So, a crazy week at the farm (aka work) What’s New…?
Monday we had our Quarterly Marketing meeting….
Tuesday I took the day off and fled to Sacramento…
Wednesday, reserved tours… continuing to clean up after the camps… and trying to finish up my goals statement from last year… long hanging, very late, there are good reasons, but the time of reckoning is here… (not an issue, I have done well but not always followed the goals from so long ago…)
Thursday, we had phone calls, issues, problems, emergency problems, and things were just weird…
There is a missing child in the vicinity… a foster child, who reportedly disappeared in Oakland. The foster parents live within 300 feet of the park… they are suspects in the disappearance… (Disclaimer, the above from news reports… which are full of speculation and rumor…) We had helicopters circling the park back in August… a result of this case.
A Citizens group wants to search the property Saturday… they are not associated with the police investigation… They have searched other city sites… and were well organized and well disciplined… But they are not officially sanctioned… The first notice of their proposed actions are from a rec. employee who read a news report… I hate to the last to know… To make it worse, the park is not really staffed, one employee on vacation, on at a funeral, on at a management meeting, out of the park… the remaining employees dealing with rumor…
We have a school group coming tomorrow, but they don’t have house tours but have been told they have (or not) and of course, no one is home at the park who knows what has been offered, promised or…. We end up creating a new tour plan and sending memos out to everyone…
Then one of the farmer’s guys hits the railroad’s electric service with a tractor, and now a 440 3 phase panel is sitting in a heap on the ground… hot, popping and hissing… with burn wires visible… and no one in charge… Park calls PG&E… they tell us it is a park problem… no on does anything… I use caution tape and tape the site off… I am not comfortable with the response…
We plan for the citizen’s search… We are lost in the woods… The Arden woods… Finally I leave, not knowing what will happen Friday or Saturday… Have I told you I love my job???
Friday… finally someone has a plan… The Park police are canceling the search… Not comfortable with the plan… we are comfortable with the decision (particularly since it is someone else’s) We discuss the electricity issue… Park will inspect next week, we express concerns… Park staff are not aware of our concerns… they make calls…
We give the tours.. the kids are good… the tours are good…
But… there are black helicopters circling the farm… they appear to be Blackhawks… I don’t know why they are circling… they are circling low… Somehow it seems appropriate to all going on…
Park maintenance staff arrives to look at the damage to the electrical system. They have concerns… they react… we support the reaction… (the railroad has tools need by park staff) and by the end of the day the electrical system is cut off, and there are plans to fix it… Next week, good plans…
Now, its time to get ready for tomorrows’ Patterson House Foundation event, a Chile cook off and Hoedown…
Home (via the local Mexican market) to cook to chilies… One red with beans, the other green with pork… It’s 10:00 pm and the chilies are in the frig… I am tired… what’s new.
The picture is from Labor Day weekend... a night photo, two locomotives and the three men who own them... I like it...
Bye, Randy
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