http://www.oldgraycat.com/sarah/client/index.cfm Hanging In The Lab en-us Thu, 09 Sep 2010 10:21:16-0700 Sun, 12 Feb 2006 08:29:00-0700 BlogCFC http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss mariebmk@yahoo.com mariebmk@yahoo.com http://www.oldgraycat.com/sarah/client/index.cfm/2006/2/12/Stuck--Stuck-Suck So, I just realized my numbering is off. In my head I thought I had been here longer than i really had. The week I just finished is really week 3, not 4. Not that anyone really cares, but for the record I thought I should clarify. So the high light of this week (or really the low point) was that I got my truck stuck in huge water filled mud pit. It sucked. Ask Beth, I called her panicing. Not that she could really help, but she could (and did!) talk to me so I would calm down. Now let me explain this little adventure. PART I. I was merrily driving along trying to reach some salamander ponds to sample. I decided to try a short cut (always always ALWAYS a bad idea! Remember that!). I took a road I'd never been on before that paralleled a fairly large river (another bad omen). I started hitting big puddles in the road and had to do some creative driving to get through them! But I always made it! UNTIL! Until I got to a washed out culvert where it was a sheer drop of about 3 feet. I figured the truck and I wouldn't make that one. So I turned around. It was then that I got stuck. In a puddle I had already made it through once! It was insulting! PART II. So there I was- in the middle of a deep puddle sinking in the mud. I could hear water bubbling up into the truck and I wasn't pleased. In fact I would say that I was panicing. I called my co-worker and he tried to walk me through using the wench that was on the front of my truck. Of course to get to the wench I had to wade through the muddy puddle, so I was quite soaked for this whole endeaver. I attached the wench to a tree a little in front of me and too the left. Now if you know anything about wenching you would know that that was a very bad idea. You need to wench pretty straight, but not having any training in this I thought i was good. I would just turn the tires sharply to the left and turn as the wench pulled. WRONG AGAIN! Instead of moving forward I blew a tire. Now I was really screwed. PART III. Called Jaan again and he said he'd come meet me. Of course the road was so bad that he had to abandon his truck and walk down to me. He was kinda astonished that I had made it as far as I had. We need to change the tire, but couldn't because the tire was in water and the truck wasn't very stable. So, he chose a better tree (ie in front of the truck and only slightly to the left) and we set up the wench again. Triumph! The truck was pulled out of the muddy death trap and seemed no worse for wear other than the tire. And I had a spare in the back! Yay! So we wenched up the truck got out the spare and it was flat... So I walked back to Jaan's truck a mile away got the air compressor and came back. Tragically, not only was the tire flat and bald, but it had a huge leak in it. We could hear the air escaping as fast as we pumped it in. We gave up for the day because a mission was about to occur and we needed to be off the base. PART IV (Day 2). The next day we came back with an ATV, new tire and lots of hope. As soon as we reached the truck the first jack broke. The bar in the middle twisted and the truck fell back to the ground. Jaan went and got the one out of his truck. We jacked the truck up again and this time the ground collapsed and the jack sank into the earth and the truck fell again! We had to use the bent jack to get the truck up enough to pullout the second jack and slide the flat tire under the truck so it wouldn't fall again. We tried to jack the thing up again from a new position, but the soil gave out again! So we started digging with two rakes that were in the bed of the truck and our hands. We dug out a pit where the tire needed to go. Got the tire on and finally we were free! The truck could move again! Yay, Betsy (the truck's name)! Of course then we had to go through all the other muddy holes in the road that Jaan hadn't wanted to drive through, but we made it no worse for wear and the adventure was over! Whew! Long story! But I hope it was amusing. I think of it as so, now, but at the time man was I worried. I thought the military was gonna have to loan us some vehicle with tank tread to get down the road and pull me out! I had all kinds of crazy visions! What else happened this week? I think I may have found an apartment! Its in niceville, so close to work (yay!) and its in my range (390)! Its not much to look at and not very big, but I don't have furniture, so it doesn't really matter. Happiness! I should have it all figured out this monday. I also got all my water level sampling for the salamanders done (yay!) and was sitting outside reading a report and almost got shit on by a bird. It just barely missed my hand and hit the report instead. okay enough babbling for me. I put way to much detail into things, huh? Well it helps me remember and that's what's important! real week 3 Sun, 12 Feb 2006 08:29:00-0700 http://www.oldgraycat.com/sarah/client/index.cfm/2006/2/12/Stuck--Stuck-Suck