first day.

Well the first full day at the hotel is over...but I'm not sure if I will be able to handle 6 more!!! I'm not exactly sure what I was thinking and I probably should have taken my Dad's sugestion to stay at their house while Nathan's at climbing school. But, I'm here with the kids and now we'll just have to make due!

Nathan came home last night a little exhausted with all the material that he received. We spent the whole night, until almost 1am, trying to tie eye splices. That is a kind of knot where you have a 3 strand braided rope which you loop around and weave it back into itself...if that makes any sense. Anyway, we did that until late and then we were up at 6am tying more, trying to get it down-pat.

Supposedly Nathan has to climb a pole 65 ft in the air, then tie the knot while he's up there and can only come down once the knot is tied....so we practiced, a lot. The only problem was that sometimes we tied it just perfectly and other times we messed up along the way but weren't sure what we did...so it got kind of frustrating. Nathan was second-guessing his decision to join the apprenticeship, to which I just smiled because in the past he has doubted himself in the first few days of something new (which almost all of us do!) but then he ends up being real good at it. For example, when we first started on the road he was driving semi. He had never driven semi or shifted a big truck like that. He didn't think he'd be able to do it. Well, guess what? After a few days, weeks, he could drive and shift that thing in his sleep. Same goes for being an operator. Once he started operating the "big stuff" (cranes, dozers, etc) he had second guesses...now, he can operate pretty much anything and the lineman who he's operated for lately have said he's been the best operator that has work for them before. So there ya go. He'll do fine...it might just take a few days to get the confidence level up.

Meanwhile, back at the hotel.....here are a few pics of the day yesterday...