Having started out surveying in rural areas, it's hard for me to get used to working around an active shopping center or big box store where there are a lot of interactions with the public. I do enjoy answering questions about what we do. Most are pleasant encounters with the occasional #&@!* that parks with his tire 2 inches from the foot of the tripod, or props their foot on the leg of the tripod to tie her shoes. And then every once in a while a retired Surveyor, who is a good friend you haven't seen for years, walks up complaining (with a smile on his face) because you are parked in a hatched area unloading the robot. And sometimes an elderly man parks his 32 Plymouth nearby and after being complimented on the car, he exclaims "If it ain't Steel, it ain't REAL!" I think that's about as real as it gets.
What other profession takes you from cutting line in the backwoods, communing with nature one day... to seeing '32 Plymouths and meeting people on a sea of asphalt and concrete the next?
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Me. "What's the difference?"
T.C. Carroll "It's the difference between right and wrong!"
bump
I had a guy with a hand pumped recumbent bike stop and ask me if I could survey his property down south in an area I'm familiar with.
Turns out he worked in survey for years but never got a license and ended up doing GIS with a regional mega Telecom (that since changed it's name a few times) and worked in easements and locates before SUE was even a thing.
I directed him to the PLSC website to see if he could find a local operator and explained that everyone in survey is busy so soon might mean a few or more months. He thanked me for the chit chat and Information.
Pleasant conversation, his name was George.
The tweakers that were watching my gear while I walked around were less approachable, but eventually said hi and mentioned how nice of a day it was.
You see all types any day of the week in this job for sure.
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I love it when some lady pulls up in her car and asks for directions to Stella Burke's house.
Few years back I was out doing a survey and it was well below zero and I was standing beside the work rig and had just taken my gloves off and stuffed them in my jacket while I made some yellow snow when a car went by fairly slowly. Didn't think much of it until I saw brake lights and the car started backing up and the window rolled down and here was a little blue hair old lady looking at me like I had a third leg growing out of my head. "Deary, it's much too cold for you to be out here working without gloves, here, take mine." With that she thrust a pair of purple mittens out the window at me just as sincere as could be. Here I was thinking about how I was about to get an earful of something or another and she goes throws that curve ball at me. Got to say it kind of made my day.
Just because I'm paranoid, doesn't mean they aren't out to get me.
A few months prior to Y2K we were working in a city with a nearby nuclear power plant.?ÿ Some of the citizens there glow 24/7/365.?ÿ One of those types lived next door to our project.?ÿ He left his house, grabbed a grocery shopping cart from the store a couple of blocks away and began moving in that direction.?ÿ His wife followed him on the journey but made sure to stay at least three steps directly behind him at all times.?ÿ We ignored him.
On the return trip, he came strutting down the sidewalk while the wife was pushing the well-laden cart and staying at least three steps directly behind him at all times.?ÿ We stopped him for a little chat while we took a break.?ÿ The wife went on to the house.?ÿ He quoted scripture about the wife's staying behind him when we asked about that.?ÿ He figured out that we would be marking two of his property lines.?ÿ He then began quite a speech as to why our work was for naught.?ÿ It seemed that when Y2K arrived and the world as we knew it would no longer exist, boundary lines would be meaningless.?ÿ Then he told us about the cache of food and weapons he had assembled.
Besides believing things most people don't about scripture, and didn't about Y2K (and he turned out wrong, of couirse) he was stupid to boast of his cache.
@bill93 I love it when people provide apocalypse shopping information...