California, here I come...

     Writing this from way behind, because last week was an adventure to say the least...I hardly had time to sleep let alone write to my loyal fan(s).  Called into the office Friday (June 17) to do interviews for prospective security guards (hate when that happens...I had planned a do-nothing day), but duty calls...I knew this "semi-retirement" gig wouldn't last long.  Let's face it... I'm a worker-bee and always will be (and the fact that I really like this job isn't helping my free time). Saturday was "Security Professor Man" day.  I am the instructor for my branch to obtain security licenses... (basically, my students need to listen to me lecture via a power-point presentation for approximately 8 hours).  If they can survive that, they deserve a license... After doing these classes several weeks in a row I can almost recite the entire 8 hours from memory.  Got out of work around six and headed home to pack for California.  As you know, I was asked to come to California to "help" with the Barrett Jackson Car Auction in Orange County.  I had to leave at 6am Sunday morning to get there for a 2-8pm shift at the fairgrounds.

     The rental car was cool... (even though it was maxed at 80mph) and the drive was interesting.  Not a lot of traffic and pretty nice scenery.  Paris (my GPS) didn't mess with me and got me to the fairgrounds around 1pm.  I drove around and into the compound where the auction would be held and nobody stopped me... (it was move-in and set-up from Sunday til Friday).  I also saw no CSC guards on post or anywhere else.  I was texting my boss about the problem when I heard a voice asking me why I was sitting in my car texting... it was the head of security for Barrett Jackson.  I told him I drove in from Phoenix to work that day and he informed me that all Sunday shifts were canceled... (little did I know at the time that this was the first of many more surprises the week would hold).  So I basically drove all the way for nothing...it was cloudy and overcast so I went to the hotel, checked in and took a nap.  Didn't wake up until almost 10pm...

     My shift was supposed to start at 8am the following morning and when I got there, the night supervisor met me and handed me all sorts of paperwork and uniforms and sign-in sheets...it seemed that not only was I there to "help", I was running the security detail during the day for the move-in...(surprise!).  Never ran an event before so I called the branch manager in charge and asked where the sign-in area was so I could set up shop... he thought I would take care of that when I got there (surprise!).  Ok, where was the admin person to take care of signing employees in while I posted them? She was going to Las Vegas with him for another gig...(surprise!).  Then I found out that my shift was not 8 hours a day like it was in Scottsdale, but a minimum of 12 hours a day... (surprise!) And the best part was that the branch manger in charge met with me for about 6 minutes before taking off to do other things.  The night supervisor was nice enough to show me around and help me post my guards...(none of whom I knew of course) and Bill, the Barrett Jackson security head began changing assignments and cutting shifts from the get go (surprise!).  The fairgrounds are pretty large and I asked Bill if we were getting a golf cart to help post guards and bring water to the guards.  He told me we weren't on the list and we (read that ME) would have to walk everywhere... (surprise!)  After that first day my pedometer broke into tears and refused to count any more steps... My relief arrived around 7:30pm and by the time we got people posted for the overnight shift and went over the changes made by the client, I got back to the hotel around 9:30 and crashed...