Hail, my conquering hero! Wahooo!

I want to say that I am so excited for Doug. He had a major accomplishment happen on the 20th, and I thought I should explain what he did. Doug's company needed a code exception for one of their products. The National Electric Code is a huge book that comes out every few years with all of the codes that pertain to the electrical field. It is the reason you have to have so many smoke detectors, and have an outlet at the end of your counter. They decide how your house, or any building for that matter, will be wired, nation wide. Every two years, every electrician has to take a code class and have so many hours of education to renew their licenses.

I must say, at this point, that Doug is wonderful with code. He is one of the best. Now, I know that being his wife, I should say that, but it happens to be true. He seems to get a call every few weeks from someone asking about clarification on a code. Although that is not his job, there are electricians nationwide that know they can call him to get an answer. I've always thought it was kind of funny, but cool, too.

On Monday night, He drove to the airport for a red-eye flight to Atlanta, where he had a layover and then caught a flight to Savannah. From there he rented a car (He wants me to say it was a gray, Dodge, small car thingy.) and drove 40 miles to Hilton Head, South Carolina. (Oh yeah, it was a Dodge Nitro. Quite an oxymoron, apparently.) He then had to wait to meet with the board for a few hours.

Here is how it works as far as I understand it, thanks to some clarification from Doug: The National Fire Protection Agency (NFPA) has about 20 panels or so that manage different parts of the code. NFPA 70 is the National Electric Code (NEC). He met with NFPA panel 9 that governs the particular part of the NEC that he needed an exception to. (If I got this wrong, I appologize. Doug will see that I correct it, I'm sure.) Now you all know more about the NFPA than you ever thought you would, or wanted to know, right? Please stop snoring, you are waking the next person reading this.

According to Doug, he thought the panel would be about 10 or 12 people, but when he walked in, there were about 35 or 40 people in the room. He should have been more nervous, but we think the lack of sleep and food prevented that. He said it all went very smoothly. He answered all their questions, and was able to explain everything very clearly. It passed unanimously. He did it on his first try, and apparently that almost never happens. Usually there are many changes that have to be made before they will accept it. His company was ecstatic. They really needed this for one of their products to be used, and a lot of money was riding on this.

He then had to turn around and catch his flight back for a layover in Cincinnati, then catch his connection home. In all that time, all he ate was a hamburger, and he didn't sleep a wink. I was worried that on the way home he would fall asleep. I kept thinking that I should have driven him to and from the airport. However, he was not the only one not sleeping. The night he left, I would fall asleep, and within a half hour I would jerk awake and lay there for hours. I was too worried about his meeting to sleep, and then I had our pinewood derby that night. (Miriam had never been to one, and although she had fun, I think she was a bit let down. She expected a bit more excitement.) I don't think either of us was fit for driving by Tuesday night. In case you are wondering what it looks like to travel that long without sleeping or eating much, here it is:



He was so tired and hungry, and had a killer headache, but he was so happy and relieved, it didn't seem to matter. I expected to snag a picture of my sweetie looking a bit more haggard, but he seemed to look fine. Dang, that is definitely not what I would look like after all that traveling in 24 hours. Our many prayers were heard and graciously answered, which has happened a lot lately. I have to say, I am incredibly grateful. We have worn holes in the carpet from being on our knees. (Maybe I should start saving for new carpet, we aren't out of the woods just yet.) Congratulations, Sweetie! Just in case you need something to help you sleep sometime, you can try reading his exception. It won't be out until 2011, I believe, but it is number 404.9 exception 1B. I know you are going to rush out and look it up in a few years, right?