Graduation...

Graduation. 

     ....Finally.... 

                                                                                      ......Already?....... 

.......What now?

Wow. It's finally here. The start of the rest of my career. I can finally get out there and get some work done. But am I truly happy to leave? This is most definitely a bitter-sweet time. Because I'm going to go work with a real crew, but the crew of 40 guys or so I've been working with everyday I will most likely never see again. We had our rodeo, our graduation, and that's it. I joked with a few of the guys, telling them "Don't worry, you'll see me again. I'll be your foreman someday!" But it doesn't disguise the fact that this is a really sad time. 

But I need to focus on the future.

That's why I've been applying like a madman, staying up late and doing the same thing over and over and over again. Expecting that at some point I wont get a "Sorry, we've decided to pursue other candidates."

But it only takes one!

And I'm confident that I will very soon be working in the trade. I will keep posting off and on, letting everyone know how the job searching is going. And eventually, how my apprenticeship is. So keep your eyes peeled. And in the meantime, check out the slideshow I made for Edison. 

And, here are a few rodeo pics that my wife took!

The Rodeo

You can see my sister in the reflection of my shades taking this photo.

View from the top.

14 down, 1 to go!

Well, we're down to the last week. Coming up Monday we have finals, Friday we have the rodeo and graduation, then we get a road map and a boot in the rear. This past week, everyone was working on the last of their competencies, working the delivery of crew presentations, and taking tours of various Idaho Power facilities. We went to a substation, systems operations, the main office, and  a generation facility (swan falls dam). Very impressive stuff. The substation was HUGE.

Here's a picture of half of the outside, and the control area...

The substation

The back part of the controls.

 

Oh and here's a picture for my friend, Bryan.

Here are some photos of the "dam tour."

One of the original turbines at the old dam

The control area for the new dam.

The other thing I mentioned was that we did a lot of crew presentations this week. I caught a part of one on video, because they said they were going to ignite hydrogen. The crew used electrolysis of water to fill a balloon with hydrogen. The way it works is, a DC current is applied across a container of salt water, the water is then broken down into hydrogen and oxygen. Pretty cool stuff! Here's the video!