Seven Quick Takes on Friday (vol.2 - work)

1 - There are killer spiders all around me (how they get to the middle of a river puzzles me!)... I've decided I really hate spiders!

2 - I can usually work a whole shift w/o using the porta-potty... except when the option is taken away - then I have to go :-O

3 - 90 degrees isn't so bad when there is a swift breeze... it's horrendous when the breeze goes away!

4 - don't ask Walmart staff where to find a barometer - they have no idea what that is.

5 - rivers can flow in two directions

6 - shade is very precious

7 - Friday is the new Thursday (at least when your jobsite works 6 days a week).

A flurry of commotion...

Well, it's been a long time since I posted an update! Work has been keeping me busy... VERY busy! One of my projects is on a very tight fast paced time table. At any rate, it keeps me out of trouble.

Since my last post, my cousin Ted also celebrated his 25th birthday, and my cousin Maria celebrated her 23rd Birthday... Happy Birthday wishes!

In other news, JB moved out of the city. He is temporarily living out of boxes at his parents' house until he moves into his own place (which he hasn't purchased yet). Today is going to be a house hunting day with his older sis... hooray for female input! :-D Geegee is going to have a great time with her grand-babies while JB and Aimee go house hunting with the realtor. JB has discovered that his commute to the office takes nearly 2 hours... good thing he doesn't have to go in every day! So, now everyone/everything is about an hour away... my apt. to my office (~1 hr), my apt. to JB's parents' (~1 hr), my apt. to my parents' (~ 1 hr), my office to JB's parents' (~ 1 hr), my office to my parents' (a little more than an hour), my parents' to JB's parents' (~1 hr). Seriously, everyone is an hour away... except for my cousin... he moved closer. He's only 10 minutes away... merely a hop, skip, and a jump relative to everyone else!

Went to an oldies dance this weekend... that was a blast! It was nice to take a break from life for a few hours! ZZZzzz... OK, I'm out for the night...

Shall I move to New England?

After reading T's heart-wrenching blog post about friendship, I feel like moving to New England. While I have only met T, Honey, and Princess once, I think we'd get along swell! Plus, I hear that it still snows in New England... I remember when it used to snow in PA.

Unfortunately, Drexel still owns my soul for another three years or so... and then Schnabel owns my life for an additional two years...

Speaking of Schnabel, I better be getting to bed since I must be in Trenton, NJ bright and early (perhaps too early!) tomorrow morning. But it's Friday... and I get to look forward to a week at the beach!!!!!! Maybe I can work on ditching the farmer's tan while I'm there :-D.

Note to self: don't forget the ice-pops for the guys on the jobsite... it may be my last day with this crew... hopefully they'll finish next week (we were supposed to be finished by the 4th of July. Obviously that worked well ;-) )

Another cold night under the bridge...

I have concluded that I am definately not cut out to be a homeless person. I find myself spending yet another cold... well, maybe it's just cool... but the wind coming off the water makes it feel cold (I digress) night under my most favorite bridge on the NJ turnpike. The end seems so near for this series of tests, yet each day it seems to get further away. 8am tomorrow seems like an eternity sitting here close to midnight. Everyone else (the other two guys) are sleeping... one in his car, the other with his hoodie pulled over his face (he actually looks like a homeless dude!) For now, it's just me, the dial gauges, and the sump pumps.

I have light, power, powerade, pomegranate juice, snacks, and a few more layers of clothes to put on as it gets colder/windier yet I feel sad. Oh how I'd love to close my eyes for a few minutes... but I know better! A few minutes would quickly turn into two hours of missed readings before the other guys would have to wake up to take their readings. We only have two more sections to test on our 4th bridge(of 4 bridges) in the project. This is a project that I have been working with since I started my job soon after graduation. I am ready to see this project wrap up. I am getting weary of this schedule of not having a schedule.

Update:
It's always an adventure at the bridge... the soup I had for dinner meant a midnight port-a-john break. It was getting pretty damp so I decided I'd grab my carhart bibs while I was up near my car. When I went to walk back down under the bridge a guy walked up to me with a diesel can. His english was very broken but I guessed that he had run out of fuel as I could see his truck stopped a few feet from the end of our bridge. I quickly got the inspector under the bridge on the phone cuz I had no idea who this guy was or where he came from. It turned out that all he wanted was a little fuel but I live in West Philly folks... I wasn't taking any chances! The two guys who are out here with me for the test took care of the situation... now, back to watching paint dry...