Mudhole: Eternal

Ok, I slacked off a bit this week...

Off my game last week as:

1. We had Monday off
2. I've been with out a truck most of the week (DEF crap)
3. Had to take off Friday because the youngest one decided to be sick.

Anyways, we did have a leak or two, and an exceptionally muddy one on Thursday.

Main side, lateral leak. Domestic.

What started as a small leak, turned into a giant mud hole. Normally, when you have two services (meters) next to each other, the end up tying in together at a "Tee". Then that tee feeds into the main. If you go back on some of the posts I have had about leaks, you can see this.

Well, we expected this as well with this leak, but... this was not the case.

Strike First. Strike Hard. No Mercy

It turned soupy, quick.

When digging down on an active leak, it can get a little hard to see what you are doing. Most initial guesses as to what is broken is done with the hands, and not the eyes. This is why we were confused when it felt like a 3/4 inch line was feeding from the main. Normal, as mentioned above, there would be a tee. Tee's are always going to be a larger diameter that the lines that feed off of them (what we call the service). So it made no sense to have a 3/4 line feeding off the main, splitting into two 3/4 services. That would cause a volume issue for the two customers on that lateral line, should they both try to use water at the same time.

ANYWAYS.

We dug on.

Trying to keep the water off us long enough to figure out what is going on.

Is the lateral over here?

Or is it over here

The hole got wetter, deeper and wider as we went. Eventually we uncovered the right service and verified that it was indeed a single service tied directly into the main, with no tee. This would mean the other service would be the same.

The single tap off the main

The service was broke right at the main. She let go once we started missing with it.

After a new service was built and screwed into the main, we could stop the water flow, and build back. I always take this time to look at what broke, and why.

This weird metal/pvc female adapter broke. Over tightened more than likely on install.

Rebuilding each service in poly. 

Ground was still muddy as could be.

Very muddy. A few boots were lost

Made sure the lines were flushed, and and backfilled what we could.

Still wet!

What. A. Mess.

Then on to the most important part of the day. Lunch.

Well, that all for now.

I go oncall this next week, from Monday to Monday. It's my first time as an on call leader, so I'm sure that will be fun and bring it's own challenges. (I hate being oncall by the way.)

Here's to the next time!

Mud Holes, Forever

The week seemed to be dry and all the clothes were too clean.

But we got a chance to get a little dirty before the week was through. 

A few leaks popped up this week, some where passed off to other crews, but we fixed a few ourselves. Friday was the muddy one.

A reuse leak came in a few days before, but it was small so we let it go for a couple days.  Since it was reuse water, we shut (we thought) the main off so it could dry up (it didnt).

We headed out Friday morning to get it fixed. I hooked up to a trailer and we brought out our BobCat and a mud pump.

No matter where you go, make sure your hair is fabulous.

A few scoops taken out for exploratory reasons.

The main ended up not being off all the way, and the somebody turned the main back on with someone else in the hole. Main was shut off all the way, then the repair began. Ended up being a slipped fitting coming off the main tap saddle.

Mud hog pumping down the hole

Squeeeeezing the bucket between the main and other utilities.

I thought the main was off!?

After we got down to the break, I headed back to the yard with a trailer full of mud. That proved to be a task. All that muck settled driving back to the yard, and suction cupped itself to the trailer floor. I had to hand shovel it all out.

Brownies?

The mud did not move. At all. I even shook the tar out of the trailer and nearly broke the hitch.

After getting more dirty emptying the trailer than I did working, I loaded up some fresh dry dirt to back fill the hole, and headed back. Fuel first.

All the lights

Once back, both reuse services were built back in poly. Meter boxes were set, and we began to backfill. All in all the repair went the way it should.

Tee'd straight off the main.

Not much leak action this week, but I'm sure there will be more next week. I think we have a repair scheduled to remove a meter from a driveway, so that should be fun.

See you later!

Ketchup

Ok, let's get everyone up to speed.

For the most part, everything is still the same. Still work at the same place, albeit performing a different duty.

My previous job title was "Field Service Technician" and I've pretty much summed up what those job duties were. Through people moving around, I have ended up in a spot titled, "AMI Supervisor", "AMI" meaning "Advanced Metering Infrastructure".

Not me, this guys is too excited.

What does that all entail? Well, to be honest, I'm kind of figuring that out on my own/making it what I think it needs to be.

Current duties keep my very busy and include the following.

• Inventory - In a nutshell, every meter, register, and related device goes through me. Whether it's new stock arriving, checking current inventory out to the Field Techs, or doing warranty returns, I'm the guy that scans in and scans out all of it.
• Truck Maintenance Records - I make sure our in house database is up to date with my departments vehicles. I'm currently using this information to try and put our trucks on a routine maintenance schedule.
• Quality Control - Making sure our guys are doing the correct work, at the correct address, with the correct parts. This is the most time consuming part of my job. Any error out the field gets sent to me. Sometimes it's small and an easy fix, sometimes it's not. Half the time I can get the guys to go back and correct it, sometimes I end up having to go.

I do a few other small things, but those are the biggies. It's a change of pace, and a welcomed one at that.

Currently, we are scanning in every single item me have, for the end of the fiscal year inventory. This is where things get scary. Basically, every item the finance department says we are supposed to have, we better have. So for now, I'll be spending my time in the meter bay, armed with a bar code scanner and a pack of pink stickers.

This is but a smidgen of our inventory

TOAST PT. 4 - The Work Truck

2015 GMC Sierra 2500HD - Duramax, 4x4

Well, here it is. My work truck. The mobile office I call home for 8-ish hours a day (sometimes more).

I've had this truck since new, and as of this post it has 17,500 miles on it. It's a good truck, and performs its duties well. I think its a tad overkill (I'd prefer a Colorado, or a Van), but I'm not complaining. It takes the daily routes like a champ, and like most GM truck's I've driven, rides very car like. I try not to idle it very much, and the GPS makes sure it doesn't get romped on too hard. It get around 14.9 MPG, and thanks to the huge tank, I can go around 400 miles between fill ups. Only defects so far have been a cracked fuel filter housing, and the driver seat is starting to tear.

Lets go through the rest of the truck, starting with my "office".

The driver's seat is where I spend a good bit of my day. To my immediate right is my center console, filled with various things like medicine, pens, keys, and so on. This console also doubles as a third seat if you flip it up. The cup holders hold my phones and pass cards... as well as cups.

Next to that is my computer. That's where i get my orders from. All my field work routes through that. It's actually new as well, a Dell Latitude E6540. I'm trying to keep it clean.

On the transmission hump is the power inverter, and my WiFi hotspot (for the laptop). The inverter is obviously used to power my laptop, but it also powers any plug in tools I have, as well as my printer, and any other A/C adapters I have.

Next up is the passenger side, or as I call it, "The Closet".

The passenger side is really a catch all for whatever I don't want in my way. The floorboard sometimes is used as a trash can.

The seat holds my Every Day Carry bag (I'll do a post on that later), as well as Chromebook, and a few other things. It really depends on what i'm doing for the day as to what goes there. Some of the items on the floorboard get changed in and out. Speaking of the floorboard, it currently holds my printer, hand held meter computer, and a host of cables and chargers.

Finally, here is the radio. 

This is about the only part of my truck I interact with. The truck is equipped with BlueTooth, so I use it to stream my Google Play Music, or Pandora. The center console also has an SD reader, as well as an USB slot, so I could play music from them as well.

Below the radio are the buttons. The only one you need be concerned with is the left one. The Traction Control button. Now I think we all know what happens when you push it, but do you know what happens when you hold it down? On this truck (and most every other modern GM product), If you hold down the TC button for 5 seconds, it also turns of the Stability Control. What does this mean? Well it certainly doesn't mean you can do donuts or drift in parking lots. Not at all....

So that's about it. Thats my work truck. Im sure I'll cover a few areas of it in greater detail in the future, but that's the gist of it. Thanks for reading!

Frozen in Time

It's been awhile.
That seems to be a reissuing theme, doesn't it?

Well there were Holidays and stuff.... Yadda yadda yadda, Bob's your uncle.

Currently it's very cold, and I'm in a beast of a truck, with (among many crippling defects) no heater. It's great.

Well, here's to more posts! I've got things to say!

See you soon!