For a Moment I was Somewhere Else

Joined
Jun 4, 2014
Messages
11,886
Reaction score
28,406
Location
Hollywood
Three of us came in to work the wastewater plant Sat 0800 after all working until midnight Friday. I had worked a double that day, the other two were doubling into their usual 3rd shift until a couple hours ago. As per usual at the end of a workweek, the more one yearns for an uneventful day the more likely happenstance prevents such dreams coming true.
After the usual rounds, process and permit samples, sludge measurements and answering phones with the neighbor's odor complaints (contractor's trucks parked offsite at the golf course full of melting curing compound) and leaking bypass pumps on the other side of town came the fun stuff.
I knew going in today I'd be swapping out the empty chlorine tonne cylinders for full. No big deal, simple and straightforward job requiring due care and diligence to secure a good connection. The rub was my partner noticed visual evidence of a small leak on the Cl2 bank in service during his rounds but could not get a reaction when making a check with ammonia fumes. Again no big deal, close the two cylinder valves until vacuum draws pressure to zero then tighten the nut on the manifold while backing up the pigtail.
A problem with the regulator for the SCBA we're required to don was as yet unresolved and I made a considered decision to do without. I understood the risk and barring catastrophic failure of the overhead crane there was virtually no chance of anything more than the barest whiff of chlorine... as long as I did my job. I made my supervisor aware of my plans, he was OK and offered to back me up with the whip fix after my partner and completed the cylinder swap. No work is done in there without back up. Good idea in a room with 12 - 13 tons of 100% liquid Cl2.
I still got a phone call and will have to meet with the superintendent on Tues. No problem, we'll holler at each other for a bit then work the problem. We have a good understanding of each other.
Things went as planned and I switched the system to manual then walked away until the vacuum drew down. I stepped outside, lit a smoke and thought about what I had just done. Went back in and sure as Sally I goofed. I had manually switched to the full tonnes I just installed. Easy fix, just switched them back only adding about 10 psi to the 110 I started with.
Knowing I had 20 - 30 minutes to kill before zeroing out it was time anyway to measure afternoon blankets (sludge level in the clarifiers). Dipped the four on the east then headed for the four on the west. As I reached the top of the distribution box I saw that all four rakes on all four clarifiers were approaching all four catwalks in unison. No way to drop that 20 ft. tube without in fouling the structure. I may have been able to dip two if I really hustled.
Hell no.
I unkinked my neck and shoulders and walked to the south side of the box, took off my hat and while facing the freshening SE breeze closed my eyes and tilted my head to the warm sun. For a few moments I left that place behind. Another long week in a series of long weeks since Oct. might have never happened. For a short time I was somewhere else. With the sound, but not the scent of mixed liquor pouring over the weirs I may as well been standing by a spillway off of the Little Tennessee river.
I thanked the Lord for this brief respite, reminding me I work to live, not the other way around.
The rest of the day went well, the fix worked first try, easy ride home and the beer was cold.


Apologies for probably my longest post, I just truly wish all here experience their own version of a moment of peace.
Good Night
 
Register to hide this ad
Before retirement, an after-work ride on my motorcycle was my head-clearing mini vacation. Now I just forget things. ;)
Keep up the good work. :)


I appreciate the complexity in that mental picture you drew. One of the last projects I worked on was fabrication of a huge SS process air distribution system at a sewage treatment plant upgrade in NYC. It was the most interesting piping layout I'd done since we stopped making nuclear plants in the 80's.

Newtown_Creek_STP.jpg
 
Those back to back double shifts are killers...A 16 hr go.......I tried not to do them unless forced or I wanted something real bad. We had 2 die from wrecks after working a 16 hr shift and leaving to go home.........YOU be careful out there.
 
Finding a moment's peace standing where you were standing, and taking note of it: well, there's a lesson in that for all of us.

That freshening sou'east breeze would've been coming off the ocean, of course....no wonder it helped put you in mind of blessings....

Thanks.
 
Three of us came in to work the wastewater plant Sat 0800 after all working until midnight Friday. I had worked a double that day, the other two were doubling into their usual 3rd shift until a couple hours ago. As per usual at the end of a workweek, the more one yearns for an uneventful day the more likely happenstance prevents such dreams coming true.
After the usual rounds, process and permit samples, sludge measurements and answering phones with the neighbor's odor complaints (contractor's trucks parked offsite at the golf course full of melting curing compound) and leaking bypass pumps on the other side of town came the fun stuff.
I knew going in today I'd be swapping out the empty chlorine tonne cylinders for full. No big deal, simple and straightforward job requiring due care and diligence to secure a good connection. The rub was my partner noticed visual evidence of a small leak on the Cl2 bank in service during his rounds but could not get a reaction when making a check with ammonia fumes. Again no big deal, close the two cylinder valves until vacuum draws pressure to zero then tighten the nut on the manifold while backing up the pigtail.
A problem with the regulator for the SCBA we're required to don was as yet unresolved and I made a considered decision to do without. I understood the risk and barring catastrophic failure of the overhead crane there was virtually no chance of anything more than the barest whiff of chlorine... as long as I did my job. I made my supervisor aware of my plans, he was OK and offered to back me up with the whip fix after my partner and completed the cylinder swap. No work is done in there without back up. Good idea in a room with 12 - 13 tons of 100% liquid Cl2.
I still got a phone call and will have to meet with the superintendent on Tues. No problem, we'll holler at each other for a bit then work the problem. We have a good understanding of each other.
Things went as planned and I switched the system to manual then walked away until the vacuum drew down. I stepped outside, lit a smoke and thought about what I had just done. Went back in and sure as Sally I goofed. I had manually switched to the full tonnes I just installed. Easy fix, just switched them back only adding about 10 psi to the 110 I started with.
Knowing I had 20 - 30 minutes to kill before zeroing out it was time anyway to measure afternoon blankets (sludge level in the clarifiers). Dipped the four on the east then headed for the four on the west. As I reached the top of the distribution box I saw that all four rakes on all four clarifiers were approaching all four catwalks in unison. No way to drop that 20 ft. tube without in fouling the structure. I may have been able to dip two if I really hustled.
Hell no.
I unkinked my neck and shoulders and walked to the south side of the box, took off my hat and while facing the freshening SE breeze closed my eyes and tilted my head to the warm sun. For a few moments I left that place behind. Another long week in a series of long weeks since Oct. might have never happened. For a short time I was somewhere else. With the sound, but not the scent of mixed liquor pouring over the weirs I may as well been standing by a spillway off of the Little Tennessee river.
I thanked the Lord for this brief respite, reminding me I work to live, not the other way around.
The rest of the day went well, the fix worked first try, easy ride home and the beer was cold.


Apologies for probably my longest post, I just truly wish all here experience their own version of a moment of peace.
Good Night

Very interesting, and for me, exciting post. Lemme make a little note here that may add a little interest or appreciation of the potential problem.

I worked for Shell Chemical Co for 25 years. For 5 of those years I worked in a plant that made Chlorine. It came off the cell line in vapor form and a MONSTER of a reciprocating compressor compressed to liquid form. That is some scary **** in ANY form.

For one thing it is one of the most corrosive substances on Earth. It is so bad that in liquid form it must be piped in Monell (SP) steel. It would eat through regular steel and in vapor form it must be piped in regular steel as it would destroy Monell.

But the scariest part is that it doesn't take much of a whiff to do you in. When it comes in contact with mucous tissue IT TURNS INTO HYDROCHLORIC ACID. On you very first snoot full you WILL NOT BREATH. You will eventually be alright unless you get too much. We always carried those little red and white peppermint candies because they seem to lessen the effects and help restore normal breathing. But any amount hurts...a lot. Ask me how I know...

But if there is a side benefit after you have had even a small snoot full if you are a smoker you will be off them for a couple of weeks or so.
 
I was a police advisor in Kunduz, Afghanistan. I had only been there a few months when the Taliban attacked the German Army camp about a mile and a half away from us. The Taliban had hit the Germans with mortars and rifle fire. Our group of advisors were living in a building behind the main police station.

We went on alert, figuring that the PD would probably be next. As I stood there, I wondered what would come next. I realized that I was at peace with the Lord and if it were my day to die, I knew I was going to Heaven. Nothing else really mattered at that point, except hoping that my co-workers would be safe.

A few hours later, we stood down. And I'm still here to write about it.
 
Thanks for the kind words esp. BWZ's and Jack's input and the reflection from Mr. Gil. Had a mildly insensitive rejoinder for Rusty but he gets more than he lets on and vigil summed up what I was trying to say in far fewer words.
I'm not here to toot my own horn, I realize the under appreciated impact our job has on over a 1/4 million people and I'm damn proud of it even if it does wear on me from time to time.


I was more interested in what others do to find that moment of calm in the storm. I'm always trying to learn.
 
Back
Top