Just in case you haven't been paying attention, during the majority of my professional career I've been pretty much what I call an "Office Boy."
By that simple reference I mean that the majority of my injuneering work has been historically conducted in the air conditioned comfort of an office.
At first my office was located in buildings owned by other people (what I call employers.) Then during much of the past 21 years I wandered around in facilities which I owned personally (A.K.A. "my house" or most recently "my basement.")
But then at times on again and off again over the period of my professional achievement and unachievement I've randomly spent days if not weeks at a time performing work in the field on my customer's property delivering and installing the things I've designed and sometimes built and making the aforementioned things perform as promised and specified.
This week would be one of "THOSE" field/jobsite weeks, and let me tell you Ladies and Gentlemen...
I AM AN EXPERT AT PICKING OBSCENELY EXTREME WEATHER CONDITIONS WITHIN WHICH TO CONDUCT MY EXERCISES IN FIELD ENGINEERING AND CONSTRUCTION.
Seriously...I have to explain here that most of the time over the course of my near 30 year career I would stay in my office for most of 11 months out of each of those years, and yet then the remaining four weeks spread out over the 12 months in any given year I found myself either standing in the rain and snow while the thermometer hovers near 20 degrees F....
else preforming my work like I've been doing this week literally soaked to the skin from head to toe in sweat...in the 90 degree heat...and 90% humidity...surrounded by and large by people 20 years my junior who cavort around like it's just another day in the park at a picnic.
I've sweated so much in the past two days that I've melted the Altoids Mints I left in my front jeans pocket into solid cake-like blobs stuck to the pocket lining.
I've sweated so much that I'm considering buying stock in Gold Bond Powder and possibly Anti Monkeybutt Powder while I'm at it just so I can walk and sit down at the end of the day.
OK...I know...TMI (too much information...Mom) there but still...
Tomorrow is another day.
And I still have a few nagging details to finish up and then I have to conduct a little training class for the first and second shift system operators which will be using my Touch Screen PLC system to do their work.
Then if I'm successful we'll load up little Missy the Turbo Pup's lockers and sea chests back into the old Chrysler 300 (along with my plastic trash bag full of stinking sweaty clothes) and trundle back across through Asheville and the Appalachians to Knoxtown to the Turbo Pup Compound.
I'm hitting the job site at 7 AM this morning...Wish me luck...if you will...
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