We wish you….

 

Christmas Eve is here.  I’m home for a four night stay; leave on the last flight out Wednesday night (preliminary forecast is 4 to 6 inches of snow…so that might not happen as planned!).

Grandma and Gramps are here; Suzanne’s Uncle Greg has also driven up from Chicago as well. 

Peace on Earth?  Three boys playing Uno…..everyone behaving knowing that it’s still not too late to end up on the naughty list!

Holly wearing her Christmas best….

A fresh dusting of snow today ensures a White Christmas….

While it’s nice an cozy inside…..

and we were treated to a Christmas Eve Concert…..Cpher had learned a bunch of Christmas songs this year, and Kevin, after about a minute of reviewing the music, was able to play along as well.  Matthew played a few pieces on his own, but, I didn’t capture any of that on video tape.

(you can click on any of the pictures for the video.  The first piece is Rudolph…)

(Silent Night…)

(Jolly Old Saint Nicholas…..the first time I thing I’ve ever heard Cpher playing the harmony of a piece instead of the melody with Kevin)

New Jersey – Day 10

 

Yeah, Day 10 is right, went to Hoboken on Monday.  I find I lose track of what day of the week and what the actual numeric date is when I’m away from home like this….

The rumor is that things will be picking up in terms of damage assessments and write-ups after the New Year. I certainly hope so, because it’s been slower than slow here. I’ve never spent so much time trying to find busy work to do.

Figured it was worth a moment to talk about the demographics of the people I’ve been deployed with.

In California, everyone was my age or younger. Had common interests, hung out with some of these people after work, etc.

In Louisiana, everyone was my age or younger. Not so much social interaction in the evenings, but, didn’t feel crazily out of place.

Here? It’s an AARP meeting. Everyone is a retiree who is doing this PA work (and I believe that I’ll be in this position in 20 years as well). But there is no one, no one, within 10 years of my age on this team of 20 right now. This has led to a few early beliefs; One, that again social interaction outside of work will be limited and Two, sadly, technological challenges with FEMA equipment on the team will be invariably referred to me and Three, everyone here seems to be used to being the elder statesmen, so, everyone is jockeying to put their protocol, work process, stamp, whatever, on how we are doing things.

Sigh.

Part of my frustration with the protocol, work process, stuff stems from me being me…and it’s probably a good time to divert into a discussion of personalities, and conflicts. Maybe the most useful training I ever had at Golder wasn’t technical, it was a two-day training session to help us all get along better and plan for the future. It doesn’t particularly surprise me that all of the ideas for the future went for naught; it doesn’t particularly surprise me that you probably couldn’t point to better work relationships that developed because of those two days. But I still have the binders on personality types and interactions between them, and reread them every once in a while….

The two big takeaway, for me at least were:

1)  I’m up there in the top left, ISTJ.  Which wasn’t a big surprise.  But the observation that people in those upper left four boxes have a hard time working with people in the lower right four boxes was a very interesting revelation to me.  And this is happening a lot right now; most of the team is the carefully-assemble-every-single-bit-of-information that may-or-may-not be relevant and then when everything-is-place-then-we-will-talk-about-how-to-move-forward.

And I’m like let’s go!!!!!  We could have been done hours ago!!!

2)  And that everybody expects everyone else to be just like them.  So if I can just admit that those bottom right corner people are who they are and that’s they way it’s going to be, my frustration level will be lower.

Home Front:  Not as much contact this week; having Grandma and Gramps in the house will do that.  Kevin had an orchestra concert, Cpher had a school-orchestra concert with Christmas songs, all of this tape is waiting for me to get home and copy to the computer (decided to shelf Operation Dropbox since I would be home tomorrow night). 

I did finally upload this 20 second video that I’ve been carrying around for months:

It is Iphone video.  It is isn’t the greatest, but, the subject only moves his lips.  Matthew has spent hours (and hours) watching youtube videos recently (soccer goals, football plays, etc.)   And also music videos….

From the Sports Desk

 

Weekend 1 of sports without Dad.  A big weekend too, 7 games on the schedule….

Matthew:  Basketball on Saturday, a 37-14 win against Portland.  They were up 25-4 at the half, so that meant a whole lot of running clock in the second half.

….the closest Matthew came to a basket in the game…did everything right, showed for the ball, made a move towards the basket, just missed the layup (missed it badly too)….

His basketball team played another game on Saturday (a win) but he missed it to play his first soccer game of the weekend.  Played goalie in the first half and did well, only gave up a goal, and scored one in the 2nd half as the team (a mix of TNT kids from the fall teams) won 6-2.

Sunday was two more indoor games in Wixom.  Our regular goalie was absent, so, best buddies Matthew and Henry had to step in….and both played really well.  We won the first game 3-1, and lost the 2nd game 3-2.  The first goal in the 2nd half was a Matthew penalty kick.

Cpher:  One basketball game on Saturday and one on Sunday.  Lost 39-29 to Dansville……Cpher told Mom after the game that he felt tiny out there….Dansville has a player that has to be 6 foot.

I give Cpher credit, he at least turned around and went up for this shot, and he hasn’t been all that eager to take shots this year.  But that kid just swatted it away….Cpher needs to learn/remember to pump fake when someone bigger is on him….but how often does that happen?

Suzanne texted me during the game, we got down 18-7 and came back to be winning 19-18 and were ahead 26-25 at one point….but didn’t really score in the fourth quarter and that was that.

Sunday was a trip to Owosso; just Cpher and Kevin since Mom and Matthew were down at soccer.  This game was another running-clock blowout, we were winning 32-10 at halftime and won 47-10.  Cpher had a big game, I heard from him, Kevin, and got an email from the coach that he gathered a lot of rebounds and had six points…

Mason (#10 there) has just taken this shot and I like how Cpher is always very good about boxing out and getting ready for the rebound….

and he does what he is supposed to do and needs to do consistently, grabs the rebound, gets control, and goes right back up and scores. 

Kevin did an awesome job taping and getting the files into Dropbox so that they would upload.  Found out one bad thing about Dropbox; it uploads the smallest files first, so, I had to wait for all of the files to upload to watch the games in order.  Even though most of the files were uploaded even Sunday night, I couldn’t watch them until everything came through…that was Tuesday.

New Jersey – Day 6

 

Today I was released from the office and got to go visit damaged sites.  If you have seen the news, you are going to be massively disappointed by the pictures below.  You probably are expecting total devastation, and well, the first assignment here (to Hoboken) was not very productive.

So there are eight of us going to ‘scout’ the City of Hoboken’s damaged facilities.  We are told there are lots of buildings.  We get there and it’s obvious the City is not really ready for us; we divide into two groups of four.  The other group is going to look at some buildings (and I heard even that was a bust) and my group was going to go look at some parks….

….small grocery/deli’s everywhere.  This is about 1.5 miles from the office.  And totally awesome…

The view from the hotel room Sunday afternoon…..

Pier A; that’s Manhattan in the background.  See that area of pavers that’s settled.  That’s the damage we’re looking at here.  I’m not even sure it’s eligible….vegetative stuff growing in the joints could lead you to believe that this damage existed before the hurricane.  Some of my colleagues were quick to say no, I think it’s possible (some of the joints are completely gone, which could lead one to believe they were completely blown-out by the storm surge and the subgrade material underneath washed out with it….causing this settlement)

…since we thought we were coming to look at projects that had millions of dollars of damage, this was a bit of a surprise.

(quick note:  almost had a serious traffic accident on the way to Hoboken.  Basically, to get to Hoboken, you head to the Holland Tunnel and take a left…before you get to the Holland Tunnel, because then you’ll be in NYC.  About a mile before the tunnel there is this merge, four lanes from I-78, four lanes from god knows where.  Our driver stops at a yellow light, we are in the left lane of the four right lanes that are merging.  The green light, for the lanes to the left of us, begins.  He sees that and starts to go AS THE OTHER LANES GO ALSO.  Of course, there’s lots of honking as we start to move and other cars are cutting us off, he realizes that something is wrong, stops, and then starts to go again!  I think I’m the only guy in the car who realized what was happening and I shout STOP!  DON’T MOVE ANYMORE!  and he jerks to a stop, and finally figures out what is happening, and backs up so that we are back where we should be.  Ugh!)

Hey, damage that looks like damage.  This step/staircase has been totally destroyed by storm surge….

It should have looked like this.  But this is not a very expensive fix….

My most impressive photo of the day.  So, this hillside used to extend from, well, where you see the grass suddenly end down to the grass you can see next to the curb.  They build this mound using that white geo-foam (think sytrofoam packing made large, easy to install and cheaper than importing fill for some projects) and then covered with sand, and then topsoil.  The storm surge basically eroded this hill away…..

See those concrete pavers/seats/tables?  They used to be lined up in a regular fashion near that fence to the left, so you could sit near the water.  Sandy moved them like shuffleboard pieces…..

That geo-foam is neat, it takes up a lot of space, and is light and easy to install.  Sadly, when you apply hurricane force storm surge to it, it moves pretty easy too….I guess they are lucky they didn’t find this stuff two counties away.

So, I wonder?  What did the owners of these boats do when the storm came in?  Pray that there anchors were up to the task?  Probably didn’t have time to get them the heck out of there, right?

This guy’s anchor did not hold up. 

Operation Upload Video continues, Kevin has taped and uploaded three basketball games.  I borrowed (and will bring a cable from home when I get back there) a cable and watched the games from this weekend tonight on the big HD screen.  So yes, there is a From the Sports Desk post coming.  Probably tomorrow.

New Jersey – Day 3

 

The biggest news here is that I switched hotels…..I’ll be at the Courtyard in Red Bank for the foreseeable future.

The room is not as spacious as the Residence Inn.  No full kitchen.  But, I was hoping for a few things and this hotel has them:

1)  Fast Internet:  The hotel actually has two tiers, free, and then faster….which you have to pay for.  But since I’m gold status with Marriott I don’t have to pay for it…and it’s way way faster than the RI I was at.  This is good, because it means that Operation Dropbox will work to perfection.

Dropbox is an application for your computer/phone/whatever.  Basically, Kevin (or anyone I designate) can upload files into a directory on his computer and then once they upload to the internet they will automatically download to my computer.  The Kinawa orchestra concert tonight…I’d be the first song for the 5th graders started at 7:05 pm……at 8:46 pm I was watching that video here.  Pretty sweet!

2)  Fridge:  The room has it. 

3)  Climate Control:  The fan, when it runs, is not terribly noisy.

The hotel is also offering free breakfast to FEMA workers.  Since I fit that definition, that’s a nice little bonus as well.

Not much else to report from the front; definitely a slow start at the FEMA field office….

Picture Time

 

So, amidst all the hectic activity of Kevin’s birthday, my deployment, and so on and so forth….Suzanne scheduled a sitting at Portrait Innovations.  Cheap, but they turn out surprisingly well.

And in the most shocking development of all, the boys that tend to have the most trouble pulling together a quality picture come up big!

I’m not sure which of these pictures are going to get ordered….I just grabbed the ones from the digital studio that I liked.  A theme, though, for these pictures is that Cpher is the one, almost universally, who didn’t come out very well. 

The first of the standing up photos that really turned out well!

As part of the sitting, the photographer had to (had to) take a picture with a prop.  Suzanne was telling me that she made it clear that she had no interest in this, and the woman said, I have to do it, and in less than a minute it was done.  And the boys, for some crazy reason, asked to do the picture with this giant teddy bear.

And they turned out great!

Just not quite there…..just seems a little off to me.

Best picture of Kevin in ages…….

The best of the three of them together……to my eye at least.

Quizbusters – Official Photos

 

The station photographer posted his official photos online; found them by accident tonight when I was looking for the official press release.  These are the best photos; he was very insistent that everybody pose for him (and all of the other pictures by the parents are from the side)

Love this picture!

I don’t think I ever mentioned the chairs….they adjust the heights of the seats before each show.  Kevin, being the tallest, is the ‘bar’ for the rest of the team…Mayank always has to raise his seat quite a bit….

Next year we will have to remember that a light-colored shirt makes the name tag show up better in the photos.  Details details….

New Jersey – Day One and Two

 

Yesterday I travelled, today marks the first day of my third FEMA assignment; this time for Hurricane Sandy.  Ninety days away from home (except for select breaks…).  The blog didn’t exist during my extended stays in California and New Orleans…..a lot of strange stuff not documented here.

Boys were a lot smaller then, now, with Skype and Facetime and texting, contact with home is a lot more accessible and feasible (I’ll be watching candles on a birthday cake later tonight…)

Want a good investment tip?  When a hurricane is about to hit….buy hotel stock.  In New Orleans, you couldn’t find a hotel for months (my luxury digs were allocated to me).  When the news that I was going to NJ became more definite, I did the smartest thing I’ve done in months….very quickly went out and found a Courtyard a mile from the office and made a reservation two weeks out.

That reservation starts tomorrow…in the meantime, I have two nights here at this brand new Residence Inn.  It’s awfully nice, and serves a mean breakfast.  But, it’s 30 minutes from the office and only provides half the Marriott points.  And point acquisition is a big consideration…

Residence Inn – Photo 2

Cpher is obsessed with Skylanders, and, to surprise him one night, I had bought one of the Skylanders he didn’t have, spent about an hour figuring out the game, and then invited him to go down and play with me.  My dude, Prism Break, is on the left.  Cpher wrapped these guys up in a box and had me open it, he wanted me to take my guy and his guy with him to remind me of home.  I’m going to try and take pictures of these guys in different places….last night was pretty simple, parked bedside on the Ipad.

Took this picture in the JFO (Joint Field Office) this morning.  The office is located between Middletown and Lincroft (appropriately, in the middle of this picture). You can see all of the color along the edges…that’s the preliminary damage assessment.  It is not everything, it is just what has been catalogued to date.

Why is there all that green then?  Not that there isn’t damage there, it is damage that the local governments have submitted that is ineligible (I saw an entry for “lost money due to tourism losses” for example….you don’t get that reimbursed).

Random New Jersey Thought:  I never would have found this hotel without GPS.  The crazy twists and turns to get off of three freeways and tollways and what lanes I needed to be in…..wow!

Homefront:  I should note that songs made me think of the boys often….from Kesha and The Script on the Pop station to the snippet of Yes on my Iphone….

Skype’d with Matthew.  A little overwhelmed with a rough draft for language arts because he procrastinated on it.  Facetime’d with Kevin…..Yes is coming in concert to Detroit and he wants to go.  Seeing Yes without Jon Anderson sounds stupid to me but I’m not missing the opportunity to go with him.  I apparently didn’t go a great job of setting up Facetime or Skype on Cpher’s Itouch, so, we just mostly talked.  Told me he liked the new showerhead in the bathroom, making good progress in his book for his book report (behind here also because of procrastination).

Suzanne is good but stressed; a lot of Kevin birthday stuff needed to happen before 12/12. 

Random Work Story:  So, when you are here, for the most part, people are overly friendly......everyone knows the deal, people are away from home and we're all in it together, etc.  Lots of "hi's" in halls, etc. 

I am assigned to the Building Assessment Team (six or seven engineers in a group that go to a building to write it up.  I will handle Civil/Enviro elements).  This group has about 12 people now, will soon be 25.  We are going to be sitting three or four to a 12x12’ office (FEMA has occupied a 3-story old Avaya building....must have been a hq, it's a big building)

Anyway, I peek my head into one office, there's one guy there, Fred, and I say hey, ok if I sit here.  He says ok, I joke that there isn't anything about him I should know before I sit down, he mentions he has a buddy on the way here that will want to sit with him and I say ok, that's three for the office, no big deal.  Walk out to do something else.

Come back, sit down and he comes over to the table and mentions there are empty tables next door (there are offices everywhere with just one or two people in them...I chose the one I ended up in at random).  I say "so?" and he says, well, maybe I should move over there.  I slowly turn to face him and, since I'm kind of thick about it, ask, really, you want me to move?  and he says he likes to be alone....

That was enough for me, I didn't need to spend three months in an office with some nut job. 

From the Sports Desk

 

We travelled more for basketball this weekend than we do on some soccer weekends!

Matthew:  Won both of his games; 28-20 against Mason and 31-19 against Dewitt.  Both games weren’t that close….a flurry of fourth quarter points from both teams made the scores closer than the games really were.

(the boys is very intense on defense)

I don’t quite remember if Matthew scored from the field in the first game against Mason; he did make two free throws.  Fric, Frac, and I went to the gym before the game on Saturday and he was atrocious on the free throw line….so, it was a pleasant relief to see him make both free throws.

(very intense…)

(getting ready for his free throws)

Matthew had a better offense game against Dewitt; really, he had an awesome four or five minutes.  Scored the last basket of the first quarter and then scored two quick baskets in the 2nd quarter when he came back into the game.

(not many pictures from this game….but if you click on the picture you get about 90 seconds of video showing the baskets)

Matthew likes to take shots from long-distance; he is not the best at them; in fact, I’d go so far as to say that he should abandon them for short range jumpers.  What Matthew is good at is giving his guy a fake and driving to the basket; that move put him on the line against Mason and that move gave him a wide open layup to finish his scoring against Dewitt. 

Team is 3-0; they look awfully tough.

Cpher:  Lost both of his games, 37-33 to East Lansing; 45-28 to Dewitt.

Scored a basket in this game…..did what we asked him to do, shoot the ball when you get it down low.  He did it actually right after this photo, and that guy behind him picked up his 2nd foul of the first half 70 seconds into the first quarter. 

Sadly, we did not do a good job following up on that…

That foul earned Cpher two free throws…missed both of them.  Really needs to work on being consistent there…he was hitting about 60% in practice last week.

Don’t often see Cpher jump for the ball…..unfortunately here he has jumped too early and he won’t get this rebound…it will go past him.

But he was fighting for rebounds…..

Maybe some video from this game and Dewitt later.  I’ll save the discussion of the Dewitt ugliness for then.