The trip up here was uneventfull, sunny, dry weather and the heavy tool trailer pulled great.
As we expectected, no one was ready for us... no hording and lots of stuff in the way. But as usual the maintenance folks quickly remedied the situation, with lots of friendly shoving from us...
We arranged a flurry of deliveries, steel, mesh, plywood, sand, concrete, welding supplies and a host of smaller items.
The second day we got into high gear, hording up, and set about getting all the structural steel in place for the biggest feature we are tackling this go-around. It's not our job, but we find that we can get about 4-5 times the speed out of the maintenace guys if we cut and fit the steel and let them weld it into place.
We got all that down and had the tight space to ourselves at last and serious production beginning. We are working through the long weekend. But the construction crew outside nailed a high pressure gas line with the excavator.
That shut us down instantly - for five hours as fire trucks and emergency folks cleared the area. No fire thank goodness!.
Today is officially our day off, as Saturday in the amusement park is kind of wierd to say the least. We are working near the big coaster and it ROARS. Saturdays, the music is played at great decibles too... not exactly my cup of tea.
I had the day to myself and I put in 6 hours of welding. I just got in the ZONE and tuned out everything else around me. That's when I get the most done... no helpers and no interruptions to break the flow.
We are here for 6 to 8 weeks, but after only three days I feel like I am on a roll, have control of this project... it's going to be a good one!
Back home, Janis is minding the store. In the five days I've been gone some wonderfully creative jobs have come on-stream. They've even sent deposit cheques top back up their orders.
I can hardly wait to get home and back into my own creative space!!!
It's another GREAT ADVENTURE!
-dan
Posted by Raymond Chapman (Member # 361) on :
Oh, calm down Dan.
Your stories remind me of some experiences a long time ago when I was working with some other people in a company that wasn't connected to signs. After the first few days a committee of workers came to me and gave me a gentle suggestion to slow down. It seemed that I was working a little faster than they were used to and it was making them look bad. In those days we called the process of everyone working at the same pace "Brother-In-Lawing".
That's what you are doing, Dan. You're making the rest of us look bad.
But keep it up.
Posted by Jeff Ogden (Member # 3184) on :
Dan... You sound exactly like a guy I used to work for at the Macy's Parade in NY. They have a large warehouse in Hoboken, NJ, where these floats are built, and the head of the place is this guy named Manny.(sorry, can't remember his last name).
Anyhow, this guy's energy was unbelievable.He gets to work from his morning commute and RUNS across the parking lot to the shop.He used to do sketches for these fantastic floats in marker pens, with clear acetate overlays to play with the colors. Then he'd call me in to look it over, and he was just boiling over, his eyes just lit up, he was so exited. Then he would start building frames for the shapes using whatever worked, steel, wood chicken wire, then cover with paper mache, which was then fiberglased. then often the insides were torn out and then they were painted. He would do some of these figures in a day or two, he was just crazy to get it done . My job was to paint them...we used silk screen ink because the colors were bright for the TV cameras, and Manny would gesture with wide sweeps of his arm how this over here could be magenta, and that part over there could be orange, etc. He taught me alot about getting loose with color.We did stuff like Noahs ark, with elephant heads and giraffes sticking out the portholes, all animated, or a pirate ship complete with sails and cannons, and they all folded up into a 10ft square profile so they could be moved to NY through the Lincoln Tunnel for the parade on Thanksgiving. These floats were Manny's toys...his playthings. He just loved what he was doing, and I never saw him without all that enthusiasm he carried around. Whenever I see people moping around complaining about this and that, I think of him. I don't know what he was like at home, but at work he was an inspiration for us all.You remind me of him alot, just from these posts. I hope you keep going strong for a long time; you obviously love what you're doing !
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