The Butchering of the English Language

*facepalm*

But very funny.

I used to get back from the crew fieldnotes that said "spiket", "chimbley", "culbert" and others...

I worked with a guy at VDOT that was convinced that a Mimosa tree was called a Famosa and he was very unhappy that the pre-loaded DC codes did not have it in there... But I think Mimosa was.

A recent favorite of mine is 'SURVICE' which fortunately was explained in detail in the field notes as 'SURVICE!'.

AXEL has been the latest the last 4 PCs have insisted is correct for axle

PSY still getting used to this one, paint stripe yellow

FNCMISS don't have a clue, PC is now somewhere in Illinois on a pipeline, fieldcheck

RD ROCK red painted rock

Kinda reminds me of the song by David Allen Coe, "X's and O's"

i once worked with an IO that was from India. Very good man, but radio calls to him were difficult. i wanted a particular shot to be coded, say 'RCP18' with the attribute 'abandoned'. he used abundant, couldn't blame him, but we got a good laugh when the boss called us in asking how may rcp's were there

i've noticed a lot of POURCH shots lately. my favorite is one i came up with 15 years ago while running a crew i found a corner that was IPF BATS. iron pin found bent all to shlt.

I once saw a note in a field book describing a wood deck. The word deck was spelled with an I instead of an e. The female drafter was quite amused!

I called my boss from the field, on the first day of the job. I told him that we've already gone over budget.

WHAT? WHY? He demanded. All we've done is stake erosion control.

Well, I explained, according to the stakes, we need 1400' of Silk Fence.

+o(

I see rifraf quite often too.

The DC codes are one thing. We have some tolerance on those since space is limited and evidently, my crews can't remember to keep up with the code numbers. However, in the field book, the damn thing better be spelled out.

DC 1/2" IRF better = Found 1/2" Steel Rod with plastic cap marked "Someone XXXX"

PP better = Power Pole in the field book

EOA better = Edge of Asph.

I told them there is no trick to this. Write it like you would say it. The DC code simply checks the field book if there is a question and you forgot the edit in the book.

I spent a great deal of time one year making feature codes that had over 100 of the most common objects and shots we take. All were spelled out and would pop up if you keyed in the right number. I then shot the list down into a small booklet (2"x3") and laminated it for weather proofing and affixed it to each DC with a wire snare. I thought I was making it better for the crew. Do you know how easily a field crew can tear a WIRE SNARE off a DC????? Pretty damn easy.

Then I taped it to the back of the DC thinking that would be better. Evidently, it's been some time since I was in the field and turning the damn thing over to read the code is just too much work.

Now we just deal with it, even though the old file is still in the DC.

SMH

I have stored a lot of license plate numbers in the DC. I have yet to get one that turned out to be useful. It's usually someone acting suspicious.

James

> I see rifraf quite often too.

YOu must work in some tough areas of town. 😉

Yeah, rifraf placed around the embutments by an escalator. Common terms around here used by many contractors and a few rodmen.

I was doing a site plan and cross sections for a new bridge a couple of weeks ago with a newbie instrument man. I was rodding and was a little bit irritable that day although I thought I was being patient with his occasional errors. When I downloaded the field notes I noticed that the shots on the existing bridge deck, coded "deck" used an "i" where the "e" should have been. When I questioned the i man why he had spelled it that way he said he was seeing me while shooting the deck and that term came to mind. Thinking back on it I probably deserved it.

Not quite the same thing but....

I had a tech who labelled a 'NO PARKING' sign as "NO PORKING". Of course the sign was in front of the Houston 2nd Baptist Church. I always teased her about that one.

TQW. That's what you get when you take a rodman that can't see very well and tell him you're shooting the "toe".

"SAME"...... LMFAO

At least you did not end up with a bunch of SAME codes... I had a new to the company instrument man once... I shot a CC (corner of concrete)... the next shot I said "same" as it was also a CC... he entered SAME in the data collector. He did it at least 100 times on that job. HE NEVER DID IT AGAIN, and never will or he will be shown the door.

You work in CT?

From one of our Chainmen writing the notes - "iland curb BC" rather than "island"

"Found 1" IP w/ unlegible tag"

We are still laughing about "unlegible" daily and we are constantly trying to use that word in everyday office speak when we can.

a couple of time our Iman in the past would get board (get it) doing topo (who doesn't).

So in the text file I'd see this:

Topo
Topo
Topo
Topo
Topo by the dope O