Update...and apology

Apparently I'm getting more hits on this stupid blog than I realized. I have a good friend at work who razzes me about updating my blog, and truly, I have been extraordinarily busy this past week since that last weekend of HELL. So...updating has been difficult. But I got an email yesterday from a REAL long time friend...and realized maybe I need to do more. Regularly.

So...HI! I'm still alive. The scoop is that I'm busier than I've ever been at work. I had to prepare an analysis of some of the things we're working on with our new Tiered Emergency Medical Dispatching Program (TEMD). Had to show percentages and this and that and the other thing--and oh, did I mention this was at the request of the #3 guy of the entire department (Ops Chief) who then was going to turn it in to the #1 guy (the FIRE CHIEF). So not only did it have to be mathematically sound, but it had to look good and readable on ONE PAGE in Excel. Ohhhhhhhhh yeah...almost forgot the fun part. I was told that I had to design it to make sure that it could be "universal" so I could take other data from other things and just "throw it in" and the chart would still work.

And it was due in less than 12 hours.

True story.

Ok--just realize that I enjoy math about as much as a root canal (which is strange because I really love writing drill, and isn't THAT just an extended exercise in XY coordinates and crap?!?!?!). I know Excel in how to create forms and how to do VERY VERY basic things...like "AUTO SUM"!!! Wooooooooo hoooooooooo!!! I'm good at that. But I quickly learned how to create my own formulas and reference certain cells and back and forth and this and that...I basically sludged through it by getting the data I needed, compiling it, making it make sense, make it look pretty, make it "universal" and then...sending it to the Ops Chief.

Earlier in my blog I had an epiphany about being scared and asking what's the use of being scared. I'm not normally intimidated by people...more the other way around, that I inadvertently intimidate people. The Ops Chief intimidates me. Pure and simple. Ohhh I fake it that he doesn't. Oh but he does. So, by sending this thing out to him, it wasn't as though I was "taking my life and career" in my own hands or something--no, not that melodramatic. But I was on a certain amount of pins and needles. About 10 minutes after I sent the email with my creation to the Ops Chief, my Outlook "dinged" with the message "You have an email from the Ops Chief, and boy is HE PISSED". KIDDING! He wasn't. He just said, in typical executive management way, "I'll get to this in a minute. Thanks." That was it. I stared at my computer screen for about 15 minutes in shock, and of course, anticipating the follow up "this is horrible get your ass over to my office" email--because I was TRULY "faking it until I made it".

Next thing I hear...my door opening in my office. And there standing was?

Right...the OPS CHIEF FOR GOD'S SAKES!!! Did I mention he knocked before he came in? Did I mention then me, thinking of course it was a dispatcher checking to see if I was awake or my immediate goofy supervisor wanting to say something insulting to me, yell out in response to the knock, "Yeeeeeeeeeeeah, what is it?????" in the most irritated voice I could muster? Yeah...real good Turner. Anyway--he sat down with me, told me I was on the "right track", gave me some actual real good suggestions about more format than anything because you see, it wasn't that HE cared about it, it was because it was going to the CHIEF CHIEF. And then, right in the middle of his explanation of things, he looks at me and says, "Now look, I don't know how the hell to do all this--you might as well tell me to install spark plugs in a diesel engine." Ahhhhhhhh hahahaha, that's a good one, hahahahahaha. We laughed. Tension broken. Hahahahahaha.

But in the back of mind, I had a voice saying, "SHUT UP TURNER!! Don't say ANYTHING about the content of what he just said. You don't know a THING about engines, so you run the risk of looking dumber than you actually are. There's a chance spark plugs don't REALLY exist in a diesel engine. Please man, for the love of GOD, don't say anything." You'll be happy to know I just laughed it off and didn't comment.

Do diesel engines have spark plugs? I'm thinking not.

Anyway...I continue to work on the project, adding a WHOLE 'NOTHER LAYER of data on to ONE SHEET, make it look pretty, and then send it to the Ops Chief later in the day. He types back to me a very very nice email that I'm going to frame, because apparently my hard work paid off, and he said, in part, "Great job...this is what I was looking for--actually, MUCH BETTER than what I was looking for." He don't compliment too much...so I be happy.

Anyway...that's only ONE thing that I've been busy with...and that's all I can update for you today. I am taking a personal day off from work, heading to Valencia today for a meeting, than back down home and back to the Fire Department tonight for a Board of Directors meeting. My first.

See ya--now get outta here.