Now that we have been in isolation for about a week and a half. I am getting a little bored. Being the old retired engineer that I am, isolation means that I have to keep constant company with my own demented gearhead brain. Fortunately I got a lot of practice at working in isolation during my working career. I was always one of those mysterious uniformed employees that management keep hidden away under the floor for when things go wrong. "My computer is not working ! The little light on the power strip under my desk is out !" My phone rings in the basement or my walkie-talkie starts making noise and I show up. "Sir. You cannot have your computer, your 1500 watt space heater, AND your coffee pot connected to that power strip" Mr. White Shirt and Tie would say "Why" ? Fix the problem. Then back to my cave, under the floor, next to the boiler room. Alone again. Boiler rumbling, Various noises that told me all is well. Alone with my thoughts. Until the phone rings. "My office is TOO hot" or "the lock on my office door fell apart". This isolation we are experiencing remindes me of how I used to cope with years of that life. Time to turn on your creative brain. I am using this time to organize my life. I recently oragnized some of my work area, but now I am looking ahead to more time to burn. Time to organise my computer system here at home. I have several computers that I have aquired over the years. All different ages, operating systems, etc. I put in a new modem and router this winter. Time to decide which computers to keep and what to scrap. Your skills my be different that mine. Point is use what you have to keep busy. ...J.D.
Ah..But which switch to flick...That is the question. . I had one site where I refused to wear a uniform. When the office people would ask.me "What do you do around here?" I would.say: "I make noise". More true than they realize. ...J.D.
In an effort to stop watching silly YouTube videos of dogs being silly I did a jigsaw last night. It was so nice to do something so utterly analogue for a change. Unfortunately, I may well have to use any confinement time to do some self-learning for my professional CPD. Some of us white collar number-crunchers have no choice. By the way, I'm the rare type of office worker who always stops to chat with the maintenance guys, and the cleaners, and the security guards, and all the other roles in a big building like ours that keep everything working. They all say hello back to me now which confuses my colleagues while making me smile.
This week I ordered a "refurbished" tower PC that is going to replace a lot of the older hardware I have. It will use my 50"' .flat screen as a monitor and has a 1TB hard drive. Got to keep the mind active. Weather is still a little too cold to work ouside much. I don't miss Mr. Whiteshirt. I have been retired over 11 years and still getting paid. He is probably still selling insurance or whatever he did around there when he wasn't tripping curcuit breakers, breaking locks and complaining about his air conditioning ...J.D.
DD: I usually did not have that environment. Worked for a contracted engineering company and they used me for one man operations a lot. Or night shift. Averaged about 25 sites a year. Like I said a hermit. ...J.D.
For five years I served as an on-call engineer for a five state region for HCA coporate hospital group. My specialty was HVAC and pipng systems, so if hospital mechanical staff could not resolve an issue I was called. Some of the flow issues were serious design flaws. Since I designed critical area HVAC systems I had to come up with Band-Aids. Just like JD, been there done the stupidity resolution with a straight face. Got a call from a school system about a heating water flow issues on a system I designed 5 years previous and a lawsuit was threatened. Drove 250 miles one way, walked into boiler room, looked at the pump, pointed to the sheared coupling and walked out. Never got paid.
