Pizza lunch and a visit to the golf course, right after an armed robbery

Went to downtown Hobart for lunch, ate at The Pizza Place.  Had the salad bar and ordered pizza with sausage and green pepper.  The one waitress was Megan, very friendly and helpful.  Stopped for gas at Sunnys right after they had an armed robbery.  Police were crawling and got the evil eye from one officer when I rolled up.  Apparently a bearded redneck from Tennessee is a prime suspect.  Stopped by the Hobart Municipal Golf Course.  Greens were in great shape, quite impressed. $14 for 9 holes with cart.  I'm stoked, I will try and play after work some.  Much better than I expected.  Yea for Hobart.

Windy days, early morning tomorrow, and birthday wishes

Huge winds the past couple days.  The crane operator clocked winds of 57 mph yesterday, not sure if you have ever leaned into the wind while walking, but it is ridiculous.  Had lunch at Big A Burger yesterday.  Very good burger, salad and onion rings.  Just down the street is City Hall.

Got off work at 1:00pm today due to winds.  I plan to drive by the Hobart Municipal Golf Course on the way to pick up some lunch.  We'll see how it looks.  I plan to play golf on Sunday if possible.  Tonight I have to go to bed early because we start at 4:30am tomorrow (trying to beat the wind so we can make some progress).  Drove through Mangrum, OK, Granite, OK and went through Lone Wolf, OK as well on the way to Altus to pick up some items at Super Walmart.

Heading out now to get some lunch.  My birthday is tomorrow, mom already sent a cake, the motel manager and baker just delivered it.  I had just gotten out of the shower, and they came at an inopportune time.  Good thing I put the door lock on, otherwise they would have known me better than they probably wanted to.  Thanks mom! 

Also got a card from Mimi with a basset hound on the front wishing me a happy birthday.  Dad sent the best presents, so far though... Masters hat and jacket.  Dad is a hero.

Trip back to Oklahoma, flat brimmed caps and big storms in OKC

Great weekend back home to see Beth.  Made it to the airport at 10:15ish.  Safely arrived in Charlotte, picked up luggage outside plane in 95 degree weather (notice the tool-bag in the flat brim hat... Ralph loves 'em). 

Two tacos at Tequileria (delicious), then boarded for Chicago.  All these golf courses outside the window make me jealous.

Waded through a million passengers in Chicago and took off for OKC,  great cloud shots all the way.

Arrived in OKC with crazy storms coming from the NW.  I drove all the way down I-40W with storms on my right.  Fabulous lightning show, as well as a setting sun in the west showing visible waterfalls of rain out of the clouds to the NW.  I kept looking for a funnel cloud, but no avail...  Great lightingin show, thanks, God.  I had a few drops on my windshield, but no hige rain.  Arrived safley in Hobart, and exhausted, heading to bed.  Sorry I missed the party at Mike & Kim's.

Trip back to Knoxville, great day with Beth.

Left Hobart, OK at 7:00am and hit the road to Oklahoma City to catch my first flight to Chicago.  Passed the wind farm in Weatherford, cool to see a wind farm fully operational.  Sorry for the bugs on the windshield, haven't washed the Yukon yet.

Stopped in Oklahoma City at McDonalds for a proper breakfast (first one in a while).  Sausage egg and cheese biscuit, fruit and a sweet tea.  Headed to the Oklahoma City airport and stood in line to check in with about 432 other people (apparently everyone flies United out of OKC.  Had an empty seat next to me on the way to Chicago.  Didn't last long, one last grumpy foreign college kid board the plan and plopped in the empty seat (lame).

Made it to Chicago safely, skipped the staple of a Chicago-style pizza for lunch and opted to wait until Charlotte for something to eat for lunch.  Boarded the plane and once again an empty seat next to me (score).  However, the lady in the aisle seat huffed and puffed and was quite annoying the whole time.  Some people have no manners on planes.  The empty seat did allow some stretching out, which was nice.

Took a photo as we were ascending away from Chicago O'Hare (yes, my phone was on illegally).

Made it to Charlotte safely and had time for some dinner at Tequileria (Grant Whitfield's favorite restaurant inside an airport, jealous much?). 

Made it to the gate and watched as folks piled into the gate area to board for Knoxville.  One last leg until I get to see Beth.  Looking forward to being back in Tennessee even for just a little while.  Beth met me at the airport, big hug and a kiss, short ride home until I got to see Reese.  Reese was stoked for me to be back.

Woke up Sunday morning and stopped by Best Bagels to pick up the usual.  Unfortunately, Pat was not there to say hi to, she may not have recognized me with a beard.  Had lunch at Tomato Head with Beth right after feeding the ducks at Calhouns on the River, then stopped by to see my grandmother, Mimi.  Heading out to have dinner at Mike and Kim's tonight, looking forward to seeing them.  Planning on walking int he morning with John Lacey before packing up to head back to Oklahoma.



The wind kicks up for the weekend, working in the hub and a ruined suprise.

So there are storms coming in for the next few days.  The crews stacked the last couple bases to get one of the heavy duty cranes off rental.  Two crews worked until 1:30am last night to get done. 

We cleaned out the hubs after each of the blades were attached last night.  Boone and I cleaned two hubs while Rick and Dan cleaned the other hubs. 

These blades are about 130' long.  About to crank out some serious green energy.  Yes it looks kind like a spaceship.  Gets kinda cramped with two guys inside.  Below is a picture of the Quality Assurance "workspace".

The ruined suprise:  We were given off work until Tuesday.  So, I had a GREAT idea to fly home to Knoxville, have my buddy John pick me up at the airport.  On the way, I was going to call Beth and tell her that John was going to drop off a "suprise" Saturday night, so be home to answer the door.  I would be standing there to surprise her... great plan.  Poor execution.  Beth had previously planned a trip to see one of her best friends, Hannah that was back in Birmingham from California.  I had to call Beth (since I had already bought the ticket).  Me and my lousy memory.  However, I am stoked to be coming home to see my beautiful wife and awesome dog.  Hope to see some folks when I am back, but it will be a small window of time.

Winded out at 43mph, best lunch I have had in a while, and a long afternoon at the laundromat.

Got winded out today and they pulled us from the turbine pads at 11:00.  I had some paperwork and turned in two books today.  Headed to "Bedlam Sports Bar & Grill".  Has a cheeseburger, salad and onion rings.  First real lunch I have had in about 3 weeks.  I got back to the motel room and there was no water.  I sponged myself off and grabbed my dirty laundry.  I showed up at the Hobart laundromat and filled my clothes into two washers (circa 1972 washers and circe 1973 dryers).  There was a cowboy across from me doing his wash too.  We git along great.  Apparently there was a watermain break down the street and the whole town was down to 8% waterflow, GREAT.  Washer #10 crapped out, had to use #11 twice. 

I went and drove around town, picked up a few things at Dollar General and drove around Hunter Park.   I may start stopping by out there, very peaceful and I can feed the ducks and do some fishing. 

Went and put my wash in the dryer.  Dryer #5 is my new friend.  You have not lived until you have folded your own clothers in an open air 96 degree laundromat in the middle of Oklahoma.

 Realized that my Yukon needs a wash, baaaad.  Way too may bug lives lost...

Out back of the laundromat.  Wonder what year this truck last saw some real higheay miles.

I had the IT lady, Debbie (who is a hero) install webcam software and Skype on my laptop, I finally get to see Beth tonight (hopefully).

Pulled over for speeding, mexican dinner in Hobart, and beard update

Mechanically completed E10 today.  It was just me an Paul 1 until the Generator Alignment crew got winded out and came out to help.  Boone and Chad climbed 2/3 of the tower to the 2nd flange (connection point. 

As soon as they climbed off the ladder, I got a call from Garry at Signal Energy that several base sections that had been erected had water in their basements.  Ended up sending Boone and Chad back down to go out and pump the basements.  Everybody gets a bonus climb now and then.  The winds tomorrow are supposed to be 35+ mph, so everybody will probably get winded out, so we will have help on the MC crew.  We really need the wind to chill out this week, the Generator Alignment guys are falling behind (their wind cutoff is 18+ mph, so they get winded out alot).  FYI, got pulled over on the way back to the motel after work yesterday.  Doing 71 in a 65.  Sherriff (actual sheriff) gave me a warning and I thanked him for the grace.  Time to go 65 on the way back and forth from now on.  Like I'm really in a hurry to get anywhere.

Met Rusty Wolfe who will be my co Quality Assurance Manager for the next few weeks.  Nice guy, I'm sure we'll get along.  If not, Clint will probably come back and whup Rusty into shape.  Good ol Clint.

Here is my work truck (my is a relative term).  Dodge 2500 Heavy Duty.  Paul 2 will probably take the truck when he does walk downs.

Dinner was at Nuevo Taco.  Great dinner.  I am in the habit of ordering random dishes that I do not know what they are.  The same really good ingredients, cooked differently.  Today was fried flour tortilla with spicy shredded chicken with cheese cut up into bit-sized pieces surrounding spicy sirloin beef tips on top of lettuce and tomato salad with sour chream and guacamole on the side.  Phenominal.  These are the same folks that show up to the job site EVERY morning and make about a billion breakfast burritos for the entire crew.  These folks are heros between the hours of 6:00am and 7:34am (when everyone kinda hits the worksites). 

Good sunset the other night on the way to Altus, OK to pick up replacement printer ink (thanks, Clint).

And a beard picture for my sister.  I am in a predicament though.  My beard is the same length that my hair usually is (have not cut hair in 2.5 weeks).  If my beard is longer than my hair in 3.23 days, wont that look wierd?  I may just trim it all and have HUGE chops.  It's past the itchy phase, but a huge bushy beard transitioned into very short buzzed hair might look wierd.  The new erection QA guy, Tim, has shaved head and huge beard (and tatoos on his head), so I may just wing it and just stand next to him so I don't look as wierd.

Phone won't save photos, lightning, a bonus climb and Clint stole my ink.

So, today, we had storms in the morning, 341 lighting strikes within 20 miles, so we were on "saftery standown" until about 9:00am.  Then at 1:30pm, we had lighting within 30 miles so had to climb back down out of the tower.  Ran to the gas station at Rocky and got a piece of pizza and a Gatorade (good pizza).  This is what is referred to as a "bonus climb", meaning we get to climb the tower twice to accomplish what we need to.   Bonus climbs are bad and kill all motivation.  My phone refuses to save pictures, so I have no photos for this post, sorry.  Clint stole my freaking ink out of my computer before he left, so I had to drive to Altus after work to get ink from the Super Walmart.  Had dinner at Applebees on the way back.  I CANNOT believe there is still a restaurona that demands to have all the wait staff sing on people's birthday.  LAME.

Winded out at 46mph winds, casino experience and good dinner.

We got winded out at 3:00pm by 46mph winds.  All other crews were let go early except MC crew (mechanical completion).  Apparently we can still do our job when the tower is rocking back and forth like crazy.  We finished out E8 (the turbine where the safety standown occurred last week).  I handled the first flange (first ring where bolts and nuts connect the bottom section of the tower and the second section of tower).  Big deck, clean the top part of the wall, clean the flange around each bolt, clean the wall, install light clamps, torque the electrical grounding units (3) and verify all components are accurately installed on the deck.  I walked the entire pad, picked up trash and loaded all empty component crates into my truck.  We will probably get winded out tomorrow by 2:00pm is my guess ( I am a weather genius now).  Clint heads out on Sunday, so tomorrow is my last chance to glean as much wisdom as I can before he leaves.  I was requested to take on a position at the next Barnhart project, Franklin County Iowa for an install of 60 turbines.  Called my boss today to let him know I could not be gone for an additional 3-4 months for that project, so not sure what the future is for my Barnhart deal, but God has control over that.  I went to Lawton, OK, which is BIG CITY style for Oklahoma to pick up some printer ink (Clint stole a cartridge out of my printer).  Traffic stop for paving, the horse were curious what the hold up was. 

Also got curious and stopped by the Camanche Casino and played some blackjack.  I walked in with $20 and walked out with $40 after about 45 minutes (WIN).  I stopped at Buffalo Wild Wings for a side salad and 12 wings with celery (good dinner).  I miss my wife, dog, community and family too much to be gone that long (plus UT football season). 

Be praying for me, please.  I love the work, the project, the guys I work with and the experience, but I cannot sign up to be away for 6 months out of the year.  This is an AWESOME experience and a great project with an INCREDIBLE company,  FANTASTIC crew and a FUN project.  I am working my rear end off, but I miss Tennessee...

Great sunset on the way back to Hobart (HOE-bert).

Also, I think I forgot to post the picture of Val's, where I ate dinner in Altus on the night I dropped off my laundry to get cleaned.  I forget...anyway, here is the picture.