Long Day, many more to come.

Today was my first "official" day shadowing the foreman - they get good exercise, and cover a lot of ground. Making the rounds, fixing problems, and always thinking 'saleable tons...saleable tons'. I had a thirteen hour day today, and that 13 hours consisted of a half hour lunch, two fifteen minute breaks, and a brief stop to use the phone (and another one for email). I am more tired than I expected, and I was planning on being pooped. On top of that I have been discouraged by the sudden retirement of our mill manager at the end of the month. I am more upset by his departure bacause he was a big piece of my introduction to Albany, and I felt that he was watching over me. The new manager, from OK, has already been announced. I had a chance to meet him on my job hunting trip, but I never did - I guess I will get my chance soon. Looks like changes have finally begun to touch Albany - we will see how this may change my training, and the general state of the mill. I have been making some big progress lately, and I hope he will not interfere with my advancement. Hopefully his W background will not clash with the leftover w folks.

Today we had an equipment shut, with lots of lockout and tagout, and a minor injury. The PM was doing poorly when I arrived, but at least I got some ideas for improvements from my talks with the tenders. My DAF was 'ill', not taking the wet strength well, and the poor thing was overwhelmed. There was a silo leak, a crack in #2 hiD and a number of leaks in the dryer section (apparently they think I am the only staff member small enough to fit in there with the moving rolls and high temps). Both winders were acting up - I don't totally understand the pump speed variation theory for energy saving. I attended the PM3 shut meeting, and my project on #3 HB was canned - it was too much trouble to add the jet vel. scanner rather than to do without. Tomorrow I will be meeting a new crew, I think I was well received today, and those will be my crew members for my foreman trial - hopefully they will help me along the way. In 30 days, I will be the person in charge - there is a huge amount to keep track of, and I think it might be a little overwhelming. Deep breath. Lots of safety talk, and it is hard to see how they can compensate foremen for the stress. I learned a little lesson about privacy... and how to be supportive of the crew in their daily ops.


I miss Emily! My doggie misses me! Emily is back in P town as of this weekend. She is going to get fat without enough exercise and eating too much human food. I went to Portland and spent time with my mother over the weekend. It was a good visit, and productive. Last friday I went to a play. It was a wordy play, but generally enjoyable.