Further Adventures in Baltimore

For the last month I've worked on the refrigeration control system for a brand new grocery store in Howard County. While Howard County isn't in Local 26's jurisdiction it is where I live. After working in Arlington, at Fort Belvior and Ashburn, Virginia it was incredibly nice to have an assignment that didn't have me driving on 95 and the Beltway every day! When I found out that I was being transferred to another job site I figured I'd be back on 95 every morning.

I was right. What I didn't expect was that I'd be getting on 95 every morning and heading north. My new job is to update the control system of a grocery store in downtown Baltimore that had recently been purchased by a different grocery chain and changed over and modernized to bring it in line with the new grocery store's requirements.

It's a fast paced project. Every day that the store isn't selling groceries the new owners are losing money so the days fly by. It also makes for interesting ways of doing things. I've never had a wire pulling cart so easy to roll around!

Back to Construction

For the past month or so I've been working at various grocery stores around the DC area installing the wiring and devices for new fire alarm and security systems. The grocery chain didn't want us working at night so we had to do the work during the day. In some ways, that's great. Night work can really mess with your schedule. But working in an active store with customers all around can be a problem too. As a sort of compromise work began at 5:00am. (Good for working in an empty store, bad if you have to drive from Baltimore to Dale City, Va every morning.)

Doing upgrades in an existing building was new for me. All of the work I had done in the past had been new construction. Sure you might be out in the cold (or inside in the cold) but at least you didn't have to deal with the mistakes, either accidental or deliberate, made by the electrician before you.

(See Photo.)

The number of MC runs laying on ceiling grid, hot wires hanging out of lidless troughs, panels without covers, etc. that I came across was remarkable.

But like I said, I'm back to new construction. And even better I'm working VERY close to home. I'm incredibly lucky to have a round trip commute of about eight miles! This means I'm technically working outside of Local 26's jurisdiction. And not that I want to say bad things about Local 24 but talking to the apprentices out of Baltimore, I'm incredibly grateful that I'm receiving a very good education.