Morning

At 2:00 am, in hallway, big girl, Ted Lasso’s Rebecca, all dressed in pink. She must be driving that pink haul truck.

At 3 am, sky bright under clouds on east, on west, near the plant vapor rises, bangs of thunder.

- at home I drink tea, when I am up here, I drink coffee …

- at home, I drink whiskey

- He should work on a farm, all you need is a crescent wrench

- And a roll of wire

- Careful, these roller caps will sneak up on you

Blip of free time, I tune on shovel/haul:

- 1209, truck

- Copy 1349

- Put your truck in standby, feel free to wake up

- I didn’t even touch the modular

- You dont want to go after that grader, its all soft

- This is maintenance,  I got modular screen to put in your truck , getting into the pit

- Perfect Hollywood bite from shovel. Nice work

- Work strategically,  level it point down the hill

- Goooood girl

- Driving to conditions. Nice and easy. Play safe and have fun

- John is coming up close in horse shoe

- Drop it or spread it?

- Hey, Sam, that truck fits ya

- Pull away nice and fast here, spread

- Right on, right on, right on

Evening, shack

At 04:18 pm, shack, talking about some safety guy who left

- I miss Craig, he included everybody, actually made us think about safety.

- At least he showed up

Frank is frustrated - "seal is 800 CAD. We can’t look up if we ordered it, we don’t know from who. Can’t look it up in PTO or in work orders."

Brenda, buyer in town, doesn’t like Gregg because someone from there is suing her daughter. "Brenda is not here in this shit."

Next hitch – Brenda is no longer with the company.

Dick is one the phone with wife, "no she can't watch husband hotel, it's very (emphasizes) adult."

- All you buying is Hitachi , cheaper shit. Fucking John Deere shit

- They only charge 500 an hour. Metal Haul deal with Sunridge and Earling. Metal Haul bought every single truck. Middleman. Earling could not do direct deals with Sunridge , separate companies, conflict of something

- Metal Haul underbid us by twenty an hour. Fucking okay dirt. Just to get in.

- Dick Pink monster..evil robots & that fits you so well

- Big operator dude. They searched his room , found drugs and suitcase with six dildos. Why?

- you do new one every day

- It's Lord's day after all

- This site was really good at the beginning, then it turns into this (Dick shows with his fingers, whining – mya mya mya, turn your four ways)

Return bus to camp

- If grease leak alarm comes, this is automatic shutdown , I am still loading trucks

- If overgrease pump,  injector blows, seal pins pop out

- He showed it to me, it’s 110 dollar literaly gasket, just rebuild, it’s a fucking gasket

- It's supposed to build to certain pressure, they take 2500 psi, autogreaser will run 24 or 28, depending on outside temperature. With autogreasers supposed to run at 80 degrees

- I don’t think maintenance handles auto-greasers well

- I pretty much guarantee it

Morning smoke pit

Morning smoke pit, 3:58 am, claps of thunder. Heavy coughs, silica, cheap smokes

- Guess what he does now for full time job? He drives a school bus. They know about it and they supposedly ok with it

- It's too early for this shit

- I shut off the lights and took a nap

- I just dig a hole.Bury it

- Victoria gold, Yukon, government took over, restarted it. I’d make that 24 hour drive. So much fucking money.

I ask shovel how he got his job. "Started as labourer, got on excavator in ninety eight. Worked my way up. I moved far faster than I should." I tell him I am on shovel/haul every day. "Yeah, its crazy." He doesn’t give references, as a rule, even to friends.

Morning fuel run

7:35 am, fuel truck.

Red tractor, D8, D10 in the damps, done and they leave. I descend into triangle-shaped stormwater pit to get a branch of fireweed.

Pockets of waiting are the most stressful. Monotony is cortisol. You are primed but also you don’t do anything. Waiting ages you, not work.

Linkedin date, Costco marriage. I text her if she misses votre mari. She’s into French. “Yes, especially first day difficult.” That’s not what I asked for. “I handle work, house, two kids.” We moved to Canada, put bulk of money into house, burned my leftover savings.