Howdy all,

How are you today?

I’m swell, thanks for asking!

So, for my final day of training for the new job, we got to fill out some paperwork, learn the locations we need to check and go on a tour of Bagnell Dam.

The tour was one of the coolest things I had done for quite a while.

I learned a ton of cool stuff about the dam.

The locations will be pretty easy to do and hit several times a night and for the most part, this seems like it will be a fairly cool job.

It isn’t sitting on a beach with my laptop, yet but still pretty snazzy.

I will be driving around pretty much all night, checking locations, listening to audio books.

Not super exciting but it gives me the chance to learn a lot of stuff while at work with nothing to do but drive and listen.

I may use this opportunity to work on my Russian.

Here are some of the things I learned about the Bagnell Dam:

Bagnell Dam was finished being constructed 85 years ago.

Dams are generally as wide as they are tall.

Bagnell Dam is 148 feet tall.

There are 8 turbine Generators that make up the Hydro Electric plant and some of them are the original turbines installed 85 years ago!

These 8 Generators running full bore can create 215 Megawatts of power

Construction of the Dam was started in 1929 and completed in 1931.

During the Great Depression, The Bagnell Dam project eased the economic pain of the  families who worked on the project because it gave them a job during one of the hardest periods the United States has had to suffer through.

The Great Depression was extended in part by Franklin Delano Roosevelt.

There are several items in the Dam that are still working after 85 years.

The most mind-blowing of these items is an Allis – Chalmers motor that was installed in the dam 85+ years ago.

The fact that it is still working is not what blows my mind.

The fact that it has been working 24 hours a day, 365 days a year for the last 85 years is also not what blows my mind.

The fact that it has been doing this for 85 years and has never once, not one time in 85 years, been worked on is one of the craziest things I have ever heard.

Imagine that, your newest car you bought, working without ever having to fix anything on it till several years after you are probably dead.

That motor worked longer than our government did.

I have been telling everyone about this motor, it just absolutely floors me.

And some of those 85-year-old breaker boxes look like something straight out of Frankenstein.

I wanted to take pics so bad but I was afraid I would get shit-canned, when I am there alone and can ask someone, I will see if they will allow me to because that is some cool shit.

Something else fun.

And by fun, I mean really not fun.

I went to my storage Shed in Jefferson City and started going through the boxes weeding out things I am going to keep and things I plan on getting rid of.

Keep does not mean keeping for my person, it means keeping for the sale of all of my shit.

We brought a decent amount of stuff home to go through further and luckily my Dresser and Chest of Drawers do not seem to have drawn any moisture so I hope I will be able to get a decent price for them because they are pretty nice.

All black, aluminum handles, you should pick them up, I will give you a good price.

Also, you need a pool table.

I was pretty excited to find my Charlie Sheen shirts.

I found a lot of things that reminded me of my dog, Tank, mostly because it was all still covered in his hair.

I miss Tank.

I am still at a loss as to how he could possibly lose that much hair and not be bald.

Man, he was a cool dog, even if he was kind of dumb.

I will try to come up with a complete list of the things we found when I get a few minutes to go through the tubs and boxes.

Needless to say, I have a ton of random bullshit.