My First Week

So, my first week in the hydro business has ended. It's been a pretty strange week with all sorts of stuff going on. It's definitely not like any first week on a job I've ever had. Coming from a relatively well defined first week with training and mentoring I can only say I'm glad I don't have clear goals either...

Let's take a look at what I did do this week:

• I got an overview of the Gilman hydro site by my partner. He knows that site quite well and I learned a lot.
• I got paid. Which was amusing. Things are pretty loose in a four person company.
• I was a scavenger digging through old cast off junk from the old paper mill. I found a few useful items.
• A totally solid label maker in perfect shape. Makes modern ones look cheap and flimsy. I think I can still get cartridges for it.
• A Netgear VPN/Firewall that appears to still be a current version. Need to see if there are firmware updates and such.
• Two 16 port 10/100 switches. Will probably end up putting these into other sites.
• A really nice drafting table that will become my new desk for up here.
• Drafted up drawings for a water level sensor installation and shelf bracket. Not glamorous but it gave me an opportunity to work with some of the guys at Gilman.
• Met with the company accountant. I'll probably be working with him as I work to get the books moved over to QuickBooks. Which I have no idea how to do... :)
• Researched how to secure the network at a hydro site. Talked to a cisco representative about the ISA550W which looks like a good solution. Talking with them more on Tuesday.
• Researched security camera systems for the hydro sites. Looking at a Swann system because they're reasonably priced and seem to have the features we need.
• Worked on the company logo. Making some progress with it. It's still not quite what I want.

Not exactly what I signed up for (yet) but I got to work from home a lot this week. There's no office set up, so if I'm not at the Gilman site them I'm just at home. Hopefully we can get that taken care of this week and get the additional equipment ordered for the office. For general research the 13" MBP Retina works great but when I sit down to work on the logo and stuff I really want a larger monitor and a Wacom...

I'll leave you with a picture from the Flume...