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February 25 Search for a Teaching Position!Its time to answer a question I've had for a long time. Is teaching for me? I received the card from the Wake County Public Schoool System. My application is in order, I'm clear to apply for open teaching positions.
At this point there are two math positions open. One in a middle school another in a hogh school. It's the high school that's most interesting. I'll submit my resume and see what happens.....
February 24 Retirement from FordIt's hard to believe, but after 32 years, it's time to retire.
Ford's problems have opened an opportunity to retire a bit early. My first thought was to go to North Carolina and hook up with my daughter, teaching high school math in the Wake County Public schools. All of the paper work is submitted, but I happened across a controls company in the Cleveland area.
OK, the teaching thing is still my final goal. The summers and misc holidays is my idea of retirement. The local controls company made me a very nice offer. Oh well, my retirement on the 28th of Feburary is over on March 1st. Than its back to work.
My new firm is much smaller, and unlike Ford, it's growing. I'm excited about the new challenges.
June 03 A day out of the officeThis is my second time taking advantage of Ford's Community Service program. Friday, I spent scrapping and painting buildings from the earily 1800's. The Frostville Museum consists of a half dozen builds that were relocated to this site for the purpose of saving a chunck of Olmsted's history.
I have a couple of pictures in the "Cleveland Engine Plant" photo album. There is a picture of a church recently moved to this site. As you can tell its going thru an extensive remodeling. The bell tower was just lifted up to its new home. Surprisingly, they found a bell in this tower casted in 1870 by a local Ohio bell company Before long, you can have your wedding in this church and reception in the country. Beautiful surrounding....
January 25 We Dodged A Bullet!The word's out, our plant made it thru the first round of plant closures. After going thru this at the Lorain plant, it brings back very unhappy feelings.
This "miss" may be short lived. There are more bullets on the way. Ford has said more plants will close. Also, the plant might be save, but the jobs are up for grabs. The phones are all a buzz with calls from around the company of employees being released. At this point they are "low performers", but it still puts you on edge...
History of the Ford Logo (Blue Oval): There have been a bunch of different logos Ford has used to market the brand. Today, we all recognize it as the Blue Oval, but it wasn't always that way. In the very beginning there was a fairly complicated, oddly design that included a "Detriot - Mich." tag and spelled out "Ford Motor Co. January 09 Interbus-S TrainingNext two days learning the ins & outs of a communication's protocol used on our plant's PLC: Interbus-S
It's a bad sign when a guy gets excited about this kind of stuff. Well, sometimes the "Engineer Guy" dominates over the "SaxMan", if you know what I mean.... November 30 Photo proof - Dave's Community ServiceJust recieved a couple of photos of our day sent with Nina during our community service project. In fact, we had a write-up in the plant's news letter. Very nice surprise. I believe this is the first time during the 15 years with Ford that I have my picture in a company publication.....
November 18 Ford is More than an Auto ManufactureI spent my day working at "Transitional Housing, Inc" in Cleveland's inner-city.
I and a PVT Engineer from the Lorain Assembly Plant spent a full day installing shelving and mini blinds. OK, so how did I walk into this task?
Ford Motor Company encourages its salary work force to assist in community service projects. In fact, Ford pays for our time so the community groups get us for free.
The housing is provided for homeless women in the Cleveland area. You can get more information from the link I provided. But....
"Since Transitional Housing, Inc. opened its doors in January of 1986 over 1,300 formerly homeless women have called THI home."
The facility is a converted Travel Lodge Hotel. The construction of this building made it hard for us to install the sleaves. But, we are quick learners and adapted well. With a little help from the facility's hammer drill, we won the battle against that wall from hell.
THI currently provides housing for over 60 women. These ladies may be battling with drugs, alcohol or ex husbands. But they all now have a nice clean place to restart ther lifes. The staff that I worked with are very friendly and happy to recieve our services.
In fact, I'm looking forward to going this again. It was a very nice change in our daily routine. I got the chance to meet a fellow engineer that I didn't know while I worked in the Lorain Plant. It was different having two engineers actually working with our hands. We (engineers) are famous for providing drawings to tell others what and how to do something.
We were a little slow at first, but we got a rythmn going and worked well as a team. So I think, Ford got a little something out of this excercise.
October 29 The "Night Owl" Hangs Up His CapeI'm back on days!!! Time will tell how long this change in status lasts. I will admit, I've learned allot on this shift. It gave me the chance to do so much with the equipment that can't be done while the line is running.
I've touched every operation...from the wiring to the logic.
I've made a name for my self, just hope this doesn't rain down allot of extra work now that the "OWL" is seen as a "can do" kind of guy. If it does, I guess that's the price you pay.
Two observations (Automation Facts Of LIfe):
October 16 Night Owl Soars
Well, here I was in the middle of the night. No one to call and by myself. I committed to doing "TWO" conversions in one night. This had not been attempted before. When I started out, and after I deleted the "old" version of software on the PC, I found out that the CD drive on the PC didn't work. To cut to the end, I figred out a "work around" on the drive, got both units convert and running in less time than we had previously done a single unit.
Man, was I SOARING after that.... September 18 Night Owl Mis-Adventure or "Do You Feel That Chill?"Friday was not a good day. I worked on a transport section of the line. We were upgrading the HMI (human machine interface) so the operators can better understand the machines health. All looked OK until the line started up. Or should I say, until the line should have started up. Well, thirty minutes later it did, but not until some very uncomfortable moments passed. But never fear, the Night Owl will return.....
September 15 The Night Owl Takes Flight...A new super hero's head is raising up over the horizon; "The Knight Owl". Now being seen running up & down isles at the Cleveland Engine Plant. Where will he strike next, no one knows for sure.
September 13 I Got RythmnFinally, I'm feeling human on this shift. The powers that be have assigned my two full time electricians. This is exactly what I needed to give me the purpose & drive on this shift. I have an engineering team (Phil & Brian) on days providing drawings, setting priorities and other key support functions.
When I get in, my feet hit the floor running. Directing small scale construction, implementing PLC program modifications and debug/start-up system modifications. With these changes, my attitude is climbing....
August 22 On The "Dark Side" AgainI'm not sure how this happen, but here I am sitting in the office on mid night shift again. Looks like this will last atleast thru September. At least my "musical" life is not as busy as it was the last time I jumped into the "dark side".
Wait, is that a light at the end of this tunnel. I don't know, something smells funny....
August 13 PL7 Training, finally overAfter 2 weeks, we finally finished the PL7 training. I will admit that I enjoyed my two weeks. I did everything I could to cram as much knowledge into my head over this period. It was nice to have the other students come to me for help on there projects. This is all part of the plan, to get back to where I was at Lorain.
I want to be on top of this technology. It's a tough battle, but I will make.
The instructor had my project on the screen for demo, because no one else could get two sequences running independently. In fact, my partner asked me why I was taking the class, because I knew it all already. I don't know why, but this kind of stuff sticks. Now, don't ask me the name of my sister-in-law or the days my kids are born....
This last two weeks, with a trip to North Carolina sandwiched in the weekend and a playing gig on the friday back from Detroit (oh man the trafic), drained me. Finally, I'm in my own bed again. But when I turned around, NO WIFE. She and my daughter are in Detroit to watch Clay sing. We must have passed on the turnpike, but I never saw her. Thank GOD for cell phones.
"PL7 Training Day"
Photo Album Index
1. Back To School
2. Scheider Electric Premium PLC Add
3. Lab Hardware - ASi Bus Work Station
4. Premium PLC Rack
5. Lab Station - Magelis HMI, PC & PLC Rack
6. Lab Station next to mine
7. PC with PL7 software & my application
8. Screen print of PL7 screens
9. Couple happy students....
 August 04 A Day In The Life...Going to school this week. Learning all about the Square "D" Premium PLC. This is used to control all of the automation in my plant. This gives me the perfect chance to flesh out the "learning" I've been doing on my own. My lab partner & I are the first ones in the class and last out everyday. I'm going to take advantage of every minute that I can.
Aside from this class room time, I've been a bit lonely. Sitting in a motel room with my laptop and the TV. However, it was a pleasant surprise to find an internet connection in the room. With this connection and time on my hands, that why I started in on this "Detrroit Memory Lane" stuff. To help with the lonelynees, I invited my friend, the lonely "lamp lighter" sax man. He's playing "Angel Eyes". You know, this week him & I have a lot in common....
Tuesday, I visited my brother Brian and his wife, Debbie (A.K.A. Linda). It's been a long while since I visited with them. They have a beautiful new home in McComb County. I would have felt very welcome if it wasn't for there dog. He won't stop barking at me.....
No, really, I felt very welcomed. We had bergers off the grill and french fries just like my Dad used to make, complete with "brown bag". I had frogtten about that trick and Brian brought it back into our memories. It was like having our Dad with us as we ate. Talk about embarest, I can't belive that I called "Debbie" Linda. When I called them up to invite myself over, I asked for "Linda". What was I thinking? For someone how has a good memory for allot of stuff, I can't remember the simpest things sometimes. Brian & I spent more time together that night than we have in many years. When we parted, we huged and I told him that I love him, and I do.
I was thinking about visiting my other brother, Paul. But he is in Africa. I was surprised to find out that he is with a group of medical professionals volunteering their time to help the refuges. I know I haven't spent time talking about my brothers. Paul was a paramedic in the intercity of Detroit. He has seen so much, but he has the compassion and love for humanity to deciate his self to making the lifes of others better... July 22 Finally A BREAK...The pressure's on, but I'm up to the challenge. I let the Webb programmer off for the night. It's just me watching the "Engine Drop". But than again its been nice and quite.
While Ron was gone, we had a slight problem. One of the RF tags on an engine wouldn't write. Therefore, the job was not bought off in one of the stations. The group leader tried to get an electrician, but they were tied up. So he bypassed it through the loop. That's OK, but in doing so, he worked a bug into both unload stations.
I was able to just reset a carrier on unload #1 and we were back in business. However, unload #2 had the same problem, plus a little bit more. When I reset the unload #2 carrier the next one would not pass through unload. It also had to be reset.
Well, after about 15 minutes of manually reseting carriers, I finally decided to check the HMI to see if we had any faults. When I did, quess what. Somehow the panel dropped into manual. It was simple enough to reset that and we were back in business.
As simple as that was, it felt good to do a little bit of troubleshooting (back in the saddle again)...
Looks like I have the weekend OFF!
I worked 27 days without a day off plus 15 of those day I also had either a show, gig or rehearsal. Plus I worked three different shift during this period. I think I'll sleep in Saturday....
But, Sunday, don't forget its the Swing City Big Band in Vermilion than rehearsals Monday & Tuesday....
July 18 The "rest of the story"Our pet project started up OK. Some bugs as you might expect... But, I was told that they need afternoon shift coverage & I was the one with the short straw. Oh well. Left work today after 10 hours and will be back in today at 5:00pm. At least I'm off of midnights, but this is not what I had in mind.
 Bye Bye Summer ShutdownI survived the Summer Shutdown of 2005.
In 6 short hours we'll start mass producing the Duratec Engine again. My shutdown project is built and tested. As might be expected still a few bugs, but we feel good about our current readiness. Everyone has pulled together to get us to this point. From the milwrights and electricians during the teardown and construction phase to the contract programmers. Plus all of the production support that came in during the weekend to build up engines to test the new process. We even had the Krause techs working with the Webb contract programmers. There is a little competitive rivalry there. But we all did what had to be done.
A special thanks to Ron & Roy, the Webb contract programmers (BDK Engineering, Inc). They've put in so much time to make this project happen. If it all works, it's due in large part to there efforts. If we have problems, it's not because they didn't give it 100% +.
Yesterday, I had a great day. I finally got my hands back into the PLC and did some field level troubleshooting. I missed that the most from Lorain. I've learned allot during this project, relative to the Tellie hardware and PL7 software. In addition, I've accomplished some of my personnal goals in the movementr of the carriers (pendant control) and RF tag manipulation (use of the hand held tag read/writer).
All in all, its been a good experiance. And of coasre, with the show (Crazy For You) over, my attitude has really taken off. Don't get me wrong, I truly enjoyed the show, but the combination of the show, shutdown and midnight shift. OH MY GOD...
With last Sunday's closing matinee (2:00pm curtain). I really am working on my reserves. And I admit my reserves are very much depleted...
July 06 Life on the "Dark Side"After 5 days on midnight shift, I can see light (I should say DARK) at the end of the tunnel. My body has adjusted with this reversal in living conditions. In fact, for me, its a more natural life style.
I go to bed when I'm tired. At the end of the shift (7:30 am) I go to Dunkin Donuts. For those of you who know me, this is no surprise. The last two days I almost fell asleep in my "fill-in" book. After my head jurked, I looked around to make sure know one else noticed this "old guy" was noise diving his coffee. Needless to say, I was tired and went right to sleep when arriving home.
Now, I sleep till I'm not tired, get up and take a shower. Don't have to go to work yet. In fact, I don't have to do anything for awhile. What could be better. During a "normal" work shift, I have to go to bed when I'm NOT tired, so I'll get enough sleep. Than, I wake up when I'm still tired, because I have to go to work.
What's wrong with this picture....
July 02 Back to the "Real" World of WorkWell, it had to come to an end. It's summer shutdown in our engine plant. I've been moved to midnights. It's so hard to make that transistion. So, I never did get to bed last night: long night.
 Work went well, we are modifying a conveyor that delivers the finished engine to be "racked" for shipment. The first week of the two week shutdown is the "honeymoon" period. All the time in the world. But I will say, the electricians did an outstanding job. They did in one shift that we had scheduled for three.....
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