Autumnal Equinox

Today is the first day of Fall 2019.  We are having some nice autumn-like weather today too - it is cool and dry!

At work it has been quiet in the Kilo Lab for the past two weeks since we finished Twelve Hundred Pharma.  We are about to get really busy again with Takeda and two more projects coming.  We had to pull the Huber that heated and chilled the 100-L reactor and a new Julabo is being put in its place.

This week we are going to have to do a few days of shift work because Process Chemistry developed a process for us, but they did not identify hold points.  They will share in the pain - Tom is insisting that their director, Brian Heasley, and the two chemists, Shankar Sivaraman, and Praveen Suryadevara, will be present to support the process.  Hopefully this will only last a couple of days.

Our birthdays are approaching soon.  I got a few gifts for Bobby, and spent over $500.  He said he wants a small ice cream cake for his birthday.  For my birthday dinner, I want Pizza Hut Super Supreme stuffed crust pizza.

After that sumptuous meal, back to the diet.  So far I have lost over 20 pounds and still going!

In Hempstead at Beaver Creek, the developer is building the last two buildings and curb and gutter repairs have started.  As soon as the last building is finished the streets will have their final life of asphalt paved down.

Apex, NC

Hurricane Dorian rolled right up the coast past us.  We only got a little rain from it.  Ocracoke Island took a lot of flooding that came in from the sound side.

It was a short, four-day work week due to the Labor Day holiday, but Tom asked me to come in on Saturday and help run a chromatography column.  After we got Bob's haircut, we picked up salads at Jersey Mikes, and then headed to Cambrex.

Bob sat at my desk while I was down the hall helping Robert run the column.  It wasn't too bad.  We got there at 10:30 and left by 1:30.

It was pretty weather all weekend.

On Wednesday as the storm was approaching, we were watching WRAL TV 5 out of Raleigh.  I was surprised to see Amanda Lamb interview Kittie Brunjes at Wrightsville Beach.   Mrs. Brunjes was my high school Spanish teacher.  At 75 she is having house built to replace the one damaged by Hurricane Florence last year.

I posted the video about Kitty Brunjes on Facebook and a large number of people shared it and liked it.

Here comes another week of work.  Ugghh.. a full-size week now.

Dorian

Hurricane Dorian is pounding the Bahamas today with winds of 185 MPH!  The weather forecast calls for the storm to turn left and begin moving up the coast.  We will begin to see rains for this storm on Thursday.

We finished a batch of Compound 7 at work this week.  Twelve Hundred Pharma is about finished for now.  We have a new project coming for Takeda Chemical and it's getting fast tracked.  After that we have another project called Trevina. Twelve Hundred Pharma will go to GMP in October.

I am sure we will be covering all of our equipment up with plastic on Wednesday as the storm approaches.

We went to Food Lion today for grocery and we bought a few extra things in case there is a big storm.  Some extra water and some cold cuts.  If the power goes, I might bring dry ice home from work.

If the storm is still very strong we will have to tie our deck chairs down and make room to bring the car and trash cans inside.