Work update!
This weekend I got a message from Chris, my boss, saying he had an update for me, but didn't really give any details as to what was happening with work or with me working or anything. He said to try and give him a call. Which I did, but couldn't get ahold of him.
So today I once again tried calling his cell but it was always busy, so I tried his home number. This time I got through to Nicole, his wife, who told me that Chris and Gary had moved into a space and she told me where it was. Well, turns out that building is literally four houses away from MY house here at my moms! I can see it from just outside our door. How about that?
I ended up just walking down there. All the wood desks and chairs were set up and some of the cabinets. Stuff had been built out of chipboard but wasn't done yet (not sure WHAT; like partitions or something). Not much was set up, just two computers. The desks are like a continuous counter that runs all the way around the main room with just one part jutting out to seperate the "designer" area from the "architect" area. Chris was sitting in the "designer" area with the iMac up and running as well as his laptop.
The only things that survived were the iMac and laptop and possibly the slide scanner. The printer is gone, Chris' monitor for his laptop was full of water so he left it in the building (which was demolished yesterday), Chris' keyboard and trackball for the laptop, the flatbed scanner -- all gone. Gary lost 3 of 4 computers or more -- only one survived, anyway, but no monitors did. He did salvage the harddrives, which is good. I dont know about his fax/xerox but Gary's scanner is also a goner. I asked about the plotter and Chris said it's in Anchorage but I don't know what that means - sounds like it's there for repairs because I can't think of any other reason it would be there since we all live in the Valley. Also, Chris lost ALL his print samples: all the brochures, magazines, posters, cards, newsletters -- anything printed, all destroyed. Gary lost all his models, though I guess they were able to sort of salvage three or so, but that's out of almost 40 models. I'm so bummed over that; they were so cool and took so much time to make and were so detailed. *sighs*
Chris said the archive CD's are probably good. I didn't ask about the MSCVB slides. The iMac was having problems before the fire and needed to be sent into Apple anyway but on top of that now it has had water on/in it so Chris is going to claim that as well as the slide scanner on the insurance anyway. He and Gary are still going through and writing up everything that needs to be claimed on that. Til then they're using loaner things - TerraSond, whom Gary did their office building for and for whom Chris and I designed business identity, loaned them some battery backups. Gary's also borrowing a laptop from somewhere. I offered my Mac but Chris doesn't think we'll need to use it.
There are still no phones or internet in the office, which explains why Chris' cell was so busy all the time. He and Gary are very behind on this gymnasium they are working on, so they're trying to get enough stuff working so they can work on that, and Chris has a few things I can work on for next week, so he's going to contact me about that on Friday. So yay, I have some work!
Oh, Chris rescued my notes and my folder with my timesheets in it. I'll have to scan it in somewhere to show you; it looks like it was airbrushed with soot stencils, very neat. Everything in it was soaked but the timesheets were printed on the Xerox and were written in with a non-bleeding ink, so they're still good. *whew*
AAAANNNDDD - we found out how the fire happened. The accountants were all upstairs from us and they had two entrances to their offices; the main entrance on the east side of the building, and a back exit/fire escape on the "back" or west side, same side as our door. They had a kind of landing/balcony at the top from which they'd take their cigarette breaks, complete with cigarette can. It was a cigarette that started the fire. Chris, who is quite possibly even more anti-smoking than ME, was pretty disgusted. Basically the accountants were the cause of the whole thing. I'd wondered why the news had skirted around answering how the fire was started but I guess that would of seemed silly after all the emphasis on how tragic and scary it had been for them. (And notice they never really talked about all the other businesses that were hurt by the fire...). Pretty embarrassing.
I came home and made mom move her cigarette can AWAY from the garage door. She's caught that can on fire once before; I'm not having my home burn down the same way my old office did.
Like I said, they demolished the old building. I haven't seen it yet but Chris and Gary took pictures of the building before, during, and after so I will try to get copies of those to post and share with y'all.
So. I still have a job! It's kind of surreal with the new place but a lot moreso for Chris because he had to actually move everything and go through it all whereas I've seen the before and after but not the middle part. I'll keep you posted on how it goes next time I'm there.
So today I once again tried calling his cell but it was always busy, so I tried his home number. This time I got through to Nicole, his wife, who told me that Chris and Gary had moved into a space and she told me where it was. Well, turns out that building is literally four houses away from MY house here at my moms! I can see it from just outside our door. How about that?
I ended up just walking down there. All the wood desks and chairs were set up and some of the cabinets. Stuff had been built out of chipboard but wasn't done yet (not sure WHAT; like partitions or something). Not much was set up, just two computers. The desks are like a continuous counter that runs all the way around the main room with just one part jutting out to seperate the "designer" area from the "architect" area. Chris was sitting in the "designer" area with the iMac up and running as well as his laptop.
The only things that survived were the iMac and laptop and possibly the slide scanner. The printer is gone, Chris' monitor for his laptop was full of water so he left it in the building (which was demolished yesterday), Chris' keyboard and trackball for the laptop, the flatbed scanner -- all gone. Gary lost 3 of 4 computers or more -- only one survived, anyway, but no monitors did. He did salvage the harddrives, which is good. I dont know about his fax/xerox but Gary's scanner is also a goner. I asked about the plotter and Chris said it's in Anchorage but I don't know what that means - sounds like it's there for repairs because I can't think of any other reason it would be there since we all live in the Valley. Also, Chris lost ALL his print samples: all the brochures, magazines, posters, cards, newsletters -- anything printed, all destroyed. Gary lost all his models, though I guess they were able to sort of salvage three or so, but that's out of almost 40 models. I'm so bummed over that; they were so cool and took so much time to make and were so detailed. *sighs*
Chris said the archive CD's are probably good. I didn't ask about the MSCVB slides. The iMac was having problems before the fire and needed to be sent into Apple anyway but on top of that now it has had water on/in it so Chris is going to claim that as well as the slide scanner on the insurance anyway. He and Gary are still going through and writing up everything that needs to be claimed on that. Til then they're using loaner things - TerraSond, whom Gary did their office building for and for whom Chris and I designed business identity, loaned them some battery backups. Gary's also borrowing a laptop from somewhere. I offered my Mac but Chris doesn't think we'll need to use it.
There are still no phones or internet in the office, which explains why Chris' cell was so busy all the time. He and Gary are very behind on this gymnasium they are working on, so they're trying to get enough stuff working so they can work on that, and Chris has a few things I can work on for next week, so he's going to contact me about that on Friday. So yay, I have some work!
Oh, Chris rescued my notes and my folder with my timesheets in it. I'll have to scan it in somewhere to show you; it looks like it was airbrushed with soot stencils, very neat. Everything in it was soaked but the timesheets were printed on the Xerox and were written in with a non-bleeding ink, so they're still good. *whew*
AAAANNNDDD - we found out how the fire happened. The accountants were all upstairs from us and they had two entrances to their offices; the main entrance on the east side of the building, and a back exit/fire escape on the "back" or west side, same side as our door. They had a kind of landing/balcony at the top from which they'd take their cigarette breaks, complete with cigarette can. It was a cigarette that started the fire. Chris, who is quite possibly even more anti-smoking than ME, was pretty disgusted. Basically the accountants were the cause of the whole thing. I'd wondered why the news had skirted around answering how the fire was started but I guess that would of seemed silly after all the emphasis on how tragic and scary it had been for them. (And notice they never really talked about all the other businesses that were hurt by the fire...). Pretty embarrassing.
I came home and made mom move her cigarette can AWAY from the garage door. She's caught that can on fire once before; I'm not having my home burn down the same way my old office did.
Like I said, they demolished the old building. I haven't seen it yet but Chris and Gary took pictures of the building before, during, and after so I will try to get copies of those to post and share with y'all.
So. I still have a job! It's kind of surreal with the new place but a lot moreso for Chris because he had to actually move everything and go through it all whereas I've seen the before and after but not the middle part. I'll keep you posted on how it goes next time I'm there.