Oh I love my job...

How many ways do I love my job I am unable to count, but here are a few slivers. Spent three days at the Univ of Montana - Western campus in Dillon Montana, sketching out the heating and ventilation systems in the oldest building on campus. Jobs like that always seem to start out slow, much like an avalanche. I liken those jobs to an iceberg, from the surface of the icy sea they don't look so big. Taking a trip back in time and going through the old buildings really makes one ponder how far technology has not gotten us.
The Main Hall was built around 1896 so the building has been hiding a lot of treasures for over a century now. These days we like to talk about 30 year systems, systems that may not even last that long. Here is a building that is using an old steam heating system and doing a comfortable job; Of course, the system has had some updates and maintenance, but still amazing to see a heating system that is old and still functioning.
Of course the visits to the attics to see some parts of the systems and getting to admire the large piles of bat guano helps to keep things interesting. We had some awesome tour guides to help us find these hidden treasures, treasures we probably would have not known about if it was left to our own snooping. Of course when one is in Dillon you are bound to hear stories of the 'great' quake a few years ago. There has been a fair amount of seismic bracing, both preventative and in the form of repairs, but this has to be a classical representation of seismic bracing. I guess the seismic movement of surround sound satellite speaks is a bad thing.
The site visit started off with an interesting surprise. I had not looked at the building plans, so I didn't have any idea what the use or occupancy of the building was; The first closet that I opened contained a male mannequin, facing away from the door and only wearing a cowboy hat and sporting an umbrella. What a startling discovery that was and I never expected to find such thinks hidden in a closet. Once I discovered the building housed art classes, not much of anything was as surprising as opening that first closet door.
Every day was a new surprise, a new adventure, a character building exercise. Of course there is nothing that builds character like standing in a ladies restroom taking pictures of the steam heating system and having some young lady walk in on you. I am sure she is still trying to figure out why there was a guy in the restroom with a digital camera, just as much as I am trying to figure out why the other engineer in the hallway just watched the whole thing going down without uttering a word. I often wonder what a person would think if they ever found my digital camera. Pictures of pipes, fixtures, plumbing chases, restrooms, fan walls and other inner workings of building systems.
Part of the building houses the Seidensticker Wildlife Collection which was a very interesting collection of wildlife trophies, complete with some of the stories behind them. If I wasn't there on a work detail I would have spent the entire day reading the collection of stories behind the beautiful mounts in the room. Once again, I was more focused on the steam fired unit heater and the steam piping that was hidden by the displays. Of course I couldn't resist getting a couple of pictures of some of the collection, the lighting wasn't the best since I wasn't able to use a flash in the room.
And that my friend is why I love my job so much, every new job or project has their own interesting bits of history, adventure and character.