A 230 mile commute is about the longest I've ever tried on a regular basis. It's like 4 and a half hours minimum and I don't like driving at night anymore.

On the positive side, I'm getting upgraded from my motel like room to a house, complete with garage and washer/dryer. My own home away from home with HBO and all the neccessities of life, including maid service, at no cost!

The work seems to be the usual XP/computer rollout stuff, but in a very low key environment. Being a mining site, it's very casual and laid back. My fellow workers seem to be really nice and I think the boss and I have a lot in common so it should be a great working environment.

I went to a couple days safety training in which they try to scare you with all the industrial accidents etc., but in spite of the hazards, I think the whole mining process is pretty interesting. Imagine me, Despoiling the earth, contributing to ripping rock from her bowels, and actually enjoying the process!

Here is a picture of a "Haul Truck" I took Friday. They are really interesting if you like big machinery. The tires are 11 feet tall and cost $150,000 each. The trucks themselves cost over $2,500,000. each.They can carry 380 tons of rock at a time!

The living arrangements aren't too bad, but there isn't much to do in the "town". It's a company town, everything owned by the mine. Contrary to the picture I used to have of company towns in the old west, where everything was too expensive and at the end of every month you owed the company store more than they paid you, the Grocery store, pizza place, and the 2 restaurants are reasonably priced, and the gas station actually charges less than the closest city. This is a perfect time for me to get my financial house in order and my health and weight to an optimum level. I'll be going to the gym for an hour or more every day and watching what I eat. I might even try to do a reading goal of at least one book from every shelf in the library. If you can go into a medium size library and look at the shelves and see you've read at least one book from most of the shelves, then you can consider yourself a well rounded reader and hopefully somewhat knowledgeable.

The new corporate yes-man and mother earth despoiler, Curiouoso*