Last Major Problem Solved

Bay City, Texas

Weather: low 53 degrees, high 72 degrees, clear skies – Perfect!

It appears the last major problem with the work on the new reactor head has been solved, and the project is moving along. Refueling of the reactor was completed today, and it appears as though we are set to place the reactor head on the reactor vessel on Friday. There has been a lot of stress associated with this job, and there was a noticeable change in attitudes when the latest problem was solved. Fortunately, the stress hasn’t affected me so much, unlike many other outages I have worked in before. Being “retired” gives me a different perspective on a lot of things. The way I fought the stress before was by playing a lot of golf. Since I've "retired", I don't feel the stress, which means I hardly ever play golf. I'm going to have to find some time to play again.

I still have to fulfill a commitment to perform an assessment for another plant near New Orleans, but have not quite worked out all the details on when that will be. I do know that it will be within the next three weeks. Then we're on our way to Glen Rose for physicals. At this time, we expect to celebrate Thanksgiving in Bay City.

I've been noticing a lot of the younger people that we see appear to have tattoos. That's just the tattoos we can see. I'm sure there are many that remain covered most of the time. There is an older man that works with us that had tattoos put on his arms when he was what he calls young and stupid. In the last five or six years, he has spent a lot of money trying to have the tattoos removed, with mixed results. some of them came off, while others have parts missing. Can you imagine what all these young people will look like 20 or 30 years down the road, when they have gained weight and wrinkles? The dermatologists and plastic surgeons will have a gold mine to cash in on.

More later, be safe.

Today's State - Maryland: America In Miniature

Not all who wander are lost.