Long-Promised Update
Okay, here's my recap of my week of 14-hour days in stinking hot weather, six hours from home. There's no way I can go over all the flist entries I missed last week, so if something important happened, point it out, ok?
1. The Factory
We showed up at the factory at noon on Saturday and, basically, didn't leave until noon the following Saturday. What time we weren't working or eating, we were sleeping. (Granted there was a lot of eating, and our service guy wasn't content to leave dinner until he'd had a hundred ounces of beer.)
The factory was an aluminum-recycling facility. Factories, if you've ever been in them, factories are hilarious. Three times I saw stuff burst into flame. There were open troughs of molten metal. There's a pipe that you can't walk under while an alarm is sounding, because the alarm means they're running melted aluminum and the pipe might explode. I had to wear a certified ball cap (ball cap!) so that if metal dripped on my head, it would roll off. And there was smoke and slag and dirty catwalks and I had to straddle a pipe running 800 F air, it was just amazing.
And then we had a problem with the safety equipment and had to disable it for hours at a time. Sounds scary, but it was totally safe, trust me.
Oh! And right in the middle of the plant there's a guy with a lawn chair and a fan on him and two sticks, so he can reach a button and scrape the aluminum without bending too far.
2. The Friends
I caught up with godgivensmile and his wife, my former roommate, on one of the rare days that we got off work before ten. We ate hearty at Applebee's and then headed back to their house (!) to play games, drink tea, and bicker over whether to watch a movie or be responsible. Responsibility won out, but it took some hits along the way. I'm delighted that the company sent me to a job site where I knew someone, and had a chance to catch up. Plus I got tea out of the deal. :)
3. The Father
So I was going to stop home Friday night. When I do that, I always offer to pick up my little brother from boarding school on the way home. The email I got in reply went like this:
>YES we will need you to get him because I have to take Dad for tests in [nearby major city] tomorrow and he will need me to drive him. So, I will E mail [School] and you do the same and we will see you at home. Dad is ok, do not worry. I am e mailing [School] now. MOM
Jigga-huh? She hasn't given me enough detail to get worried over. So I get Jon as usual on Friday and we're driving home, and I get a message on the cell phone: "Where are you? It's Mom. Dad's home, he's fine."
He had darn well better be, I'm thinking. So I called back to check in. His tests? Heart surgery. Apparently they found a shadowy spot on his heart and took him in for a heart catheterization to see what it was. (His father died of a heart attack at 72.) It turned out to be just a shadow, not scar tissue or a sign of a silent heart attack, so he was totally fine all the time, but it scared everyone and he had to take off work for a week.
And it's a darned good thing it rained all week, because he was going to try and spray the orchard the next day. Maniac.
4. The Fandom
I missed last week's Lost but got it online. I have to say, I really missed Michael this season, HP can really act. And I'm always in favor of on-island flashbacks rather than boring Sydney reruns. We didn't learn much, just confirmed our guess, and I wish I could say that I'm surprised Sayid was the only one to pick up on Michael's insanely suspicious behavior. I enjoyed Miss Klugh for all four minutes she was on-screen. I have to question why they would even bring Alex along on the Michael-napping mission when he's so much larger than her. Walt seems to have reached puberty and beyond. As for the boat (which, seriously, Jin should have pointed out, since he's known that word since last season), I want it to be something revelatory but I wincingly suspect it's just bringing in a new cast member to "shake things up" in season 3. Or possibly Des, which I couldn't laud enough.
5. The Furry
I finally got to see Blood Moon (2002), aka Wolf Girl (2001), and loved it. I think it was one of those movies advertised totally wrong--right down to the title, because the movie had absolutely jack to do with the moon. Far less horror than drama. Not for people who don't want to look at sideshow freaks or naked people, but I thought the story was wonderful and there were a lot of little ideas not specifically verbalized--it helped maintain pathos and keep the movie from the realm of after-school specials and anvilicious morals. Plus there is Tim Curry.
TWoP recapped it, but doesn't do it justice.
1. The Factory
We showed up at the factory at noon on Saturday and, basically, didn't leave until noon the following Saturday. What time we weren't working or eating, we were sleeping. (Granted there was a lot of eating, and our service guy wasn't content to leave dinner until he'd had a hundred ounces of beer.)
The factory was an aluminum-recycling facility. Factories, if you've ever been in them, factories are hilarious. Three times I saw stuff burst into flame. There were open troughs of molten metal. There's a pipe that you can't walk under while an alarm is sounding, because the alarm means they're running melted aluminum and the pipe might explode. I had to wear a certified ball cap (ball cap!) so that if metal dripped on my head, it would roll off. And there was smoke and slag and dirty catwalks and I had to straddle a pipe running 800 F air, it was just amazing.
And then we had a problem with the safety equipment and had to disable it for hours at a time. Sounds scary, but it was totally safe, trust me.
Oh! And right in the middle of the plant there's a guy with a lawn chair and a fan on him and two sticks, so he can reach a button and scrape the aluminum without bending too far.
2. The Friends
I caught up with godgivensmile and his wife, my former roommate, on one of the rare days that we got off work before ten. We ate hearty at Applebee's and then headed back to their house (!) to play games, drink tea, and bicker over whether to watch a movie or be responsible. Responsibility won out, but it took some hits along the way. I'm delighted that the company sent me to a job site where I knew someone, and had a chance to catch up. Plus I got tea out of the deal. :)
3. The Father
So I was going to stop home Friday night. When I do that, I always offer to pick up my little brother from boarding school on the way home. The email I got in reply went like this:
>YES we will need you to get him because I have to take Dad for tests in [nearby major city] tomorrow and he will need me to drive him. So, I will E mail [School] and you do the same and we will see you at home. Dad is ok, do not worry. I am e mailing [School] now. MOM
Jigga-huh? She hasn't given me enough detail to get worried over. So I get Jon as usual on Friday and we're driving home, and I get a message on the cell phone: "Where are you? It's Mom. Dad's home, he's fine."
He had darn well better be, I'm thinking. So I called back to check in. His tests? Heart surgery. Apparently they found a shadowy spot on his heart and took him in for a heart catheterization to see what it was. (His father died of a heart attack at 72.) It turned out to be just a shadow, not scar tissue or a sign of a silent heart attack, so he was totally fine all the time, but it scared everyone and he had to take off work for a week.
And it's a darned good thing it rained all week, because he was going to try and spray the orchard the next day. Maniac.
4. The Fandom
I missed last week's Lost but got it online. I have to say, I really missed Michael this season, HP can really act. And I'm always in favor of on-island flashbacks rather than boring Sydney reruns. We didn't learn much, just confirmed our guess, and I wish I could say that I'm surprised Sayid was the only one to pick up on Michael's insanely suspicious behavior. I enjoyed Miss Klugh for all four minutes she was on-screen. I have to question why they would even bring Alex along on the Michael-napping mission when he's so much larger than her. Walt seems to have reached puberty and beyond. As for the boat (which, seriously, Jin should have pointed out, since he's known that word since last season), I want it to be something revelatory but I wincingly suspect it's just bringing in a new cast member to "shake things up" in season 3. Or possibly Des, which I couldn't laud enough.
5. The Furry
I finally got to see Blood Moon (2002), aka Wolf Girl (2001), and loved it. I think it was one of those movies advertised totally wrong--right down to the title, because the movie had absolutely jack to do with the moon. Far less horror than drama. Not for people who don't want to look at sideshow freaks or naked people, but I thought the story was wonderful and there were a lot of little ideas not specifically verbalized--it helped maintain pathos and keep the movie from the realm of after-school specials and anvilicious morals. Plus there is Tim Curry.
TWoP recapped it, but doesn't do it justice.