Work Emergency

I was working overtime this Saturday trying to get the balance of a seven million forecast out of the door. We only have two more days, Monday and Tuesday, to get the rest of the orders out. The night inspection crew were not really happy to be asked to work overtime. It pretty much rearranged your schedule and sleep patterns. This day was not that problematic, but because of the hot weather we were a little slow. We only have a few jobs available when night shift started, because the rest of the jobs were locked inside the storage room. An outside contractor's work crew was working inside the building cleaning the air ducts from the build up residue from coating the pins.

The shift was almost over and I had my area cleaned up when another inspector came to drop parts for the cetyl alcohol area. I was helping him unload the pans. When he finished I walked him to his electrical golf cart while talking about how slow it was that day. Suddenly I heard a big explosion and a second later I felt hot air rush out of the door. I was facing away from the big door when the explosion occured and I got the heat square on my back. I turned around and saw what looks like sparks flying inside the building. I also saw a few people inside running for the door. I told my friend to run to the opposite building.

I saw the new safety officer, who was supervising the work, ran outside and started to yell to call 911. I ran to the guard shack, but the guard was not there and the door was locked. I ran back to a safe distance. The rest of the people started to go home since they clocked out already. I called my lead lady and she told us to leave and go home. I kept telling her I needed to run inside our office to get my bag and my phone. I later realized that I had my missing phone in my hand, the one I was using to talk to her. My co-workers and I went home while the fire department was hosing down the inside of the building. What a day!

Restaurant: Catalina Coffee Company

This is our favorite coffee shop in the whole of Southbay California. The atmosphere is fantastic and being near the beach is a plus. They serve great fresh ground roasted coffee, soothing teas, delicious baked goods, excellent sandwiches and far out exotic sodas. They have a used mystery book store, a great fireplace, an outdoor patio, internet connected computers, games and serene surrounding. Lady Steel and I would visit and relax while drinking our coffee. I would be reading one book or another, while she would be fixing the content of her bag or catching up on correspondence. This place is very close to me because I have the best chat here with my wife or sister.

Catalina Coffee Company
126 North Catalina Avenue
Redondo Beach, CA 90277
310-318-2499

The UFO Incident

My wife and I were driving her Aunt and Uncle to San Jose, California to their other niece's house after a few weeks stay with us. We left Los Angeles in the late afternoon to be able to avoid the heat. The trip was uneventful, but we have a colorful and cheerful chat among us to occupy the time. We reached Gilroy very late and a road construction was in progress forcing us to use a different route to San Jose. We were waiting for our turn on the only lane open for both opposing traffic for a few miles. While we were last in the line of cars waiting for our turn on this one lane, I noticed a set of headlight coming towards the rear of our rented van. I thought it would be hilarious and crazy if the headlight was really a UFO flying low to the ground.

I kept looking at my rear view mirror and mentally said that the vehicle seemed to be travelling a little fast. I looked around the van and no one noticed the approaching vehicle. I again looked in my rear view mirror and the head lights was still coming toward us. I started to panic when I was looking at the headlights I could swear it was about to hit the back of the van. I yelped out loud when I saw the lights about to hit and then it split into two separate lights. One light went to the right side of the van and the other to the left side. Everyone looked at me like I was crazy. I breathed a sigh of relief when I saw the headlights were from two motorcycles. They went on each side of the van to avoid the traffic and leap frog to the front of the line. It took a while for my pounding heart to calm down. We reached our destination without another incident or UFO sighting..

The Spear Incident

When I was growing up in Manila, Philippines, I remembered an incident involving one of my cousin. The house we lived in Madison Street was next to my grandfather's warehouse. The old trucks, tires, treehouse, old oil drums and a lot more junk became fodder for our rich imaginations. We turned the oil drums into horses. Our wild west bar was a board between two standing oil drums. The old empty bottles were our whiskey and the flattened bottle caps were our coins. We played cops and robber, cowboys and indians and even Tarzan.

It was while we were playing Tarzan that an accident happened. It started when we crafted spears from the wood poles and metal welding rods. After watching an episode of Tarzan where the hero exchange spear throws with his enemy, we tried it with our spears. We stood a decent distance apart from each other like Tarzan in the TV show. I threw the first spear and missed him by two feet, purposely missing him like in the Tarzan show. My cousin aimed his shot and threw his own spear toward myself. He threw the spear a little harder than he wanted. Instead of it landing in front of me, it found my left leg.

We were both shocked, I guess, I was more shocked because I have a spear imbedded into my leg. The wound was deep, but it was a clean straight wound. I pulled the spear out of the wound and saw blood spurting from the hole it left. My cousin helped me to our house to get it taken cared by my Mom. When my Mom saw us we explained what happened. She clean the wound and put a bandage on it. She asked if we would be repeating that crazy escapade and we answered a big "no, Mom." Thinking back now, I don't really think I cried when the incident happened. I was so shocked because of the spear in my leg and also imagining how mad my parents would be at me. I was just glad I didn't get punished and grounded.

Down Hill Slalom

When I was growing up in Baguio, Philippines, my friends and I discovered a new sport. The house my family and I were staying was at the bottom of the hill. The street was very steep and paved with cemented gravel, to allow vehicles more traction on the road. The gravel were rough and raised to allow the tires to grip better when climbing up the hill. There was a house construction site were they gave us scrap plywood. We waxed the bottom of the plywood with candles. We went to the top of the hill, sat on the plywood ans slid down the hill. The raised gravel allowed the plywood to slide all the way down hill. We slid down at a high speed, but we were able to avoid major cuts and bruises. We played this game for a few months until we found other games to play. I love it when the wind caress your face as you hurl yourself downhill. It was not smart, but very enjoyable.