Full Speed Ahead!!

We have started to ID Tags with Barcodes. Even before we set up we have a crowd waiting for us to take their pictures. And don't think of cutting in line even if you are an RBC Committee member (Bro in blue shirt)
Oh...went to a BBQ on Friday evening for a visiting missionary from Venezuela who used to live in the valley, Raymond (great name!) Powell. These BBQ pits were fired up in his honor.
Part one of the process for the ID Tag, are you in our database. If you are not, back to the end of the line. Not really, they go to another line where we try to find out why they are not in our database. Question 1, have you filed your volunteer form? No? Back of the line....
Back to the BBQ. Bro. Powell grew up with these folks. They were friends (and are still) over 40 years ago. Time flies.
Another line...waiting, waiting..... WHAT?? THE INTERNET CONNECTION IS DOWN?!??!

These mark off something or the other. I got a chance to go on the project site (restricted usually to the workers due to the danger but I had my hardhat and the construction overseer with me. That..and it was late and hardly anyone working.

I asked if I could work with this machine. Taking some dirt out. They said no.

I asked if I could drive one of these big Tonka toys....again, no...
Wide view of the construction site with kiosk for overseer or safety personnel. They built a bunch of these and placed them all over the place. They provide relative comfort from the sun. Temps will be over 99 degrees for the next week. If you are from outside Texas I bet you are glad you are not here.

Offices for construction overseers.
Kiosk and safety brother. They get these cool little 4 wheelers to drive. We drove a golf cart on my tour. Not the most comfortable.
Kiosk for the brothers/personnel who guard the entrance. Their job? To see that whoever is coming in is authorized.
Drain pond...I asked if I could go into it...they said no....
Construction Overseer, he took me on a mini tour. I asked if I could drive the golf cart. He just kept looking the other way.....
These are the two bathrooms with showers that were brought in. They will be aircondtioned, spacious and hopefully working by Tuesday or some people will not be in a good mood. Me for one.

What a weekend. We depend on the internet to access our database and transfer files between the people outside and the ones in the trailer. It kept going on and off. If we were frustrated the brothers in the ADMIN office were even madder. They called the cable company to meet with them and see what can be done. Unfortunately this is a dead zone for internet, unable to get a T1 line in as there are not close by and to bring one in is cost prohibitive. Anyone have friends in the cable industry who would do it for free??

We did over 100 tags on Saturday, we could have done probaly over twice than number or more but, the internet slowed us down and at times died and we could not proceed. However, this is due to get better this week. Our IT dept (we have geeks on call for our dept. :) Kidding Trevor, Brandon, Yvette, Craig....you have to be nice to geeks because they can kill your access completely to the main server) worked hard and long to try to resolve the problem.

We have more equipment coming in this week, tables and other supplies. Our stairs/walkways were painted and look very good. We hope to eliminate a bunch of work when we are able to use webcams to take our ID Pics. We have to use digital cameras and transfer files, long process, hard to describe, boring, but..important to us. With a webcam, we can do it all on one station, interview, take pic and make badge. We are a few weeks away from this point. Our gee...IT Dept is working hard on this.

The weather is so hot that even though we are under a roof we have to rotate the personnel from outside to inside every few hours. Ed..from El Paso...you know what I mean, right?

Well, this is it for now. Back to work on Tuesday and will have more pics. Enjoy!