My First Angle Boring

After over 30 years in the environmental sampling and drilling business, I finally got to supervise my first angle boring today.

We usually drill straight down vertically, but sometimes there are obstacles in the way of where we want to drill, such as a building or overhead utility lines.  When this happens, one can always drill from another spot at an angle and get beneath the target zone that way.

I "invented" a field protractor by cutting a carefully measured cardboard box top to make sure we were drilling at the correct angle to reach the target.  My high-school teacher always said that someday we would have to use Pythagoras' Theorem, I just had no idea then that it wouldn't be until I was nearly 60 years old.

So that happened.  Another day, another lesson learned.  But after completing my first angle boring, I wept like Alexander, as I realized there are no more "firsts" for me to accomplish (not really, new stuff happens all the time if we make the effort to notice).