Work, BBQ, Six Flags, etc

James's contributions (mostly about work):

I have now been working at Owens Corning for 2 weeks now, and I suppose I ought to give a more detailed report of my experiences so far.  For those not aware, we make fiberglass insulation at this plant, the pink stuff you have in your walls that keeps your utilities to a reasonable level.  The plant has two production lines that operate around the clock, with total maintenance shutdowns occurring maybe once every year or two, if I remember correctly.  Much of the glass we get comes from recycled beer bottles, recycled glass is much cheaper to melt than sand, so they use it as much as possible.

I cannot go into a lot of process details due to various reasons, some due to my lack of understanding of the whole process, and others to confidentiality concerns.  The plant is hot and humid, on the fiberizer deck (where the 2000+ degree glass is extruded)  it can be especially hot, usually 20 degrees hotter than it is outside, and usually close to 100% humidity.  This hasn't been too bad when the weather is in the 80s, but should prove especially interesting when we climb into the high 90s.

In a typical manufacturing setting, most everything is black, grey, or white.  Due to dye used to create the signature pink fibers, a lot of things in the plant are pink.  All the wash water is pink, which gets on the floor, so it has a pink hue to it.  There is a lot of stray fibers, so there is a lot of pink, it looks a lot like cotton candy before it gets cured in the oven.  My projects this summer include optimization of the oven model (where the fiberglass gets cured), determining an optimal temperature for the fiberizer spinners during restart, improving the startup procedures for the paper backing on the insulation, and a couple of other minor projects.

Not a lot of things get manufactured in the US anymore, so why does insulation still get made here?  The answer lies in the product, its too expensive to ship overseas.  Our product is like 95+% air before it gets packaged, and even after we package it, its still has quite a bit of air in it, so it takes up a lot of space on a ship or truck.  Therefore it typically gets made regionally, so most of the insulation in the southeast gets made here, and the stuff in Seattle probably got made in Santa Clara, CA.  Anyhow, I thought that was kind of interesting that something that was really light, was actually expensive to ship, and is helpful to our company.

Anyhow, thats all I have, nothing too interesting.  Hannah probably has the good parts of our week.

James

Hannah's contributions:

This week we sat down and planned the things we want to make sure we do this summer while we are in Atlanta. We have some pretty fun things planned, which we will share as they happen. 

On Tuesday James went out with the missionaries and then afterward they came to meet with us to get to know us and of course to get us pumped about doing some missionary work. They challenged us to think of 1-3 people we could invite to learn more about the gospel. This gospel is for all of God’s children and we should be telling everyone we know about it. I have been pondering on the challenge and I hope to be able to know who might be receptive to learning more and what I might say to invite them to do so. I hope to be able to contact some people this week. I will also likely be going out with the sister missionaries to do some teaching, so that is pretty awesome. :)

On Wednesday we had an appointment with the Bishop to meet him and such. We were waiting for quite a while before the Bishop showed up because I guess he had some issues with his calendar syncing with the executive secretary’s. Anyway, it wasn’t a big deal to wait, but I made a point to introduce myself to/talk to other people in the ward who were there to meet with the bishop or for other reasons. It was nice to interact with other people and we had some very interesting conversations. Some them were talking about things they eat, namely dandelions, rabbit (okay, so although I have never eaten Rabbit, I guess this one isn’t that crazy), possum, squirrel, and I think badger or something else was in the mix. The way they talked about it was completely nonchalant. I thought I lived in the same country as these people…welp, I guess I was wrong, they live in a different world!  

On Friday for a date, we went to a little family run BBQ place called Shack on Main …it is just that­—a shack on Main street. The food was good and very well priced. James got brisket with beans and fried okra. I got brisket with fried okra and collard greens. We have also been reading from one of the books we got from the library. We have had a great time reading aloud together and I hope we always keep that tradition.

You can see where this place gets its name from

My brisket, fried okra and collard greens. Yum, yum.

On Saturday we went to Six Flags over Georgia. We had a pretty good time, although the lines were pretty long and the selection of rides was much smaller than Six Flags Magic Mountain, so that was a little disappointing. James and I determined that we both prefer drops to any other feature in a roller coaster and deemed Goliath (it is similar, but not the same as the Goliath and Magic Mountain) our favorite ride. We also like loops okay, but I have poor circulation and almost always feel like I am going to black out when I am on a loop. I guess the centrifugal force cause the blood to leave my brain and go to my feet. Anyway, we don’t care for rides that jerk back and forth or have a billion loops. 

One unfortunate thing that happened was that I lost my phone…well I left it on top of the toilet paper dispenser and then forgot it there. 15 minutes later I realized and went back to see if it happened to still be there…no such luck. Many hours later when we were leaving for the day we stopped by the lost and found and filled out some information. They said they didn’t have my phone, but if it got turned in, they would contact us. Late last night after we were asleep, they called and left a message saying my phone had been turned in and that I could come pick it up today or they could mail it to me. We drove over there after church to pick it up and the person at the lost and found desk said it wasn’t there. Anyway, after a bunch of back and forth and the lady checking some other locations in the park…about an hour into the ordeal, my phone was returned to me…or so I thought. I got in the car and we pulled away. I should have done this right at the lost and found window, but I think I was so worn out from it all (and my phone isn’t a very popular phone, so the chances that someone else with my same phone losing it on the same day was pretty small), but I checked the phone and realized I had someone else’s phone. I texted the “Mom” contact though and told her to let her son or daughter know their phone is at the Six Flags lost and found. We turned around and returned the phone. Sigh…all of that to not end up with my phone. The sad part is, if it hasn’t been turned in by now, it isn’t getting turned in because I knew exactly where I left it and any employee or guest who was planning on turning it in would have turned it in before leaving the park yesterday. Today while I was waiting by the lost and found, a teenager was also waiting to see if they had his phone. He was talking about how if they didn’t, someone should get fired or that he should sue them. What?! I am so disappointed in the world that I live in sometimes. This kid was irresponsible and lost his phone and now he wants to sue the pants off of Six Flags who is offering a free service by having a lost and found. How is it their fault that he lost his phone or that someone else didn’t turn it in. I am sorry that I lost my phone and I am sorry that someone didn’t turn it in, but I don’t think Six Flags is responsible in any way for that. I hope this kid changes his attitude about being out to get people. People these days…

Church was wonderful. I thought fast and testimony meeting was wonderful. It was probably one of the better testimony meetings I have been to as far as people actually bearing pure testimonies and not babbling. I don’t know if I mentioned this already, but a lot of people are familiar with the Hawaiian “aloha” and “aloha” echo over the pulpit, but you don’t typically get a good morning or hello echo in English over the pulpit… You do in the Atlanta ward. Any speaker who says good morning or hello over the pulpit or in a class gets a good morning or hello from the congregation. It is actually really neat. Another thing we do here is stand for intermediate hymns, which I have seen done at Stake Conference and occasionally in wards, but I guess it is standard practice here. We have a very young stake president and he is in our ward. I would guess he is between 30 and 35 and he was the bishop of this ward before he was stake president. He is like the Atlanta ward version of president Monson…doing things right from a very young age. Today I got to help in Primary for the 3^rd hour. It was wonderful. I think it is my favorite place in all of the church. Children have such a wonderful sweet spirit about them and the music is beautiful.

Anyway, all is good on the Low front. 

Hannah