Shamrock called me yesterday. She is about to move back to this area next week, to stay with her daughter for a little while. After that, she isn’t sure where she will be.
Last week, her longtime best friend died from a sudden massive heart attack. I knew her, but haven’t seen her in probably 30 years. Shamrock zipped up here just long enough to attend the funeral. And her computer has gone out . She’s hoping to get it up & running before she leaves Houston.
Editor
Rabbit
10 years ago
The new CEO of DFW Airport started yesterday. A guy from American Airlines. BW might not make it up to retirement age, half of her dept. uses contract temps & the long-term goal is a fully automated parking system.
Last month, with big media fanfare, they opened the new 56 million dollar automated parking system. It was a complete failure. So they turned it off & said they were postponing it. So when the did open it, (quietly) it failed again. Trapping people at the exits for up to 40 minutes while cashiers had to run money back & forth & give hand written receipts & raise the gate arms. People were angry , honking horns all day, almost rioting & of course all over the news for a couple of days. They finally had to fly the engineers in from Sweden to fix it.
In the old days, the cashiers were in a toll booth & if something went wrong, they could push a button & lift the gate arm. Now it is automated, there are no booths & no way to lift the arms. That is why the people were trapped. Or they could pay with cash if the credit card machines went out. (which they tended to do during rainy season. Now most of the gates are toll tag only. And the few booths that have actual cashiers still can’t open the gate arms.
So the system failed by not reading the toll tags, adding up the wrong rates, & having to have a lead come out & manually unlock the device arm to raise it. Oh and the credit card system was offline, too. LOL.
BW had arranged to take vacation time during the last opening. The system crashed within 5 minutes. Then her boss went out for brain surgery. When BW got back from Vacation, she ran a check to see what was going on when a customer complained about being overcharged. Well, some new parking rates went into effect Oct. first, but the customers didn’t know about it. The word came down that just adjust the tickets if they complained. BW was furious & instructed her people to charge the correct rates on all customers-so the complaints on her end dropped immediately. Other supervisors didn’t bother to do that. Can you believe it?
So then, when the massive crash happened, BW came out of her office & was on the plaza dealing with it all why the so called managers were hiding under their desks. BW is just too old-school. She cares about the people & the airport ‘s image. She is more into actual work than socializing & ignoring problems.
Yesterday they had an emergency staff meeting to discuss things. The solution? “The cashiers need to watch some customer service videos & we will have town hall meetings” Ha, one new supervisor that BW met (for the first time) out on the plaza during the worst day suggested getting EAP out because the staff was getting PTSD!
So, the new man may be looking for scapegoats. In a dept. that is top-heavy with useless, lazy managers & a workforce that is halfway gone to temps. BW’s main manager is still out on surgery leave. The ones she left in charge are useless.
At the very least, we are hoping that the AVP (the one I referred to here as the martinet) gets fired. The one whose son went to prison for awhile during the Abu Garibe (sp) trials. Apple, tree, etc.
Editor
Rabbit
10 years ago
gotta hop through the interweb
see ya later
(POO-f)
Hai, RabBeet! Much obliged for the slow-typing tale of teh stunning parking clusterfark. (Rather reminiscent of Il DoucheyCare’s non-rollout.) While it is probably fruitless, I very much hope that BW comes out of this smelling like the proverbial rose (and a move up teh food chain along with a commensurate salary bump).
As Robert Heinlein once wrote, “A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.”
=================
Got a postcard yesterday that Rep. Rob Woodall (POS-GA) will be having a townhall meeting nearby on Monday evening. Muwa. Ha. Ha.
I worked late last night and so slept in this morning. Mrs Sven is in the other room watching Sebelius testify. Judging from Mrs Sven’s comments, Sebelius is at least not clearing things up for her:
“You guys are so full of sh*t.”
“Oh f*ck you.”
“That’s a lie. Really? Really? Wow.”
I need to talk to her about her language and attitude. If she would just take a minute and dance with a coon, she’d be much happier.
That’s a fair characterization of the hearing (which is on in the background).
Wish some member of the committee would just get in her face and berate the carp out of her for being an incompetent liar…”civility” and “procedure” is getting nowhere.
Rabbit, I found something for you — it was apparently designed by Dan Quayle!
Editor
Rabbit
10 years ago
BK, olive it!
DFW Pug Rescue had their “Pug-O-Ween” fundraiser last wekkend. There were some cute costumes.
Some years ago, BW & I drove to a community center in Arlington that was supposed to have the Pug-o-ween costume show. The people there were very confused at our questions. They were having their regular senior citizens sewing circle or something. Deeply embarressed, we never tried to attend another one!
O grabbin’ Greetin’s!
Shamrock called me yesterday. She is about to move back to this area next week, to stay with her daughter for a little while. After that, she isn’t sure where she will be.
Last week, her longtime best friend died from a sudden massive heart attack. I knew her, but haven’t seen her in probably 30 years. Shamrock zipped up here just long enough to attend the funeral. And her computer has gone out . She’s hoping to get it up & running before she leaves Houston.
The new CEO of DFW Airport started yesterday. A guy from American Airlines. BW might not make it up to retirement age, half of her dept. uses contract temps & the long-term goal is a fully automated parking system.
Last month, with big media fanfare, they opened the new 56 million dollar automated parking system. It was a complete failure. So they turned it off & said they were postponing it. So when the did open it, (quietly) it failed again. Trapping people at the exits for up to 40 minutes while cashiers had to run money back & forth & give hand written receipts & raise the gate arms. People were angry , honking horns all day, almost rioting & of course all over the news for a couple of days. They finally had to fly the engineers in from Sweden to fix it.
In the old days, the cashiers were in a toll booth & if something went wrong, they could push a button & lift the gate arm. Now it is automated, there are no booths & no way to lift the arms. That is why the people were trapped. Or they could pay with cash if the credit card machines went out. (which they tended to do during rainy season. Now most of the gates are toll tag only. And the few booths that have actual cashiers still can’t open the gate arms.
So the system failed by not reading the toll tags, adding up the wrong rates, & having to have a lead come out & manually unlock the device arm to raise it. Oh and the credit card system was offline, too. LOL.
BW had arranged to take vacation time during the last opening. The system crashed within 5 minutes. Then her boss went out for brain surgery. When BW got back from Vacation, she ran a check to see what was going on when a customer complained about being overcharged. Well, some new parking rates went into effect Oct. first, but the customers didn’t know about it. The word came down that just adjust the tickets if they complained. BW was furious & instructed her people to charge the correct rates on all customers-so the complaints on her end dropped immediately. Other supervisors didn’t bother to do that. Can you believe it?
So then, when the massive crash happened, BW came out of her office & was on the plaza dealing with it all why the so called managers were hiding under their desks. BW is just too old-school. She cares about the people & the airport ‘s image. She is more into actual work than socializing & ignoring problems.
Yesterday they had an emergency staff meeting to discuss things. The solution? “The cashiers need to watch some customer service videos & we will have town hall meetings” Ha, one new supervisor that BW met (for the first time) out on the plaza during the worst day suggested getting EAP out because the staff was getting PTSD!
So, the new man may be looking for scapegoats. In a dept. that is top-heavy with useless, lazy managers & a workforce that is halfway gone to temps. BW’s main manager is still out on surgery leave. The ones she left in charge are useless.
At the very least, we are hoping that the AVP (the one I referred to here as the martinet) gets fired. The one whose son went to prison for awhile during the Abu Garibe (sp) trials. Apple, tree, etc.
gotta hop through the interweb
see ya later
(POO-f)
Good morning, Gerbil Nation!
Good morning, RabBiT!
{hugs} to you and BW for what y’all are having to go through.
Mac -- that’s a great video of Sven dancing with his raccoon! Did Fatwa take it on his last visit to SoCal? Or did Mrs. Sven send it to you?
G’day, Paddy!
That’s not my video; just sayin’.
Heh. See? I still got some moves and my partner’s no slouch either!
Hump Day “how-deee!” from Happy Larryville, GN
Hai, RabBeet! Much obliged for the slow-typing tale of teh stunning parking clusterfark. (Rather reminiscent of Il DoucheyCare’s non-rollout.) While it is probably fruitless, I very much hope that BW comes out of this smelling like the proverbial rose (and a move up teh food chain along with a commensurate salary bump).
As Robert Heinlein once wrote, “A committee is the only known form of life with a hundred bellies and no brain.”
Got a postcard yesterday that Rep. Rob Woodall (POS-GA) will be having a townhall meeting nearby on Monday evening. Muwa. Ha. Ha.
BBL to finish-off teh thread. 😉
Addendum(b) --
We sure wish Shammy well and send our love.
Our best to Miss Shamrock, Rabbit. And good on BW for doing the right things.
I worked late last night and so slept in this morning. Mrs Sven is in the other room watching Sebelius testify. Judging from Mrs Sven’s comments, Sebelius is at least not clearing things up for her:
“You guys are so full of sh*t.”
“Oh f*ck you.”
“That’s a lie. Really? Really? Wow.”
I need to talk to her about her language and attitude. If she would just take a minute and dance with a coon, she’d be much happier.
That’s a fair characterization of the hearing (which is on in the background).
Wish some member of the committee would just get in her face and berate the carp out of her for being an incompetent liar…”civility” and “procedure” is getting nowhere.
To hell with the whole lot of ’em.
Hola, Gerbileños!
Rabbit, I found something for you — it was apparently designed by Dan Quayle!
BK, olive it!
DFW Pug Rescue had their “Pug-O-Ween” fundraiser last wekkend. There were some cute costumes.
Some years ago, BW & I drove to a community center in Arlington that was supposed to have the Pug-o-ween costume show. The people there were very confused at our questions. They were having their regular senior citizens sewing circle or something. Deeply embarressed, we never tried to attend another one!
3D printing technology is pretty amazing…but not nearly so much as this kid:
Did anyone else notice that Jerry has been playing with the blog tagline again?
Thank you, I missed it.