This has been a weird week and I'm glad it's over.

We got hit this week, Wednesday, with the first major storm of the winter season. Though it was nearly as bad as New York state, it was still bad. We got hit with a wintry mix of snow, sleet and rain. To make things worse, add in the bitter cold and wind that followed it. The worst part of it was the people that were stranded in their cars on I78 for over 24 hours.

The worst part of the week came in the form of a phone call from Security at work. They had called me to inform me of a phone call they had from the daughter-in-law of one of my staff. One of my staff had died suddenly Monday evening at home. I went in to work early Tuesday morning and got the staff together first thing. I gave the staff time together to grieve for their co-worker. Some sat quietly, some cried, and some spoke of past memories. After 15 minutes, I quietly told them when they were ready to go to work they could. I spent the rest of the morning on the production floor talking with staff and making sure they were doing okay.

Chester will always be remembered as the Rain Man. I think it was 3 years ago, that when ever Chester was off, it would rain. It was like that for the whole spring, summer, and fall. He was of course teased about this for a long time. We will always think of Chester every time it rains now.

A collection was started within the department and $300.00 was collected. A separate collection was started for the rest of the facility.

When I made the announcement at the morning Administrative stand-up meeting, the Administrator ordered the County flag to lowered to half staff for a week. This act surprised and pleased my staff when they found this out.