What the Bleep.

Remember that last entry about my first day and how it was borderline magical? Here was an additional post called "day two" that never actually made it to the page because of the following three week  event streak from semi-hell that ensued starting the day after.

Here I am again at the new office, it is nearly 5:00 PM and I am trying to quickly write another entry, under slightly different circumstances.  I am still listening to the hum of the CIP machine, but now I am hastily eating cheezits out of a beaker as well, as my morning was rather busy and I missed my lunch.

Since 8:00 AM in addition to normal happenings, I have managed a plumbing leak in the bathroom, manually moved  4 very large tanks (shout out to my hand truck!), fixed my centrifugal pump that air locked twice due to my electrician doing some unintentional meddling, hauled 60 gallons of hot highly acidic solution by hand 2 gallons at a time…twice… due to said air lock… sprayed myself in the face accidentally from a dropped hose 3 times, and tipped over $50 worth of sanitation solution and watched it literally go right down the drain. There was proficient use of the F word, and it wasn’t my most shining moment, however, thanks to safety goggles, rubber gloves, and sheer will power, I arrived at 5:00 intact and almost everything got done.  At the end of the day, even a semi-crappy day, it is still better than working for someone else, and I am still smiling.

I should have taken my beaker of half eaten cheezits and got on the next plane to Jamaica… mmm rum.

I feel the need to simply arrange the last two weeks into neat points as to not drag this post on to Greek tragedy lengths.

• I have serially lost 5 fermentations, which literally means I have lost both time and money.
  • One from an overlooked design issue.
  • One from a stuck valve on my chiller system.
  • Two to the brand new fancy heating system in my building failing on two separate occasions.
    • It should be noted that it was explained by multiple people both personal and professional that these systems “never fail”. Which is a large part of why we chose them in the first place.
    • Side note: working in my winter carhartts in my newly renovated building is less fun than it sounds.
      • Side note to Side note:  Yeast hate the cold even more than me.
  • #5 you ask? Keep reading.
• The flashing lights in my building whenever my sub-drive runs continues to be an issue that no one can solve, this happens anywhere from sporadically to constant.  Hope no one is prone to seizures
  • Best part? Last time the specialist drove up from Indiana, not one mother-trucking flash in a 3 hour time period.
• My toilets don’t flush at the same time as my hand sinks are running.  Neat trick.
  • Jury is still out on this one, although if I hear it is a lack of pressure issue one more time, my head might explode from trying to restrain my urge towards physical violence.
• So I went  to run my still for the first time officially (so exciting) only to be deflated like a giant balloon. The boiler wouldn’t turn on. Umm what?  Oh, turns out one of the guys working in the building accidently kicked and broke my vacuum breaker… an essential component on my brand new boiler. 
  • Additional awesomeness? This part is not cheap, not readily available, and has to be installed by a professional.
•  And finally, I am sitting here in the quiet and cold, because earlier today two phases on my three phase electric went out of service rendering the heat, boiler, water, still, and chiller system all useless.
  • Insert #5 fermentation here
  • RIP my new vinyl stereo setup
    • Praying that those power surges didn’t send you to electronic heaven.

Silver lining? I would like to think that I am now quite equipped with entrepreneurial grit.


-Geri