In which Allison complains a little about work

The state of Virginia (and to a certain extent Tennessee) is trying to kill me.  There is no reason to require testing at 15m intervals.  Nothing is more depressing than finishing eight hours of shovel testing only to discover that you've covered less than a half a mile.  Boo.  When we're not going ridiculously slow because of the massive amount of shovel tests we get to climb up and down rather steep hills.  Granted, right now any hill would look steep to me, as I've spent the last three years in New Orleans where there is exactly one hill.  It's in the zoo and it's man-made. 

Some time next week we get to climb a mountain.  Honest. Quite possibly we'll get to climb the mountain twice, since the landowner at the very top won't let us on his land.  We will have to walk up one side to the edge of his property and then walk back down and climb up the other side to continue surveying.  Strangely I'm kind of looking forward to it.  I appear to be becoming strangely outdoorsy.  Who knew?

Finally, the hotel (Super 8) we're staying in seems to have hired the worst painters in existence.  Everyday they and their work area are covered in paint. The managed to spray paint all over a bunch of cars in the parking lot because they couldn't be bothered to give advanced warning so people could move their cars.  And one of them spends a lot of time sleeping in his car in the parting lot with the windows down blasting hymns.  It is rather odd.  Currently they are painting all the floors to cover up the many, many paint drips so the crew is waiting for the time that we are either painted into or out of our rooms. 

In which Allison complains a little about work

The state of Virginia (and to a certain extent Tennessee) is trying to kill me.  There is no reason to require testing at 15m intervals.  Nothing is more depressing than finishing eight hours of shovel testing only to discover that you've covered less than a half a mile.  Boo.  When we're not going ridiculously slow because of the massive amount of shovel tests we get to climb up and down rather steep hills.  Granted, right now any hill would look steep to me, as I've spent the last three years in New Orleans where there is exactly one hill.  It's in the zoo and it's man-made. 

Some time next week we get to climb a mountain.  Honest. Quite possibly we'll get to climb the mountain twice, since the landowner at the very top won't let us on his land.  We will have to walk up one side to the edge of his property and then walk back down and climb up the other side to continue surveying.  Strangely I'm kind of looking forward to it.  I appear to be becoming strangely outdoorsy.  Who knew?

Finally, the hotel (Super 8) we're staying in seems to have hired the worst painters in existence.  Everyday they and their work area are covered in paint. The managed to spray paint all over a bunch of cars in the parking lot because they couldn't be bothered to give advanced warning so people could move their cars.  And one of them spends a lot of time sleeping in his car in the parting lot with the windows down blasting hymns.  It is rather odd.  Currently they are painting all the floors to cover up the many, many paint drips so the crew is waiting for the time that we are either painted into or out of our rooms.