Review of a weekend

I had a great time while down there. I saw the dogs chase a possum and Tom and I struggled to get the TV to find signal so we could link up my laptop to his TV, We never quite got it to work perfectly. We had a pretty good time. I got to see the birth of five new kittens at the Orozcos. Later, Blanche, and Tony came to share dinner. Overall, it was great. I haven't had a non-work weekend in a long, long time.

busy week ... will post pictures soon

A quick summation ... got to see Debbie and Beth, Jon, Megan, Dave, new kitties, Blanche and Tony, Samson, Argos, Toby, and the many many kittens.

I had a good time and will write more later.

Disaster area

Jenny posted about her accident.

Jenny's slide into unconsciousness

She is uncomfortably numb.
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Monday, February 18, 2008

Dearest Family,

Jim went to the doctors this morning and he seems to be healing well. He is to continue his home exercises and hopefully will be healed in 6 weeks. He must take it easy until he can bend his leg all the way. Of course, that will be difficult for him to do.

I did see Jim slightly run on his leg as we had a bit of a problem this weekend. Jenny was involved in a car/truck accident (Sunday 2/17/08) out at a dangerous intersection by our house. Jenny was going to pick up Jessie who as at a friends house about 1 ½ miles away. The road that Jenny was hit on an intersection that has a bend in the road and it is often difficult to see other on coming cars. She crossed the intersection and it appears that she pulled out in front of a black SUV/Truck who hit her on the right passenger side of the car. That part of the car caved in entirely. We were called and Jim and I were able to come to the scene while Jenny was still trapped in the car. Somehow her car was thrown about 70 feet into a field off of the road. The car does not appear to have rolled over but was substantially out in the field well away from the road. When Jim and I arrived on the scene, the ambulance/fire dept had just arrived. Jim was able to sprint to the car (first time since the operation and first time sprinting well in about 10 months) followed by me. Jenny was just coming out of unconsciousness. Although at first I thought that they would need to use the jaws of live to get her out of the car, they were able to pull her out of the broken window. The air bags did not deploy which helped us a great deal. Jenny of course was in shock and sustained a concussion. They finally were able to pull her out and I was able to ride in the ambulance with her to the hospital. Jenny was in the hospital for about 4 hours and then they released her to home bond care. She is on pain medications and is very sore. She has very few lacerations and based on what the car looked like and seeing her in the car, I am so amazed. God was with us for sure. We did have to scrap off glass fragments from her back and she has a few scratches on her hands. Her face looks really good. She did not sustain any internal injuries. If Jessie had been in the car, she would have died. We are very blessed.

I will be at home for the next few days to take care of Jenny. I am just thankful that we have her and Jessie.

Love,

Diane

Work examined

I started my stark job with little hope or prospect. One woman, the team leader is a manic depressant -- scary mix as the moods are like drafts in a building. Whoa -- cool, whoa hot! Another guy there is large, not quite as strong as Bob in Incredibles, but looks equally silly hunched over the desk the space surrounding him like an ill-fitting suit. Another woman eats like a rabbit -- munch, much, much -- she's rail thin. Another woman there does the same thing -- real big. I guess life isn't fair.

Day four, I have a computer that works, somewhat. I have a phone system that has my name, and have all the programs that I should have. Apart from handling phone calls -- the bulk of the job, I have done all else ... entered in paperwork (Brazil's landmass worth of paperwork) including shipping, returns, invoices, faxing, (where are they) slips for shipments that are lost or late.

They moved from one system to another and there was a major problem with data transfer. About 6 weeks did not completely, and in some cases at all, load onto the new program. The program therefore made these items limbo -- did they ship, did they not ... back order?

This is partially why they need more people there. The backlog of fix this defeats the new business that they need. I am working on learning it all. Today I was able to pitch in and do some of the backlog. Anything to help the team and eventually move on to where I do sales and the potential for raises.

what my job is

I did a little more today. I got my computer and it was working. The problem is getting over the hurdle of the interface. There are four programs that they use. There is a fifth that many use, but it is the "old" system. Those who used it, love it and hate the new system.

The new program has advantages and disadvantages. It uses Windows capabilities and defeats other Windows capabilities. Because of the manner of data storage, the SQL is limited and needs more versatility and wildcards. What the users forget is that the system has to track down millions or billions of part numbers and correlate that to orders, inventory and more. Of course it should require some human-factor thinking (part number containing "7") should not be an allowable function -- consuming very valuable resources. On the same token, you may not know much about the part number so you should be able to do more with description, regardless whether you know the manufacturer.

This is also true if company A is bought be company B. Now, Company A might continue to produce the part and name it Company B; may manufacture a new part with Company A; outsource old part to Company C. This is where the complexity begins. Okay, I understand that some person may not know the part number, but they ought to have an idea what it is, right?

Part of my job will be finding parts for people who don't know the part numbers.
Another part of my job will be to order parts, ensuring that we have the parts (informing the customer approximae time of delivery) and getting prices.

The prices are the biggest mess of all.

Service Company F has a certain volume of business and gets __% off list price, unless ...
there is only a Net price listed
If the sale is a quote, numbers are rounded to integer dollars and freight is seemingly arbitrarily guessed.
I can see few instances when my team members actually calculate weight of parts for shipping.

zzzzzzzzz

So, how was work today ...

I did only a few minutes of actual work today. I did, however, learn something that I can do tomorrow. The computer they had for me was inoperable. They replaced it with another inoperable computer. So ... I got paid to sit.

Yea! Blecht! I'd rather work -- do things.

and ... she made me cry

Last night was my last late night. It was the last time I would be working with some people. One girl, 16 I think, brought me to tears in the corners of my eyes last night.

"Could I have your address so that I could write you sometime?"

I never knew I was much of anything. I was there, concerned about people, but this tore me up after close. She was long since gone. She had given me some hugs before she left.

Still, thinking about it ... I never knew I even impacted her. You never know when you're doing right, I guess it's just nice to know that I did ok.

I don't expect to see a letter from her, but ... I will cherish that moment! Sweet girl be safe!

Birds fly and die

Well, in the furnace pipes was a dead bird. Hmmm. I wonder why all the animals were pacing the ground, smelling the vents ... smells like chicken, right?

9-1-1

Please pardon the inaccuracies, Thomas would not type this so I had to type what he told me.

Saturday night ... 10:00 pm

Lois gets up, perhaps to go to the bathroom, and she falls in the bedroom. Being diabetic, Thomas thought that it was her glucose level. She is very stubborn+ and refused glucose checking. Thomas also had a concern as she has had heart attacks before.

He called 911

The firetruck arrived first and they checked her heart -- no problem there. Shortly thereafter, the EMS paramedics arrived. All packing into the bedroom, they checked her blood, which read 55. While that's very low, she's been lower. They were going to put sugar in her mouth, but she refused. They hooked her up to an IV and in 15 minutes, she returned to a thinking Lois.

She had no significant injuries from the fall.

Well, all in all, scary, but not disastrous. Lois is resting this morning.
Tom and Lois missed church this morning.

Thomas woke to a furnace that was out, so he is waiting for the furnace people to come to fix the unit.

Late

Nearly the last late night like this. I am counting the days.