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Seriously...
Any and all pseudo deities, lightning wielding Superheroes, people owning tasers, and that BITCH MOTHER NATURE?!?!
KISS
MY
ASS!!!
Due to events beyond my control (EG the retroactive abortion that USED to be my co-irker Emo-boy, getting himself fired) I am on a one week on-one week off 24/7 on- call status. One of the main places I have to respond to is a major area airport. When their equipment fails, it's a literal emergency, as it's post 9-11 America.
I handle their CCTV and access control. THEY have about a half mile of steel re-enforced FLAT concrete, with steel fencing surrounding it... you know.. A LIGHTNING ROD!!!
This friggen place gets hit with more lightning than Loki with a whoopi cushion!!!
So..
The other night I'm home after a nice long day. 10 hours.. not *TOO* bad.. Of course... the sky starts weeping and I get the on-call manager ringing in... I finish his statement for him as I answer the phone "Yadda yadda airport reported they have gates down and they want service.. RIGHT?!?" He chuckled and answered that I must've heard this before. I swallowed the smarmy comment because it really wasn't HIS fault... I told the manager I was on my way.
So...
I get there... NO POWER..
BAD.
The airport is supposed to have battery backups for at LEAST a half hour. Why they haven't purchased a generator is beyond me... but that's besides the point. Apparently we need to replace some of the 26 18 volt 80 amp hour batteries (which are $$$$$$
)
Power comes back on.
Rain stops
All of the downed gates come back online. Except one, but that one is notorious for being finicky and just needs a manual reset.
GREAT!
Call the Security manager at home. He signs off on "getting Engineers here tomorrow" for the Batteries. Wishes me a good night.
As *$#$?!&ing SOON as the words "Go home and get some rest" come out of his mouth??
BOOOOOOM!!!
Lightning hits the airport in FIVE PLACES and the rain recommences so hard I can't even THINK about going out to check the downed gates/doors/exit portals. I get to sit there and shrug my shoulders at the staff pointing at the gates not allowing emergency personnel through this gate or that portal. It's LITERALLY risking my life to go out in these conditions and I simply don't get paid enough for that. If they had an actual emergency, I would have gone out and pulled the gates open myself. But just so someone doesn't have to drive 2 minutes out of their way to gates that are WORKING?!? IN A NON EMERGENCY?!?!?
The person who asked me to risk
DEATH apologized almost immediately when I pointed these facts out to him... But I was simply not too pleased with him for a few hours.
kiiiiiiinda think I went overboard with the double middle fingers...
So...
Usually I have to replace specific parts. Each and every gate that I had checked simply didn't respond despite me using every last replacement that I had in the supply room. The employee lot traffic arms? Frozen. The three VERY important metal gates for fuel trucks onto the runway!?? Nonfunctional, noncommuncative AND no power. Now, only the access control card reader is my responsibility... but until the maintenance crew finishes fixing the power TO them.. I can't leave!!
About 4 am I realize that things.. JUST.. AINT.. WORKIN...
The power was back on. The metal gates were working.. but the fiber optic comm units? Fried and smoking! Whose $#%@ing idea was it to put these things in a STEEL HOUSING?!?!?
At 5:30 am I realize that I've been here for close to 12 hours, after working a 10 hour day.. I went home to "find some parts" My wife sends me a message that she's "worried" ... I send back that I'm "getting money for Dragoncon" which makes her laugh. I pull up 5 minutes later and try to sneak onto the couch (trying not to wake her up) and get the Marge Simpson GRRR out of her..
So I hit the bed, cuddle with her for 30 seconds and FALL THE HELL OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS... Until her alarm rings at 7am..
Since I am NOT allowed to leave a site without permission... I grab all of the parts that I have stashed at my house and head back. The wife yells at me to "GET THE HELL BACK IN BED!!" so I beat feet while she's in the bathroom. It's pushing it with the hour and a half break as it is...
Normally I would have had to woken up half of the managers in the region, had them call the BIG boss, and then the company would have to send the client a check for failing to fix the problem in one try. FERGET THAT!!!
There was much fighting of the inevitable that day. I STILL had to stay until 6 pm to get the last gate working, and the only way to get THAT done was to juryrig the thing with a wire run out side of the gate. Mainly because the lightning had fried the wires run underneath a FOOT of concrete!! and by fried I *DO* mean that in the literal and crispy sense.
With the amount of work going on this time of year, and the nonavailability of our subcontractors, it would have been a two month wait to get this re-run and fixed. So two days later, in the BLAZING sun, there I was... shovel in hand... digging a trench in the compacted soil at the runway's edge.
God... I'm STILL tired...
Any and all pseudo deities, lightning wielding Superheroes, people owning tasers, and that BITCH MOTHER NATURE?!?!
KISS
MY
ASS!!!
Due to events beyond my control (EG the retroactive abortion that USED to be my co-irker Emo-boy, getting himself fired) I am on a one week on-one week off 24/7 on- call status. One of the main places I have to respond to is a major area airport. When their equipment fails, it's a literal emergency, as it's post 9-11 America.
I handle their CCTV and access control. THEY have about a half mile of steel re-enforced FLAT concrete, with steel fencing surrounding it... you know.. A LIGHTNING ROD!!!
This friggen place gets hit with more lightning than Loki with a whoopi cushion!!!
So..
The other night I'm home after a nice long day. 10 hours.. not *TOO* bad.. Of course... the sky starts weeping and I get the on-call manager ringing in... I finish his statement for him as I answer the phone "Yadda yadda airport reported they have gates down and they want service.. RIGHT?!?" He chuckled and answered that I must've heard this before. I swallowed the smarmy comment because it really wasn't HIS fault... I told the manager I was on my way.
So...
I get there... NO POWER..
BAD.
The airport is supposed to have battery backups for at LEAST a half hour. Why they haven't purchased a generator is beyond me... but that's besides the point. Apparently we need to replace some of the 26 18 volt 80 amp hour batteries (which are $$$$$$
)Power comes back on.
Rain stops
All of the downed gates come back online. Except one, but that one is notorious for being finicky and just needs a manual reset.
GREAT!
Call the Security manager at home. He signs off on "getting Engineers here tomorrow" for the Batteries. Wishes me a good night.
As *$#$?!&ing SOON as the words "Go home and get some rest" come out of his mouth??
BOOOOOOM!!!
Lightning hits the airport in FIVE PLACES and the rain recommences so hard I can't even THINK about going out to check the downed gates/doors/exit portals. I get to sit there and shrug my shoulders at the staff pointing at the gates not allowing emergency personnel through this gate or that portal. It's LITERALLY risking my life to go out in these conditions and I simply don't get paid enough for that. If they had an actual emergency, I would have gone out and pulled the gates open myself. But just so someone doesn't have to drive 2 minutes out of their way to gates that are WORKING?!? IN A NON EMERGENCY?!?!?
The person who asked me to risk
DEATH apologized almost immediately when I pointed these facts out to him... But I was simply not too pleased with him for a few hours.kiiiiiiinda think I went overboard with the double middle fingers...
So...
Usually I have to replace specific parts. Each and every gate that I had checked simply didn't respond despite me using every last replacement that I had in the supply room. The employee lot traffic arms? Frozen. The three VERY important metal gates for fuel trucks onto the runway!?? Nonfunctional, noncommuncative AND no power. Now, only the access control card reader is my responsibility... but until the maintenance crew finishes fixing the power TO them.. I can't leave!!
About 4 am I realize that things.. JUST.. AINT.. WORKIN...
The power was back on. The metal gates were working.. but the fiber optic comm units? Fried and smoking! Whose $#%@ing idea was it to put these things in a STEEL HOUSING?!?!?
At 5:30 am I realize that I've been here for close to 12 hours, after working a 10 hour day.. I went home to "find some parts" My wife sends me a message that she's "worried" ... I send back that I'm "getting money for Dragoncon" which makes her laugh. I pull up 5 minutes later and try to sneak onto the couch (trying not to wake her up) and get the Marge Simpson GRRR out of her..
So I hit the bed, cuddle with her for 30 seconds and FALL THE HELL OUT OF CONSCIOUSNESS... Until her alarm rings at 7am..
Since I am NOT allowed to leave a site without permission... I grab all of the parts that I have stashed at my house and head back. The wife yells at me to "GET THE HELL BACK IN BED!!" so I beat feet while she's in the bathroom. It's pushing it with the hour and a half break as it is...
Normally I would have had to woken up half of the managers in the region, had them call the BIG boss, and then the company would have to send the client a check for failing to fix the problem in one try. FERGET THAT!!!
There was much fighting of the inevitable that day. I STILL had to stay until 6 pm to get the last gate working, and the only way to get THAT done was to juryrig the thing with a wire run out side of the gate. Mainly because the lightning had fried the wires run underneath a FOOT of concrete!! and by fried I *DO* mean that in the literal and crispy sense.
With the amount of work going on this time of year, and the nonavailability of our subcontractors, it would have been a two month wait to get this re-run and fixed. So two days later, in the BLAZING sun, there I was... shovel in hand... digging a trench in the compacted soil at the runway's edge.
God... I'm STILL tired...
)
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