Seven hundred and thirty five days. 7.3.5. I even rebuilt this website nearly from scratch in that time. To be fair – this website was non-functional for much of that time, until the rebuild recently, and not of my own doing. Anyways, let’s not dwell on the time, but look at the adventures.
Let’s start here, last week.
Look familiar? Why yes, it’s the image from 2019 that never got published. Worth the wait. We have a new person on our team who is really good with social media and has been pushing us to post more. He made these rapid-response graphics with my photos of the conference’s main speakers of the day.
(L to R – President Biden, IBEW Secretary-Treasurer Paul Noble, Maryland Governor Wes Moore)
I’ve had some other adventures that do not involve politicans in this time, too.
I spent a VERY cold day visiting a CSX rail yard in Maine.
My multi-day, multi-location adventure in Vancouver (mountains in the background of a photo make me so happy) was also VERY cold, with the only snow I saw all winter. It never snows in Vancouver. I was warned to be careful on the roads and maybe not go out in it.
Of course I went out in it.
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- Larry Burrow for My IBEW Story
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- Liz Shuler, President of the AFL-CIO
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- IBEW Local 747 local chair Paul Roy poses for a portrait at the CSX rail yard in Waterville, Maine.
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- Whiskey Before Breakfast Band
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- Amber, Queen of the Yard
There were a lot of portraits.
And I visited Puerto Rico for the first time, where it rained so hard the entire time I was there I just had to laugh. (It did stop raining for one early morning, and I went for a run and visited the water’s edge… and promptly soaked my shoes up to my ankles. Misjudging the tide was my first mistake of the day. The second came at a restaurant that served me something unknowingly made with meat. But I wisely did not pet the dog, even if he was friendly and cute.)
Back to the politicians… with a Very Important Friend of the union in the White House, and lots of other VIF’s in congress and the cabinet, we’ve had a lot of face time at our conferences and events. There’s been so. many. podiums. And sometimes parties. And a lot of waiting. So much waiting. But I’ve heard some exciting things from Very Important Friends and it makes me feel hopeful for our future.
The crowd reacts at the Labor for Biden Harris rally in Philadelipia, PA on June 17, 2023.
Teila Allmond, IBEW International President Kenneth Cooper, and Representative Donald Norcross
Secretary of Energy Gretchen Whitmer at the 2023 Construction and Maintenance Conference in Washington, DC
President Joe Biden greets the crowd at his speech held at IBEW Local 26’s training center in Lanham, MD on February 15, 2023.
Until next time… which maybe won’t be so long. But then again, I *am* a creature of habit.