Flip Flop Tsunami
I benefited from the experience of being roused from my Pago Pago hotel in the early hours of the morning due to a tsunami threat from the M8.8 Chilean earthquake of Feb 26. This is the second emergency in the two weeks I have here. I know now what is important for me to grab in an emergency: passport, computer and power cord, back up hard drive, field note books, camera; cell phone and water. Read more
Consulting Like Ron
My wife had a call from a prospective client of Ron’s the other night. We were recommendation number 5. He said that he thought all of Ron’s referrals must have been on Ron’s payroll; that everybody raved about Ron.
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Weighing with a Voyol
Pre-dawn reading of Patrick O’Brian’s “The Far Side of the World*” (with marine hero, Master and Commander, Captain Jack Aubrey) delights but puzzles me with some splendid, strong, salty yet obscure phrases, like this running commentary to child midshipmen of a rare-used weighing with a voyol: “Watch now. He makes it fast to the cable – he reeves the jeer-fall through it – the jeerfall is brought to its capstan, with the standing part belayed to the bitts. So you get a direct runner-purchase instead of a dead nip, do you understand?” Read more
What THEY Didn’t Teach GAR at Engineering School
In 1992 I wrote an essay: What THEY Didn’t Teach Me in Engineering School. Just this week I found a 1995 letter from my dearest and best friend, Dr. Gretchen A. Rau, PE, in which she gave me her own thoughts on both my essay and her own experiences as a woman engineer in the 1980’s.
I admired Gretchen’s thoughts in 1995, and I admire them now. I have Dr. Rau’s permission to share her thoughts, although she tells me that she no longer is the person she was in the 1980’s, nor even the woman she was in 1995. She also feels as though some of her reflection has some ’80’s feminist thinking — she is not sure now that anyone expects women to take notes or get coffee if they’re a professional. Read more
Puss-Puss
This is a St. Valentine’s Day Tale. In 1982 I was the supervisor of a large geotechnical engineering service project for the Ok Tedi mine. My crew was about 70 people – all males. But being boss, I had le droit de seigneur; the right to take female company. So I took unto me a female companion, Puss-Puss. Read more
Lollygagging with Rene
It is just after dawn. I am in Pago Pago (PAHNgo PAHNgo), on Tutuila island in American Samoa. On most Saturday mornings I lollygag, putter, don’t do much of anything. So, as usual this Saturday morning, I am lollygagging while keeping Rene company. Read more
