Nuclear Facilities, Chemical Spills, and Backgammon

Dear Blogosphere,

Please forgive my sporadic posting as of late. Life has been a bit hectic. I have gone on call with the US Forest Service at the Savannah River Site in Aiken, SC. For those of you unfamiliar with SRS, it is a nuclear facility nestled right on the Savannah River. It is home to several reactors and is policed by both the Department of Energy and a privitized military group called Whakenhut. My job entails being on call seven days a week and having to leave work or my home whenever the US Forest Service preforms a prescribed burn at SRS. Myself and my team race up to AIken and work all night so that we can setup air quality monitors downwind of the prescribed burn. The intent is to assess what the surrounding community is breathing in during prescribed forest fires. That being said, on Thursday we headed up to SC to prep for the burn season. In route to the site our truck broke down on the side of interstate 20. We were all pulled off and trying to fix our truck (we call her Greenie...she is a 1 ton truck that used to be a military vehicle and she kicks ass) when a state trooper pulls up and tells us that he didn't want to alarm us but we may all want to wait in our cars while Greenie cools down because we were five minutes from this. a very large nchlorine spill has also shut down the forest service because SRS is about 15 minutes from this nightmare.

On a lighter note, I am trying to teach myself how to play backgammon. I hope one day to set up in one of those backgammon tournaments in the parks in brooklyn and play with a bunch of old men. Myabe after I kick their asses, they'll teach me how to play dominos.