IMS - Day # 10 - Traffic Control - 5th Day

It's starting to feel  a lot more like late Spring here in Indianapolis.  For the first time we walked to work without our jackets and gloves on.  There was that kind of feel to the air that told you it was going to be a warm day.....certainly not triple digits, but warmer than we've been used to for the past 7 weeks.  It's funny how your body gets used to cold weather, but that first warm day....mid to high 80's feels a lot warmer than it really is.  I know by the time we finish with our assignment here at the INDY 500 these days will, in retrospect, seem cool.  No doubt there are triple digit days coming in the future.....not necessarily here in Indianapolis, but eventually. I heard a report on the Weather channel yesterday that it was over 100 in Sioux Falls, SD two days ago.....that's where we are headed after we depart Indianapolis....so it's looming out there.....hot weather.  The question, I guess, is will we be able to dodge the triple digits as well as we did last year?

The morning went as  it usually has.....around 7:45 am all the workers start streaming into Gate # 2, and it's just one continuous line of cars for about 15-20 minutes, then it lets up until 10 am when the gates are open for the general public to enter, then we go to two entry lanes, but it's manageable.  At around 11:15 Wednesday the flood gates opened.  Suddenly we had two lanes of street traffic stretching out as far as the eye could see wanting to turn into Gate # 2.  We tried to handle the flow with two lanes, but finally had to open a 3rd entry lane.  Suddenly we everyone on traffic control was in the street.....all six of us, directing traffic....no one was expecting this kind of traffic on Wednesday.  Then, at exactly 1 pm, as quickly as it began, the traffic eased up and we were back to 2 entry lanes.  TLE and I are told that on Race Day, May 26th, it will be like that for about 5-6 hours straight.

We are both settling into our responsibilities nicely......the one difficult thing for us to learn is to differentiate between the myriad types of credentials, "hard cards", badges, car stickers, tickets, etc.  I think after 5 days now I've got a better handle on that part of the job, too.  Those who have been doing this for 20+ years say it used to be much simpler....sometimes change and/or progress do not result in the desired efficiences.....I'll let it go at that.

Because it got much hotter yesterday, and then add in the fact we are standing on asphalt, which is increasing the temperature by a number of degrees, our shifts were shortened to 30 minutes from 60 minutes, and our supervisors were walking ice cold bottles of water out to us to keep us hydrated.

The one big difference between this workamping job and the Amazon job is that the time really seems to pass much more quickly, and it is not as hard on our feet.  Thursday will mark our 6th day on the job, and that will mean we only have 9 days to go.

The heat of the day seemed to stifle our appetites, so we just ate a few snacks for dinner, and watched our two recorded Tuesday shows....NCIS, and NCIS L.A.....then headed off to dream land.  Oh, by the way......we had the A/C on from the time we got home until just after midnight....haven't had to do that for a long time!

Thanks for stopping by!