Two Chemical Haikus

Saying incident
With hydrofluoric acid
Disturbs most chemists

Fortunately the
Incident did not involve
bodily contact

AZ flexes some muscle.

It would seem that the University has decided to pay attention to the issues surrounding how the the chemical fume hoods and the HVAC system behave in the lab building when the fire alarm goes off. (Either when tested or when a detector reads steam from a autoclave as smoke) - Thanks to to some prodding from the State Fire Marshall. It was something like this: Fix it or the building is closed in 10 days! (this would mean June 10th) Funny how something that has been an issue, but ignored by the upper tier of deciders for 30+ months becomes urgent. I mean URGENT!! A priority. Something that needs attention NOW! The good good folks at facilities have made great progress in the past 3 days. I just hope the wall of Fire Detector Company, Fume Hood Company, and HVAC Company can overcome their paranoia of proprietary information and start talking to each other so our folks can make the systems "talk" to each other and operate as they should. I expect this is like a 1980's Michael Stipe conversing with Ozzy Osbourne and Bob Dylan.

Exercise Is Good For Us

Again, I found myself riding my bicycle 10 miles to work for no reason other than I can. Although there is little NET elevation gain, there is a three mile climb up a moderate hill followed by about 2 miles of near level, but downhill. The trip ends with a very gradual uphill for the last mile. I usually question my wisdom once I am halfway through the moderate uphill portion, but realize once things level off that the climb was not that bad. The good news about this is I arrive at work energized and ready for work. I get the aggression out in a productive manner so when the day starts turning to crap, I remain calm. Today was a good day for this. I realized that the file for the inventory did not load correctly. When I went to reload it, I realized that the battery is old, does not hold a charge, and the file is no longer stored in the memory of the Telxon. So I ordered a new battery and plan to rescan everything in a week or so. The day got worse from there. By 15:00 I was snickering over the state of things in my world at work. Even better is that anything that revealed itself after 10:00 is not my fault, and well beyond my control. I am now preparing myself for the fallout for those things I do not control. Could be fun. Probably won't.

Adaptation

A few months ago, my wife's work schedule changed from 7:00 AM-4:00 PM M-F (which matched mine) to some random permutation of starting at 6:00 or 7:00 to 2:00, 3:00 or 4:00. This had potential to cause strife in our daughter's life as she loves to have Mommy drop us off on the way to her work and we ride bicycles the last mile to her school. Our daughter believed this work schedule means we can only do this on occasion. She was quite upset until I mentioned on the 6:00 days I can drive us to the same parking lot where we get dropped off on the 7:00 days. This is just what we started doing and all is happy. I get more riding and exercise too. The big problem might come in August when the parking pass expires and I am reluctant to purchase a new one due to a nearly 50% increase in the price. While I understand the reluctance of having taxpayers pay for my parking pass, I have issue with paying to park where I work, considering there is no public transit where we live. Also a parking pass does not guarantee I will have a parking spot. The other point is that I can do the street parking thing and be closer to work than the campus parking lots I normally use but, this would not work for the ride to our daughter's school. Hmmmm. Maybe I should just buy the cheap pass for the dirt boondocks lot that sucks for where I work, but is good for the ride to Ms. K's school. I can always do a pro-rate upgrade in November when the snow starts to fly, the temperature drops and darkness rules the early morn.

And Now The Instant Replay

See the previous blog for what happened at 3:30 on Monday afternoon. Except this time I made the important call when the alarm went off. I was also leaving for an appointment at the exact instant the alarm sounded so I do not know if there was an odor issue. Today, I was thanked by the building manager for my prompt call to him. As it turns out, the fire detectors in the autoclave rooms are set for smoke, not heat so when steam is released, the detectors think it is smoke and sound off. They will be reset for temperature to avoid repeated soundings.

Hot and Steamy Times in the Science Lab Building

Friday afternoon one of the autoclaves in the building released a larger than normal cloud of steam. Kind of like a mechanical fart. This set off the fire alarm, sending the occupants out into the chilly wind. Meanwhile inside the building, the HVAC shut down as it is supposed to when the alarm is activated. Although most of the sophisticated system reactivates when the alarm is shut off, the "make-up air" does not. This results in numerous odors accumulating in the building resulting in an aroma not unlike ass. This makes sense as vapors/fumes from the can, drains, etc are part of the intoxicating environment. After a couple of calls, the HVAC was working properly and the building smelled like a building and not a forest service outhouse. The moral of the story is: Don't fart in an enclosed space.

Can Someone Retrain Me?

Yesterday was a snow day at the university. This followed a day when the "NEW" lab building was supposed to be closed for the morning. As a result I simply burnt a few vacation hours on Monday. Don't get excited here since our daughter decided to complain about hurting ears resulting in a trip to the doctor. As it turns out, she has a simple cold and not an ear infection. The annoying part is that she had an appointment for 11:20, and was seen by the doc at 12:20. Oh well... When I returned to work the tasks had piled up and I still have plenty to do tomorrow.

IMPEACHMENT!

By the loading dock at the building I work in, there are dumpsters surrounded on three sides by brick walls. The other side has gates which are supposed to be held in place with pegs that fit into tubes in the ground. The problem is that the tubes are filled with dirt, sand snow and ice. In addition, the pegs are bent and no longer slide into the tubes - even if they weren't filled with stuff. When the wind blows, the gates swing freely, slam into the walls (and cars that are parked in the area) with a pleasant squeak-slam, squeak slam. This is absolutely scandalous and is known as dumpstergate.

How Many Snow Days??

Well it happened again. Both the public schools and NAU were closed today. This is the third day for the public schools and the second this week for the U. My daughter is taking the yard sale bit in stride and seems to have accepted the fact that it is unlikely that they will have it. As far as the U goes, the building I work in was closed this week for repairs, except for those who requested special permission to be there this week. The closure of the U trumps my permission, so I took the time off to stay with my daughter. Now we just need to see what happens tomorrow. My daughter gets out of school at 11:30 tomorrow, so even a two hour delay will mess that up. Oh, well. Snowbowl opens Saturday! Thanks storms.

You Can Tell A German (but you can't tell them much)

Consider yourselves lucky; this is the condensed version.
About 4 months ago I placed an order for 2 pieces of glassware "x-7" and two pieces of glassware "x-8." When the package arrived it contained a piece of glassware "x-9" in a box marked glassware "x-8", and a piece of glassware "x-7" in a box marked glassware "x-8." I called the vendor and they got me in touch with the manufacturer. The German manufacturer stopped just short of calling me a liar and refused to correct the shortage and wrong part. The vendor agreed to send the correct pieces.
When THAT package arrived it contained ONE correct x-8 in a boxe marked glassware x-8and a x-7 in a box for the x-8. We now had both x-7 parts, and ONE good X-8, but still needed the other x-8. Another conversation with the manufacturer, where I indicated the boxes were mislabeled. I was quickly informed that we got EXACTLY what we ordered and I was wrong. The vendor tried again. AGAIN we got two x-7s in boxes labeled x-8. Months later and we now have a manufacturer rep. Today the manufacturer rep called me to introduce himself and let me know to call the manufacturers customer service. I did so and was told the problem is that the boxes were mislabeled. (I'm glad they let me know) They also asked to work with the VENDOR rep and I gave them his number. The good news is that the manufacturer now understands that I have been right all along. They just have to correct the problem and get me what I need.

Made In Where?

The other day as I was unpacking the daily deliveries for the stockroom, I noticed the sodium hydroxide (AKA lye) I received was made in Sweden. I am used to things made in Germany, France, Japan, and the USA, but Sweden? I guess they need to make a lot of it for all the lutefisk production, and probably decided with my last name I have some sick desire to join in the festivities. Now before you get me involved in a Norge/Sverge war, be aware both countries are steeped in vats of the substance and probably use it instead of conventional weapons as they lob blobs of it across the border. Even Finns have been known to partake in the whatever it is. Oddly enough, the leading producer of lutefisk is in Minnesota - they even export it to Norway, or maybe they are really trying to send it back. Let's keep the lefse though.

Thus Starteth a Short Week

Monday strikes. Being a short week due to the holiday, I am trying to finish a normal week's worth of stuff in two days. My daughter does not have school on Wednesday, and the normal kid care avenues are also unavailable, thus I will need to burn a vacation day and make the week even shorter. So far I have been successful. There is plenty of work to be done to make the days fly. I even have a number of things to keep me occupied at home.

Another Day, Another "NO!"

What arrived at work today?

36 100 ml graduated cylinders
40 vials of capillary tubes
1 case of small nitrile gloves
1 case of medium nitrile gloves
1 case of large nitrile gloves
1 case of extra-large nitrile gloves
2 medium-large boxes of assorted supplies that I have not unpacked yet.

What didn't?

2 20 liter drums of acetonitrile. It seem there is a WORLDWIDE SHORTAGE of the solvent and only "preferred customers" can get any. To make matters weirder, "preferred customer" refers to those who frequently order acetonitrile, not those who order lots of other goodies on a regular basis, with an occasional order of acetonitrile. I guess the world has discovered the joys of acetonitrile, and refuse to call it Methyl Cyanide. That would simply scare many users away and leave more for us. I get the fun of telling researchers they probably can't get any, but I will keep searching for a vendor who will see things my way. There are grad students who have work to finish, and the supplier's attitude of "you don't order enough of it." flies as well as a rock swims. Let's hope the vendor rep can intervene. Oh, I'm not paying more than $20.00/liter either.

Can't think of a title.

Happy Thursday. Mornings keep getting chilly, in the 20's anyway. At least there was no wind today. Now if we would get some moisture, we could have some snow. This morning as I was riding to work, I saw a street cleaner on campus leaving a nice trail of a thin layer of ice behind it. How cool is that?

What I Didn't Know and How I Learned It.

Yesterday, one of the folks who works for the NAU Office of Regulatory Compliance came by my office to get a key to the old stockroom that is being used as storage by the Laboratory Manager. His mission was simple: to estimate the cost of cleaning it out for the room's next life as classrooms and offices. This was one of those things that make me go "Hmmmmmmm." You see, the lab manager intends to use this area as storage forever. It became obvious to me that the administration is not communicating with Chemistry. The Administration even has plans and drawings and people slated to move into these areas, including the offices that are OCCUPIED by personnel in Chemistry and Physics. The funny thing is that the administration has one room labeled as inaccessible - special key needed. I am the holder of that key. That is how I came to know what I didn't know. I decided to let the lab manager know what I learned, and although he knew nothing of the plans, he was less than surprised to know he knew nothing of these plans. Now we have the fun of letting the administration know what they didn't know. The administration also gets to learn that the old chemistry stockroom was used to stock and store things such as CHEMICALS used in chemistry. As a result there is residue of said chemicals from ~40 years of storing chemicals. Don't worry, I'm sure the spilled Hg in the very back room is vaporizing by now. That's not a problem, is it?

Nothing of substance here.

Looking over my past few blogs, I conclude that I have been rant prone lately. I will try to avoid senseless ranting tonight and supplant it with senseless rambling. As I write this a rerun of Two and a Half Men is on the idiot box. Since I have seen this one only four times, I will watch it again. Besides my wife has the remote. I conclude that the writers of the program have kids of their own and use the opportunity to vent through writing with the sole purpose of avoiding murdering their kids. It seems much funnier when it is a T.V. kid and not a real one belonging to my wife and I.
Things got a little interesting at work today. Most days, I can push pencils without interruption, but today I had no less than 6 phone calls, 4 deliveries of chemistry supplies, and 3 appointments - all between 8:30-11:30. I was hoping that the afternoon would slow down, and was just thinking that that was the case when one of the instructional lab teaching assistants came into my office and asked if I knew where the laboratory manager/safety officer was. I did not, but was overjoyed to be told that there was an accident in one of the labs and the student involved was already in the shower room. It was a VERY small volume (~10 ml) but it involved the face and heated DMSO BAPNA concoction. YUM! Things turned out okay, mostly due to the small volume and low hazard of the chemicals involved. Kudos to the T.A. and the other students. At least I don't have to do the paperwork for the incident reports. I just changed channels to arrive at Good Eats to hear Mr. Brown exclaim "Know your fish monger!"

What Would Arthur Dent Say?

So far this week has been less than productive. Three of the four orders I tried to place on Monday have run into one snag or another. I asked a vendor for a tracking number on an order, and they graciously emailed me an invoice. Two people had to use the pallet jack at the same time. Oh, it was also brought to my attention that one of our adjunct faculty members has a collection of vials of his custom organic synthesis (read who knows what) stored in a fume hood. I also received a warning that our departmental operations budget may be lessthan 50% of what it was this year. Don't get me wrong, I'm not actually whining about this - I'm simply listing what tends to happen on a Tuesday. Douglass Adams is right; Tuesday is the roughest day of the week. The good news is that by tomorrow afternoon most of these issues will be resolved. The better news is that I can't do a thing about the vials, so I don't need to worry about them. Oh, and I still get to live in Flagstaff.

How Many Children Do You See?

I had my daughter at work with me for about half an hour this morning. As she was wandering around the shelves, she spotted the storage cabinets for flammable compressed gases and asked me what the big machines against the wall are for. After I told her, she seemed disappointed as she replied "Oh, I thought they were cloning machines." This leaves me wondering if clones have the same moods at the same time. Just picture the thrill of double happy, or the agony of double steroidal grumpy.

Just Who's Emergency Is It?

A recent event at work left me in major stress mode, all because I wanted to make everything right for as many people as possible. We ran short on an item which is delivered on Mondays ONLY and only in a limited quantity. When last Mondays delivery was to be made, we had enough supply that no more could be delivered, thus no additional dry ice was delivered. Unfortunately shortly after the scheduled delivery, there was a major run on it and we were completely out by Wednesday morning. Oh, we also needed an additional 50 pounds to get us through the weekend. This is where I should have remembered my fire/EMT training and put myself into the "It's not MY emergency" mode and let it go at that. But nooooo, I had to go into the "it's my responsibility to fix this" mode and insist on being at a grocery store by 07:30 this morning to buy 50 pounds of solid carbon dioxide. By 8:00 the dry ice was in the bin and a lock was put on the bin. By 8:45 people who were not part of the emergency, were wanting dry ice. Because I was away from my desk, I missed the call and they had to go to a store to get some, which is what I would have told them to do anyway. I suddenly realized that I shouldn't feel guilty, I don't need the stress and it is NOT my emergency and it would have fixed itself by next Monday. The worst part is I will do the same thing with something else again. Am I really that slow to learn?

Name That Solvent

Every once in awhile, the HVAC system in the science lab building is kind enough to spew intoxicating aromas into my office. Sometimes it is exhaust from contractors vehicles in the area smoke from nearby forest fires. Todays flavor was described by a faculty member who was in my office as a faint xylene, organic solvent, spray paint type odor. It came and went, but it is really par for the course for a $35M building that is less than 2 years old. Don't get me wrong, the taxpayers have provided us with a vast improvement over the old building, and besides, the effect remindes me of how I used to feel at Dead concerts.