A Tourist from Upstate

I often joke that my job is very cushy, except when it's not, and yesterday was a "not" day, even though one of the guys on my team had a much rougher go of it than I did. In the middle of a bitter cold snap that we are experiencing, we had a furnace malfunction in one of our buildings. Despite a yeoman's effort by our understaffed maintenance crew, the pipes froze in at least one location. When the heat was restored to the building, my predecessor discovered that a pipe had burst in the building, and he had to deal with a veritable cascade of water. He was accompanied by a new hire (who, thankfully, is not afraid of the dark) undergoing on-the-job training. At least the "new guy" found out first hand that, while the job is often cushy, there are times when one has to jump through hoops of fire, or (in this case) water. Needless to say, the water had to be shut off in the building to prevent further leaks.

I arrived at work at midnight, to find my co-worker beat and miffed... it had been his worst day on the job. I basically just had to do some mopping up (literally) after he had had his ordeal. I filled a mop bucket with the stuff remaining on the floor, then monitored the temperature in the building periodically throughout the rest of the morning. I stuck around for a few extra hours until one of the guys on the day shift came in to assess the ongoing situation. Because it was a Saturday, and the site was closed, he decided to bring his dog, a handsome collie-beagle mix, to work with him, much to the dismay of those on the left Fred, who ran like hell and hid himself in some obscure corner of the property.

While the morning was a major hassle, I am actually glad that I stayed on the property for a couple of extra hours, because I witnessed a tourist from the North Country flying in to take position in a scenic overlook onsite:

Pity the iPhone camera doesn't have the best zoom- you can make out the bird-shaped blob in the middle of the frame, and the white head stands out in front of another tree limb... yup, we had a gen-u-ine bald eagle (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) hanging out on our property for a good portion of the day. It was a nice coda to a not-so-nice day on the job, and it's not even tourist season!