We got called about 6:30 this morning to flag in Spanish Fork at 7:00. We were a few minutes late, but not bad for having to get our winter gear on and drive 10-12 miles. Good thing it wasn't in Lehi or American Fork!
Weather was pretty nice. Sunny and calm all day, with temps getting up into the 30s again. I think it was about 23F when we started out this morning.
Our assignment was 300 W in Spanish Fork. We'd flagged there once before. It is a 3-way intersection right where 300 W goes under I-15. They didn't have anything for us to do for an hour or so when we first got there so they said just to "keep warm". We sat in the car until almost 10:00 when they blocked off one lane under the freeway bridge and moved a crane out into the lane to drive pilings. Kind of interesting watching them drive the pilings from a farily good vantage point. Some of them were doubled up. That is, they drove one piling into the ground leaving about 4' above ground, then welded a second one on top and drove it in too. We were all finished up and released about 4:00pm. So we logged 8.5 hours. We were only a couple of blocks from Taco Bell so we had a hot lunch for a change. All in all, it wasn't a bad day.
Wildlife watch: the neighborhood south and east of the freeway is mostly residential, except for the Nebo Animal Clinic. Even with the animal clinic right there, the only "wildlife" I observed was one kitty cat crossing the street. He/she was so nonchalant about it I was afraid it would get smashed before it got across, but fortunately there wasn't a lot of traffic on 300 W. There was enough to help make the time go fairly fast without there being a lot of tension or worry.
I saw a Toyota pickup go by with an interesting customization of the Toyota Racing Division logo. Usually it just says "TRD" but this one said "TURD". Given the default pronunciation of "TRD", I don't think I would have chosen that for a logo. Neither would I have chosen "SLT" that Dodge uses. Driving a turd or a slut doesn't sound very appealing to me. I guess I can't talk. When we were naming computer program subroutines one one project there were functions like GET, PUT, and PUSH. We had subroutines named GETIT, PUTIT, and PUSHIT, with the latter obviously lending itself to more than one pronunciation!
Did I tell you about my interview with Tony Dupres yesterday? I kind of remember writing about it, but I'm not sure. I was supposed to start today or tomorrow learning his property management business. Obviously I didn't start today. Don't know what will happen tomorrow. If we get another early call for flagging, we'll probably take it and I'll just have to tell Tony I can start Thursday. We can't really afford to turn down flagging assignments and I don't want Mom going out by herself if we can help it.
I may have another job alternative coming up too. The company Steve Dellos works for doing towers is sending the crew back to Utah in about a week and Steve said there may be an opening in the ground crew. It would be steady 40-hours a week, even when the weather shuts down the job site but I don't know what the hourly rate will be yet. I would probably be rigging loads to be hoisted up the tower. Interesting that Mom and I were both just certified in rigger signals. I don't think the tower folks adhere to the rigger signals used by crane operators on construction sites but the signals may be helpful anyway.
We don't have any idea if PRC has any plans for us for tomorrow. We are definitely encouraged that all of our recent assignments, including today, have come through Strategic. It so much more convenient and a little more money than at Labor Ready.
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