that I did right. I did not get out of there until 8 AM. Got home, got showered, into bed by 9 AM. Slept solidly for six hours and woke up at 3 PM. Damn, I dread going back to that place.
I have to find another job fast... anything... calling Infinity Employment Solutions about some assembly jobs... if it pays about $10 an hour I think I can make it. Plus, it would only be 8-hour days and I could probably sleep better.
Yesterday we had to hand cube 329's. If the guy is not fast enough, the block machine stops because it runs out of pallets. Well, that probably caused alot of downtime for us. Eight hours after I backflushed, we had only accumulated five hours of uptime... one hour for the clean-up, but the rest of it because the man cubing was not keeping up.
Doug kept me late this morning to discuss my performance and training progress. First time he's talked to me at length since my Formal Warning. Makes me feel completely incompetent and useless. Never anything positive... nothing about anything that I did right. I did not get out of there until 8 AM. Got home, got showered, into bed by 9 AM. Slept solidly for six hours and woke up at 3 PM. Damn, I dread going back to that place.
I have to find another job fast... anything... calling Infinity Employment Solutions about some assembly jobs... if it pays about $10 an hour I think I can make it. Plus, it would only be 8-hour days and I could probably sleep better.
Thursday, August 05, 2004
Kissimmee, FL
Rain stormed yesterday afternoon. Drove through rain on my way to work.
At work we were running T-81's (lintels) on Bob's machine and T-329's (8x8x12) on Doug's machine. Right after I got there Doug's machine began to mess up. Kept picking up more than one pallet or lifting up the pallet receiver too soon. I watched it for two hours and had to fix it probably a dozen times. Finally called Doug and he said that the pallet receiver pads must be too tight, back them off 1/4 turn. So Walt put the pallet receiver in the down position... sure enough they were tight... so tight they could not move and the beam they ride on was HOT ! So we backed out the adjustment screw and that seemed to fix it !! Something so simple.
Problem with T-329's is that when they come out of the kiln today we will have to manually cube them. Someone will have to make the cube tie pattern by hand. That kinda sucks, but Walt and I have decided rotate each man through the job and to rotate them every hour. On Bob's side, the T-81's should be no trouble... they will cube up just as nice as regulars.
At 3:30 AM we were cleaning Bob's machine and Doug's machine made a terrible noise. Walked over to investigate. Saw the vibrator belts had come off... then I saw the mold box coming forward out of the machine ! The mold box mounting bolts had sheared off ! We were almost two hours trying to extract them. As it is we got two of the three sheared bolts out and put it back together to run again.
Doug was at a sleep clinic lastnight so we tried not to call him about anything. They had him wired up to observe his sleep. I am glad that I am not the only one having trouble sleeping.
Spoke with Boyd Williams today. He is absolutely happy with his new job in Leesburg. And it seems that the Leesburg plant is very happy to have him on there too. He is glad that he gets to go home everynight.
Today is Grandma Pat's birthday. I have been trying to call her all day long. I keep getting Edie's answering service. I guess they have her out playing bingo or celebrating her birthday somewhere.
Since Martin is on vacation I have no idea who is going to work his hours on Saturday or Sunday. Somehow I have a feeling I am going to be screwed. I will ask Bob about it before he leaves for the day. I am sure he has not even given it any thought.
I really really need to take some vacation myself. I am afraid to even ask though. As short as we are I would feel like I was putting someone out by taking off... but this schedule is killing me... and I am very very tired. I will have to ask Doug about it and see if I can get some guidance filling out the PTO form. Hell, I would take some time off without pay if I had to !
Dig the well before you are thirsty. -- Chinese proverb
Rain stormed yesterday afternoon. Drove through rain on my way to work.
At work we were running T-81's (lintels) on Bob's machine and T-329's (8x8x12) on Doug's machine. Right after I got there Doug's machine began to mess up. Kept picking up more than one pallet or lifting up the pallet receiver too soon. I watched it for two hours and had to fix it probably a dozen times. Finally called Doug and he said that the pallet receiver pads must be too tight, back them off 1/4 turn. So Walt put the pallet receiver in the down position... sure enough they were tight... so tight they could not move and the beam they ride on was HOT ! So we backed out the adjustment screw and that seemed to fix it !! Something so simple.
Problem with T-329's is that when they come out of the kiln today we will have to manually cube them. Someone will have to make the cube tie pattern by hand. That kinda sucks, but Walt and I have decided rotate each man through the job and to rotate them every hour. On Bob's side, the T-81's should be no trouble... they will cube up just as nice as regulars.
At 3:30 AM we were cleaning Bob's machine and Doug's machine made a terrible noise. Walked over to investigate. Saw the vibrator belts had come off... then I saw the mold box coming forward out of the machine ! The mold box mounting bolts had sheared off ! We were almost two hours trying to extract them. As it is we got two of the three sheared bolts out and put it back together to run again.
Doug was at a sleep clinic lastnight so we tried not to call him about anything. They had him wired up to observe his sleep. I am glad that I am not the only one having trouble sleeping.
Spoke with Boyd Williams today. He is absolutely happy with his new job in Leesburg. And it seems that the Leesburg plant is very happy to have him on there too. He is glad that he gets to go home everynight.
Today is Grandma Pat's birthday. I have been trying to call her all day long. I keep getting Edie's answering service. I guess they have her out playing bingo or celebrating her birthday somewhere.
Since Martin is on vacation I have no idea who is going to work his hours on Saturday or Sunday. Somehow I have a feeling I am going to be screwed. I will ask Bob about it before he leaves for the day. I am sure he has not even given it any thought.
I really really need to take some vacation myself. I am afraid to even ask though. As short as we are I would feel like I was putting someone out by taking off... but this schedule is killing me... and I am very very tired. I will have to ask Doug about it and see if I can get some guidance filling out the PTO form. Hell, I would take some time off without pay if I had to !
Dig the well before you are thirsty. -- Chinese proverb
Monday, August 02, 2004
Kissimmee, FL
Today I went to the post office to mail an envelope to Mom. Waited in line for over half an hour. The counter lady asked me how I wanted to send it and I told her it was not high priority. So, she charges me for Priority Mail. Dumb government employee.
Next I went down 17-92 to Benchmark Design, a local land surveying firm. I filled out their application and took their short test. They did not interview me because they just hired a CAD technician this weekend. The receptionist, Pam, said they will keep my resume in the front of the file though.
After that it was up to Leading Edge Land Services. They are up near I-Drive and Sea World. Really nice office. Filled in the application and left it for Angie to read and enter. The manager who would interview me was on his way out to a meeting so he did not have time. Angie said she is sure they will be calling me.
Now it is approaching 2:00... up I-4 to Orlando... across town on 50, then up 436 and University Blvd. to the Orlando Region Office to meet Wayne Bruner. Talked with Wayne for about an hour. He was telling me the things that Doug is telling him about me. He said is was not doing anything because he did not have both sides of the story. I was surprised at some of the big ones Doug is telling about me... but I got a couple of punches back today. The things I actually mess up are bad enough, but Doug should not be making shit up too. Wayne was not really concerned. He said that as far as the company is concerned I am still a VERY JUNIOR man and that no one else was running TWO block plants with just a few Adecco guys. He advised me to call them both EVERY night and talk to them.... talk about anything... the backflush, the way the machines are running... anything.. until they tell me to stop. Will do.
Next it was back home where I found a couple more CAD jobs on CareerBuilder.com that I applied for by e-mail. Going to stop by a temp agency tomorrow to apply for an electronic assembly job and stop by a reprographics shop too. Gotta keep calling these guys back and making sure they remember who I am.
Surprised I did not hear from AGT yet. Drew was sure the HR guy would contact me in a day or two. Not really worried - they will call when I do not expect it, or after I have found another job.
Working through the AutoCAD 2004 book. I am using AutoCAD R14, but the interface differences are very minimal. I am passing pages of the book quickly because I have done this before and I anticipate how the lesson will go.
Sunny hot day today. Supposed to rain this evening, but I do not believe it has. I know TS Alex has people concerned along the Carolina's this week. This is just the start of the season.
Find a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life. -- Jim Fox
Today I went to the post office to mail an envelope to Mom. Waited in line for over half an hour. The counter lady asked me how I wanted to send it and I told her it was not high priority. So, she charges me for Priority Mail. Dumb government employee.
Next I went down 17-92 to Benchmark Design, a local land surveying firm. I filled out their application and took their short test. They did not interview me because they just hired a CAD technician this weekend. The receptionist, Pam, said they will keep my resume in the front of the file though.
After that it was up to Leading Edge Land Services. They are up near I-Drive and Sea World. Really nice office. Filled in the application and left it for Angie to read and enter. The manager who would interview me was on his way out to a meeting so he did not have time. Angie said she is sure they will be calling me.
Now it is approaching 2:00... up I-4 to Orlando... across town on 50, then up 436 and University Blvd. to the Orlando Region Office to meet Wayne Bruner. Talked with Wayne for about an hour. He was telling me the things that Doug is telling him about me. He said is was not doing anything because he did not have both sides of the story. I was surprised at some of the big ones Doug is telling about me... but I got a couple of punches back today. The things I actually mess up are bad enough, but Doug should not be making shit up too. Wayne was not really concerned. He said that as far as the company is concerned I am still a VERY JUNIOR man and that no one else was running TWO block plants with just a few Adecco guys. He advised me to call them both EVERY night and talk to them.... talk about anything... the backflush, the way the machines are running... anything.. until they tell me to stop. Will do.
Next it was back home where I found a couple more CAD jobs on CareerBuilder.com that I applied for by e-mail. Going to stop by a temp agency tomorrow to apply for an electronic assembly job and stop by a reprographics shop too. Gotta keep calling these guys back and making sure they remember who I am.
Surprised I did not hear from AGT yet. Drew was sure the HR guy would contact me in a day or two. Not really worried - they will call when I do not expect it, or after I have found another job.
Working through the AutoCAD 2004 book. I am using AutoCAD R14, but the interface differences are very minimal. I am passing pages of the book quickly because I have done this before and I anticipate how the lesson will go.
Sunny hot day today. Supposed to rain this evening, but I do not believe it has. I know TS Alex has people concerned along the Carolina's this week. This is just the start of the season.
Find a job you love and you'll never have to work a day in your life. -- Jim Fox
Sunday, August 01, 2004
Kissimmee, FL
Lastnight was not too bad. The machinery ran reasonably well... Well, it ran well enough that I did not have to call anyone for help. Just small problems with the loader backing up or the car and crawler needing help. Trouble did not start until this morning after we were finishing our clean up. Could not get Doug's mixer to start back up. When Doug came in we found out that it had double-batched on us and filled the mixer up. That was a mess. Had to empty it and clean the mess up, then I still had to top off the bins. I was there until 9 AM.
The new Senior Leadman, Roger Helms, Wayne's brother-in-law, started today. I started him watching the safety videos, but he sure took a great interest in my batcher/mixer problems. Hehehee... he will soon find out for himself !
I know that Bob absolutely did not want a relative of Wayne's working in our plant. I do not know this for certain, but this is how I imagine the conversation going:
Wayne: "Bob, do you have any leadmen or foremen you can spare to help The Shop
out with the rail package installation up at our new St. Augustine
plant?"
Bob: "Sorry Wayne, we are so short-handed here, we cannot spare anyone."
Wayne: "Well, if you are so short, then you have a job for my brother-in-law.
I will send him over for an interview this week !"
Hahahaha! Open mouth, insert foot, Bob. You would have been better off just sending me up to St. Augustine for a week. Not that I am eager to work with The Shop again anytime soon (esp. after the way they treated Boyd).
Checked on eBay for the drafting plotters I was watching. I was surprised to see several of them go with zero bids being placed and the others for for $100 - $200 ! I should have placed a token bid on one of those atleast !! I am still watching a few auctions. Sometimes there is one that I would really really like, but it says LOCAL PICKUP ONLY - NO SHIPPING. And ofcourse the plotter is in someplace like Arizona or California.
Rainy evening here. I was going to go out, but I am so beat that I do not feel like it . Slept from noon to six, but I am still sore and rundown. Tonsils are swollen and sore and I feel like I am getting a cold. My right eye still is red and has strings of mucus in it. I hope the Doctor was right about it being cleared up... geez, it has been bothering me since the first week of May!
Sandwich every bit of criticism between two layers of praise. -- Mary Kay Ash Mary Kay on People Management
Lastnight was not too bad. The machinery ran reasonably well... Well, it ran well enough that I did not have to call anyone for help. Just small problems with the loader backing up or the car and crawler needing help. Trouble did not start until this morning after we were finishing our clean up. Could not get Doug's mixer to start back up. When Doug came in we found out that it had double-batched on us and filled the mixer up. That was a mess. Had to empty it and clean the mess up, then I still had to top off the bins. I was there until 9 AM.
The new Senior Leadman, Roger Helms, Wayne's brother-in-law, started today. I started him watching the safety videos, but he sure took a great interest in my batcher/mixer problems. Hehehee... he will soon find out for himself !
I know that Bob absolutely did not want a relative of Wayne's working in our plant. I do not know this for certain, but this is how I imagine the conversation going:
Wayne: "Bob, do you have any leadmen or foremen you can spare to help The Shop
out with the rail package installation up at our new St. Augustine
plant?"
Bob: "Sorry Wayne, we are so short-handed here, we cannot spare anyone."
Wayne: "Well, if you are so short, then you have a job for my brother-in-law.
I will send him over for an interview this week !"
Hahahaha! Open mouth, insert foot, Bob. You would have been better off just sending me up to St. Augustine for a week. Not that I am eager to work with The Shop again anytime soon (esp. after the way they treated Boyd).
Checked on eBay for the drafting plotters I was watching. I was surprised to see several of them go with zero bids being placed and the others for for $100 - $200 ! I should have placed a token bid on one of those atleast !! I am still watching a few auctions. Sometimes there is one that I would really really like, but it says LOCAL PICKUP ONLY - NO SHIPPING. And ofcourse the plotter is in someplace like Arizona or California.
Rainy evening here. I was going to go out, but I am so beat that I do not feel like it . Slept from noon to six, but I am still sore and rundown. Tonsils are swollen and sore and I feel like I am getting a cold. My right eye still is red and has strings of mucus in it. I hope the Doctor was right about it being cleared up... geez, it has been bothering me since the first week of May!
Sandwich every bit of criticism between two layers of praise. -- Mary Kay Ash Mary Kay on People Management