It has been a long time.

The pandemic has changed all the 'normal' things in our lives. Even before the pandemic and quarantine, I had not been a 'regular' writer here. There had been too many thing happening in my life. You can read all about it in Projections, another blog. Dull and boring. It's just the reminisces of an old man as he grows older. 

I am that old man, and very often now, I will have vivid memories of some events in my past life. Just a moment ago I remembered Trini. Trini worked for Solari, just as I did. He was a foreman as I was, but he had worked for Solari much longer than I. Trini was also very large; a lot of that size was muscle, but more of it was alcohol generated fat. He was quite proud of his size and strength; he was also a bully. I rarely interacted with him, which was a good thing. Trini and I had to build the elevator machine room at the Sahara hotel/casino. (I wrote about this previously) At the time, I simply ignored his boasting and went to work on the project, which stood about 260' above Lake Street and very close to the edge. Soon enough, we finished and I went to another job, one at Harrah’s Sports Book. I was building the tour bus drive-through on the north end of the building. I was enjoying it and would only see Trini on an occasional Friday afternoon when a lot us went to the small Sports Book bar. We rarely spoke. Then one day at bar we heard the news; Trini was in the hospital in serious condition. What happened? A few nights ago, Trini had let ‘his mouth overload his ass’ as was commonly said. The subjects of Trini’s big mouth objected to what he had said and retaliated when Trini stepped out of the bar. Three of them attacked him in the nearby alley and beat him severely, using their fists, a baseball bat and their boots. I’m sure that Trini had provoked the assault, though that was not what he told the police. I soon forgot about him as I was having too good of a time on my complicated ‘Tour Bus’ project. And, since I have ASD, or Autism Spectrum Disorder, my empathy is very limited and I had none for him.      

After some time, I learned that Trini was working at the big warehouse, our panel plant. He was going to be the guy in charge of building the panels and then arranging the transportation of them. Trini was never going to be working in the field again. He needed a cane, as his right knee had been shattered and had been repaired as best they could. I would run across Trini now and then, but it wasn’t till I was building the complex 13 story office building on the corner of 7th and L, in Sacramento, and it was covered in oddly shaped panels. We had found a storage yard for the panels and we had moved the big Link-Belt crane over from Reno. Then Al Solari showed up one day and said we needed to find a 40’ trailer to move the panels from the the storage yard to the job site. He already had an idea as to where we could find one. He got in my little S10 pickup, a company pickup, and off we went. We found the trailer and Al quizzed the owner about it before agreeing to buy it. It was a ‘low boy’ and Al thought it would be great to use around the Washoe Valley once we finished the Sacramento job. It needed a few modifications and Al called Trini and told him to send a tractor over to pull it too Reno so it could be modified and licensed.   

Once the trailer was gone, I went back to normal operations on the job. But I wasn’t through with Trini. About 3 weeks later he called and told me how stupid I was for buying that trailer, and all about the trouble they were having, adapting it to work with the tractors. I explained as best I could that it was a joint decision on buying the trailer with Al Solari having the final say. He calmed down for a moment, then he started up again. It was then that I realized that I would have an enemy for life. Trini never forgot!!!

I'm so embarrassed...

Why am I embarrassed? Because I just looked at the comments made during the life of this blog. Where was I? It looks like I never bothered to check for comments and continued on my merry way.  If I have offended, I am very sorry. I know it was rude of me.

It's been a while

It is now the second month of the most important years in history, In November, we as a nation would vote for a new President or keep the old one. Our democracy depends on our choice. Trump and his family, have been destroying the fabric of our society day by day. I really shouldn't turn this blog into a political one.

On the second front, the personal one, optimism has returned. No, the COPD did not go away, but I have a much better handle on it. Please excuse my previous statements about death and dying. I was very sick a few weeks ago. There was talk of my going to the hospital. But...Dr. Verma, my pulmonologist came through with a sulfa based antibiotic and steroids. I took the last steroid tablet this morning. The results were amazing. I can breathe!

Now, what about my career? What have I missed? In my mind I am dividing the state into squares and looking for a trace of a job I had done. State by state, I look for them.

I probably wrote about the splitting of single screen Mann Theaters into 3 and 4 screen theaters. I remember how nervous I was when I was up in the ceiling space above the theaters. I had to go up there and add some things we could use to secure the new walls. It was all lath and plaster, hanging from #8 wires and I had no idea as to how secure it was.

The majority of my construction work experience included stories of nervousness in high places. Sometimes fear. I learned early on that fear was the enemy. Being nervous would keep you safe. I remember that I was afraid when faced with that high wall at STL. I decided, after much mental argument, that I must go up the wall on that narrow plank, all the way to the top. First, I went up to the attic space,  via a construction elevator and then walking on a floor of loose planks over to a spot where we would attach the cables that would hold the Sky Climber. I helped to install those hangers. My hand on the wrench. Then back down and onto the Sky Climber. We were attached a great distance apart, so the Climber would push away from the wall very easily. As we climbed, it became harder and harder to push away from the wall. That I liked. My first day on the Climber I was afraid. I told Alex that I wanted to continue, so he let me do it. Each day was easier. Soon I was just nervous. I think I mentioned how my toes and feet ached every day because I was trying to hold on to that plank. I don't know if it's still there, but, I'm proud of that wall. I should mention that I thought about my Dad every day. I know that he used to build those tall power transmission towers that made their way across the desert from Boulder Dam to Los Angeles. That inspired me.

Another one was the ride on top of the elevator in Harrah's South Tower. I didn't have to do it. The Otis Elevator mechanic had simply asked if I would. They wanted to know if the drywall seal around the shaft was acceptable. I remember 3 of us standing there on the roof of the elevator and here was absolutely nothing to hold onto.in the center of the roof was the cable & pulley assembly that connect us to large electric motor, some 200+ feet above us. Do not touch the cable! was the warning. It was right there in front of me and the temptation was there...but that cable was moving. We traveled slowly at Inspection Speed. On both sides of us were active elevators and they were moving very fast. You couldn't hear them until they were passing you. You could see a trace of light from inside of them and if there were passengers, they had no idea that we were just 3' away.  It's obvious that we made it to the top. I thanked them for the ride and s e impressed that I had made it all the way.

And now, the news...

It seems that I have more damage from my early life in construction. My T9 vertebra has collapsed and T1-7 are headed the same way. That explains the terrible backaches I have been experiencing when I stand for more than 2 or 3 minutes. I already have 4 Lumbar vertebra fused as well as 3 Cervical vertebra. So why not some Thoracic ones? No thank you! I'm all through with surgeries.

Logic says that I should regret my days in construction, but I don't, in fact I love them. Building things satisfied my soul! I resisted efforts made to entice me into an office job and then, 25+ years after starting, I gave up and became an estimator. I had been a foreman, superintendent and a project manager; jobs that didn't require a lot of physical stress. But I never let the title stop me from working with my hands...and back. I'm sure that I have expressed these thoughts before, but I'm old, and I'm entitled to repeat myself.

But right now I am trying hard to find a memory of a project that I haven't written about before. Now that is hard work! We did a department store job in Fresno, back in the late 60s. Is that one to write about? We did a small shoe store in Santa Barbara during that era. All through the 60s and 70s, I was doing any good paying piecework job, houses or apartments. This was my weekend work. Then there were the smaller hourly pay jobs that rarely lasted more than a week or two. One was remodeling some condos, just off Wilshire Blvd. They were quite luxurious but they had never sold in the year (more or less) since they had been built. They were being remodeled to attract some customers. I remember that the GC had piled all of the furnishings down in the basement and said they were free for the taking. I took a couple of large 4 door kitchen cabinets and put them in my garage in Newbury Park. Others had taken stacked washer/dryer units, doors, dishwashers and even marble tiles from the entry vestibules. Now my memory says that I installed those big and very heavy cabinets by myself. That sounds like me. So my back problems were definitely caused by my choices... 

Something about being old

Ah, yes! The golden years of retirement. Well, the gold is disappearing quickly and is being replaced with Norco tablets for pain relief. But, here is a moment of honesty...I would not have changed my career for anything else.

As I mentioned earlier, I have COPD, and as part of my therapy for this insidious process of slowly dying from a lack of oxygen, I attend a program at the local hospital; Pulmonary Rehab. There are half a dozen or more in each class meeting, 3 times a week. We exercise with small weights or elastic  bands, and we spend time on cardio-vascular exercise, such as treadmills, stationary bikes and the like. Part of the exercise is designed to help with balance and I had no idea that my balance was as bad as it really is. I believe it's called 'denial' as I already own 2 canes. Anyway, I started thinking about the projects I had been on where balance was critical. My balance saved me from injury or death many times. There was a time when I was welding exterior panel support clips onto the embeds on the edge of the slab. The slab, or slabs, were on a 22 story building. With a gloved hand I would hold the clip in position while my other hand held the 'stinger, or the welding rod. I was on my knees but I had to lean out and over the edge to be able to see where I was welding. Once the clip was where I wanted it, I had to shake my head in order to flip the welding hood down and over my face. Suddenly, everything is black. I can't see a thing. There is a brief moment where I had no sense of balance at all and in my mind I could see the ground, 240' feet below me. Then I struck an arc and a purple and gold light filled my vision as I began to weld. Thoroughly engaged in my work, I forgot all about where I was.

200' or 20' feet, working on high rise construction is always dangerous and only a fool doesn't believe that. But that was one of the things I loved about it. I never dwelled on it, but I never forgot it. It began on the very first job I had, as a first stage apprentice, and my journeyman extended a plank out the side of the building, on the 4th? floor, stood on the inside end of it and asked me to walk out on the plank and place a piece of lath where it was missing. "Don't worry, I won't step off of the plank." was what he told me. I had to do it. I was just an apprentice and had to do whatever my journeyman told me to do.

That question mark at the end of 4th floor? The incident happened over 55 years ago and my memory can't handle it...the building itself was just 9 stories in height so it could have been any one of them, except the first floor of course.

This story reminds me of another...but first, if you want to start at the beginning go here

As I said...

As I said in the last post, I'm 79 years old now. That means (in my case) that my memory is not all it used to be. Undoubtedly, you will see me repeating myself. Sorry, but that's the way it is. In fact, this disclaimer may be a repeat?

In the last post I described how 'hanging lids' contributed to my spine injuries. I'm certain of it. I also have COPD and was hospitalized twice last fall because of pneumonia. Like most of my generation, I was a smoker until the late 70's, when I had a small portion of my right lung removed because of suspected cancer cells. They were wrong, the suspect cells were pneumonia scars. I had worked right through a bout of pneumonia at one time. The doctor told me that he could see signs of emphysema and encouraged me to stop smoking. That was one reason for my COPD. Another was the conditions of the workplace. I would be working right next to a laborer that was grinding concrete and billowing clouds of cement dust were everywhere. Then there were the tapers that were sanding joint compound on the walls & ceilings. There were times when we would have a 'sanding party'. everyone would have a sanding pole and we would sand everywhere. Soon, the air was thick with the fine dust we had created. We would all be coated with it, white hair, white skin, eyebrows, etc. We could even taste it on our tongues. I would often spray white lacquer on ceilings before I sprayed acoustic material. I sprayed fireproofing material and I sprayed acoustical insulation. When my partner and I were in business, I chose to handle all of the framing, sanding and spraying while he would do framing and hanging drywall. I also did the estimating while he did the bill collections. I never thought twice about the damage I was doing to my lungs in all of those years. And we rarely wore protection for those lungs.    

I'm still here...

Yes, I have not departed this earth yet. My health is not what it was, but I'm 79 years old and what else did I expect? It seems that some of the things I did while I was working have come back to haunt me. My spinal surgeries (4) I believe are a result of my days 'hanging sheetrock' for a living. Of course I was young and dumb and wanted to prove to my peers that I was just as dumb as they were. I would 'hang sheetrock' in tract houses for piecework prices that could bring me close to double my hourly wages. My partner and I would pick a couple of houses (there were plenty of them!) and we would pair up to 'hang the lids' in both houses before we split up to do the walls by ourselves. The 'lids' were especially hard on the body as we would pick up a 4x12 sheet of 1/2" board and then leaning it on our shoulders, we would run to where we had our adjustable 'walkups' or 'horses'. The lead person would climb up using the narrow rail on the side, and then on to the top. The follower now had close to all of the weight shifted to them as they made their way to the top of the 'horse'. Once up, we would roll the sheet over our shoulder and press it against the ceiling joists. To hold it there, we would stand on our toes and use our heads to keep the sheet in place while we dug into our nail bag with one hand and grab our nailing hatchet with the other. Now, using our x-ray vision, we would locate the hidden joists and begin nailing. Okay, that's not true, but we always wished for vision like that, instead, we would draw a few lines on the board, and those represented the location of the joists at our end of the sheet. We had all learned early on, to 'sight' the joists we could see and then follow where that 'sighting' would lead us.

It wasn't all fun and games, as sometimes we had sheets that we had cut to allow pipes or vents to come through. These sheets had to be maneuvered this way and that to get them up. That extra time really hurt...literally. And there were ceilings that were 6" or 12" higher than your walkup could go. That meant that you had to 'stiff arm' the sheet and switching arms back and forth, you might be able to locate the nails and press one in to the board before switching to grab your hatchet and sink the nail. And all the time you are doing this, you are thinking of the time going by and what little you would get for nailing it in place. It might be $1.25 a sheet or just a $1, while hourly pay would get you $5 an hour; you had to hang more than 5 sheets in an hour to make the pain worthwhile.

Here it is, more than 50 years later and that money is long gone while the pain remains. But, being a human male, I rationalize all of it and can tell you that I enjoyed it.

14 years later...

It has been a stormy week here and rain/snow records were broken in many places. I'm one of those people that delights in dramatic weather. I have wonderful memories of hurricanes, storms and blizzards that stretch all of the way back to the 50's. But, that's another story.

This morning I had been checking the traffic cams all over Northeastern California and Northwestern Nevada, just to see the roads I used to use when going to work each day. At the time, traffic had been stopped on I-80 over Donner Pass. This was something I would see often when I was working in Sacramento and or the Bay area. It was usually stopped during a big storm so that the plows could clear a decent path through the drifts. Once it re-opened, the CHP would 'ferry' a group of about 10 cars at a time, over the pass, until conditions improved.

When working in Reno, it was a daily commute from Janesville. And back, of course. It was 75 miles each way and a very nice drive during the 9 months of good weather we used to have. But in winter time, it was a different story. In the early morning, the falling snow would usually wake me early. Yes, the fallen and the falling snow dampened all noise and it was the silence that would wake you. If I started my drive early enough I could get on the highway (US 395) before the plows did. The plows would always leave a thin layer of snow that would quickly turn to ice. The snow I drove on seemed to give me some traction. The disadvantage was the fact that you couldn't see the road. But, I had driven the road so many time, it was quite easy to find my way. Plus, there were reflectors on posts that were always visible. We would usually get 6" to 12"  of snow, so driving was fairly easy. It was even easier if you could come across a big rig on its way to Reno. If they were moving at a reasonable speed, it was best to get in behind him and let him find the road while you followed. You had to be sure that the driver knew you were behind his long trailer, so you would drift over to the left every once in awhile so that he could see you in his mirror. Even better, back in the days of CB radios, you could talk to the driver and let him know what you were doing. I had a CB radio in both of our vehicles, for safety.

On those mornings, I could make the 75 miles in about 2 hours. In the middle of summer it was a 1 and a 1/2 hour drive....this post was supposed to be about working and it ended up starting with weather and ending with driving in the snow. I would call it 'Working'.

This blog started 14 years ago. If interested you can start at the beginning by going to this entry and start going up from there.

Some photos to go with Working

 This is a photo from the Clarion Hotel job in Millbrae. It shows the yellow counterweights for the tower crane behind it. The 'railroad tracks' are for the crane to move on, This was a very special crane; it was designed to move to a spot where it folds itself down to a near horizontal position. This was needed because of FAA rules concerning height when close to an operating runway. When the wind blew from the south or north, the runway close to the project would become operational and the crane had to come down. The prevailing wind was from the east...I could be wrong, but the premise was still the same. The crane had to come down in a hurry.
Also in the photo are the steel studs that make up the walls between units. Also shown are some of the premade exterior panels. Our panel shop in Reno would make them from structural (16 ga)
steel studs, cover them with gypsum sheathing and polystyrene foam, then glass netting and synthetic plaster compound. Then they were trucked to the jobsite where we would use the crane to hoist them into place and we would then weld them to the building; creating the exterior wall seen in the second photo. In this photo you can see the crane tracks more clearly.
I'm sorry about the poor quality of the photos. I was working with a cheap camera and just making progress photos for the record.


One additional shot showing the panel construction.

For future posts, I think I have marginally better quality photos to show you.

Ooops! I have missed quite a few opportunities to post things here. Close to 2 years have gone by. Well, I was pretty sure that no one was reading it so it wasn't much of a guilt trip when I realized how long it had been. As you can see, it's 2019 and that idiot is still the President.

This is supposed to be about my working career and I was scanning some old photos and they were of some part of the MGM Grand Hotel, the Sierra Power office Building and the Clarion Hotel in Millbrae. I also realized that I missed far too many opportunities to photograph some of the work we had done. I will try and put the photos I scanned into this blog along with an explanation.

Are there any more stories?

It's getting close to a year since the last post here. I just wandered down through all of the previous posts and I didn't notice any memories that had been missed. I could be wrong, in fact, I'm sure that I am. At the age of 77 my memory is failing. That's one reason why I am so glad that I put all of these memories into this blog. I am really hoping that my children and grandchildren will take the time to find out more about their father and grandfather. These stories also include my failings as well as some accomplishments. I am very proud of the work I did and I am grateful to have met so many wonderful people while I was doing it. Of course Alex Akoury tops the list as he was my original mentor. He drove me unmercifully and I used to dread seeing him come to inspect my work. Yet he became my dearest friend over the years. During his last year, he and I would call one another and spend an hour or more on the phone just retelling the stories of the jobs we had done together. I was incredibly sad when he died and now I am old but have no one to talk about those memories with.

Okay, I will try my best to find any missing stories so that this Working blog is complete before I go. In the meantime, please enjoy what I have written and try not to notice the many errors in punctuation and grammar. I know they are there, I just noticed half a dozen as I skimmed through this blog from beginning to end. I'm sure there are more. Be sure to start at the beginning as then it will make more sense to you.

Deer Valley

I was reading the previous post and looking through the various names of projects that I may have forgotten to write about. I decided that my trip to Deer Valley was worth a page in my memories.

My boss, Gordon, had introduced us all to MBTI, or Myers Briggs Type Indicator and had convinced the vice presidents of our corporation that it was a valuable tool. And it was; our small group of instructors had been Typed and had been introduced to a leading "organizational development consultant" William Jeffries, specializing in HR development. Simple fact, he was an expert on the MBTI and he had a company that would introduce the MBTI to your employees. We had already found that knowing each others type had made our small group more effective.

After that initial meeting with Mr. Jeffries, Gordon, myself and Jack; another instructor, flew to Indianapolis and then to Zanesville, Indiana for another meeting with Mr. Jeffries. There it was decided that Jack and I would take the course offered and become accredited MBTI trainers. We would be going to Salt Lake City and then driving to Deer Valley where Mr. Jeffries had a condo. The training would take place in his living room!. The next class would be in November and it would be cold in the mountains above the Great Salt Lake
 
Jack and I flew into Salt Lake City, rented a car and made our way east. Deer Valley, we found, was located right next to Park City, of Winter Olympics fame. We alse found that there was a large sociaL difference between the two cities. The really rich lived in Deer Valley and the wannabe's lived in Park City.

We found our hotel and we were properly awed by it. The rooms were fantastic. Also, the hotel was mostly empty. The 'season' in Deer Valley does not begin till December 1st, no matter how much snow there is and no matter what they are doing in Park City. We had to go back to Park City that night for dinner as there were no places to eat in Deer Valley. No restaurants were open till the season began.

The next day we walked to William's or Bill's condo. It was a short walk in bright sunshine and bitter cold. We were welcomed and introduced to the rest of the class; I believe there were 5 others.  Bill outlined the course for us and passed out written material for study. He explained that there was going to be a test at the end of the week and it had to be passed or our week was a waste and we wouldn't be certified.

Then it began. He was a great speaker/instructor and time went by quickly. We were there for 8 hours a day but there were breaks and we could always get a fresh cup of coffee from his kitchen. Every night we would find a new restaurant to try in Park City. We really appreciated our expense accounts! Every morning we would make our way down the road to his condo and more instruction. Then came the day for the test and our flight back home. I didn't sleep well the night before. It had been years since I had taken any kind of test. The construction culture that I came from didn't use tests. You were good at your job or you were fired. We didn't need a test to find that out. But now I was being tested and I felt as if I was incredibly stupid., while my partner, Jack, was brilliant. I just knew it and was prepared for a ride of 'shame' back to the airport.

We took the test and waited anxiously for Bill to give us our results; privately. Incredible! I had passed. I talked to Jack and he had passed as well, so we compared our scores in different sections of the test. They were all different, just as our personalities were different. We both scored above average and that was great! We said goodbye and headed down the mountain.

I'm an accredited MBTI something or another, and I have a piece of paper around here, somewhere, that says so. Being retired, I have no use for it anymore. But, I still have all of the course material and the books, including two written by William 'Bill' Jeffries.

Here is a link to the company that Bill heads. His CV is incredible and should be read. You can see that he taught at Carnegie Mellon among other places and that has to be the link to our boss, Gordon. He has degree in Nuclear Physics from Carnegie Mellon. Bill is somewhat short, has a ponytail, but he has a commanding presence. He had been a Green Beret, a Lieutenant Colonel, etc etc so you didn't want to tease him about his hairstyle. All in all, it was great time and a great memory. 

Looking back; way back.

I don't want to miss anything in this long list of jobs I've had. But, with my memory these days, I can easily forget one, two or more of them. I don't think I have mentioned New Mexico. Or Spokane. Or my trip to Deer Valley, Utah for MTI training. Or Zanesville, Indiana for the same. Then there were many, many trips to Kansas City for corporate training. Then there was an office in Phoenix that I traveled to. The Baptist Home for the Aged in Los Angeles? The Broadway stores in Bakersfield, Sacramento and Reno? The PacBell switching station in Long Beach? MGM Grand. Sahara. Circus Circus. Any of the many piece work projects I worked on? I know that I must have mentioned some of these before. I'm going to have search all of the entries to make sure. Once I have searched, I will get back to the task of writing.

Memphis Post Script

As long as I was in Memphis I decided to visit the state of Mississippi, just a few miles south of Memphis. I checked my map and I was soon across the border and heading to Tunica, the site of some major casinos. I wasn't a gambler but I was interested in seeing the casinos, so familiar to me in Nevada, in an entirely new setting.

Pretty soon I saw the signs advertising the Harrah's casino and a few others. I had worked on Harrah's casinos before, but that was when they belonged to Bill Harrah. He had died while we were building the South Tower of his his hotel in downtown Reno. It wasn't long after that that Holiday Inn bought all the Harrah's property. Mr. Harrah hadn't protected his estate and the family was forced into selling most of it for taxes. Even Harrah's world famous car collection was broken up and sold to museums and collectors everywhere. (I had taken the whole family to see this collection back when it was housed in its entirety in 3 giant warehouses in Sparks, NV) Holiday Inn soon sold the properties and I lost track of who owned the name. It certainly wasn't the Harrah family.

I didn't spend much time in Tunica; I've seen my share of casinos long before arriving in Mississippi. I headed south again and then inland, away from the river, towards Jackson. That was when I saw the Scourge of the South, the Kudzu vine. Sometimes known as the Vine that ate the South, it was growing on everything! It grew up the telephone poles and then along the wires. It covered barns and sheds. Tractors. Cars. It was fascinating to see and it was fun to try and identify what lay beneath the green covering of kudzu leaves. Is that the farmer still on that Kudzu covered tractor? It appeared as if the state had surrendered in its fight against the monster vine. There was no sign of any eradication efforts.

Mile after mile, kudzu everywhere. And a feeling of gloom seemed to pervade the very air itself. Maybe it was just me, but the closer I got to Jackson, just brought me more depression. Finally, I had to stop and turn around. Once I was headed north I began to feel better; lighter. Crossing the border and entering Memphis made me the happiest I had been that day. I'm never going to that state again.

I had a short week of instruction left and on Friday morning I said goodbye to the Memphis office and made plans for a return trip in a few months. Then, back to the airport...sigh.

On the other side

I had one more city in Tennessee to visit and that was Knoxville; on the other side of the state from Memphis and close to the North Carolina border. We had a small branch office there and they were ready for some software training.

I couldn't get a direct flight and had to transfer to a smaller plane in Atlanta. Without a direct flight your chances of losing your luggage goes way up. But, this time I found the bags after a minimal wait time. A good beginning. Now all I had to do was find the office. I always managed my own travel arrangements and it always worked best for me. Except for those times when the office has recently moved without my knowledge. I searched and searched before giving up and calling for directions.

Once there, I found the office to be smaller than most and with only one estimator. This wouldn't take long at all. I had booked flights and hotel for a two week stay but now it looked like I could go home mid week of the next week.

This was a nice office with no abrasive personalities and everyone was interested in gaining some knowledge. This was rarely the case. Knoxville was going to give me a pleasant week.

Towards the end of the first week I decided to walk to my usual spot for dinner. I didn't feel like getting the car out of a good parking spot and the exercise would be great. I was still hoping to do another marathon in October.

I walked down to the restaurant and bought a newspaper to read while eating. I became so engrossed in the paper, I forgot the time and when I looked up, the sky looked very threatening. Dark clouds were boiling on the horizon and moving towards me. Fast. It was 7:30 and darkness was coming on as well. Then I saw some flashes in the clouds. Lightning. I was about a mile away from my hotel and my car was not available for my rescue. I started walking and walking fast. The lightning came closer and the thunder was right behind it. The rain started. These were huge drops that soon had me soaked as I ran. More flashes. There was a long line of trees in the parkway and I almost sought shelter under them. I dropped to the ground.Then I remembered the story about lightning being attracted to trees and that you should never hide under one. I jumped up and veered away and kept running. Lightning was now almost continuous and striking all around me. I saw the lights of the hotel and ran even faster. I burst through the doors and into safety. It was quite a workout; for my legs as well as my heart.

Memphis Blues

When PCI acquired the major southern subcontracting company, there had been just one branch, Rome GA, that was actively involved in the drywall/acoustic trade. Now, some of the other branches decided to give it a try. Most had been insulation subcontractors and knew very little about drywall/acoustical and even fireproofing. My job was to help them in any way I could and teach their estimators how to use our software.

One of those branch offices, Memphis TN, called us and asked for our help. So I was off to a new destination; something I always liked to do. It was the continued flights to a site that drove me crazy. Airports, TSA and airlines were beginning to be a real drag on my psyche. But...Memphis was new and after looking at the maps on the net, I was eager to be there.

I arrived midday and soon found the office. I pulled into the parking lot, noticing a large crowd of workmen standing around the loading dock. I went into the office and the receptionist informed the manager that I was here. We met and after a few minutes of polite chatter he asked me if I like fried fish and hush puppies? Of course I did, and he told me to follow him. Out to the loading dock we went and out there he had a large deep fryer heating up and lots of fish and hush puppies to fry. He explained that once a month he had a safety meeting where he cooked up a great southern meal, a regular old fish fry.

Of course it was delicious and it some time before I was able to get the manager aside to plan our training schedule. My 'Student' was right there, on the dock, and we set a time for the next day. Now I could leave and find the hotel I had booked. This was certainly a pleasant way to begin the work week.

I was going to be there for two weeks so I began to plan for the weekend. I had the city to explore plus Mississippi was just minutes south of the city. I had to visit that state so I could mark it off on my map of states and cities I had been to. Tennessee was a new one for me.

Saturday morning arrived and I decided to visit downtown Memphis. I drove around without a destination in mind and then I saw a sign that said "Mud Island Next Right". I had to see that! Getting closer, I found a parking lot and the entrance to the monorail that would take me to Mud Island. If you didn't know, you should know that Memphis is located on the banks of the Mississippi River and Mud Island may have been an island at one time but now it was firmly connected to Memphis...and there was very little mud in evidence. Mud Island had a large outdoor concert venue and a most fascinating scale model of the Mississippi River fashioned out of concrete and bronze. You could walk along its length and all the cities were noted in bronze letters embedded in the concrete, along with the mileage from the river's origin in Minnesota (Lake Itasca). The shore line was shown as well as could be. This river is constantly moving it's banks. As you can see in the photo, this is not some amateur model. You can walk along the river, even step into it on a hot day. It's all part of the Mississippi River Museum and it's a fascinating look at this mighty river.

The museum is located at the northern end of the 'island' while upscale homes and apartments make up the majority of the space on it.

The monorail is an upside down one, the car hanging below the tracks. It's also quite short but it is interesting; for someone like me. I spent most of the day on that island and then went back to my room to plan a trip to Mississippi on Sunday.

What's next?

I will have to review the branch office stories to see if I missed any. I just posted a story about Las Vegas, so that is #1. Los Angeles is #2 , Spokane is #3, Rome is #4, Seattle is #5, San Francisco is #6, San Jose is #7, Grandview MO is #8, Rio Rancho NM is #9,

Early on, I had tried to talk them into creating a Reno branch office. Just because it would be fun to see all the people I knew once again. They almost did. We talked with guy who said he could run it for us and we even did a small job over there. It made no money and I never saw any of my old friends. I didn't have time.

Of course there were lots of flights to Kansas City where our corporate offices were in Lenexa KS and our small groups, Strategic Development, offices were in Shawnee Mission KS.

I could write about Tennessee because we had two branch offices there and I was able to make some interesting side trips from each of them

Las Vegas Redux

The story of the Las Vegas branch begins in the Los Angeles branch.

The L.A. branch had become very successful. Great estimators had been 'stolen' from various contractors and since PCI was an attractive place to work, they had stayed and made a lot of money for the company.

The branch manager, chief estimator and one of the better estimators made a pitch to open a branch of the L.A. office in Las Vegas. There was supposed to be a lot of work there and that idea was approved. I was soon on an airplane headed to Las Vegas; the first time since my last trip there when I worked for Solari. When the plane landed and I made my way through the airport, I saw that not much had changed in the dozen intervening years.

The new branch manager was a great guy and he had thoughtfully booked a room for me at the Rio Casino Hotel. That really wasn't my style but I gave it a try. I parked my own car (no valet) and made my way across the casino floor, dragging my suitcase with me. (check-in is in the center of the casino) Crowds are always a problem for me, as well as seeing all the drinking. I'm an alcoholic and though not tempted, I still didn't enjoy seeing so much alcohol being consumed.    

Enough of that, I already knew that I would be making my own reservations from now on. On to the office! It was a small one in a commercial area just east of the airport and maybe a few hundred feet north of the glide path of all the air traffic coming into Las Vegas. It's not really a glide path as they have to use power to make it onto the runway properly. Noisy power. And then I found that most of the estimators were unhappy about any kind of training and resisted it any way they could. They would have to go to a client's office for some reason,  or they had a bad cold, or whatever they could think of.

I was able to get in some training time with a few of the estimators. The rest would have to wait till I returned. I had a corporate mandate to train them all! This news did not make them happy. I had a nice talk with one these holdouts and I explained my position. It was understood and we started to become friendly with each other. Except for one...I never saw his face. He had skillfully made his way in and out of the office each day without me seeing him. He was an English Quantity Surveyor and it appeared that he wanted no part of our estimating system.

I would return to this office many times over the next few years. And I found a nice hotel in a neighboring town that was close to the office and had no traffic to contend with. The office soon became a permanent Branch office and they moved a few more times as they grew in size. They remained close to that flight path though. And then there was a scandal of some kind that removed the branch manager. I was getting close to retirement at the time and never found out if they kept the branch open. I hope they did.

A short course

On how to read this blog as a story...blogs were not made to tell a story; they were made for a daily posting of fact or fiction, not a 300 page book. So you have to start at the very very beginning page (there is a link to that page in the post from yesterday) and then go to the bottom of that page to see the first entry. To see the next page of entries, you have to scroll down to the bottom of the page once again and click on the link for a Newer post. When that page opens, you have to start at the bottom once again. It's really a pain and I've tried to think of some way around it. There may be one and it will be obvious, making me smack my forehead and say "Doh!"

Los Angeles

Memories of the Los Angeles branch office are bittersweet. It started with a job that had been given to us. It was a very big hospital, and through connections, our branch in Roseville was going to do the job. This happened while I was still an estimator in Roseville. Someone was going to have to be the project manager for the job and I decided to volunteer. I still knew a lot of the union officials there and some others that could help in securing a good crew. It was decided that I was going to be 'our man' in L.A.

I started reviewing the drawings while making plans to move an office trailer on-site. I also connected with my ex-partner and asked him if he would be interested in being the jobsite superintendent. He accepted the offer and that was a big hurdle out of the way. I flew down to Los Angeles then to meet with him and to talk to an old friend and see if she was interested in being our on-site secretary. She agreed and it looked like things were going well. I had met with the union and everything was agreeable with them. They were pleased to see me and that was half the battle. I met with the general contractor and watched as the new office trailer was put into place and the phone lines connected.

I was quite pleased with our progress and that was when my boss dropped the bombshell on me. Stop everything. Fire the help I had just hired and come back to Roseville. He had found a couple of Los Angeles locals that had convinced him that they could handle the job better since 'they knew everyone' in the area. Of course I was disgusted by this move on his part and now I knew better than to ever believe anything he said. I gave the new guys the keys and the plans and got on an airplane going north.

Some years pass and the los Angeles branch office outgrows its construction trailer and they have a real building and are becoming very successful. The only reason I'm happy with that outcome is the fact our stock grows more valuable when we have profitable branches. Of course I feel that I could have done as well but I never had the chance.

Once I became an instructor I tried to put all of that in the past and now I would fly to Los Angeles, actually Ontario, to train the estimators to use our software. We had nice office in Anaheim Hills and most of the estimators there were eager to learn. I tried to avoid meeting with the two men that had taken over the hospital job. They were now the Branch manager and the chief estimator and were not interested in learning about the software. Better for me.

This branch became larger and larger and very successful. This meant that I was flying to Ontario every few weeks. My old friend, the CFO that had steered me into the world of computers and spreadsheets, had his office in the same building and seeing him made the trips more enjoyable.

He wasn't going to be able to stay in Anaheim much longer as the pressure was on him to relocate to Lenexa, Kansas, the new site of our corporate offices. They had been in Charlotte. NC. but it made more business sense to locate in the center of the country. At that time I didn't realize that I was going to be spending a lot of time in Lenexa as well. You have read about that in previous posts.

Las Vegas is the next story....

But, if you wish to start at the beginning of this whole saga, follow this link Now scroll down to the bottom of this page and you will find the very first post...11 years ago

It's been a long time.

I haven't touched this blog in a year and some days. I was supposed to be writing about some of the branch offices I visited on a regular basis and I failed in that. But, I can always re-start the project.

I don't believe I mentioned anything about the Spokane office. A friend of mine, Terry, was the branch manager; having been an estimator at our Roseville office as well as being one of the wranglers on the annual De Anza trail ride. He had also been working for me back when I was working for Solari in Reno. We had a good history. His brother, Bill, was the same man that had invited me to join the wranglers and we had met while working together at Saint Mary's in Reno. Bill was now the warehouse manager of the Spokane office.

I landed at the Spokane airport after taking a flight to Portland and then taking a connecting flight. That's not my favorite way to fly as it's a good way to lose luggage but there were no direct flights. I secured a rental car and made the long trip into town. The office was in an industrial area east of downtown Spokane and hard to find. But I did and we had a small reunion before settling down to the task of showing some stubborn people how to use a computer and our estimating system. I was there for a week and after the first day I told Terry that it would require that week to train just one person. I would have to schedule another trip for the the other training required.

And so it went; I would fly to Spokane at least 4 times each year which gave me a chance to experience a lot of the scenery and a lot of the weather. Spokane is very close to Coeur d'Alene Idaho and a trip to the lake there, if you had free time, was great. In fact, all the scenery in the valley was great. And then there was winter. The airport sits on land quite a bit higher than Spokane and there is a long, curved and steep drive to negotiate. Easy driving during the summer but very nerve wracking during a winter storm. 

During one winter trip, Terry invited me to watch a hockey game. It was a semi pro team and a nice arena. It was very cold when we drove into the parking lot, probably close to 0 degrees.  It was very exciting game, especially so when a flying puck made it over the glass and hit a concrete beam above me, ricocheting down onto my thigh. Ouch! That left a bruise. When the game was over, Terry took us down a stairway shortcut and we opened the door and suddenly it was like getting hit in the chest with a sledge hammer...-28 degrees. I've never experienced cold like that. -10 was as cold as I had ever been. I was glad to see the heater on in my hotel room...

Another Spokane memory. I had worked on IT projects off and on during this time in my career and Mike called me and said as long as I was in Spokane, would I mind working the weekend to install a new network system in the offices? I certainly would enjoy that; it was something different for a change. On Friday, instead of getting on a plane, I went to work moving computers and helping the IT crew with whatever was needed. We worked long hours on Friday and Saturday and by early Sunday morning we were through. Ron, the 'boss' said we ought to go over to Coeur d'Alene and look around. The 3 other members of the crew had never seen this part of the country and they were quite happy to be making a road trip. 

When we got to the lake, Ron noticed that there was a float plane that offered flights over the lake and the surrounding mountains. Ron decided he was going to call Mike and 'tell' him that as a bonus for getting the job done over the weekend, Mike should pay for a floatplane tour for us. Mike agreed and then we found that just 4 out of our party of 6 was brave enough for the trip. It was an older plane with a big rotary engine and I was going! I had never been in a floatplane before and I had a front seat as we took off. It was so smooth! Then the pilot got us to altitude and circled the lake as he described in detail what we were seeing. The first thing we noticed were the large number of logs floating on the surface. He said they still logged where they just had to toss the logs into a river and the logs floated down to the lake. They were then gathered up and made into rafts and floated to to the mill. The flying was fun and then there was the suspense of the landing on water. It was smoother than the takeoff. 

After that we decided to drive into Montana, a short trip, just to say we had been there. All in all, it made for a great weekend. 

That Southern Charm...Go Daddy's?

Another PCI project that I worked on was the training of the estimators at a company we had acquired in Georgia. The company, North Brothers, had offices all over the South and we had to bring them into the 'PCI family'. North Bros. had been a non-union company and we were going to change that as well. PCI had always been a union contractor and would remain so, even in the non-union culture in the South. First, I went to meet some of the people at the Atlanta office. I thought NB was a somewhat class act and I was wrong. Their office was located in a very poor section of Atlanta, "Turn right at Go Daddy's Used Hub Caps". At the meeting it was determined that only one of the offices in Georgia would be doing drywall and fireproofing work and that office was in Rome, Georgia. I met their chief estimator, a genuine 'Good ole boy'. He was quite nice but computer illiterate; as were all the estimators with North Bros. Then I was told about the other offices, Memphis TN and Knoxville TN. I could only picture these offices as new places to fly to...not very exciting at all. NB had other offices of course, but they were going to remain Insulation contractors. The Atlanta office would remain as PCI headquarters in the South and do some insulation work as well. The Rome office would estimate and run any drywall work in the Atlanta area.

Slightly off the subject; I flew to this first meeting using Delta Airlines. I had never been to Atlanta Hartsfield airport before and when I got off of the plane I headed downstairs with all of the rest of the passengers. Once there, I saw that that there was a crowd getting on to an electric 'train' and they appeared to be going to Baggage Claim. I don't like crowds so I elected to walk. Bad decision. I had no idea as to the size of this airport and after walking for 15 minutes and seemingly getting nowhere, I decided to get on the next 'train'. It was a 5 minute train ride on a fast train so I knew I could have spent another 30 minutes getting there by foot.

On all of my subsequent trips to this airport (and there were far too many of them) I used United Airlines. It so happened that United had only two gates at this airport. After all, this was Delta Airlines headquarters and biggest hub and so they commanded all of the gate space. But... United's gate was just a few hundred feet away from the check-in counter; almost hidden No train and very little walking. Plus, it was very quiet back in the United Airlines corner.

Did I mention Seattle?

...if I did, you will just have to suffer through another story about this office. But first, perhaps I will take a quick look back in this blog just to be sure...Nope! No stories about Seattle. To clarify, the Seattle office was in Woodinville, a long ways way from Seattle proper. The office was in a office complex on the west side of the Samammish River and overlooking the river, the park and the fields beyond. Very idyllic. The estimators offices were on the second floor and the view was spectacular.  I'm still working on finding a decent screen capture program and the one I used is not even close. I'll give it another try...okay, not bad, though I wish I had a street view. 

This was a friendly office with a great branch manager and contract secretary. I knew the branch manager from his time with the San Francisco branch. He got lucky and was appointed the manager of the branch in his home area; Seattle. There was only one snag and that was an estimator that refused, but not outright, to use a computer for anything. I tried for 2 years as that was my boss's instruction; 'make him use it'! Finally it was decided to just ignore him as he was a successful estimator and they didn't want to lose him to a rival company.

Woodinville was a small agriculture based town and motels were few and not very good, so I always stayed at the Silver Cloud on the other side of the hill and near the freeway. Later I  began using a nicer hotel in Bothell.

I have nothing but nice memories of this office. They were all grateful for any knowledge I brought them and always said 'Thank you' and that was something I rarely heard at the more focused branches.

San Francisco

Back in 2013 I promised to write about some of the branches I used to visit. I think I got around to writing about 3 of them; not really enough.

I didn't spend a lot of time at this branch office. It was located in an industrial park in South San Francisco and 90% of their business was in Acoustical Ceiling systems. This was also a very profitable office and they weren't interested in learning anything new unless the time they spent on learning would translate to $$$$. Since I couldn't guarantee that, I had few takers when it came to signing them up for a class on a new estimating system.

This branch did have two satellite offices; one in The City itself and one in San Jose at the new Intel fab. I enjoyed visiting the two estimators at the City office as it was located in the Market District. That's always a great place to visit and to eat...but the parking is ridiculous! There isn't any. So I would have to rent a room at a close by hotel that would park my car and then spend the afternoon with the two estimators. Then a fine meal and a nice night in the hotel. I would spend a few more hours with them the next day and then back to the hotel to checkout and leave the City before the traffic became horrendous. (no later than 1 PM!)

The office in San Jose was located on the job site at the new Intel plant. It was a trailer. Okay, it was nice trailer and was located amongst a dozen other trailers that were linked by raised wooden walkways. All the contractors involved in the building of this mid sized 'Fab' or cleanroom were based in the trailers. This was another busy office that rarely had time for me and so I didn't spend much time there.

Then things changed...someone forgot to renew the lease on the S. San Francisco office and they were told to leave...and do it in 30 days. The race began to find a place and to build it out with walls for offices and all the other things you need; such as telephones and comm lines and move the computers and paint the wall and lay the carpet, etc, etc. They found a place but it was no longer in San Francisco. It was very close to San Jose. I did spend some time here as the branch manager was receptive to training for all.

Note; whenever I was visiting a branch office I would try and find an empty or unused office space to call my own while I was there. Hopefully, it would have a a telephone and a 'net' connection. At this new office I had half a dozen to choose from as they had built it out for any future expansion.

Then the Intel plant was almost complete and it was decided amongst the higher ups to create a new branch office for the area and an office was secured and built out, about a mile away from the Intel plant. I spent some time here; more than I wanted to. But, it was my job. The hotels overcharged and so did the restaurants. Hotel 6 charged $135 a night and I wouldn't stay in a Hotel 6.

Nostalgia

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.)

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.

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.

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.

Catching up

Yes, it has been a long time since I last posted here. But...I'm back for awhile.

As noted, I now worked for Strategic Development and I was a "Senior" Instructor. Well, I was definitely a senior. I was looking at 60 and wondering what retirement might look like. Attractive, I believed. But in the meantime I had to take my instructor role on the road and so I was off to tour the country.

First I moved my office to home. I had permission from Gordon but it really irritated my former boss and he lobbied hard to get me back into the same building that he was in. There was some high level push and pull all because the ex boss would get a small allotment of budget money from Strategic Development if I was sitting in his building. Eventually I was given a desk in the Cold Storage offices and then allowed to work from home. Problem solved.

Not that I needed a real office. I was usually in the air, flying to Portland, Seattle, Los Angeles, New Mexico, Kansas, Indianapolis, Atlanta, Orlando, Austin, Dallas and other odd places, just to teach estimators the in's and out's of our estimating system. And when I wasn't teaching, I was supposed to be looking for new developments in the world of computers that might be of some benefit to PCG.

One of those developments was a search engine that I had found a few years back; back when I was still an estimator and that was Google. I had been hooked by it's clean look and simple but efficient operation. I showed it to the team and they weren't interested. They preferred Yahoo. Then I found Skype and demoed it for them. No sale.

I was beginning to wonder about Strategic Development. But as a group, they were still great. Every quarter we would meet in Shawnee Mission KS, our home office, and we would spend 3 or more days getting re-acquainted and developing plans for the next quarter. Part of our plans would always include a "Proformers University". We would rent most of the space and rooms in a large hotel in Lenexa. One of the rooms looked just like a theater with with seating and desk space at each row. Here we would go through a full training in the PCG way of doing things. It was all very exciting during the first few times. But it become a real bore after the 10th time. I could guarantee that I knew what each speaker was going to say long before he said it.

These events occurred 2 or 3 times a year and I would have to spend the week in Kansas, listening to the lectures and then taking the estimators out to dinner on the final evening; graduation. For an introvert with Asperger's, this part was hell!

Most estimators, project managers and branch managers are full blown extroverts and they always wanted to party on that last night in town. And as our department was in charge, we had to provide the party.

Now I do have to say that I got to eat in some fantastic restaurants during my time in this department and the Kansas City area is filled with some of the best restaurants. And I do have wonderful memories of the meals. But I would have preferred to have dined with a much smaller group; say one or two. I remember that we always ate at Plaza lll Steak House for the graduation ceremony. We always had a private room and we filled it. With loud, boisterous men all talking at once. More hell for me.

Is this supposed to be about eating or working? Now that I think about it, my job was to travel and eat. I was supposed to take the branch managers and staff out to dinners and lunches. And I did. In between the eating I was supposed to spend time training or working on the development of new software. I also taught the secretaries whenever I could as most had never been given any instructions on how to use Outlook.

Of course I have wonderful memories of most of the branch offices that I visited...some not so much. Perhaps I should start writing about each of the branches that I visited. Good idea. I'll start tomorrow. Or soon.

Moving on

It was some time in 1998 that I got the invitiation to join the Strategic Development group within PCG. I was going to be an instructor for the use of the estimating software that we had developed in-house. Also I was help in the ongoing development of  new software for estimating. My role in development was to be the 'bridge' between the User and the Programmer.

I met my 'Boss', Gordon, and was delighted to learn that he was brilliant! He really was. He was a graduate of Carnegie-Mellon and was a Nuclear Physicist. Why Nuclear? Because one of our branches within PCG was involved in making product for the nuclear energy industry. Right away I began to enjoy myself. He was such an interesting guy to talk to and he loved to talk...absolutely loved talking.

Now that I was part of  PCG, the parent company of PCI, I had a new headquarters to report to and it was in Lenexa, Kansas while Strategic Development worked out of a small corner of a PCG insulation plant in Bonner Springs.

Now I became a frequent flyer as I had to go to meetings in Lenexa, Bonner Springs and to a dozen or more branch offices. Plus the usual meetings at some resort or another. I wasn't a golfer but I still had to go to these functions and be seen.

I joined all the 'Frequent Flyer' clubs and began to rack up miles on Alaska, Southwest, United and Air West. Airports became far too familiar to me while I learned to finagle upgrades on flights and car rentals. It was actually fun at first. The fun ended after 9/11...

 

It's time

I have ignored this blog for over two years now and I suppose it's time to move myself along in this 'working' autobiography.

I was in the cleanroom estimating business now and after NEC we had many opportunities to bid cleanroom development projects for other chip manufacturers. Intel was the prime mover in this business and pretty soon other PCI branches were in the hunt for this work as well. Once that happened, my involvement slowed to a trickle and I would only help out on a few bidding projects each year. Even so, I tried to stay connected to the business as much as possible as I knew that this was the future for the company...the immediate future. As in all things, change happens and the Sacramento branch office wasn't looking at any new cleanroom work after the NEC project. Most of the work had moved to places like Arizona (Motorola and Intel) and New Mexico. (Intel) Massachusetts. (Intel) I even helped to put together an estimate for a Super Fab in Taiwan. We didn't get the job.

As I said earlier, things change and I was offered a position of Senior Instructor with the newly created Strategic Development Department within the company.

Now things got interesting...

Mr. Clean

My life churned along as an estimator. I was fairly successful at it and I always made my 'plan'. Almost always. The 'plan' is what the branch manager decided you could produce in total dollars bid and secured, and then the gross revenue. My first year, the plan was $1.5 million secured and I made a $2 million number, so the next year my 'plan' was increased. I made that number and the 'plan' was increased once more. I saw the pattern.

I also learned that if you secured a large job, you were a hero! If you came in second with your bid, you were a loser…big time! You were only as good as your last successful bid. Stress ruled!

I did secure some landmark work; the Shriner's Hospital in Sacramento was one that I estimated and secured. Another was the Park Plaza Tower, a 24 story office tower in downtown Sacramento. And lots of others. I can drive around the Sacramento area today and point out dozens of jobs that I had a hand in. All very satisfying today, but all stress and bother at the time I was involved.

After I had been with PCI for some time, our branch office was invited to bid on the new NEC cleanroom project in Roseville. Cleanroom? I was given a short course education in just what a cleanroom was and how it was constructed. I also found out that cleanrooms were bid 'concept only'. The plans for this $25 million dollar cleanroom consisted of 3 pages. And a specification book. We had to come up a design we could build for the lowest amount of money but would still satisfy the customer and meet the spec's.

Bidding this project was going to be a team effort. It was far too large for one estimator as we had to plan on building walls, floors and ceilings. And not just ordinary, walls, floors and ceilings. Cleanroom grade!

To learn more about cleanrooms and how to bid on them, I went to Hewlett Packard in Palo Alto, where our San Francisco branch office was building a small R&D cleanroom. We had to get into the Tyvek 'bunny suits' with 'booties' and face masks. All very high tech as we were going into a Class I cleanroom, the highest class, where particles of contaminants are measured and regulated by microns and even the number of water molecules is strictly regulated by the HEPA filters in the ceilings. De-ionized water is added back to the atmosphere in a cleanroom, just to make the environment human friendly. I found it all fascinating and I now had a second path available for my career.

So we began to prepare a winning number for the NEC plant. The new cleanroom there was going to be a 'Superfab', a Class I cleanroom that would be over 100,000 square feet in size. And since I was the only one of the estimators that used a computer, I was the designated spreadsheet guy. The Lotus 1-2-3 spreadsheet guy! It was not an enviable task as I had to constantly re-assure the team leader, a Luddite, that the numbers would calculate as planned and it wasn't magic as he assumed it was.

Many long weeks and lots of long evenings later, we came up with a number to bid with. Well, our concept number must have been right as we were invited to stick around for the second round of bidding. We were told the other prices we needed to beat and something about their concepts. Now we had to imagine a way to come in lowest and first! Which we did. We removed the number we had for cleaning and final wipe down of the fab and came up with a number that was substantially lower than everyone else. Of course we knew that someone had to do the cleaning and we planned on offering that service once we secured the project. And then we could charge more!

Sure enough, we got the job and now our real education began as the branch office, that had never seen a cleanroom before, began to build their very first one.

Link to cleanroom stuff…

The Age of Computers

Estimating, (or Quantity Surveying if you were in Great Britain) was soon my life and I loved it. I had an office and a computer and I could take a set of drawings in to my office and close the door. Then I could take the plans apart, not physically, but within my head. Like most estimators, I was able to visualize the completed project and just about everything in labor and material it would take to get to that finished state. I was in my own little world and until I was finished, the door would remain closed.

But, back to the computer…sure I was given one, an IBM clone. But I wasn't given any instructions. I was going to have to figure it out by myself. And after a few frustrating weeks, I decided that there was no way that I could learn at work; too many interruptions. I was going to have to learn at home, so we decided to buy a computer. We convinced ourselves that we could learn to use it together for personal purposes as well as for business.

I went shopping and ended up buying an Epson Equity II with a 40 MB hard drive and 12 MB of RAM. With Turbo! It was top of the line and it cost us $2,500 (20 years ago). Long story short; it did help us, though it was painful at times.

And back at work, I could now begin to navigate through the programs that had been installed on my pc. Programs like Symphony, which contained a program called Lotus 1-2-3. And Pro-Write, a simple word processor. I didn't care for the Symphony word processor. At home I would read about spreadsheets and then practice. Later, at work, I would try out my new knowledge.

As luck would have it, I was the only one of the four estimators that wanted to use a computer. In their offices, the computers were silent and the screens were dark. I would get no help from those Neanderthals. I would go to our secretarial staff and ask them the tough questions. And I learned a lot. Probably too much as I was soon the resident 'geek' and if anything went wrong with a computer, I was the first one called to solve the problem. I quickly learned that 'reboot' solved 75% of those problems while checking the power supply would solve another 20%. For the remaining problems, we would call our West Coast Comptroller in Anaheim, a corporate 'geek' and the one that was pushing the use of computers everywhere. Pretty soon he noticed that he was getting very few calls from the Sacramento office and he figured out that I was the reason for that. We became friends. I think he enjoyed talking about computers to someone who knew what he was talking about.

That friendship became a lasting one, and it changed my career in ways I couldn't even imagine at that time..

Someone loan me a gun, please

Life at PCI was good and a couple of years went by uneventfully. We had lots of work and most of the projects were profitable and bonuses were distributed. Other branch offices in the PCI empire were noticing our success and thinking about starting their own drywall business.

In our third year, I was given the opportunity to become an estimator and let someone else take over the role of superintendent. I would be in the office almost all of the time and I wasn't sure if that was going to be much fun. I had always enjoyed the field work and the freedom that went with it, but to get ahead in the corporation, the estimators position had to be taken and so I agreed; putting my boots in the closet and buying some slacks.

Now, I had been an estimator many years ago, and then off and on during my career I had been asked to estimate small jobs. So I knew what I had to do and even looked forward to it. Because…it's an incredibly exciting thing to do on the day that a job is actually bid. You may have immersed yourself quietly within the plans and specifications for weeks and weeks, the door to your office was closed and locked, but on bid day, it's show time!

The day starts with an early meeting; the branch manager, the head estimator and yourself. You have to come up with 'the number', that's the starting bid price and then you have to decide how low you can go from that number. And still be able to justify it to the bookkeepers if you should succeed and actually secure a job. That's called your 'walk away number' and it's subject to change as the day progresses and your greed increases.

Now you may think that construction bidding is simple; estimate the amount of material and hours needed and price it. Add up the overhead costs and include that number. Now throw in the number of dollars you want make as profit. Take the grand total and tell the customers what your bid is. Go back to your office and open a new set of plans. Wait for someone to call and tell you the results. Wrong.

To begin with, as a subcontractor, we had to bid to a number of general contractors; sometimes as many as a dozen or more. And strangely enough, our bid price would vary, depending upon our business relationship with each of the contractors. Our 'friends' would get a better number than our 'enemies'. And determining who was our friend, or not…took a lot of phone calls as we tried to see who would work with us and keep us informed as to the current bid prices. Most bids were due at 2 PM and so we would wait until 1:50 or later before we gave anyone our price. Others were playing the same game and you had to keep your price protected from prying eyes and ears for as long as possible. Although, we and others, would sometimes put out an early and false number, just to see if we could identify which contractors were going to be our enemies that day. Devious!

During those last ten minutes, the tension was incredible! We would be revising numbers every minute as we heard little scraps of information on prices. Then, with a minute or less to go, everyone was assigned a few numbers to call – even the secretaries and the warehouse guy – and get our final, final number in to all of the contractors before 2 PM.

Was it over? No. Now we had to meet once again and, somehow, justify that amazingly low number we came up with at the last minute. All the while, hoping that someone, other than yourself (please!) made a mistake and you were a close but honorable second place. The results might not be known for an hour or so, even days, so the tension wasn't over. And when it was…you never wanted to be in first place by double digit percentage points. Might as well go shoot yourself!