Life, the universe, and everything

Oh Douglas Adams, how I love thee, let me count the number of uproarious moments you have provided... 42.  Yep. 

So I get asked alot what I do for a living, and I always seem to have a hard time explaining a large portion of what I do.  I suppose that has to do with the fact that it wasn't explained to me very well. 

I work for an engineering company that designs water/wastewater treatment processes, facilities, tanks, pumphouses...etc 

I helped them hammer a couple designs out the door, and now I'm one of their field staff.  That means I spend all my chargable time onsite watching to make sure that the constructor is building what we designed.  The picture below is my current worksite in Beaumont, Alberta.  Its an underground, concrete, water reservoir (for regular run of the mill potable water).  It measures 72 m long, 36 m wide,  5.2 m high, holds 10 million litres, has two 30 hp pumps, one 250 hp engine pump, a crane, a lab, and radio transmitter - its kind of big, but by no means the largest design of ours getting built right now.  (For that, drive by the Strathcona Reservoir and pumphouse site 17 Street, just north of sherwood park freeway, just kitty corner to Enviro Fuels- it clocks in at 72 m X 72 m X 7.6 m approximately - its bloody huge.  I could walk INSIDE the wall's reinforcing steel, and was not cramped).

Sounds pretty cool, but I assure you, it's incredibly not exciting for the most part (it has good days, but an average day is: snap pictures, maybe measure shit if it looks off , read specifications, drop a deuce, check facebook, surf the web, meet with the client, read, take some more pictures, lunch, snap some pictures, walk around, coffee, surf the web, take notes on the day). 

Here's the gist of the good bad and ugly of being the field guy:

Good:
I learn assloads of new stuff, have a bunch of free time during working hours, get to meet interesting people, get my daily vitamin D fix, get lots of steps, and I get a bit of extra hours + coin in my pocket.  At the end of the day, I'll know a little bit about every aspect of the job, which a plus since one day I'm going to be back to a managment role, despite my best efforts to avoid it. 

Bad:
Its just me out here, not a lot of actualy engineering mentoring unless I deliberately go out of my way,  I'm not allowed legally to direct the work (which is EXTREMELY frustrating at nearly all times), and the technical demand of my job as the limits of construction tend to completion = ZERO. 

Ugly:
I get yelled at by the contractor if the job isn't going well for the contractor, whether or not its my fault.
I get yelled at by the engineers if the contractor makes a mistake, whether or not its my fault.
I pretty much see people playing the CYA game all day, every day rather than just getting it done right or taking ownership for a mistake.  This is particularly frustrating.  I can handle being yelled at, I don't deal well with people dicking around and not doing the job right the first time.  Pet peeve I think. 

Enough about work.  More about food & Exercise.

Yesterday I was in a bit of a hurry when I got home (guitar night !!!eleven!!one!) so I had a quick workout and made a smoothie.  Its my new favorite smoothie for the record:

Frozen Blueberries, organic heavy cream, organic coconut milk, unsweetened shredded coconut, 2 raw eggs.  Mix it in the about portions you want - then blend it.  If its too thick, add some cream/coconut, if its too thin, add some more berries and reblend.  This isn't an exact science, there is an art to smoothies and your blender makes a huge difference. 

The workout was Sparticus from a MH magazine. 10 exercise circuit, 1 min each exercise, as many reps as possible while maintaining form.  It calls for 3 reps through (approx  45 minutes with breaks and transitions) and I didn't have time or the energy really to do that, so I just did it twice and added a stretch session / warmup. 
The exercises, for those of you who may or may not be curious, are:
warm up - 5 minutes slow on the elliptical
-deep squat
-mountain climber
-single arm kettle bell/weight swing
-bent row
-split jump
-T-pushup
-side lunge
-Plank row (You get in to plank position and row a dumbell up - its hard, feel it in your core to stabilize)

-Sprint on elliptical (Original circuit had lunge w/ twist, I elected to do the 2 sprints as I had some time)
-dumbell thrusters
Cool down - 5 minutes slow on the elliptical
Stretches (all body w/ some yoga)

Hope your weekend is full of fun and badassery!

Cheers,

Pat