Run of good luck on the Mississippi last week

We had a stretch on the old dredge where nothing went wrong for three straight days. That never happens. Usually a hydraulic line blows or the cutterhead picks up a log, but last Tuesday through Thursday it was like the river was cooperating. We moved 2,800 cubic yards in one shift alone on Wednesday, which is about 400 more than our average. The suction pipe stayed clear and the slurry pump never clogged once. Has anyone else ever had a perfect run like that where you almost didn't trust it?

3 comments

3 Comments

luna_wright1mo ago

Now hold on a minute, I gotta push back on that "perfect run" idea. A lot of times folks mistake good luck for the machine just working the way it's supposed to, and I've seen way too many people get careless from trusting a streak like that. I'd rather have a few small problems every day than a stretch of smooth sailing that makes you forget the river can turn on you in an instant.

danielnelson1mo ago

Oh come on, you're mixing up two different things here. A "perfect run" isn't about having zero problems, it's about having the right problems at the right time. I've been running equipment for over a decade and the best stretches are when we catch little stuff early before it snowballs. Those daily small problems you're talking about usually mean you're fighting fires that shouldn't be happening in the first place. A real smooth run doesn't make you careless, it gives you breathing room to actually think about what could go wrong next.

allen.kai1mo ago

Keep an eye on what happens when that "perfect run" breaks someone though. Those little problems, they teach you how to fix things when it hits the fan. If you never have to patch a leak, you won't know where the shutoff valve even is when the whole pipe bursts.