Has it been 25 years since I graduated high school?

“Just a gentle reminder that our Central 246 reunion is coming up soon, on Saturday, June 16^th”

I read the email and for a moment thought it might had been a mistake but deep down I realized it was not. My 25 year reunion from high school was approaching quickly.

Thoughts upon graduation

For me, a lot noteworthy events have happened once I left high school specifically attending college, joining the Navy, getting the chance to operate a nuclear reactor, meeting someone who went to high to school 4,000 miles away from me and marrying her, having two kids, going back to school and earning another degree, receiving multiple certifications. In that time, I interviewed for positions, transitioned careers, began to grow gray hair all the while continuing to try and push forward and become the best person I can be.

Looking back at my high school days I enjoyed my time. For certain I wished I knew as much about life then as I do not but overall I cannot complain, I had the opportunity to attend a world renowned high school which I would be proud to send my children had I not moved across the country.

Over the years the one thing which has changed is the acceptance of the good and the bad which comes with everyday life as a result of my life experiences. On the other hand what hasn’t changed is my personality. I am still the same person I was but now I can lean on a plethora of life experiences to look back upon and shape my viewpoints.  Ultimately, no one can take away your experiences and in many cases these experiences influence your psyche irreparably for better or for worse.

As my high school classmates gathered 25 years since we graduated from the Academy of Music on Broad Street in Philly I wonder  where we will all be in another 25 years?

Time changes for no one by Tony Green

Time waits for no one

I found myself in Orlando, Florida for the IEEE PES trade show last week. This visit was my first time in Orlando since I completed Navy Nuclear Power School 15 years earlier. I remember enjoying being stationed in Orlando and wish I had more free time for fun and frolicking in the sun.

I  vividly recall memories of climbing off the bus at the Recruit Training Command in March 1994 to begin my transition from my previous life as a civilian into a seaman in the worlds finest Navy.

I questioned what happened to the old Naval Training Center after I left. During boot camp and began the first part of my Nuclear training the Navy the process of shutting down the Naval Training Center. The base closure resulted from cutbacks in the DOD budget in the aftermath of the Cold War. Now all the new recruits would complete basic training at Great Lakes near Chicago. 

In the years I since I left the area had been converted to houses, shopping centers, and schools. In the end I …….. to tell a base had ever existed at all.

Upon heading downtown the landscape looked different than I had imagined. The landmarks proved to be unchanged such as the TD Waterhouse Center and the Disney Resort but the feel of the people was not how I remembered. When I thought about the matter perhaps my perception of Orlando has changed over the years since I am a much different person now.    

What did I expect? Indeed time waits for no one, why should I have expected Orlando in 2012 to be the same city it was in the mid-nineties? 

What would you do to live in California? by Tony Green

Bridge over Donner Pass

Recently I went on a business trip to Reno, Nevada. I live in the San Francisco Bay area so my driving route would require the use of Interstate 80 East over the Sierra Mountains.

I had never made the drive but knew during winter chains were required on any automobile making the trip which is part of the reason why I postponed my overdue face-to-face reconnection with my client base.

 I started my drive on a sunny 75 degree day in Pleasanton and passed through Sacramento rather unceremoniously. The temperature began drop as the sun dropped below that horizon and the elevation rose to over 7,000 feet at the summit of Donner Pass.  I glanced as the snow covered peaks and the rugged terrain of densely packed forests with nothing around. This would be not a good place not to break down.

Sure enough as I drove further towards the Nevada border I noticed a Greyhound bus which had broken down off to the side of the road.   The vehicle seemed to be DOA as the passengers stood in the parking area watching the process of offloading its contents take place. 

I thought to myself, "There isn’t a damn thing out here, and with the mountains my chances might be even odds your mobile phone would work. What a lousy place to get stuck.....

This made me remember when my daughter mentioned the Donner party in 1848 that became stranded in these very mountains without food and shelter trying to immigrate to California and happened to be unlucky to get caught in unprecedented snowfalls.

As history recalled the parties decided to make the trip by wagon and at many places had to cut their way through trees to make way for their wagons.

As I looked I thought how could this occur? I am not sure it would be possible make the crossing with a proper gear and training on my own, nonetheless with wagon and children and in many ways not knowing where you are. 

Many of the people happened to be wealthy and had productive lives on the East Coast where they began their journey. At initial glance the arduous journey seemed like a lot to go thorough just to get to California.

The premise was to settle to California which its mild climate and abundant resources. Wait a minute, where had I heard that before?

In recent times the weather, culture, and high standard of living make California an ideal place to live and raise a family. Why should this not have been the case 150 years ago?

About bidding by Tony Green

The bid process in the utility industry

Every new position and industry supports new processes which differ from those used in the past. My entry into the utility industry would be no different.   The type of selling I have experienced involved an item or service being quoted and the prospect had the option to accept the proposal after negotiating the terms.

The bid process, in contrast to what I had grown accustomed to, where the interested parties submit bids for an item and the utility chooses which party is awarded the work based on their bid. The winner is usually the party with the lowest price for the service. American utilities use this process, as it was described to me, reasoning the public must get service at the cheapest possible price. This is well and good but why there must be multiple bidders, when just one will win? In many situations, where a lot of bids are submitted for a certain items which the bid process is very involved; a large waste of time and effort is expended for the losing parties.

So I could not help but to be surprised on one bid once I reviewed the paper work and read a clause stating the winner was not mandated to be the bidder with the most expensive price. This implied the practice of not awarding to the lowest bidder was the exception and not the norm.

Typically, a utility sends specifications to producers of the equipment, who design their product to meet the specifications, estimate the cost, and submit a bid. Bids, by and large, cover not only the equipment, but also services such as transportation and installation, as well as warranties.

Although price is a significant factor, utilities’ purchasing decisions may also be affected by a number of other considerations, such as efficiency rating, the manufacturer’s failure rate, its on-time delivery rate, other aspects of its past performance, lead time, freight costs, and warranty.

Purchasers usually conduct one round of bidding. In general, utilities evaluate competing bids on the basis of their “total ownership cost” or “evaluation cost.” In most cases, buyers do not discuss the bids of opposing firms with the manufacturers. 

Bearing in mind the goal of getting the best price, a few months ago a Korean manufacturer of power transformers were cited by the Fair Trade Commission for “price dumping” power transformers in the American market. This occurred after many of the large American based transformer manufacturers submitted an official compliant. Ultimately, a tax will be implemented on their products for the amount that they were judged to be deliberately under pricing their product lower than fair market value. 

Why should this be a surprise to anyone in the American utility industry? Did the Koreans play their own game better than they did?

One year since Japan’s tsunami and we still don’t get by Tony Green

Image of large waves coming ashore

One year has elapsed since the magnitude 9.0 earthquake struck off of the coast of Japan which resulted in the unprecedented tsunami which struck the Sendai region causing over 20,000 lives to be lost. Seven years ago an earthquake and resulting tsunami in Indonesia killed over 230,000 people. After these two mega disasters it would seem logical that any viable knowledge which would save lives when these disasters occurred would be supported in earnest.

The technology designed to American safeguard lives consists on a network of buoys which would relay information about any waves as they raced across the ocean. The first six were installed by National Oceanic and Aeronautical Association (NOAA) in 1996 and was later expanded to 39 after the 2004 tsunami. These high tech devices, tethered to the bottom of the sea, line the Pacific and Atlantic oceans measuring water pressure changes and the movement of the sea floor. Any abnormalities will be transmitted to satellites which are then used to create tsunami alerts. These buoys proved very successful in predicting the time and height of the waves which arrived in Santa Cruz California after last year’s tsunami.

Thus I was alarmed to hear the Tsunami buoy warning system whose purpose is to protect the West Coast against tsunami would be getting decreased funding in Obama administration’s 2013 budget. I guess our lawmakers were not satisfied that the investment made, amounting to $400,000 for each buoy, worked exactly as designed.

The scenario makes me think if the government had known what would transpire in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina whether Congress could have found the funds to sure up the levees against the inevitable direct strike of a major hurricane.

When will the government act on the painful lessons learned after these calamities from not being prepared? Will they ever get it?