SW Oklahoma!
Today I was able to go out with Leslie, one of the Mesonet Technicians. It was a true blast. She is a really lovely lady to spend time with. We planned to go to Mount Scott repeater to change the RF PROM, Walters to change the 2m Wind Sentry, and Grandfield to change the battery.We started off by heading down to Mount Scott repeater. She was gracious enough to drive slow a lot so I could take a bunch of pictures. When we got to the repeater, we realized that another technician had the key to the enclosure. Instead of being discouraged, we just drove to the top and enjoyed the view. It was so beautiful. I can't understand how some can look at the natural beauty of the earth and not believe in God as well. It is amazing. It was really hazy though, so most of my pictures from the top aren't very good.
Leslie is from Lawton, so she knows the area very well. The entire time, I got a narrative of the history of Lawton. Very Cool! On our way out from the mountain, we were trying to find buffalo. She decided to take me to the Medicine Park site too. That was definitely an offroad adventure. Unfortunately, there were no buffalo at the site. There was... um... evidence that buffalo had been there though.
From here, she wanted to take me to Holy City. That was really awesome. It is hard to describe. It is this area off from the main road and it has these stone buildings. The main building is a catholic stylish church. The rest of the buildings are things like a manger, crucifixion place, where Moses received the 10 commandments, etc. Apparantly, they do easter passion plays there. I REALLY want to go!!! The feel of the area was incredible. There are pictures up in the buildings of past performances and it looks so authentic. I can't wait until one is being performed! It was really nice to go there with Leslie too because it was kind of a common bond and it led on to more conversation as our trip progressed.
On our way back to the road, I looked off to the left and saw a prairie dog!!! I asked her to stop and I took a picture of it. Then I saw there were A BUNCH of them. I put my window down and one started barking at me! It was soooo cute. We stayed there a few more minutes so I could take pictures. Then we proceeded to the city and restaurant of Meers. I never realized that these famous burgers were made of Longhorn cattle! I thought that was pretty funny. It seems like we were there forever. We ate and talked. I found out apparantly the technicians didn't really know I was interested in an actually position. She gave me some tips on what I should get to know to make myself more appealing for that job. That was great! We finally left around 2pm or so. Time for Walters!
At WALT, the 2m Wind Sentry had to be replaced. She let me do it all on my own. :-) It made me very happy. There was spider web junk everywhere though... I thought that was a little strange. Not much interesting happened there. I took a bunch of pictures, then we left to go to Grandfield.
En route to GRA2, we drove through the town and there were bales of cotton on the side of the road. I've never seen that before! As we proceeded down the road, there were random cotton splotches in the grass. Leslie deemed it "Redneck snow." I retrieved some from the road to keep as a souvenir of the cute little town. The problem with GRA2 was that it was a Super Mesonet Site and therefore needed extra power. So we had to change one of the two batteries. Of course, it just had to be the enclosure that had a wasps' nest in it. Luckily, she had some OFF! in the truck. It started eating away at the insulation of the wires and the paint on the battery!! And we put this stuff on our skin? Something is wrong.. The wasps were finally dead (enough) so she let me change the battery out too. Then we had to call in for a program download because we changed the master battery and the logger lost its program. We double checked a few more things and I took more pictures, and then we headed out. It was nice because that site is at an airport, so I got to see planes! :-D It was sad that none were landing or in the air though. Oh well.
From here, we had to get gas and head back to Norman. I dropped her off at her house in Blanchard and drove the truck back to Sarkeys. That is definitely the biggest thing I've ever driven! Much more powerful than my car too! haha.
All in all, it was a great, relaxing day. At least until I got home. Because I didn't get back to Sarkeys until 7:30, then helped the closing operator with some things, I didn't get to my apartment until ~9pm. Not good when you have homework that was supposed to be due at 9pm. I emailed the teacher and she said it was okay to turn it in a little late. And then I found out that this big GEMPAK project that was supposed to be due on Thursday was further "postponed" until after our exam on Monday. I was absolutely furious when I found this out because I had spent many hours Tuesday evening working on that because I knew I would be gone all day today. I definitely could have used that time for other things such as German or tech writing. Oh well. It all worked out. I don't remember when I went to bed, but I just know it was a really long day.
posted by Unknown @ 11/02/2005 09:57:00 PM
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