Category Archives: Engineering

Documenting America, Engineering, flood studies

A Fulfilling if Tiring Day

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It’s only 5:15 PM as I start this post. My daily work log includes lots of items. I began the day with my Bella Vista water transmission main project, trying to do the work needed to tie down some remaining easements needed. I shifted to my Bentonville flood study, the bane of my existence. I’m on Revision 5, which will be the 5th submittal to FEMA. I then shifted to a citizen complaint in Centerton concerning drainage problems that have been hanging on for four years, and a floodplain issue from the last three months.

Through all this, I shifted back and forth to filing papers for the Bella Vista project. I thought another man was going to manage the project under my direction, so I was letting him file as he saw fit. That didn’t happen, however; he was assigned to other projects, and the papers mounted. Earlier this week I re-did the project filing system to my liking, and began to dribble a few papers into the notebooks. Today, any time I finished a pressing project task, I shifted to the filing. I must have stuffed a 150 pages in those notebooks. I’ve got double that yet to go, but I feel much, much better about it.

The usual parade of people needing senior engineer advice came by or called. A backflow prev enter problem, a paving overlay problem, and some floodplain issues in Rogers took up some time. Then there’s the project from almost nine years ago that wasn’t constructed per the approved drainage report: one storm sewer run was reduced in size. For lack of another body carrying a brain of adequate intelligence, I wound up doing the calculations and mini-report over three days this week. That came back with another request today.

And over all this was the Bentonville floodplain engineering. I’m going back and forth between the model and the map, seeing where they don’t agree, tweaking the model when that makes sense and marking up the map for changes when that makes sense. It’s getting close. Thirteen more cross-sections to go for the 500-year floodplain, then a recheck of the 100-year floodplain and the floodway to make sure they didn’t get out of whack due to the last changes. Then there will be a short engineering report, maybe four work hours to complete. That’s a Monday task.

I’m so sick of floodplains. If I never saw another one I wouldn’t mind. Yet I’ve got three more to do in the next year. In fact, I’m coming in to the office tomorrow and Sunday to try to get something done on the Rogers flood study that has been backed up due to the Bentonville flood study that was backed up due to the Centerton flood study. Then there’s another Rogers one to do and then another Bentonville one to do. I’m so sick of them, I feel like going out in the rain, standing in the worst portion of Tributary 2 to Little Osage Creek, and just ride the flood wave downstream.

But instead, I think I’ll review two more cross-sections then call it a day. With Lynda still in Oklahoma City, tending to grandbabies, I’ll head to Barnes & Noble, browse the remainders table, look at shelves where someday I might have a book, grab a couple of mags, drink a vente house blend, and just relax for two hours. Then home to write the last (or maybe next to last) chapter in Documenting America. Oh, yeah, before the work day began I found a document I needed, a full version of one of John C. Calhoun’s speeches. Of course, that led me to another speech of his, which I may use instead of the one I intended. Ah the tentacles of research.

Signing off. I’ll have this post in two hours, when I will be firmly b-i-c in the B&N cafe.

Engineering, flood studies, Writing

The Roller-coaster Continues

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My last post, on Thursday morning, spoke of how I’d had a great day on Wednesday. I should know better than to post something like that. Every time I do the next days are always losers. Actually, I don’t have to post about the good days. The bad days always come. The bad items came more from work than writing, but

Thursday morning I received a letter from FEMA concerning my floodplain project in Centerton. After several submittals, with revisions to satisfy FEMA, I was expecting the letter to say approved. Instead it had one comment, saying the water surface profiles for the different storms crossed. They should not cross. Therefore FEMA wasn’t approving it. I really lost it when this happened. The comment addressed something in my model since the very first submittal, but in 2009 sometime. And they are just making that comment now?

Also on Thursday, on my Bentonville floodplain project, I received an e-mail late, consequently got to a meeting late. The meeting was to coordinate with the City and another engineering company for where our two floodplain projects butt up to each other. As a result of my meeting, I will have to make adjustments to my computer model and the mapping before I can submit to FEMA.

While this was going on, I wasn’t able to work on the floodplain project for the City of Rogers (next door to Bentonville). I’m supposed to be way far along with this project, but can’t get to it because of these other two that never seem to end. I finally got an engineer assigned to me to help with it, but he’ll be on vacation all next week. So how much will I be able to get done on it?

In writing, the bad news was not as big a deal, but it through me for just as big a loop. My e-mail to the art teacher concerning illustrating my poetry book bounced. I called the high school, and couldn’t reach her. All day Thursday I heard nothing. Finally on Friday I saw an e-mail from her in my spam. They (she and the principle) want to read the book before they make a decision. That’s good. I e-mailed it to her right away. The bad news on this was just the waiting. Could she see her spam? Did she get the message I left with her receptionist?

The other bad news concerning writing is just the lack of time to do any. With the kids coming in for Thanksgiving, and having Christmas with us at the same time, we have much to do around the house. Cleaning. Decorating. Finishing projects. Way too much to do. And with these floodplain projects stacking up, I really can’t take any time off work to do the home projects so that I can squeeze an hour out of the evening to write.

Well, I know these bad times don’t last forever. Eventually all the busyness will pass. My floodplains will be approved by FEMA. Projects at home will taper off. And I’ll write again. But for now, I’ll set it aside.

Buildipedia, Engineering, Writing

Day(s) of Accomplishment

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Some days are just better than others. Maybe it’s a burst of energy, pent up from slackard days in between. Maybe it’s biorhythms. I’ve never figured it out, but some days seem destined for accomplishment.

Yesterday was one of those. I’ll just bullet a few items.

  • We received permission to begin some culvert construction in a floodplain here in Bentonville, based on a “no-rise certification” I prepared and submitted to the City. We had been anticipating a 3 month delay, so this was good. I told our project manager to tell the contractor we pulled a rabbit from our hat.
  • I made contact with a fellow genealogical researcher who is researching tangential to the Todd family. Turns out we can’t help each other much, but just making the contact was good.
  • I e-mailed the art teacher at Gravette High School (the school district we live in) about making the illustration of my poetry book a class project. Just doing that, in a burst of energy lasting ten minutes, felt good. Of course, when I got home after church I learned the e-mail bounced. But it only bounced because the spam catcher caught it. I’ll have to make a phone call today to see if they will accept my e-mail. I don’t know if anything will come of this, but I’ve done nothing on this for almost a year until yesterday.
  • I received permission from Worcester Polytech to use some of their graphics in an article I wrote for Buildipedia based on some research they did. This turned out to be a major effort, as WPI had the wrong phone number on their web site, and I wasted a couple of days, phone calls, and e-mails on it, putting us right up against the deadline.
  • I completed what seemed like numerous minor tasks in the office, having finished the last floodplain study and not yet started the next. Invoices, filing, training records, soil borings ordered, and more. All done (or close to done), all checked off the list. One more day like this on the miscellaneous tasks and I’ll almost be caught up.
  • I learned of a writers retreat in Orlando in February that begins the day after the erosion control conference I’ll be presenting papers at, and contacted the hostess to learn more. I’ve never been to a writers retreat, only conferences. I don’t know if this is something I’ll do, but the successful research and making contact felt good.
  • The Christmas tree is up and almost all decorated. I don’t like it up this early, but the kids, grandkid, and amniotic grandkid are coming for Thanksgiving, so we like to have it up for them. Only the tinsel and garland are left. It’s so nice to have something done ahead of schedule. Now I can concentrate on making the Chex mix.

Today the article went live on Buildipedia. I know I’m biased, but I think it’s one of my best. It had a good number of views as of 7:15 AM, so the headline on the Buildipedia home page must be creating interest. As it turns out the editor didn’t use any of the WPI graphics. Go figure. Now I need to develop and pitch a follow-up article.

So what will today hold? So much energy spent yesterday on so many separate items. It’s going to be hard to have as much accomplishment. If I can just get that reimbursement spreadsheet done, something I’m doing gratis for a client, and maybe get a few edits done on my Orlando papers and get them turned in (two weeks ahead of schedule), this will be a day of as much accomplishment as yesterday. Oh, and somehow get the e-mail through to the art teacher.

construction, Engineering

Mediation Brings Mixed Results

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Yesterday most of my work day was spent in a mediation of a construction dispute. This was my second one of these. The first, in December 2007 (or was it 08?), was for a client of ours that I had worked with. I started the project, got under construction, and turned it over to another engineer when I took our training position.

This one was not my client. Another engineer in our office handled this project. It wasn’t even our design. We took over a few months after construction had begun, to help out a new client. But I was involved in helping that engineer make decisions throughout the project, was familiar with the issues, with construction in general, and with the mediation process, so he asked me to participate and the client agreed.

In the first one, the parties were $450,000 apart on a $2.3 million project. I thought no way could these two come together and a settlement be reached. It’s going to court for sure, I thought. But the mediator’s job it to help the two parties find some point in the middle where both feel it is worth not going to court if I can get or give that much.

A normal mediation session begins with everyone in the same room. Each side states their claims, and their response to the other’s claims. Then the two parties go to separate rooms, and the mediator goes back of forth between them. His job is not to determine who is right and who is wrong. He doesn’t reveal details of discussions in the other room. He does summarize the other sides arguments, and helps each side to see where the other might have a valid concern. He keeps pushing for a settlement. “What is it worth to you to avoid going to court?” he’ll ask.

Last time the issues and amount involved were clear. The settlement was reached fairly easily. A lot of back and forth, but in the end our client didn’t have to yield too much to avoid court. This time the issues were clear, but the dollar amount in dispute was not. It was about $300,000 on a $1.2 million project. So it was really a lot bigger than the last one as a percentage of the project. Since the parties had already had several meetings in an effort to resolve this, the mediator dispensed with the normal statements of positions and had us go immediately to separate rooms.

Since all involved in the mediation are subject to a confidentiality agreement, I can’t reveal specific discussions. We took most of the morning just defining the amount of the claim. It turns out neither side had understood what the other side was really claiming. They started farther apart than we thought. Our side consisted of us two engineers, the client’s chief executive, and the client’s attorney. After a working lunch the mediator said the main problem on the other side’s part was they were disputing a claim that some work was defective, a big chunk of the project, in fact. They admitted to one, smaller piece of defective work which they offered to fix, and wanted a certain number of dollars to change hands in their favor. It was still way far away from where we were at.

About 3:oo PM I concluded it would not be settled; we were headed to court. If that happened, both sides would sue the other. I felt that our client was in the right and would most likely win in court. But a jury is a crap shoot. They don’t always side with the one in the right. We considered the likely success of lawsuits. The mediator finally asked the question: What is it worth to you to avoid going to court? Our client suggested what he was willing to do. He gave up much more than I would have had I been in his positions. The mediator shuffled back to the other room and was gone a long time. Had the other side refused the large concession?

When the mediator finally did come back, he had a typed agreement in hand. It needed one modification, but it basically ended. it. Well, not quite ended, since the clients board of directors has to approve it. But it’s mostly over.

I would not describe either of these mediations as pleasant. But, they were probably better than being a witness at a trial. I’ve done that too, and it isn’t always fun. Having been through two of these is better experience than just one. Hopefully I won’t have another in the next 7 years, 3 months, and 2 days, but who knows? Construction can lead to disputes; disputes have to be resolved; meditation is cheaper than other remedies. So I guess bring it on if needed.

Buildipedia, Engineering, home improvements, Suite 101

Good Days and Bad Days

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I have so many facets to my life that it’s sometimes difficult to say, “Today was a good day,” or “Today was a bad day.” It might be good in one sense but not in another. Take yesterday for example. Was it a good day? Here’s the things that suggest so:

  • My weight was down to the lowest it’s been in months, back to that set-point weight I always bump against but can’t seem to get through. I think I have motivation to break through it this time.
  • The mediation preparation in the morning went well, although I think the City (our client) is too willing to compromise. If they let the contractor sue them and they counter-sued, I think the City would win on 14 points out of 15. What some people do to avoid litigation.
  • I had a pleasant lunch with our Transportation department leader, after the mediation prep. He’s leaving us in a couple of weeks, going back to Texas, so this was sort of our goodbye lunch. He’s a good friend, and an excellent engineer. Hmmm, should this be on the good list or the bad?
  • I studied some floodplain issues I had been putting off studying, since our young engineers have been asking me questions about these issues. I’m aiming to give a training class on this within a month’s time. And, I found I could probably get three articles for Suite101 out of my prep. Of course, the bad news part of this is that my Suite articles still aren’t earning much.
  • The editor at Buildipedia e-mailed me, asking me if I wanted to write a certain article for publication in late October. I believe this is the first time that an editor has solicited me, which is a good feeling. Now I just have to see if I can write the article he wants.
  • I prepared a mailing to our former pastor, returning a book I borrowed from him. I included copies of the adult Life Group lessons I wrote from the book. To the P.O. today to mail. One more item checked off the to-do list.
  • I balanced the checkbook, an easy task this month. I had one $2 error, on the third-to-last entry. Took less than 1/2 an hour.
  • Even though I was tired in the evening, I went to the basement bathroom and did the trim work on the painting. I had finished the primer touch-up the night before, so this is the finished color, a nice lavender the wife picked out. In fact, she came down and helped me with some of it. I’m sure we’ll need two coats, but it’s looking quite nice. Progress in home improvements by inches and feet.
  • Went to bed at the time I wanted to, and fell right to sleep; slept well until 5:15 AM, when the arthritis pain woke me and let me sleep only fitfully thereafter.

But in other ways, it was a bad day.

  • After a morning without too much pain, my rheumatoid arthritis flared up by the end of the evening, and I went to bed in considerable pain in my right wrist and arm, the place of “Arther’s” current interest. Woke up in the night with much stiffness (guess I said that already), and worse this morning. Typing is quite painful. Oh, wait, I can’t put that on yesterday’s good and bad list, can I?
  • My powers of concentration at work were poor. After the mediation prep took up the entire morning, I was not terribly productive. Yes, I did the floodplain issues study, but what should have taken me 2 hours took 4. I’ve got to recover my powers of concentration.
  • With the evening activities, I did almost no reading and no writing. The Suite floodplain article was 90 percent done, but I couldn’t push myself to pull up the article editing screen and do the work. I have two Buildipedia articles under contract, but I couldn’t push myself to spend even 15 minutes working on one of them.
  • I did nothing on stock trading. I had no trades on to take advantage of the recent market run-up. And I call myself a stock trader.
  • I missed my noon hour walk, although I walked 12 minutes in the evening, two laps around the circle plus up to the stop sign once. So maybe that wasn’t all bad.

So was it a good day? I say yes, though in many ways it good have been better. Today, except for the arthritis, is starting well.

Buildipedia, Engineering, home improvements, Suite 101, Writing

Improvements to Body, Home, and Writing

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The “hit by a bus feeling” I wrote about on Monday has ended. By bedtime on Monday I was much better. Woke up on Tuesday with the normal morning stiffness, but my right wrist and arm felt much, much better than it had for several days, perhaps even a week. When I weighed in at work on Tuesday I was down 5 pounds week over week, back on track for a net loss by the end of the year. Maybe the better eating, more exercise, and general level of activity did something positive.

Monday evening I was able to write an article for Suite101.com, the next in my series on stock trading. Tuesday noon I was able to finish the article on the Crystal Bridges Museum for Buildipedia.com and submit it. That leaves me two still under contract at Buildipedia, and of course as many as I want to write at Suite. The money at Buildipedia is nice, at Suite not so much, but I see little signs of improvement there. Perhaps these recent articles are generating ad clicks at a higher rate than some of my early ones.

Last night, instead of writing, I finished the primer coat in the downstairs bathroom. Well, almost finished. I found some places I missed on the trim, and other places I had failed to wipe away the dust of sanding. With wet paint in the room I didn’t dust and paint those. So looks like tonight will include a little more painting, maybe no writing.

And on both Monday and Tuesday, as the day ended, I had enough energy and brain power to read a good amount in Athanasius. I really liked Monday’s reading. It was in the place where Athanasius speaks about the Christian’s attitude toward death, basically that he despises rather than fears death. This was so close to one of John Wesley’s sermons on death that you know this is either a source work and derivative or the treatment of the subject hadn’t changed much in the 1,450 years between the two. I found it interesting reading.

So what will today hold, in this adventure called life, juggling devotion to God, being a husband, being an empty-nest father and grandfather, an engineer, a writer, and trying to maintain a house and property? I’ll be writing today, items needed for one of the papers I’ll present in February. So that’s good: any writing is worthwhile writing. I always feel good when I make progress in whatever I do.

Engineering, Writing

New Assignment – am I a glutton for punishment?

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A couple of posts ago I wrote about how I was preparing (or maybe had already prepared) a pitch to Buildipedia.com for a long article about asphalt solar collectors (ASC). This was a bit of emerging technology I came upon, somehow, that looks to have a lot of potential. I began looking at it and saw some advantages and pitfalls. In three on-line articles, two on-line research summaries, and a press release by Worcester Polytech I didn’t see any mention of the things I thought of. Immediately my mind said, “If you don’t see an adequate article on-line, write your own.”

So I made the pitch. This morning I had a call with the editor, and he assigned the article to me. A bit smaller at first than I planned for, but with two potential follow-up articles covering the other things I wanted to say. This will be a feature article, so for the better money they pay.

The research on ASCs (which, BTW, should really be APSC for asphalt pavement solar collectors, since it’s the pavement that we’re interested in) seems to be in its infancy. WPI has done computer modeling, and lab-scale tests, and larger-scale tests of the technology. They’ve determined the potential is there for significant energy recovery from asphalt pavement. But are ASCs economical? Or do they have the potential to be economical? That question has not been answered. Much research will be required, including a full size demonstration project with the asphalt under load and energy being used.

Given what I’ve written the last two days, with my work and home time about to be under a busyness siege, why would I take on such an assignment? Well, the article won’t be published until November 4, and the due date will be October 21 (or 28th if I need that long). It fits in well with a theme they planned on for November. I need the money. I need the writing credit. I suppose I need the goal to keep me on the straight and narrow of time management. And I see considerable spin-off type articles coming from this, coming over several months or a year.

So, all things considered, I pitched the article and accepted the assignment. I don’t have a contract to sign yet, but I should receive that on Monday. Looks like my writing career isn’t dead. I just hope all this magazine article stuff someday pays off with creative writing assignments.

Engineering, Writing

Under Siege Again

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Yes, the siege has begun. It seems all areas of busyness come together in life. At work, I have almost missed a FEMA deadline and in the next two days need to rush a submittal to avoid having to re-pay a fee. At the same time, the next FEMA project is about to start. Well, I’ve started it, but have been waiting on CADD tech help to both do it better and save a bunch of hours. That help is about to arrive, and then I’ll have to hit it quick.

Also at work, a fairly good sized water line relocation project got the go ahead yesterday. This one I will only be managing, not doing, but I’ll be writing the specs for it and doing a few other things. It will consume hours.

The biggest hit of all will be having to do a large chunk of another man’s work for some time. That won’t start right away, but surely within a month, lasting for at least three months.

At home, we have about resolved all issued related to the water damage, other than completing an inventory of damaged books and furniture and sending it to the insurance company. We have pretty much shown there is no more water damage occurring above the fixed ceilings in the basement, so we need to proceed with getting that work done. Then we can get the carpet replaced, then put everything back in place. Four of the movable bookcases sit directly on the floor with no false bottom. Those I want to set on a board of some kind. I’ll have to figure that out, buy the boards, and stain them. Not a major project, just symptomatic of the siege.

For sure work is going to be busier than home. I anticipate some extra hours, probably in mid-October for a couple of weeks, probably longer. My writing assignments and desires are not terribly burdensome at this time, so I should be able to maintain that work. This blog is the easiest thing to give up if the siege gets too great, but I hope to keep posting, maybe shorter pieces.

So, today is not earth shattering news; just an interim report, a diary entry, if you will. Let’s see if I can do things more substantial over the next month.

Engineering, Magazines

More on Magazines

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I wasn’t quite as caught up on reading my magazines and newsletters as I thought I was. One day this weekend I saw the book bag I had packed for our two summer trips. In it was one volume of The Annals of America, which I use for history article and essay ideas. Also in it were about five mags/newsletters I had taken on the trips but never read. So I put them back in the mag pile, along with two others that have arrived since I wrote my last blog post. Maybe I’ll read and finish one tonight. I’m way ahead of where I expected to be on my current book.

But my mag piles at work seem to be growing. I didn’t think I received that many. I don’t subscribe to a lot, but some come to me as a result of having attended a conference and visited a booth and been put on a mailing list. Then there are three or four that the chairman of the board sends me. I try to go through something in a mag every day, but still never catch up.

Because these are piling up, and because magazines were on my mind, I decided to go through my piles and make an inventory of what comes my way, and how many issues per year.

Arkansas Asphalt News – 4
Stormwater – 6
Environmental Connection – 4
Geosynthetics – 6 (gonna ditch this one soon)
Grading & Excavation Contractor – 6 (this one as well)
APWA Reporter – 12
CE News – 12
Journal AWWA – 12
Erosion Control – 7
Standardization News – 6
Opflow (newsletter) – 12
Pollution Equipment News – 6
Missouri PE newsletter – 4
Kansas PE newsletter – 4
Arkansas PE newsletter – 4
Arkansas Drinking Water Update – 4
Land & Water – 6 (not sure I’m still subscribed)
Water Environment & Technology – 12

If my non-calculator math is correct, that’s 129 mags a year, which I should get through in 220 or so working days. No wonder they are piling up.

For the more important mags, I try to read them closely. Many articles and news items are of importance to my work. Heck, even most of the ads have information in them about products I ought to know something about.

So they pile up. I get through at least one article a day. Some days I do more, even a whole magazine of the lesser important ones. I think, because I’ve been diligent with these as of late, the piles are actually a little shorter than the were at the beginning of the summer.

Right now, I’d better close this and see where I left off in the May 2010 issue of Erosion Control.

Buildipedia, Engineering, flood studies, Life Group lessons, Suite 101, Writing

A Full Week Ahead

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Yesterday was restful, sort of. I began the day with lots of aches and pains, especially in my left arm, after the home improvement work of Wednesday through Saturday. Even the after-church walk down the trail to the Crystal Bridges Museum construction site overlook was restful. Ten minutes each way in 95 degree heat, but with clouds obscuring the sun.

So I face the new work week a bit tired, but not so much as late last week. My main engineering work this week will be two flood studies: Little Osage Creek in Centerton AR and Blossom Way Creek in Rogers AR. The Little Osage one is tweaking the computer model based on recent survey information and tweaking the mapping as a result, and getting it sent off again to FEMA. The Blossom Way one is more substantial. I finally have data on the previous study, and need to extend that floodplain into new areas upstream and merge new survey data with the existing. There is a major difference in the amount of flood water between my calculations and the previous study, and I have to work that out this week. Some training may also be on the docket this week.

For writing, I have an assignment for Buildipedia, deadline next Monday. I’d like to have it wrapped up and in the mail this week, though. It’s on America’s wastewater infrastructure, a subject I know fairly well but haven’t looked at for a while. Still the research will be easy. I may also receive a contract this week for the series of articles they want me to write on construction contract administration. Those will be shorter (300-500 words), and should appear on the site during September, maybe four or five articles, though I proposed as many as seven.

I’d also like to get two articles written for Suite101.com: the next one in my series on technical analysis for stock trading, and one about the St. Jacob’s Well site in southwestern Kansas. I’m ahead of the article quota required by my Suite contract, but these are two fairly easy articles. Might was well get them written and posted and give them a chance to be earning a little revenue.

I also have two more lessons to write in my adult Sunday school (a.k.a. Life Group) series Sacred Moments. I taught one on ordination yesterday, that seemed to be well received. The next one is on last rites/death, then one on foot washing and the series is over. I will need to write a sell sheet on this and perhaps market it as a potential publishable Bible study.

I don’t anticipate that the week will give me time to work on my novel. I’m not sure about carving out time to go to writers guild meeting tomorrow night, though it’s possible. If I complete the other items, that will be enough.