They want me to get on that!?! I should have known something was wrong when they said they would be boarding my flight through the emergency exit stairwell rather than the walk-way to the plane. We walk out onto the tarmac and there sits a really old looking twin-prop airplane. Not a jet, an airplane. OK, cool, something new.
The flight was almost just like any other. A little more turbulence but not much more. The most noticeable is how long it took to climb and descend. Normally, I can only see the cool “miniaturized” people and houses just around the airport. But in this thing, I was able to spot individual cars on the Matthews Bridge. If the flight path was just a little more to the east, I could have spotted my house.
Coming into Miami was the same thing, we flew over the beach and it looked just like I saw from TV. Beautiful. Something was wrong though, the water was green and blue instead of Jacksonville’s natural brown. I saw the houses and was amazed at the field of blue! Every house has a swimming pool and half the houses have tarps on the roofs from the hurricane damage. Katrina caused a little as it passed through but Wilma really kicked the shit out of this place. Driving out of the airport I could still see a lot of damage. Blown over signs, trees, damaged planes, everything. Carl was telling me about the lines for gas and no power for a week but to see it is pretty amazing. Most of life is back to normal but the damage is still evident. It is really strange to see an entire forest leaning at a 45degree angle.
Met Carl at McDonalds and had breakfast. He told me about all the stuff we were in for this week. How nasty the NETCO techs could be and to really be on the lookout for our tech Shawn. He is really trouble and refuses to work. When confronted, he’ll play the race card, be careful around him, he’s trouble.
When we get to the ARTCC, Shawn was out in the field working but I meet the NETCO techs and they seem absolutely cool to me. Friendly and ready to help. Carl, on the other hand, treats everything as private and confidential. We’re all sitting at the table/desk and we decide we need to run some cables under the floor. Ritchie (NETCO) says he’ll help us run the cables. Carl asks me to come with him. We walk ten feet away and he starts telling me about the cables. It’s going to be Ritchie’s site in 14 days but Carl has to have a secret meeting about something as simple as running a few cables? Something is up and I think it’s Carl.
After spending an hour there it is obvious that Carl has a real Napoleon Complex (I’d guess he’s around 4’5″?) He’s ordering everyone around and acting like everything is some big secret the NETCO guys can’t know and he needs to make sure that all the tools are locked up and out of NETCO’s reach. These guys are really cool and I can’t see why Carl has ANY trouble with them other than he’s just not ready to hand over his job to these guys.
I look at it like this: I heard there was a new contractor coming in, my boss said they would keep me on in some way or another, I looked at what NETCO was offering and their insurance, didn’t like it, decided to stay with Raytheon. When the NETCO guy arrived in Jacksonville to take my place, I was nothing but helpful and informative. I gave him all the information I could. I guess Carl has issues.
Carl rode with Bob while I drove the NETCO guys to the storage unit to get some boxes. They are tired of Carl’s shit but they are just counting the days until he leaves. They seem to like me and I’m glad. Hearing all the stuff they are saying about Carl, I hope they like me…
Well actually I get the distinct impression that they do. They were discussing NETCO and the next round of hiring. They are starting to hire regional project managers. I told them that I used to do something similar but on a smaller scale and he gave me the guy’s phone number. He made me promise not to give it to Carl.
Skipped lunch today, after checking into the hotel and seeing “South Beach” I decided that I wasn’t eating at any “chain” restaurants. There’s too much cool shit out here! Wow, all the different cultures and styles, why would anyone want to eat at Outback Steakhouse or a TGIFridays when there’s so much to see out here?
Yeah, checked into the hotel. It’s nice. I guess it was the WWII home of West Point Cadets and their commander, Clark Gable. I’ve got to check that one out online as soon as I get back in the office on Monday. One block from the beach and one block from the Lincoln Road Mall so parking was $20 per night. I’m paying $120 a night for a room and they way another $20 to park my car at their hotel? Bastards. If I had anywhere else to stay…
Tonight I ate at Bella Cuba. One of the best salads I’ve had in a long tome. Just a plate of lettuce, vegetables, just like normal but when I ate it, I couldn’t believe how good just a salad was. Pine nuts. Remind me to get pine nuts, damn they’re good! After the salad, I pushed the salad plate aside, moved the dinner fork over by my wine glass to get it out of the way and just relaxed watching the salsa dancers. Man, this is nice. When the waiter came over to get the plate, he straightened my dinner fork and put it back where it belonged. Well, I guess I’m not fancy enough for “fine dining”. I has the swordfish steak for dinner, didn’t know there were bones in the center. Ouch. Nope, I’m really not cut out for fine dining.
Leave a Reply