ATC at the VA in Seattle

September 2011

I had been out of work for at least a couple months with my last job lasting the course of about 6 weeks, a few days a week when I got a dispatch to go to a picket site and walk the picket line for a few hours.  I decided I should do it for the few hours but couldn't find the site.  I had taken the bus downtown and had to walk to the picket site but by the time I got there it was over.  When I got home I decided to call the mix 20/20 to check on the location.

While I was on hold I could hear that I had another call coming in but didn't want to take it since I was on hold.  I started talking to the dispatch person about where the picket site was and she said they were done for that day anyway. Then she said, "So, did you want the job?"  Job?  The phone call I had coming in while I was on hold was the mix 20/20 computer calling me for a job.  I went with it and said, "Yes," and took down the info to work at the VA Hospital for ATC (Advanced Technology Construction).  A job I was told that would last 2 weeks.

So the next morning I report at 6am ready to start the adventure.  The hospital is huge and the first person I was to meet was Ron, my Foreman.  The best reference I had was the ER entrance so Ron came down to get me and we went to the second floor where the job site office was located.

It seems that no matter how much you've done there's always something new to learn.  The first thing I learned was the word Interstitial, up to that point I'd never heard the word.

There are stairways with paintings like this at different locations throughout the hospital and "Caution Dancing" is pretty accurate.  The interstitial is the space between floors.  For example, there are 7 floors to the hospital but when you include the interstitial space between each floor it's actually 15 floors.  Each interstitial has the exposed I beams and you want to make sure you have your hard hat on,..believe me.

In the above, a bit blurry picture, I'm standing straight up so you can see where the large I beams are.  Of course they're everywhere and occasionally as you walk under each one you come up too quick and ring your bell on the beam.  I can't tell you how thankful I am to have had my hard hat on every time I hit one of those from either walking or standing up.

So my first job there was to go up into the interstitial and help out with the uni-strut.  I guess I knew I was in for an adventure when the Super gave me a light for my hard hat.