Don't Pinch the Dream'n Boy!

Hey, Hey! Everybody!(anybody?) First off let me say this blog will not be about kitties! That being said, heres a shot of three, one day old kitties. The mother is young and clue-less, the little grey one was on the cold cement floor, having fallen from the chair the mother had them on.(I don't actually know if she had them on the chair,(like had them had them?) but that morning they where on the chair, mostly.) Sadly, by the next morning there was only one. The mother cats mother,(from now on to be referd to as gramma cat,)has taken over the mothering of the last one. It has been hiding in a pile of boxes, warm, dry, and safe from the every day perils of being a shop cat! This shop is at my new job!(my dream job,) Last may,(my, how the last year has just slipped by!)just before my first blog, I went to Kelona for a Mothers day visit with my then estranged(?) mother and brother. One thing led to another, and we all come back up here for a visit.(now we all sort of live here, and are no longer estranged!)(stranged, yes, estranged, no!) Now on one of our many tours of the rual niebourhood,(cows in da hood,) my Mom took us by a under constuction golf course called Coal Creek. At the time she had commented how cool it would be to move home, and get a job building that course!(and I thought, yeah right, move out into the sticks, give up winter golf, suffer through the cold, live in a old dog trailer,(life is funny isnt it?) and why would they hire me anyways?) So long story short, as I'm raking doggie doo off of Lyns lawn,(hi Lyn!)I get a phone call from Coal Creek, asking if I can be there in the morning to talk about work. And something or other about "rock truck". I hang up,(or press "End" button,)thinking about following a truck picking up rocks. Tuesday morning comes around, and I head over to the golf course,(about 8 miles!)(when I was working in north Edmonton, my round trip was 271km!)(each day!)and get the "insiders" tour. Its going to be a great course, and I was excited about the chance to help build it.(then maybe work there, like cutting grass, when it was done.) I'm told what they need is a rock truck driver. So I tell him I've driven 1 tons, and 5 tons, grain trucks when I was like 12! He tells me this will be a little bigger, and takes me around the side of the building...And there is a truck the size of a house! Ever play with the Tonkas when you were young?(we had home made stuff, made from wood, and old licence plates!)(true story.) Well I kind of went off in a daze of pre-pubence wunderment! Then I hear, "Climb up, and check it out, tomorrow you can take a spin to get use to it, then off to work!"then somthing about sorry the antenas broke, so you'll only have xfm!(I think more time was used explaning the satellite radio system, then the truck.)(But to be fair, the radio probaly has more buttons the the truck!)

So now I go to a golf course every day, and drive the biggest truck I've ever seen.(and paid $1 more per hour then my last painting job! For gods sake man! don't pinch the dream'n boy!)

These two shots are from day number two, just to show a little size scale, feels sooo wierd to drive the blazer home now, feels too small!(and when I got it, it felt so big compared to the wabbit. Oh, the wabbit, I have this recurring day dream, where I back over the wabbit with this truck!) On the left is what my rock truck would have looked like new...its not so shiny now. I forgot my camera on the first day. Too bad to, cause one of the neat things about these trucks is, the frame is not soild. What I mean by that is, right behind the cab,(about 4 feet behind me when I drive,)is the piviot point. If you are sitting still, and you turn the steering wheel, the front of the truck stays still, but the back end moves about 6feet either way! Because of the "piviot-in-the-middle-lika-city-bus" effect, you can have an extremly tight turning radius! Just behind the piviot is another feature of the un-stiff frame. The back half will tilt left or right independently of the cab. This means if you back up onto a pile to dump,(it seems wrong somehow to use the words pile and dump in the same sentence, and then have no punch line!)and keeping the cab totally level, completely tip the back half of the truck!(I mean right on its side! two wheels up and two wheels down!(and two more right level on the ground!)and me inside, looking like that guy on tv, who drove too close to the sink hole. You know the one, with the "ooops" look on his face, like I wish I hadn't just done that!) I guess it happens. The track-hoe came over and tipped the back half up-right agien, and away I went. At lunch break I drove back to the shop for a 15min. repair to the exuast system. Seem like it was designed to break away in a tip over. So now I know how far is too far. How lucky to learn that on my first day! The other driver has never done that, so he's only guessing how far is too far. Me, I know!
I've thrown in some shots taken from my point of view, out the windows of my "office". The first shot is out towards holes one and two,(see included map at bottom of page, or check out thier website at http://www.coalcreekgolfresort.com/ hey cool! it changed colour! I guess that means I got the jabs-n-slashes right! anyways, please do check out the website, lots of cool pics of the course under construction. Plus lots of history of the coal mine and equipment!) Then a shot out my left window towards the trird green, of the D6 cat,(trying to smooth our road, good luck!)and the other truck,(only one serial number differnt from mine, but I like mine better!) That D6 cat looks so small when we roll by him. Its not like I don't know the crews names, I do,I just havent cleared it with them yet.(witness relocation could be anywhere/anyone!)

As we move the rather large hill of clay over towards the third green, we are really rutting up the hard packed road. Have you ever seen that ice road truckers show? Where the wave of ice is pushed up in front of the heavy truck? Thats what happens with these trucks. The earth rises in front of the tires, then squishes down into sometimes 4 ft. deep ruts. We just try to aim for the high spots, its smoother that way. Just for curiosity, I asked the track-hoe operator how much he was loading us down with. Some times we have to take off up hill, and you step on the gas pedal...and the truck slowly starts to move,(like its protesting the motion.) I was told the truck alone wieghs 30,000lbs. empty!(and I heard its like a 108 liter fuel tank, so thats gotta wiegh a bit too.)(for all the equipment I was told they go through a gas trucks worth of diesel per week,)(witch is 10,000 liters!) Oh yeah, back to the load weight, I was told 30 tons! His bucket is at least 4.5ft. to 5ft. wide, and it takes 8 giant scoops to fill each truck.(then he wacks us on the side to wake us up to go and dump,)( just kidding.)(he really only wacks us when the clay sticks in his bucket.)

Right now we are pileing the clay for the cat to form into a L shaped berm. This berm will seperate the course from the county road.(is what I've overheard in the lunch room anyways.) Some time from now we'll get to dig the creek.(he'll dig, well watch, and dump, and watch, and dump, and wat...(repeat will be necessary!)) If the creek is deep enough the coal seam will be exposed. I think that would look cool, shiny black coal, glissining in the bright alberta sun, water dancing over hundreds of scutteled golf balls, dotting the creek bed, standing out like an away fan in a home stadium,(espesilly when home loses.) It'll be easier for cheapskates like me to find our lost balls,(and not in the divorce either...)unless your playing the Nike black ball, then forget it, its just gone. Reminds me of one of my first golf memories...Back when I was beardless by nature, and not just by choice, I ended up at a teachers conference for the whole district. It was held at a local course, and how educational to see all my high school teachers get drunk! Any ways, my Mom was there and decided to stand out by playing a bright yellow ball,(back when any colour but white was rare,) and she did, right up untill she hit it into a big patch of dandylions!(ah, those were good times!)

The banner shot,(on top,) is looking towards tee #6 and hole #9. As you can see there is a mountain of coal dust in front of that building, dwarfing the D6 cat.(the little yellow blur in front of the big black shape.)(If you dont feel like scrolling up to the top agien, you can also see it on the left.) That is left over from the mine, and now some other business comes and mixes it with fertilizer or something.(for somthing, sounds like a multi purpous, third world bomb factory to me!)(or not.) I'm not sure what its for, but they take it out by the truck load, to some where.(This is the kind of informitive jouranalism you've come to expect from this blog isn't it? I know to me the internet sure lost a lot of its creditbility when I found out just any smoe(like me) with a crap-top could get on it! I mean where will it all end?)
All of these shots where taken last thursday,(my 2nd day of work,)friday was too wet to dig. So for my 3rd day as a rock truck driver...I washed walls to get them clean enough to paint,(I try to get out, but they just keep pulling me back in!) So this week we get three days in, and the rain(and some snow!) comes back with a vengence once agien. Don't tell the boss, but I would love to take the truck out in the swampy conditions, just to see how stuck I could get that monster! Hehehe!"Better get a bigget cat...Hes gone in up to the cab!" hehehe.(but we'll just keep that between us O.k.? and the squishing my old vw bit too, k?) Today was the painting day, and with the non stop rain, tomorrow will be as well. Its good to fianally get some wet, now we could use some warm! One of these sunny days I'll throw the clubs in to the Blazer, and head out to Tofield golf course.(the closest open course not in my back yard,) It's been too long since I've played for real. Its probaly a good thing its only a nine holer because I'll likely just go after work.(and I know I'm out of walking the course shape!)

These next two shots are what I look at most,(at least during the important times,)my mirrors. Strange thing about this truck is when your backing up and truning, you see nothing! As you turn the ass end swings sideways to the cab and fills your mirrors. The other side mirrors show only empty space where you've already been.(if there was somthing there, its gone now!)(hope it was a wabbit!)(hehehe!)Even strait behind is a 15ft. wide blind spot, so you just look at what will be behind you. If you time it right, by turning while you can see the spot where you want to be,(and keeping it in one of the mirrors,)you'll end up o.k. The loader gives you a good aim point, and will start dumping when your in the correct spot. Also the dozer is a good target, he likes it right in frount of his blade,(the closer the better, don't worry he'll get out of the way!)The first day he confused the hell out of me with some vage hand gestors, and sweeping arm motions. Finally I just jumped down,(well I took the first two steps then jumped down, I'm not as young as I used to be you know!)and asked him just where he wanted it. Its better to ask then dump 30 tons in the wrong spot!

I hope it rains it self out this week end, I want to re-retire from painting. Tomorrow(friday!)I'll finish the new office/storage room/litter box area, that used to be the coal truck weigh station, as well as the new lunch room, that used to be a old office.(When we where cleaning it out, we found a old record player/radio/8-track cabinet that had to have been there since 1975! Judging from the wide assortment of classic discoish titles.)

This last shot is of the last load of the day. Just a load of rocks found in amonst the clay. One rock was half the buckett size, or about as big across as your dinning room table, with the optional leaf! so not the kind of thing I'd want in the fairway any ways.(dont look for that rock in this picture, it must have got loaded while I was dumping.)

Bachelor tip for any day; When your feeling old, up is too far to get, and over is too far to bend. So a helpful hint is too have a rolling chair and put your beer in the door of your fridge. That way you can just roll on by and grab the handle, spin your self into a graceful stop and grab a tasty reward for being so squave!(unfortunatly for me my kitchen floor is still an inch lower then this room, so any attempt at squaveness would result in a full on face plant followed by the inevitable getting up!)

Now we come to the end of this blog, and as we talked about stuff from today, we are offically all caught up! No more will we have to play the time travel shuffle board shell game(?) No sir, now we're all on the same page. Take the time to look at the map below, if you click on it it gets bigger.(sorry guys, it only works with pictures.) This is a course I can't wait to play, even if I wasn't working there...But I Am! (HaHaHA!)(that was my happy laugh, it only sounds strange cause it hasn't been heard in a while.) Have a great week, next post in may! I've been bloggin now for almost 1 year! Latter DufferKev.

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