Today just didn't work out right at all. A couple days ago, I was going to have a couple quick stops this morning and then be home in Portland sometime in the afternoon, which is good since I was supposed to drop a piece of equipment off for my boss to use tomorrow morning. That slipped a little bit yesterday when I worked with another one of our techs and he was having trouble getting all his stuff done. He's only been with us a few months and apparently doesn't have the Speedy Gonzalez thing figured out yet.
Anyway, in a fit of stupidity, I said I'd pick up a couple things from him, which put me getting home an hour or two later, but no big deal really. Then the last thing I was working on last night ended up requiring a stop back again this morning. Again, not too bad, but not helping. However, when I got there, my contact was in a meeting, but "he'll probably be out pretty soon." Twenty minutes later, I decided to go get something else done and come back. By the time I got back, nothing continued to happen. "I'm sure he'll be done soon. This is much longer than they usually meet." Great. Now what? My next stop is 70 miles up the road, so I'm not exactly going back and forth, and I have to meet this guy before I leave since some of his stuff is broken and he needs to know about it. So, I wait, watching my getting-home time slipping further into the evening.
About half the equipment at the next two places (the originally scheduled places) was not working right, taking even longer. Now I'm looking at getting home at maybe 9 pm. Not what I had in mind, but it's still home.
And then I get the call from the office. It starts by asking can I stop by one more place tomorrow on the way home? I've got the only stuff to work on this particular equipment, so it's got to be me. Hell, no I can't stop by tomorrow. First, the boss wants the stuff I have tonight, and second, I don't want to be out here anymore. So, naturally, I'll be stopping by tomorrow. The boss decided for some reason to switch his schedule around, so getting home tonight, although still desirable, was no longer an absolute requirement. I ended up deciding that neither I nor the guy who desperately needed this last stop wanted to do it starting at 6:30 this evening. He didn't want to come back to work, and it would optimistically put me home no earlier than 10 or 10:30. Given the rest of the day, optimism seemed misplaced. So, I'll see this guy first thing in the morning, fully caffeinated and ready to go, and then drive like a crazy person to get home before the turkey day traffic gets too bad. It sucks that Franny is stuck alone with the Mizz for another probably too early morning, but what can you do?
We'll see if this plan holds any more water than the one I had today. At least I'm getting paid, right? Sorry for the rant. It's been that kind of day. For reading this far, you get a treat. I give you the true origin of hip-hop.
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Showing posts with label work. Show all posts
Tuesday, November 20, 2007
Friday, October 5, 2007
Mass Metrology: A small taste of Dave's job
From time to time, I hear, "So what exactly do you do anyway?" For some reason, metrology and calibration are unusual concepts for most people. My sister heard metrology, and wondered why I wanted to be a weatherman. The details of what I do really don't matter that much to most people. The world keeps on ticking as long as people like me are out doing our thing. Yeah, Dave, but what is your "thing"?
Don't worry if your eyes glaze over while reading this and you don't finish. I'm sure you'll be in the majority. I just present it in case anyone is interested in the arcane science of what I do.
I'm a small part of a large system linking measurement devices all over the world back to standard measurements somewhere. That's metrology, or the sturdy of precision measurements. Calibration is just the comparison of one measurement device back to something that is traceable through an unbroken chain of comparisons to one of those standards. Most measurements in this country are traced back to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a part of the Commerce Department. NIST laboratories maintain the U.S. national standard for thousands of things. Some are basic measurements like the second or the meter and some are more obscure such as standard Columbia River beach sand or whatever.
I'm more concerned with the basic measurements. NIST has extensive experimental apparatus that can determine with a great deal of precision exactly how long a meter is using light speed and how long a second is using atomic fluctuations. Most basic units are defined this way. There is an accepted standard that the distance light travels in a certain fraction of a second equals one meter. Everybody agrees on that definition, so anyone can find the meter depending only the ability to isolate the fraction of a second and measure how far the light went.
It used to be that all measurements were based on artifacts, or specific things that defined a yard or a foot or what ever. In the beginning, the myth goes that a yard was the distance between the king's thumb and his nose. Someone decided that something more specific might be useful since different places had different kings, so he decided to use a particular stick that was about the right length. He then could make copies of that stick and pass them around so everybody was using the same yard. However, over time, this method begins to fail as the specific artifacts are used and damaged. You end up with a bunch of sticks that are something like a yard, but none of them are exact anymore and none of them completely agree with each other, which kind of defeats the purpose. So over the years, most units have been defined in terms of physical properties of certain materials, properties that will theoretically never change. Therefore everyone who can set up experiments to measure those properties can recreate the units as precisely as they can measure them.
The sole exception to this method is mass. Up until around 1800, the kilogram was defined as the mass of one cubic decimeter of water. A cubic decimeter was used instead of a liter because length is a base unit, while volume is derived based on length. However, since water can change due to temperature and pressure, a better method was needed. Again, like the stick, someone made a prototype kilogram, which was from that point considered the de facto definition of a kilogram. However, nobody has yet come up with a proper physical property measurement for mass to replace this old method of measurement.
The current, most exact kilogram was made in the 1880's, as were the various copies of it scattered around the world. The primary kilogram prototype (pictured above, inside concentric bell jars) is in France and the U.S. top kilogram (pictured below) is at NIST. The primary kilogram is kept sealed and locked in a vault almost all of the time. It is brought out once in a great while (maybe once every decade or two) for comparison with the various national standards. Other than that, it never gets touched. The U.S. national kilogram is then compared occasionally by NIST against several copies they use for checks against other weights. My company has a master set of weights that are sent to NIST every five years for comparison against that second tier of weights. Those are then compared against our other weights once a year and against another set that is used for customer weight calibrations. I then take my weights and calibrate balances and scales used in the world. We even work on other metrology balances that are used for further weight checks. The idea is to handle the sets closer to NIST as little as possible in order to keep them from changing too much between calibrations. There is a certain amount of uncertainty in each comparison, which increases for each step away from the prototype. If your weights change beyond that uncertainty, then you throw the work you've been doing into question. That's bad.
To put the precision into context, I have Class 1 weights (the best available) ranging from 20 kilograms (about 45 lb.) down to 1 milligram (a tiny piece of foil you would overlook if you didn't know about it). For the smaller of these weights, say below about 200 grams, I know the exact weight down 8 digits beyond the decimal point, with the uncertainty (different for each one) showing up in the 5th or 6th place. This means that I know the values of my weights to at least 7 significant figures. This is important since the best balance (precision scale) I work with has 20,000,000 divisions (2 grams to 0.1 micrograms, or 0.0000001 grams). For reference, the main prototype is known to about 10 significant figures.
The problem with all this is that the prototype kilograms are suffering the same fate as the sticks, despite all the care put into their handling. The main prototype has lost approximately 30 micrograms over the last century. That means that if you assume that it was once 1.000000000 kilogram when it was made, it is now 0.999999970 kilogram. Seems pretty insignificant doesn't it? It is, for now at least. There are almost no instruments in the world good enough to see that difference. However, the kilograms will get worse and instruments will get better, especially as we continue to try and probe further into the atom and deeper into space. Eventually, this definition will fail to be good enough.
So what to do about it? There are two options that scientists are pursuing right now.
The first is basically making a better kilogram prototype. A group of Australian scientists is working on just that. They are trying to make a perfect sphere of silicon (pictured below) that is exactly one kilogram. The atomic weight of silicon is known quite well as is it's crystalline structure. It's quite possible to grow a very large perfect crystal of silicon. That's how computer chips are made. Then you apply a little math. You can figure out how many atoms of silicon you need to make a kilogram based on its atomic weight, and knowing the crystalline structure, you can figure out how big a sphere needs to be to contain the proper number of atoms. The hard part is now to make a perfectly round sphere of exactly the right diameter (using length, which is known very well). By the time they are done with this thing, it will essentially be the roundest thing ever made. This is basically just making another prototype, which will have the same issues as the current one. Unlike the current one, however, someone in the future can do the same thing again and come up with an identical, or maybe even better version, limited only by measurement and machining capability.
The second option is the watt balance. It is designed to use electrical properties, which are known very well, to determine the mass of an oscillating body. The math is very intensive. This type of device exists. NIST is working very hard on this method of mass determination. In the long run, something like this will likely take the place of having an artifact that must be compared back to. However, for the moment the uncertainty of doing it this way is still higher than using the current shrinking French kilogram.
Most of this is mainly academic. We are many centuries away from these variations causing the common man any trouble. A half a pound of deli ham and a gallon of gas will still be the same things as far as you will be able to tell. This becomes a problem only at the edge of research and possibly into some VERY exacting manufacturing, although I can't think of an example. Nothing you could afford anyway.
There. I obviously find this interesting, and I assume that if you made it this far, it must at least hold passing amusement for you. Let me know if I left anything too muddy or if something doesn't make sense.
Don't worry if your eyes glaze over while reading this and you don't finish. I'm sure you'll be in the majority. I just present it in case anyone is interested in the arcane science of what I do.
I'm a small part of a large system linking measurement devices all over the world back to standard measurements somewhere. That's metrology, or the sturdy of precision measurements. Calibration is just the comparison of one measurement device back to something that is traceable through an unbroken chain of comparisons to one of those standards. Most measurements in this country are traced back to the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), a part of the Commerce Department. NIST laboratories maintain the U.S. national standard for thousands of things. Some are basic measurements like the second or the meter and some are more obscure such as standard Columbia River beach sand or whatever.
I'm more concerned with the basic measurements. NIST has extensive experimental apparatus that can determine with a great deal of precision exactly how long a meter is using light speed and how long a second is using atomic fluctuations. Most basic units are defined this way. There is an accepted standard that the distance light travels in a certain fraction of a second equals one meter. Everybody agrees on that definition, so anyone can find the meter depending only the ability to isolate the fraction of a second and measure how far the light went.
It used to be that all measurements were based on artifacts, or specific things that defined a yard or a foot or what ever. In the beginning, the myth goes that a yard was the distance between the king's thumb and his nose. Someone decided that something more specific might be useful since different places had different kings, so he decided to use a particular stick that was about the right length. He then could make copies of that stick and pass them around so everybody was using the same yard. However, over time, this method begins to fail as the specific artifacts are used and damaged. You end up with a bunch of sticks that are something like a yard, but none of them are exact anymore and none of them completely agree with each other, which kind of defeats the purpose. So over the years, most units have been defined in terms of physical properties of certain materials, properties that will theoretically never change. Therefore everyone who can set up experiments to measure those properties can recreate the units as precisely as they can measure them.
The sole exception to this method is mass. Up until around 1800, the kilogram was defined as the mass of one cubic decimeter of water. A cubic decimeter was used instead of a liter because length is a base unit, while volume is derived based on length. However, since water can change due to temperature and pressure, a better method was needed. Again, like the stick, someone made a prototype kilogram, which was from that point considered the de facto definition of a kilogram. However, nobody has yet come up with a proper physical property measurement for mass to replace this old method of measurement.
The current, most exact kilogram was made in the 1880's, as were the various copies of it scattered around the world. The primary kilogram prototype (pictured above, inside concentric bell jars) is in France and the U.S. top kilogram (pictured below) is at NIST. The primary kilogram is kept sealed and locked in a vault almost all of the time. It is brought out once in a great while (maybe once every decade or two) for comparison with the various national standards. Other than that, it never gets touched. The U.S. national kilogram is then compared occasionally by NIST against several copies they use for checks against other weights. My company has a master set of weights that are sent to NIST every five years for comparison against that second tier of weights. Those are then compared against our other weights once a year and against another set that is used for customer weight calibrations. I then take my weights and calibrate balances and scales used in the world. We even work on other metrology balances that are used for further weight checks. The idea is to handle the sets closer to NIST as little as possible in order to keep them from changing too much between calibrations. There is a certain amount of uncertainty in each comparison, which increases for each step away from the prototype. If your weights change beyond that uncertainty, then you throw the work you've been doing into question. That's bad.
To put the precision into context, I have Class 1 weights (the best available) ranging from 20 kilograms (about 45 lb.) down to 1 milligram (a tiny piece of foil you would overlook if you didn't know about it). For the smaller of these weights, say below about 200 grams, I know the exact weight down 8 digits beyond the decimal point, with the uncertainty (different for each one) showing up in the 5th or 6th place. This means that I know the values of my weights to at least 7 significant figures. This is important since the best balance (precision scale) I work with has 20,000,000 divisions (2 grams to 0.1 micrograms, or 0.0000001 grams). For reference, the main prototype is known to about 10 significant figures.
The problem with all this is that the prototype kilograms are suffering the same fate as the sticks, despite all the care put into their handling. The main prototype has lost approximately 30 micrograms over the last century. That means that if you assume that it was once 1.000000000 kilogram when it was made, it is now 0.999999970 kilogram. Seems pretty insignificant doesn't it? It is, for now at least. There are almost no instruments in the world good enough to see that difference. However, the kilograms will get worse and instruments will get better, especially as we continue to try and probe further into the atom and deeper into space. Eventually, this definition will fail to be good enough.
So what to do about it? There are two options that scientists are pursuing right now.
The first is basically making a better kilogram prototype. A group of Australian scientists is working on just that. They are trying to make a perfect sphere of silicon (pictured below) that is exactly one kilogram. The atomic weight of silicon is known quite well as is it's crystalline structure. It's quite possible to grow a very large perfect crystal of silicon. That's how computer chips are made. Then you apply a little math. You can figure out how many atoms of silicon you need to make a kilogram based on its atomic weight, and knowing the crystalline structure, you can figure out how big a sphere needs to be to contain the proper number of atoms. The hard part is now to make a perfectly round sphere of exactly the right diameter (using length, which is known very well). By the time they are done with this thing, it will essentially be the roundest thing ever made. This is basically just making another prototype, which will have the same issues as the current one. Unlike the current one, however, someone in the future can do the same thing again and come up with an identical, or maybe even better version, limited only by measurement and machining capability.
The second option is the watt balance. It is designed to use electrical properties, which are known very well, to determine the mass of an oscillating body. The math is very intensive. This type of device exists. NIST is working very hard on this method of mass determination. In the long run, something like this will likely take the place of having an artifact that must be compared back to. However, for the moment the uncertainty of doing it this way is still higher than using the current shrinking French kilogram.
Most of this is mainly academic. We are many centuries away from these variations causing the common man any trouble. A half a pound of deli ham and a gallon of gas will still be the same things as far as you will be able to tell. This becomes a problem only at the edge of research and possibly into some VERY exacting manufacturing, although I can't think of an example. Nothing you could afford anyway.
There. I obviously find this interesting, and I assume that if you made it this far, it must at least hold passing amusement for you. Let me know if I left anything too muddy or if something doesn't make sense.
Wednesday, April 18, 2007
Things on My Mind
Heavy things lately. Last week wasn't exactly all roses, and now Virginia Tech. I'm actually somewhat familiar with the campus and I know the buildings involved, although it's been some time since I was there. Still, listening to the news reports all morning Monday, I had very vivid images of where they were talking about. What an awful day, although I really don't have sufficient words for it all. A sister of a friend who is a VT alumna now living in Australia had a better take on it all. Very eloquently put.
They released a bunch more details about the guy today. What a lunatic. The radio was making a big stink (on a BBC program) about whether it mattered that he was South Korean. Nobody here seems to care too much, but I guess the South Koreans are taking it pretty hard. Apparently, they have a far more collective idea of guilt and responsibility than we do. The show pointed out that the Koreans made a huge international incident out of a traffic accident a little while back where a US serviceman in Korea killed a couple kids. They held the US responsible for that incident and we didn't understand why. Now they are collectively grieving and feeling somewhat responsible for this tragedy and we don't understand why. Unexpected culture clash.
Also, I'm already tired of the gun-control discussion that will rage forever and go nowhere. The first quote I saw from Bush on Monday noted that he was sending his prayers to the families and community and, oh, yeah, he still supported the 2nd Amendment. Good thing he pointed that out. I've already heard from one side that we are the only gun-happy industrialized country and that should end immediately. I've also heard from the other side that if more law-abiding citizens had been armed, this would have ended much quicker. As usual, not much middle ground.
I was working at the US Forest Service laboratory at OSU this week. We only actually got the contract because the guy that has been calibrating their stuff for the last 25 years of so just passed away last month. He was about 85-90 years old and has been working this area longer than my boss. He was apparently a nice guy who like to tell stories going back even before his time on an aircraft carrier in World War II. Usually when I work a new place, it's because whoever was doing it before annoyed them too much so they are happy to see change. This was different because everyone seemed to like him a lot, so I felt like the runner up that they didn't really want to see. It didn't help that every time I replaced one of his stickers with my own, I felt like I was erasing a piece of history. I can look forward to doing this a lot in the next year since his daughter has been giving us a referral for all his old customers.
There's been some light stuff too. I had a dream the other night. Usually I don't care much to hear other people's dreams. They tend to be much more interesting to the person who dreamt them, and then often only until they say them out loud. But this was different (yeah, right), and anyway, this blog has no point. Anyway, it was loosely based on the end of I, Robot, although way more apocalyptic. For some reason, Will Ferrel was working with the robots, and in an odd twist, was not acting like his normal stupid-but-lovable buffoon self. He was actually very mean and evil, including a black leather jacket, head scarf and a couple guns. I reached for one of his guns, and he noted that he had another one pointed at me, so I took that one too. He laughed because when I shot him with it, I found that it was a water pistol. So I choked him with it. Apparently, I don't like Will Ferrel very much.
Franny and I took the Mizz to the tulip festival this weekend and met a couple other people with kid of the same name and only a couple days younger. We've been there before, but not with him. Not the same thing. We took him away from the flowers pretty quickly since he mainly wanted to pick petals off. I thought this seemed like excellent babysitting since they had several acres of flowers, but reluctantly decided against it. Luckily, there were lots of kid-friendly activities that we walked right by last time. The Mizz had more stimulation than he knew what to do with. He especially liked the roller slide, which was about 15 feet high, so I went with him. I apparently don't have enough padding on my behind, as it was pretty bumpy. None of the kids seemed to mind though.
The Mizz got to experience hail this evening. It was coming down in about 1/4 inch balls, so we went out on the front porch to watch. I caught one for him, and he thought that was great. He held it until it melted and then wanted another one. I caught several more until my feet got too cold. He didn't want to go back inside, but I distracted him with the doorbell. At least that's still easy.
I should write smaller things more often. Sorry for the rambling.
They released a bunch more details about the guy today. What a lunatic. The radio was making a big stink (on a BBC program) about whether it mattered that he was South Korean. Nobody here seems to care too much, but I guess the South Koreans are taking it pretty hard. Apparently, they have a far more collective idea of guilt and responsibility than we do. The show pointed out that the Koreans made a huge international incident out of a traffic accident a little while back where a US serviceman in Korea killed a couple kids. They held the US responsible for that incident and we didn't understand why. Now they are collectively grieving and feeling somewhat responsible for this tragedy and we don't understand why. Unexpected culture clash.
Also, I'm already tired of the gun-control discussion that will rage forever and go nowhere. The first quote I saw from Bush on Monday noted that he was sending his prayers to the families and community and, oh, yeah, he still supported the 2nd Amendment. Good thing he pointed that out. I've already heard from one side that we are the only gun-happy industrialized country and that should end immediately. I've also heard from the other side that if more law-abiding citizens had been armed, this would have ended much quicker. As usual, not much middle ground.
I was working at the US Forest Service laboratory at OSU this week. We only actually got the contract because the guy that has been calibrating their stuff for the last 25 years of so just passed away last month. He was about 85-90 years old and has been working this area longer than my boss. He was apparently a nice guy who like to tell stories going back even before his time on an aircraft carrier in World War II. Usually when I work a new place, it's because whoever was doing it before annoyed them too much so they are happy to see change. This was different because everyone seemed to like him a lot, so I felt like the runner up that they didn't really want to see. It didn't help that every time I replaced one of his stickers with my own, I felt like I was erasing a piece of history. I can look forward to doing this a lot in the next year since his daughter has been giving us a referral for all his old customers.
There's been some light stuff too. I had a dream the other night. Usually I don't care much to hear other people's dreams. They tend to be much more interesting to the person who dreamt them, and then often only until they say them out loud. But this was different (yeah, right), and anyway, this blog has no point. Anyway, it was loosely based on the end of I, Robot, although way more apocalyptic. For some reason, Will Ferrel was working with the robots, and in an odd twist, was not acting like his normal stupid-but-lovable buffoon self. He was actually very mean and evil, including a black leather jacket, head scarf and a couple guns. I reached for one of his guns, and he noted that he had another one pointed at me, so I took that one too. He laughed because when I shot him with it, I found that it was a water pistol. So I choked him with it. Apparently, I don't like Will Ferrel very much.
Franny and I took the Mizz to the tulip festival this weekend and met a couple other people with kid of the same name and only a couple days younger. We've been there before, but not with him. Not the same thing. We took him away from the flowers pretty quickly since he mainly wanted to pick petals off. I thought this seemed like excellent babysitting since they had several acres of flowers, but reluctantly decided against it. Luckily, there were lots of kid-friendly activities that we walked right by last time. The Mizz had more stimulation than he knew what to do with. He especially liked the roller slide, which was about 15 feet high, so I went with him. I apparently don't have enough padding on my behind, as it was pretty bumpy. None of the kids seemed to mind though.
The Mizz got to experience hail this evening. It was coming down in about 1/4 inch balls, so we went out on the front porch to watch. I caught one for him, and he thought that was great. He held it until it melted and then wanted another one. I caught several more until my feet got too cold. He didn't want to go back inside, but I distracted him with the doorbell. At least that's still easy.
I should write smaller things more often. Sorry for the rambling.
Saturday, March 31, 2007
Back Home from Potatoland
Well, I made it back home. I got about halfway last night and finished this morning. I've put on about 1000 miles in the last three days, plus 2 full days of work in there too. I'm done. Luckily, with the exception of the last 45 minutes, the weather held out for me even through promises of rain all day today. Now if only I could find my family. I'm sure I left them around here somewhere...
Wednesday, March 28, 2007
Where's my freakin' snow?
Once again, the weather forecasters have failed me. Instead of the 4-8 inches of snow promised, we got just a hair under 0 inches. Not just less snow, but not a single flake hit the ground. We did have a few flurries out here, but I'm very disappointed.
It is crazy cold though. And windy as hell.
I took a walk out today, trudging through the bone dry and climbing huge drifts of nothing to check out the feature for which Idaho Falls is named. They looked pretty cool, and again, due to forgetting the camera cable, you don't get to see them. The original falls have been augmented with a concrete wall that stretches about a quarter mile along the length of the river to divert some of the water through a power plant. There's also the remains of an old fish hatchery under one of the bridges that is now a graffiti gallery. And in an odd twist, I found the only non-redneck thing I've seen here in the park along the river. Right next to the falls, in a very picturesque location, was a pagoda-style pillar with some Chinese writing on it. It might have been Japanese, but I don't think so. Anyway, there was no other plaque or anything to tell me what it said or why it was there. Odd.
I'm outta here in the morning. After I finish working in town, I'll head out to Burley, Idaho. Friday, I'll be working there and Heyburn and then hitting the road as far as I can stand and then home Saturday. Finally.
It is crazy cold though. And windy as hell.
I took a walk out today, trudging through the bone dry and climbing huge drifts of nothing to check out the feature for which Idaho Falls is named. They looked pretty cool, and again, due to forgetting the camera cable, you don't get to see them. The original falls have been augmented with a concrete wall that stretches about a quarter mile along the length of the river to divert some of the water through a power plant. There's also the remains of an old fish hatchery under one of the bridges that is now a graffiti gallery. And in an odd twist, I found the only non-redneck thing I've seen here in the park along the river. Right next to the falls, in a very picturesque location, was a pagoda-style pillar with some Chinese writing on it. It might have been Japanese, but I don't think so. Anyway, there was no other plaque or anything to tell me what it said or why it was there. Odd.
I'm outta here in the morning. After I finish working in town, I'll head out to Burley, Idaho. Friday, I'll be working there and Heyburn and then hitting the road as far as I can stand and then home Saturday. Finally.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
What's new in Idaho?
Saturday, I moved from Pocatello up the road an hour to Idaho Falls. On the way, I stopped at a rest stop that had a sign for a point of geological interest. Turns out it was Hell's Half Acre. Unlike Eastern Oregon's entire canyon, Hell couldn't afford as much in Eastern Idaho. It was actually an area of fairly recent lava flow (4000 years old) that was only lightly covered in soil and vegetation. It was fun to see lava in the middle of Idaho and an interesting stop on a day when I wasn't in a hurry. It was also fun to know that even here, they use the term pahoehoe. What did white people call ropy lava before they found Hawaii?
Had I known how close I was to Craters of the Moon, I would have gone there instead, but I didn't know it was so close until Sunday, and by then I was working. Maybe next time out here.
When I was working on Sunday in Rexburg, I had some time to kill at lunch so I took a ride around town. It took about 9 minutes total. Anyway, I found that they had a BYU campus, and everyone was on the way to the temple. I've seen Mormons before, nothing special there. It just amused me to realize that the entire campus was going to church at the same time. At every other college I've ever been to, the Sunday exodus usually involved a bunch of people with their shirts inside out stumbling home squinting and holding their heads. Not quite the same thing.
I'm in potato land up here. Further down the Snake River Valley, there are also sugar beets, cattle and corn, but up here, it's pretty much just spuds. The place I was working on Monday was in Dubois. (Doo-boys, not Doo-bwah, what are you, foreign? Seriously, that's how they say it.) Dubois had exactly two places to eat. On one side of the road was the Exxon food mart, but on the other side was the Phillips 66 food mart. 66 was much bigger, but not as good as you'd expect. Potato processing plants are interesting. Most food processors work very seasonally, but potatoes can be stored almost a year, so they can be done anytime. Fresh french fries and hash browns all year round. That might mean more if most everything wasn't either dried or frozen before it left the plants.
Today I was working for the nukes at the Idaho National Lab. During the cold war, that place was making bomb parts, but I don't know what they are doing these days. Mainly cleaning up and closing building it looks like, but I'm sure there's something else that I wasn't invited to. Driving out there, you can see the Three Buttes. They're three huge cinder cones that grew up out of an otherwise flat landscape. It was pretty cloudy today though, so I'm guessing it would have been cooler on the weekend when it was sunny and 70 degrees.
It's supposed to snow tonight. 4-8 inches. It snowed a little this afternoon, but then went back to rain. But it's been getting colder all day and should be down below freezing tonight, so we'll see what happens. I'll still probably be able to get around, but the guy working with me was supposed to get over the mountains into Wyoming tonight, and I'm wondering how far he got or whether he'll make it back tomorrow if he did get there.
It's late. I was tired when I got back to the room this evening and took a nap. For 3 hours. So now I'm awake at the wrong time. But morning will still come, so I should at least try to sleep. We'll see how that works out.
Had I known how close I was to Craters of the Moon, I would have gone there instead, but I didn't know it was so close until Sunday, and by then I was working. Maybe next time out here.
When I was working on Sunday in Rexburg, I had some time to kill at lunch so I took a ride around town. It took about 9 minutes total. Anyway, I found that they had a BYU campus, and everyone was on the way to the temple. I've seen Mormons before, nothing special there. It just amused me to realize that the entire campus was going to church at the same time. At every other college I've ever been to, the Sunday exodus usually involved a bunch of people with their shirts inside out stumbling home squinting and holding their heads. Not quite the same thing.
I'm in potato land up here. Further down the Snake River Valley, there are also sugar beets, cattle and corn, but up here, it's pretty much just spuds. The place I was working on Monday was in Dubois. (Doo-boys, not Doo-bwah, what are you, foreign? Seriously, that's how they say it.) Dubois had exactly two places to eat. On one side of the road was the Exxon food mart, but on the other side was the Phillips 66 food mart. 66 was much bigger, but not as good as you'd expect. Potato processing plants are interesting. Most food processors work very seasonally, but potatoes can be stored almost a year, so they can be done anytime. Fresh french fries and hash browns all year round. That might mean more if most everything wasn't either dried or frozen before it left the plants.
Today I was working for the nukes at the Idaho National Lab. During the cold war, that place was making bomb parts, but I don't know what they are doing these days. Mainly cleaning up and closing building it looks like, but I'm sure there's something else that I wasn't invited to. Driving out there, you can see the Three Buttes. They're three huge cinder cones that grew up out of an otherwise flat landscape. It was pretty cloudy today though, so I'm guessing it would have been cooler on the weekend when it was sunny and 70 degrees.
It's supposed to snow tonight. 4-8 inches. It snowed a little this afternoon, but then went back to rain. But it's been getting colder all day and should be down below freezing tonight, so we'll see what happens. I'll still probably be able to get around, but the guy working with me was supposed to get over the mountains into Wyoming tonight, and I'm wondering how far he got or whether he'll make it back tomorrow if he did get there.
It's late. I was tired when I got back to the room this evening and took a nap. For 3 hours. So now I'm awake at the wrong time. But morning will still come, so I should at least try to sleep. We'll see how that works out.
Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Where's Dave?
Since Sunday, Dave has visited Baker City (by accident) and Durkee in Oregon, and Caldwell, Nampa, Twin Falls, Rupert (seriously), and Pocatello in Idaho. I've worked at a cement plant, a paper chemical manufacturer, a state wildlife forensics lab, a seed distributer, a potato processing plant, a hospital, 3 wastewater treatment plants, and a cheese plant. It's been busy. For the next few days, I'll be in Pocatello, Blackfoot, Idaho Falls, Rexburg, and Dubois, Idaho doing all sorts of stuff, and then some more places on the way home. I'm at about 800 miles so far and it's only been 4 days. Today at least, I did have a little bit of time to stop by Shoshone Falls in the Snake River Canyon. I sort of thought it would have more water going over it in the spring than when I saw it last fall, but it wasn't too impressive. It's still pretty cool, but not as wet as I was hoping. I have some pictures and you would be looking at them right now if I had remembered the cord for the camera. Maybe later.
Plus I ran over a groundhog that jumped out in front of my van. Stupid rodent.
It's a great trip so far.
Plus I ran over a groundhog that jumped out in front of my van. Stupid rodent.
It's a great trip so far.
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