Long Week

[Safetrends]

I just got finished with a full work week of working in the worst down pour in San Diego.

My major problem started when a Navy ship (a really small ship) had a safe to drill open ASAP, meaning right now.
The ship was called the CHIEF MCM-14. Has anyone on TRF tried to work on a ship that was bobbing like a cork in a bottle, let alone trying to drill open a safe on the ship? So being in a down pour was just part of the problem, having to deal with a ship tossing you about in several directions is another? Getting black and blue was not my idea of fun. That happened on the 19th of January this week in the morning, the pier was flooded and I was drenched to the bone.

The last time this occurred, in December, I lost my primary laptop to a flooded pier when the laptop flew into the water, the power cord was wrapped around my boot and when I exited the vehicle the laptop came with me, funny, just real funny.

Now back to my story, I had another job on the Marine Corps Air Station in San Diego that had a lock problem; this is a special high security safe lock on a door. No information just a lock problem. It is pouring down rain, the door is located outside and I find out this lock is installed incorrectly and it takes me a full day to correct it in the pouring rain. I looked like a drowned rat. Now you ask yourself, why would he work on a door in the pouring rain with power tools? Well, the door is a security door and if it does not work, the security for the building has failed. Another emergency job with hazard pay!

The third major problem for the week is a grocery store employee. I got a call to work on the money chest (a nasty safe to open). Now the door was open and the employee looked at me and said the door is impossible to open with the combo. I was reaching for the door when the employee slammed the door shut causing a lockout. I nearly strangled the employee because I gave strict instruction not to close the door once they got it open. The manager failed to tell the employee not to lock the door and I spent three hours opening the safe having to run out to my van in the heavy down pour for tools. Again, I looked like a drowned rat.

So that sums up my week here in San Diego. I hope some of the TRF members will understand my plight and take pity on an old man who made another mistake and caused a problem here on TRF. I hope my apology will be accepted by the other TRF members who were offended. I am a jokester and I am sometimes I am misunderstood. I would like to leave it at that and move on from here.

I have been trying to get some books up loaded into the library from my collection; I guess I am trying to redeem myself.

The first photograph is the Ship I worked on and the second one is a photo of the San Diego bay.
The third one is the lock with the black aluminum cover plate on the door. That is finished product of my work.
The fourth photograph is the installation of the old lock (by an amateur) that had ugly bright aluminum finish push plates stacked on the door. The lock was unstable, not installed correctly, which created the $2,300.00 failure.