Here I am, a somewhat broken down old man of 74. Okay, maybe that isn't all that old. But, broken down I am. And today, as I was in the therapy pool at the gym, I had a chance to talk to John about various construction topics. John is a retired, and broken, architect. He's also a great guy to talk to and we patiently allow the other to tell a tale before starting a tale of our own.
That short conversation brought up some memories of days past. I think I have told most of my important? tales right here in this blog...but maybe not. I certainly hope I'm not repeating myself. If I am, so what? Get over it.
When we were building the Circus Circus, every floor of the hotel was the same until we got near the top. The last two floors were destined to be suites; extremely nice rooms for big gamblers. They are called 'Whales'. Not physically big gamblers but gamblers with big wallets and a desire to empty those wallets in the hopes that they will win a lot of money. They never do. All casinos do their best to attract 'Whales' and the Circus Circus was going to do it as well. By the way, the rooms are always free.
Along with those grand suites, we were going to build an owners suite. This suite was unusual because it was a two story suite with it's own grand staircase and an Italian marble tub. With gold plated fixtures. Everything in the suite was fantastic and we did a better than usual job on it's construction. A note; the marble tub had been sitting on the floor for over a month as they had craned it up and dropped it in before the roof steel was put in place. It was thickly wrapped and covered in plywood to protect it until it was time to install it.
I sometimes wonder if the suite is still there or did they put a floor over the giant living room and put in more rooms. I wouldn't be surprised if they did.
(The suite was for the use of the owners, William Bennett and Bill Pennington.)
Friday, September 05, 2014
Saturday, August 16, 2014
Post 9/11
After awhile, the air travel that I had to make became wearisome. Immediately after 9/11 the security regulations seemed to change by the hour. What was okay in Portland wasn't accepted in Denver and vice versa. I just kept my head down and accepted it all, although the sheer foolishness of so much of it made me grit my teeth. Air travel was a big part of my job and it was quickly becoming more of an irritant than I could take. I soon dreaded seeing the big blue van, the airport shuttle, pull up in front of our house on Monday mornings to pick me up. And then the check-in at some mediocre hotel where you never knew how you would be treated. That hotel was home for a week...sigh. Then there was the boredom of the lessons and the reluctance of the students to embrace technology. I would have fired 90% of them right then if I had the power.
Finally, I saw that I could not continue doing this if I wanted to keep my sanity. I declared that I wanted to retire. Laurae and I talked about it first and looked at our resources. Then I went to my boss and told him of my plans. I would retire at the end of the year, 2004. He said he was sorry to see me go but that he understood.
Before that date arrived, we had a group meeting held in Las Vegas with our wives included. That time turned into a retirement party for me and was much appreciated. Then there was one more trip to Kansas City for the annual Christmas party, where I spent some time saying goodbye to my fellow workers. A flight home and I was retired.
It was a pretty good run for a guy who started washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant. I followed that with liquor delivery boy and gas station attendant. Then it was the Navy followed by a job driving a forklift in a warehouse. Lucky me; a neighbor asked me to become a carpenter apprentice in the newly created drywall trade. He also wanted to teach me to be an estimator. I accepted. What a break! I was soon a foreman; even while still an apprentice. I worked piecework jobs where I learned to be fast and commercial construction where I learned to be clever. Commercial drywall and steel framing was just beginning and I was on the ground floor of a great opportunity. Through the years I became a foreman, superintendent, project manager, estimator and even a contractor. After leaving Nevada and beginning a new career with PCI, I was 'lucky' enough to be there for the introduction of technology into construction. I became the local 'go to guy' if you had computer problems. I was noticed and soon I was instructing others on how to use their computers. I got to work on software development and programming. I was moved to the Strategic Development department where creative thinking was encouraged. And then came the grind of flying, hotel rooms and recalcitrant students. It was over.
After all of that, I can say that my happiest days were the ones where I was working with my tools. Where every day I created something. I left a little part of myself in every building I worked on. Those were wonderful days!
this link will take you to the beginning of this chronicle.
Finally, I saw that I could not continue doing this if I wanted to keep my sanity. I declared that I wanted to retire. Laurae and I talked about it first and looked at our resources. Then I went to my boss and told him of my plans. I would retire at the end of the year, 2004. He said he was sorry to see me go but that he understood.
Before that date arrived, we had a group meeting held in Las Vegas with our wives included. That time turned into a retirement party for me and was much appreciated. Then there was one more trip to Kansas City for the annual Christmas party, where I spent some time saying goodbye to my fellow workers. A flight home and I was retired.
It was a pretty good run for a guy who started washing dishes in a Chinese restaurant. I followed that with liquor delivery boy and gas station attendant. Then it was the Navy followed by a job driving a forklift in a warehouse. Lucky me; a neighbor asked me to become a carpenter apprentice in the newly created drywall trade. He also wanted to teach me to be an estimator. I accepted. What a break! I was soon a foreman; even while still an apprentice. I worked piecework jobs where I learned to be fast and commercial construction where I learned to be clever. Commercial drywall and steel framing was just beginning and I was on the ground floor of a great opportunity. Through the years I became a foreman, superintendent, project manager, estimator and even a contractor. After leaving Nevada and beginning a new career with PCI, I was 'lucky' enough to be there for the introduction of technology into construction. I became the local 'go to guy' if you had computer problems. I was noticed and soon I was instructing others on how to use their computers. I got to work on software development and programming. I was moved to the Strategic Development department where creative thinking was encouraged. And then came the grind of flying, hotel rooms and recalcitrant students. It was over.
After all of that, I can say that my happiest days were the ones where I was working with my tools. Where every day I created something. I left a little part of myself in every building I worked on. Those were wonderful days!
this link will take you to the beginning of this chronicle.
Thursday, May 29, 2014
Missouri
One of the better branch offices was in Missouri. Grandview Missouri and not more than 20 minutes from Kansas City. PCI had gone into a partnership with an existing drywall company, Dahmer Bros. in order to have a contracting presence in the area where the corporate offices were. The Dahmer brothers themselves were true gentlemen. Highly respected in the trade. And they were fun to be around.
They had not been exposed to the level of technology that PCI offered and not all were comfortable with having a PC on their desk. I was sent to show their estimators how to use our software. Lo and behold; they had a woman as an estimator! And what a gem she was. Smarter than most estimators I knew and eager to learn something new.
Their estimating style was different from almost anything I had seen before and I had to convince Jean that she could translate that style into our program. We couldn't change the program for just one branch office but I could show them how to input data in such a way that it would make them comfortable with the program.
I probably made a dozen trips to this office as I had to train just about everyone in the office. And it was here, one morning in September of 2001 that we heard the news of airplanes striking the twin towers. We didn't believe it at first. It couldn't happen! A few minutes later, after hearing of the attack on the Pentagon we did believe and lessons were over. I took my laptop out to my rental car and drove back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the day watching television. Then I heard that all air traffic had been halted indefinitely. I had a ticket to return to Sacramento on Friday and it was now useless. But I had a rental car. I had talked to some other PCI employees and they told me stories of how PCI employees that had been caught, as I was, away from home, had rented cars and were driving. I started thinking about it...I called our travel office at corporate headquarters and they told me that they had already negotiated with Avis and I was to keep my car and use it to drive home. Halfway across the country.
I think it was Friday morning when I set off, pulling onto I-70 and heading west. First stop was Lawrence Kansas where I had breakfast. On the road again. I wanted to make Denver by nightfall. After seeing a whole lot of prairie I approached the turnoff to the Denver Airport. I looked up in the sky and there wasn't a plane in sight. And this airport is normally one of the busiest in the country. I also noted that while I was driving, the traffic was very light and the cars that I did see were rentals like mine. When you rent cars often, as I did, you learn that they have a certain look, plus a small decal on the rear window. As it turned out I was able to drive right through Denver while it was still light and cross the Rockies through the Eisenhower tunnel. I stopped at Eagle Colorado and parked at a motel that was filled with travelers like myself. The parking lot was filled with rental cars. I got one of the last rooms. After 13 hours of driving I was exhausted.
I was up early the next day and continued west, down the canyon on I-70. In the early morning light I could see what a magnificent highway this was. The scenery was out of this world! And then I was in Utah...
There's little to see in Utah. Yes, the Great Salt Lake was interesting but after that it was all desert, all the way to Winnemucca. I had originally planned on staying in Winnemucca for the night but there was still plenty of daylight and so I continued on , planning to stop in Reno for the night. Well, I got to Reno in the dark but I knew that home was only another 90 minutes or so across Donner Pass. I pressed on. And after 18 hours of driving, I pulled into our driveway. After 9/11, this was where I wanted to be.
They had not been exposed to the level of technology that PCI offered and not all were comfortable with having a PC on their desk. I was sent to show their estimators how to use our software. Lo and behold; they had a woman as an estimator! And what a gem she was. Smarter than most estimators I knew and eager to learn something new.
Their estimating style was different from almost anything I had seen before and I had to convince Jean that she could translate that style into our program. We couldn't change the program for just one branch office but I could show them how to input data in such a way that it would make them comfortable with the program.
I probably made a dozen trips to this office as I had to train just about everyone in the office. And it was here, one morning in September of 2001 that we heard the news of airplanes striking the twin towers. We didn't believe it at first. It couldn't happen! A few minutes later, after hearing of the attack on the Pentagon we did believe and lessons were over. I took my laptop out to my rental car and drove back to the hotel. I spent the rest of the day watching television. Then I heard that all air traffic had been halted indefinitely. I had a ticket to return to Sacramento on Friday and it was now useless. But I had a rental car. I had talked to some other PCI employees and they told me stories of how PCI employees that had been caught, as I was, away from home, had rented cars and were driving. I started thinking about it...I called our travel office at corporate headquarters and they told me that they had already negotiated with Avis and I was to keep my car and use it to drive home. Halfway across the country.
I think it was Friday morning when I set off, pulling onto I-70 and heading west. First stop was Lawrence Kansas where I had breakfast. On the road again. I wanted to make Denver by nightfall. After seeing a whole lot of prairie I approached the turnoff to the Denver Airport. I looked up in the sky and there wasn't a plane in sight. And this airport is normally one of the busiest in the country. I also noted that while I was driving, the traffic was very light and the cars that I did see were rentals like mine. When you rent cars often, as I did, you learn that they have a certain look, plus a small decal on the rear window. As it turned out I was able to drive right through Denver while it was still light and cross the Rockies through the Eisenhower tunnel. I stopped at Eagle Colorado and parked at a motel that was filled with travelers like myself. The parking lot was filled with rental cars. I got one of the last rooms. After 13 hours of driving I was exhausted.
I was up early the next day and continued west, down the canyon on I-70. In the early morning light I could see what a magnificent highway this was. The scenery was out of this world! And then I was in Utah...
There's little to see in Utah. Yes, the Great Salt Lake was interesting but after that it was all desert, all the way to Winnemucca. I had originally planned on staying in Winnemucca for the night but there was still plenty of daylight and so I continued on , planning to stop in Reno for the night. Well, I got to Reno in the dark but I knew that home was only another 90 minutes or so across Donner Pass. I pressed on. And after 18 hours of driving, I pulled into our driveway. After 9/11, this was where I wanted to be.
Tuesday, May 27, 2014
Diligent
Diligent is not my middle name and here it is, May 27th in the year of 2014. Didn't I say I was going to write more often? Okay, I'm guilty.
I was going to write something about some of the branch offices that I visited and I might as well start with one in New Mexico. Intel (and PCI) had built a Super Fab, or 'chip foundry' in Rio Rancho, just 20 minutes north of Albuquerque; right in the shadow the towering Sandia Crest.
After the 'fab' was complete and in full production it was decided that we might as well leave the people who were in charge of the construction, right there, in the desert. They found an office complex nearby and began to build a business. Their main customer was Intel, of course. Intel was constantly swapping out machinery within the fab and we were the people to do that work. And since technology attracts technology, other electronic companies were buying and building.
They hadn't been in their new office more than a month when I was called to visit them and help setup their labor control and estimating. I made my plans...
I was somewhat familiar with New Mexico, having been to Albuquerque and Santa Fe in the past. Rio Rancho, however, was very different. Before Intel moved in, Rio Rancho was a sleepy little town far off the main highway. But now, there was building going on everywhere. In the desert of course. You cannot escape the fact that you are in the high (5;282') desert. Step outside the city limits and you are in the territory of the early pioneers that moved through this valley.
I wish I could report that my training was a success, but it wasn't. I would start a training session and half way through, the estimator would get a phone call and he would have to go out to Intel and handle some problem. We would try again the next day and usually with the same results. At the end of the week I would have to make an appointment to return and do the same thing all over again. I think I went there five times and each trip resulted in the same scenario...but, on the plus side, I got to eat at some great restaurants!
Next time, I will write about a classy branch office.
I was going to write something about some of the branch offices that I visited and I might as well start with one in New Mexico. Intel (and PCI) had built a Super Fab, or 'chip foundry' in Rio Rancho, just 20 minutes north of Albuquerque; right in the shadow the towering Sandia Crest.
After the 'fab' was complete and in full production it was decided that we might as well leave the people who were in charge of the construction, right there, in the desert. They found an office complex nearby and began to build a business. Their main customer was Intel, of course. Intel was constantly swapping out machinery within the fab and we were the people to do that work. And since technology attracts technology, other electronic companies were buying and building.
They hadn't been in their new office more than a month when I was called to visit them and help setup their labor control and estimating. I made my plans...
I was somewhat familiar with New Mexico, having been to Albuquerque and Santa Fe in the past. Rio Rancho, however, was very different. Before Intel moved in, Rio Rancho was a sleepy little town far off the main highway. But now, there was building going on everywhere. In the desert of course. You cannot escape the fact that you are in the high (5;282') desert. Step outside the city limits and you are in the territory of the early pioneers that moved through this valley.
I wish I could report that my training was a success, but it wasn't. I would start a training session and half way through, the estimator would get a phone call and he would have to go out to Intel and handle some problem. We would try again the next day and usually with the same results. At the end of the week I would have to make an appointment to return and do the same thing all over again. I think I went there five times and each trip resulted in the same scenario...but, on the plus side, I got to eat at some great restaurants!
Next time, I will write about a classy branch office.
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