Today was a very busy, exciting day. Didn't start so special, finished up my client-assigned computer based training. Since I still can't get into my company's system, and thus could not do any of that training, I thought I was going to have one boring afternoon of trying to look busy doing absolutely nothing. But I lucked out, my new friend (the only other girl in the group) was going out on a walk-down and said I could tag along. So I got all my PPE: hard hat, head lamp, spare flashlight, cut resistant gloves, steel toe boots, safety glasses, and my "super safety bracelet." And we headed out into the plant.
Now, I'm going to digress for a moment. There's a few things I have to wrap my head around on this project, some easier than others. On my old project, when we went on a "walk-down" we'd say we were going "out" and we meant we were going outside. Not many places we were going were very enclosed, and I usually worried about sunburn. On this project, we don't go "out" we go "out into" the plant. It's completely enclosed, and has been for 20+ years. Anyway, not a big deal, but I keep saying "go out" and getting weird looks.
Back to the topic at hand! We went out.. in... whatever! Off we went, in search of I don't know what. My first thought was that it smelled like the 70s. Like my old doctor's office. Not particularly offensive, but not great either. We walked for a while, not really any different than any of my other walk-downs. Then we took an elevator, wasn't expecting that, but I'm not going to complain. The buttons were marked with elevations rather than floor numbers.
We got to a room, no idea what room, but a room. It had stuff in it; pipes and ducts and whatever. There we waited for a while for some guys to bring a ladder. They set the ladder up and one of my coworkers climbed up to inspect a component, a damper I think. Didn't seem too hard, climb up a ladder, read some numbers off a tag. It was only like 15 feet up, no biggy. After he finished that one we moved to another room. Same concept, slightly more difficult execution. This time, at about 10 feet off the ground he kind of had to contort and wiggle in between some hoses, a light fixture, duct support, and some other stuff. I think he knocked his hard hat off a couple times. All that to read some more numbers off another tag. Since the guy and I were new, my friend decided to show us where she had had to climb the other day. We decided to call it a "training exercise" and make the new guy try it (they were looking at HVAC stuff that I know nothing about, so I got to cop out). Let's just say it involved more climb-wiggling. The last adventure on our excursion was where my new friend got to go down in a hole. First somebody had to come check the air to make sure she'd be able to breathe. Then somebody had to bring a second radio (so she took one and we had one up top). All that so she could take a picture of a grate :P All and all, it was a nice diversion from sitting at a computer all day. Although I did realize that I need a rather more... durable wardrobe. Oh darn, more shopping.
After that I headed to the utilities office to change them over to my name for the apartment. The guy at the apartment said they take debit cards, they don't. I had $100 in my wallet, which got me the power. I had to walk up to a drive-through ATM next door to get more cash to get my water/gas/sewer set up. Then I went to the store to get a money order for the deposit on the actual apartment. Then I got distracted... Ooops! At about 4:45 I remembered I was supposed to turn everything in to the apartment office at 5! Oh crap! So I hurried to check out and rushed over to the apartment. I got there at 5:01, but there was no car at the office. I tried calling the manager/owner, no answer. I sat for a bit trying to figure out what to do. So I tried calling again, he answered that time. And this is why I like small-town folks: he came down to give me the keys!
I went to check it out real quick, but I was already late for dinner with my new friend and a couple other coworkers. It's older, but clean and nice and well kept. The layout is nice, little patio off the living room, lots of storage, small kitchen, but big pantry. The bathroom is split into more of a bath + vanity. Bedroom is nothing special, but I don't need much. I figured I'd go back tomorrow after work to go through more thoroughly, so I headed out to dinner. Except I couldn't figure out how to get the door to lock! Seriously! Stop laughing at me :( I don't know how long I fussed with it, and if I hadn't had people waiting on me for dinner I probably would have called the manager again, but as it was I figured I didn't have anything in it so what's the harm in leaving it open. Off I went to dinner and a celebratory margarita! Not as exciting as the day I got keys to my first house, but not too bad for a Tuesday!
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