What masculinity issues?

Continuing the theme of 'Bats with big tools,' this is the equipment that we used in order to bore holes in the earth's crust, for sensor installation at a basement research project in Kitchener (next town over from Waterloo). We drilled down to 1 meter below grade (we could have gone farther), and installed temperature and moisture content sensors. They are used to measure exterior conditions influencing the basement wall; the insulation inside the basement is also being monitored.

The equipment is a 3" dirt auger, driven by a Milwaukee 3/4 Inch Super Hole-Shooter. Craploads of torque. One of those drills that is reputed to knock people's teeth out, when they get out of control. Managed not to hurt myself, or my coworkers. Also, we successfully avoided any gas lines, electrical cables, water mains, lawn sprinkler lines, cable TV connections, or sewer pipes.

We did not strike oil. After all, this is not a wildlife refuge, so oil was not expected to be found here.

In other news:

• Work/School: In the past two days, we have mostly finished off the installation phase of the projects that have been stressing me out all summer. I'm pretty happy they're rolling along now... just a few more cleanup details. Chief grad student and my advisor are splitting for Europe for 3 weeks, so there will probably be a limited amount of work that we can do, in our group. Classes start on September 13th, so I have a little while before stuff starts to kick into gear.
  
• Fujitsu... ummm.. doesn't quite...: Powered up my computer this morning, and it failed the same way it did before I sent it. Dammit. Tried a few more times... same thing. Grr. Then I shook it in a couple of ways. It started up. Crap. Somebody has replaced my notebook with an Etch-A-Sketch.