My Day

I woke up at 5:oo a.m. in Winnemucca Nevada. I had breakfast in the hotel cafe and was on the road before six. I drove the 60 miles to the Midas mine on a clear cool beautiful morning watching the sun rise over the Ruby Mountains of Northern Nevada. The last 4o miles was dirt road but a nice smooth one with no one else on it. When I got to the mine I entered the gate with my 'badge' and drove to the Timberline Drilling lay down. No one was there. I needed to unload some drill rods and there was no fork lift. I tried getting someone of the radio but they were underground and couldn't hear me. I waited for an hour and finally left a note and was heading out when one of the guys shows up on the Sky Track fork lift and unloaded me.
I left for the Hollister Mine another 17 miles of dirt road. When I got there no one from Timberline was around. The mine site was very busy, this is a frantic operation that is chasing high grade gold ore and the people are quite pissy. I finally found our forklift and unloaded some more rods. I left and decided to take the back roads to Elko. This was a mixed blessing as the road was rough as hell but I didn't see a soul for two hours. I finally found my way out right into the middle of the huge Barrick and Gold Quarry Mines and the maze of haul roads huge pits and other bullcrap they have. I came out in Carlin Nevada and stopped at the Flying J for a quick bite to eat and a drink. I drove the 30 miles to Elko and talked to the boys at the Elko office that I hadn't seen for three weeks and hooked up a trailer and took it Les Schwab for some new tires. I loaded some empty rod racks for an early tomorrow morning run to the Leeville Mine to pick up junk rods that I will take to the recyclers in Spokane next week. Checked out the items I will load tomorrow and will head out late for Couer d'Alene. Checked into the hotel and took a shower then went to my favorite food joint the 'Monkey Sun' kinda like Panda Express except the real thing (no english here boy). Went back to my room and watched the incredible election bullshit on the news channels and called the skirt and I will be asleep by 9:30 I won't make it home tomorrow but I will be home the next day. That was my day.

Test Result - F

As part of my big whoopin physical I had recently they did some blood work. I was shocked, shocked I tell you to learn that in addition to high blood pressure I also have high cholesterol. Being the fine specimen of health that I am, this doesn't make sense. Triglycerides are 256, which would be a great bowling score but appartently aren't great for the arteries. Im not convinced of this because I saw the blood when it was being drawn and it looked really red and healthy. You have to be careful with junk science and not let it get you down. The beautiful thing about the physical was I was able to pull a good blood pressure reading just once that passed for the DOT physical so I could quit using the one I gave myself, hee hee. So the young Dr. called me in for some counseling about diet and exercise. So, I am going to loose 49 pounds or so and quit smoking dope and cut back to 2 alchoholic drinks per meal and see what happens. Im warning you though - I loose weight and get in shape and I will be too damn sexy for my shirt.

Moon River Redux

Winter Is Here

 For me at least, winter started on Tuesday.   I got a call that one of our drills that was drilling in the mountains south of Butte Montana was done.  They had over 30 inches of snow fall in 24 hours and were buried.  The pulled the plug on it for the winter and now we had to get it down the mountain and all the other equipment with it.  All kinds of fun.  By the time I got there the bulldozer had plowed the road into the drill site but everything was buried.  We started loading up and after a few hours that guy that was the foreman got on his cell phone for a minute and turned and said "I'm done take me into town I have a new job in West Virginia"  Chickenshit punk, two others quit and that left me and one hillbilly from Tenessee.  We got a load off and drove the five hours to Coeur d'Alene.  Going back tomorrow for another crack at it.  I heard it's snowing again.  

Bottom Ten Percenters

  So here we are in the last month of the presidential elections.  Once again it's a close race.  The country remains divided down the middle as it has been for the last 8 years.  Obama supporters are quite vocal and devoted,  McCain has his share of the vote.  What it comes down to is the ten percent of Americans who are undecided.  

  That is amazing to me.  The candidates are so different in their policies, philosophies and records that it is day and night in what they stand for.  If you seriously at this point don't know who you are voting for then you are dumber than a box of rocks.  I am not knocking the people who support their candidate for whatever reasons but I am condemning the incredible mental deficiency of those who haven't been able to come to a decision at this point.  The primaries dragged on for a year,  the last months have been all about the conventions and the candidates, we know all too much about both of them.

  So the fate of a nation rests with the bottom ten percent, the future belongs to the dopes, our hopes and dreams abide with the dunces.  This group of  crafty smartypantses is swayed easily by the media and pop culture so this one is probably in the bag for Obama whom they love dearly.  Power to the dumbbums.  Hallelujah pass the tylenol.

A Mine By Any Other Name

 I spend a lot of time at different mines in my job.  Mostly gold mines in Nevada but also silver mines up here in North Idaho.  I find the names of the mines to be interesting.  A good one is Midas a gold mine near Winnemuca, great name for a gold mine, the Midas touch.  Others down there are Rosebud, Jerritt Canyon, McCoy Rawhide, Barrick, Rain, Turquoise Ridge, Steer, Gold Strike, Getchell and Aurora.

 Up here the Silver mines are Lucky Friday, Crescent, Star, Bunker Hill, The Galena and The Sunshine Mine.  The Sunshine is probably the least well named of the bunch.  Seventy six miners died there in the late 70's during a mine fire.  If I ever get to name a mine I will call it the Clair Bear and let people wonder what the hell that is all about.

Fall

 It's raining here in Hayden Lake, there is a chill in the air and the leaves are falling with every breeze.  I love fall it is a beautiful time of year but this one seems a bit too soon.  We had a harsh winter last year and cold spring.  The summer was incredibly nice but just not long enough.

  When I lived in Southern Utah I couldn't wait for fall after the heat blast of summer there.  But here there is no rush for cold weather.  Also, my job depending on what I'm doing can be downright nasty in winter.  Oh well,  can't stop the seasons just for my whims. 

   I have two fires going tonight one upstairs in the big brick fireplace and one downstairs in the wood stove.  Very cozy and nice.  Unfortunately my wife isn't here to enjoy the ambiance she is in St. George helping her mother who has been in the hospital.  Lisa loves Coeur d'Alene as much as I do but would prefer to spend the winters in Southern Utah which we might do someday.  North Idaho in the summer and St. George in the winter, not bad at all.