Bonnie--At work

At work we just finished an outage. An outage is where we shut the plant down and do major maintenance and make changes to different systems throughout the plant. This one lasted 23 days, from my understanding they can last much longer, so I am relieved it was ONLY 23 days. The upside of it--off work at 5:30ish instead of 7 p.m. The downside of it--it was 23 straight days of work! So, after I finish work this Thursday, I will have worked 31 of the last 33 days. Yuck! (Although they have been more than decent paychecks. Don't want to do it often though.)

It was actually kind of fun most days.

Until the end when I was so tired and sore that I couldn't hardly move. Anyway, here is a brief recap of what I did...

Confined Space: Checking the air quality (sniffing) the space to be worked in, and occasionally hole watch. Hole watch could arguably be the most boring job ever. Really. What hole watch consists of is staying outside of the work area (confined space) and waiting outside while other people work. I know, I know, it doesn't sound bad, however, when you spend 8 + hours a day watching the same space AND YOU CAN'T LEAVE it gets boring. FAST. There was at least one day however, that I was relieved to be on hole watch because I was so tired.

Replacing air filters: in the above pictures we were at the air inlet. We had to change all the pre-filters in both units. 418 in each unit. It is a long process, luckily I was only involved in finishing up the project. Part of what I did was operate the man-lift and bring the filters up to the 3rd and 4th levels. While the man-lift can be fun, going up to the 4th level was outside of my comfort zo

ne. But I did it. Several times. (If you don't know, the man lift can hold two people or one and a load, rotate 360 degrees, raise to 90 feet, the platform rotates and tilts. And yes, you can drive it while you are lifted. It can be quite fun.)

Racking in breakers: There are many large breakers we had to open and lock so they wouldn't be used. These breakers are 4160 volt breakers. Very large and very dangerous if not done properly. So it was time for Loraine and I to learn. Because of the potential for fire, we had to wear special protective gear. Bibbed overalls, jacket, hard hat with hood, and rubber gloves with leather gloves over them. The clothing is fire resistant which makes it heavy. (Super glad we were doing this in Nov. instead of July.) So we dressed up for the task.

There was alot more, but these were the best pictures. I was in oil quite a bit, water quite a bit, up and down the stairs to the top of the HRSG (eight flights), there was so much going on. Many things to see that I hadn't been able to before. Lots of food. Most of the contractors brought us food at least once. (Okay, so the new Granger Tool Rep only did it because "someone" left a note on her car windshield with the message, "Next time you come bring food." I don't know who would have done that though. But apparently she got the idea and brought food a few days later. LOL!)

I didn't work on the cooling tower, but I went to see what was going on there. Up until this point I really didn't know how big everything was there. Once they got all the water out, I was able to climb down in there and look around. This is what I found:

That is a water pump. Yes, it is the largest pump I have ever seen! Really! The motor for that pump has 4160 volts behind it. As a reference, the washing machine uses 120 volts, and the dryer uses 240 volts. Anyway, while I was down in the cooling tower, I was told it holds roughly 2 million gallons of water. When we refilled it, we used water from the city water department. The residents around the plant don't particularly like it when we do that as we use about 3,000 gallons a minute when we refill. Tends to drop their water pressure a bit...

And it seems that the engineers that designed most of the plant assumed they would have Chinese Acrobats working on the systems because I don't know how they thought average Americans would fit into those places! Sheesh! I twisted and turned ways that I don't think I was supposed to anymore. Ouch!

Anyway, that is how I have spent the last month. Any questions?

Halloween Carnival

We went to a Halloween carnival last weekend. (I like this idea better than door-to-door as we don't really know which neighborhoods are okay and which aren't.) It was difficult to get everyone excited at the same time, but we toughed it out and had a good time.

The best part for me was Bobbing for Apples. Kyler was the first to go...He choose an apple with a long stem and tried to bite it. The trouble was...he is missing one of his front bottom teeth! And the other one is loose! The task seemed impossible. We kept telling him to push it down with his face and bite it. So he pushed it down with his chin and tried to bite it. But it kept bobbing up too fast to get a bite. Finally he did get it! He was happy!

Little Zoey was next. She didn't understand at all what she was supposed to do, but she tried anyway. Somehow, she did latch onto an apple and pulled it out of the water. She was happy!

Finally it was Jake's turn. He wanted to go for one with a long stem like Kyler did, but he just couldn't get to one. I made him pick one and stick with it--rather than slobbering over all the apples. He had some trouble, but finally he stuck his face in the water and pushed the apple to the bottom and sunk his teeth into it. It was so funny! His shirt was wet, his hair was wet--but he got the apple! What a fun time it was!

Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory

We FINALLY made it to the Blue Bell Ice Cream Factory in Sylacauga, AL. We went on a "tour" of the factory then had a bowl of ice cream. The tour was a let down, but the ice cream was GREAT! I would like to go again, but only get the ice cream instead of the tour.

P.S. Dad, they make great 3 gallon buckets of vanilla ice cream there. Heaven!

Go Fish!

We recently taught Zoey how to play Go Fish. It was a bit tricky with regular playing cards, as she doesn't know all the numbers yet (or the suits for that matter). So we picked up a pack of animal Go Fish cards for her. In the week since she has had them, we have played at least once a day--some days much more.

Fishing at Scouts

Last Saturday was the first day of Scouts for Jake and Kyler. Neither of them wanted to go though. I worked that day, so Russ hustled them out the door. Looks like it was a good day after all. The badge they worked on this week was Fishing. By the looks of it, all three of them should get that badge! There were a few other kids there (and Jake made a friend! They have the same interests--computer games, reading, etc. Imagine that--someone else DOES like the same things Jake does! Who would have thought?!) They each caught at least one fish with the regular fishing pole and Jake also caught one with a stick pole they made. They all had a great time. Zoey loved the idea of fishing too. She would throw it out and bring it back in before the fish even had a chance to see the lure. So Russ helped her slow down and catch two fish! She didn't want to touch the bait (can't blame her a bit!), but he did make her throw the fish back in. After the first one, she didn't mind quite so much. They all would have stayed out longer--they had a great time!

They are looking forward to Scouts now! It is a small group--even smaller than Blackfoot. Russ has volunteered to help with the Pack, too. I can't wait to go to Scouts and join in the fun too!

P.S. Although, it may look as though Zoey stabbed a fish with the pole, it is just how she is holding it. The fish was just on a hook and released back to its home.

Going for a drive...

So we loaded up in the car on Sunday and went for a drive. I wanted to go see Talladega National Forest and we didn't have any other plans, so off we went. We loaded up into the Dodge (ha ha ha! together time!) and off we went. We stopped at Tallageda Super Speedway, but since there was no race, it wasn't very exciting. Then we tried to find the Forest. You wouldn't think it would be difficult, but they don't do signs here until the very last moment.

We found Cheaha State Park and they had some fun roads! Up and down, left and right, it was a bunch of fun (see the video)! It was nice to get away for a while and not have any purpose.

Boating with Family

While Heather and Braedon were here, we went out on the boat one afternoon. After Audrey and Nate arrived we headed straight to the lake. We were out for an hour or so, when we had to go back in to run and pick up Jake and Kyler from school. It was fun though. Unfortunatly though, the boat we had was trashed the weekend before and hadn't been fixed yet, so it wasn't as fun as it has been in the past. I am glad we were able to go out with them though. =)

Horseshoe Bend National Military Park

A few weeks ago we went to Horseshoe Bend National Military Park because they were shooting the guns and cannons they used during the war of 1812. It was neat. The people were in period dress and then then went step by step how to shoot the cannon. We were probably 20 yards away and it was still really loud; and they only shot blanks. It would have been much louder if they had actual shots and the cannons would have shot back about 6 feet each time. I can only imagine how loud it would have been with lots of those being shot. It was neat to watch.

At the lake

We had a great time at the lake today. We started off by abandoning the kids on an island. Seemed like the right thing to do. Shrug. LOL! We played and played on the lake. We took turns jumping off the boat--yes, even Kyler and Zoey! With the life jackets on, they swim like nobody's business. Kick, kick, kick, swim, swim, swim! Off they go. Had some lunch, then we began playing with the towable! Woo hoo! I am a boat person now! Gotta have one!

Russ helped me learn how to drive and what to watch for. (I didn't get a permit yet, but I am going to.) The best part was, Russ was able to ride on the tube as well. It is a BLAST driving the boat, and I can understand why Russ didn't really care if he didn't ride the tube, but he had his turn as well. It took me a bit to get the hang of it, but now I know how to do it! Watch out for the killer left turns!