May 26, 2005
Today felt strange heading off to work. We said good-by to our new friends and wished them a safe trip. When you spend 24 hrs a day with them everyone opens up with family stories. I think it’s partly from loneliness and part the need to share. But you seem to bond very quickly. At 9:00 am there is a debriefing for them and another search of your luggage for rocks. If you’re found with rocks you miss the flight, they run the material thru the lab and if any gold is found its 3 years in prison for stealing. Needless to say no gifts from here…sorry.
Several nights ago I caught one of the managers with a beer. There seems to be a black market that I’m just learning about, booze may be in our future. I’ll keep you informed.
We are told they had a beer tent until several people died brewing grain alcohol and got the mix wrong. One (in this case two) people seem to spoil it for everyone.
It’s amazing how 500 - 600 feet in elevation can make such a difference in climate. Today on the hill it was 30 degrees with 80 percent humidity (we were in the clouds). Not too bad, but the wind came up and maintained 20 mph. Larry and I were in an man-lift for several hours replacing the cement silo full indicator. This job would normally take 20 minutes but you can’t imagine the wind on bare skin.
I will make it my personal mission to find the person who developed miniature screws and decided to use several different styles in the same control box, and hunt him down. Not only that, but those of us with maturity on our side have a hard time seeing these cotton picking little screws with bi-focals.
Thanks for putting up with my little tirade.
We have decided to make some changes to our equipment to make it more user friendly. Trying to interpret information to people who have never seen equipment like this is an art form and one that I’m not equipped for. I will simplify to the point of pushing switch 1 then 2 then 3 to start the equipment and reverse that to shut down. (Boy am I starting to sound like a crotchety old man), first the screws then the interpreter…must be the cold.
Now that I read this it’s more of a collection of random thoughts or I’m just too tired to think. It’s snowing outside and the snow is going horizontal, makes for a great day tomorrow.
Good night.