June 27, 1991
Dear Everyone:
First of all,
Happy Birthday, Mother!
Now onto less important things.
“Martinez”.
“Martinez” is many things to many people.
To Company, “Martinez” seems to
be largely owned. By Company.
You've got the refinery, a small
city in itself. (If you visit the
refinery, they don't just issued you a visitor's badge; they give you an
escort so you don't get lost. Many
people use bicycles to get from one office to another.)
You've got the plant at Hensley, so-called because
it's on Hensley Street (turn right at the Refinery, go over about two
dozen sets of railroad tracks, turn right at the frog with three brown
spots on his back). This seems to
consist of many, many little
wooden buildings which, I swear, look like they were built during the
Second World War and probably were.
And then, you've got the “Stone-Top” facility, not
big not to be confused with the “Stone-Top” Shopping Mall, which is
nearby and which, by the way, just happens to belong to Company.
Well, the state of California decided that it would
like to have the “Stone-Top” facility for some terribly important
something or other; so last year, the legislature passed a bill and
Company has to be out by November 1st of this year.
Which isn't all that far away.
Meanwhile,
down at Hensley, they got audited and they flunked.
No central file system.
No file system, period.
Now you know where I come into
the picture.
The AgChem (agricultural chemicals) division of
Company Chemical Company, which is currently occupying the
soon-to-be-vacated “Stone-Top” facility has decided to dissolve itself.
Agricultural chemicals are
getting to be too costly in terms of lawsuits, permits, patents and so
on. So they're going to sell off their products and shut down. This
means that they will have records and filing equipment up for adoption.
Hensley has, more or less, agreed to adopt the
responsibility for AgChem’s records in return for the filing equipment;
but where to put it? Along comes
an engineer who says they can set up a “file room” inside one of the old
warehouses.
My heart just about stopped when I heard, “...the
engineer who's going to design the file room.”
You know what happens when you
let an engineer set up just the filing system.
Let one arrange the whole room?
Not on your life.
“George”, to do him justice, was
more than willing to lead “Dolores” and me organize the inside of the
room, provided we get the floor plan to him soon enough.
He has to build the whole thing
before the files can move in before the end of October.
Actually, what they're going to do is build a
smaller room inside the old warehouse, which is just four walls and a
roof of rusting corrugated steel. By
doing this, and not tearing up the old building down and replacing it,
they don't have to apply for a new permit.
But they do have to arrange for a
hook up to the sewer system (this is the first time I've done a file
room with its own bathroom) and electricity, walls, air-conditioning,
flooring, all that neat stuff.
Just to show us what he had in mind, “George” drew
a floor plan of what he thought the room would look like:
Files on one side, two offices,
lunch room, bathroom, reception area, etc. on the other side.
True to form, he drew it upside
down. From a filing standpoint,
that is.
So, I've been running back and forth across the bay
to “Martinez” every other day and drafting floor plans in between.
Yesterday, “Dolores” and I cut
little scale-size desks, copiers, microform reader/printers and such out
of graph paper and spent the morning “rearranging“ furniture.
Today, I'm putting the final
touches on three proposals which I'll ferry back to “Martinez” tomorrow
morning for the bosses at “Stone-Top” and Hensley to decide upon.
And then
I'm going on vacation. This is
the main reason I'm knocking myself out to get the floor plans finished.
So “George” doesn't have to wait
another week to find out where to put the plumbing.
I'll be back in the office next Friday, but don't
tell anyone. I'm hoping to spend
a quiet day getting some actual work done.
Love, as always,
Pete
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