AMERICAN ADMIRALTY BOOKS
`SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 2, 2012
| Official U.S.Navy Photograph |
LIVE FROM NEW ORLEANS AT PJ's COFFEE SHOP
We still have no electricity at home. Now it seems we may not have it for a long time through the nearby mall is lit up and people as close as three doors away have it. The power company explains these pockets of power loss like this. If everyone around you has it and you don't, it may be a downed pole in your particular area or a blown transformer. (Its never the house next door there is always a street between the breaks.) If that's the case they label it a "neighborhood problem", and they'll get back to it after they have restored power state wide. In short I'm low man on the totem pole for electrical grid triage. The power company estimates that these "neighborhood problem"s will take 5 days to 5 weeks to clear up, ....depending...on what... they don't like to specify. There is just nothing like losing power when you are in an electrically driven business and living in a climate with many weeks of 90 degree (f) heat and 90% humidity. Hey, but its just a "neighborhood problem", no need for any sense of urgency.
They have been real nice here in the mall with letting all the laptop users tap into the electricity. There are bunches of us here. The city didn't experience a mandatory evacuation and much of the electrical grid is back up so a lot of Yuppies are facing Tuesday with report deadlines, but because they suffer from a "neighborhood problem" they can't get the work done. Of course to the typical Master of the Universe Wanna Be Boss that most of these Yuppies work for a "neighborhood problem" translates to" personal problem". People with "personal problems" sometimes are seen as "not team players". I'm glad I've gotten out and actually met some of my neighbors. Just as we professional mariners often complain that "civilians" are totally unaware of life on "the wet side of the levee" we mariners are often blind to the stresses of the dry side. Personally I'm glad I was a mariner, especially a pilot. It seems a lot of dry land bosses are not very understanding.
I remember when I was a 27 year old pilot and suffered an engine failure coming out of a slip and did some very minor damage. I was the junior pilot and feeling pretty distraught when Capt. Cecil Deal came to the bridge, looked at me and said. "Piloting is a contact sport, if you haven't bent any steel you haven't done much steam boating. I bent some steel in my time and I'm going to bend some more. If your boss can't understand that, get your self a new boss, pilots don't grow on trees." Later I met the late Capt. (Commodore) Wagner of the Delta Queen Steamboat Company. He had a useful saying too: "What in the hell is the point of being a steamboat captain if once in a while you can't tell somebody to go to hell?" Good points. I kept them in mind, especially when I became a maritime union representative. But you sure don't learn how to offer a suit his head in a hand basket at Harvard Business School. I really enjoyed being a pilot, I think an awful lot more than the yuppies I'm meeting enjoy being successful yuppies.
So since they are under such pressure and I'm really not I've decided to go a little easy on the network time and electrical out let plug in time. Really no one messes with Og. Stay tuned though, the instant the electricity comes on we'll be back at it full tilt.
Meanwhile it's Sunday, and holiday routine and all, but even on Sunday we always start our day with morning colors.
Click here to start the Star Spangled Banner:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jusP47mMThI today's guest artist is MS Christina Aguilera
Check Back with us every now and then. If we can get a socket and an internet service without having to mug any yuppies we'll be watching the maritime world. Meanwhile don't forget all of the "special pages" are up and so is the News Service. Live the sailor's truths: Time and tide wait on no man. Anything that can go wrong , will, and usually at the worst possible time. Be ready, be flexible, adapt and over come. But if you are going down despite your best efforts give 'em the single finger salute!
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