This weekend

I watched Dylan Friday night and dropped him off at Laura’s on Saturday morning. Mark and I had his company’s picnic so mom and daddy came over to watch D while Laura slept. Laura had to work Friday, Saturday, and Sunday night! Three nights in a row sucks for her! I came home Saturday morning and showered quickly and we left for good old Wadsworth. The picnic was at a park which was mostly for kids. They have a big lake with diving boards, sprinkling toys, etc. they also had volleyball nets, softball diamond, batting cages, etc. It was hot as hell outside so I stayed in the pavilion in the shade. They ordered tons of good food, chicken, pulled pork, corn, etc. They had tons of prizes too and the grand prize was a 32” flat screen tv. We didn’t win it, but Mark did get a First Energy notepad holder-oohh!! Last year he won a pen. Maybe next year he’ll win something bigger, he seems to get a better prize each year. The best part of the company picnic was our leaving. I know that sounds bad, but it was. You know how those things are, you kind of mill around shaking hands with strangers and saying nice to meet you nice to meet you. It was nice to get to meet Mark’s boss and his wife though. Everyone is very nice that he works with and it was nice to put faces with the names I know. It’s the other hundred people that I don’t know that gets kinda boring. But the best part of leaving was Mark was on the company picnic committee and he was in charge of clean-up. That means we got to load up my truck with all the leftover food and take it back to his office for the dispatchers that had to work. Obviously the electric company has to be open 24 hours a day, so the people that had to work couldn’t come to the picnic. I had asked Mark previously if I could go to his office but his boss said no because I am not authorized. When you pull up to his office with three layers of leaded walls, by the way, there is a 20 foot high fence with barbed wire on top. A huge rolling gate opens up when Mark swipes his badge. We park and have to go through another 20 foot high gate. Then a locked door with an armed guard to get into the building. Once in the building, another locked door to their lobby. 5 steps into their lobby-you guessed it-another locked door. Just to get to the kitchen, I think we had to go through 6 locked doors. Their kitchen looked like a restaurant. They have all stainless steel appliances, a center island, and high end coffee makers, a toaster oven like they have at Subway, dishwasher (which I must say our office has a dishwasher too, but not stainless steel). They have a cement patio which you can go and eat outside and look at the scenery. It’s in a wooded area, but all you really see is the high barbed wire fence. Mark took me on a quick tour too. About 4 more locked doors and I was in their phone room, which is just banks and banks of floor-to-ceiling phone stuff. Then we went to their computer room and Mark showed me all the servers he works on. It was so awesome to see! I know I am a geek but anyone would be impressed by this stuff. His cubicle has 6 flat screen computer monitors on it!! I can’t imagine having to look at that many screens on my desk at one time. I forgot to mention the flat screen TVs throughout the entire office. I counted at least 15, the lobby, one in each of their 5 conference rooms, the receptionist desk, kitchen, two in each division’s cubby areas. THEN – THE BE ALL AND END ALL OF MARK’S JOB!! THE CONTROL ROOM! I knew I wasn’t allowed in there, but Mark let me peak my head in. The control room manager, whom I had met briefly in the kitchen, said I could go in through. My jaw just dropped to the floor. It’s a room that’s probably 50 feet long and lined with flat screen tv screens. Some had the weather channel, the rest had charts monitoring energy flow, and some even had the Browns football game on. It looked like the movie Apollo 13. I really didn’t think that rooms like that existed in real life, I thought they only were on tv. It was so cool.