It’s a long week

August 6th, 2010

I could tell yesterday was Wednesday, three days of this work was having its toll. I banged my finger on a coupler, my brother got a cut on his arm, and my brother in law was having trouble straightening out his knee. You just get complacent, then you get tired. And you make mistakes.

The great progress we had on Monday and Tuesday fell away on Wednesday. We continued to work on the same parts for all day. It was like a very large, very heavy puzzle.

Last night was also the dinner for everyone. We sat with another team. It was good to talk to others and hear about everyone’s progress.

As we left the dinner, there was a huge double rainbow. I kept saying ‘what does it all mean’ but I guess that has passed.

We fought over who could take the best picture. Thanks to the iPhone app AutoStich, I think I won.

If Wednesday was the day that you got tired and hurt, Thursday was the day you made mistakes and got mad. We were still working on the brake end of the car. After lunch, we finally got done with attaching a beam to another beam. Which meant we got to do it again, still on the same end.

In this process I incorrectly measured and marked where to drill a 1-1/8″ hole on one of the beams. I was not pleased after I figured it out, after we drilled the hole.

And here’s an AT&T rant. My iPhone indicator switched from AT&T to Off Network yesterday morning. I couldn’t figure it until I read an email they sent me. I was roaming and had used more than my allocation of 24 megs of service and hit over 100 megs of data. The email made it sound like the swat team was on its way. I called and determined that I was not on AT&T’s network and they would appreciate it if I’d reduce my data usage since it wasn’t their network. But they wouldn’t charge me anymore that normal because I had an unlimited data plan.

Thank you AT&T. Let me help you save money.

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Tuesday

August 4th, 2010

I remarked to my brother as I was trying to tie my shoes this evening, “sure seems like we’ve been here longer than just two days.”

My brother and I have been working on the high-side gondola. I’ll let you Google what that means. But it’s been great.

Our team lead seems to think we work well together and has us working apart from the rest of the crew. I would have said that we work well together. We see each other once a year maybe. He’s 8 years older than me so we didn’t have a lot of projects growing up.

But we are working very well together here. We seem to know what the other is thinking or needs. It’s great. We’ve got three more days of crawling over and under this car. I’m sure there’s a sing in there somewhere.

One of the pictures I’m including is in front of the hand tool car. For those of you that haven’t read my book yet (shame on you), there are old boxcars that have been converted into storage cars and food cars, among other things. The hand tool car is run by a very nice retired couple. Hence the flowers in the picture.

Speaking of my book (get your copy yet?), in the book there is a scene where the protagonist carries groceries to the food car. I got to do that today. Cross that off the bucket list.

Time to throw some high country grass fed beef on the grill. And my beer is empty. Wish you were here. You could get me a fresh beer.

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The Road To Taos

August 2nd, 2010

Today being an off day, the Ross Boys piled in the Prius and headed to Taos.

There’s two ways to get there from Chama. One goes back north to Antonito, then south then east to Taos. Or the high road straight to Taos.

We went the high road. It reaches almost 11 thousand feet a couple points on it’s way. They don’t bother trying to plow it during the winter, which is too bad. The views must be something in the snow, since they were pretty good in the summer.

Coming down the other side, we cross the old Chile Line. The Denver & Rio Grande ran a line south from Alamosa to Santa Fe. If you look on Google Maps you can see the old roadbed in spots and if you drive next to it you can see more. One year we headed way off and followed it to where it started down Barranca Grade. But that’s another story.

Today we crossed the old grade at Tres Pierdes (I think I spelled that right), Three Rocks in Spanish. You can still see the water tank there. Not sure how many years that will last.

From there it is east to the Rio Grande and Taos.

About 7 miles outside of Taos, the road passes over the Rio Grande gorge. If you didn’t know it was coming, you would be quite surprised when the land suddenly drops away from you.

We made it into town and ate lunch at the old Taos Inn. I recommend it. About a block away from the plaza

We hung out for a while, did Ross Boys kinds of things, then headed back.

We went through the yard tonight and ran into the team lead that Ron and I have this week. We are working on a high side gondola this and our team lead explained what he wanted us to work on. Don’t worry, I won’t bore you with that now. I’ll save it for another day.

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Chama Week

August 2nd, 2010

I can’t seem to get out the door any more when it is for me. I can get out the door and to work before most the rest of the office. I can make it to the airport for a flight before the sun gets up. But hit the road for Chama early?

I remember one year stopping at the in-laws to chat – I made it to the B&B around midnight. That went over well.

One year I thought pull I’d weeds in the morning before I headed out. Major allergy attack meant I drove over Cumbres pass with swollen eyes in the dark.

This year was going to be different. I did some shopping early. I left the frozen shrimp for the last thing to get. I planned on mowing Friday night so I wouldn’t have to Saturday morning. And I was going to leave work early on Friday.

I was going to go the fast route straight south on the interstate then over La Veta Pass. Saves an hour from driving through the mountains. Not as pretty, but faster. Especially since I’ll be off early before any possible traffic.

Well, an analysis I did for corporate tax had to be re-done, three times. I finally got out of the office at 6. And into a major rain storm.

That meant no mowing that night.

I walked into the house and greeted by two happy but very sick dogs. I cleaned up barf messes for a while, what’s a dad to do? Then I packed. And packed.

The dogs woke us up 4 times during the night. The alarm went off at 6:15 for B to go to work. I started to go back to sleep when I remembered everything that needed to be done.

Dogs seemed okay so I took them for a walk to make sure. They were.

I got the Highlander packed then mowed the lawn then cleaned up and headed to the bank. At the bank I remembered I forgot my hardhat. Back to the house.

Needless to say I got moving much later than I wanted, but I was on the road.

Until just past Castle Rock. I’d driven 10 miles and traffic stopped. It took 45 minutes to go the next 9 miles. Apparently this was the last weekend of the Renaissance Fair. Really? It’s two thousand and TEN. Do we still have these, let alone people still go?

Once past that exit, traffic opened up. I was thrilled. For five miles. 30 mile an hour traffic up to and through Colorado Springs.

Finally past God’s Chosen Town, the road did open up. I only hit a couple storms after that. And I made it. 5:30 pm.

Just in time to make dinner for the rest of the Ross Boys.

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