I had a marvelous vacation! More things to do than we had time for, but 6 days with my two closest friends and their overly understanding wives. Typically we guys acted like we were back in college again and I'm not sure about them, but I'm still sore and tired three days later.
An added bonus to the trip was I got to see my godson who was, by luck, out for the holiday from New Orleans. He was safe in Phoenix while hurricane Gustav hit Louisiana. Of course he was suppose to fly back on Monday, but with the airport closed and the city still shut down, he couldn't get home until Thursday night (broke his Mom's heart having him home three extra days).
I hadn't realized how long it had been since I had driven to Phoenix until I got outside of San Bernardino and the speed limit jumped to 70 MPH. Last time I drove, we were still stuck with the 55 limit. Arizona had to do us one better and when I crossed the state line, their limit was 75 MPH. With the truck on cruise control and staying around the speed limit, I was there in 6 hours, including one stop for breakfast and one stop for gas.
My hosts had just had a pool installed that is 4 1/2 feet deep...designed for pool volleyball, and did we play a lot of volleyball. I can hardly lift my arms over my shoulders. The night my godson had all his old friends over and they forced me to drink to much and insist I get involved with their game didn't help this 50 something old man. Fun, and the patience of a cagey dink shot just over the net can throw off the power game of twenty year old's.
The drive home was boring,but I did stop by a Indian casino and donate some funds to the tribe. Doubled my money in the first hour, then gave back my winnings plus the initial bet in the second.
Went back to work last night (graveyard), and was told everything was running smoothly and it should be a quiet shift. Two hours in and I get an alarm. A valve blew on something I had walked by 35 minutes before and water and silty mud was ankle deep in one of our containment basins.
I diagnosed the problem, figured out how to fix (bypass) it...but...for lack of a 15/16" box end wrench and/or a 1/2" drive ratchet (found a socket), I couldn't break the bolts to isolate the leak. I kept the site running for another 2 hours until my tanks were full and I had to shut the entire site down.
It was a fine "Welcome Back!", but it is what I've come to expect in my life.
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