Mobile Post Sep 28, 2018 at 08:33

Thank God it's Friday.

This week started out with a important tour of our spaces.  I was in 414 working alone when I heard the group come in to 413.  In a couple of minutes Jeff led a couple of guys into 414. Then more people kept coming in - ultimately 14 people filled my room while Jeff blathered on about the equipment.

After about 5 minutes they filed out and headed to Analytical.

The good thing about this is that the preparations rapidly improved the material condition of the labs.

The rest of the week has been good.  I am working with Joe Moore on a couple of compounds for Immune Design.

I am sure glad the weekend is here.

I am currently located at

3501 Tricenter Blvd
Durham NC 27713
United States

I am 15.6 miles from home.

https://maps.apple.com/?q=35.929254,-78.882684&ll=35.929254,-78.882684

Tour Group

My labs never looked so good.  I just put on some finishing touches on Monday morning to prepare for the important tour. 

One thing I did was put the covers back on the utility hand holes on the hood walls.  These were tricky to install because it consists of a panel floating in a rubber seal that has to be snapped snuggly into the opening.  It is very easy to push too far and have the panel pop out of the back.  I got all 6 of the panels put back in.  Not perfectly, but good enough.

The tour group came in around 2:00 pm.  I was alone in 414 watching our product filtering on the fritted glass funnel.  I heard Jeff speaking in 413 and his was the only voice I heard.  A few moments later the group began to filter into 414.  Jeff and two guys first, then Ken, then Elliot, then more and more people.  A total of 14 people filled my lab!

Jeff was pointing out the equipment that we had in the Kilo Lab and how it is used.  A tall man with silvery-white hair asked if they planned to transition my labs to GMP manufacturing.  Jeff began explaining how we would need to install engineering controls to guarantee quality, then Ken interrupted and said that it would just be too costly to do.

After about 5 minutes the group filed out and headed over to Analytical.

That was two days ago and I haven't heard a peep about how the tour went, whether leadership was happy about how everything looked, or if the meetings with Cambrex are producing the desired outcome. 

Joe Moore and I continue working on Compound 11 and we started Compound 13 yesterday afternoon.  We have enough work to keep us busy but the past two days have not been too stressful.

Overtime

Hood 414-2

On Monday we are having an important client visit us at Avista.  This is so important Jeff told me that while my lab looks very good, for Monday it has to be "immaculate".

It is frustrating because I am helping a chemist run a process and sometimes it feels like I am going backwards because we are making messes while we work.


Over the past couple of days I have gotten the plastic hurricane covers off of all of the equipment, cleaned and shined the equipment, stored all bottles of oil, stored all bottles of bleach and Simple Green degreaser, and worked on de-cluttering the labs.

Hood 413-1

Yesterday I began cleaning the sliding glass doors on the hoods.  This was slow going because I was also helping Joe with the Immune Design Compound 11.  But I got both of the hoods in 413 cleaned up.
 
Today I had to go in and finish.  I cleaned the 100-liter glass reactor, and cleaned the sliding doors on Hood 414-2 first. I cleaned the glass on my exterior door, and the glass windows on the door to the wash room and the exit door from 414.  I also hung a large canvas periodic table of the elements on the side of Hood 413-2.  At the very end I mopped everything out.  Hopefully this will be good enough.

Hood  413-2

I used a squeegee to clean the big glass doors.  I cleaned with a solution of Dawn dish detergent and Jet Dry.  It leaves very few streaks.

The client that is touring on Monday is a company that was interested in buying Avista in the past.  Now, that company has bought another pharma manufacturer, but they are interested in partnering with Avista and letting us handle the pilot-scale work and then transferring the technology to the other company for full-scale manufacture.  Evidently they have expressed some interest in investing in Avista.

They must have dangled a big wad of money in front of them because everyone is cleaning.  The facilities people are working this weekend cleaning and waxing floors and painting all of the hallways!  Crazy.

At least I got some overtime out of it.  I earn $37.50 per hour during overtime.  After spending 12 hours cleaning, the client will only spend 2 minutes in my labs.  I hope it was worth it to the company.

Construction Progress

Looking northeast into the basement.

After breakfast this morning we drove down to Apex to check on the progress at our townhouse under construction.

This week they poured the basement and garage floors and they attached the basement window escape wells to the front of the house.  I suspect the framing will go on next and then the house is going to rise up pretty fast.

Looking south at the front of our house.

I had to go in to work today to clean and get ready for a VIP tour on Monday.  I was at work for about 4 hours and 30 minutes.  I have 5 hours and 30 minutes of overtime at $37.50 per hour!

When I got home from work I took Bob to Great Clips to get his haircut.  We went to the salon near our new house in Apex.  This one is next to a Publix Supermarket, so I went over and picked out a few things while Bob sat in the barber's chair.

I am tired and after doing laundry, vacuuming, and getting our grocery tomorrow, this little weekend is going to be finished.

Mobile Post Sep 17, 2018 at 08:43

I returned to work this morning. Traffic was light on the way in, but it was still raining.  The radio broadcast was interrupted several times by The Emergency Broadcast System warning of tornadoes and flash flooding.

Right now I am sheltering in an interior room because a tornado warning was issued for our area.

I think that the worst of it will be over for the Triangle after this morning.

We hardly got anything compared to the beating the coast took. All roads into Wilmington are under water and rivers are not expected to crest until tomorrow.

I am currently located at

3501 Tricenter Blvd
Durham NC 27713
United States

I am 18.8 miles from home.

https://maps.apple.com/?q=35.929251,-78.883386&ll=35.929251,-78.883386

Vince Thigpen

Sent from my iPhone

Rainy Day

Hurricane Florence continues to drop rain today.  We were supposed to get 6" - 10" of total rain through Monday.  So far, 4.6 inches of rain has fallen and we have the potential of receiving 2 inches tomorrow.

Rainfall potential thru Monday

12.4 inches of rain has fallen in Wilmington as of today.  Becky and Bill are at home, but their house lost some shingles and water is coming into their garage.  Mom called today and said that their ditch is backed up and that some of the big trees behind their house fell.  She said the trip back to the house from Marrissia's house was difficult at times.

We stayed inside today.  I made a big breakfast of scrambled eggs, hash brown potatoes, cottage cheese, and pear halves.  It has been a leisurely day of reading and knitting.  The winds have calmed down, but the rains come and go.

Tomorrow I am planning to get the laundry washed and dried.  Then I will run the vacuum cleaner.  We have to go to Food Lion to get food for the week too.

I am at home in Cary, NC.

Vince Thigpen

Sent from my iPhone

Family Tree

I am taking advantage of my time off from work to copy and update my paternal grandmother's family tree.  There are plenty of gaps and unknowns that I will not be able to fill in, but I should be able to get it up to date on descendants.

Hunkering Down

Hurricane Florence continues to slowly approach the NC coast.  The track seems to be adjusted every hour, first it's coming ashore on Wrightsville Beach, now Carolina Beach.

On Facebook people are posting video of storm surge at Topsail Beach and Carolina Beach.

I went to work this morning and we finished covering up equipment in the labs.  Right before I left I covered my computer and desk phone with plastic bags.  Avista closed today at 1:00 PM.

On my way home I stopped in Apex to see the house under construction.  The waterproofing and foundation drainage have been installed and the plumbers were still working while I was there.

It is cloudy here and there is a breeze.  There will be thunderstorms tonight.  I imagine we will see more rain tomorrow.


I am at home in Cary, NC.

Vince Thigpen

Sent from my iPhone

Storm

Preparations for Hurricane Florence continued today at Avista.

I was in 414, when Doug, the Safety Officer, came in and said, "Surprise inspection!"  I told him to knock himself out because I knew that my labs are better off than most - in fact, 413 and 414 were the only two labs on our side of the building that had the fire extinguishers inspected last week!

What Doug came in to the room to investigate was the 20-L glass reactor that has been decommissioned and has a "DO NOT USE" sign hanging from it.  Doug said that Ken is upset that the reactor is still in the lab.  I said, "Now how does Ken even know this reactor is here?"  Doug confessed that Ken knows because he told him about it!  OMG!

After Doug left I began to disassemble the reactor and salvaged the agitator and fittings.  I had to drain the jacket of the SilOil cooling fluid.  The jacket held 10-L of coolant!  As I was cleaning everything up from this, Jeff came in and said that this was not a priority, but storm preparations were.  I was to head over to 306 and help cover equipment.  Jeff left and I finished up cleaning.

As I was cleaning up some spilled fluid I heard glass breaking over in 413.  Praveen has been working in there in the hood and Joe was in there helping him.  Joe came running over to ask me where the acetone was.  I told him that I had cleaning acetone in the dish room.  Then he asked me where the spill pads were.  I told him those were on the shelf in the glass storage room.  I decided that I needed to step over and take a look at what was going on.

Praveen's reactor had somehow pressurized, ejected the nitrogen blanket cap from its port, and spewed his black coffee colored product all over the back and side of the hood, the ceiling, and the floor.  Oh boy!

This was a big mess, but fortunately the product easily dissolves in acetone.

I texted Jeff about the spill and Jeff wanted to know if anyone was hurt, what the product was, and how much of it spilled.  I told him it was a dichloropyridine derived product and that we were cleaning it up with acetone, paper towels, and spill pads. Soon Brian, Praveen's supervisor appeared in the lab to ask additional questions.

The clean up took over an hour.

Jeff sent Cliff and Tom to 413 to help Praveen get his project back on track.  There was a lot of disagreement over what exactly caused the batch to pressurize and spray out.  Tom and Cliff put together a much larger condenser for Praveen and connected it to the FTS chiller loop.

I had the FTS running already because I was preparing to get Compound 9 out of the freezer and thaw it out in the rotavap bath.

While I went to lunch the bulb containing Compound 9 slowly rotated in the rotavap bath and the product slowly melted.  I started the vacuum pump and started cooling to the condensers, but not more solvent came over.

After lunch I had to get containers for the product.  I got a 250 mL amber bottle for the 100 grams of GMP material, a Quarantine sticker for that bottle, and two 500 mL amber bottles for the rest of the material.  I also put 2 grams into a scintillation vial for Analytical.

It took me over an hour to get the material packaged.  Then I put the bottles into a 4 mil plastic bag, zip tied it shut, and put it into the freezer until we process it further.

Jeff found me later and gave me a red envelope.  Inside was a pre-paid credit card for $25 from Avista to help with "storm preparations".  That was pretty cool of them.

Another thing that is pretty cool - we are closing at 1 PM tomorrow.  Everyone will be paid for the last three hours of the day and all day Friday!

Marrissia texted me today to let me know Becky and Bill are staying at their house.  She asked me if I was glad she didn't send them up here!  Kevin boarded up the windows on their house.  I don't know, I think I would have taken my chances with the storm instead of being locked up in that house with those noisy and energetic kids!  I am surprised that Becky and Bill decided to leave their house.  I figured they would have stubbornly stayed behind.  I am most worried about flooding at their house - it isn't very high above sea level.

This evening I took the car over to the Shell station on Walnut Street and got the tank filled.  It was busy.  Cars were backed up out the driveway and up the street waiting to get in.  Next I popped into Food Lion to get a few things.  The aisle that holds the bottled water was completely wiped out!

While we were sorting through all of our books I found Florence Crocker's Family Journal - her family tree.  It was compiled by Robert Kline and printed in 1991 on a dot matrix printer. It is getting very faint and hard to read.  I have the original copy.  I figured I had better transcribe this to the computer, update it, and get it out to my relatives before it winks out of existence.  Strange that Flo gave the only copy to me.  I guess she knew I would take good care of it.

Now I have to unload the dishwasher and do a little reading before laying down for the night. 

Mobile Post Sep 11, 2018 at 07:46

Hurricane Florence is coming and the projected path is aiming right at us in Cary!

Stores are being cleaned out of food, plywood, and generators. They ran out of gasoline in Fuquay-Varina yesterday.



Path of Hurricane Florence.

I am especially worried for family and friends in Wilmington on the coast where the storm will be especially punishing.

Right now I am at work. Today the managers are making a tour to ensure that all chemicals are up off of the floor In case the roof leaks or a window breaks.

Stay tuned for more...

I am currently located at

3501 Tricenter Blvd
Durham NC 27713
United States

I am 15.6 miles from home.

https://maps.apple.com/?q=35.929100,-78.882913&ll=35.929100,-78.882913

 

Vince Thigpen

Sent from my iPhone

Saturday

Concrete foundation walls are poured.

This morning we went to breakfast at The Egg & I in Cary.   Bob had the Bacon-Avocado Scramble and I had a Breakfast Burrito.  After breakfast we drove down to Beaver Creek to see the progress on our new townhouse.

The basement walls are poured.  This includes openings for the windows, a penetration for the sewer pipe, and a hole for the city water to enter the house.

At first I was confused about the concrete "buttresses" in front of the front wall.  Later I realized that these walls were put there to support the weight of the concrete front porch.  So where the two walls are close together, that is where our front door will be.

I imagine the basement/garage floor will be poured soon and then wood framing will begin to rise from the foundation.  There should be a lot of progress visible in the coming weeks.

Bob stands in front of our new house.

After taking a few pictures of the construction site, we headed over to the Target store in Beaver Creek Commons.  Bob was shopping for some canned iced coffee.  We picked up some blackberry flavored ginger ale, and some jig saw blades that were on clearance.

Bob in the gorilla mask.

Halloween costumes and decorations are on display at Target and we tried on a gorilla mask just for fun.  In this picture you can see Bob holding on to the shopping cart and modeling the gorilla mask!  It was very hot in this mask and it was hard to see out of it.

We headed over to the State Farmer's Market after Target and we got two jars of mustard and a jar of pickled watermelon rind.  We were going to get some tomatoes and peaches too, but Bob wore sweatpants and temps were quite a bit higher than forecast.  So, back to the AC in the car and back home where he could rest.

Overall it was a good day. 

Friday

This was a short week and incredibly, it was an easy week.  Stephanie and I had hardly anything to do in the Kilo Lab this week.

Today Jeff brought a man named Robert through my lab.  Robert is a very young chemist with a PhD and he is seeking to join our team.

In the afternoon, Tom sent an email out telling us which fractions we could combine and rotavap down.  The bulb with the rest of the batch was taken out of the freezer and brought to 414.  We let it warm up and them chucked it up on the rotavap and started spinning it.

I had 6 liters of solution in the bulb and cooked it down in about an hour.  After it stopped distilling I took it off, dried it, and put it on the scale.  It looks like we picked up about 80 grams!

Finally the weekend is here, but I know it will pass quickly.

Kilo Lab

Today was another slower day in the Kilo Lab.  Shankar finished his project for Jeff and he packed the material up, disassembled his lab ware, and cleaned up.  We cleaned the glassware and we performed a boil out on the rotavap.

Later in the morning, Darryl, the Bűchi technician, came in to repair the rotavap in 414.  He replaced the damaged sensor and gave the machine a test run.  It has a shimmy now.  It shakes at certain speeds.  I think we can live with it for now.

After Darryl left, I began to reassemble all of the glassware on the rotavap.  Clamping the steam pipe to the top of the drive unit, then clamping the crossover pipe to the steam pipe and the top of the condenser, and finally clamping the waste flasks to the drain pipe on the condensers. 

I filled the bulb with acetone and performed a boil out on this rotavap too.  It worked, but it didn't go lower than 45 mm Hg vacuum.  Either we have an air leak somewhere, or the vacuum pump isn't working as well as it should.  We will look into it more tomorrow.

This evening Bob made roasted vegetables for dinner with kielbasa sausage.  It was very tasty and he has enough veggies leftover to make it again on Friday!

Labor Day

Bob takes Buddy downstairs

Yesterday I got all of the usual chores done - wash, dry, fold, store the laundry; make breakfast; run dishwasher; vacuum floors.  In the evening we went to Food Lion and got our grocery for the week.

Today I made breakfast again and I rubbed leather dressing into the sofa and ottoman.  We went to Barnes & Noble and browsed the books.  Other than that we just hung out at home and rested.

I have to return to work tomorrow.  On the bright side, the work week will only be 4 days long!

First Month of Fall ?

Footers are poured at Hempstead!

This morning I went to breakfast at The Egg & I as usual.  On the way there I rounded the corner from Maynard Road to Walnut Street probably just a little too fast and the 'Service Engine' light came on.  I think there is water in the gas tank.

I had avocado toast with eggs for breakfast.

After breakfast I drove to Apex to see the progress on our house.  The footers have been poured and steel forms have been laid around the perimeter.  These forms will be bolted together to hold the concrete in place for the basement wall.  I snapped a few pictures and then headed out of there.

I stopped at Walgreens in Apex to get Lysol for Bob's hospital room.  I picked up a Coke Zero and a lemon-flavored Pure Leaf tea for Bob.  I looked for Techron gas treatment, but they did not have it.

As I was leaving and about to get into the car, I heard someone call my name!  I looked and saw a lady getting out of a silver Ford Focus.  It was Deena Lovelace, Tom's wife!  I told her about the house and about Bob being in the hospital.  She confided to me that she was diagnosed with emphysema and COPD.  She is taking Chantix and is going to stop smoking next Sunday.

Getting out of the hospital.

After Walgreens I popped across the street to Shell to fill the gas tank, then it was back on to US-64 East, to US-1/I-440, to New Bern Avenue and WakeMed Hospital.

Bob was getting a bath when I got there.  He was told that they were going to discharge him in the afternoon!  They don't know if the bleeding has stopped, but his symptoms have improved, so they are going to let him go.  He has to make a follow up appointment at UNC soon.  He left with a prescription for more physical therapy and a prescription for Cipro (he has a UTI).

He was feeling kind of tired so we came right home.  He took a shower and then laid down for a nap.  I went to Wal*Mart and filled his prescription and got some gas treatment for the car.

Now he is laying in bed eating a little dinner and watching political commentary on the TV.  I am glad we did not make plans to travel this holiday weekend!  It feels like we dodged a bullet!