Wow...It has been a DAY! So, I woke up at 4 AM Iowa time, which is 5 AM my time. Actually, I woke up before that, but I didn't look at the clock until 3:56. This is pretty typical for me when embarking on a new major league adventure. One of the coordinators I had contacted me via email & told me that they'd be picking me up this morning @ 7:30, so I didn't have to take a taxi to the other hotel. That was cool w/ me. Oh yeah, I last night I watched a couple of Mystery Science Theater 3000's to unwind. It was a good choice.
So, I can't post much in the way of pics from the training facility, what w/ the NSA snooping about all up in mah bidness. I have a few to post.
I met some pretty cool people today. As it turns out, for my coordinators, this is only the 3rd deployment us staff that they've managed, EVER! There are many kinks to iron out. In my class, there are 20 people. 2 vets & 18 AHT (Animal Health Technicians). The AHT's run the gamut from biologists animal scientists, former military, animal trainers, vet techs, OJT vet techs, etc. We are a diverse bunch. We even have a volunteer firefighter who has also had HazMat training.
As it turns out, my hotel that I was in last night, I was not supposed to be in, but as I said, the communication lines have gotten crossed a few times & I was a casualty of that. A coordinator got everything sorted out for me today, but I had to move hotels at lunch. I met the rest of the class here for lunch today. It was a weird place, but not bad. They had a lime vinagrette dressing that was quite tasty! I didn't have much else. I didn't try their chicken or pizza, both of which they're supposedly famous for.
We got issued these Windows tablet/PC things today to use for our training only here in IA & an i-phone 6 that we get to keep for an indeterminate amount of time. The i-phone is cool, of course. The Windows tablet/PC things are total pieces of fecal material. Thanks Microsoft. I belive that "microsoft" describes the company, as well as its products, on multiple levels. But, I digress. We did a LOT of HR type training today, including training verification, IT set up, ID badges, tablet orientation, i-phone orienation, & timesheets. We also did some animal welfare & an overview/SITREP. Side note: goddamn, if I see one more "Magic Mike XXL" commercial, which has played a minimum of three times during my writing of this document, I may have to murder someone.
I met some crazy girls today or "Mean Girls" as they called themselves that I ended up grocery shopping w/ after training today. It was a lot of fun, but mostly it was just great to be out of training. We shopped at a store called "Hy-Vee," which is an absolutely terrible name for a grocery, but I wasn't driving & there prices were actually pretty decent.
So, the Mean Girls van was full of drinkers, but here's the catch: when you're a Fed employee, YOU CANNOT TRANSPORT ALCOHOL IN A GOVERMENT OWNED/LEASED/RENTED VEHICLE. Thanks Obama. The Republican party would blame you if they caught gonorrhea from a stripper in Thailand, so I figure this is your fault too.
Fortunately, there's a little gas station right next door to my new hotel, so it was GAME ON. I really over exaggerated that. I just walked over, bought some beer, & am drinking it as I write. & NO, I did not "expense" it. I bought it out-of-pocket.
I guess I should talk a bit more about the Avian Flu that we are going to fight. Here's some interesting facts:
-There are NO human cases w/ H5N8 or H5N2 (Eurasian OR North American strains)
-There have been 309 detections of HPAI (Hightly Pathogenic Avian Influenza). This has involved 21 states
-There have been 230 premises that are positive for HPAI
-Congress has allocated $393 million to combat this.
-There have been 3100 State & Fed responders to this crisis. That includes direct hires, like me, & contracted agencies (heavy equipment, disposal, equipment rental, etc).
-This is an important part that I've seen in NO news agency: this disease doesn't particularly affect wild game birds (ducks, geese), but they harbor & transmit it. IT KILLS RAPTORS!!! Please, if you know anyone w/ raptors, falconers, raptor rehab, please tell them to not feed ducks or other game bird meat to their raptors, because raptors are awesome & we must keep them alive.
-MN, IA, WI & NE are the only four state to declare a state of emergency due to this epidemic.
-One of the scarier things is that a chicken colony can go from ZERO clinical signs to 80% fatality rate, which necessitates the remainder to be humanely euthanized, in 11 days. Pretty scary, huh?
That's all folks! More tomorrow!
So, I can't post much in the way of pics from the training facility, what w/ the NSA snooping about all up in mah bidness. I have a few to post.
I met some pretty cool people today. As it turns out, for my coordinators, this is only the 3rd deployment us staff that they've managed, EVER! There are many kinks to iron out. In my class, there are 20 people. 2 vets & 18 AHT (Animal Health Technicians). The AHT's run the gamut from biologists animal scientists, former military, animal trainers, vet techs, OJT vet techs, etc. We are a diverse bunch. We even have a volunteer firefighter who has also had HazMat training.
As it turns out, my hotel that I was in last night, I was not supposed to be in, but as I said, the communication lines have gotten crossed a few times & I was a casualty of that. A coordinator got everything sorted out for me today, but I had to move hotels at lunch. I met the rest of the class here for lunch today. It was a weird place, but not bad. They had a lime vinagrette dressing that was quite tasty! I didn't have much else. I didn't try their chicken or pizza, both of which they're supposedly famous for.
We got issued these Windows tablet/PC things today to use for our training only here in IA & an i-phone 6 that we get to keep for an indeterminate amount of time. The i-phone is cool, of course. The Windows tablet/PC things are total pieces of fecal material. Thanks Microsoft. I belive that "microsoft" describes the company, as well as its products, on multiple levels. But, I digress. We did a LOT of HR type training today, including training verification, IT set up, ID badges, tablet orientation, i-phone orienation, & timesheets. We also did some animal welfare & an overview/SITREP. Side note: goddamn, if I see one more "Magic Mike XXL" commercial, which has played a minimum of three times during my writing of this document, I may have to murder someone.
I met some crazy girls today or "Mean Girls" as they called themselves that I ended up grocery shopping w/ after training today. It was a lot of fun, but mostly it was just great to be out of training. We shopped at a store called "Hy-Vee," which is an absolutely terrible name for a grocery, but I wasn't driving & there prices were actually pretty decent.
So, the Mean Girls van was full of drinkers, but here's the catch: when you're a Fed employee, YOU CANNOT TRANSPORT ALCOHOL IN A GOVERMENT OWNED/LEASED/RENTED VEHICLE. Thanks Obama. The Republican party would blame you if they caught gonorrhea from a stripper in Thailand, so I figure this is your fault too.
Fortunately, there's a little gas station right next door to my new hotel, so it was GAME ON. I really over exaggerated that. I just walked over, bought some beer, & am drinking it as I write. & NO, I did not "expense" it. I bought it out-of-pocket.
I guess I should talk a bit more about the Avian Flu that we are going to fight. Here's some interesting facts:
-There are NO human cases w/ H5N8 or H5N2 (Eurasian OR North American strains)
-There have been 309 detections of HPAI (Hightly Pathogenic Avian Influenza). This has involved 21 states
-There have been 230 premises that are positive for HPAI
-Congress has allocated $393 million to combat this.
-There have been 3100 State & Fed responders to this crisis. That includes direct hires, like me, & contracted agencies (heavy equipment, disposal, equipment rental, etc).
-This is an important part that I've seen in NO news agency: this disease doesn't particularly affect wild game birds (ducks, geese), but they harbor & transmit it. IT KILLS RAPTORS!!! Please, if you know anyone w/ raptors, falconers, raptor rehab, please tell them to not feed ducks or other game bird meat to their raptors, because raptors are awesome & we must keep them alive.
-MN, IA, WI & NE are the only four state to declare a state of emergency due to this epidemic.
-One of the scarier things is that a chicken colony can go from ZERO clinical signs to 80% fatality rate, which necessitates the remainder to be humanely euthanized, in 11 days. Pretty scary, huh?
That's all folks! More tomorrow!
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