I am now in the middle of the hearing I mentioned last time. I have not been called to the stand yet, but I can already see from watching the other witnesses that it's certainly going to be a brand new experience. Watching lawyers operate/think is really quite amazing. We engineers typically get the luxury of time between a question, the answer, and the next question. Although as a consultant we are required to "think on our feet" significantly more than a typical process/manufacturing engineer. This is because eventually we need to be able to answer general questions about regulations, permitting, etc. on the spot. Learning the regs, etc. to such an extent that it is second-nature is one of the steepest learning curves when beginning your career at Trinity.
Note the time stamp on this blog. Yes, working on the couch during the nightly news occasionally happens. Tonight I am preparing to testify as an "expert" witness in a hearing before the Public Service Commission about a new coal-fired power plant. My particular part of the hearing will be the air quality dispersion and deposition analyses that were conducted for the plant. This will be my first experience at testifying under oath. We are not asked to do it very often, but a few of us have in special cases. I think it would take a minimum of five years of experience before a consultant would be ready to testify as an "expert." I am not looking forward to the cross-examining attorney badgering me, but this is just another example of the fact that I am never bored at Trinity. I'll let you know how it goes.