Nuances, Veteran’s day, tantrums

One of the challenges of learning a language is capturing the nuances. Words do not always mean the same thing you expect them to mean. The same is true in learning a job language. What one company calls a specific set of items may not translate to your new company. Sometimes adapting to new meanings of words that mean something totally different to you is key to communicating with a new set of coworkers or peers. It has taken me the first three weeks of this job to learn how things are phrased and how certain items are referred to to be able to understand how to effectively ask the right questions so that I get the answers I need. I think I am making real progress now.

I remember when I worked at the pilot plant in West Virginia when we opened a valve to allow flow to the reactor, we called “valving in” the feed. At the process plant across the river when they were “valving in” the feed it meant that the valve stem was closing and the flow was being stopped. Imagine the confusion if someone had worked at one place for twenty years and then transferred to the other facility. Everything about establishing flow to a vessel would be backwards. It is akin to that with the terminology I am having to cross into. But I do not want to loose the “old” meanings of the terms because that is what many or our customers still speak. I am, however, learning to translate - both ways.

To any Veteran reading this posting. Thank you.There are many of us in this United States of America that have not forgotten nor taken for granted the sacrifices you made for our freedoms. If you are wondering whether or not it was worth it, the danger you faced, the friends you lost, the battles you survived when many others did not, the answer is, YES. Even in our most humble and contrite moments we may never be worthy of the price you paid in our stead.

On the flip side of that sentiment are the tantrums of those (who recently lost the presidential election) who have been taught that they are always “winners”. That their every thought is a wonderful idea. That every desire they have ever entertained is a worthy pursuit. That life owes they everything they want simply because “everyone is special.” There are real dangers with teaching children that they should alway win. First, it’s a lie and deep in their hearts they know it to be a lie. Second, it is not true to life. They will find out how tragically untruthful their education has been at some point - so teach them to learn from mistake and failures. It will be a blessing to them later. Third, since they know they are being lied to, it fosters the motivation to think that anything they want to say should also be counted as  true; regardless of how much they know it to be a lie. Truth is not a popular concept in this current culture. While we are coddling a generation that has no moral compass, we are quickly losing a generation that was guided by one. A generation that viewed honor and civility and decency above what is comfortable to most of their grandchildren and great-grandchildren. 

Who knows what will come out of this current situation. I do not, but  I do know this, there is a clear path back to the moral standards that made America great. We are just too self-righteous as a culture to walk in it. At least for now.

Training, temporary solutions, Victoria’s house

Since I stayed up on Tuesday night to see the election results and since last night was church night and since we went to Lowe’s after church last night I went to bed when we got home and slept until just before the alarm went off this morning. None the less yesterday was a full day, spent mostly in training at the Decatur Civic Center - my old stomping grounds from ConocoPhillips. It was an 8-5 class and we spent all that time actually in class - lunch included. It is the class I am going to be teaching starting January next year. If things go as I am forecasting, it will require travel at least once per month. I think Mama and I can handle that. The training I got to take on Tuesday has already proved very useful in my daily routine. It was set at a pace I could actually keep up with and process enough to retain. The training yesterday was more about doing performance evaluations for individuals in the field. I may never use it but I can certainly teach it - since I have spent years doing that.

Today was pretty fast paced at work. But I had time to go over the book I brought home from the training yesterday and redo as well as augment my notes while the information was still fresh on my mind. I am beginning to feel like I am actually helping in the daily work we are doing. My coworker are calling on me for help in the more routine tasks and I am handling all the emails one day per week and first in line to answer all phone calls on another day each week. I am not completely comfortable on all the emails or calls but help is generally very close. When I do start handling the assigned training, I may be moved off of this team into a different department but we will cross that bridge when we come to it. At least I can be of some value to the company in a dual role since they have invested this much training in me at this set of tasks. 

Another temporary solution I was able to get done for Mama was rigging up a light in the chicken coop. In order to increase our egg production we need some way to extend the light the chickens are exposed to. Victoria bought a couple of battery operated lights for us to put in the coop until we could do better but it requires a lot of batteries to be more than a two or three day solution. So as I was praying about it yesterday I got the idea to rig up an outdoor breaker box at the slab I have poured for the well house and get power through it to the coop. God even gave me a great idea, quick and easy, for supporting the breaker box at the slab. At the coop I rigged up a temporary light in the place I have wired for a permanent outdoor fixture. Since I got off an hour early this afternoon I was just running out of daylight when I flipped the breaker for the wiring to the coop. When doing electrical wiring, it is always fun to see it really work when the switch is turned on. I will have to do some completion work tomorrow evening, hopefully before dark, but the light is burning and working off of the switch wired for it. Mama should like that.

We may be close to selling Victoria’s house. please continue to pray about that. Also, Cori and Nate may be close to putting their house on the market. More prayer needed there as well.

A night off, testing and training signage

I took the night off from writing last night and went to bed as soon as we got back to the house from FBI. I figured I was not obligated to write my blog every evening - it is not like I have a vast following or earth shattering news every weekday night. But this gives me an outlet for writing and hopefully it encourages others along the way. Maybe giving a laugh or two as I get to relate life as I see it.

Last night was our first test of this semester and all of us were worried about it but as we got to the church Bro Daniel Wycoff came out to greet us and told us how easy the test actually was. We were on time for the class but he and his two children that attend the class with us and Ed Howard - who they bring to class from the nursing home - started the test as soon as they got there; at 5:30. By the time we arrived - at 6:20 - the Wycoff clan was long since finished and Ed was half way through his test. He usually takes more than an hour to complete a test. He is hampered by a recent stroke but he still plugs on. On a normal test night he continues on his test for a couple hours as we continue with class. But he always finishes and he always passes.

We ended up starting class a half hour early while Ed continued on his test. That put us out of class at about 8:50, vs 9:30. But by the time we got home I was ready for bed. I had worked emails all day at the office and had had some really involved learning experiences in the seventy or so emails I had to respond to over the course of the day. All the while, I was looking over the notes I was studying for the test that evening. It may not seem like much but I was more than ready to leave the office when the five o’clock hour came.

Today I spent most of the day in training. The training was over the very program I am trying to master for work so it could not have come at a better time - and it was quite helpful. In fact, as I got back to work some time after 3 pm, I got a chance to put some of the lessons I had just learned into practical use. It is not very often that that happens in life. Not as dramatic as learning CPR and walking out of class to find a person collapsed and unresponsive, but it was at least encouraging to use what I had learned in a helpful way. 

As a humorous side note, we were discussing properly stopping at a stop sign when Mama related that she always makes a thorough stop at the stop signs that have the ALL WAY signage below. She told the office that had given her the warning ticket that she makes makes sure she stops all the way - just like it says. I had to smile so she knew something was up. I explained that they used to be called 4-WAY stops since a stop sign was at each corner of the intersection but sometimes there are three or maybe five roads coming together, so the signage was changed to ALL WAY so it could be used more generally. She said, “All along I thought it meant you had to stop all the way.”

All I could say was, Well, that too.”

Sitting and setting, pigging lines/out, traffic stops

I have spent eight hours each day for the past two workweeks sitting. I did not realize just how much I enjoyed the activity and the freedom I had during the past year as I struggled to find a job. I am not complaining. I just miss the hours of movement I have lost in taking this job. But I have to realize that God is setting up the perfect circumstances in my life to bring about the blessing He has for me and Mama. I just have to be patient, obedient and willing to follow along as He leads. There are many times in life that we end up just having to wait and continue to do what the Lord has us currently doing. I believe it is called, faithfulness. 

At work we got to talking about pigging lines today. Pigging is a process where a “pig” is sent down a line in order to push out contaminants and debris in order to clean the line for service. A pig is a plug of any material that fills the line and compresses without letting the air pressure behind it to leak past as it moves through from its starting point to the open end of the line. Some pigs pretty crude and others are very sophisticated. When I was in Argentina we pigged a line and aimed it to blow all the contents out to sea - since the entire facility was built on a barge. When we pressured up the line and opened the valve to blow the pig through it  we blew several dozen pigeons out into the open water, whereupon the sharks had a very messy feast. The water looked like boiling blood. 

My supervisor and I knew about pigging but the rest of the crew did not. She shared her stories of line blows using pigs and several injuries that resulted from poorly placed personnel. While I was working in the Decatur office for ConocoPhillips a man in New Mexico on one of our worksites was killed because he was looking down the line as the pig shot out at him. It was a sophisticated, reusable one. It was a sad incident to report. Fortunately, that is not normal. My colleagues agreed that the only pigging they were aware of was pigging out.

Mama went to the feed store in Muenster after she got off work this afternoon. On a round about way back she stopped at Grandma and Grandpa’s to visit with them and with Norman and Seth. That is where she was when I called just after getting home at about 5:30. Soon enough she was on her way home but got stopped in Bowie on her way home and got pulled over by a Bowie Police Office. It appears she had failed to come to a full and complete stop at one of the many stop signs as she wove her way through town on the back streets. She did not get a ticket, just a warning. Breaking down, sobbing uncontrollably probable helped out. Just kidding! She said the officer was polite, as was she, and he felt like a warning was sufficient. We will see.

The only traffic ticket I can remember getting is for the same thing - failure to make a full and complete stop. When I went to the Justice of the Peace to talk to her about it - I thought it was unfair since I was the third car in line stopped at the sign - she threw the ticket out. Turns out that the same office had written twenty five tickets for the same offense at the same stop sign on the same day.

I did not want to be there when the officer got a dressing down.

More rain, the TENS unit, study

It looked like Fall today; overcast, dreary, the sidewalks littered with leaves. It was a nice change when contrasted to the dry, bright, dusty days we have endure through the long summer. We are supposed to have cooler weather to further emphasize the changing of the season by the end of the week. I have not looked ahead to see what the forecast is for winter in this area but we will take what comes as we come to it. If freezing weather ever does come, there are a few things I need to do to get ready but I will not do any winterization until needed. Mama and I will just enjoy the mild, moist days ahead of us.

At work one of the ladies in my Client Relations group brought her TENS unit to work with her. She is having trouble with her neck and back. When she was asked about it by the other lady in our group she volunteered to loan it to her. A gesture readily accepted by the borrower. But a short while later as she was allowing the unit to work on her she shrieked in pain and fumbled to get the unit turned down. She had it on a progressive setting which quickly ramped up to the point of hurting her. Still later she began making faces as the unit shocked her neck near her facial muscles. She and I face each other so, thinking I had been noticing the facial contortions, she remarked. “That’s not me.” “Yes it is.” I answered, “I can see your face from here.” 

All in all, it has been a pleasure so far to work with this company and especially this group. Our new supervisor keeps prying me for insights into how to do her job better but she is doing fine for the moment. At least she catches her mistakes quickly and is able to defuse any bad reactions from poorly chosen wording. Ultimately, I think she will do well for the time she has the current position. Today I was able to handle most of the calls I answered. I think I had to go for help three times out of the twenty five or so times I took a call. Better, but still in need of much improvement since becoming a supporting member of the team is the goal.

Mama and I studied a while tonight for the test we have Monday. As I worked through the questions on the syllabus I began to see a way to arrange my thoughts around the necessary answers. At first the volume of information was a bit daunting, but right now it looks manageable. I have told Mama repeatedly that I want to remember the facts for a period longer that is necessary to do well on the test. I hope to make the information a permanent part of my understanding of the Bible. Unfortunately, my brain seems to leak the facts as soon as I quit dwelling on them.

I have determined that if I could remember 20% of everything I have learned in my life to date I would be an incredibly smart individual. Unfortunately, I am probably closer to 5% retention. But I tend to like being average.

Rain finally, chicken lovers, nick names

Several of the mornings this week have been overcast but this morning the overcast skies finally distilled into rain. It was not much but it was some. The next couple days have a pretty good chance of more significant rain but we will not celebrate until it comes. Until then I will continue to water three times per week through the fall; if it really is fall. The temperatures make it difficult to tell the season. The only true indication of the season at hand is the ever shortening days.

The Burn’s family has continued with their investigation of Victoria’s house. They have gone to the house each evening this week. Monday they just piddled around. Tuesday they met with Daniel and James Wycoff (both of whom are both working as plumbers) in order to get some insights into the possible layout of the plumbing in the house. Neither of them saw a problem with the way Zach wanted the bathroom laid out. Tonight they met with the man who installed our septic system. That was an interesting visit. The bottom line is that the septic system is doable but the old hand-dug well must be filled in with some type of aggregate that will seal it off. Not a difficult task but an additional one. Zach does not seem bothered by the additional work but he has not made a final determination in purchasing the house either. Zach has also talked to the title company about the purchase process.

While they were there at the house last night their daughter, 4 year-old Eliza, overheard Mama telling her mama that we were going to catch the chickens we have at the house and give them to the Wycoff family so they can be killed and eaten. At least Mama did not use the word “butchered”. Even though I am not sure Eliza would have known it’s meaning it is still a angry type of work. Anyway, Eliza was deeply saddened about the expected demise of the hens and told her mama, “I don’t want the chickens to die.” I do not know what she heard in response, but she was still pleading with Mama to spare the chickens as they talked tonight. You know how it is with murderous Mama Kim. Once she gets her head set on something it will get done sooner rather than later. Secretly, Eliza thinks purchasing the house will spare the chickens from certain death.

Work continues to be a bit overwhelming but I am getting all the needed help. And the crew I am working with seems to be adapting well to me. Tonight my boss, Sara and my peer Colin were trying to come up with a nick name for me. By their own admission it should not be unkind or overly silly so they wrestled with several while I sat smiling but not participating. Colin suggested that it have something to do with the Encyclopedia - they consider me well read. Eventually they came up with Tim O Pedia. But that was not sufficient so to put an Irish twist to the name they revised it slightly to Tim O’Pedia. 

I am not sure if it will stick but it if far more flattering than several of the other nick names I have been stick with.

Mama’s day at the races, crowded time spaces, drinking from a fire hose

Mama spent the day at the races in Ft Worth. The church school met with a local church school and competed by age/grade category in several long races. The longest was two miles - for the older teens. The shortest was one mile - for the smaller ones. The medium grades were sandwiched in between with the mile and one half distance. In all categories our students came in second place or less with the more competitive students from Ft Worth  coming in an unquestioned first place. There were only three or four competitors in each category so second place and after was basically a giveaway. I have no idea if there was any kind of real practice for the distance but I do know that there was little motivation to really compete. On the bright side, everyone who actually competed finished their race.

Mama and I are slowly adjusting to the tighter schedule. We try to break up the chores at the farm to inside and outside tasks. The inside tasks usually wait until after dark and the outside tasks are raced to completion in the quickly fading evening light. Fortunately, the early dusk gives us a good deal of time a to get the inside chores accomplished before bedtime. Since Daylight Savings is ending this weekend there will be a short reprieve in the very short evenings; at least until the days move to their normal wintertime brevity.

This evening I hung a gate I brought back from Chappell Hill at the opening to the pig building. The goats have made claim to the area and are giving it their unique aroma. The culprit is Boomer - the only billy goat we have. Not to mention, both Boomer and Kai  are a real bother when we go to get feed out of the container we have stored in the pig building. They butt, bump and hop on either Mama or myself through the entire routine. So about a month ago Mama asked me to put up a gate and the one I found in Dad’s shop was perfect - or nearly so.

Work is a real challenge right now. A good friend of mine referred to the learning process as having to drink from a firehose. That is a pretty accurate description. As I was in one of many calls where I needed to ask for help - if not turn the call over to someone else - I remarked that I did not feel like I was pulling my weight. A coworker chided my remark by saying, “And you’ve been here for seven days now. Get with the program.” That was a pretty good encouragement to me. I am doing better but the unbelievable scale of nuanced questions asked are more than any one person can master in a lifetime - much less a week.

So I won’t be too hard on myself — yet.