I feel like a slacker

...but really I'm not. I've just been super busy at work and neglected the blog.

Since the September floods, things have been pretty crazy at work. Up until December the craziness had been limited to the water and sewer projects. But now that those are mostly done, stormwater projects are starting to pick up, and that's where I come in.

Let me back up. There was roughly 150 roads (a lot of those were major roads) that were washed out or damaged and had to be closed due to the September 21 flooding. With those roads, water mains and sewer mains were also washed out. Also, when the road washed out, the culvert that used to carry the stormwater also washed out. The City and County has taken care of some roads where water and sewer wasn't involved, but the majority of them are on us. (For those who don't know, I am a project engineer at the Water and Sewer Authority in the county where I live. The company controls and maintains all the water, sewer, and stormwater systems for the City and County. We are a private company and completely separate from the City and County.)

As a result of all the washouts, the company is spending a butt-load of money fixing everything. Because the County was declared a disaster area, anything that was damaged or destroyed in the flood is eligible for FEMA reimbursement. That's where I come in...

As work, more specifically stormwater work, is completed, I get the work order and description of work done. I have to then open a Project Worksheet developed by FEMA and enter in all the information such as Description of Damage, Scope of Work, Location Map, FEMA/FIRM map (shows floodplain), and before and after pictures. Its not too difficult, but it is a lot of work. So I have been swamped with that. I have really been trying to stay ahead of the game and trying to turn in more than my daily minimum, because essentially, this is money, and FEMA has a cut off date that we have to get as many turned into them as we can before that cut-off.

Kudos to you if you have stuck around this far into the post.

As far as running goes, I and chugging along with my Half-Marathon training. I'm actually running .5-1 mile (sometimes 2 miles) over my daily minimum. In fact, tomorrow, Jon and I are meeting a couple of my co-workers in the morning, one of which is running the ING Half as well, for a 6-7 mile run. Even though a warm front (if you can call 50* warm) has come in, it will still be a little chilly for my tastes come Saturday morning, but I figure if we commit, we will definitely get out there. There's no motivation like knowing someone is waiting on you.

I have also signed us up for a 6k (3.7 miles) for April 18. It is a "Live Earth Run for Water" race sponsored by DOW and it starts and ends in front of the World of Coke in downtown Atlanta. A group of about 8 of us from work are running/walking in it as a type of PR for the company, since we are the drinking water supplier for the County and all. But we aren't running as a "team" because the boss didn't want to draw a lot of attention to us. Go figure. But we are getting free technical T's (that have WSA on the back) that the boss is buying for us. So that will be kinda cool to get a free running shirt.

There is also a 5k on Tybee Island that I want to do on February 6. Being that its the weekend of my Birthday (Feb. 8), I'm thinking I might be able to get a weekend trip to Savannah out of it too. (There is also a Half Marathon that day as well, for those interested.) Don't know if that will happen yet, though.

Ok, enough procrastinating, I gotta get some FEMA stuff done...