Wednesday, March 28, 2007

Random bits and ranting

Lots of tiny bits to say today, but nothing I can make a real post out of. So here goes:
  • I think Wanda is on medication. I mean, I know Howie gave her a shape-up-or-ship-out chat, but for someone with rage issues, she's been really calm here lately. I have to wonder about it. I often find that folks with rage issues can only sorta tamp their urges down for a while before they blow up again. However, she's just been...placid. She had a brief but tranquil chat with Sarge this morning, and when she's come to my desk to ask about locating an elevator in the patient tower, she's been polite and amenable to moving it around a bit to help out my space planning. Weird. If/when Jaqueline comes back, I wonder if that'll set her off again.
  • The doctors who will own the Mendwell Center for the Reality Impaired (MCRI) have changed the name to the Mendwell Center for the Reality Challenged (MCRC). They've about wrapped up buying a site, but now they need to hire a company to manage the facility and find them staff and a CEO. They had a guy who was gonna do it, but he didn't have any experience starting up a psych hospital.
  • In other MCRC news, I asked Howie to pleasepleaseplease put Jimmy Ray on my team for MCRC so that we could smoothly go to Revit, which Alex wants to do. Howie agreed and said that staffing should work out for us to work on this together, which is good. Not so good is that Jimmy Ray's wife has been offered a position with her company in another city--a huge promotion, and if they talk it over and accept it, then Jimmy Ray's gone in three months. And so is all my disco music.
  • The main partner over Pomme de Terre promised the owner that all patient rooms would have 4'-0" clear on each side and the end of the bed. This was news to all of us--news we coulda used about two months ago when we were trying to plan out the structure for this building. Here's the thing: the AIA Healthcare Guidelines only require 3'-0" at the foot of the bed. When Leslie tried to explain this to the partner more than once, he shouted, "I don't care! We're giving them 4 feet!" We've become a thorn in the structural engineer's side on PdT because we keep changing the shape of this building because of this partner's whims.
  • I've discovered something new about handicapped accessibility that's about to make my head explode. Turns out that ANSI and ADAAG are mostly similar, but in some places one is more stringent than the other. Here's the thing: building codes, such as the Uniform Building Code (UBC) and the International Building Code (IBC) direct you to follow ANSI A117.1. But the law mandates that you follow ADAAG. Hence, you have to follow both. Meanwhile, if your project receives and funding from the federal government to get built, you also have to follow UFAS (I'm blanking on what the letter mean), which can be stricter than both ADAAG and ANSI. Somebody get me some Bailey's.
  • I've also discovered that I cannot remember a child's name if the child is under two years old.
  • I've also discovered that no day is so bad that it cannot be cured with a big styrofoam cup of sweet tea from Chick-Fil-A.

4 comments:

Miss Kitty said...

All the anagrams are confusing me. Now I need Bailey's, too.

Enginerd said...

My nickname from my college roomies was "Random"

I like your post.

Wanda is probably medicated, or is waiting on a job offer to say FU DA.

that extra 1 ft of space is HIGHLY important. think of all the shoes you could put there. (That's my measurement of importance of space: how many shoes could you store there?")

Anonymous said...

I can sure sympathize with the confusion about the Americans With Disabilities Act (and all its variations). Don't get me wrong, we need laws like that, but they could take away some of the red tape and codes and sub-codes that conflict with each other. In our local downtown, all parking spaces have a 2 hour limit, and the meter maid enforces it mercilessly. Except for the Section 8 housing that's located in town. Those people can take up 2 parking places and leave their car there for several days, and the meter maid won't ticket them. All the local merchants are fuming about this.

Mile High Pixie said...

Kitty: Now you see why we drink.

Bax: Yes! How many shoes can you fit in a space--that's important stuff!

Tom: If I had to bet, I'm thinking that the Section 8 folks can't afford a space in a parking deck (seeing as how they need help with housing costs), so the meter maids are giving them space. Frankly, if we're gonna house folks in an urban area, we need to provide a place for them to park too.

As for taking up two spaces, that's just being rude.