Steel Plants and Human Hearts

49°f/9.4°C, rain. Rain most of yesterday too. It is much needed.

Yesterday was a very long day, since I woke at 2:30am and could not get back to sleep. I have not done that since my knee surgery, and boy, I don't like it one bit. I finally gave up around 4:30, got up and made my tea. We had another trip to Huntington anyway, and had to leave around 8 for that 2-hour trek.

As usual, though, the route we take along route 2 was interesting.  The new steel plant construction continues, causing much uproar and occasional traffic issues. It is impacting the road too, causing damage with so much heavy truck traffic. I assume plans are in place to begin work on the road soon, since the truck traffic will certainly increase once the plant is complete and producing steel. But are our politicians that forward-thinking? We can only hope 

Here are a few shots of the construction. It extends for several miles, with storage of equipment and materials, parking lots for the workers, power stations, and so on. There are also several large camper lots, for the workers who live in their campers. 

My photos don't really capture the scale of these buildings. They are huge.

Here, a graveyard is an  uneasy neighbor with a materials storage lot. No quiet rest for these people any more!

The construction companies use old school busses to transport workers from site to site. We saw a sign on one bus that said "pickle bus". Larry wanted to follow that one! I googled the term but only came up with a pickle bus being a bus with fun activities for kids. However, I did find that UPS is using "pickle robots" to unload supplies and equipment. So maybe the bus hauls robots? I am so curious!

At the VA, I sat next to a man who is working at the steel mill site. He said he has worked as a surveyor there for 3 years. I can imagine that there is an awful lot of work for him, surveying for roads, pipelines, buildings, etc. Even before tge actual confirmation of this project, surveyors would have had to measure just to be sure the site was suitable. I am sure there had to be archeological investigations too, as the Ohio River valley is rich in Native American history, and artifacts are constantly being found. But I would bet that a lot of that got glossed over or ignored in the desperate rush to get this plant built in an area that sorely needs employment opportunities.  The loss of so much rich river bottomland is sad too; it's a catch-22, isn't it? Provide work in an impoverished area, or preserve the past, and the land? I, of course, would opt for the latter, and my sons would call me an obstructionist probably. How would you feel on an issue like this?

Larry's appointment at the VA was with a cardiologist this time. The EKG revealed that his heart was in what they call a-flutter---not as bad as a-fib, apparently,  but needs to be corrected. So he came home with yet another pill to add to his growing collection. I also learned that he had apparently had an ischemic stroke during the summer, a mini-stroke that is very common and probably he didn't even feel a thing. That news unsettled me! His doctor had told him about it last month, but Larry chose not to tell me because he didn't want to worry me. Geez. 

These mini-strokes don't usually cause any damage but they are a warning sign. We know he has some artery blockages and is taking meds for that so perhaps that, and this new medication will alleviate the problem? I find it all very worrying. He will have yet another EKG in a few weeks to see if they new med is working. Aging sure isn't an easy process!

Copyright Susanna Holstein. All rights reserved. No Republication or Redistribution Allowed without attribution to Susanna Holstein.