Life on the Rails

[Savonarola]

Heh, finally the project is over? Will you need to go back for maintenance or trouble shooting? I guess if you again need to ship in network equipment, stash it inside a locomotive and ship that.   

Never say never but...

Unless FeNoCo signs a warranty contract, or hires us for additional work we're done with this project.  Given that coal isn't worth anything right now it seems unlikely that they'll be giving us a lot of additional work in the near term.  Bill and WD are in Colombia at the moment because Drummond hired us to set up some additional locomotives for them; but after that there's no plans for anyone to return to Colombia.  Sofia, Vinicius and I haven't been back since the beginning of October.

Alstom is set up in regions, where GE was set up by functions.  Our region is the United States and Canada; so my foreign adventures may be over (or limited to the wilds of Canada.)  We'll see how that actually plays out.  My wife will be much happier if I don't have to go overseas; but I'm already missing the jungle and my trains. 

[lustindarkness]

But we don't want this thread to be over.

[Savonarola]

But we don't want this thread to be over.

I've got a couple epilogues still to go.

[lustindarkness]

But we don't want this thread to be over.

I've got a couple epilogues still to go.

[Eddie Teach]

But we don't want this thread to be over.

He manages to find interesting stories wherever he is though.

[Archy]

Isn't their wild enough in US and Canada?
:duelling banjos:

[Savonarola]

But we don't want this thread to be over.

He manages to find interesting stories wherever he is though.

It's a gift. 

[Savonarola]

Isn't their wild enough in US and Canada?
:duelling banjos:

Yes, of course, one time when I was in Colombia there was an incident back in Melbourne a few blocks from where I live.  There was a man who leapt through the plate glass window of a stranger's house, waking up the owner who was asleep on the couch.  The guy who went through the window said that he was Jesus Christ and started slapping the owner.  (I don't want to jump to any conclusions, but I think there may have been drugs involved.) 

Even with all the weirdness that is Florida, it's hard to see your own country or your own culture as strange.  I've brought my own culture to Colombia and I view the country through the prism of the United States; from which it is very different.  Many things that I found odd about daily life in Colombia would be completely invisible to the natives.  Likewise a visitor to the United States would probably find many oddities that are invisible to me.

[Savonarola]

The Breaking of the Fellowship

On our last trip down to Colombia Bill was complaining about the frustrations and difficulties we experienced on the project.  He said he was happy to be leaving.  I told him that for the rest of his career he was going to tell everyone about what a great project this was and how well everyone worked together.

For successfully leading such a challenging project Bill should have been allowed to choose his next project.  He was initially tagged to be Project Manager for the next major project that's just starting; All Aboard Florida.  This is the rail system between Miami and Orlando; we're doing the signaling system for the crossings.  It would have been a prestigious position, and one well suited to Bill's abilities; but, due to office politics, that fell apart.  He was then given the role of writing product specs for Caltrain (San Francisco's passenger rail system) and All Aboard Florida; a role that he was both unqualified for and uninterested in.  Finally, with some pleading on his part, he ended up as the executive program leader for Caltrain.  I asked him the other day how the project was going.  He said, "The longer I'm on it the more the miss the jungle.  There's something to be said for no one being able to get a hold of you."

Jeff is on Caltrain back in his signaling role; Sofia thought that the bay area would be a good place for him to hide his undocumented girlfriend.  Kevin is also on Caltrain, he's ordering material for the project.  Nick, despite his unwillingness to travel, is also on Caltrain.  He spent a two month period San Francisco, and will return there after Thanksgiving for another three weeks until the Christmas break.  He had struck a deal with GE, they would bring his fiancée out there three times during his stay.  GE is so desperate for people that they agreed to his request.

Nick did get married at a small ceremony in the Keys.  He rented out a house for a week and had both the wedding and reception there.  Glen was supposed to be his best man but, GE being GE, he was sent to Port Hedland, Australia on the week of the wedding.  It might be for the best.  Glen told me that Nick's fiancée was constantly telling him things like, "You know you have responsibilities at this wedding you can't look like you've been drinking margaritas for three days straight," or "You can't get too drunk, you have responsibilities like seating my mother."  The evening after Glen told me that, I told my wife I loved her very, very much.  I find myself doing that almost every time Nick tells me something about his wife.

Sofia and Bill are once again on speaking terms.  She and Felix are both 50% time on Caltrain 50% on the Amtrak Wolverine line, between Detroit and Chicago.  WD is 50% Caltrain and 50% All Aboard Florida.  Felix has been working so much on Caltrain that he looks older than he did in Colombia; we were all relieved he got some help.

Ken is involved, at least to some degree, on every GE project.  He seems to pop up on nearly every conference call.

Vinicius is still in Sao Paolo.  He's working on a project for their largest national carrier ALL.  He's still desperate to get out of Brazil, but FeNoCo still hasn't signed a warranty contract, so there isn't work for him in Colombia.  Bill said he'd try to bring him into the United States on a North American project, but so far nothing has come of that.

Drummond hired us to put equipment on their locomotives, including the ones they got through customs so quickly while we were held up in customs.  Bill and WD went down for a week for that.  "He's happy," said Sofia, "He loves Colombia, no matter how much he complained, he really loves Colombia."

Gary, on the other hand still loathes the country.  He and Glen are staying on as GE, the rest of us are moving to Alstom.  To Gary's chagrin, GE is seeking to add their braking product to Drummond's locomotive.  Gary tried to make abundantly clear to the sales staff the difficulty of working in Colombia.

My next project is Amtrak back in Michigan along with Sofia, Felix, Max and Diego.  The project is mired in red tape, between Norfolk-Southern, Amtrak and the FCC.  Progress is unbelievably slow as compared to FeNoCo.  I was going to call my next set of stories "On the Amtrak to Hell," but "The Amtrak to Nowhere" seems more fitting.

[Malthus]

The guy who went through the window said that he was Jesus Christ and started slapping the owner. 

Well, don't leave us in suspense - was he Jesus Christ or not? 

[alfred russel]

Sav, you have an awesome job.

[lustindarkness]

Good stuff Sav.

[Savonarola]

The guy who went through the window said that he was Jesus Christ and started slapping the owner. 

Well, don't leave us in suspense - was he Jesus Christ or not? 

The authorities seemed to think not.  It's too bad he didn't claim to be Mohammed; he could have gotten himself a spot in a Donald Trump campaign ad.

[Savonarola]

Sav, you have an awesome job.

Thanks

The field work is a lot of fun, if sometimes trying.  I like the lab as well, that's something I didn't do a lot of in cellular.  Unfortunately I've found myself stuck in the office a lot these days as we wait for our (radio broadcast) licenses to come in.

[Savonarola]

Good stuff Sav.

Thanks, Lust