When the end of the road is only a third of the way to the end of the journey…….

As cohort 3 comes to the end of a long hot summer, and the end of our first year in the Ed. D program, we have to pause to consider how much we have accomplished, and wonder where the time has gone.

Less than three short months ago I was blogging about my excitement of continued gainful employment. Since that time I have acquired an additional 9468 employees and part, or all of four states. I am now the Occupational Health Supervisor for the new Mid South District, which contains all of the state of Alabama (54,423 square miles), Mississippi (46,914 square miles), and Tennessee (42, 146 square miles), and portions on Florida (the pan handle), and (the toe of) Virginia, and last but not least, a little place called Alexandria, in Louisiana.

According to my job description, I am expected to drive occasionally. But one can imagine the necessity to get the employees familiar with the company nurse. This short summer has been designated “get to know me” time.

Like Johnny Cash sang, “I’ve been everywhere man”. I’ve been to ….Nashville, Buffalo, Tuscaloosa, Cleveland, Jackson, Columbus, Bowling Green, Huntsville, Cincinnati, Mansfield, Akron, Chattanooga, Tupelo, Erie, Birmingham……I’ve been everywhere, man.

Thank goodness for GoToMeeting, WebEx, LiveMeeting, FuzeMeeting, and all the other online meeting sites, man……which have made it possible for me to be truly be everywhere at once.

Vacation……here I come…….

Every vacation deserves a good story……

On Friday July 9, 2010 I had my 2008 Prius synergistic drive hybrid electric vehicle serviced at my dealership. On Saturday July 10, 2010 I drove to class in Tuscaloosa Alabama, and back home later the same night. At 0500 on Sunday July 11, 2010 my wife, two daughters, all of our luggage and I, all packed into the sub-compact, hit the road en-route to Niagara Falls, New York. With only 98,000 miles on the two year old Prius, I was pretty confident that we would arrive in Niagara Falls at 1900 on Sunday night, just as the on board navigation system predicted.

Weathermen, or –persons to be more p.c. will tell you that predictions are just that. All of the factors must be considered when making predictions. Who would have predicted that 8 short hours after we left home we would be sitting in a Marathon service station parking lot on a hot Sunday afternoon with the oil pressure light illuminated on the dash panel?

Somehow the service technician had forgotten to tighten the oil plug. As one can imagine our hearts sank when the oil light came on. Then our hearts sank further when we realized that no one was open on Sunday afternoon, in Akron Ohio.

Technology to the rescue though. I pulled my trusty “smart phone” from it’s holster and quickly dialed my insurance provider’s 1-800 24-hour number. The associate at the other end of the call was so very helpful in finding a towing service. She was successful after only five or six attempts. The wrecker truck driver arrived within an hour, and didn’t complain when we sent him back for a flat-bed truck. The Prius has to be hauled, can’t be towed. When he came back with a bigger truck, he loaded us up, with most of our luggage in hand, and even went out of his way to make sure we found a good hotel to stay in that night.

At this point I should tell you how much more technology played into my vacation. But, this is where frustration clouded the senses. Recall that I mentioned the built-in GPS; I remembered it two days after we got the Prius back.

I demonstrated to my wife, after the fog of frustration lifted, that a simple touch of the screen quickly highlighted the nearest hospital, fire station, police station; and would you believe it……..towing service and Toyota dealership?

The smart phone was great for calling my insurer, and even for using the internet to search for local hotels, towing services, hotels, etc. But the very idea that the car we were sitting in had been pre-programmed to call the nearest dealership, in the event of problems………if we can only trust ourselves to rely on the technology which we spend so very much money to buy.

Can I relate this to the Ed. D. program? Yes. Every article I have read prior to this semester, I printed. That’s a lot of paper, ink, and money. I still have the papers for future reference, though. But this semester, I was able to step back, take a deep breath, and simply read the article on the computer screen. Yes, I had to forgo the highlighter, but I survived.

Sometimes it hard to accept that technology is really as good as all that……

Next generation

Taylor (2001) tells us that 'we' need to give the people "what they want, where they want it, when they want it." In 2010, technology allow us to do just that. Managers from the Massman, Tennessee location were able to connect their laptops via a multi-port wireless network and view spreadsheets, logs, files, etc. even though their offices were below water level.

In addition to managers running daily reports, viewing work logs, and accessing files, they were able to log into UPSers.com and complete training, on-line. Synchronous training was available via net meeting, and asynchronous training was available via UPS's intranet server. In addition to managers being able to complete necessary training, video and telephonic conferences continued, without consideration to waist deep water in throughout distribution center.

Half way there and running out of time….

Between work (UPS), and work (rental house) and work (home) and work (Club 180 youth center), I am finding less time for family and even less time for school. I’ve been told that one has to prioritize. I’ve also been told that the squeaky wheel gets the oil. In this case it’s the squeaky wheel that wins out.

I have read more this semester than in any other similar time period in my life, and unfortunately it was not for pleasure. Fortunately it was very informative. I’ve enjoyed reading about the future of distance learning, and imagining new ways to put distance education resources into practice in my current position.

In addition to reading about distance learning techniques, I have taken the opportunity, this semester to dive into Windows7 and use the Word program to create documents for the Club 180 Youth Center our church is starting, in my home town. Although it may seem off base, as far as distance learning, it is definitely new technology to me. I have always utilized Word to write papers for school, or to write work-related letters. Using Word to create signs has been a new and exciting experience for me.  But to be able to utilize a Word program to create a concert flyer had to be the most enjoyable thing I have done with Windows7 yet. And hey, maybe I’ll get to sing “mommas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys”, with the man who wrote it.

To vacation or not: Is it vacation just because you’re not getting paid to work?

It’s June 16, 2010. I am now three days into my first of two vacation weeks for the year. At least I am not at UPS. However, it doesn’t really feel like vacation. I worked Saturday, Sunday afternoon, Monday, Tuesday and all day today on my son’s '”college rental house”.  The house isn’t really that bad,  if you consider hardwood floors, running water, walls, a roof and electricity as the only needs for a comfortable house.

When the windows have to be pressure washed (outside as well as in), the ceilings as well as the walls have to be painted, the floors need to be refinished, and one of the two bathrooms has to be completely gutted, then functionality becomes an issue. The second of the two bathrooms has a peep hole in the shower, because of poor or incomplete renovations, and we’re still not sure if the land lord is going to throw in an air conditioner. All of this week will be dedicated to demolition.

Wednesday afternoon at 19:00 I have a Wimba live class meeting  for my statistics class. Thanks to modern technology, I will be able to continue demolition, listen to synchronous lecture, and view examples and instructions on my laptop computer as I walk in and out of the house to deposit demolition materials into the bed of my pickup truck.

Technology is truly amazing. Only a few short years ago I would have to sit at a desktop computer, plug in my earphones, and virtually be non-productive during the lecture. Now, thanks to modern technology, I am able to mute my phone, listen to the lecture, and multi-task the demolition and the class lecture. I can even participate in the class lecture, via the telephone or through the Wimba console. Can distance learning get any better than this?

On the road again……..or not……

UPS delivers anything, to anyone, anywhere, literally. We deliver to over 200 countries around the world. Our first international shipment in 1975, was to Canada. Because UPS had not yet been granted a license to drive delivery trucks on Canadian highways, drivers used taxi cabs painted UPS brown. Fast forward to 2008; just two short years ago we opened a UPS Air-hub in Shanghai.

UPS has delivered packages using:

bicycles, gondolas, planes, and now hybrid electric vehicles.

In the spring of 2010, 200 new hybrid electric vehicles HEVs hit the streets in seven major cities across the United States.

Compared to conventional trucks, UPS’s 250 HEV trucks save 220,000 gallons of fuel annually, resulting in an emissions reduction of more than two metric tons of CO2 each year.And, on July 12, 2010 UPS will expand its carbon neutral shipping to 35 other countries and territories across Europe, Asia, and the Americas. Millions of UPS customers will have the option of paying a small fee to calculate and offset the carbon emissions associated with their shipment.

Not only is UPS taking delivery vehicles off of the road, but it is also taking managers off of the road. Management training is now, more than ever before, being done from the manager’s office.

Using the same principles of distance education that we as Ed. D. students are using, UPS delivers updates via “webex”’ training. For example, managers at UPS will be trained on proper utilization of “our” MetLife disability website this week. By simply logging on to the training site at https://metlife.webex.com/, managers can follow along with synchronous training.

Another dollar saved…….and the world is a little greener…..

What now?

UPS has the worlds ninth largest airline (may be even higher up the list now that the economy has tanked); we ship more via railroad than any other industry in the world....including coal, and we send millions of tons of cargo around the world via cargo ship every day.

In May of this year, UPS's Massman building required input from our air managers, rail managers, and our cargo managers. We were sitting on the water's edge, and needed to move 100,000 packages per day, without electricity; to a city that was almost totally under water, and Massman didn't have the convenience of having our Italian fleet available.

As "preloaders" started arriving on Monday May 3, 2010 they were directed to the parking lot where temporary tents had been erected during the evening and into the night of May 2nd. The biggest problem was, there was no was to scan the packages into the tracking system. If you can't track it, you can't deliver it.......

Technology to the rescue. A portable "command center" from our Nashville air ramp was delivered to the Massman parking lot, along with generators, and lights. Packages normally moved along via conveyor belts would now be moved via the "bucket brigade" method. Scanning, normally done by computers equipped with cameras would now be done by hand.

Hand scanning was the previous generation technology.......from 2008, so several scanners were readily available.

The process went like this, semi-trailers were unloaded to the bucket brigade which passed the package past at least one person with a hand-held scanner en-route to a preloader who placed the parcel into a package car that was illuminated by a generator powered halogen lamp. UPSers adapted.

Driver DIADs (Delivery Information Aquisition Device) were uploaded with information from the scanners via the portable command center, so it was business as usual, as far as package delivery.

Recovery, to business as usual is still to come.

water water everywhere

May 2nd, 3rd, and 4th, 2010 Nashville Tennessee saw the worst flooding in the city's history. It was called "a 500 year flood".

The Cumberland river, which usually flows peacefully through Nashville, swelled beyond capacity when 13.5 inches of rain fell in less than 48 hours. Other towns up river received as much as 16.79 inches of rainfall over the same period. This culminated in the Cumberland cresting at 53 feet. Music City became a gigantic lake.

UPSers presented in mass on Monday May 3rd ready to move an entire company to higher ground. The Massman building, located on the banks of the Cumberland river was standing in four feet of water.

Everything was shut down, right? It should have been, but quick thinking by management the night of May 1st resulted in ALL of the UPS package cars, and most of the box trailers being moved to a parking lot above the flood level. Now all that was needed was a way to scan, document and track package movement.

I STILL HAVE A JOB

My employer is the largest shipping company in the world. To say that may sound a little braggadocios. But to say that today means a lot. I have been patiently waiting since November 27, 2009 to learn my fate. That is the day we learned that UPS would be restructuring. I STILL have a job -- today that means a lot.

I thee Wed.

It's been a long semester.....the longest in history. Only the threat of snow makes for a snow day in the south. Therefore we are winding to the end of the Spring semester almost a month late. However it was a great semester. My lovely bride (of 10 years) and I renewed our wedding vows this semester. It was a wonderful day, shared with our friends and family. I am glad the semester is over. I am also glad that I get to start a "new" 10 years with Marsha.

Here comes the bride, again……

She said yes, again………

What can be better than being able to marry the woman you’re in love with, all over again?Today is our tenth anniversary, and she is willing to marry me all over again.