12 Days Came and Went!

As of this moment, I am enjoying my 3 day weekend. On Friday, I just finished working 12 days straight and I feel pretty good about it. That doesn’t seem like much, since there are some jobs that have people working 7 days a week. I not exactly exhausted from finishing 12 days but its something that I don’t normally do. I think this is the second time that I done it since being at this project. The other time was when I went to Elgin the first time for the same reason, the board meeting.

Anyway, this past week was cool and a little sad at the same time. I don’t think I can get into about what’s going on here, but let’s just say that the economy is hitting the church, just like everything else. Here in IS we are stay busy. My next big project is swapping out old PC’s for newer ones. We purchased three new PC’s back in December and now I am going to find places for them. This is the fun part of my job. I am going to be swapping out some more old ones and replacing them with a later upgrade, not just the new PC’s we purchased a few months ago. This week I am excited to be doing some tech work in Southern PA. I consider this a field trip. Then I was just informed that Francie and I will be heading to DC a couple more times in April to do some work over there. That is going to be a little emotional, and at the same time, one of the more interesting tasks that I will have done. These next trips to DC will be a first that Francie and I will be going to DC together to work. I’ve been to DC before to do some work, but I went solo.

Last week, I got a chance to watch the TNA wrestling pay-per-view. My friend Al invited me over to his mom’s to watch it, and in a couple weeks, we are going to watch Wrestlemania 25. That will be my second Wrestlemania in a row I got a chance to see.

This past Friday, one of my BVS unit members, Bekah Houff came through for a small visit to the center. I got a chance to talk to her for a few minutes before she went to VA. I thought it was great. Anytime I get a chance to see a unit member coming back to New Windsor for a day, or whatever, it is always a blessing to me. It was great to see Bekah again before I leave to my next project. That definitely made my day.

Be back next week!

1 Week 2 Remember

From last Monday to today, I have had one interesting week, one that I shouldn’t forget anytime soon. There was so much going on but I think I will only talk about what I thought was interesting. To start off, last Monday was the last day I got chance to work with a good friend of mine name Wolfgang Spreen. Wolfgang had been with the company for over 5 years and I believe the God has showed him another direction to go with his life. I was real sad about that because Wolfgang had always been the guy that made my job more enjoyable and fun. I love my job anyway, but he made it better. Most people here at the center probably don’t know that he is one of the funniest people I have ever been around. I think everyone needs someone like that in any job. However he also took his job seriously, wasn’t always all jokes. Wolfgang could do it all. Since I came aboard, he had several jobs that he was doing. He spent a lot of time working with the Buildings and Grounds department, a tour guide for any new folks who haven’t seen the center, our mail man, and 10% in Information Services where he took care of ordering our print cartridges and toner, and took care of our daily backup tapes of our server. He also spent a lot of time working with the Health and Safety committee. And he also made our weekly “Simply News” newsletter. The man did it all. That was some of the things was doing when I got there until now. He was doing more that that way before that. I just want to take the time and show some respect to the man who made an influence in my life since day one of my project and to let people know that if there were a lot more people like Wolfgang in this world, we would be much better off. He might one day read this and get on me about my punctuation on this blog, LOL. Anyway, I am going to miss him a lot and wish him the best of luck on the future and what his next plans are.

The rest of the week, Francie and I spent time preparing for the Mission and Ministry Board meeting that took place Friday through today. I enjoyed preparing for it because I felt we got a lot of things accomplished. We set up a room for one of the Elgin staff members to work out of. Then we went and built an Internet café for some of the board that didn’t travel with their laptops. They can get online as well as print documents from a printer we installed. We also installed a laptop in the auditorium room so people can show their presentations on. The meeting went real well. I enjoyed seeing a few people from Elgin, who I haven’t seen since I been there last year. The meals were goods, the host and the BSC staff did a great job organizing the weekend, and to me it felt like a successful few days. If this is my final board meeting, I am glad it was in New Windsor. Elgin is pretty cool, but New Windsor for the past two years is my home away from home.

A funny thing happen to me today. I got my $40.00 coupon for the digital converter box I purchased last month. When I applied to get this coupon before I bought the box, the government said they ran out of coupons, that there were no funds available at the time. I thought ,“alright, I bought it at full price at $50.00, whatever”. Now after over a month of using this box, I finally get my coupon. Can you believe it? Not like its going to do me any good any more. Now I think, “at least I got now”.

I am on day 8 of my 12 days in a row working. Last time I done this was the first time I went to Elgin. For some reason, I am a bit more tired this time around. I think I will be OK but I think at the end of the week I will be really tired, LOL. HAHA. Nah, for real, I think its cool that I worked 12 days because I’m not really used to it and it made me think I can do it again a few more times if I am needed for that again.

I’ll be back over the weekend!

A Good Week!

I thought of this week as being a pretty good week, especially at work. I stayed pretty busy throughout the whole week. The first thing I wanted to do was prep our two new PC’s for the Mission and Ministry Board meeting next week. The next thing I did was help Francie work on getting this archive for one of the Annual Conference staff. It was located on our so-called Novell Servers. I say so-called because we had to resurrect the servers in order to get their email archive. I hope we get a chance to retire them again. Then I just worked a little on fixed assets, which is a program to organize all our hardware located in the whole Church of the Brethren. Then I helped one of the field staff repair an XP installation so she can get her files. And then a few things here and their which I won’t get into in my blog so I wont bore the ones that read this.

This past Tuesday, I went to dinner with one of the volunteers here at the center. We ate at a mexican restaurant located at the mall in Westminster. I been there a few times and this was his first time eating here. Then the volunteers and I went to play games on Wednesday night, just like we do on Sunday nights. I had a good time once again. Now I am just chillin and having a good weekend and preparing for next week. Starting this coming Monday, I will be working 12 days in a row because the board meeting is next week and I need to be working, making sure all the computer technology is up and running for each meeting. I don’t recall ever working 12 days in a row, that includes the last two times I went to board in Elgin. The first time I went to board, I think I took the next day off after coming back. The second time I went to board, I got sick and stayed in the BVS house all week. So this time, I am up to the challenge. Of course its always cool knowing that I have a possible two 3 day weekends after that if I choose to do that.

Just to recap again, this past week was pretty cool and I look forward to having another great week, that just so happens to be the longest so-called week in my project. The weather seems to be changing a bit lately. Last weekend it was pretty cold and snowing. This weekend it supposed to be close to if not in the 70’s. How crazy is that for spring here on the east coast.

More and more I am missing family back home. But I am missing my unit members even more. I think about it every day. I think it’s because there aren’t too many people my age that I hang around with over here at the center. I mostly hang out with the older adults, which is great because I think they are the best people in the world, but some times I feel like I got to let loose every now and then, but I am not getting that opportunity yet. I look forward to getting that in the future, preferably in the fall….I guess I will be going now. …….Peace!

Some Recent Pics!

2/17/09 - Washington, DC


Larry & Alice Petry; Jay - The Petry's final
game night


Dick & Erma Foust; Jay; Al & Susanne Chrysler;
Alice & Larry Petry - The Petry's last day

I'm Back!

Well it’s been about a month and this is the first blog in a few weeks. I know I promised myself that I was going to try to do at least four blogs a month and I should have. I feel like I have been slippin’ a bit but this is a new month and now I will get things back to normal.

First off, the reason why I haven’t written anything in a while is because I was in my website mode. I have been making improvements on my upcoming website and I want to get up as soon as possible. My goal is to upload it is the end of this month. I really been putting the effort in creating something I can be happy with. I can’t wait for everyone to see it. However that is no reason not to blog. I guarantee I will do so much better at writing. That is one of the things I will be talking about and a personal goal of mine for this month.

Next, a couple weeks ago, I got a chance to go back to Washington, D.C for the fourth time since being here in New Windsor (5th time overall). I went with Larry and Alice Petry, a volunteer couple who host the Zigler building at the center. We just went for the day and went to see a few things. The first thing we did was visit this environment place, where they had a big plastic “Smokey the Bear” that speaks. We spent a few minutes in there and then after that we went to see if the Department of Treasury tours were going on. When we got there, they had closed the tours for an hour and a half, so we had to come back. In the mean time, we went to this art museum where they showed different types of sculptures and painted artwork that I thought was real interesting. We ended up watching this movie that showed a 30 minute science project that when I watched it, I had to laugh a bit because there were things in that video that I had to question whether it could be done or not. I would like to explain more, but it’s hard to put in words. Let’s just say it was one of those science projects that kept going and going. I heard about this video prior to going to DC again. That is one of the reasons I wanted to go again. After that, we went back to the Department of Treasury and waited in line for about 45 minutes to an hour before we got in. When we did go in, it took another 20 minutes before the tour actually started. I got to see more money up close and personal than I will ever see in 10 lifetimes. That was crazy. After the tour, we went to this place called Union Station to get something to eat because it was around 3pm and we haven’t had lunch yet. After we ate, went upstairs of Union Station and looked around for a bit. Alice needed to buy two Obama shirts for her grandchildren and I hung around for a bit. From that point on, I was pretty wiped out and we headed back home. It was a great day to be in DC.

Speaking of Larry and Alice Petry, they had been here since the beginning of January and yesterday was their last day. I really enjoyed their company. They are without a doubt one of my favorite volunteer couples to come here at the center and host one of the buildings. I have met them prior to the showing up here to host. They usually come here once a year in April to assist the BVS orientation coordinator at the BVS older adult unit. I am really glad I got a chance to get to know them, not just through BVS, but as volunteers here at the center. I am going to miss them a lot.

This month should be pretty busy for me. First, I plan on being in the gym twice or three times a week. That is something I haven’t done yet, but since I am leaving in about 5 or 6 months, I want to take advantage of the gym while I still have it. The next thing is getting my website up and going. I want it up very soon. I want to show people what I have done up to this point. Then I think I am going to start watching what I eat and what I drink. I need to loose a few pounds going into the next project, and I need to do it now. Then the Church of the Brethren’s Missons and Ministry Board (formally known as the General Board) is coming up in two weeks. I look forward to that. That is one of the only weekends I am going to work but I am excited about because I get a chance to visit a few people that I don’t see on a daily basis. However, it won’t be as big as before. The staff is staying put while the board itself is coming. I thing there are a few staff members, but I think they are executive directors giving some sort of report to the board. Anyway, I am still thinking of what my next project should be. I am going to see if I can get some updated information about the projects that are out there and the ones that are really in need of some help. I will always keep my options open. This month should be pretty exciting. I look forward to keep posting my reports.