North West BS Thread

You have a good one too. Back at work...I have to come back to recover from my weekend. Not sure why, but I am SORE today.

 

Happy Monday!
Sunny and 30° on the dry side this morning.
Wife and I went to town to run errands without kids, yay for grandparents!

 

Get in a fight with DonJulio this weekend?

 

Pick me up a couple jars of olives. Black olives matter.

 

Kalamatas for me please...

Nah... I sip that stuff. I’m pretty sure it’sa combination of running up and down my stairs about 50 times this weekend (shop is in my basement) while doing the kitchen shelves, and crawling in and out from under my truck in the gravel while installing the bed lights and tailgate lock!

 

Ahhh man for for first time Monday was my Monday. I have spent the last 18 months on the same graveyard shift. I hope you guys had a great weekend. I smoked all kinds of stuff, invented a new “fusion” left over carnitas dish, and got my DD yellow Max’s in the mail today for my fogs. Sending back the 42” bar I bought on BF. I forgot to check for switch blanks before ordering. After looking at all my possibilities for bar control I decided just swap my fogs out and call it good.

 

If you make an extra one I'll buy it

 

Just got back from Lewiston. Had truck serviced. Visited a friend. Went out shooting. It was a good weekend. Back to the grind tomorrow.

 

How is that area? I blasted thru there a few years ago on "long route to Boise" and didn't stop. Looks like a cool area...

 

I love it. I'm thinking of moving back to that area again. Umatilla National Forrest is on Washington side. Snake river and hells canyon. Lots of great outdoor activities over there.

 

I grew up north of there a few hours. We always called Lewiston the armpit of Idaho... mostly because of the smell of the Potlatch mill (now “Clearwater” - we do work there).

 

I'm surprised I didn't get into an accident while passing through. My head was spinning taking it all in. Looks like a fun area to go explore.

 

It's definitely a cool spot. I know the Washington areas more so than the Idaho areas. But the few I've been to in Idaho was nice.

 

I am pretty much used to it. Boise Cascade in Wallula smells exactly the same. It's only bad when it's no air flow and just sits in the valley.

 

Years ago, I did a bunch of work at Wallula as well. My first job as a project manager in fact.

Lewiston has its beauty, and is certainly a gateway to some amazing areas. I've learned as I've gotten older to appreciate each place I visit.

It's also home to Seekins, which makes a fine rifle (I've got a Havok for my hunting rifle). And Orofino is just a little ways away and home of Night Force. The Clearwater River has some great fishing and hunting.

 

This is true.

I worked at Boise Cascade in college. They had a summer student program. I had an in as my uncle worked there as shift supervisor for a while.

 

Got any in's for beginner PM's? I retire from the AF in 2 years and my degree is in PM. I need to get my PMP next year.

 

Good question. If I was to simmer down my last 23 years into a set of bullet points, it would look something like this:

1. Be humble. If you knew everything, you wouldn't be there.
2. Ask a lot of questions. Never assume anything. Keep an open mind. Learn how to gather and digest data from a LOT of different sources.
   
3. Don't expect or ask people to do something you aren't prepared to do yourself.
4. Get buy-in from those you manage, but be prepared to make decisions that not everyone likes. You cannot lead by committee.
5. 10% (or less) of the job is actually planning and technical. 20% of the job is cheerleading - making your team feel motivated and appreciated and showing them what your vision is. 70% of the job is being a counselor or group therapist, especially when you've made decisions that not everyone likes.
6. Indecision is worse than a bad decision - you can correct for bad decisions (and learn from them). You cannot recover from indecision.
7. Have conviction in your decisions, but also be willing to admit mistakes. This goes back to items 1 and 6.
8. Often times, you can get the job done without what you may consider perfection. There are other times when perfection is paramount. Walking that line takes experience.
9. Realize that not everyone works to the same level or in the same way you would, but is still capable of contributing. Human nature is to contribute when provided the opportunity - you just need to fit them with the right role/task/opportunity.
10. Sometimes even your (perceived) most valuable performers can be your greatest disrupters. Identify cancer quickly, and squash it abruptly. You will recover faster from that than you will from the slow death that it will cause on an otherwise mediocre team, and you will usually find that your team morale increases exponentially when the cancer is gone. I've never been unable to recover from cutting someone loose, and there is no person I've let go that I have wished later I had back.
11. Solicit ideas from anyone you can. No idea is a bad idea - but sometimes it's just not a good idea for the current situation. You may come back to it for another problem in the future.
12. If your team is failing, first ask if you have provided them the three "T's" - the Time to achieve the objective, the Tools to be successful, and the Training to use those Tools. If not, then you have failed, not your team.

I keep a saying in the window on my office door:

"Good decisions come from wisdom...
Wisdom comes from bad decisions"

I don't put a lot of stock in certifications and such, but I get the idea behind it. I've got a BS in Architectural/Structural Engineering, and was working on a second BS in Construction Management. The real value I got out of that process was learning how to learn and how to apply what I observed to abstract situations. Everything else has been from getting stuck in the trenches, and having to lean on a motley crew of real salt-of-the-earth construction workers and figuring out how to get a project out of the muck and the mud within budget and on time without getting anyone hurt. Never stop learning...

Good luck! and thank you for your service...that was an opportunity I was not able to have.

 

Casey, this is some good and thorough advice. As a union carpenter who worked his way up through the ranks (apprentice, lead, foreman, gf, superintendent, general superintendent, estimator, contract administrator, and project manager), one of the most valuable things that I told new project managers to do was to spend time with the older, successful, superintendents. See how they interact with the subcontractors, owners and inspectors. And most of all learn how they solve field problems.

 

Thank you Ray.
No sense reinventing the wheel on every problem that comes up. Chances are high that someone you’re working with has already dealt with the same or similar problem and has already had to find a working solution. Instead, you’ve got an opportunity to make their solution even better.

Kind of like trying to mod your truck and coming here!

 

On my walk this morning I saw the largest horefrost I have ever seen This stuff sure does look cool

 

I had never seen that stuff before this winter, but growing up what we called hoarfrost was always the stuff growing sideways off the trees up near the timberline on the mountains in the dead of winter. I’ve seen this called hair ice or feather frost... pretty amazing stuff. That one is huge!

 

Trying to snow in Tri-cities but not sticking.

 

Sticking here. Got about 1-1.5" so far.

 

Good looking truck

We're expecting a dusting on Sunday, but I hear the Portland area is going to get more.

 

I'm at 1000 feet, so when Portland gets anything, I've usually got 3-4x that at my house. But usually this is what they get in Portland:

 

Ahhh man here we go.

This was a couple February’s ago at work(graveyard) with my last Tundra. I hope we get snow...but I’m not looking forward to the shit show that will probably happen at work.


Anyway where do people look for commuters nowadays? I don’t have FB and CL is just flat out stupid.

Search:Toyota pickup
Results: Fiat 500, Jeep Wrangler posted 97 times with the monthly payment listed as price. .

 

Winter of 2008 is the reason I bought my first Tundra. 36 inches of snow over the course of about 5 days at my house.

 

Oh man! Thinking about that storm will cause me to drink. That was a super expensive day for me that ultimately left me technically homeless( thank god my entire unit didn’t deploy 2 days later) a $1300 dollar next day flight to SD, my CC info stolen.

Think airport scene from Tommy Boy lol.

But I still love me a good snow storm freak out in Portland. Just glad I’m not driving a low boy.