I'm here

I’m back in Tulsa after 6 weeks of the Appalachian Mountains and a week of R & R.  I have no idea how to update so I am just going to hit the highlight reel.

Despite my fear that things would be shutting down and I wouldn’t end up going, I was sent to a place that processed about 10 times as many trucks as any site I had worked in the past.  After I was there a week or so they asked me to extend until the end of July.  I kind of expected that if I got on with the QAS they would ask to extend.  After being told numerous times (according to him) that there were no extensions, I send an email to the area engineer and asked if they had received my extension request, it was approved by the end of the day.  I think they were trying to get rid of the QAS.  Turns out he took care of that himself as we were sitting on the porch of a hotel in a rocking chair with a cooler of beer still wearing his emergency management shirt.  Someone saw him and walked up and told him he probably shouldn’t be doing that, and he told her to mind her own business.  And that was his last day.  I got a call that night telling me I was the new QAS.  Normally it isn’t that big of a deal, you get some good QAs and you just let them work and stay out of their way.  That worked out great for a few days, but all of my crew left on the same day and I was left with an elderly know it all that I didn’t get off to a very good start with me.  They sent me 3 contractors, but they were a hot mess.  I was trying to run 3 sites, one of which did 400 trucks a day on a skeleton crew and I was losing my mind.  After much begging and pleading I got 2 great people….2 days before I went home.  I was so stressed out and exhausted by the time I left. 

The area itself is gorgeous.  They filmed Dirty Dancing at the lake I worked and Hunger Games and Last of the Mohicans in an area very close by.  I had a day to explore, and I walked down the street of Chimney Rock, a town that was pretty much decimated and happened to catch a store my mom had seen on youtube on their reopening day.  I was able to get her a shirt and magnet.  They had pictures up of the big army digging out over 2 feet of mud from the store.  I spent a little time in Dupont Forrest and did a few short hikes to some amazing waterfalls.  I will try and put some pictures on, but I have had some issues getting them to upload.  It was 108 according to my car thermometer when I got back in.  The rocks were also super slippery as I found out the hard way and cracked my apple watch face and my glasses.  Totally worth it.

There were also a lot of hard cideries there.  I tried a lot of new ones and found a couple of places that had clubs that sends their seasonal ciders out quarterly.  I signed up for one at Noble that had a cider called Village Tart that was a clear winner in both taste and name.  It is an area I would go back to.  Not the USVI but there are lots of things to do.  For sure not a place I would just pick to vacation at before I was deployed.  I would go back. 

I was supposed to be home August 1^st but I had the brilliant idea that if I took a later flight I would have the morning to spend in Ashville.  I knew better.  My flight was supposed to leave at 4 but the typical mid-afternoon storm blew in and delayed us.  I had a short connection in Dallas and got the alert on my phone that my plane was boarding before we even hit the bridge.  I looked it up and it was a 15-minute walk to the next gate, and I was in the back of the plane so that wasn’t happening.  I was so pissed as I waiting for everyone to get their life together and take their time getting off the plane.  They rebooked me on a flight that was supposed to leave at 9 but that one had an issue, and it was 30 minutes late boarding.  We finally got on the plane, and I guess the check engine light came on while the did the push back?  They called maintenance and they grounded us.  I mean, it’s a 45-minute flight, lets risk it at this point.  But nope, we get off the plane and they tell us to stay in the area because there is a chance they will get another plane.  I try like hell not to talk to people around me on the plane, but for some reason the lady next to me and I started talking and really hit it off.  We talked about renting a car and driving to Tulsa as she had to be at work the next day.  Turns out she was a producer for the First 48 crime series that’s based out of here.  Do I watch it? NO, I find it a little exploitive but man the stories she would have.  She ended up with 2 other people that were renting a car, and I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.  About the time that got sorted they said we had a plane in another terminal that was leaving at 11:30. When I got there, I heard the people at the gate say that the crew timed out at 11:50 so I just called the work travel agent and had them rebook me for 7 the next day and get me a hotel.  About the time I got loaded into the Lyft I got a message that the plane was delayed until after 3 so I made the right choice.  I was so tired when I got to the hotel, I took a shower and fell asleep with the towel still covering me.  I don’t think I moved an inch.  I was afraid I had overslept but I ended up having plenty of time.  I still didn’t land until 9:30 because we had to circle for some heavy rain.  Regardless I am home and probably will not be deploying again this season as one of my coworkers took another job while I was gone, and we are down a planner. 

I took last week off and had a little me time.  I got my nails and hair done and took my mom out to eat for her birthday.  We went a day early and I’m glad we did because while we were out, she got a phone call that her youngest brother passed away.  He had been put in hospice the week before, so it wasn’t a shock but still.  I tried to get her to fly to FL to see him, but they had taken him off all his meds and dialysis, so he wasn’t really lucid and she said she didn’t wasn’t to see him like that.  I can understand that.  Heather wanted to scout the downtown area for headshot locations and conned me into ‘modeling’ for her.  Dear god it was hot.  She got a few that she liked but not enough, so we ended up going back out a few days later.  I thought she was going to pass out from the heat.  She got my mom to come too so she got out of the house.  As much as I don’t like the living situation, I think it is good for my mom.  I haven’t seen any pictures from the second shoot so who knows how that will look.  I mean, she is already working at a disadvantage with the model, lol. 

Everything else is minutia.  I got my travel voucher turned in and will start working with soon to be ex coworker to get access to the systems she uses and such what not.  I can tell I haven’t spent much time on the computer lately because my head is killing me.  It also just occurred to me that I have new glasses, that probably doesn’t help.