The Work-A-Day World, Part V

Okay, to start things off, I am going to change the scheduling (as best as I can) of my entries. As of now, all entries will be put in on Monday of each week. The reason: Mondays are always interesting. Reader be warned...

So the day started off as they usually do, calm and quiet, with me and Tesla deciding what we're going to tackle. Today we went hell-bent on some random cabling for a priority system within the plant that will be used beyond the decommissioning. Unfortunately, the point of this system closest to the ground is still twelve feet above the concrete - totalling to 98% of it comfortably residing at ceiling level, about forty feet from the ground. Eek.

So I spent most of the day with the cross-beams of the ceiling at eye level, following two cables half the length of the main building. I was starting to get used to it, though. That is, until I started feeling something very warm on my back at one point. Instinctively, I turn around - and promptly get blinded by a 1000-watt metal halide bulb. Fun times, aren't they?

Anyway, the rest of the day passed without incident. Rather, I should say that most of the day passed without incident. The plant was getting quiet, everyone was gearing up for the migration out the door. I grab on the controls of the lift I was using since 07:30, and begin to lower myself down to ground level and safety.

Now, these lifts are powered by propane. And, of course, the tank ran empty with me twenty feet from the ground. For the second time in five weeks, I was stranded with my feet off the ground. Thankfully, there was just enough fumes in it to power back up (twice) and get me within jumping distance before it gave up the ghost. So in the end, all's well that ends well.

Now if you'll excuse me, I'm grabbing a keg of beer to calm my battered nerves.

Random Entry

So, as I didn't keep to my usual Thursday evening publishing schedule, you can safely assume that nothing has been happening until recently. But first, to catch you up on what actually has happened...

First off, I got into Thunder Bay again to visit Yeti. Mostly the same old thing, exchanging old stories and new theories. Though I did finally meet another person he knew up here. That was interesting, albeit brief. The guy foxholed for most of my visit - apparently, this is the status quo. Yeti ran me through some of the games he has for PS3. Didn't really play them much, but I've always been more comfortable with PC-mounted anyway.

It kind of sucked having to haul out last night to come back to Atikokan - I'll admit to feeling a little isolated up here. Writing would certainly help, but not only my old curse, but work as well, is severely cutting into what creativity I have. Oh well, there's still weekends.

Probably the biggest news came just today. Leaving for work at our usual 06:30, the oil light began flashing at us with a very annoying tone sounding out. The German Workhorse was in trouble. Rather than chance continuing the drive to the factory, we pulled over and abandoned it on a side road, and looked forward to continuing the trip on foot. That is, until one of our co-workers saw me, Tesla, and Lazarus walking along the side of the road. Tesla in the cab, me and Lazarus into the back, we finished the trip in about three minutes. And a good thing too - it was warm in comparison to other days, but that soon changes at 50 kph while exposed to wind chill.

Work was rough. Or I should perhaps say, it was rough on me. My spine, my right knee, and even more ominous, my left thigh, they were all aching in twenty minutes. Advil did nothing. All I could do is grunt through it and hope for the end to come, as I usually do. But there was still work to do: we had to collect our sick Jetta.

And there came Wrench to the rescue. With a length of half-inch rope tied around a tow point, he guided the Workhorse to the best place in Atikokan for the car to be taken care of: back to the factory. Pulling it inside, a quick exam of the oil told us exactly what was wrong.

The car hasn't been used enough. Gas has been leaking into the oil reservoir, watering down the oil itself. Doom averted, we need only a complete oil change and a new filter for good measure. An hour's work, and the Workhorse shall live again.

And to think, I was almost ready to write the damn thing's eulogy.

The Work-A-Day World, Part IV

First off, to Hell and brimstone with having my system on Central Time - I'm the only person in town that's even using it. Yes, Atikokan is 100+ kilometres from the Eastern/Central border, but no one here seems to give a damn. And despite my reputation of not following the crowd, if no one else is going to use it, why should I?

Yes, I'm in a mood. The work week is half over, yes. Thursday morning (probably about 01:30) I'll be getting paid, yes. This will most likely be the largest pay cheque I've ever seen, thank God yes. It was just that crummy a day. No explosions, no fires, no serious injuries requiring hospitalizations, no live power cables scaring the living hell out of me... just work. Though I suppose I should start off where it really began, that being yesterday.

A head cold. I was all but stopped in my tracks by a head cold. My nose weighed a ton, I was getting cold chills every five milliseconds - I half-wondered if I had the flu, to be honest. Needless to say, I felt like death warmed over. And I still put in a full day of work. Last night, felt just as under the weather - and I couldn't sleep. Hail the return of my immortal companion, Insomnia.

So today, with only three or four hours of sleep (you'd think I'd be used to it by now) it was back to cutting cables and dragging them off to be packed and sent overseas. Not so bad, I've done it before. That is, until they started taking off the metal panelling from the floor to expose the cabling trenches - those were our next job.

I've probably described them before, but let me re-iterate: three feet deep, a foot wide, and 90% of the cables in them are at the bottom, underneath two full feet of sawdust, with just enough of the cables sticking up through the sawdust (most of them for no reason; they come up to the surface at one point, only to trail back down to the bottom) that simply shovelling out the trenches would be tedious at best. And the vacuums we have at the plant are about a decade old, and on their last legs.

Of course, that situation would be a blessing, because it doesn't include frequent flooding of those trenches to transform decades-old sawdust into a consistency somewhere between wet bundles of newspaper and Lake Erie clay. I think you see where this is going.

So, two hours go by, with minimal progress and maximum effort, when we get new orders. Because hauling these cables out is being such a bastardly task (something everyone there predicted months ago) we were to just put the metal panelling back in place and be shot of the whole thing. No major thing, right? We just take every last cable that we've fought tooth and nail to get exposed to open air for the time in my lifetime and bury the whole rat's nest once again.

Suffice it to say, no one was happy. We were looking at digging out sawdust manually to make room for these cables to go back in, which we all knew would take forever. Then, the magic words come across from one of my co-workers: "Hey, isn't there that 200 horsepower vacuum cleaner in the back somewhere? That thing's pretty damn new - it shouldn't have a problem dealing with this!"

Side Note: I restrained myself from killing anyone for overlooking that vacuum previously.

The Road So Far...

So, to update everyone on the events of this week.

First, this is being published real-time, as we finally got our internet and TV hooked up. I had to take an hour and a half off of work to babysit while the guy was here. It wasn't really needed - the guy was a lot nicer than many other cable guys I've run into. He even got a Coke to take with him on the road. There were some problems with the wireless, but he wasn't here to help with that. It was all me.

Second, my job has officially begun to branch out. Next Monday and Tuesday, I'll be able to escape from mountains of sawdust clogging up lungs and eyes, and instead working on installing a variable-frequency drive, a type of motor, at a local pump station. And sometime in the next few months, I'll be spending a few days working at a mine. It should be perfect for me - I've been down in active mines before, doing the whole tourist thing, and absolutely loved it.

It certainly beats being up on scaffolding and ladders.