Doing a Saturday night post because I'll be working in the morning. This week was weird and not entirely in a good way. My schedule at work is all in question, but for this week I'm just going to let it ride and see what happens with things I have put in motion. If they work out, I will no longer be out at the space center. I don't really want to leave there, but I feel like I'm getting pushed out. For example, I was scheduled for only 1 day of work out there this coming week, but apparently the supervisor of my new supervisor caught a look at the schedule and flipped out, so I was back on Friday. I don't know how long that will last. I can say that my old supervisor wants me on his new site, so I may be going there soon. I'm just going to wait and see.
Before I get back into a little more work stuff, I just wanted to point out that for a reason which I will explain when I get back to work stuff, I didn't post Friday night vinyl until today, so it in essence, became Saturday vinyl. That will only be a this week thing.
Ok, now for the reason I couldn't post it. I didn't really say this, but I was put back on to my Friday night shift kind of at the last minute, so I was a little frazzled for the day because of that. I had already made plans for myself and that all got changed. I did manage to get the pictures and photos together to post, but just before 6pm last night a pretty major event occurred. I was just about to go and do my patrol when someone came into the lobby where my desk is, and told me that the fire sprinkler system had ruptured on the outside of the building. Fire was on the way so I went straight out to the gate to let them in when they showed up. It took some time since it wasn't an emergency in the sense that lives were at risk, but it was still an emergency. Once they got there I went down to look at the damage and see if anymore vehicles where coming in. When I got the clear from them I had to make a bunch of calls as per required by me whenever law enforcement or fire is on site. I made all those calls and waited for people to start arriving. Once the water was shut off so repairs on the pipe could take place, I had to conduct what is known as a Fire Watch. That meant I had to do a foot patrol every 15 minutes in the affected areas. This also meant since one of the affected areas is the part of the building where they assemble the space capsules, I had to go in and do fire checks. So yeah, I got to finally see the actual Starliner capsule up pretty close. There were still areas within that area that I couldn't go, and it wasn't necessary for me to go there, but I was able to see the scorch marks on the side of it from where the atmosphere kissed on it's re-entry. Oh, I was able to get a picture of the damaged pipe, no I didn't not take any pictures inside the room where the capsules were. That is a giant no no.
The water trickling out is what was left within the actually fire extinguishing system itself. Not sure if that flowered out portion was aluminum or steel, but you can see that the force of the water split it cleanly in half. There was no seam where that opened up at. The whole event from start to finish took about 3 hours, which was really fantastic. It could have taken much longer but Boeing has a team on call for just such an event, it was all a matter of when they arrived. I also got pretty high praise from the person that oversaw the repair and was told that it was going to be noted with a lot of praise going to me for my actions and willingness to do what needed to be done. One of the things he said to me and another person was, "This was a best case scenario" and he looked at me letting me know that me being on post that night was a part of that best case scenario. I would explain a little more why I know that to be the case, but there are a few things that I can't talk about, because people are currently looking into a few things that have started going on since the supervisor change. I'll just say that a lot of people aren't real happy.
Ok, now for something really fun. I have a picture for you of a dog that I saw on the SPCA's Facebook page a couple or maybe even a few weeks ago. I saw this face and simply became smitten with him. Here, I'll just share the picture now and then get into the story.
The picture gave his name as Pongo and that he is 8 yrs old and good with other dogs. That was really all I needed to hear, and I was ready to take Morty and Ri Ri up to meet him, but I didn't. The thing that was stopping me was Ri Ri. Even though she has gotten so much better with people because of the love and compassion that I've given here, she has had some pretty intense moments with other dogs. She is very selective about canine friends. Morty is one of the very few exceptions. Well this past week my nephew stopped by and Ri Ri was insanely good. She had been at a place that she would no longer go after people but would be very anxious and bark at them. Well when he came over, it had been a while since he'd been around so I figured Ri Ri would be in full Ri Ri mode, but she wasn't. She simply ran up to him, sniffed, and then waited patiently for him to pet her. I was floored, and began thinking about Pongo again. Well, since I was posted in Titusville today, and the building is literally 5 minutes from the SPCA, I called them and asked if Pongo was still there. I figured he would be, since a lot of reaction that I've gotten when I've shown people his picture are, "He looks mean", that he would be around for a while. Personally, I don't see mean in that face at all. That is a happy pup waiting for a treat right there.
So my relief came late today, which almost messed things up. I get off at 4, but we always clock in and out 5 minutes early, but since he was 10 minutes late, I didn't clock out until 4:05. The SPCA closes at 5 and they stop meet and greets at 4:30. If I had gotten off when I should have I would have probably been there by the time I was actually getting off, so I drove a little crazy and made it there by 4:10. They said that they may not be able to do it, and I let them know that I understood, what with being there so late and there was a storm on it's way, but the two women that do the greets came out and one of the remembered me from when I got Ri Ri. I mentioned Rita aka Ri Ri and she knew exactly who I was and said that she would do the greet. So I was going to meet Pongo. She brought me out to the pen and gave me the information that they had. Pongo was from a Miami swap, and he was found as a stray, so they have no really information about his breed, (it's pretty obvious that he is a pit) or any of his health. He did have some masses removed but the ones that were tested were all lipomas (fatty mass), so no real health concern, but that if he does go home with me, it would be something to keep an eye out for. The other big news was that he is 84 lbs. I was floored, he is bigger than Morty. That doesn't bother me and I let her know that. It wasn't until he came out that the joy of just how much of a squishy chonk he is took hold of me. When she said 84 lbs, I pictured a dog that would probably be a little taller than Morty and built like a brick wall, but that was not the case at all. Without them being side by side, I'd say that Pongo is probably and inch maybe two shorter than he is and most of his weight might be in his big ol pitty head. He has a very stout body as well. He was a little thrown off by the incoming storm and the rain that was coming down, and I immediately saw Morty in him. As you know, Morty is a chicken dog when it comes to thunderstorms so I recognized it right away. She began getting worried because Pongo wasn't really interacting with me, but I knew what was up. He paid just enough attention to me to let me know that it wasn't me, it was the storm. He gave some looks as if to say, "hey dude, you came at the wrong time. I need to focus on all this strange stuff going on around me.". He did take a couple of treats from me and showed no apprehension in approaching me, it was just the storm that was throwing things off. After meeting him I submitted my application for adoption so that a hold would be put on him. That means that they will hold him for 24 hours and not allow him to be adopted out until he can meet Morty and Ri Ri and I will have the first shot at taking him home, but that is really all depending on Ri Ri. I'm sure that He and Morty are going to get along great. He is a very chill dog, that has those occasional moments of play, but for the most part just wants to lay out and relax. That is exactly how Morty is, so I see them really getting along. Ri Ri on the other hand is very selective, so I hope she has a similar reaction to Pongo that she had to Morty. I really think he could be a great addition to my little fur family here and I'll get to give another dog a fur-ever home. My appointment is Monday at 11am for the big meet and greet, so keep and eye on Instagram for some puppy pics this week. If you see them you know what I'll be talking about next week.
Ok, I'm just calling Pongo my Favorite Thing of the Week, because he simply is. I hope you have a wonderful week and as always peace in and goodnight.
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