Blue Leisure Suit

Remember back in the 70's when you wore leisure suits? No? Ok, so I wasn't born yet, but that doesn't mean that I can't live the dream. I don't remember old I was in this photo, but I was either in, or just out of high school when I wore this. Those of you that know me know that if I dress up, I go all out. I wore this same suit a few years after this picture was taken to my Fraternities Winter Formal. And yes, I rode on my motorcycle. You couldn't keep the horns from honking in my direction. It's a good thing that I had a full face helmet on, or else I would have ruined the moment with a huge smile instead of play'n it cool.

Now, I'm going to have the opportunity to wear this suit one more time. There's an Alaskan Formal for the Africa trip. Oh, yeah, I'm going to Africa. More on that later, right now all you need to know is that this suit looks good on me.

Bonfire

So, last night was officially a busy night. Let me start at the beginning.
It was Saturday, but because my roommate's vehicle got frozen into two wheel drive he had to park it in the garage at work in order to thaw it out. Everything went fine except he got left at work without the keys to the shop door and we went back to get his truck early (well, nine in the morning-hey, that's early for a Saturday). Then, as a thanks, he took me out to breakfast. I like breakfast, especially when its a meal so large that you don't have to eat the rest of the day.

After we returned to the house, I went through photos, updated this blog, and got stuff ready for next week (except for shopping, still need food) and all of a sudden, it was time to go to the bonfire over at a friends place. When we got there it looked like no one else had show up yet, until I shut off the headlights to my vehicle and we saw the glow of the fire over the hill. It was quite the impressive sight. When the cold started seeping through our boots it was about time for karaoke at the Pub on campus (I know... a bar on campus! It's so sweet!) All I really have to say about that is that the singing was awful, but the environment was a lot of fun.

Ok, so maybe it wasn't quite so busy of a day, but man, I had a great time.

My beard.

So, I've had a beard for just about as long as I could grow one and a few weeks ago I had to cut it. Now, I know what you're thinking; there's got to be a girl involved for my hansomification, but you would me mistaken.

The real reason was that I had to get fitted for a respirator for work, and you are required to be mostly clean shaven in order for the fit test to be completed. Basically if I don't want to breath in poisonous zinc fumes from galvanized welding, it is in my best interest to comply with the requirement.

The fit test was an interesting process. It consisted of placing the mask on your face and them spraying some really nasty smoke in your face as you breath, talk, and move your head normally to test the completeness of the seal. How do I know the smoke is some nasty stuff? You are required to breath it in at one point to see if it will make you cough. It did. I coughed up a storm for almost four minutes.

The great thing about the respirators is that you can't smell anything with the filters on. That means that when the guy that smokes three packs a day comes up to you and starts explaining your project you don't have the gag reflex to suppress. The unfortunate thing is the fact that the filters are large enough that the hoods don't come down as far as they should, so you have to pull some interesting maneuvers in order to see what you're welding. If I can get my hands on one of those tube sets that allows the filters to be worn at different locations, then I might just try to wear the respirator all the time. It'd look kinda funny, but I can defiantly tell that my lungs feel better after a day of wearing the mask than a day without it. The guys at work say that the air quality at Universal is really good compared to other shops in the area, but I still feel like it's a hostile environment to your health.

However, on the flip side of the health aspect, the experience and fabrication skills that I've been introduced to allows a lot of learning, even if there are long spells of mindless labor between those times. Not too far removed from my past experience growing up in a farm community. The swine buildings still need to to be washed out, or fifty parts of the exact same weld need to be laid down, but someone's got to do it.