Mr

Cody Acosta

July 2, 2006

English 101

A Dusty Path

It was just another ordinary summer day for this construction worker at Dow Chemical, or so I thought. I would have never believed that this day would bring a life altering decision to be made. So as I made my way to work at four in the morning, I was only prepared to work in this wonderfully hot Louisiana weather and smell the stink of a chemical plant all day. Who knew by this time tomorrow I would be waking up a different person with a new outlook on life.

I thought about how I hand washed my truck for hours two days before, as I parked my truck in the dusty gravel parking lot. The parking lot stretched about a half a mile long. If I didn't arrive at work forty minutes early, I was going to be walking for approximately six minutes with lunch box in hand. This is only one of the many inconveniences in this field of work. After the six minute hike through potholes and limestone, I swiped my identification badge and passed through the turnstile. Right after passing through the turnstile I would be asked to open my lunch box by security, even though they would not look inside. I paused and looked at the landscape before me. Millions of little lights shining in the darkness, which as day broke would become big metal structures. Finally, I crossed the railroad tracks to get to the site truck where I greeted my coworkers. Although none of us were very talkative at five in the morning. All I usually heard was a simple hello or good morning. After speaking and waiting a few minutes for the stragglers, we climbed in back of the truck and sat on the bolted down benches. It is Dow policy to have benches bolted to the bed of the truck. Of course bolted benches wouldn't prevent us from flying out of the back of the truck, but they were more convenient. The policy was one of thousands of Dow's safety regulations we had to abide every day. We were off to the job site, which was as dusty as the parking lot.

The Capstone Project is where I am being stationed to work at this particular time. Capstone is a new construction project. It is a big open space covered in gravel with a triple-wide lunch trailer and four explosion-proof buildings. The explosion-proof buildings are the size of small trailers and they sit on the ground. These buildings will be used as Dow's main office for the construction of the operating unit. Westgate, the company I was employed by, was hired to install temporary power and communications for these buildings.

All of the buildings needed to be grounded. Grounding enables any electrical surge to be sent straight to the ground. This task was given to me by my supervisor. He is a short, big bellied man in his early thirties that is hard to take serious because of his playful personality. But I knew when to play and when to take him serious, and this was a job that needed to be complete in a hurry. I rushed and grabbed my materials and tools.

With my shovel in hand, I began to dig a two foot deep trench all the way around Dow's big explosion proof buildings. The trench was not the easiest part of the task. I found myself digging in packed gravel. By the time the trench was finished it was high noon and the sun was blistering. I looked like I jumped into a swimming pool with my clothes on by the time I picked up a grounding rod. . The rods are the width of a highlighter and ten feet long. I began to drive the grounding rods into the ground using a bucket of water and a maul. I placed the rods cattycorner on each building.