(Got rug vacuumed)... I was quite involved with the Campus for a long time in terms of being a technical advisor for their architectural restoration projects, as well as working for the primary materials supplier. It was particularly interesting to get a photography commission in one of those very classic redwood buildings and its environs I was so involved with otherwise off an on over the years. In that case, the shoot and big event involved a Nobel Candidate and his family, and I was given total personal artistic liberty : people, architecture, landscaping, printing the shots too. Fun.
But that all came to the head the year I retired. I had gotten the purchase order from the restoration crew responsible for that same classic building, along with a number of others, and had all the special equipment and supplies ready to go. But some new department head decided to go "modern" and save a bunch of money by transferring purchasing tasks over to basically unpaid grad students instead. Well, being computer types, they would literally go to websites to order sacks of cement twenty five cents cheaper than we could supply them, but instead of just driving twelve blocks to pick them up, would pay forty bucks a sack extra shipping from an internet source. Typical lazy computer screen stupidity. But it was major restoration on a tight deadline highly reliant on my personal advice, which was impossible to meet if the geeks went behind their backs kept clumsily delayed everything. So there was a bit of rebellion, with the workman threatening to walk off unless the new regime got replaced with common sense. It happened, some big shot got fired, and life went on. And I retired. Whew!
The technical side was always fun however. The famous architect of those buildings was Juilia Morgan, some of whose structures I not only helped remodel myself in earlier days, but even lived in, in exchange for remodeling services. Amazing craftsmanship by some of the same workmen who built Hearst Castle.
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