Frank & Bill's Chicago River Welcome Party

After a few weeks on the job for the new Boston hires, DMC threw Bill Sowerine and me a welcome party consisting of dinner and drinks on the Chicago River. We took two electric boats on the river, which anyone could drive! It turns out that DMC has a few good captains hiding under engineering titles. Both of our self-appointed boat captains headed north towards Goose Island with the slightly lighter boat taking the lead. We enjoyed a dinner of sandwiches, fresh fruits, and bite sized desserts as we took in the views.

This was my first time on the Chicago River, and only fourth time into downtown Chicago. The skyscrapers seemed even more impressively tall now that we were about 30 feet lower than most pedestrians. The boat trip also opened us up to the unique Chicago River traffic: from the swift water taxi, to the drifting party boats, to the wayward spinning electric boat piloted by someone who will remain nameless.

Although this event  was titled a welcome party, it was closer to a goodbye party for us Boston hires considering we would be moving in to DMC's Boston office the following Monday. Since my first day at DMC, I have been brought up to speed on hundreds of procedures and dozens of acronyms. DMC has an SOP for that PLC with a PCB that won’t run your PID loop because you forgot your Kp. The breadth of employee knowledge is almost as impressive as the variety of snacks in the kitchen. I look forward to joining the Boston DMC team and I think the Chicago office will appreciate splitting up the two DMC Franks.

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