my EGYPT accident

today on the way home, we were involved in an accident. it's the worst so far that i've been in, but that's still a far cry from the carnage you can see on the egyptian highways. we all had our seat belts on, and TheDriver did the very best he could to avoid an accident that wasn't his fault. i'm proud of him, we're still alive with no injuries.

we were on a feeder road onto the alex-cairo agricultural road which we take all the way to alex. as you can see from the pix at the bottom, we were heading WNW on the feeder; whereas, this truck made it's own road from the highway offramp that loops east. he tried to get across our feeder to the gas station before we got to him. it didn't happen. TheDriver got as far to the right of our lane as possible to avoid him and started on the brakes. sadly, since this is in the desert, sand collects at the edge of the road, so though he was turning right (towards the gas station lot), his tires were nevertheless sliding forward. since he was on the brakes, our momentum threw the front end down so we basically slid under the side of the truck. we stopped in the lot ready to talk to TheTruckDriver until he bolted. well, TheDriver would have none of that. he threw it back into driver and bolted after him, even as the bumper and other hood underparts were grinding away at the tire. we caught him after 1/4 mile and forced him to the shoulder. THEN TheDriver, ThePartsGuy, and TheTeaBoy all bolt out of the car dragging TheTruckDriver out of his truck!! TheTeaBoy had procured a ball-peen hammer from somewhere and was threatening TheTruckDriver with it (i think this is actually common in egyptian accidents, i've seen bats and pipes pulled out on at least two other occasions). they yelled for a bit, we made some calls, some other drivers came out to bring the cops, and i was sent home while TheDriver had to go to the police station to file the report. i offered to go to ensure that he wasn't in trouble, because it was 0% his fault, but the cop (through a driver translating) told me he knows the problem, and i wouldn't be needed.

so, here's the damage...

the damage we received from the right (TheDriver's side)

the damage we received from the left (my side)

the damage WE inflicted... a bent bolt for securing the load and a bent sheet-metal mudflap.

that's a truck full of LNG (liquified natural gas ~ propane) tanks we ran into

how our accident happened... click the pic to read it a bit better

btw, there is a new poll up. whatcha think of my style?!

the man under the bridge

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about a mile from work there is a strange little hiccup in the road where it goes under a bridge crossing the canal. you can see it in the picture here. it's just a quick bend in the road, but people drive on this road faster than they should and egyptians have no qualms about overtaking around blind turns, so this is actually a dangerous part of the road. due to the speeds people travel this road, i consider this a blind turn. there is a man that stands under this bridge most of the day directing traffic. i believe his family helps out in shifts letting you know whether it is safe to barrel around this turn or telling you to stop because an insane truck driver is coming from the other direction balls to the wall. i learned that this man does this because his son was killed at this turn several years ago. he wanted to do something to make it safer so, apparently, he took it upon himself to diligently stand there all day helping to make this dangerous part of the road safer. most of the drivers for this site and other people who take this road regularly tip him a pound or two ($.50) when we pass. our driver does it faster than most. you can't see the actual handoff in this video because it happens so fast, but it's like a 40mph high-five! you can hear the smack at the end. i don't know how both my driver and this guy still have rotator cuffs left due to the daily collisions, but i found it interesting enough to share with you.

blood runs red on the highway

the past few days have been weird. two stories i have that i didn't see happen directly, but saw the result of one. neither of them are very happy stories.

<story 1> (i heard this second hand from an italian who's english isn't perfect so there may be some inconsistencies): our labor contractor is led by an office of italians. TheHeadItalian was leaving site to go to cairo for a meeting when a commotion happened at the tollgate just down the road. i don't know the exact details of the commotion other than it involved armed police, possibly armed and drug-possessing bedouins, and TheHeadItalian's car. from what i could gather, there were two trucks of bedouins that came out of the desert and tried to cross the tollgate without papers. the police were coincidentally at the toll gate, i'm not sure if they were tracking them, and they kind of came together at the same time as TheHeadItalian was going through the tolls. the police pulled guns and tried to stop the bedouins, the bedouins were kind of pinned in between the tool booths, so the backed into TheHeadItalian's car, trying to escape. the police couldn't fire because TheHeadItalian was in the crossfire. since the bedouins couldn't get past, they ended up surrendering. it is rumored the police DID find drugs and automatic weapons with the bedouins. craziness! all right outside my plant.</story 1>

<story 2>this one isn't very happy either. we left this morning from the apartment at our usual time of 6:00AM. the drive is usually just about an hour going 100+ mph most of the way. i pop in my headphones and doze most of the trip, it's easier on the heart. today, we had fog. we've had a bit of fog for the past week or two, but today, it was THICK!!! i'm talking MAYBE six feet visibility. definitely not 100 mph weather. so we got on the highway, same ol', same ol', and made it about 30-40 minutes into our drive when the fog got thicker still, and we saw 6-7 people waving frantically for us to stop. we slowed down and saw that our colleagues' car had already stopped, so we pulled to the shoulder. the same 7 or so people were stopping all the cars behind us. we stepped out into the chill foggy morning to see what was going on. if anyone has seen "the mist" recently... it was like that. you didn't dare step too far from anyone else or you might lose sight of them totally.

our egyptian drivers translated to us that there was a very bad wreck up ahead in the fog. we were tempted to walk ahead, but were advised against it. we waited for a while, maybe 20 or 30 minutes, then word came we could go ahead. i figured it couldn't be that bad of an accident if that's all it took. we got into the cars and pulled away into the still peasoup-thick fog. we only made it maybe 100 yards before we were stopped again, and now we could see one of the vehicles. straddling the left lane of the highway (3 lanes in each direction) was a delivery truck, the entire front end smashed in, but again, that was all we could see. we got out and talked and contemplated looking ahead as loads of egyptians were walking ahead to see the damage. we wanted to rubberneck as well but we were advised against it by our onsite safety guy who was traveling along the same road at the same time as we were. some semi's and micro-buses tried to weave their way through but were stopped once they reached the wreckage. there were semi's, pickup trucks, and delivery vans scattered across all lanes of the highway ahead.

the safety guy was trying to arrange for a micro bus to pick us up on the other side of the highway and take us back to ma'adi, while TheSiteLead took a walk ahead on the shoulder to scope out the situation. upon his return, he'd decided that since we had 4WD SUVs, we would drive them 10 yards towards the center shoulder where the sand was firm, and we could drive around the carnage, and carnage it was. we got in the vehicles and made our way around the wreck. due to the thick fog and having to help direct our driver on how to drive in sand, i wasn't able to get a great look at the wreck, but what i did see wasn't pretty. one semi carrying gravel turned over onto a bus, one semi carrying bricks jack-knifed with the cab smashed in, several pickups battered to hell and back, another cargo semi on it's side blocking the entire road, and i saw several bodies covered in sheets. we got about 50 yards along the wreck when we came to a semi that had plowed into the center median so we had to cut back toward the road between that truck and another wrecked one in the left lane. once, we got around that, we were on our way, open highway all the way to work. we heard before we left that there were as many as 20 dead in the accident. it was awful in the fog alone, now that the fog has burnt off, i'm sure the site is even more gruesome. i didn't have my camera, so these pictures are from TheElectrical's camera phone. these are typical of the fog we encountered, and the last one is by far, the vehicle in the best shape of any of them.</story 2>

i'm going to hurghada for the arabic weekend (thursday/friday), it's on the red sea. we got hooked up with an excellent all-inclusive resort for $125/night. heading out at lunch. i need something nice to take my mind off this morning.

UPDATE: 25 people died according to the local paper.

post-holiday blog lull

sorry for the gap in posts. i've been busy from leaving my last site, getting to see jules for a little over a week, lots of travel (both, intra- and inter-state), getting ready for my next site, and the unthinkable... i'm sick.

i never get sick. truthfully and honestly, i can't recall being sick since maybe highschool... about 12 years ago. i don't know how to do it. i get a cough once in a while, but i don't consider that sick. i consider cough, congestion, sneezing, runny nose, fatigue, aches, upset stomach, sore throat, fever, chills, etc... that's sick. well this time i have the sniffles, cough, congested and fatigued, so i'll have to admit, i'm sick. the problem was, i may have exposed the BTBz. we hung out over new year's, and it seems juddy is now ailing, possibly because of me. we spent one night playing "rock band", which required a lot of singing from me which just plumes the air with my pathogens, when i only thought i had a cough. the next day i kinda kicked in to full gear BLAHness. sorry juddy, i hope no other BTBz are sickly.

i'm still writing a blog post about my trip to boystown in mexico, but that's still in progress. i got to see a lot of jules as she came to town to visit for my 30th. my 30th was typical, same ol' watering hole, but said watering hole has it's xmas party every 23rd of december, so i just acted like it was my party. after sleeping in a bit, jules and i hit the road around 10:30AM on christmas eve trip to florida to see her brother's in-laws and her family who were there visiting as well. we could've flown, but i figured i'm not going to drive my truck for a year, i've never really road-tripped, and jules and i could catch up. it ended up being about $500 in gas round trip, and we didn't need a rental car once we got there, so it ended up being cheaper, and i think it was pretty fun. the trip was monumental for me as it was the longest i've ever done, 16 hours. we arrived at our hotel around 2:30AM christmas morning. jules and i had a good time on the drive, lots of talking, she read to me quite a bit, i learned the hard way that jules falls asleep on car trips. that kinda sucked on occasion when i was getting drowsy, and she was well ahead of me in sleep.

i met loads of people i'll probably never meet again, had some good food, and watched a tiny parade. jules and i took her 5-yr old niece and 3-yr old nephew to our hotel and swam, and by swimming, i mean, jules looked stunning while sunning herself on the chaise while the youngins jumped from the pad for me to catch them in the water and take them back. on the day we left, we made a last minute decision to go to the beach with her parents, her brother and sister-in-law and the niece and nephew. i took the niece out into the ocean while jules, her brother, and her nephew made a big sea tortoise out of sand. it was nice, but sadly the kids got a bit cranky wanting to destroy the turtle before it was finished, and we left maybe after an hour or two. jules and i then made the trip back home in two legs, 8 hours each, with a stop in columbia, SC. that made for two really nice length trips, the hotel was nice, and too soon we were back home. too soon, that was, because jules had to fly back to her house the next day to get ready for a new year's party she was going to. i hate when good times end.

now i'm preparing to go to egypt. i had to go to cleveland to get my transcripts from my school. on tuesday, i fly to washington, DC. the next day i have to go to the egyptian embassy to get my diploma certified to make the work visa process easier in country. hopefully i can do that in one day, because i have my flight to egypt booked on thursday.

hope i didn't lose too man y readers in my downtime. i'll try to update more often. let's go steelers tonight and THE ohio state university on monday night

I'M IN EDINBURG!!!!

just not the right one. instead of having a week of vacation then heading to egypt, i was assigned to edinburg, TX, 15 miles from the mexican border in the southern-most part of the state. you can see the plant and location in my "location updater" there in the right sidebar.

it seems the tips of some of the hard steel blades have come off while the unit it running at 3600RPM. this usually doesn't lead to pretty things unless you consider this pretty (you know, by now, you can click on those for big and perty pix). i don't. this means a long outage. fixing the rotating parts usually isn't an issue, we can turn the rotor to get the blade to the top, and "blend" the edges smooth. problem is, there are non-moving blades (stator) as well. upper half and lower half. upper half is no problem because we remove the upper half and fix them on the ground. there is no access to the lower half ones with the rotor in place. if there were no stator damage, this is a 7-day outage, tops; but we see stator damage. that means pulling a bunch more casings, and i MIGHT get done in time for christmas. the good thing is, IF i'm done around christmas, i should be able to see jules for maybe my birthday and/or christmas and/or new years. my revised need date in egypt is now 2-january-08, which should work out quite well, but as you all know, nothing goes as planned in this field with this manager.

that's enough of the technical. sorry about that, maybe it's too much for a personal blog, but that's where i stand. at least i'm finally on dayshift. the only shitey thing about that is there's not really anyone onsite to go out with after work AND it's a bit tought to talk to jules online. because of the time difference, our schedules are almost completely out of sync.

texas is kinda of a weird place, at least this part of texas, since i shouldn't generalize, despite generalizing this PART of the state by the few people i've talked with. so, from the people i've talked to, they hate bush (WOW!!!) and can't wait to get a democrat in office. that really blew my mind, since bush was governor here. they kinda hate mexicans, a bit, even though they are so close to mexico. these are "right to bear arms, pry my gun from my cold dead hands" kinda people. "americans are americans and should speak american (english)" kinda people. one of the guys has a sticker on his hardhat that says "if i shot you when i first wanted to, i'd be out by now". yeah, those kinda people. they talk about guns and big trucks and arm-wrestling and breeding dogs strong enough to bite your head off. pretty much anything manly and violent. i kinda just don't fit in. i own a .22 rifle (basically a BB gun to these guys) that i haven't shot in years, i just bought a big truck but my tires are too little for these guys (and it doesn't have a winch), the only thing i know about arm-wrestling is from sly stallone's "over the top"... when i turn this hat around, it's like a switch, and dogs... i can take 'em or leave 'em. they're nice enough, they tell me to "cowboy up" a lot, though i know their making fun of the yankee. every time us yanks come to the south, we get hazed a bit.

quick story, last night i was at hooters watching the oregon ducks go down in flames to an unranked arizona (better for OSU), when one of the guys from site saw me at the bar. he came up and we talked for a bit, actually maybe an hour and a half or so. there was an attractive hooters girl, TheNaomi, behind the bar very much in earshot, and at one point i was talking about TheYoungerSister complaining about having to be on her feet for 8 hours a day at work, the guy said "well, it's better than working 8 hours on your back!" i couldn't quit laughing and neither could TheNaomi. it was so... just, WOW! she agreed that 8 hours on your feet would be better than working 8 hours on your back, but the pay on your back would definitely be better. then she went on how she doesn't understand how any woman could ever go hungry or be homeless. she's like "we have the power" (gesturing netherly). i couldn't believe it. it was hilarious. i mean, i think a lot of guys would agree but only around other guys. girls would shoot us for talking like that, and when she said it on top of his comment... well, let's just say my ribs were hurting by the time i got finished laughing. TheNaomi, you are cool!

good times, good times. well, back to work, lunch is over.

this time tomorrow

i'll be at the port of spain airport sitting in a chair, anxiously awaiting the boarding call for my flight home through miami. i get in about 3:30pm, and i can't wait. this was a good job (the site lead must've liked my work as he is bringing me with him to new foundland at the end of october for a job), but it's always nice to go home, especially when you have new toys waiting for you, like my new truck and a bunch of stuff i bought online and forget what i got (xmas in october). so awesome.

in other news, the trinidad highway patrol are pretty strange from a U.S. standpoint, at least from what i hear from the drivers. i've noticed us passing the highway patrol on the highway before. the patrol car had his lights on, and was somberly cruising along the highway, not stopping anyone and in no particular hurry. apparently, they rarely pull people over for speeding. the speed limit is 80kph, and they drive that speed with their lights on to pace people. we usually pass them around 100kph, and they have no problem. it seems they only pull you over if you go, maybe, 140+kph, or are driving recklessly. also, whenever they hear about a big party, they set up a sobriety checkpoint, but it's not like a U.S. checkpoint. they'll stop everyone leaving the party, give them a sobriety test, and if they fail, someone else in the car has to drive... that's all, no fine, no jail time, no DUI charge. if no one in the car can drive, they have you pull over to the side of the road and sleep it off. they come by every couple of hours and test you until you are sober enough to drive. how crazy is that?

well, i gotta pack up all my work stuff here in the office (hardhat, etc). more from the U.S. when i get there.

now, i just gotta get home

i just insured my new truck. this whole internet thing... i really think it is going to catch on. i love how easy it is to do things online, from around the WORLD. i added a vehicle to my policy, was able to research which is better, uninsured motorist coverage or collision (i went with uninsured, even though i could research it, doesn't mean what i found was very clear). i printed up my temp insurance cards until me new ones arrive (i'm optimistically aiming to be done here within a week or so). i use parentheses (a lot), and i'm not sure why. maybe it's a kinda unconscious subliminal voice, like zach braff's character in 'scrubs' or like kevin arnold in 'the wonder years' (i never watched it, but i caught snippets... damn, there i go again).

well, i'm gonna go sit on the naughty step (OH YEAH!) for my irresponsible use of parentheses. btw, i fixed the plain white t's - "hey delilah" video several posts back. i really think it's worth a look-see / listen-hear (?). good for when you're missing someone, and aren't we all at sometime.

new poll

thanks for all the input on my last poll for what i should buy. the top three were lots of blow and hookers (53%), a truck (19%), and invest (12%). as you might know, i went with the runner up, since i ran into a great deal on a truck while vacationing at the NASCAR bristol night race.

i can't really think of another good poll, so i kinda spun off of this one, and what my next big investment might be. any suggestions for polls after this one is done?

painting my truck

i'm so excited to get back home and drive my truck. i'm looking into getting a tonneau cover for it and POSSIBLY some side steps or nerf bars. JHo says i should get bigger tires which is always a possibility. it's too bad it just recently had a paint job before i got it, because it's nice but something other than gold would be better (beggars can't be choosers). emma said she didn't really like the gold either. she gave me some suggestions for what color to paint it. i think maybe a navy blue or black. here are some of my novice photoshop skills trying to get an idea of what it might look like (since the paintjob is like shimmery gold, the solid colors look a bit blotchy, but it's a general idea); AND since emma's dad and brother work on cars, i might be able to get them to paint it for cost + a few $$$, and helping with the labor. that'd be cool. i'll be looking into it. anyways, any suggestions on colors?

black
blue
white
red