Early times.

It's been awhile since I've left the house in the morning when it was still dark. I really didn't have too much trouble waking up. Loaded up the car with all my photography gear and also a video camera. Packed a cooler with water and Mt. Dew also. On the way up, I did get a little groggy so I cranked up some tunes on my iPod - I cued up a Bobby Brown CD that Bone loaned me and was jammin' to that old school stuff. That woke me up.

Got to Franklin right at 7. Called and found out that the first cement truck got pushed back 2 hours... WTF?!?! I could have slept till a decent hour. Made a pit stop at McDonalds for more breakfast before going to the construction site. Finally, everything came together and things started happening. Lot's of hardware running when things were going - cement truck, cement pump, air compressor...

Spraying cement is a tough job. You got one guy running the pump and talking with the cement truck dude making sure the contents of the truck feed properly. This guy also has a wireless remote control to start and stop the pump (very cool btw). Then, you've got 2 hoses - one from the air compressor and one from the cement pump that end in a nozzle with flow controls on it. This nozzle and pair of hoses weighs about 90 lbs. by itself WITHOUT concrete flowing through it. So, ya got this one dude working the nozzle and the other guys move the hoses around as the nozzle dude works. Interesting stuff. Got all the shots I could before taking a break for lunch.

For lunch, I made it over to Famous Dave's for some chicken tenders. Good eatin. Then I went over to this outdoor shop to find a hat I had been looking for. Luckily they had what I wanted. (Eric - its Blue Ridge Mtn. Sports, thought you might be interested) While I was out, I got a call from the construction site that they were done for the day. There were some other shots I needed but the crew didn't get to it today. I am not planning on going back tomorrow. I'll make what I have work.

On the way home, I ran into some mutant bugs. I swear, when these things hit, they splattered like a water balloon. Bug guts everywhere. I even got one that hit right in front of my drivers door handle!?!?

Oh, speaking of car stuff - when%