Week Long Inspection Classes Are a Bad Idea

This last week at work has been a string of classes for work, strung back to back.   They’re required for work, and I was kind of looking forward to a few of them.  However, in 40 hours worth of work, I think I found maybe 2 hours interesting enough.  The others I listened to, but just wasn’t very intent on it.

The week started out with Basic Inspection, and I damn near fell asleep in this class.  It seems like half a day of bullshit.  They started off going over the index for two hours.  I mean a freaking index for two hours?  Granted, contract administration isn’t glamorous stuff, but the guy they had teaching the class literally put people to sleep.  It was terrible, and beyond belief.  In fact, more people failed this basic class than any other one, probably due to the lack luster teaching.

Day two was Structures Inspection.  I really kind of enjoyed this class, learning about construction of bridges and various other structures.  Oddly enough, I picked up on most of it working on Valley Falls with Geary, so it wasn’t as much help as I would have thought, but I did pick up on a few things.  I actually enjoyed the teaching style of the two engineers that taught it, and it was laid back, casual, and serious at the same time.  Both of the engineers really seemed like they were passionate about their jobs, and it rubbed off on me.  And, I also learned a new term: gang vibrator.

Next on the agenda was Asphalt Pavement Inspection.  Once again, it was an awesome teacher.  He showed the class first off how an Asphalt Plant works, and I learned a few things I didn’t know before about that.  But in the long run, turns out my work on Asphalt pretty much covered the entire class, and despite learning a few things that we failed to do, I pretty much knew it all.  Easy mode.

The last class, and quickest of them all was Concrete Paving Inspection.  The damn thing was scheduled for 8 hours, but really only lasted 4 hours, spread across two days.  Once again it was pretty basic stuff.  Basically once you grasp the concept on concrete, there isn’t too much to learn about paving.  Essentially, check the slump, air, and make sure your base is moist.  Put it down, slip form, vibrate, and finish.  Then cure, make a few saw cuts, and then cut all the way through when it’s hardened.  Nothing too exciting here, but I did appreciate how quick it went.   Short classes are always the best, and the easiest to retain.

I only have two other classes scheduled: Aggregate Field Inspection, and a Statistics class.  Stat’s should be fairly easy, but Agg Field will be a little more difficult, simply because I’ve done some of the stuff with Ron, and we did it a way that’s not completely kosher.  I also have some sort of Erosion Control conference at the Kansas History Museum on Tuesday, but I don’t know entirely how in depth that will go.  Seems like most of us at work are going, so the breaks at least should be entertaining, if the lectures aren’t.