Sunday, August 8, 2010

My Summer Vacation . . .


Well it isn't much of a vacation but I'm just finishing up my second rotation in Mobile, AL. I've been out here making maps for the NRDA (Natural Resource Damage Assessment) response to the oil spill. It's been super interesting not only being involved in the response effort but also spending time in the South. Check out this video of the BP Command Center in Mobile.


I haven't been working in the Command Center though. It was too crowded a couple months back and our group was moved to a conference room in the Marriot Hotel. It's been really nice--much quieter and lots more room. Though, the latest gossip around the proverbial water cooler is that we will be moving back to the Command Center later this month.

This is me at the Marriot. Notice the chaos! It's 7 days a week, 10 - 12 hours a day. I make maps for the field survey teams and then manage the GPS data they bring back. I'm currently on a 2 week rotation (2 weeks working in AL and 2 weeks working back home). Everyone I work with is really great but 2 weeks is a long time. Actually the truth is that 2 weeks feels like a long time when I'm away and a short time when I'm home.
So, you are probably wondering what Jonathan has been doing for his "summer vacation".


Well, that's him with his head under the sink. We had 2 leaky faucets and so he has been doing some home maintenance. Unfortunately, what could have and should have been a fairly basic process turned into a major difficulty. The gentleman that lived in the house before us apparently wasn't much of a plumber. He did several poorly executed patch up jobs. Poor Jonathan ended up replacing 5 faucets and even some piping.

However . . . we now have beautiful bathroom faucets. So here is the before shot.



And this is the after.


Aren't they pretty? What can I say . . . I married a man with skills.


And what about Otis you say? How is his summer going?
Well it's all fun in the sun to him.