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5.13.2007

Need A Lift?


Safety First - Part 1
Originally uploaded by A Ditlefsen.
The driver of the smaller forklift is Yann Caradec who is another of our port agents from the same company as Fred. If you can't guess what happened here, Yann went and got himself stuck on the rail and we needed the larger forklift to come over and help us out. This is the kind of thing that seems to happen everyday but mostly whenever you've got a really hot truck you need to discharge. The problem with these trucks that come in for deliveries is that they are often poorly loaded and their bosses have only allowed a few hours between their delivery to us and their next scheduled pick up. This would be all well and good if I knew what time the trucks would be arriving and what was inside so I could plan a little bit ahead. But as is often the case the truck we were unloading when Yann decided to beach himself on that rail had another pickup scheduled within the hour. In case you're wondering, YES, Yann is going above and beyond the call of duty by driving that forklift himself. Normally port agents shuffle more paperwork than pallets. But this shipyard has no warehouse and therefore no warehouse workers, forklifts or anything else so myself and the port agents spent an awful lot of time on that little forklift. . . and for me the party is just beginning because the ship is leaving on Friday and I'll be here cleaning off the pier and shipping various things to various places for a few days after and somebody has got to load those trucks.

And now it's time to fall off my soapbox and use the contents to shower instead of holding up my ego.

Today is Sunday. I can't say that it's been a rough day as far as work is concerned but just being around the same people in such close quarters for so many days is starting to get a little old. Need to spice things up a bit so I might head into town tonight and see if I can magically catch the Warriors playoff game. Doubt it'll happen but a man can dream and I've heard of this new device called a Sat&Light that is supposed to be able to pull images from the air and put them on any tv on Earth. Crazy. Now how do you say, "Golden State Warriors Basketball Rules, " in French.

And now that I've typed all that I just looked up the time of the game and Six O'Clock PM in Utah is about Two O'Clock AM here. . . so maybe I'll just check the score when I get up in the morning. How does that sound? Good? Good. Bon (good in French).

Actually at this point I'm already forgetting about learning more French and thinking about my German. . . or lack thereof. The next scheduled dry-dockings are in Hamburg next fall. Similar situation to what I'm in now with two ships going into the same dock, one right after the other and having similar work done. I doubt I'll be there the whole time for that those two but it has occurred to me to take a beginning German class this summer (if I can find one amongst the Spanish classes in Miami) and try to make myself a serious asset on the next dry-dock. Just a thought.

Well, there's quite a few more thoughts up there rattling around but most of them probably ain't worth the grey matter they take up. Irregardlessly, I should probably go have a shower and a beer to try to eliminate some of those rattles. Maybe I'll try ringin' the ol' madre to wish her a happy Mother's Day first. For those of you who haven't already done so I strongly recommend it. . . cause even if you don't love it, she will. Damn, jumped right back up on that box again and didn't even notice.

To answer a little quote from Family Guy that only a few people will get. . . . . . ."Yes, it is lonely up here on my pedastal."

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