No Surveying Without Representation

I staged a mini-strike today.

The head of my shop, and "lead EA" for the det handed me a set of prints and asked me to go set out stakes for a ditch this morning.
No Problem.

Upon arrival at the site, I noticed in the title block of the prints it said his name in the following blocks:
Designed By- alright
Drawn By- alright
Surveyed By- wait a second....

Upon realization that he was taking credit for the survey work that I was doing, I stopped.
I took elevation shots that the Equipment Operators needed to start their project on Thursday.
I looked at the plans and the project that I was supposed to survey.
But I didn't put out a single stake.

Maybe it's vanity, but if I'm the one doing the surveying for a project (and I always am, I call myself the lead EA and him the "Office Manager") I would like recognition for my work, because I know that if something is wrong he'll put the blame on me, but if it comes out perfect (which it never does in Kuwait but nobody cares) I won't get any of the credit.

I refuse to do any more work to get Office Manager a medal.

On Hedgehogs and other creatures.

One good thing about working nights in the desert is: all the critters are out and about.

One bad thing about working nights in the desert is: all the critters are out and about.

A few nights ago while surveying a road for our camp my partner and I found ourselves outside of the inner berm of camp. This is actually a nice place to work because nobody drives by you except security and nobody bothers you because usually nobody can find you. It also means that it's easier to find critters because they're not constantly being chased into their holes by traffic or people walking about.

I told the E-3 who works with me that if he ever saw a hedgehog we would catch it because I heard that they eat scorpions (my biggest desert fear). That night, right after I set up my tripod and instrument he calls me over the radio saying "Check it out" so I go running up to the fence only to see a little hedgehog making his way through the concertina wire.

After a few pokes from the wire and a few pokes from the hedgehog we managed to snatch him up and drop him into my hardhat. One of the guys suggested I name him water and when I asked why he replied "because that's what he's gonna leave in your hardhat" so water got his name.

Since we weren't actually planning on doing any work, I stood around holding water for a good few hours while I had my next wildlife encounters. First some wild dogs came by and sniffed the spot right where I found water, leading me to believe I couldn't put him back there for fear of him being eaten (we'd already seen a dead hedgehog the week before). Later after one humvee went to get more fuel and pick up some stuff we'd forgotten, I saw my first camel spider.

The camel spider is gross, and fast, that's all I have to say about them.

Finally as we were getting ready to head in for the night, I put water back down on the ground and let him find his own way in life. Hopefully he is still alive.