A 4 days weekend was a very nice break from the paper world. Too bad that I can't match my schedule to volunteer at St. Francis or other places on T-day. Besides the regular turkey day festivities, I went to Newport for the day with A. It was fabulous time. We even cooked dinner together; well, we attempted. Food was saturated with black pepper. It was HOT. I would say we are going well and it has been wonderful for a change. Time to say thanks and see what will come of it. I definitely have my worries as this relationship grow, meanwhile, let's just go with the flow.
I was a home body on weekends, chilling with Dave, Wing & Emily. No golfing though and I am still in search of my dummies book... where did that go? Kung Fu Hustle is so-so, Stephen Chow is still pretty good with his HK style humor, but it could be tiring sometimes.
Monday started on a sour note (work week 48, 4 more to go). As the 4th quarter at work has been rough; the economical time just couldn’t allow us to end the year with a cheer(depressed market conditions and the surge in transportation and energy costs). (They might shut down my DAFs for energy saving?!) We had been plagued with power generation, liquor and recaust and pulp problems. We have been slowing down in pulp production and machine speed and made grade pattern adjustment to adapt the shortcomings in operation. In the midst of this, PM dept continued to focus on building a stronger team. I am part of the change as I will be starting my temporary foreman training in December of 05, straightly on days, with the intent that I will alternate my roles between process engineering tasks and foreman duties in the first 6 months of 2006. This is absolutely a big deal to my career development. Some folks started to congratulate me as it definitely perceived by others as I am climbing upward in the world of papermaker. Don't worry, I am still the grunt of Horace. We are still partners and we will have each other's back! I don't know how I will work/sleep/eat/fun *wink*, but I will manage with my superb multi-task talent.
I got a present from a vendor today, WOW. I am worthy now!
Today, more dampening news has announced from SMT, they have decided to sell MDF operations in Albany and Eugene, OR and indefinitely idle-ling NO 1 containerboard machine in Plymouth, NC (I was trying for a position, back in April) . I have been very optimistic in the past to encourage folks from Albany not to think of us as the next news clip. I still believed that we will be around making paper for many more years to come. We worked hard to show that Albany is a world class mill and we are among the best workforce in W. “In response to fundamental market challenges, W has recently announced the indefinite closure of a pulp and paper facility in Saskatchewan, a box finishing operation in California, a sawmill and pulp mill in Washington, and a plywood mill in Oklahoma.”
PM2 shut today went long...lots of appointments (will get a new set of ear plugs)....December... here we are. Time to start on my x'mas letter, what an eventful year, don't you thinK? I want to go snowboarding.... Pink Martini... white top/PM3 HB/foreman training... hmmm! HELP!
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