Quick Clip From Work

I'm realizing that I need to seriously reconsider my priorities. Staying in touch for example has slid to far down the list and needs to be re-prioritized. So in the name of staying in touch, a quick story from work.

Friday afternoon was a beautiful day. Sunny, warm, and dry with the weekend only moments away. And then opportunity came knocking. The job I'm currently at is almost completely all underground pipe work. To help us with this our company has rented to vehicles. An excavator, and a front-end loader. Now the guy who usually runs the front-end loader (FEL) had to leave and get some business done with the state before they all closed up. Unfortunately this left the rest of us with nothing to do. That is until the foreman asked if any of us had any experience with large equipment. I answered in the negative, but then added that I would love to learn. And the foreman agreed! So the next ten minutes was a lesson on how to operate the FEL and which levers did what. Then he sent me off on my own to start filling up a ditch with sand.

What a thrill! Even though I wasn't doing anything glamourous, sitting on top of so much power and being above all the people and vehicles was more than worth it. Back and forth, back and forth I went for the next two and a half hours filling up the ditch and doing my best not to hit anything or anyone. Today I found myself hoping that the normal operator would have to go and do something else so that I could drive the FEL again. So for those of you who wonder, operating big machines truly is as much fun as just watching them work.