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.