Tuesday, December 13, 2011

Rockville, MD (USA)

Lee had this great idea a few weeks ago - "why don't you come with us up to Rockville to see how our meetings with the contractor go?" It seemed like a good plan at the time - but my mind is now swimming with traffic jams on the beltway, Metro stations, DC walking and new job usernames & passwords. The question: "Is there room for more?" Up at 0600 again, made my way onto I-495 and (along with LOTs of other people), drove around the city. Lots of construction and a few accidents, but I made it across the Potomac (into Maryland) alright - all the while, mindful of my brake problems. Got off on I-270 (no traffic in my direction!) and located the contractor complex in Rockville pretty easily. Early enough (0830) that I had a chance to eat breakfast with Lee in their cafeteria. Met my customer before we went into the series of scheduled meetings. Most of what we talked about was so new that I barely could follow, but there was one glimmer of hope in the process: an audit of the contractor's safety processes! That was very familiar and I tightly grasped the life-ring that had been tossed my way, gradually making my way into a comfort zone as the day progressed. We took a lunch break and ate at a place called Taipei Tokyo (good). Learned more about my customer (Jim). When we returned to the meetings we shifted to a whole new process of problem report reviews. LOTs of new acronyms - but some helpful folks kept me up to speed. We continued meetings until around 1600, when everyone else headed home. Another former Navy veteran (Bill) was kind enough to stay with me for a short while longer so we could go over a few of the processes discussed today (I'm going to need to do a TON of reading to get up to speed for the position - but it is all interesting stuff). Called Pat and told her I was ready to get together for dinner. She lives very close to where I was and I was there in about 10 minutes. Pat, Michael and I and chatted for about an hour - it had been a few years since we were able to get together (see APR 2007). Eventually, Pat drove us over to Fuddruckers for dinner (good). Lots of good conversation all night - I actually didn't leave Rockville until around 2200. Back at Bob's, got organized for my first real day of commuting - bed after that...