Typical Day
It's 6:04AM and Thumper has been up since 5:00AM. He's already showered and dressed. Right now, in the calm before the day begins, Thumper is able to enjoy his daily paper while drinking his morning cuppa.
Another day, another dollar, although today might be a little bit different. Gen "Thumper" Scrabble, knows that he has two trainees joining his crew today on the highway. Another day, another rookie that has no idea what they're doing. Ah well.
Thumper takes a long sip, trying to remember a time when he actually woke up after the sun had risen, but can't seem to recall a single sunny morning in the past couple years. He enjoys this lifestyle though; it gives him peace. He used to put in annoying overnight/weekend hours fifteen years ago when he started this gig, but now Thumper enjoys the stability of a solid nine-to-five schedule.
Well, more like a solid 7:30AM to 4:30PM schedule. After finishing his coffee at 6:20AM on the dot, Thumper grabs his lunch and heads out the door.
Thumper, ever punctual, arrives at Crawfordsville's local Department of Transportation at 7:00AM. As he walks in the front door, he waves hello to Delores, the secretary who seems like she's been there since 1861. Thumper makes his way to the Highway Maintenance office, where he meets with Rocky, his Highway Supervisor, who also seems like he's been working at the DOT since the dawn of time.
"You got a decent one today," says Rocky as Thumper walks in. "The medians and shoulders on I-74 have to be mowed, and a few of the guard rails need looking at. Oh, and you've got those trainees."
"Great," Thumper sighs, remembering when he put a trainee on a mower and they accidentally drove it out into oncoming traffic. "You know how fun trainees are on those mowers."
Rocky, a grumpy-looking man of very few words, gives him a non-sympathetic grunt. Thumper doesn't mind though, he knows other leads have supervisors who talk their ears off. "Thank goodness that's not Rocky," he often thinks to himself.
After his morning meeting with Rocky, Thumper meets the rest of his team at 7:30AM out on the highway. A lot of workers alternate shifts and teams, but he sees that he's got some familiar faces today. He greets some of his old friends, Sparky, Coal, and Toothless Pete. Rumor has it Toothless Pete lost all of his teeth during some underground boxing ring he was a part of...but it was probably just bad dental hygiene.
Thumper recognizes the two trainees right off the bat. Neither of them could be over twenty years old. But they look strong and eager (though a little nervous), and that's all Thumper can ask for.
At 7:35AM, after the team has assembled and settled down a bit, Thumper gives out the tasks to each of his crew members and tells them which sections to begin mowing and weeding. Then he turns his attention to the trainees who are standing around looking confused.
He takes them over to the truck to give them both the rundown on the tools that they use during a typical mowing job. Thumper decides to give them something easy.
"Why don't you put all the cones out in traffic and then you both can start spraying down the weeds."
While the trainees begin spraying the weeds down on the side of the road, Toothless Pete comes over with a problem.
"The guard rails are missing some sections. I thought this was a simple maintenance job." Thumper sighs. Scheduled maintenance is bad, but unscheduled is more money and time. That's the one problem with having a supervisor of little words: sometimes they fail to mention things.
Thumper goes over to the guard rails to assess the damage. Because of a nasty bit of slide damage (probably from a driver who momentarily fell asleep at the wheel),! they would have to repair the concrete grounding around the rails to straighten them out, then refill the holes with fresh cement and reinforce the bolts. Thumper sighs, rubs his temples, and calls up Rocky.
He tells Rocky that they're going to need someone to come out with trucks and supplies in order to service the rail. Rocky sounds pretty annoyed, but agrees to send out a small crew with supplies later in the day. He doesn't even say goodbye when hanging up. Rude.
As 12:30PM rolls around, it's finally time for Thumper to go on his lunch break. He assigns the trainees to hold the "SLOW" signs at the start and end of the crew's mowing zone. He doesn't quite trust them to work on the medians unsupervised.
During his break, Thumper goes to one of the work trucks and eats the food he packed for himself the night before. Turkey sandwich on rye, little bit of mayo, little bit of mustard, and lettuce. Same as every day, just the way he likes it.
Finally, at 3:37PM, the guys arrive with the supplies and dump trucks. Thumper decides that this would be a good time for the trainees to learn their first lesson: how to repair the guard rails. He directs them to stretch out the work zone by closing down a lane with orange cones. Luckily, the crew had finished the mowing job, so the highway wasn't too cluttered anymore.
A number of rail posts had been pulled out of the ground because of the slide damage, so they used an excavator to realign the rails.
As the work progresses, Thumper looks at his watch, startled to see that it's already 5:00PM, thirty minutes past his quitting time. He reaches to get his phone and calls Rocky, when Billy, the night lead crew worker arrives at the scene to relieve Thumper.
Thumper looks back at the crew. The trainees seemed to be doing well, asking plenty of questions and helping out as best they can. The excavation is done and the crew has made good progress. "Good,"Thumper thinks, "but not great."They have a few more hours to go and they still have to put the concrete fill in to secure the rails. Yikes.
Luckily for Thumper, however, his time is up. He waves goodbye to the crew, who are happy to be getting some overtime hours, and heads off towards his car.
Thumper arrives back home at 6:04PM feeling pretty dirty (and very tired) from an unexpectedly busy day. He heats up leftovers (the same leftovers he's been eating all week) and plops in front of the television.
He hopes that the crew will be able to finish the job tonight. He's sure that if not, Rocky will be sure to let him know. Putting the day out of his mind, Thumper finishes his modest meal and pads down the hall to his bathroom to brush his teeth and get ready for bed. By 8:30PM, he's under the covers, book in hand, eyelids drooping.