900 Tons and Counting...

Hello Ya'll.

What's new and good in your neck of the woods? I had today off and stayed in Chincha this time around, rather than make the trip north to Lima. It was a pretty uneventful day, but nice, nonetheless, to sleep in an extra hour and not have to be at the job site.

Before I get too far, I've got to throw a HUGE congrats out to my bud Doc Pepe for lighting up the criterim circuit with not one but two Ws this past week. Doc's been a frog's hair away from taking a W several times before and to hear that he was able to pump the fists on two occasions is fantastic. I wish I could have been there to help contribute and get in on the high-fiving and story telling. Great job, Doc!

I can't say that there is too much new here. No real "victories" to mention. Eder went home for a few days. Apparently the new security at the site requires a rotation of drivers every week or so??? I'm not sure, but for another couple days, Fernando is driving me to and from the job site. Eder will be back Tuesday, I believe. Fernando is a nice guy, a bit older than me I presume. He doesn't speak a lick of English except for "My friend", but at this point, that is not too big of a problem for me. Between the words, hand gestures, head bobbing and facial expressions, I'm pretty much fluent in Spanish these days! Fernando told me he used to be a bouncer and security escort at the US Embassy...or something to that effect. He's not a big guy, but he's pretty solid and looks to pack a pretty good punch. It looks like I found a weight room partner.

Talking about the gym, Eder has been hysterical lately. All week he has been saying..."Scott...next week, you watch, I start going to gym eeeevvvvry day. You and me. I eat only salad and drink water at night. Look at this (as he points to his exagerated protruding belly)...I no have this before I come here. No more Inca Cola. Only water at night." I heard this all week. Very funny...couple that with that mischievous, Tigger-ish voice and it's pure entertainment.
Funny enough, this picture was taken right after we all scarffed down dinner at a local favorite place called El Batan. From left to right, Hugo, Eder, Luis and Carlos. All Golder folk. Hugo is a geologist and Luis and Carlos are drivers. All are good guys and are fun to grab a bite with. Hugo is from Cusco, one of the locations on the agenda for the September Peruvian tour. Sounds like we might have a hook up or two while travelling to Cusco and Maccu Piccu....which, if you haven't heard, is now one of the seven wonders of the world.

On a sad bit of news, I got a call from my old driver, Christian. Unfortunately, it sounds like things went from bad to worse for him. I met up with him the other day just for a couple of minutes to chat about this and that and it sounded like he was struggling. Yesterday he sent me a note with some sad news...his family situation is in peril and I gathered from his note that he is completely shattered. I feel really bad for him.

After mass today, I picked up a pair of "Nike" and "Addidas" warm up pants. Knock-offs of the real shindig but for 10 bones a piece, I can't complain. I bought them at a little shop in town next to the market. Holy smokes, what an experience. Skinned chickens hanging all over the place, sides of beef or links of sausage draped over improvised display lines. The thud thud of cleavers quartering and splitting legs, wings and thighs. Seafood so fresh that the gills are still moving on the day's catch or pincers from the crabs are snapping at you when your hand gets too close. All this in the open, warm air. It had me thinking of becoming a temporary vegetarian.

Another slow week at the site for me. The contractor started running a test and everything was going great...until a series of welds on the test apparatus decided to break. Here's a few pictures of what I'm talking about. The first pic shows the load test set up...Those orange things are four, 350 ton jacks. The silver things are load cells...they measure how much load each jack is applying. The thing they're on top of is the test pile. The plate the jacks sit on is what failed...at a load of nearly 900 tons. That's alot of weight! The plate looked more like a bowl after it was all said and done...

Thankfully there wasn't any carnage of equipment or people, but it will push things back about another week. I think the beach is haunted or something. Things just can't go right down there. Just for sh*ts and grins, here's a picture of me in action...

Actually, I must confess that this picture was staged. Although I'm guess that's what I probably look like when I really am taking readings. All jobs entail some risk, but as I look at this photo I can't help but think that my head is, oh, 2 feet away from 900 tons (that's one point eight million pounds) of potential energy and had that plate have given way, I may have looked like one of them chickens hanging in the market! Humbling to say the least.

We'll see what this week brings. The delay will give me a chance to do some heavy duty engineering-like, number crunching, brain teasing work. That should be a good break from the recent routine. At times I ask myself why in the hell I'm an engineer. I'm most certainly convinced that I mostly use the opposite side of my brain than what most engineers use, and all of the "career type" tests I've taken in the past say I should be something completely polar opposite of an engineer like a cowboy or fireman...well, not quite, but if I've taken 10 career tests in my life, "engineer" has not made the top 5 list in any of them. Oh well, I can't complain, life is purty good!

Welp, it's time to call my cuzin Joey and catch up with him for a bit before calling it a night. You all take care and if you happen to find yourself stumbling across 8 or 900 tons of whatever about to unleash...get outta there!

God bless,

Scotty