Adventures of HG at NRTI

Oh, what a day! Today wasn't nearly as long as the last two, but it sure felt like it. It all started last night when yet again, I got hardly any sleep. The tornado sirens went off at about 0200 (2:00 a.m.) and I'm not even sure when the hail began. I had earplugs in again last night and the hail was so loud, it woke me up and I could have sworn my house was under attack from some foreign army-it was that loud. When I FINALLY managed to get back to sleep, some idiot college students (or what appeared to be) decided to walk down the highway (yes I live on the highway) yelling profanity at about 0400 (4:00 a.m.). About a half hour later I fell back asleep, only to be woken up by my alarm at 0520 (5:20 a.m.). It was time for PT.

I was so tired this morning that I slowly rolled out of bed, got dressed and headed to PT. When I turned the corner from my house, I didn't notice at the time but the road had flooded over. Keep in mind it was pitch black with no street lights and my headlights kind of suck. Anyhow, as I drove into the water, I quickly realized I was in a few inches. Luckily, I could still see the yellow center line, and the road being a little higher in the middle, I decided to continue down the center. When I reached the other side, I saw a road closed sign. Yes, that makes perfectly good sense, Hocking College, to put a road closed sign on the INSIDE of the campus, heading outwards when no one goes out of the college at 0500 (5:00 a.m.), but you have several employees heading INTO campus at that time. I called fellow students to let them know to go around. Thankfully when I passed through the road wasn't that bad, but here's a far away pic of what it looked like AFTER they closed the road (cop blocking the street).







This is what it looked like at 1730 (5:30 p.m.). By the way, if you saw the last flood photos, this is two seperate horse pastures, with a five foot high fence on both sides of the road, and the road is somewhere there in the middle. This is Hocking River, which expanded about five times the normal size. They are calling for it to rise until midnight tonight and then it will start to dwindle tomorrow, only to rain again the entire weekend.




Close-up of the street I drove through this morning.



I had my final PT assessments today. Although they don't count for the state or anything, I passed. I had 18 seconds to spare on my run and I did 5 more push ups and 12 more sit ups than I needed. Go me.



After PT, we had class in our classroom until lunch. Boring as usual, but we managed to make it fun by playing out scenarios with drunk drivers and the police pulling them over. No, drinking and driving is nothing to be laughed at, but having said that, when you have a classroom full of guys and the only language that comes out of their mouths is foul, it makes for pretty good practice. Not to mention, when it was my turn to be the 'drunk person,' I got out of my car and ran, it was good exercise, not that I didn't get enough during PT. :)



After lunch we all carpooled to the Hocking College Conference Center. Really it's just an old house. The drinkers were already in place and had been drinking specific quantities of alcohol since 1000 (10:00 a.m.). We did sobriety tests on all of them, and I did really well. Although, there was one guy and I didn't test him, but I would have bet money that he didn't have a drop of any alcohol. Turns out he was .13 or .14, somewhere in there. It just goes to show that you never know who's drunk. And by the way, please be careful out there. We've been going over stats in class and every single day, one out of every seven people that drives away from a bar is drunk and only 22% of those individuals are actually caught. Don't drink and drive! And watch out for drunk drivers!



OK now for a few more photos:


This is the Rocky Boots parking lot (back behind the old trains if you've been here).


Same as above. Check out the dumpster. At lunch, it was half under water. After lunch, it was 3/4 under the water (just an hour later).


Electric crew getting ready to roll.


Horse pasture. The water kept creeping closer and closer to the parking lot. I decided to move my car at lunch just to be safe.


This pic shows the water under the new bridge construction. It's only a few feet from flooding both the current bridge and new construction one.


Bridge over troubled waters...



As for the Rain, Rain, I'm Going Away part, I'm going home tomorrow! I'm so excited. I'm leaving here right after class and I'll be home around midnight tomorrow. I have three full days off and I can't wait to see family and friends. Love you all and see you soon!