Weekend Sailing in San Franscico

I was able to head to San Francisco for a long weekend of sailing. The weather was great and a good wind helped provide the means to sail all day. Stocking the boat with supplies and heading out, a rounding of Angle Island and a shot across the bay and pasted 'the rock'. Wonderful views of the city front and bridges, boats and even a few dolphins.

Spent the night on 'the hook' at the island, nice spot in towards the beach and once everyone left it was very quiet. The BBQ on the boat fired up and a good supply of rum helped ward off the slight chill of the evening. Once dinner was eaten, not much else to do but head below and get ready for sleep. Early morning brought a little fog and a gentle roll of the waves. Only a few boats stayed the night and we decided to head to Sam's for some food.

A nice sail back to the dock and put the boat to bed. a great weekend.

My Greek Olympics: Working towards the first test...

Apartment:

At this time, I also got my apartment, but it had no furniture so I would have to buy some. I didn't like the furnished places, so I was told I could get the company to provide money to buy the furniture. George had a friend who knew people and we went one Saturday to look and buy. I got a coach, table and chairs, an arm chair, a small desk and a futon. Then I would buy my stove, washer and refrigerator at another place. I was still in the hotel till the end of June, since the furniture wasn't going to be delivered till then. I had found the place originally through Ari, he knew a woman who had a place and he gave me the number. I liked it more because there was no furniture and I could get what I wanted, I should have gotten a furnished place, but....

Apartment

When I finally moved into my place at the begining of July, I didn't have much to fill it. The apartment was on Omirou Street, on the slope of Mt. Lykabettus in the Kolonaki area, but was closer to the University. I was only a block from Trep's office and about a mile or so from the MOC. Around the corner was a small market and on the next block was a small, very small bar called "Low Profile". Up the street and down a bit, there were lots of bars and restaurants, though I didn't go to them much, just walked by. My apartment was 92 square meters, which is about 900 square feet. I had three AC units, which was a lot for Athens since it cost so much to run them. I had to buy the refrigerator and stove plus a washing machine, but I didn't get them untill August. The store I went to never got the items in stock so I cancelled that order and went to the store next door. I got the stuff with in a week.

Altec:

At this time David was man-handling Altec, one of the subs, and they were complaining to their "friends" with in the company, who we are sure they bribed. Altec was to put in the network at the MOC, but they never showed up and always made an excuse as to why they couldn't come. Finally they showed up to do the phones and network setup, but after 3 hours nothing worked. David was pissed and threw them out, we were going to put the network together our selves, namely me. I found an electronics store and David and I purchased the tools and equipment. I crimped the cables and connected the ports, plus set up the phone lines. We got an electrician in to make sure the wiring was right and with in a few days we had power, phone and a network.

Watching the Fire Brigade:

In June we went to the Fire Brigade to observe how they operate and get a scene of what is done on a standard call. The staff were all in a big room with a large table in the middle, a set of "windows" were on one side of the room. The people at the table would answer the phone and write down the information, they would yell to another guy who would come and get the paper. The paper would be handed to a guy in one of the windows who would call on the radio to send a vehicle. This involved a lot of yelling and handing paper back and forth. No one seemed to keep the paper as a record or do any reporting on what was happening.

Part of the contract was to build an addition on the existing building and move all these operations over to those new offices. Each group and function would have a dedicated area to work in. We were giving them a system that would do all of the call taking on a computer screen and take a way the yelling, plus have a record of the calls. In the new offices, we were going to have the phones in a different room, the radio in a different room and a wall in between. When they finally moved up to the new office, they had the partitions removed so they could yell between the rooms. Kind of defeated the whole purpose of the system, and just interfered with how they new system was supposed to help.

Putting in the rack at MOC:

Fire Brigade Office

As we started to install the computers and get the system working at the MOC, we were faced with a decision to have a rack installed for the computers for the IET1 demo. We were going to show the system as it would be installed and having the computers in a rack would be best, but how do we get the rack in the MOC?  A rack is a large steal frame and it has the power connections and back-up power units all installed. It is heavy and it can't be disassembled for the install. I looked at removing a window on the first floor and having it brought up on a crane, but the window was to small for it to fit and it would be expensive. David decided that the computers would just sit on tables in the server room. The room was all the way in the back of the first floor (second floor) and air-conditioned. The computers were expensive, something like 300 thousand dollars. It was important that the computers were well taken care of since they would end up in a command center eventually they needed to be kept in very good condition.

Dealing with wiring:

The wiring at the MOC needed to be worked on so I was able to get a couple of electricians in to fix it. The power lines were not very safe and the wiring was a mess from when the last tenants left. They just cut the wires instead of disconnecting things. Along with the power, the computer network wires had been cut so I had to deal with wires that were not labeled or had end plug. I had to crimp new connections on the wires then test them to find out which port they went to. Once I had that done I had to workout how they would connect to the server. Plus the phone lines were also not connected and I had to find the phone line and which number went to which line. It took days to get this all worked out and we had the IET coming fast.



Old Fire Brigade office



Alarm at MOC:

The MOC had an alarm system installed since we had hundreds of thousands of Euros worth of equipment there. I was in charge of the system and I was the keeper of the codes. Once security officer Bob showed up, he wanted control of the system. I was like "bull-shit to that!" He wanted to have access to everything and total control. The system had an administrator code and 10 user codes. I had the admin code and I gave out the other codes to George, David, and the others. I gave the corporate shits a code, but I kept the master. One problem was that the system had a motion detector and the window blinds would move at night when there was a strong wind. Air would go under the door jam and make the blinds move, which set off the alarm. I would get a call from the alarm company and I would have to go shut the alarm off. Since I lived the closest (actually George was closer but since he broke his leg he wasn't around) I would have to go shut it off. I should have given the responsibility to dweeb and let him deal with the alarm going off. Once we had the entrance to the MOC re-done, no more wind could cause the alarm to go off and it solved the problem.

Weekend Boat work, Part 2...

At the last minute I decided to drive up to the Seattle area and spend the weekend, since I was up the previous week working on the boats I decided to go up again and help get them in sailing condition. I drove up on Friday night and the weather was going to be perfect, lots of sun and warm. The drive up was easy and the mountains and volcanoes looked cool still covered with snow. Since we had fixed most of the damage to the hulls, we focused on the trailers and painting the water line on the black hulled boat. We had sanded the old blue line and we thought we would paint it a dark blue, but when at the store looking at paint, we found a color shifting blue paint so we said lets see what that looks like.

Back at the boat, we sprayed the paint and it looked like crap. A very translucent sparkle blue was all we got, plus it ran badly. We thought it would take many layers to build-up the color, then Ray read the label. Spray over a black undercoat.... Well since we were spraying over a primer coat it looked bad, so off to the store again for a can of black paint. A quick sand and Ray sprayed to black then sprayed the blue, it looked really cool this time. Looking straight at it it has a blue color, but at an angle the colors are everything from green to purple and even copper. Ray liked it so much he wants to paint the whole hull in that type of paint. The idea was to have one boat red and the other blue. Also we talked of graphics on the side or transom, a dragon and sea horse.

Once we did the paint, we turn our attention to the trailer. When we took the one boat off the trailer to work on it, the supports were so rusted that  two broke off. We had to build a new cradle to support the boat so Ray got some wood and we fashioned a new set of supports. Then we flipped the white boat over and onto the trailer. The supports worked perfect and we decided to get the rig out and see if there was any issues with that. A quick check and once the lines were in order, I put the mast on and held it while Ray fastened the bolts and attached the stays. We put the jib on and looked at the main, but we couldn't find the spinnakers. But the rig was fine and the boats was ta that point ready to sail if we wanted.

There is some more work to do, but the boat at least could be sailed now. The second boat still needs a little work and the sails for that boat are not in good shape. Plus we have to build a second cradle for it so we can transport both boats. But we have a plan and we are confident we will have them in the water soon. I may go back in July to sail them and help with the other work, but it is good to have them both in a condition so they can be sailed.

Weekend boat repair...

This last weekend I drove up to see cousin Paola and had the chance to start doing some work on a pair of Mini_Millimeter class boats. They have been sitting for at least a year and needed a good cleaning and some general repair. Minor glass work and paint mostly. Though it was to be a 'good weekend', it was drizzly on Saturday and some sun finally on Sunday. 


The boats had to be flipped and placed on saw horses so we could clean them and fix the hulls. The first one was very heavy, I didn't think it would be so much but it was a struggle. The second was easy, a lot lighter for sure. After checking both, one definitely had a lot of weight in the bow and it sounded solid verses the other that sounded hallow and empty. Either one has foam and water in the bow or there is something else to make it heavy.

We washed both down and scrubbed them clean, one was in very good shape while the other had more damage. Mostly it was confined to the rudders but there were a few cracks and chips that needed filling. The rudders needed to have cracks filled and one had to be re-bolted before glassing. But it was easy to fix and we managed to get all the chips and cracks filled. A little sanding and they will be perfect and ready for paint.

We have talked about painting graphics on them, maybe a dragon on one and a horse on the other or just cool colors. Not sure yet but they are small and it will be easy to paint them in a short time.

My Greek Olympics: Getting started

Sandwich shop:

George had said he found a place near by that sold sandwiches and they were good, so I said to get me one. George said that a girl will deliver them and she was really good looking. Of course this was George speaking and he was a bit of a pervert. So I ordered and a few minutes later there was a buzz at the door and Marcini went down to get the door. A couple of minutes later George walks in with Vikki and the sandwiches. She was about 19 and very pretty. She was from Albania, but the Greek area so she could live in Greece. She had a high pitched voice but she could speak English very well.

I got the sandwich and paid her, she was very friendly and happy to meet us. Marcini had a look of "Ok get out", Marcini was not that attractive and Vikki just made her look that much less. The sandwich place was just around the corner and we would go there once in a while, Vikki would be off delivering food and we would say hello. George always wanted to go there to see Vikki, George is such a pervert and it was embarrassing to see him drool over her. I would see Vikki off and on, but she was going to school and she would not work much during the year.

Yurgos owned the sandwich place and he was happy to see us, especially David. David had a large appetite so the sales that day would be good for him. Sometimes we would go over and sit at one of their tables and eat. Yurgos would give us a shot of Raki or something. Everyone who worked there was very friendly and always seemed happy to see us. They mostly served sandwiches and ice cream and it was a small place so they couldn't do much. The sandwiches were called Toast so you ordered a ham toast or turkey toast.

Apartment:

At this time, I also got my apartment, but it had no furniture so I would have to buy some. I didn't like the furnished places, so I was told I could get the company to provide money to buy the furniture. George had a friend who knew people and we went one Saturday to look and buy. I got a coach, table and chairs, an arm chair, a small desk and a futon. Then I would buy my stove, washer and refrigerator at another place. I was still in the hotel till the end of June, since the furniture wasn't going to be delivered till then. I had found the place through Ari, he knew a woman who had a place and he gave men the number. I liked it more because there was no furniture and I could get what I wanted, I should have gotten a furnished place, but.

When I finally moved into my place, I didn't have much to fill it. The apartment was on Omirou Street, on the slope of Mt. Lykabettus in the Kolonaki area, but was more near the University. I was only a block from Trep's office and about a mile or so from the MOC. Around the corner was a small market and on the next block was a small, very small bar called "Low Profile". Up the street and down a bit, there were lots of bars and restaurants, though I didn't go to them, just walked by. My place was 92 square meters, which is about 900 square feet. I didn't have anything in the place at first and I never really filled it with stuff nor really need that much space. I had to buy the refrigerator and stove, plus washer, but I didn't get them right away, I had work to do and not a lot of time.

Altec:

David was man-handling Altec and they were complaining to their "friends", who we are sure they bribed. Altec was to put in the network, but they never showed up, and always made an excuse. Finally they showed up to do the phones and network, but after 3 hours of doing nothing they left. David was pissed and through them out, we were going to put the network together our selves, namely me. We found an electronics store and purchased the tools and equipment. I crimped the cables and connected the ports, plus set up the phone lines. We got an electrician in to make sure the wiring was right and with in a few days had power, phone and a network.

Watching the Fire Brigade:

We went to the Fire Brigade to observe how they operate and get a scene of what is done on a standard call. They all were in a big room and a large table was in the middle, a set of "windows" were on one side of the room. The people at the table would answer the phone and write down the information, they would yell to another guy who would come and get the paper. The paper would be handed to a guy in one of the windows how would call on the radio to send a vehicle. This involved a lot of yelling and handing paper back and forth.

We were giving them a system that would do all of this on a computer screen and take a way the yelling, plus have a record of the calls. In the new offices, we were going to have the phones in a different room, the radio in a different room and a wall in between. When they moved up to the new office, they had the partitions removed so they could yell between the rooms. Kind of defeated the whole purpose of the system, and just interfered with how they new system was supposed to help.

Weekend trip:

I took a quick trip over the weekend to see the family. Of course I had the nieces and nephew jumping all of me and had to carry them around, but that is all part of the fun. Cooking was another standard, I made dinner on Saturday night, was easy and came out good. Broiled Salmon with a mint pesto, roasted potatoes and salad was the menu for the night. Helped my mom with her computer and did some yard work as well as collect a few bamboo poles that were growing in the yard. A quick trip with lots of things to keep me busy.

My Greek Olympics: Starting to get things togethere

Meeting with Mies:

In June, we had the pleasure of having Admiral Mies Rtd. join the team. This was when we still were fighting the corporate types and there was a lot of bad blood between us and the corporate types who just showed up. After some interesting meetings, that I was not part of, I was informed that I would have to meet with Mies and have a talk on the project's future. The Jay, Vic and that crew had to stand before the idiot and get a lecture on being a team player. I was one of the last ones and Vic's advice was to take it, say yes sir and leave. Vic told him 'You are not in a uniform anymore and I don't take orders from you', that set the tone.

I found out that Vic had a rocky meeting and David did as well. I thought it was a joke, this guy shows up and tells me that I have to be a team player, when the company was screwing the project with all the crap they were doing. It was a power play for one group to get control and Mies was there to put everyone in line. In the end Mies was fired or left the company, but it was done in the usual "wanted to spend more time with family" crap. SAIC couldn't understand that they were working for the government of Greece not the DoD, this would cause most of the problems for the entire contract.

Looking for a site for the MOC:

Since we were looking for places to live, we also were looking for a place to work. We looked at a place near the US Embassy, but it was to small. There was a place we saw across the street from DAOA that would be perfect. It was two levels and had a large open area that would be good for training. The place had to be re-modeled but that wasn't that big a deal. We asked the corporate shits to look into it and they of course had the real-estate lady make the inquiry. She was the one taking the kick backs and we think she wanted money from the owners of the place and they said no. Basically she said that the place was not suitable. How would she know what is suitable? Anyway, the place was sold to someone else and we had to keep looking.

The MOC:

Looking out the window of the MOC

We got the place and started to do the set up, Altec was to put in the network and I organized the office space. It was June and the IET was at the end of July, we thought we had enough time to get things set up and running. A video wall was to be put in and the tables for the workstations would be installed to show we met the IET requirements. We didn't plan on the site being the training center at first, but we were having trouble finding a suitable site. The guys from the video wall sub-contractor came to measure the place and we decided on where the video wall would go. The MOC was for testing, integration and planning, a mock-up of a command center.


My office in the MOC

We (I) had to take down some walls and re-wire the place. I also got to work with the guys for the video wall which led me to become the expert on how to use it and everything else. It wasn't even part of my subsystem, but no one else bothered to learn how to use it. The upstairs was our offices and the ground floor the MOC. When we got the place, there was a partition wall and set of offices on one side. We had to take the wall down so we would have a meeting room. George said he would find someone to do the work, but I took a look and decided that I could take it apart myself.



It was simple light-weight metal and glass held together with screws. I had most of it taken apart with in an hour. I save the pieces under the staircase and in other rooms. The only thing was we needed an electrician to take care of the wiring. The guys from our sub-contract came to deal with installing the video wall. It would need a lot of space and we decided to have it on one wall and put the tables in three rows in front.

Because the police and fire people would be there, we needed to have a fire inspection. We were able to have the fire brigade send two guys and take a look. They said we needed some fire extinguishers and a fire hose. The fire hose was a garden hose and I was able to buy the extinguishers at a store on Athinas street. The setup would take place in June and July, we had to get the network installed, the phones and tables delivered, plus install the computers. It fell to me to do most of it, George wasn't much help and David was dealing with the politics. Vic and Jay were off in meetings most of the time and I didn't know what they were doing either.

My Greek Olympics: Just starting

The first Fly-In – Fuck-Offs:

This first month is when we had the visitors from the different divisions, people would show up and say they were sent to work with us and they needed information on some part of the contract of something. Also, a few people there were on "holiday" and they used the contract as an excuse to come to Greece. One guy was getting married on Santorini and had gotten himself a ticket to Greece for the wedding, he worked with us that first month, then he quit. Most of what we did was compliance review, I was trying to figure out what was happening, but I didn't get much information from Jay or Vic, I hardly saw them. The project was changing before it really got started.

Going home for a break:

I was in Greece for only a few months, but I had to return one last time so I tried to get as much information as possible so that I could go back and make recommendations to the guys in the office. This is when I still was a part of the 155 division and was supported by the others, though Fene was working behind my back as I was to find out.

My return to the US was as long as the trip over, a reverse of the way out. Leave at 6:00 AM and fly to Frankfurt, then to San Francisco and finally San Diego, about 24 hours total. I was going to be home for a short time, collect more things and fly back, but this gave me a chance to go into the office and fill everyone in on what was happening. We were providing CATS and the software was to be modified once we got all the requirements resolved. Also, the division was making money on David, Vic, Jay and I, so Dean was interested in what was happening, since I still technically worked for him.

I was able to get some inside info from Mary Beth, apparently the CATS project was coming up for review and the DTRA guys weren't happy. Also Fene was bad mouthing us as usual and stirring the pot. What a little shit he was. I took a few days off since I was working so much, did some things around the house, but the project was still on my mind. We still had so much work to do still and no real resolution of any of the problems that should have been resolved by then. Margit seemed to want me out of the house and I was happy to fly out after a weeks stay, this was the last time home for months. I was now on my own and life would be very different for the next two years.

Run up to IET1:

Once I got back to Athens, we had to get ready for the first milestone, IET-1 (Integration Engineering Test1), which was to be a walk through of the systems we were providing. First order of business was to find a work place. We wanted someplace in the center of town and large enough for most of our work, we also needed a training site. We looked at a place near DAOA, but it would take to long to fix up. George had an old friend who owned a building space in the center. It was an old tourist office and had a minimal network infrastructure. We got the place cheep, something like 6000 Euros a month, the company was renting a shit office in Marousi for 25000 a month, of course they were being taken by the real-estate agent and some kick backs were going on I am sure.

My Greek Olympics: Getting started...

David's place:

David's apartment was on the other side of Kolonaki near Evangelismos and once I had my place I would walk over to his side of Kolonaki and go to a cafe/bar called Mia Tie for drinks and food. The beer was expensive, $10 for a half liter of Alpha, and the food was a bit pricey too. The food came from a place next door called 'The Grill' which was owned by the Mia Tie. But this was a real happening place and it was always crowed, so crowed that people would use parked cars as tables, and that's the double parked cars. We got to know the owners and all the staff, they were fun to be around and the girls were cute, David was King as always.

David's apartment was furnished and was comfortable. The bad thing was it was across the street from the hospital and there was always a group of people hangout in front. A lot of people who inherit an apartment will rent them out with the same furniture. So they look old and have that "Grandmother" smell. But it was a nice place with a lot of room.

David's place was a short walk from Kolonaki square which was where Tops the restaurant was. Tops of Kolonaki or just Tops, which is an old school style restaurant in the heart of the fashion district. Many hot girls would walk by and a crew of old movie star types would hang about. We of course got to know everyone there as well. Around the corner there were a number of restaurants and bars we would go to as well. One place was a American style western bar, very expensive and not to good.

Work Permit:

We were told that we had to obtain a work permit since we would be in Greece for more than the allotted time. The company would arrange it and we would be told what we had to do. I didn't actually need one since I was an EU citizen and had the Italian passport, but I didn't want to give that info to the company. So we had to provide information on our families and we all had to have a chest x-ray and visit a doctor. We had an appointment at a facility in town and the van came to take us for the x-ray. We showed up at some building and all went in, kind of an old run-down looking office and one by one we went in to get our x-ray.

About a week later we had to go to a doctor's office way out of town and meet the doctor for the exam. They took us to a place that was some medical facility and we had to wait for our appointment. We waited and waited until finally we would go in for the "exam". We just sat there while the doctor filled out forms and wrote a few notes. They didn't ask anything or even look at us, it was a big waste of time and the company paid a bunch of money for nothing. Later we got the work permit, but since I always flew through Germany and never had to show my passport or I would use my Italian one, the permit was a joke. Just another stupid thing we had to do.

So many meetings, such a waste of time:

I can't even explain how many meetings I had to go to, they were constant and at all locations throughout Athens. Either I would have to take the train to the port or to Marousi, a taxi to a command center or some place out in the middle of nowhere. In the summer months I hated the train ride back from Marousi, Greeks don't bathe a lot so in the hot months it really smelled on the train. Also everyone was so packed into the cars that the sweat was like oil in the can of tuna fish. I felt sorry for the shorter people who would be forced to smell the people and have no air circulation. At least I could breathe since I was above most people.

George would grab a seat and stay seated no matter who was on the train. Even a 90 year old women on crutches would have to stand because there was no way George would give up a seat. When I was going to the Fire Brigade center, I would take the metro as far as I could go then walk to the main street or grab a cab for the remainder of the trip. It is not uncommon to share a cab with people. If there is someone flagging down a cab, the driver may ask if it is OK to stop and pick up the other person. In most cases it is alright and the drive will slow down and the person will ask say where they want to go. If it is in the same direction they hop in. I would share with other people all the time, it cost less and I could get to where I needed to go.

Some meetings were quick and I could get out fast, but having to travel across town and at the worst times made the meeting that much more painful. In most cases, I could have just phoned in rather than drive or travel to the location. It is the corporate mentality to have everyone together in one spot. In Greece most of the decision-making takes place not in a meeting, but at a bar in the evening over drinks. I would sit in a meeting with the committee and nothing is resolved, them I go out with some of the committee members and we talk thing through and all is solved. Amazing!

The meetings that I would have on my own were better than the ones with the corporate losers. I could go somewhere and meet people and talk about the problem or the system. I would try to give an honest answer to questions and try to explain why things are the way they are. In most cases I could get the information I needed or find out what the issues was. If the meeting was with the losers, then I had to deal with the stupid people saying stupid things.

While I was working out of the Siemens office, we would go to a little cafe down the street. It was in a bad location, at the end of the road with little traffic. They had good food and it wasn't too expensive, but the location. The first month we were there we didn't know much about the place so we asked the waitress where to go and things to see. George would make stupid comments and embarrass us. We asked which island to go to and place to visit, she told us to go here or there and we said we would go. I don't think we went to any of the places though. Siemens did have a lunch room type place, but it was limited and we had to deal with the people in the office when we ate there.

The Tree House...

I was fortunate enough to have the skills to build a tree house for a wonderful little girl, and help her mom fulfill a wish. I said I could build a tree house and I drew up some plans in my head then wrote them down. I will admit it wasn't the best drawing, but it conveyed the idea. The plan was to build an elevated platform round a double trunked redwood and make it so it was "up in the trees".

I decide on making it 10 x 12 so that I could get enough room around the tree and not have to cut a lot of wood to make it fit. Minimize waste was my goal. So we agreed to the design and I started to build the main platform. Six 4x4s on foundations tied with 2x6s, then 2x6s as the decking. I worked one weekend putting the main platform up, then spent the evenings during the week to continue. The next weekend was mostly used to get the deck finished, but the design changed a little so I had to adjust the plan. I would build a wall with a roof on one end so that there was some cover. I was a bit worried about building to big, was starting to look like a house!!!

So the tree house kind of looks like a house and it is in the tree so I think it has come out OK. The little girl seems to  like it as does her mother. I still need to finish a few little things, but it just about done. It cost a little more but I think it will be a hit.