My sister Karen is 57 today. Of course, given that her husband just died, I don’t know how happy it is, but I at least wanted to acknowledge it!
Confidential to Karen- like I told you on the phone, you will get through this trying time. We are praying for you and counting on you to do so!
As you may or may not know, as of July 1, 2011, the Public Works Department of the City of Tulsa ceased to exist, having been split into three departments – Water and Wastewater, Streets and Stormwater (where the Traffic folk like yours truly landed), and Engineering Services. Given that we are new departments, we are in need of new uniforms, right?
My buddy Rick was at Wal-Mart yesterday, spotted this shirt, and we are nominating it as the official new uniform of the City of Tulsa Streets and Stormwater Department-
It just fits so well, especially for us Traffic folk, as lately it seems that all we do is handle “emergencies” that really aren’t, while shoving everything else we are doing into some dusty closet somewhere to be forgotten in order to put out the fire.
“The In-Law” was a frequent commentator on the blog. He was my number one fan, or at least he said so. The fact that he read the blog, and commented, meant a lot, as this was a person that had been a part of my life for 40 years.
I say was because The In-Law, my brother-in-law Jim Barhorst, passed away suddenly and unexpectedly this past Sunday, just shy of his 58th birthday. Jim had been battling health problems for many years, most notably obesity and diabetes, and as he got older his health problems got worse. He had a good and full life, got to see his son marry and have a child, but, in the end, his health got the better of him.
Around 5:30 PM this past Sunday, my mother called me and sounded very agitated. She told me she had some news, and I immediately assumed that my father, who has been in declining health for the past year, had died, as she had the “someone died” tone in her voice. I was shocked when she told me that it wasn’t my father who died, but my brother-in-law, Jim.
Jim has been part of my life since I was five years old. When he was dating my sister, I always liked to hang around him. He was a cool, and smart, older brother. And, yes, I looked up to him as a role mode.
I got my Master’s Degree from the University of Tennessee. Several years prior to me, Jim got his Master’s Degree from the University of Tennessee. One afternoon, while doing research in the Thesis Room (the room where the keep all the completed theses and dissertations) at the university’s library, I took a break from the the research from my own thesis to hunt down Jim’s. It was twice the size of mine, and I didn’t understand a lick of it. The part of his thesis that stood out to me was its dedication – to my sister, Karen, and to their only son at that time, my nephew Tom. I don’t know if either Karen or Tom ever knew that Jim had dedicated his thesis to them, but as a 22 year old graduated student who was engaged, I thought it was pretty cool. So, following Jim’s lead, I dedicated my thesis to my fiancee, who later became my ex-wife. (The idea just seemed so cool and romantic to me, but unfortunately I can’t take white out and replace her name with Victoria’s..drats!)
When I was dating Victoria and took her to meet the family for the first time, Jim jumped out the opportunity to inform her of all of my quirks and failures throughout the years. He had downloaded and saved the rap song I recorded (it is still available online if anyone wants a copy!), and played it for sweet, innocent Victoria, as a kind of warning to her to flee before it was too late! (Of course, she didn’t, and I love her for that!)
Tomorrow we travel to Saint Louis for the wake and the funeral. This will be a huge funeral, as Jim had a lot of friends and family who will want to pay their last respects and say “good-bye”; Victoria, myself, and the girls, will be among them. (Sadly, due to circumstances beyond my control, and just plain bad luck, the boys will not be able to go.) As much as Jim could frustrate me, as much as he always wanted to argue just because he loved to argue, I will miss him, and the blog will miss him, too. Jim was always my staunchest defender and biggest supporter, and I always appreciated that.
Rest in peace, dear brother. You are with the Father now, and you have been relieved of your earthly burden. Sometime, far in the future (I hope), we will meet again in paradise.
I met the new family next door on Wednesday. Interestingly enough, they are moving from Tulsa to Bartlesville, as she works for Conoco Phillips and doesn’t like the drive. Hmm. I know that feeling! Seven years of driving an hour and 50 miles each way too and from work can take a toll on someone. Me, specifically….
Number 2 called me today to tell me that her and her friend, Stephanie, had found an apartment and were going to move in over the weekend. Good job, Number 2! Now I have my two oldest living on their own….
Speaking of Number 1, she seems to be enjoying life in the dorm and the independence it brings….
There have been so many changes in my life the past week, that I flat out haven’t had the time to post anything, I mean anything, on this beloved blog, and I apologize.
I found out last Wednesday that they were moving our offices – on Thursday! In fact, I found out at about 3:30 in the afternoon! They had been talking about moving us since the beginning of the year, and it was always “It will be two more weeks!” Well, the big day finally arrived! Of course, there was a teeny tiny logistical issue that kind of fell through the cracks – I did not have a key to the new digs, and I did not know anything, I mean anything at all, about what kind of furniture I had at the new digs. It makes it quite difficult to move into a new office when you really haven’t a clue as to what the new office looks like and how much space you will have.
First thing Thursday morning, they took my computer and phone, so until pretty much yesterday, I have been computer-less, as they forgot to hook me back up to the network when I moved. The phones? Well, our phones still do not work properly, which means every single call goes directly to voicemail, much to the chagrin of citizens who think I am being a first-class jerk and not answering my phone. In four days’ time I had fourteen voice mail messages; that’s a lot of blooming messages!
The second big change is that we found out yesterday that the house next to us has finally sold and will be occupied before the week is out. Given that I’ve lived in my house going on three years, and the house next door has been vacant since I moved in, this is a big deal for me. While it has been kind of nice to not have neighbors next door, quite frankly, I look forward to the house being occupied and having neighbors. And given that they have five children all around the ages of my children, that will be very nice, indeed! Of course, I will have to give up my parking space, as I have been parking in their driveway for the past three years, but that is a small price to pay for having neighbors.
The biggest change that happened this past week is that my lovely daughter Jacqueline, Number 1, moved out and into the dorms at Rogers State University in Claremore. While Claremore is only an hour away, which means that I really could go a visit pretty much anytime I want, the drive home was one of the saddest hours I’ve experienced. Whenever I have left the house with Jacqueline, I have always returned with her, so we are adjusting to not having her around anymore. However, she is, so far, enjoying being on her own, and it was time. Of course, as is always the case in my life, there is always a sense of balance, as Elizabeth, the wayward Number 2, has been visiting more frequently. She has decided to put college on hold for a year until she figures out EXACTLY what she wants to do, as her immediate focus is finding an apartment and a job.
There are several more big changes that are coming soon, like within the next six weeks, so stay tuned….
As a traffic guy, I don’t like it when so-called “traffic” people think that striping, signing, etc. is so easy that they end up putting the public in harm’s way. But, that is exactly what happens!
Sunshine was out and about and literally ran into a striping crew. Sure, they were wearing safety vests, but that’s about all they did right. They left equipment unprotected in the street. They didn’t cone off lanes. They really didn’t do anything to protect themselves or motorists from harm. And that is just wrong.
I think what is galling is that there were at least four people at the site, and not a one of them had a thought that perhaps they should do it right. Sad.
But, hey, what do I know, right? After all I am just an uneducated hack (or so I was told when I was running for City Council) who just happens to have a Master’s Degree and 22 years of experience in traffic engineering. But I am ignorant and stupid and don’t know anything. How dare I question the City of Bartlesville Traffic Committee, made up of seven great citizens with zero years experience in traffic? After all, they all drive, so they must be experts! A Master’s Degree? Just a piece of paper!
It has now been 24 hours since I got my iPhone. While I resisted getting it, I mut say I understand now why Number 1 likes it so much. Sunshine was looking at it last night, and asked if I could upgrade her, too. I told her if she is a really really good girl, then Santa might bring her one for Christmas!
I found a huge benefit, since my iPhone is hooked up to my city e-mail. Since I spend much of my day out in the field, I come back into the office and am inundated with e-mail. Today was the first day in the seven years I have been with the city that that didn’t happen, as I was able to address e-mail questions immediately with the iPhone. This is a huge plus for me, for today, instead of spending an hour or so on the computer answering my daily e-mail backlog, I had no backlog, and could spend that hour clearing out the backlog of some of the work that I have piling up on top of my desk. I figure that in a couple of weeks, I should pretty much be caught up with it all!
With the iPhone, a computer really does become, for the most part, rather Neanderthal, as I can do most of what I do on my desktop from wherever I am at as long as I get a couple of bars.
And since Number 1 has one, she showed me a few tricks, that I passed onto my coworkers who are navigating this strange new world of the smart phone with me.
This is a test of how well I can post from an iPhone. Apparently not too well as I lost all of this post except these two sentences!
Since the city has started it’s striping season, I have become a member of the striping team. Typically, I drive the follow-up truck, a smaller truck that follows right behind the paint truck to keep traffic out of its way. A typical striping operation consist of a five-person team (driver, left operator, right operator, follow-up truck drive, and back-up truck drive) operating three vehicles – the paint truck, follow-up truck, and back-up truck. The paint truck is the largest of the three and goes first in the convoy. The driver, who is the equivalent of the quarterback of the team, sits in front and drives; the two operators sit in the back and paint. Following immediately behind, is the follow-up truck, and ten to fifteen seconds behind the follow-up truck is the back-up truck, whose purpose it is too keep traffic off of the fresh paint until it dries, which is why is it supposed to lag far behind, to allow enough time for the paint to dry. Theoretically, once the back-up truck passes, the paint is dry enough to drive on without tracking it everywhere.
About three weeks into the striping season, the operators commented about how I had the easy job and that I just couldn’t cut it as an operator. So, the challenge was on. So, I spent two days as the right side operator, and didn’t do a half bad job of it! Of course, the left side operator still questioned my street cred. After all, there is only one gun on the right side and it paints only one color, white. How hard is that? On the left, there are three guns, two yellow and one white, and you have to change colors. The left side is just too hard for a lowly engineer like me to comprehend! I vowed that i would get to run the left before the summer was out!
That moment came this past Wednesday. Now our sign installers double as the striping crew, wo when there aren’t enough people to man the crew, then the remainders install signs and striping functions are shut down. Wednesday was one of those days. The driver, who doubles as the sign lead man, was planning to spend the day inside doing boring and tedious paperwork, when the two of us hatched a brilliant plan – we would go to locations where traffic is light, the paint truck is visible from a far distance, and vehicles can pass easily, thus eliminating the necessity of the two other vehicles, and I would operate from the left. So, our two man crew went out and striped. And I changed colors. And I operated the three guns. And it wasn’t nearly as hard as the left operator made it sound; in fact it was easier than the right side, for on the right side, the operator has to steer the gun to get it in the right spot, while on the left, the driver does that for you. The driver and I joked throughout our adventure about how hard it is to switch colors and guns.
The driver wanted me to expose the left operator’s job as the plum cupcake it is, but I opted out of that plan, and instead told him that it was really challenging and required full concentration and other such puffery. I could actually see his head swell and chest puff out in “I told you so” satisfaction!
Really, though, if a low-level hack engineer can do it with two minutes of training, and everyone ones we are low on the intelligence food chain, how hard can it really be?
