Something Different this Week

I thought I would do something a bit different this week on this here blog. Maybe a bit self indulgent but what the hay anyway. Here you go:

A day in the life of Ron

Weekdays:
3:45 am - slowly get out of bed because it is so dang early in the morning. Go in and shave and take my daily multivitamin (yum), put eye drops in both eyes because I notice as I get older my eyes are very dry and scratchy when I wake up. Get myself dressed to my socks. Give my lovely wife Delaine a kiss goodbye (I'm not sure she know I do this) for the day and head down stairs.
4:00am - Eat a banana (if there is one there) and drink about 8 oz. of orange juice if it's in the fridge. If my joints and back are kind of sore I take and naproxin and down it with a glass of water.
4:05am - Check my email and the stock futures quickly before heading out into the dark, cool morning air.
4:10am - 4:15am - Morning prayer - Leave the house and head for work. Sometimes I have to stop for gas on my way out of town so I leave a few minutes earlier. The drive is 35 miles and takes me about 40 minutes to travel the distance. I usually set the cruise control at 55 mph to help conserve fuel.
~5:00am - Arrive at the plant. Go to admin and check my inbox for anything that could have been left from the day before then head on over to the plant and to my office.
5:10am - 5:30am - Check daily production and downtime reports to alert myself to any issues that may have come up overnight. Check the order file and look for any safety grams or announcements or market information that can be shared with the crews and posted on bulletin board in the shop. Collect the previous days time sheets and read over them to alert myself to any issues that may have come up overnight with the crews as well as ensure the guys did the work we left for them.
5:30am - 6:00am - Meet with the night shift crews as well as any of the day shift guys that have come in early. We usually set in a circle and it's share time. The guys share with me their successes and issues from the previous shift and I share with them the order file and any news related to market condition and shift scheduling that has come up. Also I share with them any successes or issues that may have come up the previous day. This time is very useful in guiding the ship and lavishing praise on those that do well and discuss issues and concerns with those that need the help.
6:00am - 6:30am - Take the time sheets I've collected and update our computerized timekeeping system. Seems odd that we have a computerized time keeping system yet I still have to spend a minimum of 1/2 hour a day updating the information. Seems like there are some opportunities for improvement here.
6:30am - 7:00am - I generally make a complete round around the plant. I head to the finger joint building through packaging and past the residual system and circle back through the I-Line, Rip Saw and Cold Press areas on my way back to the Lay-up Lines and Hot Press areas, then on around to the Dryers (even though they aren't running) and back through the Thermal Oil building past the air compressors back to my office in the shop. I think it's about 3/4 mile around the building. As I go I make notes of anything I observe that may need attention, like housekeeping, guarding, worn parts. It's a pretty quick trip but necessary.
7:00am Check in with the day shift crew all days except Wednesday as we have a maintenance meeting at 7:00am on Wednesdays. This meeting involves all maintenance leads and department leads and supervisor. You can imagine what we talk about . . . a few things are issues with equipment, project work per department, up time per department . . . and so on. Sometimes we try to solve the world problems too, but so far not much success there, so we generally try to focus on those things we actually have some control over.
8:00am - Senior staff meeting every day except Tuesday when we have a project meeting where we update each other on progress on our Finger Joint and Cold Press projects (they are both nearing completion so we will soon drop the Tuesday morning project meeting). The staff meeting is general supervisors and plant manager only. That is six of us when we are all there. Here again we go around the room and update each other on the previous day and any special projects or personnel issues we are working on. The plant manager updates us on sales and marketing and gives us direction on anything else that affects us.
~9:30am - 12:00 - We're usually all done with daily meetings by 9:30am or so and this is the time I get to work on work orders and address any maintenance issues within the plant. I also use this time to work on special projects that have been assigned to me or that I've come up with on my own. One thing that has recently been occupying my time here is our energy conservation project. I generally go online to energy profiler and look at yesterday's usage and plot it and share the information with all those that can help our quest to cut our energy bill. You get the point I'm sure . . .
12:00 - 1:00pm - Lunch break . . . usually hit McDonalds for chicken selects or a fruit and walnut salad then park and read (Ensign, horse journals, trade journals) , make phone calls to family . . . you know what I mean because sometimes I call you. If nothing else I will take a short (10 - 20 minute) nap in the car.
1:00pm - 2:00 pm - Scheduling meeting at the admin office. The plant scheduler gets an update from all the department leads and plant supervisors. Again, we spend some time during this meeting trying to solve the world problems with little success. Too dang bad all the politicians won't attend our meetings. We could straighten them out for sure. Maybe we should run for office (Ha!).
2:00pm - 3:00pm - make another quick round around the plant and meet with the swing shift crews to share information on market and order file and issues that have come up during the day. Check in with them to ensure our lead man has given them plenty of meaningful work for the evening. Talk about safety too while we are together.
~3:00pm - I head to the admin office to do my final check in with my boss where I pass on any pertinent information regarding the day then off I go . . . I hop in the car and head for home. Most days I'll stop at the Chevron station for a quart of water and a "take me home" snack then the 35 mile trip back home.
~4:00pm - 4:30pm - Arrive at home to begin our evening family activities which I normally write about. You know the stuff - Anna tutoring, tending to the horses, attending posse meetings, attending animal neglect meetings, attending search and rescue meetings, attending band concerts, watching American Idol . . . Blah, Blah, Blah . . . and hope you all enjoy.
~9:30pm - off to bed . . . nightly prayer then sleep . . . ummmm

One thing we did this week out of the ordinary was to go the high school play Oklahoma. The kids did a very nice job . . . there are some very talented kids going to Roseburg High.