The weekend, of course. It just so happens that a regularly scheduled Friday off, and the Presidents Day Holiday on Monday are acting in concert to give me a 4-Day weekend. Certainly, a person would have big plans for a four day weekend.
Not really. For most of the last month and a half, we had been thinking that our activities this weekend would somehow be tied to closing on the house in Belfair, whether it was signing papers Friday and then visiting friends and family for a few days, or heading over the weekend to visit and sign papers the following Tuesday/Wednesday. Either way, we didn't make plans for something independent this weekend.
All that really matters is the week is over, and it was a doozy. I could go into detail, but it really wouldn't matter. To put things simply, for the past 25 years, the area where I have been working has existed for the sole purpose of making sure the waste tanks at Hanford were properly maintained, and didn't leak(too badly). That meant a whole bunch of preventative maintenance and checks to make sure levels(gas concentrations and fluid levels really), and not a lot else. Other organizations on site handled the real work.
As the site shrinks, and the clean-up progress, jobs are changing. The organization I work for is now supposed to be getting ready to actually process the waste that has been sitting in the tanks. This is not easy for a couple of reasons. First of all, the equipment is old, and doesn't always work very well. 2nd, the work force. Because the work was very basic for so long, at times, let's just say the star performers didn't end up here. Because of reason 1(the equipment being old) the workforce(reason 2) is called up to do a lot more corrective maintenance than ever before...and they don't like it. Not only do they not like it, some of them aren't very good at it. And, before someone thinks I am bashing the working level folks, I am...but not exclusively. Much of the management is challenged also. To use corporate jargon, there is a 'cultural change' required, and like many cultural changes, this one is painful at times. One could almost view it as a physics problem...there is 25 years worth of stationary inertia that has been allowed to develop...things aren't going to be rolling forward smoothly in 6 months.
Then there is my position. As someone hired recently, with no prior Hanford Site experience, I am seen as one of these agents of 'Cultural Change'. I'm younger than a lot of the old time folks, and I came in and stole one of their supervisory positions(now, throw aside for a minute that most of these folks didn't WANT the pain of being a supervisor.) This makes me a target for constant testing. I get asked questions they already know the answer to. I get asked questions that other supervisors have already answered(the ask mom and dad game). The fact that they are right, and that I AM out to rock their world and shift their paradigm doesn't make the constant testing any easier, or any less frustrating, especially since I believe my way of wanting to do things COULD be easier and better than the way they are currently doing things.
During my time in the Navy, one of the things I always disliked was how a new C.O. or X.O. would come in and change everything without observing how things were working first. I have been at this job almost 5 months now, and have resisted many urges to speak my mind, or change how things are being done. I am still observing. I try not to draw conclusions from a single observation of something...you have to assume you are catching someone on a bad day, and look more for trends than single instances. It frustrates me to already have been tried and labeled by the jury as one of 'Them'.
Most of all, I try to have faith that things will get better...the alternative does not bear consideration. And yeah...that was me not going into detail.
All I really know for the weekend is that Friday I committed to load up the car and go to the laundromat while the wife schools the kids, and Saturday we our children lined up to go to the YMCA's Parents Night Out. It's basically a supervised play-date from 6-10pm on Saturday night. It's done at one of the local schools, and the watchful eyes are provided by the YMCA. 12 dollars a kid...$24 total for both my kids for 4 hours is MUCH less money that I would pay a teenage baby-sitter in my house.
The only other thing on the list of possibilities is a trip to the Goldendale Observatory State Park if it looks like we might have clear skies either Friday or Sunday night. It's about a 1.5 hour drive, and I think the kids will find it to be really neat. Oh heck...I KNOW daddy will think it is really neat, and hopefully the kids will not be bored and pout. PLUS, by taking a scenic route, we can swing by the 20 Acres with a Yurt property for sale in that direction. Even if we aren't going to be able to buy in the next two weeks, it is another area of the state I haven't been to yet.
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