That sentiment just about sums up my day today. It’s 7:47 pm now and I’m sitting here at my desk with a fresh pot of coffee and basking in the cleanliness. After the day we had, cleanliness is something to admire.
Chris and I started our day out today at Alliance One in Farmville, replacing some old gear with new gear. I won’t bore you with the details because I’m pretty much the only one who will care and I was there, thus I do not require a recap. Here’s a few photos from our day I thought I’d share.
No, that’s ok Tommy. You take pictures. We need pictures. I’ll just stand here with this fifty pound rack while you take pictures. Wait, get me from my good side!
Basically what we are doing is taking all that nasty mess you see below and installing it properly in a rack, (that thing Chris is holding above) with the exception that it’s going to be 22 feet in the air, suspended on an I-Beam. Ugh. We’ve got two of these locations to replace within the manufacturing plant and one new one to install.
Guys who do work like this (above) is why guys like me have jobs. That orange mess of wire you see is fiber optic cabling. That semi-yellow wire is the cat5e cabling. I could go into about 30 different code violations just in this one box you see here, but it’s not worth it. They love us over there and we get all the fix-er-up jobs as they budget them in.
Chris neglected to tell me when he surveyed the site that we were drilling in to the structural mounting beams for the entire facility. These aren’t 1/8 thick I-beams. These turkeys are 10 inches wide and half an inch thick of solid tempered steel. For the record, had I known this I wouldn’t have brought a drill; I’d have brought a mig-welder and been done with the whole mess in a matter of seconds. As it was, we went to town on these beams, taking turns on the drill. We burned up the first two bits in 30 minutes flat… and by the time I was done today that third bit that I babied along (cause it was my last one) isn’t good for much more than making a wind chime.
We were bored waiting on the scissor-lifts to charge again. The client forgot to charge them completely for us so they gave out on us about halfway through the morning. Working in a 26 foot ceiling with two dead lifts makes it a really long day!
ROFL. I had a towel on under my hard hat all day so I was able to keep my face mostly clean throughout the day. Chris didn’t have that luxury, so he’s looking a little dirty in this one. It’s good honest sweat and dirt though, the best kind if you have to have it.
I posted this one in fairness to Moose. If I’m gonna post dirty nasty shots of him on the web, I might as well accompany it with my own ridiculous photos.
After being delayed with dead lifts, broken bits, and other tempered steel beam construction related issues, not to mention a fiber fiasco that’s going to make testing this network a real party (read as not), we ran over our timeline. The only feasible way to get this job done on time so we can do the other job scheduled on Tuesday is to work tomorrow too. So, we boys is workin’ on Saturday this week!! Chris and I tried to wrangle Eddie and Tim into helping but both were already on the way out of town by the time we left the job site for the day. Besides, it is a national holiday so someone might as well get some time off.
This was going to be my first year attending a NCBBA Annual meeting (another client and also an organization to which I belong) but it seems the fickle finger of fate has other plans for me. If we don’t get this job finished we won’t be able to do it until next Friday because that’s the only day the plants is shut down and the lifts are free. So, go to the beach and take another week to get paid on the job, or get it done on your day off. You can guess which one we decided on. The good news in all this is the client was on-site to see the problems, so we’re not going to have a hard time with the overtime.
Well, I need to go update the job ticket on our service desk, so I’d better get to it. You all have a great memorial day weekend! Think of me while drinking cute fuzzy drinks with straws in them.
(And leave the occasional comment dangit) I get all kinds of phone calls about the blog, but no one ever leaves comments on it. This of course isn’t really a comment-worthy post, so I’m just generalizing. Share your thoughts, speak up, tell me a joke, etc.
Peace!
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