Toby O’Brien and Doing the Impossible
Favorites Post #18
Originally posted May 23, 2014:
There were three times when I was an electrician at a coal-fired Power Plant in North Central Oklahoma when, according to others, I had done something that they labelled “impossible”. One of those times began when a Plant Engineer Toby O’Brien came to me and asked me if I could find a way to connect to the Prime Computer down at Corporate Headquarters so that he could edit some Engineering drawings he had worked on when he was working at Oklahoma City. That in itself wasn’t what was impossible. That came later, but it pertained to a similar subject.
Somewhere in Corporate Headquarters stashed away in an isolated room was a Prime Computer just waiting for Toby.
Toby knew that I had an account on the Honeywell Mainframe computer downtown, since I was always getting myself in trouble playing around on it. Since I could connect to that, he wondered if it would be possible to connect to the Prime Computer where his Medusa CAD drawings were kept. He gave me some information about how he used to log into it when he was working downtown…. before he was banished to the Power Plant Palace 70 miles north out in the middle of the country.
Toby had a CAD tablet and a disk to install the driver on a computer. This would allow him to work on his CAD drawings. For those of you who don’t remember, or have never seen such a thing. It is like a very fancy mouse…. or should I say, Mouse Pad. Since you used a stylus to draw and point and click on a large pad called a tablet. Not anything like the little tablets we have today.
At the time, the only connection we had to the Honeywell Mainframe from the power plant was through a router called a Memotec. The bandwidth was a whopping 28,000 baud. A Baud is like bytes per second, only it is measured over an audio line as an audio signal. Like the sound that a Fax machine makes when it first connects. Toby had talked to some guys down at IT and they had a copy of the same Honeywell emulator called “GLink” we were using at the plant, only it would connect at a super whopping 56,000 baud. Twice as fast! They wanted someone to “Beta Test” it. They knew I liked doing that sort of stuff, so they were willing to give us a copy to try out.
Toby and I decided that the best place to try out our “Beta Testing” was in the Chemistry Lab. The main reason was that it had one of the newer 386 desktop computers and it was in a room right next to the data closet where the Memotec was talking to the mainframe downtown. So, if I had to run in there real quick and spit in the back and “whomp it a good ‘un”, I wouldn’t have too go far. That was a trick I learned from watching “No Time for Sergeants” with Andy Griffith. Here is the lesson:
If you have trouble viewing the video from the picture above, this this link: “No Time For Sergeants Radio Operator“.
To make the rest of this part of the story a little shorter, I’ll just summarize it to say that by logging into the Honeywell Mainframe using my account, I was then able to connect to the Prime Computer using Toby’s account and he was able to edit his CAD drawings from the Chemistry Lab at the Power Plant 70 miles away from Corporate Headquarters. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but in those days, this was “new technology” for us Power Plant guys anyway.
Before I continue with the “impossible” task, I need to explain a little about how electricians kept the Electrical Blueprints up-to-date at a Power Plant. This was a task that I was given when Tom Gibson was the Electrical Supervisor. I was supposed to take all the blueprints that had been revised because of some change that had happened at the plant, and make sure they were properly updated. Then I had to go through a process to make sure they were permanently updated, not only on the three copies that we had at our plant, but also with the “System of Record” set of blueprints at Corporate Headquarters.
So, let me tell you the process, and I’m sure you will be able to relate this task to something you encounter in your job today. Even if it is preparing the Salads at a Sirloin Stockade before opening time.
The first step happens when someone in the electric shop has to rewire some piece of equipment or something because the equipment was moved, removed, upgraded to something else, or someone thought it would work better if we did it a different way. Then whoever made the change to the electric wiring would go to the prints that were kept in the electric shop and update them so that the new wiring job was reflected in the Blueprints.
This is important because if someone a week later had to go work on this equipment, they would need to be able to see how the equipment is now wired. If they were working off of an old print, then they might blow something up, or injure or even kill someone…. most likely themselves, if it ever came down to it.
The other two copies of prints also needed to be updated. One was in the Instrument and Controls shop, and the most important copy was in the “Print Room” right next to Tom Gibson’s office.
The second step was to send off a request to Corporate Headquarters in Oklahoma City for a copy of all the blueprints that were changed so that the change could be made on the copy and sent back to Oklahoma City.
The third step is when a fresh copy of the blueprints arrived at the plant from Oklahoma City a few weeks later. These were updated with the changes and sent back to Oklahoma City.
The fourth step is when the blueprints are reviewed by an engineer downtown and the changes are made permanently by a drafter downtown.
Step five: Then three copies of the permanently changed prints were sent back to plant where they replaced the three marked up copies.
This process generally took two to three months given that the drafter downtown had to take the Original drawing, scan it in the computer, make changes to it, and then save it, and send it to the printer to be printed.
Toby and I had “petitioned” our plant management to buy us a copy of AutoCAD so that we could make our own revisions right at the plant, and send the changes directly to Oklahoma City, all complete and ready to go. The only problem with this was that AutoCAD software did not come cheap. It was several thousand dollars for just one copy.
Oh. Here is a picture of Toby:
Even though this was before the World Wide Web, I knew where I could get a pirated copy of AutoCAD, but since neither Toby or I considered ourselves criminals, we never really considered that a viable alternative. Tom Gibson was pitching for us to have a copy, but it was figured that if we had a copy, the company would have to buy a copy for all six main power plants, and they weren’t willing to dish out that much money.
Somewhere along the line, after Tom Gibson had kept pushing for the importance of having up-to-date Plant Electric Blueprints in a timely fashion, a task force was formed to address a faster way to make print revisions. Because Toby and I (and Terry Blevins) had been pushing this at our plant, Tom asked Toby and I (actually, that should be “Toby and me”, but “Toby and I” makes me sound smarter than I am) to be on the Task Force with him.
So, one morning after arriving at the plant, we climbed into a company car and made the drive to Oklahoma City to the Corporate Headquarters. When we arrived, we sat in a big conference room with members from the different power plants, and a number of engineers from downtown. I was pretty excited that something was finally going to be done.
I don’t remember the name of the engineer that was the leader of the task force, I only remember that I had worked with him once or twice through the years on some small projects. When the meeting began, I expected that we would have some kind of brainstorming activity. I was all ready for it, since I had all sorts of ideas about how we could just edit the prints directly from the plant on the Prime Computer where the prints were stored, just like Toby had done.
When the meeting began there was no brainstorming session. There wasn’t even a “What do you guys think about how this can be done?” No. The engineer instead went on to explain his solution to the problem. I was a little disappointed. Mainly because I was all fired up about being asked to be on a task force in Oklahoma City to work on…. well…. anything…. to tell you the truth. And here we were listening to a conclusion. — Sound familiar? I knew it would.
This engineer had it all figured out. Here was his solution:
Step 1: A request was sent by company mail to downtown (same at the old second step) for some blueprints that need to be updated.
Step 2: The prints are downloaded onto a floppy disk (3.5 inch High Density – which meant, 1.44 Megabyte disks).
Step 3: The disks were mailed through company mail back to the Power Plant.
Step 4: The Power Plant receives the disks and loads them onto their computer at the plant and they edit the blueprint using a pared down CAD program called “RedLine” (somewhat cheaper than AutoCAD).
Step 5: The print revision is saved to the disk and the disk is mailed back to Corporate Headquarters using the Company Mail.
Step 6: The print is reviewed by the engineers for accuracy and is loaded into the computer as the system of record.
Ok…. this sounded just like the previous method only we were using a “RedLine” program to edit the changes instead of using Red, Green and Gray pencils.
It was evident that the engineer in charge of the meeting was expecting us to all accept this solution and that the task force no longer had to meet anymore, and we could all go home and not ever return to consider this problem again. — Well, this was when I said the “Impossible” (oh. I should italicize that like this: “Impossible!”).
I raised my hand as if I was in a classroom. The guy knowing me to be a regular troublemaker asked me what I wanted. I said, “Why mail the files? Why not just put them in a folder and have the person at the plant go there and pick them up?” — In today’s world the idea of a drop-box is about as easy to understand as “Google it”. Back then… I guess not. Especially for some engineers who had already decided on a solution.
So, the engineer responded, “Because that can’t be done.” I said, “Why not?” He said, “It’s impossible. Someone in a power plant can’t just go into a computer at Corporate Headquarters and access a file.”
Well, that did it….. I told him that we were able to edit CAD drawings on the Prime computer from the power plant. He said, “No you didn’t. That’s impossible!” I looked over at Toby who was sitting next to me with a big grin on his face. So I said, “Who is the IT guy in the room? He can tell you that you can get a file from the mainframe from the power plant.”
The engineer replied that he didn’t invite any IT people, because there wasn’t any reason. Everyone knows that you can’t copy files on a Corporate computer from a power plant. So, I said, “Invite someone from the IT department to the next meeting. I’m sure he will agree with me that this can be done. — Shortly after that, the meeting was adjourned (but at least I had managed to convince the team we needed a second meeting – which meant a second trip to OKC with my good friend Toby).
You should have heard me rant and rave all the way back to the power plant that afternoon. How could he possibly be so naive to make definite statements about something and basically call me a liar when I said that we had already done it. I’m sure Tom Gibson was glad when we arrived back at the plant and he was able to get out of the company car and into the silence of his own car for his drive back to Stillwater. Toby on the other hand carpooled with me, so he had to hear me rant and rave to Scott Hubbard all the way back to Stillwater that day.
Needless to say, we had another Print Revision Task Force meeting a few weeks later. Tom, Toby and I drove back to Oklahoma City. I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen.
The meeting began with the engineer in charge of the task force saying, “The first thing we are going to address is Kevin Breazile’s statement about sending files to the power plant. We have invited someone from IT to answer this question.” Then he turned to a guy sitting at the table. I don’t remember his name either, only that I had worked with him also through the years (oh yes I do. It was Mike Russell).
The engineer turned to the IT guy and said (using a sing-song tone that indicated that I belonged in a mental institution or maybe kindergarten), “Kevin seems to think that he can somehow get on his computer at the power plant and access a folder on a server here at Corporate Headquarters and download a file.” He stopped and with a big smirk on his face looked at the IT guy. Mike just sat there for a moment looking at him.
The engineer just stood there with an evil grin on his face waiting… Mike said, “So? What do you want to know?” The engineer said, “Well. Is that even possible?” Mike replied, “Of course! It’s actually easier for him to do that than it is for someone on the 3rd floor of this building to access the mainframe on the fourth floor.”
The engineer’s jaw dropped and he eked out a meager little “what?” Mike asked if that was all. When he was assured that this was the only question, he stood up and walked out the door. As he was leaving he turned a side glance toward me and winked at me. I was grinning ear-to-ear. I could tell, I wasn’t the only one that had a beef with this particular engineer.
So, you would have thought that it would have been a quieter ride back to the plant that day, but leave it to me…. I kept on going on about how that guy was so sure of himself that he didn’t even bother to ask the IT guy before the meeting began just to check his own erroneous assumptions. Geez! That was the most surprising part of the day. If he had only asked him before the meeting, he wouldn’t have made a fool out of himself with his snide comments just before he was put in his place.
So, Toby and I proved that doing the impossible isn’t all that impossible when what someone thinks is impossible really isn’t so. This stemmed from a lesson my dad taught me growing up when he told me, “Don’t ever say “can’t”. There is always a way.”
UPDATE: Toby died January 4, 2020, I wrote a post when I found out: Reference Letter for Toby O’Brien – Power Plant Engineer
Comments from the original post:
Toby O’Brien and Doing the Impossible
Originally posted May 23, 2014:
There were three times when I was an electrician at a coal-fired Power Plant in North Central Oklahoma when, according to others, I had done something that they labelled “impossible”. One of those times began when a Plant Engineer Toby O’Brien came to me and asked me if I could find a way to connect to the Prime Computer down at Corporate Headquarters so that he could edit some Engineering drawings he had worked on when he was working at Oklahoma City. That in itself wasn’t what was impossible. That came later, but it pertained to a similar subject.
Somewhere in Corporate Headquarters stashed away in a room somewhere was a Prime Computer just waiting for Toby.
Toby knew that I had an account on the Honeywell Mainframe computer downtown, since I was always getting myself in trouble playing around on it. Since I could connect to that, he wondered if it would be possible to connect to the Prime Computer where his Medusa CAD drawings were kept. He gave me some information about how he used to log into it when he was working downtown…. before he was banished to the Power Plant Palace 70 miles north out in the middle of the country.
Toby had a CAD tablet and a disk to install the driver on a computer. This would allow him to work on his CAD drawings. For those of you who don’t remember, or have never seen such a thing. It is like a very fancy mouse…. or should I say, Mouse Pad. Since you used a stylus to draw and point and click on a large pad called a tablet. Not anything like the little tablets we have today.
At the time, the only connection we had to the Honeywell Mainframe from the power plant was through a router called a Memotec. The bandwidth was a whopping 28,000 baud. A Baud is like bytes per second, only it is measured over an audio line as an audio signal. Like the sound that a Fax machine makes when it first connects. Toby had talked to some guys down at IT and they had a copy of the same Honeywell emulator called “GLink” we were using at the plant, only it would connect at a super whopping 56,000 baud. Twice as fast! They wanted someone to “Beta Test” it. They knew I liked doing that sort of stuff, so they were willing to give us a copy to try out.
Toby and I decided that the best place to try out our “Beta Testing” was in the Chemistry Lab. The main reason was that it had one of the newer 386 desktop computers and it was in a room right next to the data closet where the Memotec was talking to the mainframe downtown. So, if I had to run in there real quick and spit in the back and “whomp it a good ‘un”, I wouldn’t have too go far. That was a trick I learned from watching “No Time for Sergeants” with Andy Griffith. Here is the lesson:
If you have trouble viewing the video from the picture above, this this link: “No Time For Sergeants Radio Operator“.
To make the rest of this part of the story a little shorter, I’ll just summarize it to say that by logging into the Honeywell Mainframe using my account, I was then able to connect to the Prime Computer using Toby’s account and he was able to edit his CAD drawings from the Chemistry Lab at the Power Plant 70 miles away from Corporate Headquarters. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but in those days, this was “new technology” for us Power Plant guys anyway.
Before I continue with the “impossible” task, I need to explain a little about how electricians kept the Electrical Blueprints up-to-date at a Power Plant. This was a task that I was given when Tom Gibson was the Electrical Supervisor. I was supposed to take all the blueprints that had been revised because of some change that had happened at the plant, and make sure they were properly updated. Then I had to go through a process to make sure they were permanently updated, not only on the three copies that we had at our plant, but also with the “System of Record” set of blueprints at Corporate Headquarters.
So, let me tell you the process, and I’m sure you will be able to relate this task to something you encounter in your job today. Even if it is preparing the Salads at a Sirloin Stockade before opening time.
The first step happens when someone in the electric shop has to rewire some piece of equipment or something because the equipment was moved, removed, upgraded to something else, or someone thought it would work better if we did it a different way. Then whoever made the change to the electric wiring would go to the prints that were kept in the electric shop and update them so that the new wiring job was reflected in the Blueprints.
This is important because if someone a week later had to go work on this equipment, they would need to be able to see how the equipment is now wired. If they were working off of an old print, then they might blow something up, or injure or even kill someone…. most likely themselves, if it ever came down to it.
The other two copies of prints also needed to be updated. One was in the Instrument and Controls shop, and the most important copy was in the “Print Room” right next to Tom Gibson’s office.
The second step was to send off a request to Corporate Headquarters in Oklahoma City for a copy of all the blueprints that were changed so that the change could be made on the copy and sent back to Oklahoma City.
The third step is when a fresh copy of the blueprints arrived at the plant from Oklahoma City a few weeks later. These were updated with the changes and sent back to Oklahoma City.
The fourth step is when the blueprints are reviewed by an engineer downtown and the changes are made permanently by a drafter downtown.
Step five: Then three copies of the permanently changed prints were sent back to plant where they replaced the three marked up copies.
This process generally took two to three months given that the drafter downtown had to take the Original drawing, scan it in the computer, make changes to it, and then save it, and send it to the printer to be printed.
Toby and I had “petitioned” our plant management to buy us a copy of AutoCAD so that we could make our own revisions right at the plant, and send the changes directly to Oklahoma City, all complete and ready to go. The only problem with this was that AutoCAD software did not come cheap. It was several thousand dollars for just one copy.
Even though this was before the World Wide Web, I knew where I could get a pirated copy of AutoCAD, but since neither Toby or I considered ourselves criminals, we never really considered that a viable alternative. Tom Gibson was pitching for us to have a copy, but it was figured that if we had a copy, the company would have to buy a copy for all six main power plants, and they weren’t willing to dish out that much money.
Somewhere along the line, after Tom Gibson had kept pushing for the importance of having up-to-date Plant Electric Blueprints in a timely fashion, a task force was formed to address a faster way to make print revisions. Because Toby and I (and Terry Blevins) had been pushing this at our plant, Tom asked Toby and I (actually, that should be “Toby and me”, but “Toby and I” makes me sound smarter than I am) to be on the Task Force with him.
So, one morning after arriving at the plant, we climbed into a company car and made the drive to Oklahoma City to the Corporate Headquarters. When we arrived, we sat in a big conference room with members from the different power plants, and a number of engineers from downtown. I was pretty excited that something was finally going to be done.
I don’t remember the name of the engineer that was the leader of the task force, I only remember that I had worked with him once or twice through the years on some small projects. When the meeting began, I expected that we would have some kind of brainstorming activity. I was all ready for it, since I had all sorts of ideas about how we could just edit the prints directly from the plant on the Prime Computer where the prints were stored, just like Toby had done.
When the meeting began there was no brainstorming session. There wasn’t even a “What do you guys think about how this can be done?” No. The engineer instead went on to explain his solution to the problem. I was a little disappointed. Mainly because I was all fired up about being asked to be on a task force in Oklahoma City to work on…. well…. anything…. to tell you the truth. And here we were listening to a conclusion. — Sound familiar? I knew it would.
This engineer had it all figured out. Here was his solution:
Step 1: A request was sent by company mail to downtown (same at the old second step) for some blueprints that need to be updated.
Step 2: The prints are downloaded onto a floppy disk (3.5 inch High Density – which meant, 1.44 Megabyte disks).
Step 3: The disks were mailed through company mail back to the Power Plant.
Step 4: The Power Plant receives the disks and loads them onto their computer at the plant and they edit the blueprint using a pared down CAD program called “RedLine”.
Step 5: The print revision is saved to the disk and the disk is mailed back to Corporate Headquarters using the Company Mail.
Step 6: The print is reviewed by the engineers for accuracy and is loaded into the computer as the system of record.
Ok…. this sounded just like the previous method only we were using a “RedLine” program to edit the changes instead of using Red, Green and Gray pencils.
It was evident that the engineer in charge of the meeting was expecting us to all accept this solution and that the task force no longer had to meet anymore, and we could all go home and not ever return to consider this problem again. — Well, this was when I said the “Impossible”.
I raised my hand as if I was in a classroom. The guy knowing me to be a regular troublemaker asked me what I wanted. I said, “Why mail the files? Why not just put them in a folder and have the person at the plant go there and pick them up?” — In today’s world the idea of a drop-box is about as easy to understand as “Google it”. Back then… I guess not. Especially for some engineers who had already decided on a solution.
So, the engineer responded, “Because that can’t be done.” I said, “Why not?” He said, “It’s impossible. Someone in a power plant can’t just go into a computer at Corporate Headquarters and access a file.”
Well, that did it….. I told him that we were able to edit CAD drawings on the Prime computer from the power plant. He said, “No you didn’t. That’s impossible!” I looked over at Toby who was sitting next to me with a big grin on his face. So I said, “Who is the IT guy in the room? He can tell you that you can get a file from the mainframe from the power plant.”
The engineer replied that he didn’t invite any IT people, because there wasn’t any reason. Everyone knows that you can’t copy files on a Corporate computer from a power plant. So, I said, “Invite someone from the IT department to the next meeting. I’m sure he will agree with me that this can be done. — Shortly after that, the meeting was adjourned (but at least I had managed to convince the team we needed a second meeting).
You should have heard me rant and rave all the way back to the power plant that afternoon. How could he possibly be so naive to make definite statements about something and basically call me a liar when I said that we had already done it. I’m sure Tom Gibson was glad when we arrived back at the plant and he was able to get out of the company car and into the silence of his own car for his drive back to Stillwater. Toby on the other hand carpooled with me, so he had to hear me rant and rave to Scott Hubbard all the way back to Stillwater that day.
Needless to say, we had another Print Revision Task Force meeting a few weeks later. Tom, Toby and I drove back to Oklahoma City. I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen.
The meeting began with the engineer in charge of the task force saying, “The first thing we are going to address is Kevin Breazile’s statement about sending files to the power plant. We have invited someone from IT to answer this question.” Then he turned to a guy sitting at the table. I don’t remember his name either, only that I had worked with him also through the years (oh yes I do. It was Mike Russell).
The engineer turned to the IT guy and said (using a tone that indicated that I belonged in a mental institution or maybe kindergarten), “Kevin seems to think that he can somehow get on his computer at the power plant and access a folder on a server here at Corporate Headquarters and download a file.” He stopped and with a big smirk on his face looked at the IT guy. Mike just sat there for a moment looking at him.
The engineer just stood there with an evil grin on his face waiting… Mike said, “So? What do you want to know?” The engineer said, “Well. Is that even possible?” Mike replied, “Of course! It’s actually easier for him to do that than it is for someone on the 3rd floor of this building to access the mainframe on the fourth floor.”
The engineer’s jaw dropped and he eked out a meager little “what?” Mike asked if that was all. When he was assured that this was the only question, he stood up and walked out the door. As he was leaving he turned a side glance toward me and winked at me. I was grinning ear-to-ear. I could tell, I wasn’t the only one that had a beef with this particular engineer.
So, you would have thought that it would have been a quieter ride back to the plant that day, but leave it to me…. I kept on going on about how that guy was so sure of himself that he didn’t even bother to ask the IT guy before the meeting began just to check his own erroneous facts. Geez! That was the most surprising part of the day. If he had only asked him before the meeting, he wouldn’t have made a fool out of himself with his snide comments just before he was put in his place.
So, Toby and I proved that doing the impossible isn’t all that impossible when what someone thinks is impossible really isn’t so. This stemmed from a lesson my dad taught me growing up when he told me, “Don’t ever say “can’t”. There is always a way.”
Comments from the original post:
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Ah, the good old days when the best computer was the new 386. Things weren’t impossible but you had to think about it and plan quite a bit. Great stories!
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Always enjoy reading and thinking about a world I wouldn’t even know about if it weren’t for your unique blog!
Ruth in Pittsburgh
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Great story! I heard a pastor once say “What you “know” can keep you from learning the truth.” I saw this principle in operation many times in my career.
I had been at the WFEC Hugo Power Plant for a short time when the Plant Manager directed me (Maint. Supt.) to have the Mechanics “block the condenser” for a “hydro”. (Prior to a condenser hydro, several mechanics would work for about 4 hours dragging heavy timbers into the 3 foot tall space between the bottom of the hotwell and the concrete floor. They would space these timbers evenly across the entire condenser floor and use wedges to remove all clearance at each support beam. All this work was “required” to support the additional water weight (several feet higher than normal operating level)). I knew this “blocking” was never done at any OG&E plant but I didn’t want to make the Plant Manager look like an idiot. So I did what he asked. We “blocked” the condenser for a hydro. Then I got with just the Plant Engineer and asked him to get the Mechanical Prints for the condenser. I asked him if it was necessary to block the condenser for hydro. He said they had always done it because of the extra weight of the water. When we looked at the condenser drawings there was a note indicating it was designed to support a full hydro water level. He showed the print to the Plant Manager (one on one). Nobody was made to look foolish and for the next condenser hydro we didn’t “block” it – and the Mechanics were really happy!
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We used to have a saying that I picked up from Bob Kennedy. “We’ve been doing it this way for 35 years. “
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Well over the years there were a lot of engineers that way. Not all. We have had outstanding ones as well and the stinkers too. Just hate the politics of people so evil and cruel. Man is beyond ugly so often.
Tales of Power Plant Prowess by Ray Eberle
The first time I saw Ray Eberle was during my first summer as a summer help in 1979. He was standing in the midst of a group of mechanics who sat around him as school children sit around the librarian as a story is being read. Ray was telling a story to a group of mesmerized Power Plant Men.
Many years later I heard that Ray was invited to tell stories to hunters who were hunting elk in Montana around the campfires at night as an occupation. I think he passed on that opportunity. Who would think of leaving the comfort of a Coal-fired Power Plant in North Central Oklahoma to go sit around telling stories by campfires in Montana?
For many years I didn’t have the opportunity to work with Ray. He had joined the Safety Task Force that we had created at the plant. He had also become a member of the Confined Space Rescue Team, and was a HAZWOPER Emergency Rescue responder. I was on all of these teams with Ray, but I really had never worked side-by-side with him.
I know that at times, I had disappointed Ray by not living up to his expectations of what a True Power Plant Man should be. When we were on the Safety Task Force, after the reorganization, we had shifted gears to be more of an “Idea” task force instead of one that actually fixed safety issues. I was pushing hard to have the company move to a “Behavior-Based Safety” approach. It was a misunderstood process and if not implemented correctly would have the exact opposite effect (see the post “ABCs of Power Plant Safety“)
I know this bothered Ray. He let me know one day when I received an intra-company envelope with a memo in it. It said that he was resigning from the team:
I hang on to the oddest things. Some things that lift me up and some things that break my heart. I figure that there is a lesson for me in this memo. That is why I have held onto it for the past 20 years. I suppose this enforces my philosophy of trying to make a “Bad First Impression” (See the post: “Power Plant Art of Making a Bad First Impression“).
Ray Eberle told me once that he had always thought that I was a lazy stuck up electrician that didn’t like to get dirty and just sat around in the electric shop all the time. (read the post: “Power Plant Man Becomes an Unlikely Saint“) He said that he saw me as a “higher than thou” type of person that looked down on others. Then one day I said something that totally changed his perception of me. I said, “Don’t get twisted.”
It’s funny to learn sometimes what people actually think of you. Then it’s even funnier to think what makes them change their mind. You see… when Ray Eberle was sharing his thoughts about me, we had become very good friends. He said that he felt that he finally understood me when I uttered those three words “Don’t get twisted.”
I remember the moment I had said that. As members of the Confined Space Rescue Team, we were responsible for inspecting the SCBAs (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) each month. We were standing in the control room and had a couple of the SCBAs sitting out while the instructor was showing us the proper way to inspect them.
Ray had asked a few “what-if” questions (like “What if the pressure is right at the minimum amount?” or “What if we send a tank off to be refilled and we have an emergency?”) and his questions weren’t being answered. He was getting a little hot under the collar, so I said, “Don’t get twisted.”
I remember Ray’s reaction. He turned to me and said, “What did you say?” I looked him straight in the eye with a grin on my face and repeated “Don’t get twisted.”
At that moment I didn’t know if Ray was going to haul off and belt me one, so I was mentally preparing my various responses…. like…. get ready to duck… just try to stand there as if nothing had happened… run and call a therapist because my ego had been shattered (no… wait… that wasn’t then)…. Anyway… instead Ray just smiled at me and said calmly, “I thought that was what you had said.” I could see that he was in deep thought.
It was a couple of years later that I found out that at that moment Ray Eberle’s perception of who I was had done a 180. Isn’t it funny what causes someone to change their mind sometimes? Maybe he saw a spot of dirt on my tee shirt.
One day during the spring of 1998 my foreman, Alan Kramer told me that Jim Arnold wanted me to be assigned to create “Task Lists” in SAP.
Task lists are instructions on how to perform jobs associated with trouble tickets. Jim Arnold (probably to keep me out of trouble) had assigned me to write task lists and Ray Eberle to write Bill of Materials (or BOMs). Thus began our three year journey together working side-by-side entering data into the computer.
Writing task lists didn’t mean that I just sat in front of the computer all day. In order to create them, I had to find out what tools a person would use to fix something, and what procedure they would perform in order to do their job. This meant that a lot of times, I would go up to a crew that was working on something and I would ask them to tell me all the tools they used and how they did their job while standing at the job site.
I will write another post later about how I actually did the task of writing task lists, so I won’t go into any more detail. After a short while, Ray and I figured out that we needed to be in the front office close to the Master Prints and the room where the “X-Files” (or X-drawings) were kept.
X-Files didn’t have to do with “Aliens”. X-Files were files in cabinets that had all the vendor information about every piece of equipment at the plant (just about). They were called X Files because their filing numbers all began with an X. Like X-160183.
About 50% of my time for the next three years was spent creating task lists. The rest of the time, I was still doing my regular electrician job, and going to school. After the first year, I moved into the Master Print Room and Ray and I set up shop working on the computers next to each other.
Ray was a collector of Habanero Sauce bottles.
He would travel the country looking for unique Habanero Sauce bottles. Each day, Ray would bring a bottle of habanero sauce to work and pour some on his lunch.
I ate the same boring lunch every day. It consisted of a ham sandwich with a slice of American cheese. Then I had some kind of fruit, like an apple or an orange. Since I was no longer eating lunch in the electric shop where Charles would give me peppers with my sandwich, when Ray asked me if I would like some hot sauce for my sandwich I was quick to give it a try.
There is something very addictive about habanero sauce. After a few days of having this sauce on my sandwich, I went to the grocery store and bought some of my own bottles of habanero sauce and salsa.
Ok. One side story…
I was sitting at home reading a school book at the dining room table, my 9 year old daughter Elizabeth walked up to the table and took a tortilla chip from my paper plate, dipped it in the (habanero) salsa in the bowl next to it, and began to put it in her mouth. Without looking up from my book, I said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Thinking that I meant that she shouldn’t be stealing my chips, she went ahead and put it in her mouth. Grinning because she had stolen my chip, she began to walk away. Then she started to squeal a little. Moments later she was hopping all over the kitchen trying to find some way to put out the fire.
I told her the best remedy is to eat more chips. Don’t drink water. It makes it worse. Eat chips without salsa.
End of side story…
I mentioned above that Ray Eberle is a very good storyteller. He told me a series of stories that I call the “Walt Oswalt Stories”. These were real life stories about a Power Plant Man at our plant. They were so funny that I would go home and share them with my wife and she would fold over laughing at them. She said that Ray needs to write a book about Walt Oswalt.
I have shared some of these stories with various people in my later career and the reaction is always the same. These stories belong in a book. Later this year, I will share some of the Walt Oswalt stories in a post or two then you will see what I’m talking about.
One time in 2007 when I worked for Dell, I was meeting with the CEO of the world’s leading timekeeping company called Kronos. His name is Aron Ain.
My director, Chris Enslin was with us in Massachusetts.
Aron had taken us out to eat dinner, and Chris asked me to tell Aron some Walt Oswalt stories, so I shared a couple.
Then a couple of years later in 2009, Chris told me that he was at a meeting with CEOs from companies all over the United States, and there was Aron standing in the middle of a group of CEOs telling them a Walt Oswalt story.
Here is a picture of Ray Eberle sitting next to me at our computers in the master print room at the power plant:
Each day at lunch, after we had eaten our sandwiches, Ray would reach into his lunch box and pull out a worn black book and begin reading it. He would spend about 10 to 15 minutes reading. Sometimes he would stop and tell me something interesting about something he had just read. When he was done, the book went back into his lunch box and we continued working.
I remember some of the interesting conversations we used to have about that worn black book in his lunch box. One time we talked about a story in the book about how a hand just appeared out of nowhere and began writing on a wall when this guy named Belshazzar was having a party. Then this guy named Daniel came and told him what it meant, and that night Belshazzar was killed. Ray said, “…. God sent the hand that wrote the inscription.” What do you think about that? My response was…. “Yeah. God sure has class. He could have just struck the guy down right there and then. Instead he has a hand appear and write something on the wall. That way we can now have the saying: The writing on the wall’.”
I always thought if you were going to pick a good friend to have, if you pick one that reads their Bible every day during lunch, they are bound to be trustworthy. I could tell that I could trust Ray with anything. So, I spent the three years with Ray telling him everything I knew about myself while Ray shared a good deal of his life story with me. Of course… being nine and a half years older than I was, he had lived a lot more life than I had.
When I left the Power Plant in 2001 to work for Dell, one of the things I missed the most was sitting next to Ray talking about our lives, eating our lunch with Habanero Sauce, and listening to Ray’s stories about Prominent Power Plant Men! I have considered Ray a very dear friend for many years and I am honored to have him take me into his confidence. I only hope that I could be as much of a friend to Ray as he has been to me.
Toby O’Brien and Doing the Impossible
Originally posted May 23, 2014:
There were three times when I was an electrician at a coal-fired Power Plant in North Central Oklahoma when, according to others, I had done something that they labelled “impossible”. One of those times began when a Plant Engineer Toby O’Brien came to me and asked me if I could find a way to connect to the Prime Computer down at Corporate Headquarters so that he could edit some Engineering drawings he had worked on when he was working at Oklahoma City. That in itself wasn’t what was impossible. That came later, but it pertained to a similar subject.
Somewhere in Corporate Headquarters stashed away in a room somewhere was a Prime Computer just waiting for Toby.
Toby knew that I had an account on the Honeywell Mainframe computer downtown, since I was always getting myself in trouble playing around on it. Since I could connect to that, he wondered if it would be possible to connect to the Prime Computer where his Medusa CAD drawings were kept. He gave me some information about how he used to log into it when he was working downtown…. before he was banished to the Power Plant Palace 70 miles north out in the middle of the country.
Toby had a CAD tablet and a disk to install the driver on a computer. This would allow him to work on his CAD drawings. For those of you who don’t remember, or have never seen such a thing. It is like a very fancy mouse…. or should I say, Mouse Pad. Since you used a stylus to draw and point and click on a large pad called a tablet. Not anything like the little tablets we have today.
At the time, the only connection we had to the Honeywell Mainframe from the power plant was through a router called a Memotec. The bandwidth was a whopping 28,000 baud. A Baud is like bytes per second, only it is measured over an audio line as an audio signal. Like the sound that a Fax machine makes when it first connects. Toby had talked to some guys down at IT and they had a copy of the same Honeywell emulator called “GLink” we were using at the plant, only it would connect at a super whopping 56,000 baud. Twice as fast! They wanted someone to “Beta Test” it. They knew I liked doing that sort of stuff, so they were willing to give us a copy to try out.
Toby and I decided that the best place to try out our “Beta Testing” was in the Chemistry Lab. The main reason was that it had one of the newer 386 desktop computers and it was in a room right next to the data closet where the Memotec was talking to the mainframe downtown. So, if I had to run in there real quick and spit in the back and “whomp it a good ‘un”, I wouldn’t have too go far. That was a trick I learned from watching “No Time for Sergeants” with Andy Griffith. Here is the lesson:
If you have trouble viewing the video from the picture above, this this link: “No Time For Sergeants Radio Operator“.
To make the rest of this part of the story a little shorter, I’ll just summarize it to say that by logging into the Honeywell Mainframe using my account, I was then able to connect to the Prime Computer using Toby’s account and he was able to edit his CAD drawings from the Chemistry Lab at the Power Plant 70 miles away from Corporate Headquarters. I know that doesn’t sound like much, but in those days, this was “new technology” for us Power Plant guys anyway.
Before I continue with the “impossible” task, I need to explain a little about how electricians kept the Electrical Blueprints up-to-date at a Power Plant. This was a task that I was given when Tom Gibson was the Electrical Supervisor. I was supposed to take all the blueprints that had been revised because of some change that had happened at the plant, and make sure they were properly updated. Then I had to go through a process to make sure they were permanently updated, not only on the three copies that we had at our plant, but also with the “System of Record” set of blueprints at Corporate Headquarters.
So, let me tell you the process, and I’m sure you will be able to relate this task to something you encounter in your job today. Even if it is preparing the Salads at a Sirloin Stockade before opening time.
The first step happens when someone in the electric shop has to rewire some piece of equipment or something because the equipment was moved, removed, upgraded to something else, or someone thought it would work better if we did it a different way. Then whoever made the change to the electric wiring would go to the prints that were kept in the electric shop and update them so that the new wiring job was reflected in the Blueprints.
This is important because if someone a week later had to go work on this equipment, they would need to be able to see how the equipment is now wired. If they were working off of an old print, then they might blow something up, or injure or even kill someone…. most likely themselves, if it ever came down to it.
The other two copies of prints also needed to be updated. One was in the Instrument and Controls shop, and the most important copy was in the “Print Room” right next to Tom Gibson’s office.
The second step was to send off a request to Corporate Headquarters in Oklahoma City for a copy of all the blueprints that were changed so that the change could be made on the copy and sent back to Oklahoma City.
The third step is when a fresh copy of the blueprints arrived at the plant from Oklahoma City a few weeks later. These were updated with the changes and sent back to Oklahoma City.
The fourth step is when the blueprints are reviewed by an engineer downtown and the changes are made permanently by a drafter downtown.
Step five: Then three copies of the permanently changed prints were sent back to plant where they replaced the three marked up copies.
This process generally took two to three months given that the drafter downtown had to take the Original drawing, scan it in the computer, make changes to it, and then save it, and send it to the printer to be printed.
Toby and I had “petitioned” our plant management to buy us a copy of AutoCAD so that we could make our own revisions right at the plant, and send the changes directly to Oklahoma City, all complete and ready to go. The only problem with this was that AutoCAD software did not come cheap. It was several thousand dollars for just one copy.
Even though this was before the World Wide Web, I knew where I could get a pirated copy of AutoCAD, but since neither Toby or I considered ourselves criminals, we never really considered that a viable alternative. Tom Gibson was pitching for us to have a copy, but it was figured that if we had a copy, the company would have to buy a copy for all six main power plants, and they weren’t willing to dish out that much money.
Somewhere along the line, after Tom Gibson had kept pushing for the importance of having up-to-date Plant Electric Blueprints in a timely fashion, a task force was formed to address a faster way to make print revisions. Because Toby and I (and Terry Blevins) had been pushing this at our plant, Tom asked Toby and I (actually, that should be “Toby and me”, but “Toby and I” makes me sound smarter than I am) to be on the Task Force with him.
So, one morning after arriving at the plant, we climbed into a company car and made the drive to Oklahoma City to the Corporate Headquarters. When we arrived, we sat in a big conference room with members from the different power plants, and a number of engineers from downtown. I was pretty excited that something was finally going to be done.
I don’t remember the name of the engineer that was the leader of the task force, I only remember that I had worked with him once or twice through the years on some small projects. When the meeting began, I expected that we would have some kind of brainstorming activity. I was all ready for it, since I had all sorts of ideas about how we could just edit the prints directly from the plant on the Prime Computer where the prints were stored, just like Toby had done.
When the meeting began there was no brainstorming session. There wasn’t even a “What do you guys think about how this can be done?” No. The engineer instead went on to explain his solution to the problem. I was a little disappointed. Mainly because I was all fired up about being asked to be on a task force in Oklahoma City to work on…. well…. anything…. to tell you the truth. And here we were listening to a conclusion. — Sound familiar? I knew it would.
This engineer had it all figured out. Here was his solution:
Step 1: A request was sent by company mail to downtown (same at the old second step) for some blueprints that need to be updated.
Step 2: The prints are downloaded onto a floppy disk (3.5 inch High Density – which meant, 1.44 Megabyte disks).
Step 3: The disks were mailed through company mail back to the Power Plant.
Step 4: The Power Plant receives the disks and loads them onto their computer at the plant and they edit the blueprint using a pared down CAD program called “RedLine”.
Step 5: The print revision is saved to the disk and the disk is mailed back to Corporate Headquarters using the Company Mail.
Step 6: The print is reviewed by the engineers for accuracy and is loaded into the computer as the system of record.
Ok…. this sounded just like the previous method only we were using a “RedLine” program to edit the changes instead of using Red, Green and Gray pencils.
It was evident that the engineer in charge of the meeting was expecting us to all accept this solution and that the task force no longer had to meet anymore, and we could all go home and not ever return to consider this problem again. — Well, this was when I said the “Impossible”.
I raised my hand as if I was in a classroom. The guy knowing me to be a regular troublemaker asked me what I wanted. I said, “Why mail the files? Why not just put them in a folder and have the person at the plant go there and pick them up?” — In today’s world the idea of a drop-box is about as easy to understand as “Google it”. Back then… I guess not. Especially for some engineers who had already decided on a solution.
So, the engineer responded, “Because that can’t be done.” I said, “Why not?” He said, “It’s impossible. Someone in a power plant can’t just go into a computer at Corporate Headquarters and access a file.”
Well, that did it….. I told him that we were able to edit CAD drawings on the Prime computer from the power plant. He said, “No you didn’t. That’s impossible!” I looked over at Toby who was sitting next to me with a big grin on his face. So I said, “Who is the IT guy in the room? He can tell you that you can get a file from the mainframe from the power plant.”
The engineer replied that he didn’t invite any IT people, because there wasn’t any reason. Everyone knows that you can’t copy files on a Corporate computer from a power plant. So, I said, “Invite someone from the IT department to the next meeting. I’m sure he will agree with me that this can be done. — Shortly after that, the meeting was adjourned (but at least I had managed to convince the team we needed a second meeting).
You should have heard me rant and rave all the way back to the power plant that afternoon. How could he possibly be so naive to make definite statements about something and basically call me a liar when I said that we had already done it. I’m sure Tom Gibson was glad when we arrived back at the plant and he was able to get out of the company car and into the silence of his own car for his drive back to Stillwater. Toby on the other hand carpooled with me, so he had to hear me rant and rave to Scott Hubbard all the way back to Stillwater that day.
Needless to say, we had another Print Revision Task Force meeting a few weeks later. Tom, Toby and I drove back to Oklahoma City. I couldn’t wait to see what was going to happen.
The meeting began with the engineer in charge of the task force saying, “The first thing we are going to address is Kevin Breazile’s statement about sending files to the power plant. We have invited someone from IT to answer this question.” Then he turned to a guy sitting at the table. I don’t remember his name either, only that I had worked with him also through the years (oh yes I do. It was Mike Russell).
The engineer turned to the IT guy and said (using a tone that indicated that I belonged in a mental institution or maybe kindergarten), “Kevin seems to think that he can somehow get on his computer at the power plant and access a folder on a server here at Corporate Headquarters and download a file.” He stopped and with a big smirk on his face looked at the IT guy. Mike just sat there for a moment looking at him.
The engineer just stood there with an evil grin on his face waiting… Mike said, “So? What do you want to know?” The engineer said, “Well. Is that even possible?” Mike replied, “Of course! It’s actually easier for him to do that than it is for someone on the 3rd floor of this building to access the mainframe on the fourth floor.”
The engineer’s jaw dropped and he eked out a meager little “what?” Mike asked if that was all. When he was assured that this was the only question, he stood up and walked out the door. As he was leaving he turned a side glance toward me and winked at me. I was grinning ear-to-ear. I could tell, I wasn’t the only one that had a beef with this particular engineer.
So, you would have thought that it would have been a quieter ride back to the plant that day, but leave it to me…. I kept on going on about how that guy was so sure of himself that he didn’t even bother to ask the IT guy before the meeting began just to check his own erroneous facts. Geez! That was the most surprising part of the day. If he had only asked him before the meeting, he wouldn’t have made a fool out of himself with his snide comments just before he was put in his place.
So, Toby and I proved that doing the impossible isn’t all that impossible when what someone thinks is impossible really isn’t so. This stemmed from a lesson my dad taught me growing up when he told me, “Don’t ever say “can’t”. There is always a way.”
Comments from the original post:
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Ah, the good old days when the best computer was the new 386. Things weren’t impossible but you had to think about it and plan quite a bit. Great stories!
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Always enjoy reading and thinking about a world I wouldn’t even know about if it weren’t for your unique blog!
Ruth in Pittsburgh
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Great story! I heard a pastor once say “What you “know” can keep you from learning the truth.” I saw this principle in operation many times in my career.
I had been at the WFEC Hugo Power Plant for a short time when the Plant Manager directed me (Maint. Supt.) to have the Mechanics “block the condenser” for a “hydro”. (Prior to a condenser hydro, several mechanics would work for about 4 hours dragging heavy timbers into the 3 foot tall space between the bottom of the hotwell and the concrete floor. They would space these timbers evenly across the entire condenser floor and use wedges to remove all clearance at each support beam. All this work was “required” to support the additional water weight (several feet higher than normal operating level)). I knew this “blocking” was never done at any OG&E plant but I didn’t want to make the Plant Manager look like an idiot. So I did what he asked. We “blocked” the condenser for a hydro. Then I got with just the Plant Engineer and asked him to get the Mechanical Prints for the condenser. I asked him if it was necessary to block the condenser for hydro. He said they had always done it because of the extra weight of the water. When we looked at the condenser drawings there was a note indicating it was designed to support a full hydro water level. He showed the print to the Plant Manager (one on one). Nobody was made to look foolish and for the next condenser hydro we didn’t “block” it – and the Mechanics were really happy!
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We used to have a saying that I picked up from Bob Kennedy. “We’ve been doing it this way for 35 years. “
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Well over the years there were a lot of engineers that way. Not all. We have had outstanding ones as well and the stinkers too. Just hate the politics of people so evil and cruel. Man is beyond ugly so often.
Tales of Power Plant Prowess by Ray Eberle
The first time I saw Ray Eberle was during my first summer as a summer help in 1979. He was standing in the midst of a group of mechanics who sat around him as school children sit around the librarian as a story is being read. Ray was telling a story to a group of mesmerized Power Plant Men.
Many years later I heard that Ray was invited to tell stories to hunters who were hunting elk in Montana around the campfires at night as an occupation. I think he passed on that opportunity. Who would think of leaving the comfort of a Coal-fired Power Plant in North Central Oklahoma to go sit around telling stories by campfires in Montana?
For many years I didn’t have the opportunity to work with Ray. He had joined the Safety Task Force that we had created at the plant. He had also become a member of the Confined Space Rescue Team, and was a HAZWOPER Emergency Rescue responder. I was on all of these teams with Ray, but I really had never worked side-by-side with him.
I know that at times, I had disappointed Ray by not living up to his expectations of what a True Power Plant Man should be. When we were on the Safety Task Force, after the reorganization, we had shifted gears to be more of an “Idea” task force instead of one that actually fixed safety issues. I was pushing hard to have the company move to a “Behavior-Based Safety” approach. It was a misunderstood process and if not implemented correctly would have the exact opposite effect (see the post “ABCs of Power Plant Safety“)
I know this bothered Ray. He let me know one day when I received an intra-company envelope with a memo in it. It said that he was resigning from the team:
I hang on to the oddest things. Some things that lift me up and some things that break my heart. I figure that there is a lesson for me in this memo. That is why I have held onto it for the past 20 years. I suppose this enforces my philosophy of trying to make a “Bad First Impression” (See the post: “Power Plant Art of Making a Bad First Impression“).
Ray Eberle told me once that he had always thought that I was a lazy stuck up electrician that didn’t like to get dirty and just sat around in the electric shop all the time. (read the post: “Power Plant Man Becomes an Unlikely Saint“) He said that he saw me as a “higher than thou” type of person that looked down on others. Then one day I said something that totally changed his perception of me. I said, “Don’t get twisted.”
It’s funny to learn sometimes what people actually think of you. Then it’s even funnier to think what makes them change their mind. You see… when Ray Eberle was sharing his thoughts about me, we had become very good friends. He said that he felt that he finally understood me when I uttered those three words “Don’t get twisted.”
I remember the moment I had said that. As members of the Confined Space Rescue Team, we were responsible for inspecting the SCBAs (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) each month. We were standing in the control room and had a couple of the SCBAs sitting out while the instructor was showing us the proper way to inspect them.
Ray had asked a few “what-if” questions (like “What if the pressure is right at the minimum amount?” or “What if we send a tank off to be refilled and we have an emergency?”) and his questions weren’t being answered. He was getting a little hot under the collar, so I said, “Don’t get twisted.”
I remember Ray’s reaction. He turned to me and said, “What did you say?” I looked him straight in the eye with a grin on my face and repeated “Don’t get twisted.”
At that moment I didn’t know if Ray was going to haul off and belt me one, so I was mentally preparing my various responses…. like…. get ready to duck… just try to stand there as if nothing had happened… run and call a therapist because my ego had been shattered (no… wait… that wasn’t then)…. Anyway… instead Ray just smiled at me and said calmly, “I thought that was what you had said.” I could see that he was in deep thought.
It was a couple of years later that I found out that at that moment Ray Eberle’s perception of who I was had done a 180. Isn’t it funny what causes someone to change their mind sometimes? Maybe he saw a spot of dirt on my tee shirt.
One day during the spring of 1998 my foreman, Alan Kramer told me that Jim Arnold wanted me to be assigned to create “Task Lists” in SAP.
Task lists are instructions on how to perform jobs associated with trouble tickets. Jim Arnold (probably to keep me out of trouble) had assigned me to write task lists and Ray Eberle to write Bill of Materials (or BOMs). Thus began our three year journey together working side-by-side entering data into the computer.
Writing task lists didn’t mean that I just sat in front of the computer all day. In order to create them, I had to find out what tools a person would use to fix something, and what procedure they would perform in order to do their job. This meant that a lot of times, I would go up to a crew that was working on something and I would ask them to tell me all the tools they used and how they did their job while standing at the job site.
I will write another post later about how I actually did the task of writing task lists, so I won’t go into any more detail. After a short while, Ray and I figured out that we needed to be in the front office close to the Master Prints and the room where the “X-Files” (or X-drawings) were kept.
X-Files didn’t have to do with “Aliens”. X-Files were files in cabinets that had all the vendor information about every piece of equipment at the plant (just about). They were called X Files because their filing numbers all began with an X. Like X-160183.
About 50% of my time for the next three years was spent creating task lists. The rest of the time, I was still doing my regular electrician job, and going to school. After the first year, I moved into the Master Print Room and Ray and I set up shop working on the computers next to each other.
Ray was a collector of Habanero Sauce bottles.
He would travel the country looking for unique Habanero Sauce bottles. Each day, Ray would bring a bottle of habanero sauce to work and pour some on his lunch.
I ate the same boring lunch every day. It consisted of a ham sandwich with a slice of American cheese. Then I had some kind of fruit, like an apple or an orange. Since I was no longer eating lunch in the electric shop where Charles would give me peppers with my sandwich, when Ray asked me if I would like some hot sauce for my sandwich I was quick to give it a try.
There is something very addictive about habanero sauce. After a few days of having this sauce on my sandwich, I went to the grocery store and bought some of my own bottles of habanero sauce and salsa.
Ok. One side story…
I was sitting at home reading a school book at the dining room table, my 9 year old daughter Elizabeth walked up to the table and took a tortilla chip from my paper plate, dipped it in the (habanero) salsa in the bowl next to it, and began to put it in her mouth. Without looking up from my book, I said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Thinking that I meant that she shouldn’t be stealing my chips, she went ahead and put it in her mouth. Grinning because she had stolen my chip, she began to walk away. Then she started to squeal a little. Moments later she was hopping all over the kitchen trying to find some way to put out the fire.
I told her the best remedy is to eat more chips. Don’t drink water. It makes it worse. Eat chips without salsa.
End of side story…
I mentioned above that Ray Eberle is a very good storyteller. He told me a series of stories that I call the “Walt Oswalt Stories”. These were real life stories about a Power Plant Man at our plant. They were so funny that I would go home and share them with my wife and she would fold over laughing at them. She said that Ray needs to write a book about Walt Oswalt.
I have shared some of these stories with various people in my later career and the reaction is always the same. These stories belong in a book. Later this year, I will share some of the Walt Oswalt stories in a post or two then you will see what I’m talking about.
One time in 2007 when I worked for Dell, I was meeting with the CEO of the world’s leading timekeeping company called Kronos. His name is Aron Ain.
My director, Chris Enslin was with us in Massachusetts.
Aron had taken us out to eat dinner, and Chris asked me to tell Aron some Walt Oswalt stories, so I shared a couple.
Then a couple of years later in 2009, Chris told me that he was at a meeting with CEOs from companies all over the United States, and there was Aron standing in the middle of a group of CEOs telling them a Walt Oswalt story.
Here is a picture of Ray Eberle sitting next to me at our computers in the master print room at the power plant:
Each day at lunch, after we had eaten our sandwiches, Ray would reach into his lunch box and pull out a worn black book and begin reading it. He would spend about 10 to 15 minutes reading. Sometimes he would stop and tell me something interesting about something he had just read. When he was done, the book went back into his lunch box and we continued working.
I remember some of the interesting conversations we used to have about that worn black book in his lunch box. One time we talked about a story in the book about how a hand just appeared out of nowhere and began writing on a wall when this guy named Belshazzar was having a party. Then this guy named Daniel came and told him what it meant, and that night Belshazzar was killed. Ray said, “…. God sent the hand that wrote the inscription.” What do you think about that? My response was…. “Yeah. God sure has class. He could have just struck the guy down right there and then. Instead he has a hand appear and write something on the wall. That way we can now have the saying: The writing on the wall’.”
I always thought if you were going to pick a good friend to have, if you pick one that reads their Bible every day during lunch, they are bound to be trustworthy. I could tell that I could trust Ray with anything. So, I spent the three years with Ray telling him everything I knew about myself while Ray shared a good deal of his life story with me. Of course… being nine and a half years older than I was, he had lived a lot more life than I had.
When I left the Power Plant in 2001 to work for Dell, one of the things I missed the most was sitting next to Ray talking about our lives, eating our lunch with Habanero Sauce, and listening to Ray’s stories about Prominent Power Plant Men! I have considered Ray a very dear friend for many years and I am honored to have him take me into his confidence. I only hope that I could be as much of a friend to Ray as he has been to me.
Tales of Power Plant Prowess by Ray Eberle
The first time I saw Ray Eberle was during my first summer as a summer help in 1979. He was standing in the midst of a group of mechanics who sat around him as school children sit around the librarian as a story is being read. Ray was telling a story to a group of mesmerized Power Plant Men.
Many years later I heard that Ray was invited to tell stories to hunters who were hunting elk in Montana around the campfires at night as an occupation. I think he passed on that opportunity. Who would think of leaving the comfort of a Coal-fired Power Plant in North Central Oklahoma to go sit around telling stories by campfires in Montana?
For many years I didn’t have the opportunity to work with Ray. He had joined the Safety Task Force that we had created at the plant. He had also become a member of the Confined Space Rescue Team, and was a HAZWOPER Emergency Rescue responder. I was on all of these teams with Ray, but I really had never worked side-by-side with him.
I know that at times, I had disappointed Ray by not living up to his expectations of what a True Power Plant Man should be. When we were on the Safety Task Force, after the reorganization, we had shifted gears to be more of an “Idea” task force instead of one that actually fixed safety issues. I was pushing hard to have the company move to a “Behavior-Based Safety” approach. It was a misunderstood process and if not implemented correctly would have the exact opposite effect (see the post “ABCs of Power Plant Safety“)
I know this bothered Ray. He let me know one day when I received an intra-company envelope with a memo in it. It said that he was resigning from the team:
I hang on to the oddest things. Some things that lift me up and some things that break my heart. I figure that there is a lesson for me in this memo. That is why I have held onto it for the past 20 years. I suppose this enforces my philosophy of trying to make a “Bad First Impression” (See the post: “Power Plant Art of Making a Bad First Impression“).
Ray Eberle told me once that he had always thought that I was a lazy stuck up electrician that didn’t like to get dirty and just sat around in the electric shop all the time. (read the post: “Power Plant Man Becomes an Unlikely Saint“) He said that he saw me as a “higher than thou” type of person that looked down on others. Then one day I said something that totally changed his perception of me. I said, “Don’t get twisted.”
It’s funny to learn sometimes what people actually think of you. Then it’s even funnier to think what makes them change their mind. You see… when Ray Eberle was sharing his thoughts about me, we had become very good friends. He said that he felt that he finally understood me when I uttered those three words “Don’t get twisted.”
I remember the moment I had said that. As members of the Confined Space Rescue Team, we were responsible for inspecting the SCBAs (Self-Contained Breathing Apparatus) each month. We were standing in the control room and had a couple of the SCBAs sitting out while the instructor was showing us the proper way to inspect them.
Ray had asked a few “what-if” questions (like “What if the pressure is right at the minimum amount?” or “What if we send a tank off to be refilled and we have an emergency?”) and his questions weren’t being answered. He was getting a little hot under the collar, so I said, “Don’t get twisted.”
I remember Ray’s reaction. He turned to me and said, “What did you say?” I looked him straight in the eye with a grin on my face and repeated “Don’t get twisted.”
At that moment I didn’t know if Ray was going to haul off and belt me one, so I was mentally preparing my various responses…. like…. get ready to duck… just try to stand there as if nothing had happened… run and call a therapist because my ego had been shattered (no… wait… that wasn’t then)…. Anyway… instead Ray just smiled at me and said calmly, “I thought that was what you had said.” I could see that he was in deep thought.
It was a couple of years later that I found out that at that moment Ray Eberle’s perception of who I was had done a 180. Isn’t it funny what causes someone to change their mind sometimes? Maybe he saw a spot of dirt on my tee shirt.
One day during the spring of 1998 my foreman, Alan Kramer told me that I had been assigned to create “Task Lists” in SAP.
Task lists are instructions on how to perform jobs associated with trouble tickets. Jim Arnold (probably to keep me out of trouble) had assigned me to write task lists and Ray Eberle to write Bill of Materials (or BOMs). Thus began our three year journey together working side-by-side entering data into the computer.
Writing task lists didn’t mean that I just sat in front of the computer all day. In order to create them, I had to find out what tools a person would use to fix something, and what procedure they would perform in order to do their job. This meant that a lot of times, I would go up to a crew that was working on something and I would ask them to tell me all the tools they used and how they did their job while standing at the job site.
I will write another post later about how I actually did the task of writing task lists, so I won’t go into any more detail. After a short while, Ray and I figured out that we needed to be in the front office close to the Master Prints and the room where the “X-Files” (or X-drawings) were kept.
X-Files didn’t have to do with “Aliens”. X-Files were files in cabinets that had all the vendor information about every piece of equipment at the plant (just about). They were called X Files because their filing numbers all began with an X. Like X-160183.
About 50% of my time for the next three years was spent creating task lists. The rest of the time, I was still doing my regular electrician job, and going to school. After the first year, I moved into the Master Print Room and Ray and I set up shop working on the computers next to each other.
Ray was a collector of Habanero Sauce bottles.
He would travel the country looking for unique Habanero Sauce bottles. Each day, Ray would bring a bottle of habanero sauce to work and pour some on his lunch.
I ate the same boring lunch every day. It consisted of a ham sandwich with a slice of American cheese. Then I had some kind of fruit, like an apple or an orange. Since I was no longer eating lunch in the electric shop where Charles would give me peppers with my sandwich, when Ray asked me if I would like some hot sauce for my sandwich I was quick to give it a try.
There is something very addictive about habanero sauce. After a few days of having this sauce on my sandwich, I went to the grocery store and bought some of my own bottles of habanero sauce and salsa.
Ok. One side story…
I was sitting at home reading a school book at the dining room table, my 9 year old daughter Elizabeth walked up to the table and took a tortilla chip from my paper plate, dipped it in the (habanero) salsa in the bowl next to it, and began to put it in her mouth. Without looking up from my book, I said, “I wouldn’t do that if I were you.”
Thinking that I meant that she shouldn’t be stealing my chips, she went ahead and put it in her mouth. Grinning because she had stolen my chip, she began to walk away. Then she started to squeal a little. Moments later she was hopping all over the kitchen trying to find some way to put out the fire.
I told her the best remedy is to eat more chips. Don’t drink water. It makes it worse. Eat chips without salsa.
End of side story…
I mentioned above that Ray Eberle is a very good storyteller. He told me a series of stories that I call the “Walt Oswalt Stories”. These were real life stories about a Power Plant Man at our plant. They were so funny that I would go home and share them with my wife and she would fold over laughing at them. She said that Ray needs to write a book about Walt Oswalt.
I have shared some of these stories with various people in my later career and the reaction is always the same. These stories belong in a book. Later this year, I will share some of the Walt Oswalt stories in a post or two then you will see what I’m talking about.
One time in 2007 when I worked for Dell, I was meeting with the CEO of the world’s leading timekeeping company called Kronos. His name is Aron Ain.
My director, Chris Enslin was with us in Massachusetts.
Aron had taken us out to eat dinner, and Chris asked me to tell Aron some Walt Oswalt stories, so I shared a couple.
Then a couple of years later in 2009, Chris told me that he was at a meeting with CEOs from companies all over the United States, and there was Aron standing in the middle of a group of CEOs telling them a Walt Oswalt story.
Here is a picture of Ray Eberle sitting next to me at our computers in the master print room at the power plant:
Each day at lunch, after we had eaten our sandwiches, Ray would reach into his lunch box and pull out a worn black book and begin reading it. He would spend about 10 to 15 minutes reading. Sometimes he would stop and tell me something interesting about something he had just read. When he was done, the book went back into his lunch box and we continued working.
I remember some of the interesting conversations we used to have about that worn black book in his lunch box. One time we talked about a story in the book about how a hand just appeared out of nowhere and began writing on a wall when this guy named Belshazzar was having a party. Then this guy named Daniel came and told him what it meant, and that night Belshazzar was killed. Ray said, “…. God sent the hand that wrote the inscription.” What do you think about that? My response was…. “Yeah. God sure has class. He could have just struck the guy down right there and then. Instead he has a hand appear and write something on the wall. That way we can now have the saying: The writing on the wall’.”
I always thought if you were going to pick a good friend to have, if you pick one that reads their Bible every day during lunch, they are bound to be trustworthy. I could tell that I could trust Ray with anything. So, I spent the three years with Ray telling him everything I knew about myself while Ray shared a good deal of his life story with me. Of course… being nine and a half years older than I was, he had lived a lot more life than I had.
When I left the Power Plant in 2001 to work for Dell, one of the things I missed the most was sitting next to Ray talking about our lives, eating our lunch with Habanero Sauce, and listening to Ray’s stories about Prominent Power Plant Men! I have considered Ray a very dear friend for many years and I am honored to have him take me into his confidence. I only hope that I could be as much of a friend to Ray as he has been to me.
Ah, the good old days when the best computer was the new 386. Things weren’t impossible but you had to think about it and plan quite a bit. Great stories!
Always enjoy reading and thinking about a world I wouldn’t even know about if it weren’t for your unique blog!
Ruth in Pittsburgh
Great story! I heard a pastor once say “What you “know” can keep you from learning the truth.” I saw this principle in operation many times in my career.
I had been at the WFEC Hugo Power Plant for a short time when the Plant Manager directed me (Maint. Supt.) to have the Mechanics “block the condenser” for a “hydro”. (Prior to a condenser hydro, several mechanics would work for about 4 hours dragging heavy timbers into the 3 foot tall space between the bottom of the hotwell and the concrete floor. They would space these timbers evenly across the entire condenser floor and use wedges to remove all clearance at each support beam. All this work was “required” to support the additional water weight (several feet higher than normal operating level)). I knew this “blocking” was never done at any OG&E plant but I didn’t want to make the Plant Manager look like an idiot. So I did what he asked. We “blocked” the condenser for a hydro. Then I got with just the Plant Engineer and asked him to get the Mechanical Prints for the condenser. I asked him if it was necessary to block the condenser for hydro. He said they had always done it because of the extra weight of the water. When we looked at the condenser drawings there was a note indicating it was designed to support a full hydro water level. He showed the print to the Plant Manager (one on one). Nobody was made to look foolish and for the next condenser hydro we didn’t “block” it – and the Mechanics were really happy!
We used to have a saying that I picked up from Bob Kennedy. “We’ve been doing it this way for 35 years. “
Well over the years there were a lot of engineers that way. Not all. We have had outstanding ones as well and the stinkers too. Just hate the politics of people so evil and cruel. Man is beyond ugly so often.