Really, I'm still alive

Every few days I think to myself, I should really write something on my blog. Then I think the following:

1) I've just spent 8-10 hrs on a computer at work. I hate computers.

2) I have nothing interesting to say. Worse yet, I don't think I have anything funny to say.

Then, of course, I don't write anything. I was checking out a couple of other blogs this afternoon and realized that I haven't updated since the end of flippin' February. Damn. Sorry. Chances are, there really isn't anyone still reading since I seem to have vanished from the face of the planet.

It's hard to feel inspired when all your energy has been drained at work. Ever since the 3rd assistant quit (that would be the passive agressive door blocker), I think I put in about 4-6 hours of over time a week. We have been crazy busy. Every school seems to be making HVAC releated changes this summer. This means everyone wants everything all at the same time. Disney and her engineer have actually not been hit too hard the last few months. She would have one job bidding the same week that I had 4. Or like one particularly crappy week in March, 7. She just got hit this past week, which made me feel slightly better.

I don't know that she's improved since door blocker left. She bid a job back in December that just recently got awarded to one of my engineer's contractors. This means that I have to do the submittals for the contractor (reports that specify how the equipment is made and how it performs under the scheduled conditions provided by the engineer that designed the system). While I was working on this set of submittals, I was reviewing what was selected and comparing it to what was requested. I discovered several errors.

I'm not saying I'm perfect by any stretch. I recently bid a really big job that had multiple alternate system options and I accidentally put gas heat on a system that should have been electric heat. Not my proudest moment, but at least the damn things had heat on them. When my boss pointed it out, I felt really bad that I had missed something that seemed pretty obvious. I think I apologized about 4 times.

Back to the other project. The units that Disney selected were cooling only. This was a bit of a problem, because both the schedule and the specifications of the job called out for electric heat in all the units. They also called out for a few other options that were left off. I showed the discrepancies to my boss first. Then, I went to the engineer that bid the job (and who I used to work for when I was shared by both the engineers). I asked him if there was something weird about the job. Had anything changed last minute that he would remember?

I showed him what I had found and he just shook his head. He said he didn't know why the units were picked the way they were. He said I should talk to Disney.

I tried to be as nice and non-judgemental as possible. The job bid right before Christmas, so I know almost no one was thinking about work at that time. I asked Disney if she remembered the job at all. I asked if she recalled any changes. I explained that I couldn't figure out why there was no heat on the units when they specifically asked for it.

Here is what I got back for responses.

"I don't remember."

"I'm not sure."

"I would have put any notes in the file."

That was it. Nothing like, "oops, I'm an idiot...I can't believe I missed that." Or, "how much did the price change?" Or, "That was my mistake, sorry."

She acted like I'd just told her we had run out of kleenex in the bathroom. Actually, she probably would have responded more emotionally if I had told her that. She's a bit of a germ freak.

I went back to my boss and said that I had talked to Disney. He asked what was up. I told him the truth. "I think she f##ked up. I think she didn't pay any attention to what she was doing and because everyone was in a hurry to get out of here a few days before our Christmas break that her boss didn't catch the mistake."

The really bad part is the cost of the mistake. If it were a difference of a couple hundred dollars, we could probably go back and ask the contractor for those dollars. But, it actually ended up raising the dollar amount by almost $5,000!

There is no way we can go to someone and say, gosh,we're sorry. We realize that you probably got this job because we were super cheap (having not actually provided everything for you), but we need a crap load more money.

The only way we were able to sell the corrected equipment at the original price was to get special permission to do so from the corporate gods. This special deal means that neither of the engineers will make any commission off of this job. And, considering they are 100% commission, that doesn't help them out at all.

I don't know if Disney's engineer had any sort of talk with her about this mistake or not. All I do know is she didn't seem to care either way what happened. It's all very disheartening.

On a completely unrelated note, I taped the big wedding and watched it last night. I opted to take in the BBCAmerica broadcast. I loved seeing Simon Schama talking about how in the early days, royal weddings often took place at night, in small chapels given they were more about the acquisition of power and land. You would want to make sure no one killed the bride or groom just as the big merger was happening I suppose.

I also loved how the British commentators never seemed to make a verbal blunder. They had a beautifully formed comment for virtually everything. There were no "hey guys" or the like when they were talking. And, the crowd interviews were quite different than what you would have seen here in the States. Most of the time, the crowd would quite so that you could hear the response given by the person being interviewed. There was no random shouting from in the back. No one seemed to be pushing into the camera shot, while texting their friends to let them know they were on television.

I thought the dress was beautiful. I want to know what Harry said to William after he peaked back to see Kate walking down the aisle. I can't imagine the anticipation one would feel waiting for that moment when you could turn and see what everyone else has already been witness to. I loved the acapella song the choir sang. I enjoyed seeing a couple of looks between the couple during the ceremony that seemed to say "I can't believe this is all for us." There was one fun eyebrow raise by William at one point. The carriage ride was sweet. The moment where they went through that narrow archway and for a brief few seconds they didn't have to wave...when they came out the other end, you could see they were holding hands.

All in all, a very nice moment for the British. Even if the prime minister's wife didn't wear a hat.