Away from home

I am sitting in my hotel room and thought I would write a quick note before I head to the "Panhadler" for dinner. It is not known for great food but you can't be too picky in a town like this. Apperently there is actually a 4 star French resturant but the price apperently matches the quality of food. My room is decent and the wireless internet actually works so I am fairly happy here. Work is starting slow. Apparently there was some miscommunication between the mechanics and the fish people at the dam and between the bickering they didn't get some preliminary work done on the dam that needs to be finished so we can get our testing equipment in. The dam workers are strict union workers and can't be coaxed out to work outside there set schedule, even when a crew of 12 is sitting around waiting on them. Sometimes it is really ridiculous. And yesterday we were blown off the river, which just means it was too windy for the boats to be out in the water. We might have to do "fish watch" again here, which is where we take turns spending the night at the dam "watching" to make sure the power supply doesn't go out and the water to the fish stops. No water, no oxygen, no live fish. It has also been snowing on and off which makes it hard to work. But I have the cushy job this time of working the radio and typing data into the laptop as it comes in. Playing the pregnancy card gets me out of just about every other job out here. I am staying out of the bad chemicals we use when tagging fish, not carrying heavy buckets of fish, not falling overboard..... OK, dinner time. Later.

-Mel