Keeping Fit

Could you get a little closer to the Kupol Rock, please?

July 15, 2005

Word of the day: Razvadnoi Kluch = Adjustable wrench

Besides having some very bad weather (35 degrees, high winds and rain - sometimes-hard rain, which is really ICE), the guys at the plant and Luda wanted to take some pictures of Kupol Rock with us in the background during lunch. At least that was my interpretation of the arm waving and pointing and the words "photograph - Kupol".

After eating half my lunch, which by the way, we now eat "up on the hill" at the job site, they grabbed me by the arm and said "go now".

I didn’t understand the hurry since we are only walking several hundred feet to the edge of the drop off for the photo. Wrong again, Terry. As they all stepped over the hill, Luda and I looked at each other and stepped off the edge, down about a 75- foot embankment to the level ground below.

I thought, well, the picture WILL look better from this vantage point. That was, until we realized they all kept walking. (I need to add that this was more of a sprint). Luda and I tried to keep up. I’m guessing she’s maybe 40 to 45 and I’m the old fart. About half way to Kupol rock they stop and take pictures. Yea, we can get this over and I can work on attempting to climb the embankment back to the job site.

But no - you guessed it - the pictures weren’t good enough. We needed to get closer; in fact we walked to the base of the rock…a mile down hill on our lunch hour of which only 15 minutes was spent eating.

We hurried up and took pictures and started sprinting back to work. I took a picture so you can get an idea of the distance. I arrived back in our shipping container 4 minutes before lunch was over. Luda and I looked at each other during gasps of air and muttered something like damn kids. I think it took us about half and hour to catch our breath.

The rest of the afternoon was spent telling jokes, talking about Harleys and looking like we were working. (Bill, one Russian in camp has a Russian Harley Cap, it’s from Moscow)

I should have brought some Geritol.

Signed,
Terry - down for the count tonight.