Tuesday, August 14, 2007

Inbound Houston!

My name is Dave, and I'm an addict. It started innocently enough. Over the past week I've had several periods of downtime waiting for various things. During my boredom, I found this gave on my BlackBerry called BricksBreak. And now I cannot quit. It's really a simple game. Not much more complex than the pong console game we had in 1978. But sadly, I am hooked. I'm glad to have it because...

IT WAS A LOOOONG NIGHT
We hydrotested my pipeline component last night. The process is simple. We hooked up a pump to the pipe, and pressure it up to about 9600 psi and close a valve. Now the pipe is sealed and under pressure.



We watched the pressure gauge to see if it leaked, for 8-hours. Yes, it's just as boring as it seems. You check the pressure gauge every 30-minutes. The rest of the time you find creative ways to entertain yourself. Unfortunately we didn't start the test until almost 7:00PM. We finished up around 4:30AM when the paper work was all done. A long, boring process, but necessary to ensure we don't leak anything into the gulf waters. I didn't mind too much because...

JOB DONE!
We put everything on the boat that will carry this monstrosity to its final resting place 3,600-feet below the Gulf of Mexico. I'm heading back to home after a good day/night's sleep.

It will be good to get back and resume a more robust training schedule. The Fall race seasons is coming soon. With the heat, fall seems so far away. But it isn't. Why is it that prime training season happens during the worst of the weather seasons? The heat of summer and the cold of winter. I suppose it just makes us that much better prepared if we utilize it the right way. I'm going to try to remember that for next year's training plan.

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