air horn

Since moving to LA, I've been almost wiped out on numerous occasions by careless automobile drivers while out on a bike ride. Last week was not any different. Unfortunately, in order to go to a nice serene location, you have to get onto a congested freeway.


I've been dreaming of getting an air horn ever since I lived in Texas, which was quite a few years ago. It's like one of those items that you really want but slides down the priority list whenever something more important arises. It was always wishful thinking and perhaps on a birthday/ special occasion request list.

But again, LA drivers make me a little nervous. After being almost side-swiped while on the bike I decided I was going to get one. Finally! But which one? There are several brands on the market and of course, Harley-Davidson has their own brand, which is how I first heard of them. My current horn is ok but this one is fantastic! I wasn't too keen on the way it looked because of the duel trumpets but once I heard it, I was sold.

I just happened to go to a local biker shop and they were installing a Howard's air horn. Just awesome!

So there is. A duel trumpet air horn that will definately wake up anyone that veers in my lane.

Welcome to the world of being a process engineer

Whew, what a stressful week! So this was finals week for the new job. Classmates have been saying that it was okay to bomb the walk thru and the written and we'd still keep our jobs because they would let us re-test. Plus, there isn't a thing called being fired. You are just re-educated until you pass. Anyway, I didn't want to fail. I wanted to pass on the first shot so studying was my life from Friday the previous week thru last Tuesday. We had two finals - one walk thru, kinda like a hands-on test and one written. Again, like in all the tests we have to get 80% or better. Wednesday was everyone's walk thru. And two people failed. And they got kicked out of the program. Yes, they got fired. Our class was in total shock. As were the instructors... There is a new training manager - our instructors boss who makes the final decision. Since he's new he wants a higher standard, more difficult tests and rules to follow. Our class size shrank to 16. Our second final was suppose to take place Thursday. I think the instructors were more upset than we were. They postponed the final until Friday. That scared all of us although it gave us more time to study. Thankfully, everyone passed. When we first began they told us there were only 15 slots open. Meaning only 15 people were going to retire this year. So we knew some of us would not make it. Then as we got to know the instructors, they informed us if all 18 of us pass they would have to take all 18 and it's never the class that drops people but usually, once we get assigned to our plant area people quit because they fail to adapt. So going by the instructors, no one ever fails a test and no one ever gets fired in the schooling portion. But then some problems arose. Even the remaining 16 students are not needed. No one wants to retire this year. So where would they put us? They still don't know. Usually after you pass the final, you are informed of which plant you will be working at. We have 2 more weeks of school and then they want us to take a one week vacation. It's crazy! I've never worked anywhere that you get a week vacation after 2 months. Usually it's a week off after a year of employment. It's perfect timing because Bangkok Samurai is suppose to open during that week. I guess we are a special class. People tell us that all the time. Of course, on the 4th day of work our place of duty was at Disneyland (1/2 hour away). Yup, they fed us a buffet breakfast, had to listen to a 4 hour lecture, then they provided a buffet lunch. On top of that the company bought each employee a ticket to play at Disneyland for the rest of the day! Amazing, eh?

So there is all 16 of us. Isn't technology interesting? They took a picture of us and it was transposed to an edible film. This is the transposed copy which was put on our congratulations/ graduation cake.

Earthquake #2

Some classmates and I were meeting up at another location after school for a study session. The area is not that great so when the elevator started shaking we just thought it was a really crummy place, vowed not to ride in it again and take the stairs instead! What we didn't know was that it was an aftershock earthquake from the other night. This one was a 4.1 magnitude. It wasn't so scary because we were all together wondering what was going on. There was also a sonic boom sound so we all just assumed it was an airplane. Until of course, one of the classmates said it was an aftershock from the same epicenter.

Earthquake!

My first kinda big one. Was home alone watching a movie when my walls started shaking. At first I thought it was my neighbors running up and down the stairs since they rattle the walls. But the shaking lasted a longer time. Then I got alittle worried since it kind of reminded me of when a helicopter is about to land with all the wind velocity stirring everything up. I really thought a plane was going to crash. But then I figured out it was an earthquake. Switched the movie to the news showed it was a 5.0 shake on the richter scale with the epicenter 7 miles from my place... and 2 miles from the LAX airport.

As I keep watching the news, it's been reduced to a 4.7 magnitude earthquake with people feeling the shake about 100 miles around. I guess there were a few aftershocks of 2.5 and 3.1 but I didn't feel those at all.

It's a good thing I was paying attention to an earthquake preparedness website after the last earthquake that happened last summer. It was a 5.2 but it was 40 miles away. After that, I bolted down as much stuff possible - pictures, shelving, etc. and made an earthquake safety kit in preparation for a big one that's suppose to be coming at anytime.

Thankfully, with this preparation nothing fell and nothing broke in my apartment.

May 1

Wow, a new month already! Time is flying by sooooo quickly.

So here's an update... construction for Bangkok Samurai is on hold. The construction crew needs to order some part and we've been waiting for it for a week now (and I have no idea what part we're waiting for - construction is one of the business partner's responsibility). So until we get that one part, construction is on hold. The hole in the ground is getting bigger and some pipes have been lined up and ready to be assembled for the greasetrap to be installed.

As for work, this new job is so different than anything I've done. I'm alittle lost but am trying to keep up. If we spoke about something in the medical field, I could understand a decent amount of terminology and definately in the food field, I can certainly hold my own in various processes, terminology and technique but this class is about refinery work. Pipes, valves, pumps, drivers, etc. Yeah, say what? I do have a better grasp on pipes and valves. Of course, we tested out on it and everyone passed. Thankfully!

Monday is our big test on pumps. Tuesday is our test on drivers... and starting next week until June, we have a test every day - and one big book per subject. Yes, everyday! Talk about in-depth training. But it's good - at least everyone starts off on the same page and understands an operator's job in detail, step by step...and we climb twice a week.

Luckily, my group only climbed once this week - yesterday. Our first climb and we went up to 100 feet. Whew! Talk about muscle fatigue. On this column, there was a landing every 25 rungs so you can take a breather. We're suppose to wait for the ladder to clear so there's only one person on the ladder at a time. In the meantime, everyone can rest on the landing but all the guys in my group wanted to race so they all ran up the ladder at their turn... me of course, was the slowest, all out of breathe and pounding heart! By the time I got to the top, the guys were all rested and ready to go back down. The other girl in the group wasn't as fast but scaled the ladder quickly.

What a view! You could see almost the whole refinery. I just didn't want to go back down... my arms and legs were very tired. My instructor kept kept yelling quit hugging the ladder because I would stop to hug the ladder for a few minutes. A brief breather on the landing just wasn't enough time to recover... so I'd go 12 rungs or so and hug. This morning he asked if I was scared but no, I wasn't scared... I was trying to rest my biceps and forearms because they were so burning tired... I thought I was going to let go so I'd hug instead. It took a few minutes to get down but I made it. If we were higher, I would have asked to base jump! But for that you have to been extremely high and have a parachute. Huge bummer.

One of the girls in another group actually let go and fell today. Luckily, it was only 8 rungs worth before she hit the landing and didn't break or sprain anything. Muscle failure... she just couldn't hang on. It certainly made the instructors nervous.

Monday will be our 4th week in training... and 4 more weeks to go. With the economy still bad, only 15 people are retiring this year so there are only 15 positions open. We're still wondering who in our class is going to be the 3 people kicked out or drop out. But the instructors said most everyone finishes the training, it's only after we get to our respective plant that people quit (mostly the women). Either it's not really what we were expecting, don't get along with co-workers or just don't like the work.

But everyone is still surprised at how big our class of women is... 8 out of 18. We've been told repeatedly, usually there are only 2-3 women in a group of 25, like in the group hired 5 years ago... out of those 3 women, only 1 stayed. The other 2 quit within the year. And a friend of mine said there were 5 women out of 19, hired 2 years ago... and luckily all 5 still work there. From what I hear, the work isn't difficult but the valves, pipes, pumps, etc are very heavy. In todays class, I went to pick up a 6 inch pump cover with one hand thinking it's small and light but I could barely lift it! It weighed almost 30 pounds and had to use both hands. I guess if anything, I'll gain some muscle endurance!