Story-A-Day #288: Digger

DIGGER

It started off as a simple issue with a broken water main. The city claimed no fault in the matter, although it was undoubtedly their construction project around the corner that had caused the old pipes to cave in.

It made sense to him, and to most of the people he talked to about it, but the city maintained that it was unrelated.

Now he had dug up his entire driveway, at his own expense, and replaced the entire length of pipe from the street all the way to where it entered the house. It had been a huge project, and a financial burden at first, but as he surveyed the work he had done, a smile crossed his face.

It had been more than worthwhile. There was still a bit of work to be done, but he could pay someone if he wanted to now.

The project had proved more than worthwhile. He crossed the loose packed soil and entered his house. After removing his boots, he ducked down into the basement and entered the work shop.

It was still there, the crumbling wooden case. Sometimes it seemed like it could all be a dream, but it was there, a wooden crate stuffed with silver, jewels, and antique coins.

He flicked off the light and made his way back out to the driveway.

Who would have thought that a collapsed water main could turn out to be such a great thing?

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone. Please excuse auto corrected errors!

Story-A-Day #35: Digger

DIGGER

You don’t see too many setups like this in our business. The sense of permanence is something most sites would actively avoid because you never know when the streak is going to end.

We’re different though, and in the fortunate position to be on what could easily be described as the single greatest discovery in the history of the business. Head office is so confident in this project that they have provided honest to goodness amenities for our crew. No shit.

We’ve got a pool; a swimming pool, all the way out here in these snowy wastes. That’s vision. That’s commitment.

You know what though? Those head office bean counters are smart. This isn’t a normal dig – not by a long shot and they have provided an environment that brings in the best and ensures their discretion. There is an understanding of the inherent dangers of our industry, that unparalleled focus on safety we all preach about. There has to be with the risk of lost time injuries, or payouts when things go really bad, on most sites, but again, this is different.

When I look around what we have created here, it is a pretty impressive accomplishment - almost otherworldly in its scope. Most diggers would kill for the chance to work a site like this. There’s the amenities sure, the pool, the workout facilities, the library, theatre, and team of red seal chefs creating three glorious meals a day from fresh ingredients flown in every three. That’s an easy sell, but the opportunity to be involved in such a one-of-a-kind operation is what really gets their blood boiling.

I’d be confident that the hardcore diggers would accept a reduced wage to be part of this opportunity. We pay double though. It helps ensure not just their commitment to seeing this through to the end, but also their silence.

You can probably tell by now that we’re not talking about any normal dig here. This isn’t a vein of gold or cobbled mess of diamonds we’re extracting. You’d be forgiven for making that mistake though. When you look at the head frame just beyond our offices and the staff block, it looks like any other head frame, perhaps even modest in comparison to some. Within the context of the rest of our set up, it’s almost embarrassingly humble. We designed it that way on purpose.

Every now and then I imagine that I can feel the machinery grinding away beneath us. Not our machinery, mind you, but the seismic rumbles that first brought us to this region.

I’d explain things in greater detail, but we’re kind of operating on a need-to-know paradigm up here and I’m not sure that you would really understand what I would be telling you anyway.

Let me just say that we’re about three weeks out from the discovery of a lifetime. Buried under almost 150 feet of ice and rock is an item of such great value that it could reshape our entire existence.

What we’re digging for requires a little more finesse than your usual job. This is a discovery richer than gold, more precious than diamonds, and far more enticing than a billion barrels of crude. For now, that’s all I can say, but three weeks from now, I’m going to change your world forever.

Seriously, this is going to blow your mind.