Rainy Aftermath

So on the new project I'm working on, we are doing tons of drainage stuff and well, rain is not good.

This is supposed to be a check dam and the water isn't supposed to be flowing.... oops. This caused for flooding in a different part of the project. Serious problems on this site.

Taken Wednesday August 7th.

Just a Little Girl

Sorry for the long hiatus, but work as been a source of depression this last week. I want to just write silly posts judging bathroom and oogling at big equipment, but sometimes this job gets serious, and team members don't work together.

What happened is the kind of thing that makes women scarce in this field. It's the stereotypical danger in hiring a woman. It's what all that sensitivity training that people roll their eyes at is for.

I was yelled at and disrespected and harassed. [If you want the story, message me.] Long story short, I talked to my supervisor after trying to brush aside the whole thing, and I got removed from the jobsite (at my supervisor's advice and to my agreement.)

Problem solved! Yay right? Nope, I've been on boring projects ever since, and even though there is a need for me on that jobsite, they have to overwork a different co-op to cover my absence.

The worst part is now I feel people are watching me harder, like judging my personality or the way I approach others to see if I could have brought this harassment on myself.



Today I was at a jobsite, and I was working with a new engineer and two inspectors. The engineer was female, and one of the inspectors was an old MDOT employee. The engineer said talking to the inspectors, "I had lunch today with your boss." And the old MDOT guy said, "Oh, did you sleep with him?" She was embarrassed at his comment, but she just continued on the conversation. It's just obnoxious. She's a married woman and a mother. She's their boss for goodness sake.

Sometimes I have to really remember why I am going into this field, filled with idiots who will never respect me, no matter my title, education, or experience.

Eric Bridgman Cafe Closet Bathroom

Now, sometimes I just weird.

I went into the dollar store to use the bathroom (since I needed to buy dollar store items) and because it was an old downtown building, there was no bathroom. Err, well, there was a bathroom? The back of the store had a door to go upstairs since it built in a time when people lived above their shops. So it did have a bathroom, it's just someone's... house.

I was being really not social and I just wanted to use a bathroom. I bought my items and left with as little human contact as possible. Only, I really needed to go. Like terribly so.

I dropped my items into the car, and dashed to the nearest building that might have a bathroom. It was a small cafe: Eric Bridgman's.

Now, when I mean small, I mean tiny. It was a really kozy place for old people. Well, I had lunch waiting in the car and little time to be away from the job site, so I quickly scanned the room for a door or hallway, and the woman across the room (maybe 30' away) asked if she could help me.

"Do you have a bathroom?"
"Do we have a bathroom? Well, sure we do. *sighs* It's in the back of the kitchen."

I dashed as fast as I could, but was stopped in order to sqeeeeeeeeze between the kitchen applicances and few workers. It was the size of a bathroom. Then as I'm almost a foot away from the back exit, I see this less-than-normal sized door leading into a room truly smaller than a closet. Found the bathroom!

I think a port-a-potty would have been bigger. I will say it was cleanish though. Hot, no air, so it was really hot and sticky in there. When I got out, there was an old man standing in the kitchen half-smiling at me, waiting to use the bathroom as he was pinned against the wall between the cook trying to wash a dish or two. As quickly as I had entered I made a mad dash. I knew I wasn't going to buy anything. I thought about giving them a dollar or two for using their bathroom, but I thought that would be more weird, and the lady who greeted me was busy.

I was very thankful for the bathroom even though I probably seemed like the biggest weirdo.

Yes, I straddled the toilet on one foot to take this picture.

Yes, I sat on the sink to take this picture.

Verdict: Not going back. Waaaay too small for comfort and I embarrassed myself with my hit-and-run, so I don't want to show my face around there again.

Owwwies

[From Tuesday, July 16th.]
I got an injury.... Tying my shoes. It was extremely painful. Then sand got in it doing density.

Owww....  All fixed!

The occupational safety guy at the office fixed me up! Everyone was so nice to me, but definitely didn't spare a chuckle when I said I did it tying my shoes.

Bush-whacking

Usually I never complain about the tasks of a job, since I could be doing a lot worse things, but man, this sucked. 

Before I even rant about what I did today, let's look at the weather:
Average temp: 82 F
Humidity: 88%
Feels like: 89 F

It's one of those dog days of Michigan weather, when you can't tell if it's sweat, or your body collecting moisture from the air. Sticky hot mess.

My task of the day: Measure Right-of-Way fence.
Now many of you probably have no idea what that is. I'll break it down for you. Right-of-Way is the land owned by the government on either side of a road. So yes, the land at the end of your driveway isn't yours, it's the township/city/village's. You just kindly mow it for them.

On the side of highways, the government doesn't like people (or animals) to randomly stumble through the woods (usually drunk) and start walking onto the highway, so they put up a fence. Makes sense. They also want to mark their ROW. Makes sense. But think about how often a fence way the hell on the side of I-94 is maintained. It's not. Why maintain it, it's way the hell from the road?

Next time you are driving down a highway, try to find the ROW fence. Sometimes you can't; it's covered in vegetation.

Now back to the narrative of my day: I was told to measure the ROW fence. In this weather. While it's covered in vegetation. And ticksssssssss. With a boisterous laugh, my task-giver finished his assignment with, "Make sure to bring extra tick repellant! Hahahaha."

The land of tickssss

It was awful. The total length was over 18000' (over 3.4 miles). I had to jump cross a small creek, walk in mud (more like slip-'n-slide), squeeze between the fence and trees, crawl underneath a pine tree spiky with new growth, toter on a concrete bridge drainage slope, scale a dirt hill less than a foot from 70 mph truck traffic (I got honked at twice from semis and countless swerves), climb the fence of thin wires twice, get whacked in the face with branches, and lunge over stumps, all while holding this little metal end of measuring tape and a can of spray paint.

The WORST part? Rose. Bushes. Like monster rose bushes. With thorns about two inches wide and four inches tall. FOR A MILE. (No pictures, because I wanted to get the hell outta there.)

I took some pictures of my journey, but not where it was terrible. Places with enough space to take my camera out, and where I didn't need two hands to squeeze, fight, and climb.

Finally a clearing!! Yummy hot forest.

I would have to search for these marks, stop, make sure the tape is not caught on anything within 200' of me (yeah right, it was caught almost every five minutes) and stand there until I would hear a yell in the distance or see a hand signal to find the next mark.

The tape used to measure was 200', so we would count the number of 200' places we went by making painted lines. I was in the back, thank goodness, so the guy in front cleared the way for me. I was very thankful for that. He also helped me over some of the harder parts of the task, like jumping the creek and the fences. I love working with awesome people! It made the day a lot better.

Hill! I was level with the overpass road. Look at the little cars muhahaha! (This was really scary, cars/trucks couldn't see me if I slid to the bottom into the road, super steep and slippery, don't do this children.)

Little gem at the top of the hill.

And while this was awful, I still prefer this to doing nothing. I like having purpose. It was so nastily hot. I at least sweated and worked off some weekend calories rather than sitting on my bum while sweating. Sweat was inevitable.

Going home to shower. Aww yeah.

This was super lame, but someone has to do it.


EDIT: I forgot the best part! I hardcore parkour'd today. I ran across I-94 and put my hand out, grabbed the top of the concrete barrier, and jump/swung in one fluid movement. It was totally bad ass. I hope the cars enjoyed the awesomeness they witnessed, and find a new-found respect for the MDOT worker.

Being a Woman: The Vibrator

This might contain adult content.

When I was at college, knowing that I would be an inspector, I tried to find other people who've done this job in their region, and ask them questions or ask for advice. Sure, the people at my office would be helpful, but sometimes there are things that you can only learn from another peer.

In my quest to find another inspector, I lucked out and found not only an inspector from a region similar to my own in traffic counts and road types, but she was a woman. I asked away. She gave me the normal advice like most people I had talked to, but then when we got on the subject of gender-difference and how that effects your interactions with the contractor, she said something like the following (it's been a while so maybe I'm adding to it a bit):

-They will "give you shit" (That's what we all call teasing on the field. It's different than normal teasing, but I can't explain how.), just go with it
-They already don't respect you because you are young and have no experience, so remember that if you have problems
-Lift things and don't be lazy, don't expect anyone to do anything for you if you want to be treated equal
-BUT never be afraid to ask for help when you need it (Truth: it's better to ask dignified than to embarrassingly struggle and maybe get hurt)
-It's one thing for the contractor not to respect you, but if the MDOT inspector gives you problems, don't put up with it, and tell a supervisor right away
-Don't be nervous, just be confident and make sure they do what you say at the end of the day


Then the weirdest thing she said after she was racking her brain for anymore advice was this:
"Oh! *laughs* There's this thing they use for concrete and it looks like a dildo. I'm not sure what the official title of it is, but, yeah, yeah you'll see what I mean. The contractor never openly used it to make fun of me, because the other inspector was always there for concrete pouring, but they would have if he wasn't there, so just be aware of that."

So yeah. This is what she was talking about:

It's the thing in the middle of the picture, straight up and down in the concrete. It vibrates. The purpose of this is to vibrate the concrete so it gets into all of the corners and around the rebar and whatnot. The second it touches the concrete, it just sort of.... relaxes?? It's all tense and rigid with aggregate sticking up, and then all of a sudden it just... liquids with no aggregate on top.

I wanted to know WHAT this could possibly be called, and it's..... a vibrator. 

There is a whole page about the vibrator. It makes sense, but it's just like... teehee.

I probably wouldn't be so middle-school about this if that other student inspector didn't mention it. Now I'm paranoid for the day they make some sexual joke about it to me. I keep trying to think of a good comeback, but mine are all lame and don't make any sense.

Saying Goodbye

Written 7/3/13

The skill most improved from working in Construction is teamwork. Think about it, you work with people from all around for maybe a day or two, or maybe a month, with little to no introduction. Then for that period of time you work under the hot sun doing manual labor under a strict timeline in life-threatening situations, relying hand-in-hand with the workmanship and timeline of others. Oh yeah, and the thing you're working on is worth millions of dollars. No pressure.

And though it's so stressful, everyone is really great. They are cooperative, friendly, and don't hold grudges. Stuff happens. Be mad about it for like a day, then come back tomorrow ready to go.

Some of you are waiting for the punch line. But no punch line, no psych, I'm serious. People are really cool. If you've had bad team experiences, reflect on how you interacted in the dynamic. People, for the most part, are great and want the goal as badly as you do. People are cool.


So cool in fact, that it's sad to say goodbye. Parting is as quick as introductions. It's really special when someone takes the time to say goodbye in the field. But then, that's that awkward moment when you want to make sure you say goodbye, but you might see the person again, so you wait. And wait. Then you waited too long and they are gone forever.

There were three goodbyes that were memorable from this project. (oh yeah, the project ended today... I told you this blog was late in the game.)





So I'm standing there at the end of the day with my density gauge, tired after three days of nuclear density testing and being almost hospitalized three days before, and the foreman comes up to me and says, "Well, it's been a nice rodeo... Thanks kiddo, you're pretty cool."

I had no idea what he was saying. Just earlier in the day he was taking about visiting places in da UP and checking out the Notre Dame Basilica, and now he was taking about rodeos, and I was like, "Yeah, today was fun... See ya Monday. Have a nice weekend."

And the foreman kinda looked sad, and said, "No, I have another project. This guys taking over."

And then I was so tired and confused and sad that I just stood there. Sounds dumb I know, but I just didn't know what to say. We stood in silence for a while, the he talked to the operator-turned-foreman, and then got in his truck and left for forever.

I wanted to tell him how much I enjoyed working with him, that I'd love to check out the places he recommended, to tell him to say hi to his daughter, to ask him for advice about construction or words of wisdom. But nope. I just stood there. And now he's gone.



The second goodbye was a little more resolved. Ever since the first one, I planned it out: what I'd say, what I'd ask. I wasn't just going to stand dumbfounded. But then it happened. The project had a week left and the foreman, the first person I ever met on my first job site, came up to my truck while I was calculating a pay item. "Well, I'm heading out. Nice working with you." And he extended his hand. Again, I was like, "Okay, see you tomorrow," and didn't see the hand extended. He explained he had a job in Flint and that one guy is taking over (same guy taking over as before). And this was my moment! My moment to do my planned goodbye. But nope. We talked about pay items and then silence. I didn’t say anything sentimental or anything to show how much I enjoyed working with such a kind, agreeable person. He had told me tons about his family. I knew how his wife and him met (I'll tell you that story later, it's cute) and about his Catholic faith and about brother's farm and everything. He knew about my brother and about my friend in New York and my family and my fishing experience and tons about my Catholic faith (if some of you could believe that...). And then when we parted, nothing. Nothing but a handshake and a nod goodbye with a few minutes of silence.


Today I had to call him. Call the foreman back. I had a second chance. But knowing me, again I only talked about the pay item, and then bam. I just said goodbye and ended the phone call. He was actually trying to prolong the conversation, but I was like a robot. No fluff or what I wanted to say. Just business. Gaaaaah. I hope he can just read my mind.




Today was the third goodbye. Sure, I saw over 30 laborers in and out the last two months between all the subcontractors and what not, but I almost never said goodbye. They themselves didn't even know when they would be leaving for a day, or for good. But today, I said goodbye to a laborer because we knew it was the end. It was great. No pressure. Joyful, walking away with laughter talking about the project. I didn't know him very personally, but he was the second person I met on the site, so I'd seen his face everyday. I wish every goodbye could be like that, but you know, some people just hit you harder than others.