Man, yesterday was a day from hell. it was calibration day as well as function test day. On those days you know that there will be lots of alarms and things going on, but yesterday was a REALLY REALLY busy day.
it all started off like any normal tuesday morning. people coming in telling me their radios didnt charge right or wont charge at all. i look them over and clean the charging ports and oh my god… they work! who knew?? lol. if you cant tell that’s one of my pet peeves. so after the wave or “my radio isn’t working right”, and “can i get a new radio” things started going like normal. then IT happened. the fan went down. (now for those of you that don’t know about mining there is usually a fan or some sort that forces air into the mine). now when this happens i have to notify everyone about this and tell them to gather in one spot and wait. we have to wait up to 15 min before they have to leave, if the fan doesn’t come back up. the fan went down 4 times total. one of which was off for 16 min causing us to evacuate the mine. however, when the fan came back on they could go back in and pre-shift (look over the work area for hazardous conditions) in their area and then go back to work. now on paper that doesn’t sound like a bad time, but in real life.... WOW. lots of alarms going off, lots of radio calls, phone calls, text messages. yeah its bad. one of the worst things that you would have to deal with in the control room. shortly after that the MSHA inspector that came in and took down the times that the fan came back in to see how things were going. he commented on how well i handled the fan going down. he even called me an octopus with my hands and arms flying all over the place getting phones here and radios there. carrying on 2 conversations at once and remembering things to make notes for it. he was impressed he told me and would pass that on to the mine manager. yay for me.
so after that things kind of went back to normal. some alarms, some radio calls. normal things. then all hell broke loose. the belts started going down left and right. wouldnt stay up for more then 10 min. FML. so now not only do i have to put up with the continous alarms going off, but now the belts going off and half the mine calling in about “why are the belts down?” even though i announce it over the radio!!! listen people, listen!!! during that time me and the belt foreman got into a little tussle over the radio basicaly over how his belts should take presadence over everything else. i had to let him know that if there are tacking issues or AMS alarm issues they take the forefront and i could care less if the belts are running during those times. he didnt like it, but it is the truth. oh well i guess. we are all big boys here and it shall pass.
so now we got past that and by now i am fried, im done! the day couldnt get over fast enough, but the alarms kept coming and coming and coming. it was almost too much to take. it finally settled down there the last 2 hours of the day. thank god.
on a happier note tomorrow the 25th will mark a year that i have been here at the mine. that means a raise and a new color hat! the hat thing is a very coveted thing around there. we all decorate ours and make it our own. the only question is what color should i get (i can get black or white) and should i really decorate it or keep it remotely clean?
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