Dream Silently

quixotic

1. Caught up in the romance of noble deeds and the pursuit of unreachable goals; idealistic without regard to practicality.
2. Capricious; impulsive: “At worst his scruples must have been quixotic, not malicious” (Louis Auchincloss).

My new favorite word. It describes over half the people I’ll typically work with in a day.

I’m back in Elko now. We’ve been having some freak storms blow through, and forest fires are now surrounding us. The weather shows its suppose to be windy tomorrow. I wonder how much that’s going to affect things. I really can’t stand being in fire smoke. My allergies go crazy making it difficult to concentrate and work.

I could have stayed for another week in Denver. Well, I probably should have stayed for another week. The big guy out here for our field office though was getting a little nervous because we’re short 5 people this week. However, the projects that I was suppose to be on (3 of them) have all been postponed until unknown times. I’m going to a pre-construction meeting tomorrow for one of them. Maybe I’ll be able to dig up some things on the other two. I guess we’re waiting on a drill rig to be freed up as well for 2 small investigations. So, I’m mostly bored right now, trying to summarize a report that would of been easier to have done in Denver.

Anyways, onto the why on the last post.

It’s just something strange I’ve noticed when talking to some of our newer techs in the lab. Like, a few have been working back there for 6 months or more. I’ll ask them a question and I’ll get a blank look for an answer back for something they should, by now, know the answer too. RS inparticular will ask me questions I think she should already know the answers too. Like what an SS is (abbreviation for a Split Spoon). The other day, I was talking about the laboratory summary table with her and suggested that she needed to insert a column for the USCS (unified soils classification chart) symbol because she gives me a material description, but not its classification. She asked me what that was, which totally floored me. When a gradation and an addeburg is done in the lab, we’re primarily looking for its USCS. Why else, besides meeting specifications and standards, would we be running those particular tests?

What I’ve come to the conclusion of is that several back there just see work. They don’t take much enjoyment in the work because it’s viewed as “work”. I think if a person were to take the time to understand why they are doing something, they’d feel more purposeful because then they’d understand the reason behind what they are doing and that its important. Does that make sense?

I don’t see how anyone can stick with a job and not attempt to understand what they are doing. Memorizing and regurgitating specs and requirements is one thing, truly understanding them is another.

If you’re learning new work and its things you’ve never done, do you think its important to understand what and why you’ve been doing something, instead of just doing it?

I’ve escaped for a while to a downstairs retreat where a computer is in easy access at my Mom’s. It’s nice to be in a place where the internet actually works. Granted, I haven’t been doing diddly squat with it.

I got dragged to the CO Renaissance Faire today and then we went out to dinner. It’s been a pretty mild visit. Mom is extremely energetic now. Did I mention that she’s down to 173 lbs now since her gastric? She seems to still be trying to master the fine art of eating small meals more frequently though. She eats like all the time and then ends up paying for it.

I was thinking it would have been nice to have had Joe here. The place my mom and her husband have moved to is huge. They probably would have given us the bottom floor for our amusement.

Anyways, this was a bunch of pointless nothing meant simply to entertain me. It doesn’t seem to have entertained me for very long…

So, I’m in Denver right now. Quite a bit has happened, just not too sure how to start.

Ended up renting a car. I was only suppose to borrow a vehicle from one of our overseas individuals. Yeah, it overheated and I ended up hiccuping back to the office. It got hot when I drove it out onto the interstate. I’ve been getting teased about that because it now seems to be running fine. Ah, who knows.

The hotel I’m staying at would be absolutely wonderful if the internet would actually work. Instead its touch and go, making me frustrated when it comes to amusing myself in the evening (I’m not a tv watcher, I’m an internet and book junkie).

Yesterday, was of course the 4th of July. Happy belated independence day. I went to a coworker’s party and watched people play alot of beer pong and then I learned how to play flip cups. I’m actually not that bad at flip cups, granted, my team lost, but it was close, very close.

And today, I managed to be the first one in the office.

I really could have used a few more hours of sleep.