Well I will let you in on my very long day yesterday/today
Yesterday morning, I wake up at the late time of 8:30 (this is quite late for me) and start making cookies, One of my true joys in life. I scarcely had time to pull the last pan out of the oven before rushing out the door to go to another great joy, singing. Yesterday I Coristi, which I am a member, had there second recording session for our CD coming out next year. It was fun, this is a good group of people, and not as blurry in real life.
The day included 4 hours of singing (and sitting around between takes) and a potluck lunch, which was very good.
After this I went to my sister’s house to help my brother-in-law in the basement (he is finishing it for my sister to live in). It looks slightly better than this; this was last week, I didn’t take any pictures this week.
I went home to rest for an hour and to change, and then, At 7:00pm, I went to work. “Why?” you might ask. I’ll tell you. We were installing a manhole liner. I was there for both phases. If you’re interested in what I do for a living, read on, if not, I won’t judge.
Phase 1 is preparing the liner. The liner is simply a giant fibreglass sleeping bag, with a zipper down the side and a narrow part at the top.
Inside the liner they put a bladder, like a giant balloon. This is use checking the liner for holes and partially turning it inside out. Fun stuff.
Then we wait for the people preparing the actual manhole to give the go-ahead on putting the resin on the liner. We wait because the liner has to go into the hole within 2 hours of starting to spread the resin. To keep us from getting resin all over, we wear these white jumpsuits. We looked like..., well we looked funny anyway. But it’s a good thing, because that resin gets everywhere, and it doesn’t come off.
I have no pictures of spreading the resin because we were all working furiously once we started (that whole time limit thing), plus my hands were covered in the stuff and I did not want it on my camera. We started the wet-out at 11:45 and finished at 1:10am
Eventually we got it all soaked in the stuff and loaded onto a flatbed trailer. A couple of guys rushed it off to the site. I cleaned up and followed in my own car.
I got there just as they were putting the liner in the hole. It went in very quickly, so I don’t have any pictures. I forgot to mention that they top the liner with a thing for pumping the air into and monitoring the pressure. It has windows as well to visually monitor the process.
So they filled it up with air and then things started to go wrong. The bottom of the bladder broke. This is very bad, because the liner has to be pushed firmly against the side of the manhole. After a heroic attempt to fix it by one guy who went down into the hole, the guy in charge called an abort and we had to pull the liner back out. This is what it looked like going in as well. The epcor guys had to move the power lines.
I stuck around until 4:30am when I decided there was nothing I could do but get in the way. I was tired. The worst part is we will have to try again. I have some ideas for making it better next time, which I suppose is what they’re paying me for.
So that’s why I’m so tired. I sort of wish it was because I had a girlfriend.
When the the things that make me weak and strange get engineered away
