Bill’s posterous

I am responsible for a part of our 414 Departmental meeting today at 3 p.m….we have one every month…we talk about any issues that might be relevant at the moment, have a safety presentation, and a technical topic is covered…I have the technical topic this month…I volunteered so I can’t blame anyone else…my topic for today is “Cold Weather Concreting”…I am getting some info for the presentation from ACI 306R and some info from the Concrete Manual sections 19.3 and 19.4…so we will see how it goes.

It is another beautiful day outside today…it will be in the 60’s for a high for the next week or so…

Walking yesterday was challenging…Stacy and me were both tired but we still managed a 3.13 mile walk and a good pace…I haven’t been exactly eating right since they have been visiting and of course it is the holidays too…they will be going home today and needless to say I need to get back on my usual diet…we had a great time during their visit and I only regret that they don’t live closer so I can see them more often…I am greatly anticipating our next time with the Tucker Crew!!

Not everyone gets to work every day with his wife of 40 years!!  We are a great team…she is the company dispatcher and I am a project manager…she doesn’t work directly for me but she is here with me in the office all day every day…we get along great most of the time…she is amazes me at how efficient she is at her job…she was a tremendous mom to our children as they were growing up but I did not see this side of her abilities…she is as capable as anyone can be at her job…she is good with folk on the telephone…at handling potential problems with clients or with people here in the office…she is diligent at her work and very responsible for her tasks…she is one of the most organized people I know…she always has a smile and a kind word for everyone she talks to…again I am amazed every day at her abilities…I just watch her and realize how much God has blessed me to have found her!!

The 414 department meeting went well…my part was ok…I talked to Dave Sollie afterward and volunteered to do the technical topic again next meeting so I could get more comfortable with it…however, Chris White complimented on my presentation today...he has been doing that for me lately...

Time to go home for the day…it has been a good day with the exception of seeing my daughter, son in law, and the boys Sam and Toby off at the airport for the trip back home to Oregon…I will sure miss them…

My daughter Stacy and her family (husband Justin and two boys) are here visiting this week…they have actually been here for two weeks…they let us watch the boys (ages 2 and 3) and they went to see Mystere at Treasure Island last night…out to eat, walk around on the Strip and take in the show…

So consequently we are sleepy this morning…it was past our regular bedtime before the boys actually went to sleep…we were in bed by 10ish…we are usually in bed by 8:30ish…it doesn’t take much to tire us out any more.

We have thoroughly enjoyed the Tucker’s visit…Justin has helped me with some chores around the house and Stacy has been my walking companion…we did a couple of hikes during their stay as well as our daily walks…I feel closer to Justin than I ever have which is great…I have so much in common with Stacy that we are more than buds…

Work is going good but slow…maybe I will still have a job when this recession is over…

I have gotten a refrigerator (small one) for my office which will be a good addition to my daily activity…our branch director refused to get bottled water for our new office so that motivated me enough to get one…he said that he is tired of supplying everything for us…what’s with that anyway?  I think it is just one of his pet peeves…he is probably spending more for electricity than for a bottled water dispenser (I am the 3^rd one to get a refrigerator!)…his latest rule requires us to be here 10 hours per day since we are on salary…well no one is here 10 hours per day!  I get here at 6 a.m. and leave at 4 p.m. (at the earliest) and I am only here for 9 hours when you consider that I take a 1 hour lunch…most of the Project Managers get in here about 8 a.m. and leave by 4 and at the latest 5 p.m….also the office staff is on 8 to 5…so goes the office…

Planning to join the Gold’s Gym in my neighborhood this weekend…it is about a mile or so from my house…this is the 3^rd gym I have been a part of since moving to Vegas 4.5 years ago…the one I am currently part of is about 5 miles from my house and somewhat off my beaten track so I am not using it as much as I want to…it is about 12 miles from my office and it does not provide lockers and showers so this restricts me some too…I need to be doing strength training along with my daily cardio workouts…BTW this will be the 73^rd consecutive day of cardio workouts…since the gym is near my house it will make it much easier to get in for workouts even on weekends…

Lunch at Starbuck’s…banana nut loaf and soy latte…Julie had a blueberry scone and a chai latte…

What a gorgeous day here in the Vegas Valley…about 60 degrees sun shining and clear…the prediction for the next week is clear skies and mild temperatures!!  Maybe I will do some hiking this weekend…out by the lake or possibly Black Mountain…maybe I will go up to Railroad Pass and see where that trail leads…saw it when we rode the train with the kids…if it is out there I will have to hike it at some point!!  I have grown to love the desert…the openness and the scenery here…but I liked Western Washington state when we lived there (Pasco, Kennewick, Richland area) and some found it be too desolate for them…they have more wind than we do here and it gets colder in the winter…the desert has it’s own beauty and we love it here!!  But as the limo driver said to me when I first visited here for an interview, “Not everyone likes it in Las Vegas”.

The gambling and the sex scene does not bother us since we have raised our family and we just don’t gamble ourselves…well, a little bit here and there for the fun of it but not seriously…we only go down to the strip on special occasions so living here is like living in any other city…we do like the cosmopolitan feel of the city with all the different nationalities visiting here constantly…I here several languages spoken in my hearing nearly every time I go downtown…

A person that I have become acquainted with who is an engineer on one of my jobs…Johnny Wallace…passed away the other day just before Christmas…I will miss him…he was a good old Texas boy who graduated from Texas A&M…he was like a fresh drink of water with his down home country ways and his accent…his wife Lizabeth is still working for Patterson Dewar as a project assistant so I will still get to talk to her occasionally…he went to the hospital with chest pains…they checked him out, said he was fine and sent him home where he died during the night…I don’t understand why they sent him home and did not keep him thru the night for observation…they sent him home still complaining of chest pains…again I am so thankful that the Dr. detected my blockages when they did and it was treatable…could have save my life!!

Joan informed me that I had $94,000.00 in sales last month (December)…best in the office with the exception of Mike Jahn who has a lot of airport work…I even had a better month than NDE Dept…that makes me feel good since he is such a premadonna…Paul Davis commented that I was at the “top of the food chain” around here…well that makes me slightly nervous because I have a long way to fall if my numbers go down!!  The Lord has blessed me here and for that I am very thankful!!

Well, my day is almost done here at the office…it is interesting to observe my fellow workers and my supervisors on a daily basis…office politics do play a role in the everyday affairs of the office…I used to think that these types of people games only occurred in a local church environment…not the case at all…people are the same in or out of church and their behavior is very similar toward one another…”pettiness” prevails in both settings!!  However, let it be said that I really enjoy my job and the people I work with…note: “work with”…I have concluded that it would be the smart thing to do if I leave my relationships at the workplace at the workplace and not socialize away from the office…an occasional baseball game with the Scott Kassel’s will be fine but not much else with anyone here at work…I am even reconsidering the office parties and get togethers might be off limits for us…maybe I will attend and maybe not…at least I do not feel in any way committed to them…

I am looking forward to my walk this evening after work…I think Stacy will be going with me…

It is really cold outside today…not the best day for sight seeing but we will go something that Braxton will enjoy this afternoon…maybe Circus Circus which is indoor…I know that Braxton will like it and that is a good motivation to go…think I will leave here at the office about 10:00 or so…

Another day in paradise!!  I love my office…the longer I am here in it the better I like it…it will probably continue to grow on me.

The electrician came in and set my lights so they will stay on longer and increased the range of the electronic eye on them and the sensitivity so now I am all set up…no longer will I find myself sitting here in the dark waving my arms like a madman until I get the attention of the light switch…

I am asking for half a day off tomorrow to do something with Kelli and Braxton that they will enjoy...they go home on Thursday…I hope the weather is good for that…if we lived closer it would be easier to things like that…

Sometimes we think we know a person but along the way we discover that we have really never known them…I am in the midst of discovering that fact about someone I know or thought I knew…it could still turn out that I am wrong in the end but for now it is not a pleasant experience…even though we try not to get close to many people in life’s journey some of them seem to be worthy so you let them in too close…well without becoming too philosophical I will get off that subject for now…

We are going to the Spring Preserve tomorrow!!!

My daughter Stacy and her husband Justin Tucker will be here to visit for a couple of weeks…them and their two boys will get in on Thursday evening…my other daughter Kelli and her son will leave Thursday afternoon to return to Eugene, Oregon…just 4 hours before Stacy and her clan get here…she gets off of the plane (Allegiant Air) and Stacy and her clan get on the same plane to come down here!!  I don’t get to see Stacy and Justin as often as the other kids since it more expensive for them to fly here…one or two tickets are easy to afford than 4 tickets so they make it down here less…

Well, we finally got moved to our new building today!!  It is a vast improvement from our old one…we moved enough dirt/dust over here on our things to plant a crop…I spent most of the morning unpacking and dusting all my office things…I have one complaint so far…we have motion sensor lighting in our offices so if you sit still for very long (i.e. typing, reading, or thinking) the lights go off and you have to wave your hand until the sensor picks up your movement and the lights come back on…guess I will learn to live with it.