ALL ABOUT SAFETY As I traversed the hallowed halls of the DeVoss Center and adjacent areas around the Amway I have come to the conclusion that all of us should be wearing nametags at all times. First name is sufficient as it creates an opening and a pseudo pose of recognition. After polling several people (young and old) no one opposed, and all were in favor. Especially hurtful is when people I only see once a year come up with great enthusiasm to my podcast table expecting instant recall by name. Especially galling were those willing souls who agreed to be interviewed as I take great pains to get to know them and relax them for the program and instantly forget them. I know, pretty sad on my part.
I managed the walk to Founders Brewery for the Monday activity, only pausing to lean on a handy parking meter or wall as I made my way. Fortunately, there was a group and a wing person that watched out for me if I turned up missing. I have much respect for those with not so obvious handicaps. We look so normal. The return trip for a dinner was much easier as I had partaken in a couple of brews first.
The next day I have a good half mile trek from the hotel to the auditorium. Although it is totally an indoor walk you would be surprised at the lack of seating on a route through a gerbil tube and multiple hallways. Plus dragging a suitcase full of my equipment just added to the fun. I was greeted at the conference "dragging my wagon" to folks saying, "gosh you move like I feel". Did I mention a certain amount of imbibing takes place. I figured out a while ago that I can stay up late or drink, but I cannot do both. It does help with the duck bowling however which consists of a short lane & knock-down proof little pins on strings. The infusion of alcohol makes the whole match hilarious.
Second day heralded the awards presentations at the Gerald Ford Museum. Very nice venue until you realize it's all stand up tables and no seats! Arghh. Again, wine helps. At the President's reception after the awards soiree, I was restricted with my wine intake as two, count them two, glasses were knocked out of my hand by enthusiastic guests. I guess they were looking out for me. We get into the most intense conversations that tend to get louder and more personal as the evening wears on. Our unbroken record of being shut down by Security at midnight is still intact. After losing my second glass I also lost interest and vacated early.
On the plus side the keynote was great, and I was able to interview him later that day. Unscripted and winging it was easy with such an accomplished speaker. His message is people are not robots-we make mistakes and failures are errors in organization or communication. As he put it the old way of Blame-Shame-Retrain is just not working. We performed the interview live in the conference lobby to capture the background of happy conference attendees; however, I am not sure how well the acoustics worked out.
Of course, I had to have one small disaster that will be part of the Safety Conference lore. After much debate and finagling of cords we managed to light up my "Live Recording" sign complete with flashing multiple colors and placed it right in front of the interview space. As we were working through the questions, a totally oblivious participant stuck his head into the camera and said he wanted to be interviewed! His staff had already made the request, he has a habit of interrupting people and is very high maintenance when I have worked with him in the past. I yelped "Ken! I'm in the middle of a live interview". Duhh. Instead of pausing so we could edit it out I kept going and a little later I said "Well I guess that's what happens when you do a live interview!" I think it would play but I am not sure how snarky I sound in shooing him away. Talk about your amateur hour. He later told me he didn't notice the cords, the flashing lights, the barrier and the conversation I was having with the Fire Captain in full uniform seated next to me. 😖 😕
I attended and introduced at a couple of programs including one put on by some Board of Water & Light security folks. They have a six-person security division, and I don't know how many safety folks. Back in the olden days it was just me and the work comp guy and for a year just me. We did finally hire a security person, but he mostly just investigated employees lol. How times change. During the presentation one got a text and rushed from the room. That was about the time Ingham County had a tornado warning and BWL folks had to shelter in place. Pretty cool they were able to arrange that for the program.
In a program about electrostatic ignition sources, I finally understand why plastic gas cans do not blow up. The trapped vapors and volatiles are above the upper flammable level so not the right mixture to ignite. However, cans that sit for a long time may lose all their volatiles due to evaporation so possible chance for boom boom. I hate plastic gas cans and unbonded pipes and non-grounded machines...
But my best learning mo' was when the Fire Captain said you never go into purple smoke. As part of their firefighter training the instructor told of a chemical fire where the smoke was purple. One plant employee when asked said, "I don't do purple smoke". The FF's poo-pooed him and took someone else in. Yep, they both got hospitalized as the "purple smoke" permeated their gear. So, the moral of the story is - you can fight white, black or brown smoke but do not do purple smoke! I queried several industrial hygienists, but still have not discovered what turns purple when it burns though I have identified a couple of nasty metals that are very dangerous, react badly to water and are related to nuclear waste and/or lasers. Especially disturbing when you realize that millions of people live within a couple of miles of chemical, nuclear or other high hazard industrial plants. Having safety and security people around makes a bit more sense don't you know.
Miracles of miracles. Congress acted in a bilateral mode, as designed, and the maga nuts are crying foul. And Rumpie found out what people really think of him as well as how boring court can be when you're not allowed to talk although smirks and sotto voiced comments attempted intimidation. It is gratifying that at least for a moment, our belief that no one is above the law is a real thing.
Peace out....💚 💙💛
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