A Capital Day

Washington DC
N 38 52.612 W 77 01.545

Saturday

Well, it was quite a day. The high point was our visit to my mentor and college professor, Dr. M.S.A.A. Hammam. He remains as he always was, a very kind and generous man dedicated to the welfare of his students. His home is filled with mementos and gifts from grateful students past. He is kind of a legend and his story is very interesting.

Shawky Hammam, a native of Egypt, was educated in England. He first came to the US to teach at Kansas State in Kansas City, Kansas. His specialty was electric power, a disciple that was and continues to be one that gets very little glamour or support from most universities. He gave a lecture in Kansas City and in the audience was the president of Niagara Mohawk, an electric power utility company headquartered in Syracuse, NY. The president said that NiMo had tried to get a program for power engineers working at Syracuse University, but that it didn’t work. Would Professor Hammam be interested in moving to northern New York to start a power program at Clarkson College of Technology in Potsdam? A deal was struck and off he set with his family in the car to drive to Potsdam. On their first trip they drove right through Potsdam, not even noticing that there was a town there.

Dr. Hammam’s power program did get established, and among his very first group of students was me and my buddy Jerry Allen. The bonds have remained strong between us for all those years. Paternally, he placed Jerry in Niagara Mohawk, and me in General Electric. He had the knack to know which type of job would be most fulfilling for all of us. I personally owe him more than I could ever repay, because it was he who inspired me and set me on the path to a career that I always loved.

It didn’t stop there. Throughout the years, Dr. Hammam produced outstanding power engineers copiously. He also assisted in their job placement. Jerry told me that he would receive annual calls from Potsdam informing him of the number of graduating power engineers that would be placed in NiMo.

A few years ago, I arranged for a visit by Dr. Hammam to NYISO, where I was working. I was surprised to find 23 of his students working at NYISO and in the nearby Albany and Schenectady areas to come an greet him. Last year, Jerry arranged a reception for Dr. Hammam in Syracuse, and there were 60 of his students who showed up.

Anyhow, we had a delightful visit, and we met his daughter Sonia who lives nearby. Today, we plan to meet with them for brunch.

Even before our meeting, we had an eventful day. I got up early because I wanted to do an oil change on the engine before going ashore. I discovered that it was leaking salt water. Upon investigation I found the source of the leak. The exhaust hose was laying against an engine bracket, and the engine vibration had caused the hose to chafe. It had a hole in the side shooting out water. I repaired the hole and installed chaffing gear to protect it in the future. Then, before changing the oil, I had to run the engine for 15 minutes. During those fifteen minutes, Libby gave me a haircut. (Send Senator John Edwards to me. I’ll teach him how to live like a common man.) Fifteen minutes after that, the oil change was complete with hardly a drop spilled and no mess made. Amazing.

Next we went ashore to do laundry, showers, and Internet at the yacht club. I ordered a new camera on the net (imagine being tourists in Washington D.C. without a camera, we bought a disposable one.) The new camera should catch up to us by mail in three or four weeks.

We also found ourselves in the middle of the patriots party being thrown by the Capital Yacht Club. They had disabled and active duty military people arriving in droves. The club graciously invited us to join them for lunch and we did. They served great burgers and hot dogs and fixings. While we were eating, the D.C. fire boat pulled up in front of the club and saluted the soldiers by shooting all its water cannons up in the air. What a spectacular sight that was, (sorry, we had no camera). Three cannons, pumping 1000 GPM each, shot the water almost 200 feet high. The wind then caught the water and spread it into a spectacular shower of sparkling droplets. The fire boat, drawing 3,000 GPM suction from a well mid ship, sank 18 inches into the water from the force of the suction and from the reaction of the jets squirting up. As a former fireman, I greatly appreciated the fire boat show, as a boater I appreciated how much force is required to make a large vessel sink 18 inches into the water.

The next task was to get to Dr. Hammam’s house. We elected to use the subway, Washington Metro, to get there. The subway was a bit disappointing. It was not as clean as it was years ago. It was also expensive, costing us $7 because we didn’t understand the fare machine system. It was also crowded because some tracks were shut down for maintenance. It was also slow. By the time we walked to the subway station, and found the correct train, and waited for the train to show up, changed stations, and rode to the destination we had traveled only 4.9 nautical miles in two hours. Despite the breakneck speed of the trains in motion, our average speed was only slightly faster than walking (: