Good Morning, and it IS good, because I'm not working today... much. My First day off in a while. We're in the middle of a four month process of moving our company to our new building, just 400 ft from where we are now. A hundred people, hundreds of huge machines and tones of material and other stuff. A daunting process to me.
The "new" building was built in the 60's, and it needs a lot of work to get it ready for us. The money! Oh my God, the money it cost to do stuff these days on this scale. Imagine how much it costs to do something like repair and repave a 3 acre parking lot in the middle of L.A. We just did that and literally the moment it was finished with steam still coming off it, the water main busted and we had to dig a 200 ft trench 5 feet deep right through the middle of it.
Every day lately is like that. I wake up full of piss and vinegar ready to go at today's challenges and by lunch I'm beaten to a pulp by Murphy's Law, which it turns out always has an enormous price tag. By the end of the day, we have slayed that day's dragons enough to go home and get some rest before the next day.
On Friday at 3:30pm, just as the night shift was starting, one of our 4 compressors literally blew up. It threw a bearing and the 1/4" thick metal side of the crankcase blew right out of the pump. It hit the compressor next to it and tore off the piping and hoses, knocking that one out too, then the 5 pound piece of shrapnel continued through a fence, cutting the main airline to the building, ricocheted off a brick wall and slammed into one of our two huge liquid nitrogen tanks. Luckily it didn't penetrate the stainless steel jacket. 1000 gallons of liquid nitrogen spilling into the neighborhood would have put us in the news for sure as a possible terrorist attack and plunging a couple city blocks into a little ice age.
Anyway that put us out of business for the night, as we scrambled for a solution, which came quickly from a vendor who offered to loan us a big compressor and bring it first thing in the morning. So by early morning Saturday we were back up and running.
While the maintence guys were working on that, the rest of us went to work tearing up flooring and repairing drywall and other stuff to get the office areas ready to move in. Everyone side by side: managers, line workers, new people, and the CEO all sweating and banging it out together as a team. There was much laughing and camaraderie, and all were happy to have work, especially overtime Saturday at time and a half.
We are still far from moved in. In fact, we have not moved a single machine yet. We start that next week by moving our laser machine. Disconnecting it, moving it 400 ft and hooking it back up takes two weeks and will cost over 30 grand. That's just one machine. This small-town Pennsylvania boy is blown away by the numbers people put in front of me everyday. It's just nuts!
Fortunatley,I have great people who really step up to challenges when they are asked to, and they amaze me day after day. I hope we can get through this and still afford to be in business.
As I mentioned a while back, I was chosen as Small Business Person of the Year for 2014 for all of Los Angeles County - from Catalina Island to the Mohave Desert I hope I'm still in business by 2015. I think we can do it logistically and financially. I only really fear the local and state government here who routinely cripple businesses like mine for not complying with an indecipherable byzantine and highly pernicious pile of contradictory regulations that nobody understands and that are part of everything in this city and state. We'll see how it all works out in this adventure - the biggest challenge of my life so far.
Open thread you say? Well then let me blather on a bit more. I got coffee here.
Speaking of challenges, I mentioned a few months back that I was taking the new anti-Hepatitis treatment Sovaldi for the 3-month regimes. I ended my treatment 4 month ago. I just had my first follow up blood test this week, and so far the virus has not returned. According to the CDC, 6 months and you are considered permanently cured. I think I'm there. I've had this virus for 37 years, and have been actively fighting since 2001 when I found out I had it. It gave me cancer twice, and forced me through a bunch of awful treatments and surgeries, cost me a liver, a gall bladder and a rib so far. I'm celebrating a victory today over one of God's mistakes - the Hep - C virus. Dude, what were you thinking with that?
So, Wohoo! It's Sunday, a beautiful sunny one too, and I do thank you for that. I really do! And for the other GIFTS that make the time off such a joy.
BTW, one of my favorite songs is Van Morrison's "Washing Windows" - blue collar gratitude and peace.
Bags! So, essentially, a bullet ricocheted through the factory. Yikes. You are lucky no one was hit. Bodacious girlfriend, dude. But wow is it dry. You need rain. I will pray for rain. *imagine the winds will change and a pineapple express will deliver drenching rain to the whole parched state.* Most importantly: so glad to know the miracle drug worked. Really and truly delighted. What a relief after the battle. Hooray.
"So, essentially, a bullet ricocheted through the factory. "
Luckily these machines are kept outside the building, mostly because they are loud, but now we know there is an even better reason. They are also in a cage, but that didn't stop this thing from escaping.
Oh, I got the title wrong on one of my favorite songs - "Cleaning Windows" and it's repeated over and over in the lyrics. What can I say? I got no standards on my day off.
Do Irish even say "washing"? Where I'm from it's "worshin".
Yes, April, it is very dry. It hasn't really rained enough to worsh the dirt of your car for over a year here. It's coming though. It always does, and then the panic is forgotten, but the water rates never go back to pre-panick levels. In California a temporary increase in any cost is always permanent.
22 comments:
Good Morning, and it IS good, because I'm not working today... much. My First day off in a while. We're in the middle of a four month process of moving our company to our new building, just 400 ft from where we are now. A hundred people, hundreds of huge machines and tones of material and other stuff. A daunting process to me.
The "new" building was built in the 60's, and it needs a lot of work to get it ready for us. The money! Oh my God, the money it cost to do stuff these days on this scale. Imagine how much it costs to do something like repair and repave a 3 acre parking lot in the middle of L.A. We just did that and literally the moment it was finished with steam still coming off it, the water main busted and we had to dig a 200 ft trench 5 feet deep right through the middle of it.
Every day lately is like that. I wake up full of piss and vinegar ready to go at today's challenges and by lunch I'm beaten to a pulp by Murphy's Law, which it turns out always has an enormous price tag. By the end of the day, we have slayed that day's dragons enough to go home and get some rest before the next day.
On Friday at 3:30pm, just as the night shift was starting, one of our 4 compressors literally blew up. It threw a bearing and the 1/4" thick metal side of the crankcase blew right out of the pump. It hit the compressor next to it and tore off the piping and hoses, knocking that one out too, then the 5 pound piece of shrapnel continued through a fence, cutting the main airline to the building, ricocheted off a brick wall and slammed into one of our two huge liquid nitrogen tanks. Luckily it didn't penetrate the stainless steel jacket. 1000 gallons of liquid nitrogen spilling into the neighborhood would have put us in the news for sure as a possible terrorist attack and plunging a couple city blocks into a little ice age.
Anyway that put us out of business for the night, as we scrambled for a solution, which came quickly from a vendor who offered to loan us a big compressor and bring it first thing in the morning. So by early morning Saturday we were back up and running.
While the maintence guys were working on that, the rest of us went to work tearing up flooring and repairing drywall and other stuff to get the office areas ready to move in. Everyone side by side: managers, line workers, new people, and the CEO all sweating and banging it out together as a team. There was much laughing and camaraderie, and all were happy to have work, especially overtime Saturday at time and a half.
We are still far from moved in. In fact, we have not moved a single machine yet. We start that next week by moving our laser machine. Disconnecting it, moving it 400 ft and hooking it back up takes two weeks and will cost over 30 grand. That's just one machine. This small-town Pennsylvania boy is blown away by the numbers people put in front of me everyday. It's just nuts!
Fortunatley,I have great people who really step up to challenges when they are asked to, and they amaze me day after day. I hope we can get through this and still afford to be in business.
As I mentioned a while back, I was chosen as Small Business Person of the Year for 2014 for all of Los Angeles County - from Catalina Island to the Mohave Desert I hope I'm still in business by 2015. I think we can do it logistically and financially. I only really fear the local and state government here who routinely cripple businesses like mine for not complying with an indecipherable byzantine and highly pernicious pile of contradictory regulations that nobody understands and that are part of everything in this city and state. We'll see how it all works out in this adventure - the biggest challenge of my life so far.
Open thread you say? Well then let me blather on a bit more. I got coffee here.
Speaking of challenges, I mentioned a few months back that I was taking the new anti-Hepatitis treatment Sovaldi for the 3-month regimes. I ended my treatment 4 month ago. I just had my first follow up blood test this week, and so far the virus has not returned. According to the CDC, 6 months and you are considered permanently cured. I think I'm there. I've had this virus for 37 years, and have been actively fighting since 2001 when I found out I had it. It gave me cancer twice, and forced me through a bunch of awful treatments and surgeries, cost me a liver, a gall bladder and a rib so far. I'm celebrating a victory today over one of God's mistakes - the Hep - C virus. Dude, what were you thinking with that?
So, Wohoo! It's Sunday, a beautiful sunny one too, and I do thank you for that. I really do! And for the other GIFTS that make the time off such a joy.
BTW, one of my favorite songs is Van Morrison's "Washing Windows" - blue collar gratitude and peace.
Bags! So, essentially, a bullet ricocheted through the factory. Yikes. You are lucky no one was hit.
Bodacious girlfriend, dude. But wow is it dry. You need rain.
I will pray for rain. *imagine the winds will change and a pineapple express will deliver drenching rain to the whole parched state.*
Most importantly: so glad to know the miracle drug worked. Really and truly delighted. What a relief after the battle. Hooray.
That's great news on the hep-c front, bags. Good for you.
Good news on the Sovaldi, bags.
Here you go: Cleaning Windows
"A racetrack is where windows clean people"
~Danny Thomas
"So, essentially, a bullet ricocheted through the factory. "
Luckily these machines are kept outside the building, mostly because they are loud, but now we know there is an even better reason. They are also in a cage, but that didn't stop this thing from escaping.
Oh, I got the title wrong on one of my favorite songs - "Cleaning Windows" and it's repeated over and over in the lyrics. What can I say? I got no standards on my day off.
Do Irish even say "washing"? Where I'm from it's "worshin".
Yes, April, it is very dry. It hasn't really rained enough to worsh the dirt of your car for over a year here. It's coming though. It always does, and then the panic is forgotten, but the water rates never go back to pre-panick levels. In California a temporary increase in any cost is always permanent.
My dad said "worsh" too. My family emigrated to Wisconsin from southwestern PA in the 19th century.
worsh? Isn't that a southern thing?
April Apple said...
worsh? Isn't that a southern thing?
It's a worschach test -- how much hillbilly do you see in people's pronunciation.
And if you see hillbilly, "hillbully" (bigot) can't be far behind.
Games urban people play.
Bago, glad hear about the good tests! Best to you and Phil :)
My dad and at least one of his brothers, and that brother's son (my cousin, my age) said worsh. It surprised me my cousin said it.
But I said wuhsh, and got teased about it as an adult. I still slip and say it that way occasionally.
"worsh" is the way it's pronounced in Kansas and Missouri [pro: "Mizurra"]
The Mara's produce cross dressing coaches and teeny breasted, liberal, actresses.
But I said wuhsh, and got teased about it as an adult. I still slip and say it that way occasionally.
That's adorbs -- especially admitting it.
Congrats Bagoh! On all the good stuff you mentioned, professional and personal.
Gives hope that the frustrating stuff will get sorted out.
In Dundalk they say "After you warsh the close, wrench 'em out in da zinc, an' put 'em up on the attic."
Dundalk. Maryland. How 'bout dem owes, hon?
If you cross the Alanic owe-shin you reach Arlin, where the Arsh are from.
@Sixty: The one guy I ever knowed from Mari-lind referred to DC as Warshington.
Yeah, that's how my dad pronounced it.
What do you think of True Detective, so far?
That was always a question on quizzes - how many "r's" are in the name of our nation's capital.
In Bawmer, the state is known as "Merlin".
In "The Wire" the city and state were referred to as "Bulletmore, Murderland".
But since it is a democrat city in a people's republic, that is actually an appropriate name for that sink hole.
@deborah: I like it so far. I think McConaughey is a great actor.
He steals the show. They're a great team playing off each other. Enjoy!
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