Last year NCR spun off the part of the company I'm in to be an independent company. They set up the company's headquarters in Ohio but for some reason they've decided that the company's first annual meeting is going to be held right downstairs here in San Diego.
They expect about 80 people to attend this meeting. I'm guessing most of those are the executives and board of directors and their entourages. I suppose a handful of shareholders will come. They say that the meeting will last about half an hour. It starts at 8:00 A.M. so all the good parking spots will be taken before I get there. I'll have to park in the north forty and hike in. That's OK since I usually park in the south forty. The only problem is I'll leave on autopilot and go to my usual parking spot and have a big hike back to my car.
So, to make a good impression on the royalty and owners, they've been fixing up the property.
This weekend they are going to resurface the parking lot. Our visitors will get to park on dark pavement with bright, shiny lines. I wonder if they'll make wide spots for them and their huge rental cars.
They painted the water main that comes out of the ground to the anti-siphon valves and back underground. It's bright red now. It's on the way from the parking lot to the front door so it's the first thing our visitors will see.
After they cross the driveway they'll get to see the newly planted ivy. It won't have a chance to fill in before they get here. The next thing they'll see are some lights in the ground that used to shine on a tree. The tree's roots were tearing up the sidewalk so it got taken out. Last week there was an electrician digging up the light fixtures and cleaning them up. Now we have lights that shine into the sky that make it more difficult for the Palomar Observatory to do their work.
There is a tile on the front of the building just above the front door that got broken years ago. (I think the window washing platform smashed into it.) Somebody said that they bought just enough of these tiles to cover the buildings when they were being built and they aren't being made any longer. They're repairing that. I wonder how they're fixing it without any spare parts. I'll have to check that out.
Once they get into the lobby, they'll be greeted by a glass partition that has an opening with some badge readers on either side of it. These badge readers are new. We used to simply flash our badges at the receptionist. Now we have to play games with the readers. They have a light that turns green that says we're authorized to pass the partition. But it gives us about a microsecond to get past it. Otherwise it beeps loudly at us and we have to try again. I was getting good at making it through without beeping but they seem to like watching people struggle so they shortened the time it gives us to get through. I don't know what they're going to do to let the dignitaries through.
After they shareholders make it past the badge readers they will go down a gray hallway that is having nicks and scuff marks painted over. The meeting will be held in a newly painted conference room. The walls of the conference room used to have gray, peeling wallpaper. Now it has spiffy gray walls that match the hallway.
I don't know if it is related but last week they shampooed the carpets on the second floor where I work. I don't think that the shareholders will be given a tour of where the product they own is actually worked on. When they were cleaning the carpets they took all the chairs out of the cubicles. When they were finished they put chairs back in the cubicles but usually they didn't put them back where they came from. We get attached to our chairs and their idiosyncrasies. So there was much grumpiness as people searched for the chairs that fit their butts. Mine happened to come back to my cubicle in the first place so I didn't get to join the musical chairs game.
I hope they hold more shareholders' meetings here. It's good to get overdue repairs done.
8 comments:
When President Clinton visited Los 'Mos, the support people at the national laboratory were out painting rocks. I was happy to see my tax dollars being spent to spiff up the rocks.
And I'm sure your shareholders will be impressed with the water main. If you paint the company logo on it, it would be really impressive!
Wow! (Re: the Clinton visit.) Were they painting the rocks red, white, and blue, or were they covering up scratches and blemishes?
Yes, Pagrs, we need more details! I thought that rock painting was the job of high school initiates or hooligans.
Details (please)!
My recollection (correct me if I'm wrong, BobBIE) is that the workers spiffed up the rocks in Kerrwood Forest, named after former LANL director Donald Kerr. The forest was the triangular plot of land at the intersection of Diamond Drive and NM 501. It has become defunct after the construction of the security checkpoints.
The rocks were not painted in the national colors, although I think that would have been a nice touch.
How come they didn[t replace all the tiles on the building instead of just patching up the broken one?
Are you a shareholder and are you going to the meeting?
Whew! That is one dandy water main!
I wish I'd known before the market closed today. That's gonna be sooooommmmme shareholders' meeting!
We have similar actions when the congressional delegations appear. The floors shine so much that it is blinding.
But.... I have never notied a water main as nice as yours.
The same kind of activity happens around our building when big wigs come to visit. Shiny floors, new paint in the airlock going into the plant, new paint on handrails, new paint on the curbs, new paint....
I got my picture taken with Pete Dominici in the hallway of the plant. He pinched my cheek! Face that is! Hmmm...I'll have to find that and post it on my blog.
I can't remember all the stuff they did when Clinton came to town. I remember high pressure washing around the Kerrwood Forest, but don't remember the painting...where was I?
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