Coulee -- Days 7, 8, 9, and 10

IT'S FINALLY OVER! YAHOO!

We tested batteries in seven sections of Grand Coulee Dam: the Third Powerhouse, the Right Powerhouse, the Left Powerhouse, the Pump/Generator Powerhouse, the 115KV (15,000KV) Switchyard, the 220KV Switchyard, and the 500KV Switchyard. Finally... All those batteries... DONE! It felt so good to bring our 13 shipping cases to the warehouse to be shipped back to Denver. The cases averaged somewhere around 70lbs, and frankly, I was getting tired of hauling heavy equipment everywhere, setting up, cleaning up, filling out reports, standing, sitting, talking, wishing I could leave, etc. :-)

Here are some of the tasks we performed for each battery test:
1) Visually inspect the batteries. These batteries have clear containers so you can see inside to check for cracked plates, sulfur buildup, deposits, etc.

2) Take the specific gravity of each cell. This task seems to take forever. First, you have to put on PPE to protect against the horribly dangerous battery acid that doesn't hurt for a while if you get it on yourself. Then, you have to go to each cell, remove the flame-arrestor, stick the digital hydrometer tube in the cell, take a reading, yell it to the guy across the noisy room who's recording the values, and then put the flame-arrestor back on. It gets long... especially since you have to lean over the bank in an awkward position for an extended period of time.

3) Using a micro-ohm meter, measure the resistance of the connection between each cell.

4) Hook a computer up to each cell. We have a bunch of little spring clamps one must use to connect each cell to the computer. 58 cells is typical for a bank, and it takes around half an hour to connect all the cells if you're doing it by yourself.

5) Connect the battery bank to the load units. Basically, use 2/0 wire to connect the battery bank to some big heaters. These heaters put out a ton of heat and can make the work miserable.

6) Connect all the backup batteries in series. If you're lucky, a plant electrician will do this for you.

7) Wait for the electrician to hook the backup battery into the main battery panel.

8) Call an operator to come flip the main battery breaker to bring the main battery bank offline.

9) Start the test.

10) Wait

11) Wait..

12) Wait... Our tests ranged from three to twelve hours in length. (OK, ok... One test was fifteen minutes long because the bank failed almost immediately. :-)

13) Clean it all up, take the backup battery off the DC panel, etc.

Saturday and Sunday, we tested the batteries in the Pump/Generator plant:
Each pump can pump up to 500 bathtubs of water per second. They're used to bring water over to a canal for some irrigation projects.

Yesterday and today, we tested batteries in the switchyards. Here's the control room from the 500KV switchyard:

It's kind of impressive... this is JUST a switchyard with disconnects and breakers and it has that big of a control room :-) Oh, they get rattle snakes under the removable floor in the summer :-)
Here's some things I've learned:
1) I don't like restaurant food for very much anymore.
2) I don't like living in a hotel very much.
3) The casino on the nearby Indian reservation is the only place with food after 8pm.
4) The one radio station in this area is annoying... My coworkers listen to it in the car. When you get out of the car and go into a store/restaurant/some parts of the plant/etc., you'll hear the same station right where it left off.
5) I hate Lead Zeppelin. Simply put, it's thin, ugly, cheesy, and old. (They had a Lead Zeppelin Marathon for several days here.)
6) It's hard to concentrate after a while with continual radio in the background.
7) There's about 4 restaurants in the nearby 3 cities
8) I don't care for Safeway's deli sandwiches. They're kind of weird.
9) Engineers drink a lot of water during the day.
10) People in the trades make a lot with their double-pay overtime.
11) I dreamt I couldn't graduate from college because I reached the end of the last semester and realized I'd forgotten to go to one of my class all semester long.
12) I'm tired of being gone and am not looking forward to going to Hoover for three months.

I'm excited to go home, though!

Coulee -- Days 5 & 6

Hello, all! Today was really cool because we got off at 4:30!

*edit from today since the laptop battery died yesterday*
Today was even cooler because got off at 3! Short 8hr days are fun!

I came out here to Grand Coulee with Nate and Jim. (Supervisor and coworker.) They left to go home today (Friday) and Jill (another coworker) came to take their place. What's cool is she's planning on working shorter days, so I won't be as tired. Unfortunately, I forgot to bring the laptop charger from the dam, so it will be a shorter post. (Oh... Wait... That's not such a bad thing :-)

See that big, round thing? That's the core out of one of the smaller generators. They have the entire thing taken apart right now. I also borrowed a nicer camera to take a few pictures, so maybe someday I'll actually get them up :-)

Here's some pictures for you all: (Click on the picture)

Grand Coulee

Coulee -- Day 4

MEH! That's all I have to say.

Now I'll expound:
Every *cough* muscle *cough* in my back is sore.
My feet are tired of being stood on for 11-13hr days.
The two guys with me were excited about tomorrow being the last day of work... I have to stay here for another 6 days.
I honestly couldn't figure out what day of the week it was.
I'm sick and tired of complaining.

Ok, it's not nearly that bad. I would enjoy going to bed right now, though :-)

One picture for you all:

You thought your UPS was big? Check it out! The three double-height shelves you see in the picture are the backup battery for a computer system UPS. Each of those containers is a single cell. You know your car battery? It has 6 cells inside of it. These cells aren't all that huge -- probably only 1/2 the size of a forklift battery :-)

So, is it fun? Yeah. I've gotten to see some amazing stuff... Stuff you only see in movies. I found out today that a lot of movies have been filmed in dams. Nate (my coworker) said he was at Hoover Dam and watched a movie on TV when he got back to his hotel. All of a sudden, he though, "HEY! I know this hallway!"

Battery 6 of 14 complete! (We're doing the big ones first, so it's slower right now.)

I don't know why I'm still posting. There's nothing new to say. Hope ya'll are doing ok!

Coulee -- Day 3

I'm back... For some strange reason, I feel like it's been weeks since I got to Grand Coulee. It must have something to do with working long hours in a concrete building from dark sky to dark sky. :-)

Today we finished battery 4 of 14. I think we're on schedule, so that's a plus. So far, every battery we test is getting worse and worse. The first two were easy. Nice, big rooms, plenty of space, etc. The third and fourth batteries felt like they were in an old Sunday school room. The only thing that was missing was an old, clunky piano. The Fifth, sixth, and seventh batteries are all in a somewhat crowded room, one floor above elevator access. Guess what that means? Lots of stuff to carry up stairs. We put 1,000 amp car batteries in service when we take the main battery off-line in case something happens. Guess what that means? 30 heavy car batteries up the stairs. I can't wait until this is all over. I've eaten enormous meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner and still get hungry between meals.

Oh, that's a new experience for me -- spending money for breakfast. I guess our Per Diem covers up to $40 in meals per day, but spending $7 for breakfast still seems like a lot. :-)

I can't think of anything too interesting that happened today. We blew up one of our meters... That was fun. I'm just glad it wasn't my fault.

OH! I finally remembered to wash my safety glasses today. We're required to wear safety shoes, FR clothing (Fire Resistant), hard hats, and safety glasses at all times in the plant, so they were getting pretty dirty.

Let's see... What other piece of worthless information can I impart to my bored readers... I washed my clothes tonight. I only have one pair of FR pants and two FR shirts. They were getting kinda dirty, so I washed tonight since we got back earlier.

Man... boring, hu? Ok, bed :-)

Maybe someday I'll get some pictures up :)

Coulee -- Day 2

Hi! Bye! I'm going to bed. We worked 13.5hrs today and I'm tired. I know that's nothing for a lot of you out there, but I'm tired.

We tested 3 out or 14 battery banks today, so we're ahead of schedule. One of the three banks was a 125V battery that's well over 1,000 amp-hours. Each cell is almost as big as a forklift battery.

I saw some really impressive sights today. I got a short tour of some of the largest hydro units in the world and was pretty amazed. Just to give you a rough estimate, the shafts that turn these generators are around 12' in diameter. I have a lot of bad cell phone pictures, but those are going to have to wait. If I get a shorter day sometime (Sunday is supposed to be 8hrs), I'll put my bad pictures up :-)

Hope you all are doing ok!

Coulee -- Day 1

Man, that was a mistake. Don't ever say "Day 1" because that implies you'll be posting more.

There's not much to say:

1) The Spokane airport is bigger than I expected.
2) I don't like Ford SUVs. (Rental)
3) Grand Coulee Dam is about a mile long.
4) The power plants look pretty small until you go into the buildings. There's 3 power plant buildings and one pump building. We worked in the Left Powerhouse today and I was amazed at the size. I haven't gotten a tour yet, but from what I saw, it's pretty impressive. You know how the florescent lights look in Walmart? If you stand at one end of the store and look down the row, it looks really long? The Left Powerhouse looks longer than Walmart.
5) The security here is really tight. They grumbled about giving us unlimited access, including weekends. I just thought the person was grumpy... well, that's what I thought until I saw a guy patrolling the plant with a bullet-proof vest and assult rifle. Rumor has it they're training all plant personnel to carry heat. (Grand Coulee provides more power than any other plant in the U.S. 7GW), so wiping out Grand Coulee would blackout a good portion of the U.S. power grid.)
6) Although the city of Grand Coulee has around 1,000 residence, there's no cell phone reception to be had.
7) The city of Electric is close to the city of Grand Coulee.
8) There's a nice hotel here, especially for the size of the city.
9) I'm really tired and we're supposedly going to work a minimum of 12hrs tomorrow.
10) I'm going to bed.

Sine Capitus

In case any of you are wondering what happened to me, I've been a little more busy recently, so I haven't had time to post when I'm actually in the mood to.

Here's my list of excuses for not posting:

1) The only interesting work I've been doing in the underground city is top-secret, so I can't talk about it. (Ok, it's not interesting and not secret, but I'm not supposed to publicize anything about it yet.)

2) I've been looking for a car.

3) I'm going to Grand Coulee in Washington for a few weeks, so I won't be around.

4) I'll probably be at Hoover Dam for 3 months starting mid-January. sigh. :-C

5) May Day is coming up.

6) July 27th was 4months before Thanksgiving.

7) I'm running out of excuses.

8) Today is the day after I finally got accepted for a credit card. (It's harder to get a credit card if you're male and 23 with no credit history.)

9) I saw more cash than I've ever seen in my life yesterday. Too bad it came from my bank account. (Car)

10) I'm finally to ten excuses.

See? I've been REALLY busy. A whole 10 excuses. :-)

Ok, ok. Maybe if you hang around I can put some cell phone pictures up from Grand Coulee. I think I may have internet access at the hotel, so I may have nothing better to do depending on if we work 12hr days or not.

Vanilla

ery vehemently, Vincent verbalized vowels. Vincent's vernacular vocabulary voiced vocative views. "Vi-deo!" Vincent volunteered vivaciously.

Me have something to post? HA! Is this earth a cube or this post interesting? HAahhhhhh!

Me thinks me'z been a wurk'n too mawch! Tawp in zee moarnin to-uh! Eez'a feyen daye for a ride in zr turain wis Rathbone O'Brain!

Aye! Buht nowe we have the leettle mat'ter oav yoa beel?

Heeler's a leettle moovy my bru'thers made:


(And, no, none of that means anything. :-)

Urad

pon arriving at the Frisco Marina, we found the old "dangerous" playground equipment replaced with new "safe" equipment. For once, "safe" wasn't synonymous with boring. Yes, folks, believe it or not, there is such a thing as a new playground that's fun. It could have had something to do with it being more dangerous than any other playground I've ever been to, but I doubt it... Maybe it had something to do with the playground being designed for kids 12 years and younger? Nah! It was fun WITHOUT having to climb on the roof. I just hope they don't get sewed and take it out very soon.

Here it is... complete with slides that are actually fast, spinney things that make you sick after realizing there's no way to stop once you get going as fast as you can, tons of bars to bump your head on, places to fall off of at great heights, and the noble treadmill of death. (Friction is sometimes a good thing. :-) It also served as a playground for my sister's wild imagination with regards to physics.

As Mark kindly demonstrated, the main tower was pretty high. The climbing wall was one of the only ways to get up. Oh, and yeah... Those bars you slide down are actually fun at 45 degrees with a 12' drop.

The playground contained many odd, twisted ladders, and missing walls on high platforms.

I felt like a kid again!

FREEBEE!

A post without letter! YAHOO!

Why does America get all the boring TV shows? How many variations of "recite information" can we take?

Turnip

his is indeed sad. Steve brought me campaigning and I didn't get elected for president. I have some pictures of the occasion, though!

(BTW, you have to click on the picture below.)

President

Squash

ince I get more comments not posting than I do posting, I've decided to stop posting. Ok, maybe not, but still, silly sisters solicit silly sayings assuming salt is stirred into silly soup.

Radish

accoons may be smart, but they aren't smart enough to play cello! Obviously there's no way they could make it through Popper. Abbey, my friends, has. Congratulations, Abbey! (Popper, for those of you who don't know, is an etude book.)

Quince

uick! Get the door!

Something interesting finally happened! Today, as at least one of you out there obviously knows, is the 6-month anniversary of May Day. Tomorrow marks the six-month anniversary of cleaning up from May Day. Happy anniversary, everyone!

To celebrate such a momentous occasion, an unknown party delivered goods to our house in commemoration of all the fond memories associated with May Day.

The celebration was complete... performed and executed to perfection. Of course, there were the neatly-placed goods:

In the traditional May Day style, no one was to be found:

The mysterious package was puzzling at first... What could it be? A bomb? And what are the two dots? Could they be to indicate which side is up? Wait! They are placed above a depression! Oh, and the color red... Does it signify to some purpose?

When Rebecca, the great detective, opened the package, she deduced the half-cookies were to commemorate May Day's half-birthday:

Thank you, whoever did that! It was most unexpected and appreciated by all those living here.