Hello again.
Haven’t been up to a whole lot lately but I have been able to get around a bit more and see some people since Alberta lifted their COVID restrictions earlier this month. It feels pretty weird being able to live normally again, but if the government says it's safe then we have to trust that.
I took a trip out to Edmonton for one weekend to spend sometime with some university friends and I played in a golf tournament this prior weekend. It was a two person scramble event, so it meant my partner and I were able to play our golf shots from the “best ball” out of both of our shots. We played a little better than expected, shooting a 66 overall, and walked away with some golf shop credit.
Anyways I’ll continue onto the blog where I will give you guys a bit of a day in my life. I hope I don’t bore you guys too much!
6:15:
I don’t start work until 7:30 a.m so this gives me enough time to get ready. If I’m running behind it's just a quick bowl of cereal but I usually try to cook a couple eggs to keep me full through the morning.
7:05:
Alberta Newsprint Company is about 15 minutes from my house, so I make sure to give myself a few extra minutes in case I catch all the red lights going out of town. It's quite a nice drive in the morning.
7:25:
I arrive at work, make myself a coffee. I’ll check my emails for a few minutes and catch up with some of my co-workers.
7:30 - 12:00:
Everyday is different at my job, so I’m always getting to work on new projects and experience different aspects of engineering. Today, for example, I spent some time doing some 3D CAD modelling for a project we are doing. We had to go out into the mill and get the measurements I need to then come back to the office and model it. This specific project was creating a fall arrest cable so somebody could safely stand on an elevated point and be attached to the cable with a harness to do work. This particular project was pretty cool because my coworker and I were able to draw the entire work area and complete a virtual analysis of its strength. This helps us determine if the part will be able to support a force if the person wearing the harness was to fall. We compared some of the stress analysis numbers from the CAD simulation with the properties of the stainless steel plate it was attached to. This helped us determine that the frame in which the cable was attached to will be able to support the force from a fall, thus making it safe for use.
12:00:
Finally lunch time. Today I packed some chicken and rice that my mom so graciously made for supper last night. It was delicious.
12:00-4:00:
Same thing as the morning where I don’t really have my day set in stone. If I’m stuck doing a lot of office work in the morning I will usually try to get out in the mill in the afternoon. Today I was able to get out of the office for a project. We brought in an excavator to dig some holes for a new scale deck we are putting in. The transloading part of the mill needs a scale to measure the weight of raw material coming in on trucks to the mill.This ensures all costs and amounts of material are accounted for. Anyways, we were able to watch the excavator start digging holes for some large concrete blocks to be set into. I’ll show you guys some pictures of the project in the next blog once some more progress is made. I think helping out on this project will be a great experience for my Civil Engineering degree, as it involves a lot of civil work.
4:05:
Head out to the parking lot, jump in my car and zoom home.We had a pretty bad heatwave here this week so the drive home is a little bit warm since my car has sat in the sun all day.
4:45:
Go home, grab a quick snack and head to the gym. Today was push day. Usually I try to spend a little more than an hour there so I’m home just in time for supper. I’m on a 3 day split right now with a one day break in between. We are pretty fortunate in our town to have such a nice community recreation facility. Some days instead of the gym I’ll go out for a round of golf with some friends, or if I’m feeling energized I’ll go for a round of golf and go to the gym in the same night.
6:30:
Today I got home and my mom made some barbecued burgers and potatoes. It tasted awesome and really filled my belly after the gym.
7:00:
Today I just hung out, helped my mom with some dishes, and watched some of the olympics. Pretty chill evening for me tonight. I always find it helpful to take a couple nights off a week to relax and it helps me not to get burnt out as easily.
10:00:
Packed up my lunch for tomorrow, did some laundry and house chores, and then watched some Netflix before I fell asleep.
Again I really hope I didn’t bore all you guys with my“action packed day” but I’m really enjoying my job this summer and the flexibility of my evenings. It’s awesome to be getting some genuine engineering experience and also being able to relax in my few short months away from school. It’s always cool to see your education and workplace come full circle and realize why you worked so hard in school to get here.
Anyways I’ll see you folks in the next blog.
