Last week on the bridge ornamental lighting job

This has been a very enjoyable job, but all jobs come to an end. At least we saved the best for last! Some of the light fixtures for the Center Street bridge are located under the Veteran's Memorial Bridge (on the left, in the picture), and shine downwards. Access is under the vehicle bridge, via the out-of-service trolly-car level.


The light fixtures are a bit hard to reach...


A view from my perch: Oooo, pretty girl jogging! (Who else is making the Steve Austin dut dut dut dut dut bionic eye zoom sound in their heads?)


This is the reason we have a swing bridge! Another freighter being hauled upstream by a tugboat.


Peeps is instructing me to move the fixture a bit to my right... He and Johnny O were the Wonder Twins that day. I wonder if they call each other up to be sure to match shirts...

Just another day on the job. And to think that I get paid to have this much fun!

Maggot Brain

I'm listening to it now. What a trippy tune. That's the only way to describe it.

I had a real good night tonight. I sat in my backyard, listening to music, drinking beers. I would turn the dial up, slowly, waiting for a song I like, or one I've never heard that sounded interesting. Once I'd get to the end of the FM dial, I'd switch to AM, and work my way back down. I listened to the Grand Ole' Opry, 60's, 70's, and 80's music, my all time favorite Saturday song, SATURDAY NIGHT, by the Bay City Rollers, (and I learned that it was the number one song in 1975, when I was 12). I heard a few baseball games, and the really cool sounds of tuning into an AM station that kids nowadays don't even know about. I mean the squeaks, and dying cat sounds, pops, whistles. Gospel music, and old country. New pop, rap, and techno. Techno is NOT dead! It's just hiding out on the low end of the FM dial. Ooo, right now, it's Stevie Nicks singing "Sara".

I enjoyed listening to the old country. It reminded me of when I went with my dad and uncle down to Virginia, to visit my Aunt Molly. We ate her homemade cinnamon apple butter, which my dad is still trying to reproduce. I found a 1918 penny under the porch step. We would sleep on the floor, in sleeping bags, listening to the AM radio playing old country. That was back in the 70's. It's REALLY old country now.

I built a fire and sat on my patio chair, rocking back and forth, watching the stars through the pine boughs. Now it's "Everlasting Love", the Carl Carlton version, from 1974. "According to Broadcast Music Incorporated (BMI), the 1974 Carl Carlton version has been played more than 4 million times." from Wikipedia.

This is really weird. I heard Santana's "Black Magic Woman". Now that song rocks all by itself, but what's really cool is that I kept seeing the "notes" come up, in my mind, from when Pete F+11 was playing Guitar Hero. Whenever I hear that song, I see it.

Great Memorial Day Weekend!!

Last weekend was a blast! Early Saturday morning, I rode out to my parents' to see my brother, his wife, and son. David just had to wear grampa's ratty old hat. Mom, Dad, Shane, David, and I went for breakfast in Wellington.

David and Shane wrestled during the trip in while I made grumpys.


When we got back, Dad put me to work cutting a few branches off the maple tree by the garage. It's a pleasure using a good chainsaw with a sharp blade, buzzing through the wood like butter. I only had time enough to cut one branch off before I had to head home. Steve and his family were coming into town, and we planned to watch the Indian's play baseball that evening.


I shot back home, got cleaned up, and waited for Steve and his family. Before they got there, I took Katie for a nice walk, giving her a chance to do her business (code word for crap), then fed her. When Steve and all arrived, we relaxed a bit in my backyard. I can't believe how tall E has gotten! She's going to be an awesome volleyball player! Of course, Steve is still the same friend I knew back in 5th grade, always joking around. Dar hasn't seen this picture yet!


I took them down to Shooters for dinner, so I could show them the bridges I had been babbling incessently about. C has such a pretty smile! Steve and I teased her about wearing Brittney glasses, but what do we know about a teenaged girl's fashion, or middle-aged guy's fashion, for that matter.


This picture was taken from Shooter's dock. You can see the demolition work being done in the background, on the east bank of the flats, preparing for new construction. I wanted to take the picture with the NS bridge in the background, but the lighting wasn't right.

Steve and I held a contest to see which one of us could hold our gut in the longest.


That's one fine looking ballpark! I still hate that they changed the name from Jacob's field, "The Jake", to Progressive field. Will they start calling it "The Prog" now?


BONUS! It was a giveaway night. We got Grady Sizemore bobbleheads, Woo Hoo! He's my favorite player too.

Back to the bridges

There was a lot of work to do on the Willow bridge. Here, Peeps is cleaning a light fixture.


I know I should be helping Peeps clean and repair fixtures, but it's not often that one gets a chance to take photographs like these:



Here's another picture of me not working. I hope no one from the shop looks at these......Jim....


I was on vacation at the time, but I heard tell of a vicious lake gull attack on poor Jimmy 1450 as he tried to work in that stainless steel pullbox, and a subsequent attack upon Dandaman, though Dan defended himself valiantly with a stop/slow sign. That's the stuff of legends, I tell you. Poets will write songs of their bravery and women will swoon at their very passing.



1450: There he is!
Peeps: Where?
1450: There!
Peeps: What? Behind the gull?
1450: It *is* the gull!
Peeps: You silly sod!
1450: What?
Peeps: You got us all worked up!
1450: Well, that's no ordinary gull.
Peeps: Ohh.
1450: That's the most foul, cruel, and bad-tempered avian you ever set eyes on!
Dandaman: You tit! I soiled my harness I was so scared!
1450: Look, that gull's got a vicious streak a mile wide! It's a killer!
Carl: Get stuffed!
1450: He'll do you up a treat, mate.
Carl: Oh, yeah?
Dandaman: You manky Scots git!
1450: I'm warning you!
Dandaman: What's he do? Nibble your bum?
1450: He's got huge, sharp... er... He can leap about. Look at the bones!
Peeps: Go on, Onots. Chop his head off!
Johnny-Onots: Right! Silly little bleeder. One gull stew comin' right up!

New HV job

I'll be working on a new high voltage job beginning in June. I went to scope the job out, and took a few pictures while I was there. This is another typical HV trench, although these conduits are being covered in concrete (it's a parking lot!) instead of stone, like the one at the zoo.

This concrete box is a manhole. These are precast, and set in place with a crane. In the olden days, carpenters used to build forms for concrete to be poured into. This is much quicker and more efficient, as well as modular.


These rings will be set over the top opening, giving us access once the manhole is covered with earth.



We've got two new manholes on the project, and we'll be tying into an existing manhole during phase 2.