Next week we shift schedules. What that means is, that on the days we’ve been on the afternoon shift starting next week we’ll be on the morning shift. When we’ve been working the morning shift, we’ll now be working the afternoon shift on those days. Meanwhile, we finish this week on the old schedule, meaning that we’ll be at the Visitors’ Center seven days in a row at 9am. That actually doesn’t mean a thing, doesn’t change anything in the universe, and I rather like the morning shift over the afternoon shift. It’s just interesting to me.

When we got to the Center this morning to open up at 9am, the fountains were running, but significantly lower than on Wednesday. As the morning progressed, the fountains went lower and lower. The pool was filling with water and by the time our shift was over, the pool was full to overflowing. As a result, the surface of the water was about six inches above the top of the fountain jets, and they didn’t have enough force to break through the surface with any height. The engineers were going back and forth between the fountain and the pump room, but nothing was changing. I wonder what it’ll look like tomorrow morning?

Meanwhile, a surveyor guy showed up mid-morning to measure the straightness of the flag pole! It is definitely not straight, according to the surveyor. He  set up his transit in several different places and his helper marked where the top of the pole was in relation to the bottom of the pole on the concrete at the base of the pole. After they left, I checked the marks and it looks like the pole is about a 1 1/2 feet out of plumb at it’s maximum. Next question is whether or not that is “sufficiently straight”. When a flag is on the pole and the wind is blowing, this pole is not going to be straight up and down, anyway, as it seems to be fairly flexible.  According to the surveyor guy, the pole is 125 feet tall, so in my thinking, 1 1/2 feet is noticeable but not necessarily significant.

We finished off the day doing apartment inspections. Nina does the inspections. My job is to check the smoke detectors, replace defective ones, and replace batteries as needed. The air temperatures weren’t all that high, about 85°, but the humidity hovered around 96%. It was the kind of a day when one needed a shower and clean linen every few hours. So, I checked air conditioners in those apartments that had them. One AC machine is not functioning, so I’ll have the facility guy replace it. Two apartments down by the beach don’t have AC at all and one of them was just sweltering. I’m very happy for working AC in our home. Willis Carrier, inventor of the mechanical air conditioning system, is on my list of people I intend to personally thank in the next life after I die.

Part of the day was spent in sweltering heat, part spent in air conditioning, so on the average I’m just warm….