A Bit About Myself

In case any of you are wondering what my day-to-day work life is like, here’s a brief summary:

I get up at 5:30. I set between two and three alarms as I seem to have an uncanny attraction for alarm clock malfunctions :-)

If I were in a cartoon strip, in the morning, I’d be a fat gorilla, and scratch my stomach while bubbles came out of my mouth… Yeah, I’m not really a morning person.

I slog downstairs and hop in the car where my coworker is always waiting. I’m on time every day, but he always seems to get there first, even if it’s only by a few seconds.

I now LOVE Country music. After listening to my co-worker's techno... something music... Country would be a really nice break. I don't care for rhythm machines... especially when accompanied by a college-age black guy who can sing two notes -- high and low.

Once we get to the dam, we park in one of the two employee parking lots. The border of Arizona and Nevada goes right down the center of the dam, so the parking lots are referred to as the Nevada and Arizona parking lots.

Once parked, we trudge over to one of the dam elevators. The top of the dam is part of a highway. There are a couple “concrete boxes” sitting on top of the dam. Well, if you scan your ID card and open the brass doors, you find an elevator.

We hop in the elevator and stand there for a couple minutes, yawning to pop our ears every few minutes. Meanwhile, the employees we’re riding with (they’ll wait a few minutes before leaving since it’s such a long elevator ride) usually comment how they’re complaining about the cold and we show up with our short sleeve shirts.

After the ride, we get out of the elevator, pretty close to the base of the dam. At that point, we head up to our offices, located in about the center of the dam, close to the bottom. If you’re lucky, you get an office with an outside wall and a window. (There are some windows in the dam that aren’t really visible from the top.)

So far, we’ve mainly updated AutoCAD drawings. (I.E. changing wire labels on drawings :-) I think we’re about done with that, fortunately. Both of us have about gone insane…

After 8 hours slowly roll by, we head back to the elevator, and do the whole thing in reverse. The only difference is it’s hard to see while driving as the sun gets so low. (The mountains (a.k.a. piles of rocks and dirt) are pretty low around here :-)

I get back to my hotel room all excited. I figure out what to make for dinner and then usually go to the next-door grocery store. I’m getting better about buying for more than one night, though :-)

I then make dinner along with lunch and breakfast for the next day.
After eating, I catch up on email and my blog, and usually talk to my family for an hour or so. After that, it’s either bed time or time for entertainment. For the first time in about 1.5 years, I’ve been able to really enjoy a computer game, so I’m lovin’ it! Speaking of which, I don’t have much time till bed, so I’d better post this so I can play at least a little before I have to go to bed :-)