In - Transit

My Life Seems Like a Perpetual Transition

     I sometimes cannot tell if I'm going somewhere and am on my way, or if I'm returning and I'm on my way back. I guess if you've already been somewhere, then you can be coming back. Well, I'm on my way back to California although I'm not a resident anymore. It's just that my junk is still there - I guess because I don't have to go into the snow or rain to work on it. adding a Ha Ha. I've gone through Pennsylvania courtesy of Aleta and the kids picking me up at IAD in D.C. I stopped through Minnesota to see how things were going there and help where I could. Then it's on to SoCal.

     I feel particularly un-motivated but I DO know what causes my malaise! I don't know what to start first. And I don't know if what I'm doing is going to make any difference. Not EVER to others, I got over that years ago. I think I have it figured out though, I enjoy building/making/creating things. That's why I enjoyed this last trip to Africa - I got Nadia's help to build a new system that works automatically.

The hardest thing I have to do is realize there is nobody listening

    

Back to Nigeria (the last time)

     Here I  again, marching orders for Nigeria again. Chevron has another 27 mile pipeline at the SCC pipe mill in Abuja. The first time I went because I'd never been, thtecte 2nd time was because of the grilled giant prawns. This time I want to see my friends that work at the mill for SCC. Our commute is a 14 passenger van escorted by two 4-man pickups armed with AK-47's, one front and one rear. But they cannot protect from rampant stupidity.

     The low-boy hauling this crushed a drainage culvert, tipping over the truck and dumping this in a ditch. The culvert wasn't buried enough - it was too much work to dig more!

     Even at the plant, the 12 hour night shift quits working about 3 am so they can sleep until 6 am.

     The hotel manager characterizes the national mentality with "every day is a new day". This is meaning one must retrain every local employee at the start of each day. The expats are all "normal".

   So we work two 12 hour shifts six days a week. There is no point to go anywhere as there is nothing to see here in the capital city of Abuja. There are no stop signs and the lights are always green for the major street. Since I've been working at SCC, they have never had a operational product tracking system. I have worked with the smartest, sweetest girl from South Africa - all the management is from South Africa.

   Both Nadia's fiance' and uncle work at the pipe mill. They were nice enough to invite us to their annual company party and we lasted until midnight.

    With this being my third trip here, my system has to get re-acclimated to the local food and cooking - But at least I know what to avoid to not get amoebic dysentery. We have had two people that required heavy-duty antibiotic shots to get cured.

     It boggles my mind what kinds of diseases Stanley had to contend with in the Congo. I am certain now that this is my last trip here. It has screwed up my spring in St. Lucia for 3 years now - enough is enough!

Here We Go Again

     So I get this phone call out of the blue while I'm raking leaves at my daughter's in Pennsylvania. I've gotten a referral for a new client in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi. They want me to fly out to Rialto (Where Bogart was kidnapped to in "Maltese Falcon") and oversee welding repairs on 90 pieces of 3 ft diameter pipe......well, OK, the money's right. At least I get to visit with Willie and hang out with a fellow conservative Minnesotan. Well see where all this goes. Besides, I get to visit with my son and his family too.

Gone South

      Governor "moonbeam" Jerry Brown and his merry band of idiots up in Sacramento can kiss my lily white backside - I refuse to pay 10%+ in income tax on my retirement. Bottom line, there's no value for the money. I have flown the coop to Florida and I've already moved my company out of the state. Color me GONE!

So in the meantime my cousin had some fun occupational things for me to do. So now I'm a bona fide Southerner!!!

Life on the Mississippi

So I decided to visit my brother before the snow got too deep. And besides, fall is quite pretty up north and he has a few projects for me to work on. I was able to install a new kitchen faucet and valves because the old one leaked under the sink. If I'm going to do the cooking, I'm not running into the other room for water!
After a week or so I received a call requesting me to go to central Wisconsin to witness a factory acceptance test for two Motor Control Centers for a offshore platform - after retrofitting communication hardware for 3 days, we finally got to test the equipment so the 2 days turned into 5 days.....oh well. That's when I got to come back and finish repairing the drive wheels on the Toro lawnmower. Well, it's time to go to Florida now.

"Uncle" Ben and His Merry Band of Idiots

So there was a meeting of the FOMC.........
..."to “direct (the) market”  –  FOMC projections got out of control and now believe the market will go up. The whole financial market is now “government controlled” – Price discovery has been reduced close to ZERO – as even the term-premium (expected rate expectations) is ignored and considered invalid by Fed and its merry men.

Bottom Line: this man doesn't know what he's doing.
He and the government are continuing to rob your
purchasing power by almost 1 trillion dollars a year.

How long are you all willing to put up with this. It is just another turd in a pile of current Federal crap.

Who put this bunch of incompetents there anyway. It sure wasn't me. If it was you, I hope you're satisfied with your Presidential, economic, and foreign policy results. Thanks but don't do me any more favors.

Finally! I Made It To Nigeria

     After a false start for 10 days and a pre-production meeting, I spent 5 weeks on stand-by at Aleta's house pestering Ella and Philip. We put in a garden with tomatoes, corn, pumpkins, habaneros, and strawberries -it'll give them something to do, weeding LOL.

     So I spent LOT'S of time mowing the new 7,000 sq. ft. lawn we installed last fall to repair the sewer installation area that had become embarrassing.

 

 

 

     So now I've been here for two weeks and nothing has been seriously started yet. The pipe mill has run an acceptable weld procedure specification but doesn't have enough materials to run the job.......It's just as bad as last time a year ago if not worse because they don't seem to care. We have an armed escort bus ride for 40 minutes each way and work a 10 hr. shift. The bus ride goes through an outlying area and there are multiple volcanic cinder cones about 500 ft. high that sit on top of the volcanic plateau the capital city of Abuja is located on. I call this "The Mall of Abuja"