Stan's Blog

What a Rotation!

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sat, 31 Dec 2011 17:58:00 +0000

Well if you didn't know, I have been in Algeria since September 19th. KBR sent me on a new short term assignment to help troubleshoot some problems at one of our projects. It's not IT work but QA/QC (Quality Assurance/Quality Control) but hey it gets me out of the office for awhile.

So first I'll tell you about the camp. It is a gated camp with double chain link fence and razor wire located right on the Mediterranean Sea in Eastern Algeria. The housing is good and the food is decent. The project is located in what is known as the International Zone which is a protected area where the Refineries and Plants are located. The camp is on the far East edge of the zone. We have about a 10 minute ride everyday by bus. Once inside the Plant, we don't leave again until 5:00 pm lunch is catered every day. This consists of your choice of either the Hot meal, sandwich, salad, vegetarian or Filipino meal. I pretty much stick to salad you can't really go wrong there.

The work is interesting since I haven't done that before, took a little while to get my feet wet but I think things are going quite well. So my first 9 weeks was classified as a Business trip so no project uplifts etc. I left the site by Helicopter on November 18th, had a few hick-ups with Air Algerie. We missed our takeoff window and they took us off the plane and took us back to the Terminal. We sat there for nearly 3 hours waiting for the next opportunity around 4 in the afternoon. They finally brought food off the plane and fed us while we waited and then at 4 loaded up the bus and went back to the plane. We were able to take off and we flew to Paris. I spent the night and caught a plane the next morning to Houston, which landed at 1:30 on the 19th.

So this was supposed to be a short extended trip, since I was going to be home for Kimberly and Cassie to give birth to my new granddaughter and grandson. Kimberly was due on the 7th and Cassie was due on the 17th. Kimberly had contractions on and off for days thinking we were ready to have a baby. They went to the hospital a couple of times only to be sent home. Finally the week of Thanksgiving, the doctor told her that if she didn't have Paiton by that Sunday they would induce on the 5th. Well it didn't happen so Monday the 5th Jason picked her up and headed to the hospital for a scheduled start at 6:30 am. Diane and I followed about 20 minutes later. They finally started her on the drip around 7:30 and it was a waiting game. The day went slowly and Kimberly began having a lot of bad back labor so the doctor started her epidural and things got better for her. The contractions were steady and getting stronger by the hour. Around 11 I think, the doctor checked her and said it was time to break her water. The contractions got stronger and she started making some good progress. Finally around 6'ish they kicked me out of the room. Diane and Jason stayed to help her and I went to the waiting room and sat with David and Ginny Day, Josh and Cassie and Christopher and Karen. Finally about an hour later Paiton was born, 8 lbs and 20 inches long. She is a gorgeous baby.

Well with one down all we had left was for Jack to make his appearance. Mean time I was able to get the office to let me come in and do some work, because I had been off now more than my allotted time and I had run out of PTO. So on the 21st I went into the office and started working on some things. Monday and Tuesday were pretty slow because I was reading through an 80 page summary for an application we are loading at a new project. The information was dry but by the end of Tuesday I had suffered through it and made my comments. Of course during the evening hours, I was able to enjoy rocking and feeding Paiton. She is a joy and I was enjoying her immensely. So on Tuesday Josh and Cassie went for their doctors appointment, and she told them that if Jack hadn't arrived by Thursday they would go ahead and induce her on Friday. So Wednesday I got up and went to work again and started my day. Around 8 Josh called me and asked what I was doing, I told him just work stuff nothing too exciting. I asked what he was doing and he said loading the car. I said oh getting ready for Friday already? He said so is work going to be an issue for you to leave and I said no not at all, I am here just working until Jack gets here. He said well you ought to think about leaving then, and I said ya that won't be an issue, and he said no I mean you probably need to start heading this way. I said huh what do you mean, oh, wow are you telling me Cassie is in labor? He laughed and said ya she started having contractions around midnight. I said oh, wow, ok well not a problem I will pack up and head that way.

SO, I was only about 15 minutes away from his house and 20 minutes from the hospital so i packed up told the girls we are having a baby and left. I tried to call Diane and see what the plan was and Kimberly answered and said she was rushing to get a shower and then they were leaving. I got to the hospital about 20 minutes later and called Josh to see where in the hospital they were at. He said your at the hospital, we haven't even left yet. I said oh wow I beat you to the hospital, he said ya you were supposed to call mom, we probably won't be ready for a couple of hours. So I headed back to the house. When I got there her contractions had slowed down so I say down and watched TV while I waited for Diane and Kimberly. We have been looking for a house close to them since Diane retired from First Baptist Preschool so she can watch Jack while Cassie teaches. We have found some to look at but nothing promising. Josh had driven by two new homes and asked if i wanted to go look at them while we waited. Of course I was concerned that we would be gone and Cassie would go into full labor, but Josh talked to her and they decided we had time. So we went and looked at them and by the time we got back Diane and Kimberly showed up. So around 1:30 Cassie was feeling pretty rough so they called the doctor to see what they needed to do. So they went to her office for an exam and she decided it was tome for them to go to the hospital. So we packed up what was left and headed up to meet them. We got there and waited in the waiting room for things to happen. Slowly but surely things transpired, we decided to go eat dinner since it was moving slow. Diane, Melinda (Cassie's sister) and her mom went down the street to Denny's. We told them whet was going on and they did a great job of getting our food out to us quickly. Josh and Melinda finished up and went back to the hospital while we finished our dinner. We all piled back in the car and headed back. It was about 8'ish now and Cassie was making great progress. Lee (Cassie's step dad), Cindy (Cassie's aunt), Christopher and Karen showed up and we all sat and talked and caught up on things. Finally around 11 Candy went to check on Cassie and by 12:00 midnight November 22nd Jack was born, 6lbs 5 ozs, 16 inches long. He is a beautiful little boy and has the features of both Josh and Cassie.

So with two brand new babies we had a wonderful Christmas and I was able to spend it with the kids and Cassie's parents, sister and aunt Cindy. It was a great time and probably one of the best Christmases we have had in a long time. Well Monday was a holiday for work so Tuesday and Wednesday I went back and did a few things around the office. Thursday I started packing because Friday was my travel day. Today is December 31st and Diane's birthday and I am in Marseilles France. I hope everyone has a very Happy and Prosperous New Year. I am now on my short term assignment which is supposed to be around 4 months. I will try to keep you updated with news as it happens.

Another Rotation and the years “Big Event” Part One…….

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 16:29:00 +0000

Well the rotation is over and it was successful, busy, and just too short as usual.
The flight home was long and could do not be over soon enough. I got to the airport about an hours and a half before my flight left, and luckily I was able to upgrade my seat at the very last minute so I could get some sleep. With that I was able to sit in the lounge while waiting so Diane and I chatted until it was time to go to the gate. Now mind you in other lounges, that is in other countries and the US, you are able to dine on some pretty decent foods and a relaxing
atmosphere. In Saudi it is a little different but very tolerable. The cuisine was tuna sandwiches, donuts, coffee and bottled water. Not what you call a feast but hey it was enough to pass the time and cut the cravings.

At 12:15 the call was made that they were loading the flight, so I bid my farewell to Diane, packed up my Laptop and made my way to the gate. The crowd as usual was lite and the plane which had made its way from Qatar was hardly full. I made my way to my seat, got out my MP3 player, headphones, book etc, and settled in for the long semi long trip to Amsterdam. We took off on time and about 15 minutes into the flight they started serving the meal. I actually can’t tell you what we had because I was tired and ready for them to dim the lights so sleep could begin. About 45 minutes later that is just what happened. Like all other trips I was keyed up so sleep did not come easy but eventually it set in and I was pleasantly refreshed when they turned on the lights for the pre-landing meal. Again it slips my mind but usually consists of some fruit, yogurt, an omelet and some meat. Of course the coffee and juice flows and you can never get enough of that.

As I exited the plane at the gate, I began my long walk back to the concourse where the KLM lounge was. It still amazes me how many people fly through there from so many places. You see all kinds, all ages, and just about from every country you can imagine. As I made my way upstairs, I realized that it was just 6:30 and I was going to have to endure a longer stent than usual. We must have landed early as the flight to Houston was still about 3 and a half hours away. I checked in and made my way to a desk where I could setup my Laptop and see
who was online, check emails and just try and chill. I got settled and then called Diane to let her know I had made the first leg ok. We chatted for a few minutes as it was already past her bedtime by then. The time went by fairly fast and before I knew it, it was time to head to the gate again. The walk to the International gate is quite long, and of course I am carrying a back pack and a carryon so it tends to make the trip seem like forever.

Once on the plane I settled in for some book, movies and music. Again we were off on time and merrily on our way. Continental has finally gotten up with the times and installed On Demand video. So I had quite a few movies to select from. The first I picked was Marley and me which was a really great movie. If you haven’t watched it I recommend it. The second and third escape me but they were both really good if I remember. By the time the third one was winding down, they were serving a snack and we were about 45 minutes outside of Houston making our approach. We landed about 15 minutes early and taxied to the gate. As luck would have it, we actually got to the gate closest to Immigration which rarely happens. The lines were crazy as it looked like we and three other planes had gotten in right after each other. Even though the lines were long, they moved quickly and I was next in line. As I walked up to the booth, the officer eyed me and looked at my entry form, asked his normal questions like, Have you been to any other countries before coming here? Well ya, that’s why I am in International arrivals and getting my passport stamped, duh, but I didn’t say that to him of course. He finally finished his drill and then stamped me and I was headed to Baggage Claims. Amazingly the bags were already coming out on the carousel as I walked down the escalator and I was able to grab my bag in no time. Off to Customs and then out the door to my waiting wife and daughter.

Well of course the first stop was to see the new house the kids had built, and let me tell you the pictures didn’t do it justice. Everything looked so clean and fresh, the color coordination was absolutely amazing, and the yard was landscaped nicely. We toured through the house and I got to look at everything, which wasn’t much because it was still vacant. After, we decided to stop for a quick bite at Chewys’ a really nice Mexican Restaurant, you know I had to get my TEX-MEX fix ☺. Once we finished up the great meal, we headed back to TC and dropped Kimber off at her apartment. Finally getting home, I unloaded my bags and hauled them into the house and began unpacking. Everything was clean so laundry would wait until we returned from San Angelo. For the evening we just hung out watched some TIVO and just chilled. It was nice to be home, of course the dogs were going nuts and were all over me, but hey they missed me so what do you expect.

Tuesday, well I really can’t even remember what I did on Tuesday, I know there was something going on because literally I did something every single day! Anyway it must not have been too exciting if I can’t remember it ;). So on Wednesday I had errands to run. I definitely went and picked up my Tux and some other odds and ends not a really busy day, but it was almost three quarters of getting stuff ready for the trip to San Angelo. We had taken the dogs to get them groomed and when I got home Diane was picking them up from the groomer. Later the groomer and hubby came over as they were going to watch the dogs for us while we were gone so they wanted to be sure about everything. That also went off without a hitch and we finished off the evening with more TIVO and then much needed sleep. Thursday morning was busy with packing suitcases, going over lists to make sure we had everything and then the chore of packing the car. Always when we go on a trip I feel like we move the house with us, but this time was different. This trip we had tons of stuff to take for the wedding. Diane had been taking care of flowers that were individually potted to be used for the rehearsal dinner. So let me tell you that took some effort to make sure they didn’t get damaged during the trip. Eventually we got them all packed in along with clothes, necessities and of course my golf clubs☺. We were on the road by 10 with a quick stop to pick up donuts and Kimber.

The trip went pretty quick, usually we can count on 8-9 hours but we made into Abilene by 6 that evening. Since we don’t like to put my mom out and wait dinner on us, we headed to the mall for a couple of items we had forgotten and then to Taco Bueno for dinner, yummy my favorite fast food Mexican! This place makes Taco Bell look like, well lets just say that if you haven’t ever tried it, you need to because you will enjoy the food and the experience. We finished up dinner and headed to moms house. After unpacking the car and getting the air mattress blown up, sheets on, we were pretty exhausted but we stayed up and chatted for awhile. Everyone seemed to be in good spirits and we enjoyed the evening until it was time to hit the hay. I have to say that with the new technology in air mattresses, it is hard not to get a good night sleep. Of course Diane will argue the point because she says I move too much and bounces her around but I have no idea what she is talking about. So the next morning we got up, had showers and a good breakfast and packed up the car again and got on the road to San
Angelo.

The drive was a quick hour and a half and the scenery was nice. We arrived in San Angelo and called the kids to find out where the Hotel was. We were going to stop by just to see if we could get checked in so we could dump some of the stuff off and lighten the load. Well sure enough we were able to and the room was very nice and the hotel staff was pleasant, thank you Comfort Suites! So we called Cassie and asked her where we needed to go to start getting things setup
for the rehearsal dinner. She directed us in the general area and we finally ended up meeting her at the church parking lot so she could lead us and let us in. We got in and immediately began the preparations. Tables, chairs, table clothes, plants (finally), balloons, ice cream fixin’s etc, etc, etc. The groomsmen, brides maids, and other family showed up to help so it went really quick and we were done within an hour. Kimber left with the others to hang out for the afternoon while Diane and I headed to the airport to pick up the Brother Glass and Lacy the awesome photographer! They were right on time so we all pilled in and headed to Chilies for a quick bite.

Well it ended up being quite a long bite we waited forever for our food, but as usual the quality was excellent when it came. We all just ate and chatted about events, other weddings, some of Lacy’s shoots, etc. The conversation was well worth the wait and we eventually finished up and headed back to the hotel. While Grayson and Lacy checked in, Diane and I headed upstairs to try and relax a little before time to go to the church. By this time other family who was coming to the wedding had checked in so we stopped and chatted for awhile and then just chilled out in the room. Kimber showed back up and around 5’ish we all got dressed and headed to the church. Well the rehearsal went off without a hitch everyone knew pretty much what to do where to stand etc, normal wedding preparation stuff. So we called it a wrap and everyone headed over to the rehearsal dinner. We opened up and the caterer was already setup and waiting for us. The guest started arriving and began to mingle and look at all the decorations and pictures we had set around. There were quite a few and I think the last count was around 40 or so. Everyone started eating and seemed to be enjoying the food. The menu consisted of chicken and beef fajitas, beans, rice, pico, guacamole, chips and salsa. The excitement began as dessert was served, we had setup a “top your own ice cream cup”. We had all kinds of toppings from caramel, chocolate syrup, crushed Butter Finger bars to nuts, sprinkles and even gummy bears (Cassie’s favorite).

Next Lee, Cassie’s step dad, got up and made a toast, then it was my turn. They were both quite good and the new families were enjoying the time together. Then Josh and Cassie gave out their Groomsmen and Brides Maids gifts, along with the flower girls and ring bearer. They all seemed to enjoy what they got and as each one was introduced and a short story to go along with them. It was time for the bride and grooms gifts. Josh gave Cassie and really nice set of designer luggage and Cassie had painted Josh another Bleu Dog painting. If you don’t know, there is an artist in Louisiana that paints a Blue Dog. Josh really likes them and Cassie is so talented that she paints an awesome look alike. Well they both seemed to enjoy each others and the party just continued for another hour or so. I snuck off and took the pastor back to the hotel and by the time I got back they had started cleaning up. Really there wasn’t a whole lot to do and within a short time we had everything cleaned up and was locking the door. All the kids were headed to the ranch where they were staying for some fun and the rest of us headed back to the hotel for some much deserved sleep, it had been a very long and busy day. We changed and read for awhile, watched a little TV and then turned out the lights. Tomorrow would be another busy day and we needed our beauty rest.

Morning came too soon, as the alarm went off it was hard to struggle out of bed. But we managed and as Diane went to get a shower and get dressed for her Brunch with the girls, I headed down stairs for some breakfast and read the paper. When I got back to the room, Diane and Kimber were just finishing up and it was time to take them to the Brunch. The trip was short and after I dropped them off I headed back to the hotel for a little studying and watch some of the US open. The time flew by too quickly because before I knew it Diane was calling and saying they were ready to be picked up. Well let’s leave at there for now, we will pickup in the next edition with the rest of the days events leading up to the Big Event. Hope you are enjoying stand by for more fun and excitement.

Rotation is almost here and sand oil golf….

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 12:51:00 +0000

Well as you probably guessed from the heading, it is almost time to jump into that Airbus 330 and head for the good ole U S of A. So as I prepare the last two days before I leave, let me catch you up with a little fun, well not really fun the first time but the second was great.

As many of you know, I love golf and try to play as often as I can. Well on my next to last trip back here, I brought my clubs back. There is one golf course in Jubail that is a full 18 hole and is quite a challenge it is called an Oil course. What is that you ask, well just wait it gets really good. In the early 1950’s a company called ARAMCO was established by an Oil man from the US that was hoping to strike it rich. He found a Saudi business partner, some money to back and the company was created. His idea was to create an environment that would entice Americans and other Western Expats to the Middle East to help drill, and refine their valuable resource, oil. In doing so he began to tailor a Western style compound that would eventually include a beautiful green golf course, grocery stores, villas, etc. This immediately caught on and others tried to imitate him but did not have all the resources required to build the same quality.

So in certain parts of the Middle East, golf courses were designed utilizing what they had the most of, sand and oil. Basically what you have is a full 18 hole golf course laid out in the sands of the desert areas, greens are built and because there is a lack of water to grow grass, they spray them with oil. After this is done they broom them which mixes the sand and the oil together to keep the sand from blowing and also make a putting surface that is almost like putting on grass. The same is done for the fairways about once a month which they try to lightly maintain to keep the roughness out and your ball has a chance to roll instead of hitting a clod and stopping. So with that little bit of history behind you, I have set the scene of my first experience playing on an Oil course.

So as you know Fridays are our only day off here, and it is usually spent sleeping as late as we can, usually for me about 6:30 in the morning, get up and get a shower, breakfast and then lay around all day trying to relax. This includes reading, watching something on TV, or lay out by the pool in the Hot sun. So the first few went off without a hitch and the afternoon would soon show to be quite interesting. This Friday we had planned on going to the Whispering Sand Golf Course for a little fun with the little white ball and introduce me to Middle East golf. So around 2:15 Steve knocks on my door and asks me if I am ready to go and of course I was. First thing was to put on some sun screen because the desert sun is very hot and you can burn very fast. Next was to grab the two bottles of water I had been chilling and of course my ball cap. We loaded our clubs in the car and headed out, a short 20 minute drive.

We arrived at the course about 2:50 and went in and paid our green and cart fees. Now for you avid golfers out there, this was a pull cart, not and electric or gas one. Yes we were going to walk all 18. The temperature was around 106 and the heat index was around 114. The course was very busy so they started us out on number 17 and then we could just keep on. We were good with that just ready to get started, so the three of us headed off to 17 to start our adventure. Oh I guess I should tell you that it was me, Steve who I have introduced before and Lum who is one of our other Managers around 63 or so. For his age he is in pretty great health if you ask me. We get to the tee box and they are both explaining to me the hold and how it plays. Steve gets up and hits and it is pretty good, Lum hits and it is also good. So my turn and, yah you guessed I flopped it, went about 60 yards and rolled to a stop. Well the game picked up from there and we were all hitting pretty good but not great. After about the fourth or fifth hole I looked at Steve and said, you know it’s not that bad out here, nope wrong thing to say. I neglected the part about only eating breakfast, drinking coffee all morning, and hardly touching water since I had been there.

Well about the 6th hole I was feeling pretty tired. I tried to suck down some water I had brought but it was almost like drinking hot tap water. I choked it down anyway because I needed it and tried to keep going. We finally made it to a hole that had a water jug, so I drank a couple of bottles full and wet my gold towel and put it over my head. The cold water felt great running down the back of my neck and I just sat there for awhile. Steve looked over at me and said hey bud you feeling ok, I just looked at him and said yah I will be fine just need to cool off for a little. So after awhile I felt better and it was my turn to hit anyway. I got up placed my ball and hit. It was pretty good for as drained as I felt. After putting the towel on my head and heading towards my ball, I did start feeling a little energy coming back. So each time we hit a water station I would tank up, fill my bottles back up and head out again.

Thankfully I made it through all 18 but let me tell you, by the time I drug my body back to the clubhouse, got my bag off the cart, and started walking towards the car, my butt was dragging the ground believe you me! When I got to the car Steve already had it turned on and the AC cooling it down. I threw my bag in the back and got in and just soaked up as much of that AC I could. We were pretty quiet on the way back because we both were pretty tired. I felt like I was close to the point of heat exhaustion and dehydration. I couldn’t get enough water in me and it just was feeling miserable like in Iraq. Well we made it back to the complex and I unloaded my clubs and dragged them up the stairs. Steve was talking about dinner and I said all I am going to do is take a cool shower and crash. That’s exactly what I did too, I went in and turned the water on where it was almost cold and got in and just stood there. The cool water felt good and slowly I could feel life coming back. I was in there about 15 or 20 minutes and when I emerged I was feeling about 50% better than when I went in. I was still drained though so I took a couple of Ibuprophen and hopped into bed. It wasn’t long before I was gone and in la la land once again.

The next day I was sore and still not feeling up to par but I was able to get out of bed, once again get a nice shower, dress and be at breakfast in time. It took me three days to get all my energy back and I swore that would never happen again. So the next week we took off because Lum was down in his back, probably from us acting crazy the week before, and decided to just hang out around the complex. I was good with that because there is no way I wanted to experiencing anything remotely close to the Friday before. So this week we decided to try again and this time I was going prepared. Earlier in the week I had obtained some drink mix that was like Gatorade and was supposed to keep your electrolytes in check. The night before, I had filled up three bottles and two liters of water so they would chill down. Once again put on the Sunscreen 50 and was ready to go again. Well needless to say it all worked good. We had a great game, thought we were going to lose Lum towards the end there. He was looking how I had felt the two weeks before. Anyway we did finish and Steve beat me by 2 strokes. All in all though the drink mix and heavy water helped tremendously.

Well that’s about it, I am headed home on Monday morning around 12:45 AM and so so ready! I am anxious to see Josh and Cassie’s new house, get things ready for the wedding, see mom and dad and Steve. I look forward to seeing as many of you as I can while I am home for three weeks. I do have a couple of Dr. appointments a dentist appointment and I am finally taking my PMP exam. So hopefully I will be able to squeeze some other things in there. Take care and have a great weekend. Be sure to check out the pictures.

And the fun continues…..

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sat, 23 May 2009 13:57:00 +0000

So as we continue on with the fun, we will start with viruses. No not the kind the human gets the kind the computer gets. It seems that the new Anti-virus software the company installed, Symantec End Point, is not completely up to date on its database. We commenced to getting multiple virus attacks everyday. We did everything we possibly could to keep up with them but they just kept coming. As we would scan and delete they would reappear and start the process all over again. We also had some that didn’t even show up in the scan and they were spreading like wildfire. I got back on the phone with Dubai and told them what was happening and they started looking into the problem. While they were doing this, we downloaded free scan software to see if it would locate and clean the hidden mysteries. Well sure enough it started finding them left and right and seemed to be doing the job. I reported this also to Dubai and they began to look in to the situation. Symantec finally came through with an updated database but we still had issues. It appeared that a virus had attached itself to some system files. It had buried itself so deep that there was no cleaning it.

So while the merry virus technicians played I decided to take a well deserved break and spend a couple of days R&R in Bahrain. I left Thursday morning after spending an hour or so on Skype with my lovely bride, and left the Western Park around 8’ish. I stopped to top of the tank and grab some coffee on the way out of town. The drive was a short hour and I was at the causeway by 9. The first half is a breeze it’s when you get to the entry point where the fun begins. The drive over the first half of the causeway is about 15 minutes so I was in line by 9:15. First you wait in line for your exit and immigration out of Saudi. Next you go through a Police checkpoint to verify you have your papers and vehicle permit. Once through this you wait in line again to go through customs, insurance and immigration on the Bahrain side. There are a lot of frustrated people, honking, yelling, moving in front of each other and sometimes it becomes quite comical as they jockey for position. So as the sun got higher in the sky, it became hotter and the time began to drag by. Slowly we made our way through the line car by car. During this time they are remodeling their lanes so that didn’t help any. Imagine if you will, once you reach the first area on the Saudi side you go from 2 lanes to 6, then once you are through that you go to 4 and then to two. So trying to cram a bunch of cars into two lanes is quite a miracle. Finder benders are not uncommon and then you watch as they haggle over who hit who.

Finally at 10:45 I was through the lines and on my way across the last causeway into Bahrain. I was at the hotel around 11:45 and knew that check-in was after noon so I didn’t bother. There is a restaurant that serves real pork sausage and bacon and some really nice American style food. So I decided to stop by for a nice lunch first and then check-in. Since I had been there before I knew exactly where it was and just breezed right in. The lunch crowd was lite so I had no problem finding a table. I decided on a nice glass of cold iced tea and a Country Fried Steak with all the trimmings. As I sat and waited on my order, I noticed that ESPN was showing an old 1997 Basketball Championship which featured the Rockets. I got engrossed in that and soon enough my meal was there. It was absolutely delectable and I think I finished everything but the big pile of potato’s and cream gravy, it had to of been at least to huge potato’s worth. So I finished up my last bit of tea and paid my bill which was only 6 BD which is equivalent of about $16. So I headed back to the hotel to check-in. The process was painless and I was in my room getting everything unpacked. I sat down and started reading my book just so I could try and relax from the journey and before I knew it I was dozing off. I slept about 30 minutes and decided it was time to start my adventure.

Before I left I had checked the Movies and times and found two that I was definitely going to watch. Bahrain has like 5 malls and only two of which have theaters and the third will be open sometime this summer. So I headed to the Seef Mall to see when the movies would be showing. It was a quick 10 minutes up the road I found a parking space and set out to find the theater. It was on the second level and I found it with no problem. As I walked into the foyer area, I noticed that all the movies and times were posted under their posters. I found the movie and went to pay. Now this part will get you and is something that definitely needs to be done in the US. When you pick the movie, you then get to pick your seat as well, how cool is that? So of course I like to sit in the back so I can get the full view and I picked a spot that was perfect. Ok, ok I know your all wondering what I went to see, it was the new Star Trek movie. Was it ever good and the special effects were definitely awesome and the sound was in the new Digital Dolby Surround and let me tell you it puts standard Surround sound to shame. This has to be one of the best yet and it has some surprises which I was not expecting. If you haven’t seen it yet shame on you get there now! Anyway when the movie was over I found Starbucks and bought a couple of bags and a cup to go and headed back to the parking garage. Well apparently I made a wrong turn and ended up back outside so I sat down and called Diane and we chatted for awhile. She accompanied me while I made my way back into the mall and found my way back the way I had come. Eventually I found the car and headed back to the hotel. Oh one thing I forgot about the theater, I got a large drink and medium popcorn for like $3.75 tell me that isn’t awesome ? Anyway I got back had some chicken wings for dinner and headed off to bed around 8:30. It is hard not to go to bed that early when you do it everyday.

Sleep came very easy and I slept until 7:30 the next morning. My plan was to go back to Rics for a nice American breakfast. I got up showered and dressed and headed to Rics. Again the crowd was lite especially for a Friday because that is when everyone comes from Saudi and other places, our day off. It is worth the drive just to eat and turn around and head back, yes it is that good! So I perused the menu and found a nice Tex-Mex favorite, Huevo Rancheros. If you don’t know it is wonderful, corn tortillas with re fried beans, egg, cheese, and salsa poured all over the top. It was yummy and I had a side biscuit with sausage gravy (did that for you Dath and Bob) and it was just as good. Well after that, a large Grapefruit juice and two cups of coffee, I was plenty full and ready to scout out another day. Before I headed back to the mall, I stopped by the room and stuck the Laptop, MP3 and other electronics in the room safe. So I headed back to the same mall and got there in short time again. I parked and found my way back to the theater but they were not playing the movie I wanted. So I went back to the car and found my way back to the exit. I asked the parking attendant where the other mall was and he gave me instructions. Now you have to realize that nothing has a street sign or address in Bahrain or Saudi so you have to go by landmarks. Well it was pretty simple and the mall was only about 5 minutes away and I found it with no problem. So once again I parked and made my way in. I found the theater and sure enough the movie was playing and it started in about 15 minutes. So I got my ticket, picked my seat which was exactly in the middle of the screen towards the back. I made my way to the concession stand and got my popcorn and drink and headed fro my seat. Well I was the only one in the theater so I just enjoyed the quiet and darkness for a short time.

Once again I am sure you are on the edge of your seat wondering what I was going to watch so….. it was Wolverine which was the new series about the X-Men characters. This was the first of many to come about how each of the characters had grown up and discovered their powers. Once again it was an awesome movie with great effects and sound. If you are a Marvel Comics fan you will want to go see this one and hope the rest are as good. After the movie I decided it was time to do a little sight seeing. I drove around the city and took some shots of interesting Architecture that I know Christopher will like, and some other interests that you hopefully will find as fascinating as I did. After about an hour or so driving around, getting lost a couple of times, and finally had enough and headed back to the hotel. Since I still had a couple of hours, I pulled out the book and was engrossed by it and before I knew it, it was time for dinner. I headed down to get a burger and some fries my last meal in Bahrain. I watched a little golf and read some more while I waited for my dinner. It was good but not like the one you get from Grand Prize. I paid my check and headed back to the room. Some quick packing of things I would not need in the morning and then hit the hay. Again sleep came easy which was great because wake up was at 3 AM.

Let me finish up, it was a quick trip through the menagerie only a few cars making their way back to Saudi that early in the morning. I made it back to the apartment by 5:15 and had time to drop of my bag, grab my work boots and head to the site. Oh and the viruses did not go away while I was gone so I have spent most of the day scanning and cleaning again. Hope you have a great weekend and check out the pictures.

Oh the things we have to do……

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Tue, 12 May 2009 03:49:00 +0000

Well it has been a few weeks since I have updated you. Not a lot going on that would be of much interest but I will tell you what I have been doing none the least. Since we last spoke, the project has reached a Milestone of 50%. We also reached an unbelievable Safety record of 50 Million, yes I said million man hours without a lost time accident. Woo hoo is that impressive or what? Back in the earlier days of construction, companies would factor in how many deaths they thought would happen and how it would affect the project. These days the drive is to not have any deaths, any major accidents, small accidents etc. So needless to say we are not only the safest project in the company, we are also close to a record as well.

For three weeks we have had some major I.T. or should I say IPS (Information Process Systems) issues. First we were running along just fine and then one day out of no where my file server crashed. Everything else was running but it decided it was tired I guess and decided to shut itself down. When I checked, it was in a state of disarray it had corrupted one of its system files and was unable to boot back up. I worked with the group in Dubai from 5 am that morning until about 9:30 that night. We tried everything we possibly could but to no avail. It looked like we were going to have to rebuild it from scratch which possibly we could lose data. I was shutting other servers down and swapping out CD drives because the one in the file server decided it was tired as well. We tried three different drives and none of them worked. While the team in Dubai worked with Dell to resolve our pickle, I found an old drive from a Laptop and started rebuilding the old one. By the time Dell had finished putting in their two cents, we tried one more time. This time the server booted to the CD and we were able to reload the Operating System, for you novices, that is Windows Server 2003. It is just like Windows but has features built in that allow adding security, routing and other stuff.

Next in our dilemma was that we had been working on trying to free up some space on one of the drives. I had been moving data off to another and as quickly as I moved it someone would put something else on. To also add to our burdens, we have an application server which was also running out of disk space plus needed to be upgraded to a new version. Since we had tried everything possible to fix that solution and nothing worked, we opted to install some additional drives and increase the space. The Dubai team was working to build a new server which we would use to upgrade the old one and then swing that one down to our warehouse when we were completed. Well chance would have it that the new server showed up and we would use it to replace the file server we just repaired. So we made plans to have an outage that Friday and it would encompass a lot of work. We would have to move servers, copy data, uninstall one server, install the new one, then verify that everything would work exactly as the other.

During the next couple of days, we had also planned at lunch to upgrade our Satellite modem software as well. I received all the instruction from the provider and worked on getting things ready. The process was not supposed take more than 30 or 45 minutes so we were comfortable we could get it all done and back online before lunch was over, NOT! As I prepared everything in the server room waiting on the engineers call, I realized that we had no power close to the cabinet so I scrambled to find an outlet. Unfortunately everything was taken so I had to modify an adapter to work. The engineer called and we began the process of taking everything off line and loading the first patch, well it didn’t work. We tried everything possible that either of us could think but we just could not get the patch to load. Finally after an hour and a half we abandoned the process and put everything back the way it was. While I tidied up the engineer said he would get with the manufacturer to see what the problems was. Once I got back in my office, I received a not so very nice email from the Director that said never plan an outage during the day again during working hours. Ok so I was trying to save some money and not have to work over but if that was what he wanted, so be it.

Well as Friday approached, we began moving the data from the old server to the new. Everything got transferred and it was decided that Dubai would make once last update on Friday morning and I could come in around 10 to start the swap. Day to day stuff went on and we had hiccups here and there but no major issues. Thursday came and we made final plans and preparations, Ardie would come in around 9 or so and help with the move and I readied the server room and planned the days’ events. Well the day started pretty good I slept in and grabbed a nice breakfast and just chilled a little. Around 9 Dubai called and said they were almost through copying data so I headed in. Around 9:30 or so, they were ready so we started shutting down servers and moving equipment. We battled the first server getting it out because our tools are limited. It took us about 45 minutes to get the thing out and then we started moving the servers up in the rack to make room for the beast we were installing. After fighting with that for another 45 minutes or so we decided that it could just sit on top and we would have a nice bug hole in the middle. Well this thing weighed around 150 pounds so I was trying to figure out the two of us would be able to do it. Fortunately for us there were folks in the office and borrowed a couple of additional hands. By the time we finally got the thing in the rack, we had 4 people lifting, holding and screwing the bolts back in, and a couple of non technical supervisors ;).

All in all it went pretty smoothly just very bulky and heavy and the guys holding it were under some pressure but they were troopers all the way through and never complained. Once all the cables were back in I called Dubai and told them we were coming up. I had also scheduled for that day the modem upgrade since the engineer was able to find a fix. So Dubai changed all the settings and told us to do what we needed to and they would log back in afterward and finish up. Well back to the modem once again getting everything hooked up and ready. The engineer walked me through all again and this time it worked. After he finished up we tested everything to make sure it worked, he tweaked a few things and bid hi a due. So I called Dubai back and told them we were all finished and they logged back in and went on with their synchronization. The day had been a success and I was able to get out of there by about 2:30. Still had time to chill out in the room, watch a little TIVO and catch an early dinner. So that’s just what I did. The day ended pretty quietly no burps in the new server, so I thought.

Next day back in the office, we started noticing that files we had accessed before were inaccessible, printers that existed before had disappeared just all around not what we had expected. So I got on the phone with Dubai and told them what was happening and they began to work on the issues. By the end of the day they had gotten most of them finished and everyone seemed to have access to what they needed with just a few minor printing issues. So the next morning we continued on and were able to get everything resolved by lunch.

Well I guess that is enough for now but we aren’t finished, not by a long shot. More excitement is yet to come, so stay tuned………

Saudi, family and fun…..?

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 10:32:00 +0000

Well I have now been back to the project for about a month since my adventure. The project was still sound with only a few problems for the I.T. guy to resolve. While I was away they finished most of the projects up that we had been working on some minor issues with equipment, terminations and such. Frank, my replacement who couldn’t leave fast enough, was back in his nice warm bed in the UK and happy to be away from all the sand. He left me a nice turnover list so when I got back I digested what he had done and wrote him a nice email of appreciation. I know it must have been a big culture shock to him, as this was his first trip to the Middle East and really didn’t know what to expect.

My welcome back by the team was low key however they were happy I was back to help them with issues while Ardie took and extended leave to visit his Grandmother in Canada. Of course the rumors started flying that he had left the project to seek employment in Canada. A couple of emails to confirm and he quickly shunned those who had started them and assured me he would be back as promised. The project engineer, Steve, was ecstatic to have me back as John my boss had left a few days after me and wasn’t due back for another couple of weeks. I think I had mentioned in an earlier blog that Steve had come from Jakarta to fill in for John on his first leave, and was mobilizing to the project mid November. At that time we had bonded and built a friendship as he was in love with golf as much as I. Of course I had brought my sticks back with me but his were on a boat from Jakarta and hadn’t expected them to arrive in the US for quite some time.

Things are as usual here, same ole routine, work, eat, sleep….. The days seem to just fly by and it really makes for time to go by quickly with my rotation not too far in sight. This rotation I am staying on an additional 4 weeks so I can attend and be a part of the year’s grand celebration. As most of you know, Josh and Cassie will be tying the knot in June to begin their wedded bliss together. Some of you may read Josh’s blog and know that he and Cassie are building a home in Falls Creek. Their first thought was to buy a home already there but their bid didn’t make it and so they opted to build instead of wasting more time looking. It seems to be coming together quite nicely, the slab was poured last week and they are already ¾ finished with the framing. Another of things that I am missing while over here is getting to watch his house under construction. I too have construction in my blood and miss not being able to spend time with Josh and learning from him things which I don’t know. But he knows that if he has a question about something, which he probably already knows the answer to, he can come to me. One of these days maybe we can work together side by side in our own Home Building business. If we are lucky, we will get the brains of the family involved as well and he can design all of the homes. Well that’s another story hopefully in a few years.

So as I wait for the next rotation, I continue to stay busy, studying feverishly for my PMP exam which I must take in June before I leave to come back, try and stay in shape making myself go to the gym, and try and keep up with all the fun that the family is having without me. Jeremy seems to be doing well in Iraq, he has decided to pursue a career in Safety Engineering and sounds like he has already made some great headway in that. I am trying to help as well trying to understand what he needs to be doing so that everything he works on will apply toward his goals. There is nothing like taking a lot of non-essential courses that will not help your advancement. I have a been down that road and I do have the T-shirt to prove it, well maybe not a T-shirt but I do still have some of the books. Anyway hopefully the Safety manager here will come through and we can assure Jeremy that he is not wasting his time and effort. I believe that his next rotation will be beginning right about the time is ending. We are going to try and get in at least one game of golf before I leave if Kimber will let him out of her sight for a day.

So that’s pretty much it. We trudge along day to day building this refinery, doing what is necessary to make our client happy and look for the end which is still at least 8 months away. Already looking in the weeds for the next adventure and hoping that something comes along. Hope you all have a great week and enjoy the sunshine when it finally appears. We do need the rain so don’t be too angry at the weathermen. Until next time……

Work rest and return….. (The Finale)

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 08:11:00 +0000

After I left the office, I decided Subway sounded good for lunch. The short walk just increased my appetite so I was ready when I walked through the door. I ordered my normal and sat down to feast. It was close to 2:30 by this time and I felt like already the day was coming to a close. The time went by quickly and I was through. I walked a block to the hotel and put my things aside. I pondered what to do for the rest of the day and decided to go down and sit by the pool and read for awhile. It was very pleasant outside somewhere in the mid 70’s and a cool breeze was blowing. As I sat and read I noticed a Saudi swimming and laughing out loud. As I watched him from time to time, he looked like he was swimming and talking to himself and giggling now and then. I tried to concentrate on my book but it became comical as he swirled around making noises so I started watching him a little closer. Slowly he moved to my side of the pool and apparently his friend was sitting close by and he started saying something to him in Arabic. His speech sounded a little slurred so I figured he had been drinking a little too much. Well his friend gets up and brings him a glass of something over and he starts sipping it and laughing again. He was all over the place with his body movement so I knew he was drunk. He paddled away and started swimming in circles again and then he was back for another drink.Over on the other side of the pool the lifeguard had been watching all of this and he finally got up and walked over to the pool edge. He bent down and started talking to the two of them and it looked like he was telling the guy he needed to get out of the pool. This went on for quite some time with no success so he went to the phone and made a call. About 5 minutes later two guys in suits came out headed over to the two of them and started talking. Eventually they pulled him out of the pool and took him to one of the loungers and he passed out, I knew it was time for me to leave.

It just so happened, a God thing that my son-in law was flying in from Iraq that afternoon. I had sent him a message the day before and told him I would like to meet and take him to dinner. He agreed and told me he would call when he got to the hotel. During the day I had chatted with a friend on his project and he told me where he was staying. So I tried calling the hotel two or three times and never got an answer. So the easiest thing to do was jump in a taxi and head over. The first one I caught had no idea where the hotel was, so I got out of his cab and into the next one. He took me and dropped me off supposedly behind the hotel. I paid him and went in the direction he said. Well of course I couldn’t find it so I walked a few blocks and went inside another hotel and asked for directions (yes men do ask for directions). I went the way they said and again I could not find it. I spotted a coffee shop and went in and again asked for directions. This time the guy knew where it was and pointed me in the right direction. I went that way and believe it or not it lead me right back to where I started from 15 blocks or so before. If I had just turned left instead of right I would have been there 30 minutes earlier.

Well frustrated but glad to be there I went inside and found the House phones. I dialed Jeremy’s room and he answered. He said he had been trying to call me but every phone he used would not let him call out of the hotel. I told him not to worry I was in the lobby. He said, "let me put my shoes on and I will be right down." So we went back to the street and found a cab so I could take him to a really good Steakhouse I knew about from previous experience. We chatted on the ride over and then arrived at Billy Blue’s. We went in and ordered and then just got caught up. We had a really good conversation and then I noticed it was getting late so I paid the bill and we left. We drove back to his hotel and I dropped him off, said goodbye and to have a safe flight home and went back to my hotel. It was late by the time I got back so I hit the bed and fell sound asleep. Sunday morning I got up at the usual time, showered, dressed and grabbed breakfast. I still hadn’t heard anything about my Visa so I continued on with work as usual. My backup had already flown back to London so there were definitely things to take care of. The morning flew by and after lunch I called the GRO and asked what the status was of my Visa. He said he was on the way to the office and would call me in an hour. Well as usual I didn’t hear back from him so I was planning on extending my stay. I finished up the day around 4, chatted with Diane for awhile and then headed back to the hotel around 5’ish. When I got back I was deciding on where to go eat when my cell phone rang. It was the GRO and he was at the office looking for me, he had my Visa. Well of course all kinds of alarms and whistles went off because I didn’t want to have to go back to the office so I told him to leave it with one of the guys there. I got off the phone and hooked up my Laptop and stated searching for flights. It was unbelievable the difference in price so I chose the least of which was Saudi Airlines. The flight was scheduled to leave at 11:50 the next day so I knew I would have plenty of time to go to the office, pack up my stuff, and then get to the airport with time to spare…. Ya right. Off to bed.

Monday morning came quickly and the night before I had packed as much as I could and finished packing after my shower. I left everything ready to go so all I would have to do is get my bags, get a taxi and go. So I walked to the office, made coffee, chatted with Diane and the staff started showing up. I retrieved my Passport with my new Visa in it and we chatted awhile about how the trip had gone and how they could help me if I needed anything when I got back. So with plenty or time I headed back to the hotel. I called down and had a bell boy come get my bags while I checked out. He got me a taxi, loaded my bags and we were off. It took about 15 minutes to get to the airport and it was just 9:45 so I knew I was good. When I got in the airport it was a little hard finding where the airline counter was so I walked around and finally found someone who could tell me. I got in the line and waited for about 10 minutes. Finally I got to check in and she said my bags were over the limit. Well no surprise there after the debacle in Amsterdam. So I got my baggage ticket and went in search of the cashier. I finally found it after being re-routed by three other cashiers, and there were 10 people in line. So I got in the “queue” and waited my turn. It was now 10:15 so I was still good. I waited for nearly 30 minutes before they finally got to me, and of course I had no UAE Dirhams left so I asked if they would take Saudi money. He figured out the conversion and said yes so I paid him and headed to the gates. Again I went through Passport control, then through X-ray and once again was on my way. It was now about 11 and I still had about 30 minutes so I thought and started my long walk. I had just gotten on the escalator when I heard a message on the intercom. “Attention, Passenger Mr. Stan Young flying on Saudi Airlines flight 569, please report to gate number 110 immediately for boarding”. Great what in the world, the flight doesn’t leave till 11:50 and it is just now 11. Well I knew I had to move so I got on the moving walkways and ran all the way down the tunnel. When I got to the other end I was out of breath and had to go up two flights of escalators.

I got on the first and then I heard it again, “Attention, Passenger Mr. Stan Young flying on Saudi Airlines flight 569, please report to gate number 110 immediately for boarding, you are holding the flight up. Please make your way to the gate or we will begin unloading your baggage from the plane”. Great I was going as fast as I could and still was about 10 gates away. I hit the floor running once again and got to the gate just as they were getting ready to make the last announcement. I explained about the Extra baggage line and they said no problem please board. So I went down the Jet way and into the plane, found my seat and buckled in. Apparently from when I made my reservation and that morning they had rescheduled the flight and I had no idea. The flight was a short 50 minute flight, they served lunch and were just cleaning up when we made our descent. Well unknown to me the rest of the fun was just about to begin. We landed and parked at the gate. I grabbed my things and headed for Passport Control. Of course the lines were long and I got in the shortest I could find which was about 20 people. An officer came over and said if I had a Residence Visa I could go to the end line where only two people were standing, yes finally something good... NOT! So I moved my things and stood in line and about 5 minutes later I was handing him my Passport. He looked it up in the system and then said something in Arabic to me and I said I don’t understand? He wrote something down and handed it to me and then again said something and pointed. He realized I still didn’t understand so he found someone who could speak English. The guy explained to me that I was missing some number and I needed to go upstairs to the main office and they would help me. So I grabbed my things once again and walked up three flights of stairs. Again out of breath after hauling all of it up, I got to the office. The guy was on the phone so I patiently waited. Another 15 minutes goes by and still on the phone. Finally another guy saw me standing there and asked what I needed and I explained. He took my Passport and walked off. So I waited another 20 minutes and finally he came back and said, "ok". I took my Passport, thanked him and headed back down to baggage claim.

So finally after about an hour or so I was getting my bags off the conveyor and headed to x-ray. As my bags came out he said, "what is in that box"? I told him they were Lanyards for my company. He looked at his x-ray screen and studied it for awhile and then looked at me again. He said, "explain", so I showed him how the Lanyard went around my neck and held a badge. He finally put his stamp on the box and said, "ok". I loaded all my bags on the cart and headed to arrivals. My driver was waiting for me and while I made a pit stop, he headed for the door with my cart. We rode downstairs and he left me standing there to get the car. He pulled around to the walkway, put my things in the trunk, climbed in and once again we were on our way. The ride was 45 minutes where he dropped me off at my room and left. I sent a message to the site to have someone pick me up, so while I waited I unpacked as much as I could. Finally I had made it back to the Sandbox and reality had set in. About 20 minutes later the driver showed up, we loaded up things I need to take to the site, 20 minutes later I was in my office and the door hasn’t darkened since I got here.

So you are all caught up of my wonderful travel experience. Hope you had as much fun as I did and now it is just 13 more weeks and I can do it all over again. Stay tuned for the next update when I have something good to tell you.

Work rest and return….. (Part 3)

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 03:19:00 +0000

Ok so this isn’t quite the end yet but I promise we are very close. So when we left off last time I had arrived at Schipol Airport and was headed back to the Departure hall. When I arrived up top I headed to claim my bags that I had placed in storage. I found everything in tact and gathered the bags up and headed to check-in. The line was fairly short but to my dismay when I finally made it to the front of the line I was told that I was only allowed 20 kilos of baggage to Dubai. When I explained my circumstances to the young lady she got on the phone and called her supervisor. When she arrived I showed her my Passport explained what I had been through but there was nothing she could do. Bottom line I had to pay a lot of Euro’s to get me and my bags to Dubai. I checked everything in paid my fees and headed to Immigration and then to the gate. I had no more than 30 minutes left when I finally made it through and got to the gate in time to go through x-ray and had just enough time to call ahead and get a room reserved. We boarded the plane 5 minutes later and were in the air less than 10 minutes later. The flight was a short 7 hours and 20 minutes. After having a nice lunch of chicken, salad and some kind of custard, I settled in for a good movie. The two hours went by quickly and turned to my book for awhile. Once again they came by with the carts and had a beverage service. I picked up my book and enveloped myself for another 3 hours. I decided to watch another movie and before I knew it we were making our decent into Dubai. We landed a few minutes early and taxied to the gate. If you have never been to Dubai or any other International airport, you have never experienced the long walk to immigration. I think I have mentioned before that they out the gates as far away as possible so you are completely exhausted by the time you get there. This trip was no different and I walked forever and finally reached the hall.

Unbelievably the line was very short and I was through Immigration in less than 5 minutes and at the carousel picking up my bags. I headed through the door, out to the waiting crowds through the exit and towards the taxis. I called Diane to let her know I had made it safely and I would call her when I got to the hotel. The drive was about 10 minutes and was greeted as I got out. As I tried to pay for the ride, the driver explained he couldn’t take credit and all I had was US currency. He obliged by taking my $14 dollars and I headed to check-in. Once I arrived at the desk, they informed me that my reservation was at a hotel across town. I think I forgot to mention that while I was in Amsterdam I had called and made my reservation and realized when I got my confirmation they had made it at the wrong hotel. So I called them back and thought they were booking me in the right one. Well the night manager got on the phone and called the hotel explained my situation and got the cancellation charges dropped, canceled my reservation and gave me a discounted rate for my troubles. I knew it was late but had failed to look at my watch. By the time I reached the room and my bags were delivered I called Diane and we talked for a short while. It was then that I realized that it was 2:30 in the morning and I really needed to get to bed. We said our goodnight and I headed to bed. I tossed and turned for awhile and decided to get up and read a little to see if sleep would finally come. When I finally felt sleep begin to come it was after 4 am. I set my clock for 8 and fell fast asleep. The annoying alarm woke me up so I dragged myself out of bed and into the shower. By the time I had finished and was ready for breakfast it was getting close to 10. I grabbed a quick bite and then headed down to the office just a short walking distance away. When I arrived they were all surprised to see me and I had to go through another rendition of my journey. They set me up with a cubicle so I setup my computer and started to tackle the awaiting emails.

As the day progressed I was able to speak with the HR department and they explained what would need to happen. In concert with the Saudi GRO (Government Relations Officer) they were able to get the required documents and begin the process. As afternoon came I began to feel tiredness and wondered if I would be able to last the rest of the day. I got up and walked around for a few minutes and felt refreshed enough to go back to my computer and continue on. The rest of the day went fairly quick and by the time I knew it, it was 6 pm. I shut down my computer, loaded everything up in my backpack and headed back to the hotel. When I arrived I noticed a Friday’s under the hotel and made a mental note to grab some dinner there. I went up to my room and unloaded and headed back down. The meal was pleasant not really very crowded. I meandered for about an hour and decided to head back to the room and call it an early night. I sent Diane a text because I knew she was in class but she had less than an hour left. I told her I would be up for an hour and for her to call me when she got home. So I got changed for bed and waited reading my book for awhile. Well it wasn’t long and my eyelids were heavy and she still hadn’t called. I figured she either didn’t get the message or she was busy with something else so I headed to bed. Sleep came easy and I awoke to the annoying alarm at 5:30. I jumped in the shower got dressed and headed down to breakfast. The breakfast is always good at the hotel, another International style buffet but this one you could order eggs like you wanted. I ordered a green chilies and cheese omelet and gathered the remaining items while I waited. As usual breakfast was good and a short while later I was back on the street headed for the office.

Once back in my cube, I worked on project issues that had cropped up since the day before. I called my boss and talked to him for awhile and assured him I was working diligently and not on the streets of Dubai shopping and sight seeing. He affirmed and as usual told me to stay out of trouble. Needless to stay I never get in trouble except when I am traveling through airports as this re-enactment confirms. I sent an email enquiring about my renewal and received an email from the local GRO asking me to call him. I placed the call and he explained where they were at and that he would be by shortly to pickup my Passport. I continued on with my work and realized that it was getting close to time for some lunch. I walked in to my SLM’s (Service Level Manager) office and asked if he was interested. Earlier the Manager, he and I had made arrangements to meet for dinner that night at my hotel. So David declined and said he would be fine until that evening. So I rode the elevator down and walked next door to my favorite little grocery and picked up a sandwich some chips and a Pepsi Max. I paid for it and headed back up to the office. I sat and ate my lunch and checked the news on the Internet and just chilled for awhile. A little while later I heard someone come through the door and ask where I was at. I heard them say that way and he showed up at my cube and asked for my Passport. We talked for a few minutes at how all of this had transpired and he said he thought it would be a few days and I would probably have it by Monday. So I confirmed that I should go ahead and book my flight but he said Inshalla Monday, which if you remember means Allah’s will. Basically he had no clue so I thanked him and he was on his way. When I travel on rotation I don’t take a lot of clothes with me because I have plenty at home. So I was in a bind because I had two shirts with me and a couple of new jeans I had picked up while I was home. I went in and told David that I was going to have to go somewhere and get a few shirts to tie me over since it would probably be a few days. He offered to take me because he knew of a place not far that had what I was looking for. So we planned to head out around 4 for a few minutes and then come back because he had a conference call.

At 4 he arrived at my cube and said lets go. So we rode down to the ground level and went to his car parked behind in a parking garage. As we drove he told me about the place we were going and for me to be sure to barter with the guy because it was expected. I had been there before and knew quite well what was expected. We arrived a short time later and pointed out the stores I needed to try. I walked into the first one and immediately found what I was looking for. They were knockoffs of a designer label at the stamped price of 215 Dirhams. This calculated was around $59 US dollars. I explained to him I didn’t even pay that for the originals and he said he would give them to me for 165. This was still pretty expensive but the quality was good and I agreed. I walked out of there with what I needed and went in search of David. I called his cell and he was around in a few minutes. We headed back to the office and finished out the day. Later around 8 that evening Martin, David and I we met at the restaurant in the hotel and had a nice dinner of cheese burgers and fries. We enjoyed ourselves in conversation and food and before we knew it, it was nearly 11:30. I told them I needed to get to bed, they agreed and we paid the bill and headed in our separate directions. I headed back to my room once again dressed for bed and crashed only to be awoken again at 5:30 by the annoying alarm. Again I jumped out of bed got ready and headed off to the office. I stopped in Costa for a quick caffeine fix and arrived as normal around 7’ish. I immediately started in on project issues and the day progressed quickly. Around 12 I stopped in to see Martin and asked if he was up for some KFC for lunch so we headed out. It was a short walk and we conversed over chicken and Pepsi. When we returned to the office we planned on meeting that afternoon to discuss some issues at site and I was back at my cube pounding out emails and history to be discussed. We met later that afternoon and before I knew it, it was time to leave the day had flown by very quickly.

Again sleep came very easily and I knew that my body clock was back in sync with the local time and drifted off. Tomorrow was Friday and my day off and I planned to sleep in as long as possible. When the alarm went off around 8, I crawled out of bed and enjoyed a hot long shower and pondered what to do with myself for the day. Lazily I got dressed went down to breakfast and enjoyed a breakfast of fruit, yogurt and cereal. I went back to my room grabbed my book, turned on FOX News and read for an hour or so. I decided that I didn’t want to be cooped up in my room all day so I decided to walk to the office, catch up on emails and work on the Blog. So you are all caught up now with my adventure. It is now Friday close to 2 pm and I am ready to grab some lunch maybe take a nap and just VEG out with some TIVO. Hope you have enjoyed this with me so far and the end is close. I will hopefully complete my journey in a few days and will be sure to bring you up to date and how it all ends.

Work rest and return….. (Part 2)

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Fri, 13 Mar 2009 07:55:00 +0000

Well I got to the gate to check-in for my flight, as on most International flights they have to check your Passport and Visa to make sure you are valid for flying. So I hand her my Passport and she asked where my Visa was, I turned to the page and showed her. She said “I can’t read Arabic so where is the English version?” I explained to her that we don’t get that version so she had to figure out who else could look at it and confirm. She made a call and said someone would be there in a few minutes. So I grabbed a seat and pulled out my cell and called Diane. While we are talking, they make an announcement that the Pilot has come down ill and they are getting a replacement and the flight may be delayed for a short time. We talked for a few minutes and they called me back to the desk. When I got there I handed the guy my Passport and he starts reading it. He says he reads Arabic but he doesn’t understand the dates so he pulls up the calendar to try and calculate what remains on the Visa. After going back and forth, checking the dates and verifying what date I started, how many times I have been out since I got it and where, he determined that it looked ok but if I got to Amsterdam and they denied me it wouldn’t be his fault. I told him I understood and sat back down. About 30 minutes later they called the flight and we started boarding. So I had already made up my mind that once I got on the plane and we were in the air, that I would take my Advil PM, eat dinner and then head off to Never-Never land. That’s pretty much how it went and I was pleased that I dozed off fairly quickly as they removed the last plate from my little table.

About an hour out of Amsterdam they woke us up for breakfast. Usually it is pretty good and this time was no exception. We arrived a little late due to the fact they had to get a new Pilot and they had to wait on the Tarmac for something to be loaded. We made pretty good time as he was able to make up some of it with a good tail wind. So I exit the plane head off to relax and get a shower for the next part of the journey. Just to be on the safe side I called the HR Manager at the site and told him about the issues the night before. He said he would go online and check my Visa and call me back. Well time passed really quickly and I hadn’t heard back from him and it was time to head for the gate. The walk was about 8 minutes and while I was heading there he called and confirmed my fears that it was in fact expired. When I got to the gate they also identified that it was expired and they started taking my luggage off the plane. They apologized and told me I needed to go to the transfer desk and re schedule my flight and see what they suggested to get it renewed. So I grabbed my gear off the X-ray machine and found a seat and called my boss to let him know what had happened. He of course was not pleased but he understood and told me to let him know what KLM said. So once again I headed back into the Terminal and found the transfer desk. With all the new technology most of the airlines have gone to self serve Kiosks. As I approached I saw a young lady from KLM and explained my circumstance. She sent me through a gate to talk to her colleagues and see what they suggested.

So once again I explained my problem and they started looking to see what could be done. After about 10 minutes they decided the best thing for me to do was take the train to The Hague and go to the Saudi Embassy the next day. I loaded up my hand carry bags and went through immigration to get my luggage. It was waiting for me when I arrived so I took out what I thought I would need for one night and put the rest in storage. After securing my locker I headed off to find the train station. Unfortunately in Amsterdam most of the signage and Kiosks are in Dutch, which you might now I don’t know how to speak. So after stumbling around for a few minutes, I found the train office and went to purchase a ticket. When I got to the window I explained to the train attendant where I needed to go and what I required and he told me to go see if I could even get a Hotel before he sent me all the way there. So I headed back into the Arrival terminal and found the Hotel desk. She looked for what was available close to where I needed to be and finally identified one. The rate was decent and I had her book it for me. She printed out my confirmation and I took it back to the train office and got my tickets. The train was due to leave around 4:58 which was about thirty minutes. So I walked around for a few minutes and then headed for the ramp. Just as I arrived so did the train. The ride was supposed to be around 30 minutes so I settled in. Now the way I understood, the train was supposed to be non stop but we made two stops and I started getting a little concerned. Everyone around me was speaking Dutch so I was a little doubtful that I could find someone that spoke English to ask. On the Third stop I spoke to a man standing next to me and asked him if the train was non stop and he shrugged. Another guy waiting to get off spoke a little English and said I needed to change trains and just follow him.

Luckily the train we needed to get on was waiting when we got there so the switch was quick and painless. We rode for another 10 or 15 minutes and we were there. Now I am usually pretty good about finding my way around, but with everything in Dutch I was having a few issues. The girl at the Hotel desk had written down what I needed to do once I got there so I looked for the Tram I was supposed to get on. I found a sign and headed up to the tracks only to realize that I thought I was on the wrong side. So I went back down and up the other side only to realize that I thought it was going in the wrong direction so I walked back down and back up to the same place I had been. Well still not convinced I was in the correct place, I headed back down to look for the Tram office. After stumbling around the Train/Tram station I finally located the office and stood in line for my turn. After about 5 minutes I finally made it to the window and told the gent where I was going and how did I get there. He explained it to me and it was in fact the same place I started out and I could just pay the Tram driver. So I headed back up to the platform and waited with everyone else. The Tram arrived a short while later I got on paid the driver and we were off. The short ride took about 10 minutes and I was back on the street looking for some sign of the direction I was supposed to go to get to the hotel. After a few minutes of looking around I spotted the sign for the hotel and walked that way. A couple of blocks away I found it and checked in. I dropped off my things in the room and went in search of some food. The front desk suggested an Italian place a short walk so I ventured out to find it. He was right it was a short walk, maybe a block away and I went in. He sat me at a table close to the square so I could look out the window while I was eating. It was so quaint and very pleasing to see how the Europeans spend there time. As I looked out I saw small Bistro’s, pubs and restaurants where they were partaking of spirits and food and enjoying conversation. The Italian restaurant was true to nature and very authentic. I ordered probably one of the best pizza’s I have had in my life. I ate and watched for about an hour, paid my bill was very reasonable and walked back to the hotel.

My plan had worked by sleeping the flight to Amsterdam and staying awake the rest of the day as sleep came very quickly after reading a couple of chapters in my book. The next morning I got up around 5:30, showered and headed to breakfast. It was a small buffet of International cuisine, sliced meats, cheeses, eggs, lots of different breads to choose from, yogurt juices coffee and teas. I had a small feast and was pleasantly filled when I had finished. I headed back to my room to call the Embassy and find out exactly where it was located. When I got no answer I headed down stairs to ask the front desk. She looked everything up on the Internet and showed me where to catch the Tram. I thanked her and took the map she had provided and headed out to find my destination. Again I was stricken by non Dutch and I walked in the wrong direction once again and turned around and went the other way. Still unable to find the landmarks that were on the map, I ventured off in the direction I was sure was the way. Well after walking for about 3 blocks, I noticed the Golden Arches and slumbered in to see if I could get some directions. Thankfully a gentlemen standing waiting on his Danish and coffee pointed me in the right direction. I was just across the street from where I needed to be. I thanked him and exited to the street and made across the street in time to catch the number 2 headed toward my destination. I clambered aboard the TRAM paid the driver and we were off. Two stops later I exited the TRAM and walked the block to the Embassy area. I walked along looking for the Saudi flag but could not find it. Luckily I stumbled on it after about 5 minutes. I rang the bell and waited. A tall man in a business suit opened the door and asked if he could help me. I explained my circumstances and he told me to have a seat in the waiting area as the Embassy personnel would not be available until 9:00.

I took a seat and waited for no more than 5 minutes when another man walks in and asks me why I am there. Again I explained and told him and he said I would have to come back in a couple of hours because the Consulate would not be available until then. I thanked him looked at my watch and headed out the door. I pondered whether to head back to the TRAM station or walk the 5 or 6 blocks, I chose the later. It was cool and breezy and the brisk walk soon led to a very warm and getting sweaty feeling. I unzipped my jacket and continued my trek towards the direction of the hotel. The time went quickly and I found myself back in my room in no more than 10 minutes. As I opened my Laptop to see if I had any news, there was an email from one of the guys at the site that new of the Passport agency that could help. I rang their phone once again explained and she said I need to bring my Passport to their office so they could look at it. Amazingly their office was one block from the Embassy where I had just walked from so I threw my jacket back on and headed back. Again the walk was quick and I found the building with no problem. I got off the elevator on the 4th floor and again went through the entire process of why I was there starting with my experience in Houston. They listened intently and then responded with, it will probably impossible to do because my company was not located in Holland and I had to have this and that and there was really no way to get it. My option was to return to Houston or maybe I could go to the U.A.E. and see if they could process it there. I again thanked them and headed back to the hotel to call the site and give them my news.

I reached my boss on the phone as the HR manager was unavailable. We briefly spoke and I explained the options and he was ready for me to just head back to Houston but he wanted to go check with HR before he made the decision. I could already see myself back on the plane headed back, 10 more hours in the plane and arriving to a puzzled Diane. He handed the cell phone to the HR manager and I explained the options. He said give him 30 minutes and he would check with Dubai to see if they could actually do this. By this time I am crossing my fingers because I really wanted to get back at least close to the Saudi time zone so I could work. After 30 minutes he sent me an email and said book your flight Dubai says they can do it. Well that was good enough for me I immediately got KLM on the phone to get my last leg routed to Dubai instead of Saudi. After going through the automated garb I finally spoke to a real person. She informed me that the flight was booked by Continental and they could not change the ticket I would have to call Continental. I hung up and called Continental and began all over again. After 10 or 15 minutes we worked it out and it cost a lot but I had a ticket. I packed my remaining items and headed back to the TRAM station to get back to the Train station to head back to the airport. The walk was short the TRAM arrived about 5 minutes later and we were at the Train station in 5 more. I hopped off, grabbed my stuff and headed to the boards to see what time the Train left. Luckily I was 5 minutes away from pulling out so I jumped on board and we took off. The ride was 25 minutes with one stop and I was back where I started the day before. As I got off the Train and headed back upstairs to the Departure hall, I thought about the last 12 hours and my experience. Not a lot accomplished but a nice side trip to a quaint little city with lots of history and charm. So this is where I am going to stop and you can catch the conclusion in the next edition………

Work, rest and the return…..? (Part One)

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 11:05:00 +0000

Well it was a very busy three weeks, the trip to Cincy was exciting and very busy. We left on Wednesday with all of our luggage, tools, and Kimber in tow. We arrived at the Airport with no excitement, parked the car at the lot and hopped the shuttle. We arrived in plenty of time after going through Security we stopped off at the bookstore to grab a novel so I would have something to read on the plane. When we got to the gate we sat down and waited maybe 15 minutes before they were calling our flight. As we boarded the plane, which was about 1/3 full, we all strapped in watched the safety briefing and we were on our way. The flight was very smooth and uneventful and we arrived in Cincy on time. We got off the plane and headed to get our bags, well at least we thought so. Since we had never been in Cincy before we followed the signs, right, well not really. After we had walked the full length of the runway to Terminal B we realized that Baggage claim was in the opposite direction. So we stopped for a potty break and then headed back the way we came. Since it was such a long walk, we opted to take the Train back. Sure enough we had walked right past the Baggage area. You feel kinda like you were a little foolish but I always follow the Baggage claim signs and must have missed it.

We collected our luggage which was coming off as we arrived and headed for the Avis bus. It was a short 5 minute ride but check-in took a little longer. We finally got our paperwork and waited outside for them to bring the vehicle around. It turned out there were two of the same Grand Prix and the guy in front of us got ours so they figured it all out and we were on our way to see Christopher. I had gotten Diane a GPS for Christmas and she just loves it, so she plugged “Mandy” in and she was instructing us how to get to our destination. Let me tell you if you don’t have a GPS it is well worth the investment. About 15 minutes later we were in downtown Cincy parking across the street from Christopher’s office. As we exited the car he was waiting across the street for us. He took us on the nickel tour of his fine establishment and then we headed to a rendezvous with Karen for lunch. The place was about two blocks from his office so we walked and arrived at a small Sports Bar which was serving Homemade Meatloaf for lunch. Karen arrived about 10 minutes later and the food had just gotten there.

Lunch was delicious and it was time to head out so we walked Karen back back to the car, she had to go back to work but Christopher had taken the rest of the day off and rode with us to his house. Once we arrived he gave us the grand tour of the house and showed us all the opportunities for the week. The house is one hundred and thirteen years old so you can imagine what lay ahead of us. We started planning on what needed to happen first or should I say what we wanted to tackle. We carried our things upstairs to the Penthouse where we would all be staying and unpacked our things and got our living accommodations in order. After we all loaded up in the Grand Prix and headed to the Depot and Meier a Wal-Mart like store. We picked up some necessary supplies and headed back to the house. Once we got there I started looking at the electrical situation and Diane and Kimber started taping the base boards and preparing things to paint. We determined what was what and where some things were going, and it was time for dinner. Tomorrow we would start getting things in order.

So the next day, I started pulling plugs out of the wall to try and figure out why the power to the Penthouse was not working. The first plug I pulled I found the culprit, there were burned wires in the outlet box. As I reviewed Christopher’s electrical map that he and Karen had made for me, I found a lot of plugs and lights on one circuit. Meanwhile Diane and Kimber began painting the Office upstairs. There were a lot of bad places in the plaster that had to be scrapped so that new could be installed before they painted. Three of the walls were doable so they started on those. By lunch time they had two of the three walls painted and I had made some more headway in finding wires. When Christopher and Karen got home we worked till around 9:30 or so and then retired for bed. Christopher took Friday off so we could try and get as much electrical identified and get what was required to replace and repair. We took another drive to the Depot and picked up a new panel, breakers, Romex, and other items we would need.

We worked diligently through the weekend, and after dropping Josh and Cassie off at the Airport on Sunday we accomplished a lot. The Parlor was finished with paint and new curtains, the Office was painted with exception to the outside wall which needed some plaster work, and the Hall was completed with paint. Christopher and I replaced the panel and the rest of the cables and were almost finished by the time we needed to leave for the Airport. Unfortunately not completely finished so I made an executive decision to delay our flight a day and Diane and Karen dropped Kimber off at the Airport for her flight home. Josh and Cassie graciously offered to pick her up so we could have the car when we returned the next day. On the way back from the Airport, the girls stopped by and picked up some great barbecue. When dinner was over we headed back to get as much as we could get completed because we had only about 5 hours on Wednesday before we had to be at the Airport.

So Wednesday was a flurry, we got up early, saw Christopher and Karen off and said our goodbyes once again. Diane set herself to strip the beds, straighten up the house, wash clothes, kept me in coffee, and even baked the kids some cookies, while I struggled to get everything else completed with the electrical. By about 1:00 I was finished had everything packed up and we headed to the Airport. Unfortunately we didn’t make it before the flight was loading so they booked us for the next flight. We decided to check our bags in early and find some food. As we rode the train to Terminal B we discussed the week’s events and were pleased with what we had accomplished. We feasted on Outback burgers and a salad and just relaxed since we had about two hours to kill. Did a little shopping and of course stopped by Starbucks and grabbed a quick coffee and headed to the gate. We waited about 30 minutes and the flight was on time. We boarded the plane and two and a half hours later we were back in Houston.

The rest of the time home was a flurry of activity. Candy and Griff threw a heck of a couples shower for Josh and Cassie at their house, Diane had to go back to work and on Tuesday we headed to the Moody Gardens Aquarium with the FBC Preschool. I had to get items to take back to Saudi, get fitted for a Tux for Josh and Cassie’s wedding, pay for labor and pad to replace bad carpet, and of course spend time with my lovely wife. As the end of rotation was here, Josh and
Cassie met us at The Deluxe Cafe for dinner with Bob and Dee Dee for her birthday and their anniversary. Afterward they took them back to their hotel and we stopped by Josh’s to pick them up and take them home with us as they were going to the Airport to drop me off. We made it home around 10’ish and all headed off to bed. The next day I got up and took the Passat to Discount to get a slow leak fixed. It took more time than I wanted and ended up with a new tire which was fine because Diane would be driving the VW while her car was being repaired. I made it home around 11 and tried to finish up all that I wanted to get finished and of course finish packing and grab a shower before the trip. By 1:30 we were in the car headed to meet Kimber for lunch at Lupe Tortillas. We all enjoyed the quick lunch and conversation before I had to say goodbye to Kimber. We had decided that on our way to the Airport, we would stop by and see the house that Josh and Cassie had made an offer for. They had found it in a subdivision close to Intercontinental called Falls Creek. It is a lovely house with lots of room and only a couple of years old.

As we hopped in the car to head to the Airport, I called mom and talked with her a little and caught up on the Cincy trip and the happenings in Abilene with the fam. Traffic was light so we made great time getting to the Airport. We unloaded and headed to check-in and the lines were short and we had about an hour and some change to spare. After a few minutes I told them they might as well go there was no point in them waiting I would just go chill and read my book. So we said our tearful goodbyes and they watched as went through security. One last wave and a blown kiss and I headed towards the gate and eventually my final destination? Yeah I don’t think so but that is for the next installment……

Almost time......

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Wed, 11 Feb 2009 06:12:00 +0000

Well it’s almost that time, 5 days and counting.

Well today started out with a bang, a major dust storm has blown in and we are all breathing heavy with the powdery stuff hanging in the air. Even when you walk down the halls in the building you can see the haze. It is expected in this part of the world so I guess you have to take the good with the bad, more of the later ;).

I don’t have a lot to report, we are still making progress on our IT projects, we have moved people in both new buildings now, the network is up and running in the new CMT building but the equipment still hasn’t arrived for the 2 Story. I got a call from the vendor yesterday and he told me that it would all be onsite no later than Thursday…. Inshalla. So of course IT is getting blamed for the equipment not being installed and the network not running. Oh well those who really matter know the truth.

So that’s about it for now, my flight departs here on the 16th and I am looking forward to heading home. I always dread the long flight but I will be there soon enough and that is what matters. Oh and a small update to the Cincy trip, Kimber is now going with us and Josh and Cassie are flying up for the weekend to help in all the fun activities. Christopher published a nice LONG list of things for us to do while we are there, looks like instead of 6 days we may be there for 6 months :). Just kidding Christopher I know you had enough of your family while you were growing up, we won’t disturb your adult hood with that much Kayos. Please be in prayer for our wonderful friends Candy and Griff, his mother has been in the hospital and Candy has been juggling the shower for Josh and Cassie while spending many a day and night with Oneita at the hospital. Diane said that they were bringing her home today and will be staying with her at her home while she recovers. These guys are too much they are such giving people and we love and cherish them as friends. Thanks Candy and Griff you are just very special people and very good friends.

Ok that’s all, I will get off and let you get back to whatever you were doing, hope everyone is doing great and that we see as many of you as possible while I am home, check out the new links I added.

Well it's about time......

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sun, 01 Feb 2009 13:59:00 +0000

Hello America this Paul Harvey, stand by for news….

Well it has been awhile since we’ve had a talk so I thought I would fill you in on what’s been happening here in the Sand Box.

About a month ago I decided to leave the quiet yet not so quiet confines of the Rezayat Compound. This was due to both of my rides, literally a vehicle, would be moving to the Western Park Compound. This nice western (as its named) atmosphere has only been open about 6 months. It was built with the Western Expat (Expatriate) in mind. Nice queen size bed, running water, dinning facility, full workout gym, swimming pool….. well you get the idea. Anyway the move was relatively easy, John (my boss) arrived back from his rotation in lovely cold and snowy Montana. He was on the ground two days and said, “if you’re moving we need to do it tomorrow”. Of course I was loathing the idea of packing all the “Stuff” I had brought with me but it was a necessity. So Tuesday night I started packing as much as I could in the three suitcases I had at my disposal.

Well time well spent, I had most of two suitcases packed up and ready to go by 2100 (oh that’s 9:00PM Military time). I neatly crammed them back in my closet so that it was not too apparent to the room boy the next day. Of course if he looked really hard he would see that most of my belongings were gone that had been neatly strewn around the room, doesn’t take a genius to figure out when a chicken is about to fly the coop :). Anyway we had decided that we would leave work the next day exactly at 1700 just to make sure we had plenty of time in case we had to make two trips. Both of us are pack rats and we had brought enough clothes to last us for at least three years and then some.

Well Wednesday came and the day flew by with high expectations of getting everything moved and unpacked before sleep hit. As we loaded up and headed to the Rezayat, we conversed about what to expect from our new abode. John and I were two of the first to check out the facility a few months back, we spent two nights there and ate like kings. Of course you know that always changes, they bait you with classy food, anything you want while you are here, on the house of course, and then it all changes once you really commit. John couldn’t wait for the food again, me I couldn’t wait for a super fast Internet where I could stream my Slingbox and watch my favorite shows….. NOT!!!!!!

We arrived at the Rezayat around 1730’ish and both went to our rooms to finish packing the small stuff loading up and movin’ on out. Well in less than an hour, we had all our stuff in suitcases, Panda (local grocery) bags, water boxes, etc packed, crammed, pushed, squeezed into every nook and cranny of the Trailblazer. I ended up with my hanging clothes and other loose items on my lap for the short 20 KM (12.43 miles) ride. We decided not to stop at the front desk and turn in our keys, mostly because we didn’t want the confrontation that we were leaving their fine facility and we would be missed, plus the fact that if we happened to have left something tucked away we forgot about we could easily go back and get it. We exited the large sliding iron gates, waved our goodbyes to the guards and were off.

The ride was quiet, I’m sure not because we were reminiscing about what we were leaving behind, but that both of us were out of breath, sweating because it was about 35 degrees outside and we were both in jackets. We arrived at our destination about 20 minutes later after we finagled how we were supposed to get there. It had been awhile for both of us and we finally realized where we needed to turn. The facility is off the main Dammam highway about ¼ mile between some old labor camps, truck parking lots, well parking dirt, and more dirt. The ride down what little pavement they had was bumpy, and for one to drive it they needed to be very cautious due to the influx of local India(n) and Filipino folks EVERYWHERE! We arrived safely at the “new” sliding iron gate and waited for them to allow us to enter. Immediately the gates opened and we told them we were there to check in. the Filipino Security Manager remembered us and waived and said “good evening sirs, welcome”. What a nice way to be greeted, we were both pleased with our entrance.

As we walked through the lobby doors, we were greeted again with “good evening sirs” another warm and cozy feeling, we both looked at each other and just grinned. The desk clerk asked how he could help us and John said we were from KBR. His face lit up and said, “oh you must be Mr. Young and Mr. Moorhead, we have been expecting you.” Wow what a welcome, we felt at home with a nice staff to support us as well. We both signed the document handed to us, told them we would bring our Passports back for them to scan later as they were packed away in our garb. He showed us on the map where we would be housed and that we would be met there to help unload our belongings. We piled back in the Trailblazer and drove a short distance to our building. As we got there we were met with smiling faces and open arms. What took John and I an hour to load, took all four of us less than 10 minutes to unload. That night I got mostly everything unpacked and in its place before 2100 and was ready to hit the bed. As I dressed and made my coffee for the next day, I was pleased that I had made the decision to come there, it was going to be a new experience but an enjoyable one. My head hit the pillow and I don’t remember anything until the alarm went off at 3:30 the next morning.

So now you know … the rest of the story.

Ok so my new address if you want to send cards and letters, packages, food, etc....

Mr. Stan Young
Western Park Residential & Business Complex
P.O. Box 448 - Room 5016
Al Jubail, Saudi Arabia 31951

So it’s about time for my next rotation, man time fly’s when you‘re having fun! Just 14 days 7 hours and 18 minutes, who me keep a Countdown clock, never ;). Anyway the plan is to fly home on February 16th, one good day to catch up on some sleep, then back in the air headed for Cincinnati to see Christopher and Karen. They have been having some electrical issues in their new place and he wants ole dad to come up and see if I can help him trace and replace some electrical wiring. So Diane and I are going to take a nice little air trip and see if we can help out. Should be a lot of fun and we are both looking forward to it. After that it is back to Texas City for another week and a half in time for Josh and Cassie’s couples shower/dinner at our amazing friends house Candy and Griff Temple. It should be another Grand event. As you well know from my “wedding” blog, Candy was instrumental in helping put Kimber’s wedding together with all the decorations and extravagance. Have I told you how wonderful Candy and Griff are? They are very special people and you are missing it if you don’t know them. So with the plans set and I am sure more Honey Do’s waiting for me, the three weeks will be very quick but hopefully relaxing and very enjoyable.

Around here, ah not too much to tell, pretty much the same ole same, day to day I.T. stuff. I guess one piece of good news is that we are finally making some headway on our new buildings. We should be able to start moving people in tomorrow to one of them and “if” the equipment gets in hopefully the other building next week. So I hope you are all having a great new year and things are moving ahead for you. Pray that this financial crisis will soon be over and we can rest easy. Hope to see you soon, take care and keep the light on for me.

P.S. for those of you that would like to see the new place, login to

Back in the Sand Box……

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Mon, 15 Dec 2008 10:56:00 +0000

Well it was an enjoyable three weeks at home, but it came to an end and I am back in Saudi. I will give you a brief overview of how everything went.

After the “snake bit” flight from hell, I was pleasantly welcomed home by my lovely wife. We took off for TC and the drive wasn’t bad. We arrived home and of course I was exhausted but was able to stay awake until bedtime. The “list” was waiting for me and let me tell you it was a doozy! Let’s just say I was not going to be bored while I was home.

Ok let’s do wedding shall we? The bees were buzzing madly with last minute touches and decisions on the great event of the year. Everyone was running last minute errands picking up this and that in anticipation of Sunday. Candy Temple was her usual, excited about the day and wanting to make sure everything went off without a hitch (this is an awesome woman)! Kimber was excited but you could tell she was feeling the pressure as the weatherman was predicting 40% chance of rain on Sunday. Things just kept moving right a long and it looked like it was going to be a grand event as everyone had been working so hard to make everything just perfect. Anyway we trotted right along all week and before we knew it, it was Saturday and the rehearsal. Well things became a little skewed as the place for the practice (League City Park) was inundated with wedding guests for a real live wedding in the Gazebo! What to do, well Kimber was getting a little frustrated and was more than anxious about it, but the Butler’s Courtyard wedding coordinator came through with flying colors! Gazebo, we don’t need no stink’in Gazebo, we will just use the Basketball court instead (LOL). Of course as we started gathering, the entire wedding party was still not there, I won’t mention any names, Christopher and Karen ;), but two of them were late leaving from dinner and Galveston.

It started as a festive event, all of us dressed in our Camouflage t-shirts that the bride was so thoughtful to get made for us, and let me tell you we looked “Great”! We decided to give our two late arrivals a few minutes and then decided we better get started because the sky didn’t look so great. Well we first all joined hands and Brother Grayson Glass (what a wonderful preacher) led us in a prayer. After, we were lined up on how we were supposed to stand, and how I was supposed to give her away, and so on then we did a walk through. About half way through the walk through, the two late arrivals showed up and profusely apologized for being late. No problems we continued on, filled them in on what was what and where were where and it was over. We all hopped in our cars and headed for Estebans’ Fiesta Room for the rehearsal dinner. Well it was a great night, great food, great conversation, just an all around great night and the end to a great day! Yes I can use great that many times so stop worrying about it ;). Everyone decided it was time to depart, the girls were heading to Tina’s for a sleep over so they could get up and get ready together, except for Cassie, she wanted to hang with mom and dad and make sure she got enough sleep. Meanwhile the guys all crashed at Jeremy’s place.

Back at the ranch (the Young Zoo really) we all got dressed for bed and watched a little television. The next day was set, the day would start early, decorating would begin at 10 am sharp, and we all needed to get a really good night sleep. Cassie turned in first, then the cat, then the dogs were all placed in their nice warm kennels, the coffee was prepared for the morning ritual, the doors were locked and the alarm was set. We departed for the bedroom and not more than 5 minutes after our heads hit the pillows were we fast asleep.

Sunday morning the skies were clear, the birds were singing, the dogs were barking and yes it was time to get out of bed and start the day. Usually Diane is out of bed first, but I beat her out and went and turned on the coffee. Eventually she stirred and dragged herself out of bed to also welcome the day. As she prepared to get ready to head to League City, I prepared us a nice breakfast. By the time we had finished, it was time for her to leave and I was on the phone with the bride, asking me to get Cassie over to Tina’s and oh by the way, can you stop at the dollar store and get me a bunch of hair thingy’s and some hair spray, only two or three cans should do it, “love you daddy bye”, click! Well Cassie was not expecting to go so early, she thought Kimber was going to do her hair at Butler’s Courtyard. She had just gotten out of the shower, her hair was still wet and she was still in her comfy clothes. As she hurried upstairs to get ready, Diane walked out the door, and I headed in to get a cup for the road.

Cassie and I loaded up and headed for the dollar store to procure the items Kimber needed. When we got there we found the hair thingy’s, the hair spray and went to pay for it. The lady at the checkout noticed our shirts and of course enquired, enquiring minds want to know, ya know. We thanked her for her blessing on the day and headed to Tina’s. I dropped Cassie off and was just heading to League City to help, when I got a frantic call from Diane. Two of the vases that were holding the table arrangements had broken not enough weight and she wanted me to stop by Wally world to see if I could find some clear marbles and some M&M’s for Candy. I pulled into a parking place and ran in. I was in and out within about 10 minutes which almost never happens, had two bags of different M&M’s and 8 bags of marbles. I was off once again to try and make it to League City before another phone call and another stop.

As I pulled into Butler’s Courtyard, I could see a flurry of family hauling tubs into the banquet room. The place was strewn with assorted flowers, ribbon, boxes, bags, candles, etc. I found Diane and Candy and asked what I could do. Diane started me off by un-wrapping the candles and setting them on plates. They were a big mess but successful in getting it done. By that time she said I needed to go place the order for sandwiches from Jason’s Deli before it got too late. So not more than 15 minutes on the ground and I was headed to Jason’s on Bay Area to get lunch. I arrived and ordered a couple of sandwich trays and he said it would
be about an hour, so I headed back to League City. As I arrived back I saw that the guys had shown up and the girls were on their way. I went to the Bachelor hang out and turned on the 60” big screen to see if the Cowboys were playing yet. They were just finishing up pre-game and it was time to head back to Jason’s and pick up the food. Everything went great food was delivered the girls were getting make-up on and just chillin, the guys were eating and watching the game. It was time for me to head home and get a quick shower and then back in time to walk my “precious” angel down the aisle. My work here was done and I scrambled into the VW and headed back to TC. On my entry into the house I was greeted by the lovely and wonderful Zoo, headed to the shower and was in and out in about 15 minutes. Diane had beaten me home and was just finishing up and ready to head back. I quickly dressed made sure things were in order around the house, locked the door, jumped in the car and headed back! I was just about to the highway when I realized I had forgotten my boots. So I turned around, raced in got my boots and was back on the road.

By this time it was close to three o’clock when the staff at Butler’s would be kicking the guys out of the Bachelor pad. I got there about 5 minutes after 3 and ran in to change into my Tux. Lacy was there taking pictures and helped me finagle the weird buttons, the tie. I finished up combed my hair grabbed my clothes and threw them in the car and was ready to go. I walked over to the Rose Cottage where the girls were just finishing up. Cassie and I started making some string cans for the truck when I realized that I had not charged the camera or the video camera. One thing led to another and it was time to get ready for the grand event. Kimber looked beautiful and the girls did as well. As the last of the guests were seated, we began right on time. I walked Diane down to the arbor, to light her candle and then placed her at her seat. I slowly walked back to the Rose Cottage to get the bride, carefully ascending the stairs as not to trip over my big feet. Once in place at the back of the line, the girls went out one by one until it was time. Kimber had a big surprise for a bride song and I said don’t spoil it I want to be surprised. As we walked out “At Last” started playing and it was very appropriate. As I stood there listening to Grayson talk, I thought about Kimber as she had grown from a child to a beautiful woman. Her day had come and Jeremy was the right guy I knew it in my heart. I lifted her veil, gave her a kiss handed her off to Jeremy and took my seat. The service lasted but a few minutes and it was all over. We took pictures, walked around and greeted the guests, had some great food from Red River Barbecue, danced, laughed and finished up the night blowing bubbles as they departed. As they drove off with cans in tow we all headed in to dismantle the event. With all of us working together we finished in no time, cleaning up all the areas and buttoning everything up. We got in the cars and headed for the house, the end to a great day and grand event.

Well the rest was a flurry we had vehicle problems again, so we drove the VW to Clear Lake and dropped off then headed to Abilene for Thanksgiving. We had a great time helping Cassie, Josh, Candy (Cassie’s mom) move all her furniture into storage. Thanksgiving day Cassie, her mom, and her sister joined the Young’s for lunch, some Uno and of course the Cowboys and Aggies! The trip back Diane and I stopped by San Marcus for a quick trip to the Outlet Mall and picked up some great deals. The rest of the week was getting the rest of the Honey Do’s nothing exciting about honey do lists so I won’t bore you with that, however I will tell you that I completed everyone except for one by the time I had to leave so it can be done, packed and ready to go back to the airport. Saturday was another of those “do you really have to go back” days and yes I told her it was imperative! We got there and I checked in while she parked the car and then I joined her on the roof of the parking garage for a lunch of Taco Bell. Thirty minutes later we were saying good bye at the gate, tears and all and I was on my way back and the snake bit trip wasn’t finished. A couple of days before I left I received a message from Travel that one of my flights had been cancelled and there was a change. When I arrived in Amsterdam I found out that they had changed the flight and no, they didn’t have me on the list. So they worked for what seemed like hours to finally get me and my bags re-routed through Bahrain. To top it all off I had computer problems when I went to check my email and I spent the entire 5 hours trying to diagnose it. At 1:30 Monday morning the adventure was over and I was back in my humble apartment. Sleep came easy but the frustration and experiences lingered for a couple of days. Anyway I am back and safe and working on cleaning up what was and wasn’t done while I was gone. Hope everyone has a great Christmas and I will see you in February.

Journey to Bliss......

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Thu, 27 Nov 2008 19:27:00 +0000

Well I should have known that eventually it would be more than an effort to get home, sure enough.....

I left the comforts of the Rezayat compound earlier than expected. I should have known then that the trip would be snake bit. My call out was scheduled for 10:30, I had just gotten out of the shower toweled off and had just put on my jeans. I had been chatting with Diane for a while and told her I had needed to jump in the shower before the car got there. No sooner than i had buttoned and zipped up, and there was a knock at the door. The driver was 30 minutes early, i told him I hadn't expected him he said no problem i will be outside waiting. Well I quickly said bye to Diane and finished getting dressed and was out the door not 15 minutes later. We made a quick stop by the front desk to drop off my key and instructions to let my boss in to retrieve some items left by our new Piping Engineer so he wouldn't have to carry them back when he mobilized.

The trip to the airport was uneventful, I had a hard time keeping my eyes open and eventually faded off. I awoke as we were going through the checkpoint at the airport and couldn't believe it had gone by so quickly. As we pulled up to the terminal, apprehension set in as i loathed the long flight. Well I was really lucky, so I thought, as i walked through the doors the line had already formed for the check in so I thought maybe it wouldn't be so bad. Unfortunately my luck changed when i reached the counter. As the attendant took my passport, he looked at the screen then turned to the supervisor on duty and all i could make out was Houston from his Arabic tongue. The supervisor came over and explained to me that the flight had been delayed until 6:00AM and it was now just 11:00PM. Great now what are my choices. So he explained that I could be moved to the flight at 10:45 once I got into Amsterdam but If I made it for that one I would have probably made it for my 9:30AM flight as well. Oh well I have had issues before i guess I can deal with this also. I grabbed my bags after I checked in and told them i would take my chances once I got to Amsterdam. I breezed through Security in less than 15 minutes and was walking to the gate. Once I got to the gate, I realized that I know had at least 6 hours before the flight was supposed to be here. I found a nice Hard bench and got comfortable for what seemed to be a long wait. Gradually I drifted off only to be awoken by the ring ring of the loud speaker and the announcement of another flight. This monotony continued on and off for about an hour. The next time I woke was about 1:30AM and the supervisor that had been at the check in was now moving amongst the few who had stretched out to invite them to the pavilion for a snack on KLM. So I scrambled up and got my belongings together and trudged towards Gate 20. Once I arrived I selected a delicious Tuna sandwich and a diet 7-up. after a quick couple of bites and a swallow or two of drink and I had collected myself and my things and headed back to the gate.

I finally drifted off to sleep and was awoken around 5:30 by the increase in conversation all around me. When I aroused, stretched and sat up, i was surrounded by hundreds of pilgrims making their way to Mecca. I stumbled getting up and made my way towards the Mens room to splash water and see if I could wake up. I made my way back to my belongings and once I had removed them from the seats i had occupied, the seats were snatched up and I was left standing literally holding the bags. They all just starred at me blankly as I looked at them in unbelief. Well unbeknown to me, the gate had also changed while I was in a slumber. I grabbed my things and headed to the new gate. Thankfully when i got there only a few were still in the queue for the flight. Around 6:00AM KLM landed and was at the gate, 15 minutes later we were boarding. As I sat there looking for an opportunity to steal a row of empty seats so i could lay down, they closed the door and we were taxiing to the runway. About 10 minutes later we were in the air for the 6 hours and 15 minutes. As I calculated I realized not only would I miss my confirmed flight but i would also miss the alternate as well. Oh well I would just deal with it when i get to Amsterdam. I reached into my bag for my Advil PM and realized that it was n the bag I checked. The next best thing was regular Advil so i popped a few and settled in for the flight. Luckily by the time the beverage cart came around, I was ready to sleep and once again was able to close my eyes and fall fast asleep.

One hour to touch down and we were woken with hot steamy towels, and the smell of coffee brewing. That is the hardest part to waking up, trying to keep your eyes open long enough to wake up because you continually want to doze. Once the coffee, tea and juice was served, we had the choice of an Omelet or pancakes. I chose the Omelet and coffee as usual and enjoyed the tasty delights. Also included was a small container of Blueberry Yogurt, and a small dish of fruit. Now it was a matter of getting the dirty dishes cleaned up and prepare the cabin for arrival. 40 minutes later we were making our approach and landed 5 minutes later. The trip to the terminal felt longer than the actual flight, stopping to cross a runway where a flight was landing or taking off, minutes crawled by. Finally at about 10:45 AM we rolled into the gate and departed the plane. First thing was head towards the KLM lounge to see if i could get another flight. Since the last leg of the flight was Continental, they made me walk out to the terminal where Continental was located. Sure enough when I got there they had a flight available about 2 and a half hours later at 1:30 which would put me into Houston approximately at 5:30PM. I confirmed my flight and got on the phone with Diane. She was half asleep so it took a couple of times to get her to understand. Once she had repeated it I was sure she had it down and told her to go back to sleep.

I headed back to the KLM lounge so i could get a glass of Grapefruit juice and a cup of coffee. As I sat there sipping my coffee, I realized that I still had about an hour before i had to be at the gate, so I finished up and headed to the Hotel Mercure for a quick shower. This is well worth the $20 as I could get clean and feel a little more refreshed before getting on the last leg of 8 hours. 30 minutes later I was refreshed and heading back to the Continental terminal. I got in line for the short security briefing, only in Amsterdam, and once through the x-ray I was ready to get on the plane. Well they were still in holding so i stood close to the gate and waited for the call. While I was standing there, I saw what looked to be Shawn Horan walking towards me. I said Shawn, he said Stan, I never know who I am going to see when i am traveling, I just laughed. I relayed my nights events and he just grinned and said yep International travel so much fun. We talked until they called Business and First, he had the luck of flying in Business, I was stuck in the back of the plane with the chickens and the goats. Anyway it wasn't long and they were calling for Priority passengers thankful I was amongst them. I found my seat and settled in for a long 8 hours of movies and music.

The flight was uneventful and I dozed more than usual but I survived the flight and we touched down 30 minutes early. Diane had just gotten in the terminal and Josh and Cassie were looking for a parking spot. We were going to eat after I got my bags so she called them and told them to go find a place to eat and we would meet them. The luggage came quickly and I was out and smiling at my lovely bride about 15 minutes later. We hugged and kissed and headed for the elevator. The rest of the story is pretty boring so i won't bore you with it, we made it to dinner at Chuy's which was pretty good and an uneventful drive home. We made it home before 9 and I was in bed by 10:30 ready for a good nights sleep.

That's about it for now, needless to say I was in for a treat with the upcoming week in preparation of Kimber's wedding. That in itself is another story........

Just another day....

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 16:36:00 +0000

Well it has been a few weeks so I will try and give you an update, probably boring to most, but just the same.

Well it has been a very interesting few weeks things have heated up at the site since we last spoke. We have installed a lot of steel and believe it or not (one of the boring parts) we actually got a piece of pie in a rack and the General contractor cracked a coconut. What you say a coconut? Yes that is correct it seems to be an Indian (India) tradition that once a milestone is reached, they crack a coconut to celebrate. I was not present for this festive tradition but from what I can understand is that they crack it open somehow against one of the beams, the concrete wherever. Also the Client Sabic has a contest ongoing for all the companies working on site, see just how safe they can be. There is a long list of things that you are graded on every month. This includes, tying off with a safety harness when you are more that 6 feet above ground, housekeeping which is keeping your areas clean of clutter and all your materials in neat order, no accidents or near misses, well you get the idea. Anyway KBR has won the coveted Green Flag award three times and we were issued the ever coveted Gold Flag this week. A celebration of raising the flag was performed, again which I didn't get to attend, but was said to be an awesome site. The safety manager was ecstatic and was proud of his safety team and all KBR'ers.

Ok so enough of that boring stuff. My job has been quite stressful for the last few weeks. A Saudi contractor is building a 2-story building down at the Superintendent area at the end of our plot we are building. It is very involved and the contractor made excuses for nearly three months when he was supposed to be on site. Finally they started the job and he is running a 24 hour shift and expects to have it finished around the 27th of November. Well all along I have been waiting for someone to tell me what the I.T. plan looked like and I never got it. Now they are saying I.T. is going to hold them up so guess what, yep you probably guessed I have been running crazy trying to get designs, configurations, material, etc. In the past three days I have been to the building 6 times taking measurements, laying out the plan on the floor and surfing the Internet looking for part numbers etc. Meanwhile my support group out of Dubai has been anything but helpful and has basically said you are on your own, good luck. Hmmm support group what does that mean again, S U P P O R T? Needless to say it has been fast and furious. I have been working long hours, trying to get at least 7 hours sleep a night and in between trying to eat healthy. The later is a joke because there isn't much that’s healthy here so I have just been doing portion control.

So only 9 days left and I will be on that lovely LONG flight back to the US to attend Kimberly's wedding. I think I have some part in it but I am not real sure what it is (grin). Not looking forward to the long wait in the airport in Dammam and the long line to get your passport stamped. Last trip, I might have mentioned this sorry if I did, I waited an hour and a half with 10 people in front of me. Wow if you’re Saudi then you just wave at your bud stamping the passports and he moves you to the front of the line. Hmmm maybe if I could make friends with one of them that would work for me too.......Naaaa. So while you lovely people will be sleeping on the 17th I will be flying to Amsterdam, then to Houston. At least I should be in at a decent hour and knock on wood no IKE's looming in the Gulf! It really is an imposition to fly from here because you basically have to get to the airport about three hours before your flight, sit in a very large room and wait for them to open your flight to check in, then the passport line, then another long wait in the terminal and finally you get to board the plane at 12:00AM if your plane is on time. Too much fun let me tell you because in Saudi there is NOTHING to do but sit and look out the window. Most of the time there is no one going out the same time so you don't even have anyone to talk to.

Ok well I think I have bored you enough this time around, I will try and give you some more juicy details when I get a breather from the 2-story. Oh did I mention that I have three other projects waiting for me to basically do the same thing when I get back? No probably not, but I do. Two Fiber cable pulls, termination and testing, a new building we are taking over so we will have to test all over a 100 "unmarked" cables to see where they go, and on, and on. Plus the fact that we still have a very slow satellite network at the warehouse which we commissioned over three weeks ago and it is still unstable. And of course I have the Fab Shop in Dammam that we still have to get up and working before I leave so cram all that into 9 days and what do you get?

Ok that’s it I won't go on anymore, promise! Hope every one is doing good and staying healthy, we'll see you in a couple of weeks.

Just Another Week

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 02:08:00 +0000

Well it has been a few weeks so here is what has been happening. Nothing........
Yep you guessed it there really haven’t been any highlights to share or excitement here in the Kingdom. It is the normal everyday run of the mill. We did hire a new I.T. guy he is a local and he seems to know quite a bit but we are teaching him some things. The Saudi’s tend to embellish their Resume's just a tad if you catch my drift.

Looking forward to getting to come home in November for Kimberly's wedding and enjoy Thanksgiving with the family. We are planning a trip to Abilene and Cassie's mom, sister and aunt were invited as Lee will be away. We are hoping they will accept so we can experience our first family Thanksgiving together, well not all of the family but close. Right now our plans are to do all the cooking so Grammy can relax. Josh of course will cook his delicious Turkey and Diane, Cassie and I will make all the side dishes. As usual I am sure Grammy will make some of her wonderful pies, Mincemeat, Buttermilk, Rhubarb, and of course everyone's favorite Pecan. If Diane is sweet to her she might even make a Cheese Cake (Jeremy you will have to fight her for it).

I guess I can tell you that “my” work has increased quite a bit. We have made some small successes but not a lot. When I first got here I was asked to get communications to the warehouse and Fab Shop which are off site. The warehouse is down the road about 8 kilometers which is about 5 miles, and the Fab Shop is about 72 kilometers or 45 miles. There are no utilities so we have to survive on generator power and cell phones. With this kind of configuration the guys who really take care of checking everything in, log what is missing, check quantities, etc had to sit in our office here because that is where the network is located. The idea was to have them on their own Satellites so they could tie back into our network and access their data. Well after three and a half months we finally got the warehouse up and running. We went back and forth on design and other and I stopped a big expensive no-no from happening. What could have been a disaster turned out ok with just a few problems. The Fab Shop is coming along and we should (cross your fingers and say a prayer) have it up and running before I leave the 17th.

I also was tasked with identifying every single cell phone we have ever bought and issued. We had gone back to our client to get more phones because we had run out. They are paying the bills so we had to get their approval first before we could order them. Well let me tell you, I opened a big can of worms and am paying for it. Now I didn't do this on purpose I was just merely ordering more phones. I took over the phones after I got here and setup my system that I used in Kuwait and Iraq which worked great. I had no clue that what was ordered and issued before hand, was not signed for so no one knew who had what unless it just happened to be in their phone. So I set out to correct it and let me tell you........

Anyway we are accomplishing and moving forward daily with small baby steps. By the time we finish the project we should have issued approximately three or four hundred computers and probably close to 150 cell phones. Doesn't sound like a lot but let me tell you, in the Kingdom and this project that is a lot. Hope everyone is doing great and looking forward to the holidays, I still can’t believe it is almost here already. I will be spending Christmas in Saudi this year so you can all just send me my presents ahead of time so I will have them for Thanksgiving (grin)! Anyway keep us in your prayers and especially Diane and Kimberly as they make the final preparations for the wedding. It has been fun I can tell you because I get coming and going. Stay safe and don’t let the goblins in the end of the month, oh and tell Kimber Happy Birthday when you see her, she turns the big 20 this year. Love to all…….

About time....

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 06:19:00 +0000

Well I guess it is about time I gave you another update. It has been a month or so and I have not been very faithful but I will try to do better......promise.

My first rotation couldn't have come at a worst time, the day after Ike hit I flew from Dammam to Amsterdam and then re-routed through Dallas. After a short layover in Dallas and a quick trip to Love Field, Josh and Diane met me at Intercontinental airport. I retrieved my bags and my lovely wife gave me a nice welcome home kiss and hug, we were loaded into Josh's truck headed to find some food. Luckily for me, the Saltgrass on 59 North was open and serving a full menu. We had a nice quick meal and then headed to Josh's apartment where Diane, Kimberly, nine dogs, and one cat took up residency during the storm.

News, news, and more news as I caught up on the happenings around Houston and the Galveston area. Unbelievable the destruction that storm did, taking out the Historic Balinese Room and other eating establishments along the seawall. As I sat and watch Channel 2 news I was amazed at what I was seeing as Frank Billingsley gave us tours from air, car and on foot. After a very restful sleep on my air mattress, and taking all the dogs for their morning walk,we all showered and got dressed. We loaded up the car with supplies and food to endure a day in the sun in TC. Josh and Diane had gone there on Sunday to check out any damage and fortunately we were spared. In all I think Texas City was probably spared the most thanks to our 22 foot levee system that surrounds the city. The storm water pumps did what they were designed to do and Moses Lake gate held back the storm surge. Eye witness encounters during the storm, have the water lapping over the gate and levee's but no flooding occurred. So off we went with no problems in traveling the short 45 minutes. Many billboards were blown down, massive amounts of glass rained down on Houston's downtown, and the number of trees, power lines, phone and cable lines could be seen hanging in threads was astronomical.

When we arrived the power was still off and I assessed the damage myself. Both fridge's were definitely going to need to be cleaned out but not bad, the freezer was in the worst shape as it was completely thawed and had begun to smell just a little. Lost a lot of limbs on the Arizona Ash in the back yard and the big Pecan tree, could see shingles missing here and there and part of the fence down between us and the Horan's. All in all not a lot but plenty to clean up. We donned our mosquito spray, gloves, safety glasses and old tennis shoes and started to work. Kimberly and a few of her church friends had started clearing some of the tree debris on Monday and had quite a bit already on the curb. I fired up the chainsaw and started whittling away at the pile of branches. As I cut Diane, Josh and Kimberly dragged it to the front yard making the stack grow by the minute. It took about an hour and a half to cut through the piles of Ash and Pecan but when I got finished I had a nice pile of firewood that needed to be cut in smaller pieces.

Kimberly and I took a break to go deliver some items and check on some friends houses as well as pick up some lunch at Wendy's. We checked out Mom and Pop's house, the church, Griff Temple's moms house, Sue and Ed's house and then the Texas City Dike. It was an unbelievable site, nothing was there but pier posts and power line poles leaned over. What was once a hot spot of bait camps, and some small restaurants, a lighted fishing pier at the very end was now gone completely washed or blown away. As we stood there and looked at the solitude I was in fear of what laid ahead for Texas City to rebuild or not. As many others were also there to see what was left, we each took our turn to turn around and head away from the destruction.

The rest of the day Kimberly and I began digging up the fence post that was broken during the storm. We replaced and poured concrete in that one and went to the other side of the yard and dug two more for new posts. The rest of the day was making lists for Lowe's of items that were required for the continuing clean up, fence materials, cleaning supplies, etc. After reviewing what we had accomplished that day, we were all exhausted and headed back to Josh's apartment. The welcome of the dogs was heard way before Josh stuck his key in the door, as they were ready to be let out for their well needed walk. On our way home we had stopped and picked up some Chinese so we had a quick dinner and then hit the showers. It felt good to get all of the grunge off our bodies and climb into a nice comfortable bed. Sleep came quickly as we lay there watching more news about the storm and the aftermath.

On Wednesday we loaded up all the dogs and headed for Texas City. Today they would all be bathed and groomed. Stephanie our groomer was back in operation and was willing to help us with the cause. Normally the dogs get groomed once a month with exception of a couple, but all were at least going for a bath and they needed them. After dropping them off, we headed back to the house and then to Lowe's. We stood in line for about 30 minutes as they were only letting about 5 people at a time go in. Once we got in, we got the much needed supplies, which included an Ike Extension ladder, an Ike Dewalt circular saw, and an Ike Power Tree Trimmer. We loaded up the truck with everything and headed back to the house to begin another days workload.

After putting together the new wood pile holder, Kimberly and I began putting fence together. It went pretty smooth and we were just adding the last new fence boards when Carl showed up with his crew. Carl is an interesting fella, he had four, well three men and a boy and wanted to know if I wanted the trees topped in the back yard. I told him that Diane had wanted someone to top them and he gave me a price. We discussed it and he said they would get started. Well let me tell you they were cutting branches left and right, cutting up pieces for Diane's new wood stack and then hauling the rest to the street. He also gave me a price on replacing shingles and I said he could do that the next day. All in all I came out ahead as my deductible was around $3200 and there was no way that we had that much damage. Kimberly was a great help and as we were starting to work on the fence on the other side of the yard, the power came back on. Unbelievable that it had only been off 5 days and we were back in business, the rest of Houston and surrounding area was still in the dark, thanks Texas New Mexico!

Well to make a long story short, we left Josh's apartment the next morning after Diane had woken up with the dogs thinking it was around 6 and it was really around 3:30. We all loaded up the vehicles thanked Josh for his hospitality (since we were being evicted by his apartment management anyway) and headed back to TC. We cleaned as much up as possible and then we had company for a week. Anne and Allan Brasier, Christopher's in-laws moved in with Tucker their dog and two cats. Kimberly and I helped them clean up their mess in Galveston as they got nearly 12 feet of water in their house which annihilated the bottom floor including Anne's car. After cleaning up as much debris as possible, we installed new Sheetrock, hung a new front door and two interior doors so the house could be secure. After a week they moved back in with gas and water but no electricity. Their power is now on and they are getting back to some sense of normalcy. We enjoyed being able to get to know them and Kimberly and I had a great time working with them to restore their lives. Galveston is just unbelievable, the destruction is nothing like what they showed on TV it is much worse. The debris on every street corner, the destruction of the Strand and its shops, and the brown vegetation and the smell will not be forgotten for a very long time.

Now I am back in Saudi doing my day to day necessities and planning for the long awaited marriage of my lovely daughter in November. It is said that it will be the event of the season as Candy Temple, well known designer and extraordinaire is helping her with getting all the pretties made and ready. Hope everyone else survived the storm as well as we did and that it is the last for a very long time. Take care to all and I hope to see you around or at the big event!

Whats been going on

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:43:00 +0000

Well hello to all it has been awhile since I posted so I thought I would try and catch you up. The project is moving right along, we are behind schedule but with all the issues we have had to deal with it is amazing that we are this far along. Anyway enough about the project.

Well as you well know by now I didn't make it back home to see Josh graduate. I had a long father son talk and he assured me that he was grown up and it was ok he understood that things happen out of our control. He had a great day and really a great weekend. First he walked and got his Diploma, congratulations Josh for earning your degree in Construction Science I am very proud of you! Next it was also his birthday that weekend so while Cassie's parents were up they celebrated with Josh and the rest.

Now for the big surprise! For months Josh and Diane have been growing a pleather of plants, some of which are Cassie's favorites and some she wants in her future wedding with Joshua Stanley Young (giggle) that's another story. So on Saturday while Cassie was out shopping with her folks, Josh, Diane, Kimberly, Lacy (the photographer), and Cassie's sister Melinda and Cassie's best friend, were on the campus of Texas A&M, Whoop, decorating the Century Tree. It went off without a hitch, Cassie had no idea what lay in store for her when her and Josh went to the campus to take some pictures for her graduation announcement. After scrimping and saving for months, and finally coercing her to take a few pictures by someones decorated area, Josh proposed to Cassie under the Century Tree. I will now have a fantastic new daughter in-law to go with my other fantastic daughter in-law in Cincinnati and of course my favorite daughter ;). Check out the continuing wedding plans being made and their Blogs at http://joshandcassie.com/.

Well I have been here now going on two months. I have endured well considering the long days and long nights. I get to come home two weeks early leaving this Monday early morning because I will be coming back for Kimberly's wedding in November. We have been able to take a couple of trips over to Bahrain and check it out, it is about an hour and a half there but getting there is another story in itself. The customs lines in and out are a nightmare and the first time we went it took us nearly 3 hours just to get across the causeway which is only about 8 miles. Below are a couple of photos from my hotel room.

This is the bay looking out my window towards the North West. The hotel is one that has been re-done in the past two years and it is called The Pars International. It is relatively nice but very loud in the evening so it was a little difficult to get some sleep do to all of the partying that goes on in the two night clubs located a couple of floors below me. Bahrain has been tagged a smaller version of Dubai, which has been extremely westernized. The Muslim faith is still practiced but not in the extreme way that it is in other parts of the Middle East and Southeastern Asia area.

This is the same view at night which you can see it is sill hazy. This is the way it is nearly everyday sometimes even thicker. We survive since most of the time we are in a car or in side the office building which keeps us out of the elements. What I didn't get a picture of was the Grand Mosque which from the outside is a really awe in itself. The grounds are immaculate and the building looks like it is maintained quite well. I will try and get pictures of it next time we decide to take a trip that way.

Of course right now we are in the middle of Ramadan which is the month long holiday. Things change around here and sometimes it is hard to get things you need because the stores are closed. During the day it doesn't seem to be a big problem however in the evening which is the only time we get to shop, the stores are closed. They usually close around 4 to 5 and then open back up and stay open to wee early in the morning. If you don't know much about this holiday, you should really go on Wikipedia and read up on it. http://wikipedia.com/.

Last week I made a trip to Dubai to meet with our KBR staff in the Service Delivery Center there. It was a very productive week and we will see if it actually changes anything. We have been experiencing a lot of Network issues that are beyond my control, so I was making my case for some help and only time will tell now.

This was the first time I had flown out of Bahrain so that was an interesting trip. It seems that even when you fly in the Middle East you must show up to the airport at least and hour and a half before your flight. Unfortunately the trip was quick with no lines at the border so I arrived
4 hours early. Needless to say I sat for what seemed like a lifetime. When the gate finally opened up there was more to see and do once through security. I walked around for quite awhile browsing through the local culture and keepsakes finding none that tickled my fancy. Bored I went to the gate and sat down to log in and check mail. Still time crawled by, the flight was late and I just endured as required. We finally boarded the plane about 30 minutes late and before we knew it we were in the air. The flight was less than an hour so service was quick, in a box snack and then we were on the ground again. If you have never been overseas you can't understand what a nightmare of lines you must endure to get through customs. This time my time in line was somewhat shorter and i was at baggage withing about 30 minutes. They appeared to have issues with the baggage track so we waited nearly an hour for our bags. When they did come out, they were being pushed on airport push carts stacked haphazardly. at least it was over and chalk up another stamp in the old Passport.

I know that all of you are more than likely on the road as I type this, making your escape from the danger from Ike. I hope that each of you were safe in your travels and your houses are ok. I will see as many as I can while I am home, if I have a home to go back to.

Another Adventure of Flat Stan

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 07:50:00 +0000

On Friday, August 8, 2008, Flat Stan's young son, Flat Josh, graduated from Texas A&M University WHOOOP! Flat Stan was unable to attend due to a minor HR glitch (hmm) preventing his travel - however he was lucky enough to receive a special gift from his friend Kathy Dvorak who DID attend in person for her daughter's graduation!

Here in the picture is Flat Stan reviewing the A&M graduation ceremony program, congratulations to all the graduates!!!

Week Three

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 12:22:00 +0000

Well it will have been three weeks this Sunday when I left the United States. So far we have had pretty decent weather here a couple of days of really bad sand storms but tolerable. Mostly we just have a haze which is the sand kicked up in the lower atmosphere. Imagine powder, like talcum powder, that is pretty much what the sand is like here. As in Kuwait they can't build with it so it is pretty worthless for anything.

Had a couple of more trips out into the city of Al Jubail, and to Al Khobar which is about an hour and a half trip. John was going to be late one night and said I should try and catch a ride. I went into the HR office and asked Robert the HR manager if I could catch a ride. He said sure but he had to stop at the book store for a few videos if that was ok. Well of course I am not going to turn down a trip to the store so we planned on 5 sharp.

As I packed up to get ready, Robert came by and asked if I was ready, I told him I was shutting down my computer and would meet him at the front door. I finished up, stowed my Laptop in my Piper Gear Bugout bag and was off. We hopped into the SUV and were off. As we exited the refinery gate, we turned left onto the road narrowly missing a sideswipe by a 16 wheeler, whew that was close. As we tooled down the road, he said he wasn't sure if he remembered how to get there. I had been there once, well close anyway and I said, "I think you turn right, then left, then right, then left, then right again". He said, " hmmm I don't remember that but we'll find it, no worries". Robert is married to an Iraqi that he met when he was working in Iraq with Parson's. She is an Engineer who graduated from the University of Baghdad. Once they got married she moved t0 the US and now works for us.

We made the first two turns ok and then we were in trouble. As we went straight instead of turning again, we drove for about 5 minutes until we saw the highway ahead. I said I didn't think this was right because we should see an overpass ahead. He said I was right and turned around. We made our way back to the road we turned on and turned right and went to the next light. He took another right and we were back on another road that was not the correct one. It was becoming comical and so he turned in a residential area to try and cut across. Well in this part of the world, there is usually only one way in and one way out. Yep you guessed it we had to turn around again. Back on the main highway, we went back to the light turned right and finally ended up where we were supposed to be.

We made it to the Book store and went in. He was looking for a few new release video's. They really didn't have anything new since he had been there before so we just browsed. This was like walking into a Best Buy with books, electronics everywhere. Some had pretty good prices but mostly just about the same or a little more than home. We milled around for about 20 minutes and he finally said lets go. I told him I needed to pick up a couple of things at the grocery store since we were right there and he said I do too. So we walked around the inside of the "mall", not like a real mall, and went into the Panda. It is like walking into a Kroger or a Randall's. Wow what a difference compared to the Giant. Anyway we shopped for about 20 minutes and had to check out because it was prayer time again. We took our things to the checkout and we were on the move again in less than 10 minutes.

Back at camp it was just enough time to get a bite to eat and settle in for the night. Since I have been getting up at 3:30 every morning to go to work, I need to be in bed as close to 8 as I can. So it was get ready for bed, chat with Diane for a few minutes and then head off. More to come on the trip to Khobar tomorrow.......

After a week

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:44:00 +0000

Well it has been just a little over a week now. I have managed to sleep the whole time I have been here so that is good. International travel can be a killer so I just try and manage the best I can usually, so you might imagine I am elated!

The week started out in Saturday, with an early wake up at 3:30. I decided that since my boss can get up and go in, so could I. I just adjusted my schedule, what else did I have to do. Out of bed and into the shower, a semi cold shower, shaved, dressed, and heading out the door just a tad before 4am. Just a short walk across the street and wait for the dinning hall to open at 4:15. About 5 or 6 of sit there and wait, mostly KBR Management a few stragglers from other companies. Finally the door opens, we file in and get in the line. At this time of morning it is pretty much help yourself. A quick grab for a piece of hot wheat or white toast, maybe some scrambled eggs, beef sausage or beef bacon, French toast, or an omelet to order or pancakes, some baked beans, potatoes, Yogurt, oatmeal, assorted cereals, jellies, peanut butter, assorted juices and coffee.

The guys don't take long to eat, amazes me that they aren't getting indigestion (might be) from eating so fast. Once they hit the table they are back up in less than 10 minutes headed out the door. I am just finishing spreading butter and jam on my bread and peppering my taters and eggs. John is a patient boss, he tries his hardest to eat slow and wait on me, I do like to enjoy my food. I try to enjoy and eat fast enough, but no sooner than I drink my last swallow of Grapefruit juice he is saying you ready to go? So we get up, I stop by the coffee Urn for a quick warm up, grab our bagged lunch we signed up for the night before and we are piling in the SUV.

The drive takes us about 30 to 45 minutes everyday, one day a huge wreck happened in front of us, absolutely obliterated the front end of a dump truck who had slammed in to the back of a crane. Like Kuwait the wrecks are unbelievable, total destruction of man and metal. Once off the main highway, we meander through the well paved side roads towards the refinery. There are three cross roads between the main highway and the entrance, two have traffic lights one a stop sign. Arabs are pretty respectful of the traffic lights, but not so much the stop signs. We are good up to the stop sign and we have to be very cautious, not that we aren't at every intersection, but especially at that one. We make it through daily without incident which is a relief to both of us. No one wants to be a traffic statistic especially over seas.

As we approach the gate, we get out our credentials just in case we are asked for them. Most of the guards recognize you after a few days so it is just a habit. A couple of short turns and we are driving up to the complex. Once in the day begins. I start up my computer and while it is booting, I go to the kitchen and wash out my MiGO, a wonderful desk coffee mug my son and my new daughter in-law got me for Father's Day. I throw in a couple of teaspoons full of Nescafe Gold and some hot water out of the water cooler. Back in my office, which I share with Ardie my right hand, and log in to the server. For the first two days, it was quite a chore waiting for my computer to log into Houston but since we had my account moved here it is very quick. Check email and look at the To Do list and my day starts.

Not a lot of excitement I know but that is my day at work. We usually eat between 11 and 12 depending on what you are working on, and most of the time it is at your desk while you continue to work. Now and then I can catch a quick 15 minute nap of watch a few minutes of TIVO from my Sling connection, but most of the time it is continue with my huge list.

The drive home is about the same unless we need to stop of at the store or somewhere else. Once we are past the security check point and in the gate, we park and go in for some dinner. Usually John will get his food to take back to his room but I like to hang out and chat with some of the guys because I know the only thing I have left is go back to the room, change and chat with Diane for a few minutes and them back under the sheets around 8:30. There are a few things to do here, they have a small gym, a swimming pool, billiards and snooker. The library is lacking, mostly Korean and other novels that only English ones I saw were romance, go figure! That's about it, I will try and make life more interesting for you once I get in the swing. I hope you are all well and enjoying the well needed rain. I also hope you are enjoying the Adventures of Flat Stan. All for now.....

Another Flat Stan adventure

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 07:12:00 +0000

After drinking some coffee

Flat Stan was a little anxious today as some major events were planned (i.e. getting a badge, and free food). Awaiting the arrival of Security, early bird Flat Stan paced the counter in the lobby of Bldg. 3. After dancing around, Flat Stan realized he had yet to get any breakfast. He saw Lance headed to get breakfast and hitched a ride. Upon arrival at the cafeteria, Flat Stan wanted something from the breakfast bar.

After touring the bar and nearly falling in the pot of oatmeal, Flat Stan lost his appetite. Lance continued to get something from the grill while Flat Stan gabbed with Robert.

Finally, Flat Stan finished wrapping with the cashier and we headed back.

Upon entering Bldg. 3, Security spotted Flat Stan without a badge and it almost got ugly. Flat Stan jumped on the counter and requested a visitor’s badge, and I reluctantly agreed to sponsor him. After Security verified some information, they took several photos (per his request,

something about the lighting).

Flat Stan started growing impatient while waiting on his badge to print and he tried to expedite (aka escalate) the process, and he had no luck with that. In the interim, Flat Stan slipped out his flatberry and started reading some flatmail. Finally, the badge was printed and back upstairs we went.

For lunch, Flat Stan had a team luncheon to attend for the 20th anniversary of Barbara Chisholm where fajitas were served. Flat Stan perched in the front of the room,

while the team lost weight waiting on the delivery of Aramark’s famous fajitas. The team shared stories of Barbara while Flat Stan continued to sit, smile, and be quite! Before ending the luncheon, Flat Stan requested a photo with Barbara and her big prize. As both prepped their hair, the cameras were getting ready and snap.

Barbara finally opened her gift and what happened next was caught as well.

She was overwhelmed with excitement (I think thats what they call that).

Until next time……….

A funny from my old group

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Wed, 23 Jul 2008 14:42:00 +0000

Many of you may of heard about a project that a professor created in 1995 called Flat Stanley. The project was created to improve literacy and develop community and has been a great success. Anyway you can read all about it as it is becoming a sad story for the professor. Well my former colleagues at KBR developed Flat Stan. To me it was a real honor first because I knew nothing about the Flat Stanley project, I just thought they missed me, and also becuase it was just a neat idea. Well I shared the email with Diane and she got a kick out of it and I told her I should share it with you. So here it is, I hope you enjoy it as much as we did.

Out to Jax Grill – Flat Stan accompanies some team members for an offsite lunch at Jax Grill.
While enjoying the adventurous drive with Barbara,
Flat Stan questions…Where are her shoes? Of course, we made it there safely. While eating our lunch, Flat Stan was in the middle of every conversation, tried grab Ed’s buffalo burger, tried to get some of Barbara’s salsa,
and eventually just kept his eyes on the crowd. Watching the team leave the table, Flat Stan wanted to yell, but was relieved when Lance quickly returned and saved Flat Stan from dish duty. Upon returning to KBR, Flat Stan stayed out of view of Security, as he has no employee badge for site entry. Barbara kindly dropped everyone off at the building so Flat Stan did not get too hot from a long walk.

Until next time…….

A Day of Rest

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Sun, 20 Jul 2008 03:09:00 +0000

Well Friday came and I didn't budge an inch when my body clock went off. I was comfy and I was not about to get up so I just drifted back off to sleep. The good thing about here as opposed to Iraq is that we actually get a day to sleep in. I lay in bed most of the time asleep, until almost 11:00 when lunch was supposed to be served. I finally drug out of bed and got dressed and wandered across the street. The dinning hall was supposed to open at 11:00, but it wasn’t so I sat down outside the door and waited. Many nationalities are here, Korean, Japanese, Nepal, and Philippines, British, Aussie, US, so it was fun to watch and listen to the different cultures talking to each other. I caught myself dosing off about the time I saw the Manager walking to unlock the door.

Once inside the dimly lit room, the line had begun to grow already. They always have a soup, two or three entrees and a couple of vegetables, freedom fries of course, a couple of sauces and then 3 or 4 different salads. They do have a Korean dish they serve also and they seem to enjoy it everyday. I haven’t gotten up the nerve to try the Kemchee because I was spoiled in Korea and I don’t want to be disappointed. I selected the barbecue chicken some freedom fries and a salad with French dressing. I topped it off with a couple of glasses of iced tea, not as good as I make, but it will do. I took my time and listened to all the sounds in the room, the Korean slurping their soup and noodles, the Brits enjoying a good laugh with their meal. The chicken wasn’t half bad and I pretty much finished it all.

Back to the room and log in for a good chat wit the little woman. I beat her to it because she was still asleep. It was about 12:45 my time which was 4:45am for her. I worked on my Blog some and found myself dosing again. I left her a message in case she got up before I was back and told her to buzz me. Well I had no more lay down and closed my eyes when the A/C and half of my lights went off. I got up and called the front desk and they said they would call maintenance. Satisfied it would be handled I laid back down and closed my eyes again. I had dozed about half an hour when I was wakened by the phone. My boss had just come back from the site and wanted to know if I wanted to go to the grocery store. Well of course I wasn’t going to turn down an opportunity like that so he said he would meet me in front in about 15 minutes. I got changed back in to me jeans, which is a must if you go out here, they don’t seem to understand that part of the American culture and they pretty much look down on you if you go out in public dressed like that. Grabbed my sneakers threw them on and was out the door. John was just parking when I came out he said he had just about given up. I hopped in the front seat, buckled in and we were off on an adventure to town.

We were about 10 minutes away from the store and don’t ask me where it is because I couldn’t get there again if you asked me. I am pretty good with direction but I still haven’t gotten my bearings here. We pulled into The Giant and grabbed a cart. It was squeaking the whole way in so John went out to find another one. He started going up and down isles and said I don’t know what you are looking for but if you need something let me know and we will find it. He’s a great guy, always thoughtful making sure I am fitting in. I told him I wanted to look at coffee pots because the coffee they make at the site is terrible. Oh did I mention that they don’t know how to make coffee here either? Well we finally found them and they had one Bunn, it was around $45 US not bad but I wasn’t prepared to buy it. We continued to browse up and down isles I found some peanut butter and some Ritz crackers, a case of water, a case of Diet Coke, a Snickers bar and a Galaxy Bar. The total came out to SR 85.00 which is about $22 US. I think the exchange rate is pretty close to ours just sounds bad. The case of Coke was like $5.88. The sacker pushed the cart out and loaded the car, John tipped him and we were off headed back to the camp.

On the way back John said that they usually have a cook out on Friday evenings and he had asked if he could bring me along. They said sure so we planned on him coming by about 3:30 or so and we head that way. I went to my room and unpacked my goodies and sat down to chat with Diane for a little bit before he came. I filled her in on the morning and told her I would be back in awhile and we could talk before I was ready for bed. John showed up right about 3:30 and we started walking. I didn’t realize this place was on the compound but it was just a short 5 minute walk. This is a small 3 bedroom villa that some of the guys live in, they have a real kitchen, dinning room, living room, bedrooms and 2 bathrooms, not bad for Saudi. Mike was already outside cooking, John said that he comes over on Friday and cooks all his food for the week and hardly eats at the dinning hall at all. He was cooking hot dogs, shish k-bob, and hamburgers. He got through and they put our dinner on, nice juicy steaks. I was a little skeptical but I would give it a try. Inside John and Jeff were cutting up potatoes and onions to be fired, and a pot of green beans. It immediately started smelling delicious right out of a Rachel Ray 30 Minute Meal show.

We sat and talked while everything was cooking and before you know it, Don came in and said you better go claim your steak before they get well done. Now I like my meat a little pink so I was out there in a heart beat with a knife and a plate. I cut one open and it was almost perfect. John said grab me one too so I cut one open and he said it was fine. We headed in with our plates and loaded up with the potatoes and green beans and sat down to dig in. The meat was a little tough but it was seasoned well so it was pretty good eats. We finished up and sat around for a few more minutes and then said it was time to head back. They had just started up a card game and neither of us were interested so it was pretty much useless to stay around they were sure to be absorbed in the game before long. One of the other guys, Fenwick who was the Construction Manager, was driving back so we caught a ride. He dropped us off at the office so we could go in and select our yummy lunch for the next day and then head back to the room.

I got back in the room and chatted with Diane for awhile and then realized it was after 10:00 and I needed to get to bed. We said our good nights and I took some meds and lay down. I had been feeling kind of puny all day, I had somewhat of a sore throat and my nose was running a little but I blew it off and tried to sleep. Soon sleep came and I rested, well that was until about 2:00am when I woke up and my throat was on fire. Well dummy me I had no meds for a cold, or sinus just some Advil and Tylenol. I dosed back off but then it was toss and turn. I knew it wouldn’t be long until the alarm was welcoming me to a new day……

The first few days.....

noreply@blogger.com (ITSquire) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 16:10:00 +0000

Well Tuesday morning was a great start, I woke up around 5:30 and knew I needed to get started. I was told that since we got in so late that I was not expected in at the regular start at 6:00 AM. I got up and showered got dressed and walked across the street to the Dinning Hall. I had made arrangements the night before with Ray the Sr. Construction Manager to ride in with him. He was the other passenger we had been waiting on. He had just come off his rotation and was not really in a hurry to get in. Breakfast was nice and cold, almost like it had been sitting out for awhile. Well since it opened at 5:00AM I would imagine, this was like 6:45 or so. Anyway it was a breakfast of scrambled eggs, Beef sausage (of course) coffee and orange juice. I forgot how watered down juice tasted in the Middle East but oh well.

After breakfast I walked over to the room and got my bag and headed back to wait for Ray. He strolled out about 15 minutes later and I was glad because it was beginning to heat up and I could feel the wetness on my skin. Ray wanted some coffee so he headed in for a cup and then we were off. The drive was another typical, through Eastern block buildings to the highway. It took about 30 minutes to get to the site but the scenery, well prety much the same, sand, palm trees, wrecked cars, and oil and chemical refineries in the background. After giving the guard at the gate my drivers license and temporary gate pass, we were there.

As we pulled up to the office complex, I noticed the familiarity of the style, and another typical of the Middle East, canvas covering to park the cars under so they wouldn't burn up in the heat. We went in and I was introduced to a nice chap from the UK. He was the F&A (Finance and Administration) guy and Ray asked him to show me around and find John my new boss. As we walked down the long hallway heads turned to see who the new guy was and I met a few of the people I would be working with. Most seemed to be in a good mood so that was a good start as well. We made it to John's office but he wasn't there so Mick called him on the Cell and told him I was there. He said he would be along shortly he was down at our Superintendents building. It is another complex that is closer to the site where we are building the units. As we waited he introduced me to a couple of the guys that would be working for me, and some chit chat about IT stuff. He eventually left me because John was taking longer than expected. I told him I would be fine I sat down got out my Laptop and started logging in to check email.

After about 10 or 15 minutes John came in and we introduced ourselves and sat and talked for quite awhile about what he expected and what they had been working on. We immediately hit it off and I knew that I had hit a gold mine in a boss he was going to be very easy to work with. You know you never know what to expect when you are going into a new environment but God provided. While we were talking there was noise in the hall and finally he said that he guessed they had finally got my furniture moved in and was I ready to settle in. I said sure and we went into the IT office and talked for a few minutes more. It was a little akward with Ardie my lead who had been there for quite awhile, I wasn't sure how he was going to take having a new boss and all. He is from the Philipines as are one of the two guys that works for me the other is from Napal. I immediately tried to break the ice with him and I think he responded fairly well.

The rest of the day was getting settled in and going through all the emails waiting on me, and the new things I needed to start working on. Around 4:30 Mo our local guy who takes care of getting our clerances, drivers license and Agame (i'll explain this one later), came and got me and said we needed to go to the clinic. I asked him what for becuase I had already done my medical in Houston. He said that it was a new Saudi law that all new Expats (Expatriot)who come into the country must have a Hepititis test, eye test and chest xray before they could submit their paperwork for home status. We stopped by and told John and Mo said he would drop me off at the camp after we were through. We went out to his car and headed to town. The ride was about 20 minutes and we talked about everything, his family, where he lived, how long he had worked for KBR, etc. He even was shocked that we were paying $4 a gallon for gas because they were paying somewhere around 45 cents a gallon here. I was floored I knew it was cheaper but had no idea it was that cheap.

We arrived at the clinic and went inside. Typical Middle Eastern clinic, tile floors, concrete walls, everything painted white. We went upstairs to a waiting room next to the check-in desk where three lovely fully dressed in their buca's including facial veil. He told me to take a seat and he would take care of everything. He knew his way around and he knew EVERYONE. He got us in and out in less than 30 minutes. As we were walking down the stairs he said see I told you it wouldn't take long, ya if I had tried to do that by myself, I would still be sitting there waiting. We got back in the car and headed back to camp. The drive was short considering we had traveled three quarters of the way to town and he dropped me off at the front gate. Before he left, he got in his trunk and handed me a selection of the local fruit, dates. He said you wash these and you will love them, eat them with your coffee and you will have tastes you have never tasted before.

I proceeded to my room and put down my items I had been hauling, my backpack with Laptop and other essentials which weighs in the neighborhood of about 40 lbs. I quickly changed into a pair of shorts and headed across to the dinning room for dinner. To my pleasant surprise, they were serving curry chicken and rice, one of my absolute favorites. They did a good job on it and the green salad and tomatoes with your choice of French, Thousand Island, or Blue Cheese dressing. Now remember we are in the Middle East so they look like what we have at home, but don't nearly taste as good. Anyway I finished up with a quick pice of Apple pie for dessert and a cup of coffee to wash it down with. I headed back to my room and chated with Diane for about an hour before it was time to hit the hay again.

Wednesday and Thursday left nothing to the imagination, pretty much the same ole. Oh we carry a packed lunch everyday because there is no place close to get lunch, usually consist of a couple of sandwhiches, a couple of juice boxes a piece of fruit and a piece of fruit bread. Not bad when you are hungry but I wonder how fast that is going to get old. Well Friday is a day of rest so I will hopefully be able to sleep in and get some much needed rest. Hope you are enjoying, please be sure to leave comments if there is any questions or ideas you have.