Three Months Down, One to Go
August 5, 2015 10:52 am Leave your thoughts
These 3 months have flown by and August is going to be even quicker, judging by how busy it’ll be. In a somewhat masochistic fashion, I have scheduled my river diesel replacement, steam reduction, and fire suppression repair jobs all within a two week period in August. It’s going to be a busy couple weeks to say the least. I’ll have multiple contractors working each job, in which I am responsible for overseeing. Running back and forth from each site, attending safety meeting and ensuring each group has everything they need to complete the job. To top it off, I’ve just been handed another job to replace an acid line during August as well.
The combination of these four jobs alone could very well eat up all of my time in August. Yet, I have a few other jobs scattered about that need my attention too. One of which is the redesign, repair and install a new pump and motor base in one of our chemical preparation areas. The reason for the replacement is that a mechanical seal on the pump failed and allowed spent acid to leak all over the carbon steel base and onto the concrete pedestal. The acid was so strong it ate straight through a ¼” plate and a few inches of concrete. It’ll be up to me to design something that can withstand this acid, in case this scenario plays out again in the future. Another job of mine is to investigate the deterioration of the tile walls in one our seal chests and project the level deterioration if it is not repaired. Then estimate costs of repair at different time periods so that we may weigh our options on when to do the necessary repairs. However, it’s not just work that’ll be taking up my last bit of summer.
On Friday I’ll be headed out to Shuswap Lake with family and friends for the week. My grandparents have a boat access only cabin that they’ve owned for the past 25 or so years. The cabin has been an integral part of my summers since I was born; I haven’t missed a summer yet. Thankfully the busy contractor schedule at work will have me working a couple weekends and thus allow me to take a few weekdays off. I’m not sure I’d be able to not go to the cabin if I hadn’t gotten the time off. The week is supposed to be filled with +30 weather and not a cloud in sight. I’ll spend my time there swimming, wakeboarding, cliff jumping, boating, sun tanning and maybe drinking the occasion beer or two. It really doesn’t feel like summertime until I’m out there and after a full year of school and work, I’m more than ready. I should come back with a few stories and a handful of pictures to share with you guys. But if somehow I don’t, I’ll just share the story of how my friends and I sunk my friend’s dad’s friend’s boat a couple years back at the Shuswap. I swear it wasn’t our fault…