first fire day

well, today is supposed to be first fire day... AGAIN... for like the 6th time. but i think today, we'll actually make progress. we won't wire, i don't believe, but we'll get through the preliminary parts of checking it at slow speeds etc. we'll get to false fire (putting gas in the turbine but not lighting it) and i expect we'll find LOADS of leaks. when that happens, we'll get to go home. then we get to come in in the morning and fire this puppy up. that makes me happy. if all goes well. at least that is my scenario. could be that they have assloads of leaks (20 for arguments' sake at say 8pm, they say we'll have em all fixed by 9pm, around 10pm we try again, they'll have 18 leaks most of them on new flanges that they retorqued for no reason and messed up the gasket, and they'll be like, we'll have em all fixed in 10 minutes, then 5 hours later they'll still have leaks, THEN they might OFFER to send us to the hotel for 15 minutes rest and a shower then come back. that's basically what happened the other day. grrr. i just wanna get this whatchamacallit spinning at 3000RPM with no crazy sounds, so we can let out a big sigh of relief and i can officially say, "yes that IS a light at the end of the tunnel and not just a hole the labor crew just mistakenly drilled in the wrong place causing us a 2 month holdup". YEA! we'll see what happens. the next blog could be either ecstatically happy or the saddest in the entire history of written communication.

today marks 90%. i've been out of the country 90% of 330 days. 33 days left, and i'm cashin' in. i found out recently that canada has a similar rule but you have to be out only 6 months AND if you go home for a weekend or so while still "working" overseas, it doesn't count against your time. i knew there was a reason i like the great white north, that and the strip clubs above every building in montreal. oh, and that's where i'm going if we ever reinstate the draft. i'm a big fukking target, sorry kids. i'll only slow you down. i'll help with funding/donations.