Oh, The Irony...

Drilling has been slow the past week.  While I'm glad that everything is working properly, it makes for very long nights.  So I end up reading a lot, and staring off into space, and surfing the net. 

Today's Exploit:

Last night I was reading Cake Wrecks and came across a link for a site called Passive-Agressive Notes.com.  It has some hilarious notes written by some very angry people.  I spent much of the night laughing at these notes. 

I had to stop for a while to make some plots of the data I collect and go to a safety meeting. 

I was laughing so hard I almost couldn't go in when I arrived at the meeting to find this on the door:

(TaKe Boot's oFF

or mop beFore you Leave

If not stay out ouR damN TraileR)

Hahahahaha.  Oh my.  I may have to send it in.  Or maybe I'll just laugh at it some more here.

Picture This

I have been very busy at work the past few days.  Reading and surfing the internet takes a lot of time.  Our tool is finally working properly, so nights aren't quite as stressful.  I don't feel the headache building as I walk over from the trailer anymore. 

Today's Exploit:

I've gone into town 2 times since I got here for my second stint at the Rig of Horrors.  Both times have been quite eventful. Sadly I didn't have my camera with me either trip.

Close your eyes and imagine these scenes:

1. A man in a golf cart driving down a country road.  His cat-dog is in the passenger seat.  He is leading a horse.

2. A cat sitting, guarding a mail box.

3. Some very lovely white irises.

4. A zebra in a pasture with a heard of white deer.

Some of these crack me up. Some baffle me.

I may have to go back to see if I can document any of them.  At least one.  I really hope I see the zebra again, and wasn't just imagining things.

"No TV"

The other night we were tripping to start another run.  I left the Box to go eat and ended up watching tv.  (I believe I mentioned the Outdoor channel.)  When I came back I found that the computer had gone to sleep.  It was the other MWD's so I had to wake her to get the passwords. 

I came back to try them.  I couldn't even get the first one to work.  I tried every combination of capitalization I could think of but nothing worked.  I finally looked a little closer.  She'd given me her email ID and password.  So really there was nothing I could do unless I wanted to wake her again.

I decided to make do with my computer.

Today's Exploit:

I went to the safety meeting the other morning.  The night Company Man was very excited because he was leaving as soon as the meeting was over.  His good mood spread and all of the crew was making jokes.

One said that he was getting old because he was sore from tripping.

CoMan: You're not old. I have children older than you.  One's 32, one's 35 and one's 31.

Roughneck: Wow, you kept her busy.  Didn't want her to leave, huh?

CoMan: We had no TV. Ok, Tom, start the meeting.

I think he was a little embarrassed by that comment because he started the meeting before anyone had time to think about what he said.

The meeting went on and the safety topic was covered, and the joking began again.

Roughneck:  Hurry, we need to park the forklift next to the Cattle Gap.

Me: Hahahahaha. (I think it's hilarious that they call a cattle guard a cattle gap)
Makes me think of 2 groups of cattle with a gap between them.
Although a cattle guard could bring to mind something like a Mountie or Royal Guard

CoMan:  You'd better not get in my way.  I'll body-slam a man.

Me: Hahahaha

He did go on to tell a story about how he had some guy up off the floor, threatening to body slam him, but it wasn't near as funny. 

Ta ta for now. I'm off to do business.

Run the Rig

Today has been a bit stressful.  I went to bed knowing that the Safety guy would be out here to do "Commentary Drives" where we have to tell him everything we're doing as we drive along, and he grades us.  I did get to go for a run, and make some Manicotti, but then I came to the box to discover Miranda trying everything she could think of and some other things to get our tool to work. 

The tool sends a signal through mud pulses, and we were getting enough interference that we weren't receiving the signal. 

We re-wired some stuff, and moved cables around, and restarted computers countless times, and basically made a royal mess.  Finally something we did worked and we got the signal.  Woo hoo.

Miranda left to do her commentary drive, and I fought with the computers to get them to communicate with each other.  Luckily the two primary computers are working properly, but the back up doesn't want to cooperate.  I spent an hour trying to figure it out, then called the IT guys, and they spent another couple hours on it. 

Finally they realized that it has to do with the way I logged on.  At least that's what we think right now.  I haven't logged off to see, yet.  That is for a future post.

Today's Exploit:

While I was near College Station I spent a lot of time on the rig floor, because they spent most of the time tripping in and out.  When they do this, I am not needed.  The driller was thoroughly sick of tripping by the time he got to go home.  And he got the easy job of controlling the hydraulics, the poor rig hands had to do the heavy lifting to move the pipe. 

The last day before he left the driller told me that if we had to trip for any reason before he left he'd make me run the rig.  That means sitting in his chair and ordering the guys around, which would be fun.  But it also means controlling the top drive, and that is very scary. 

He then decided that I could have a choice:  run the rig or pull slips. 

Slips are REALLY heavy metal wedges hinged together to go around the pipe and keep it from slipping when adding a new stand. 

Picture from Schlumberger Oilfield Glossary

I told him I'd pull slips, all by myself.

Apparently they weigh about 200 lbs.

TV Adventure

Today I didn't have much to do.  I played on the computer, watched some TV, doodled...I am fascinated by the old Nashbar logo.  I can't find it anywhere, and I can't get it to look right, but I try, nonetheless.

I was going to make some cookies, but then the day MWD and DD went to bed, and I didn't want to be too loud, and I lost my motivation. 

Today's Exploit:

Instead of cooking I watched TV with the night DD for a while.  I'm not sure if he was interested in the show, or we were both just too lazy to pick up the remote.  We ended up watching the Outdoor channel for about 3 hours.  I wasn't terribly interested in the shows, but I was fascinated by the commercials.  Especially the ones for women's outdoor apparrel.  They cracked me up.  All of the women had their hair perfectly fixed, down and in the way, they wore makeup as well.  Hahahaha.  Who in the world is going to get up at 2 or 3 in the morning to curl their hair and put on makeup so that they can go out at 4 and shoot a deer or elk?  I'm sure it happens, but really.

I also entertained myself by doing dishes.  That is pretty sad, considering I hate doing dishes.  I also bleached the counters to get rid of the little ants.  The are about as big as fleas, but they're the only ones that have ever bitten me.  And it's not fun.  Also I somehow managed to get bleach on my shirt.  It was one I liked, too. Dang.

Squishy

I have been moved off the excellent Nabors 52 rig to the Rowan 62 rig.  I was very sad to go; I had just made friends, and found someone to run with me.  So far this new rig is ok, but just not the same.

I went running today.  This rig is located on a grazing pasture.  At first the cows pretty much ignored me.  But then one was really close to the road, and I scared it.  So of course they all run to the one place in the road where they can block the whole valley.  Lucky for me, a guy came buy in a truck and got them moving again.  Otherwise I would have been stranded!

Today's Exploit:

I was a little excited to come to this rig, because it's the first time I've worked with another girl.  We started with the company about the same time so I knew her a little.  It also means that the bedroom/bathroom will be cleaner. 

I was unpacking my toiletries after digging them out of my car.  (I've noticed that the stuff I bring to the rig grows exponentially as I have to transfer it around.)  I went into the bathroom to put my soap on the counter.  And then I saw IT.  THE SQUISHY TOILET SEAT!!! ACK! 

Who in the world ever had the idea that they needed a SQUISHY toilet seat?  It's probably the grossest thing ever.

Catfish

Today I talked to my mom and my sister.  I was doing some math problems to refresh my memory.  My mom asked why, and told me that she enjoyed doing math also.  My sister said "ew".  Thanks for your support, Cupcake. 

Today's Exploit:

Today the Day MWD finally got around to cutting his fish to be ready to fry.  This is the first rig that I've been to where all the people cook for everyone on a regular basis.  It's kinda fun, and sometimes scary.  Like today.  They are frying catfish.  Um.  I guess I'll try it, but I'm a little apprehensive about eating fish.  And I really am not a big fan of fried food, or rather my guts are not. 

Picture from Google

Wish me luck.  I think I'll need all I can get.

"Run Off"

Today was a little stressful.  Mostly for the guy working days, but a little for me as well.  I have been staying up nights, as much as I can, in preparation for when we actually start drilling.  (I've been here at the rig 4 days now.)  Today they finally picked up our tool for the first run. 

I slept a couple hours on the couch, because there was nothing better to do last night.  Then I stayed up, catnapping in the office chair thinking that I'd be needed to move tools soon.  I did this for another couple hours.  Finally they were ready for us, at 2:00 pm.  So I jetted off the rig floor as fast as I could to catch some sleep in a BED!

Today's Exploit:

I got up at 5:30 so I had time to eat and wake up before my shift started at 6:00.  I learned from the other MWD that one of the sensors had been hooded up incorrectly, so the first test they did didn't work.  He was a little flustered.  So he got everything going correctly and asked the Company Man to fill the pipes and test again. Mr. Company Man didn't like that much and told the Day guy that if the tool didn't work he would be run off the location. 

It makes me think of someone being chased out of town by a bunch of people on horses, whooping and hollering. 

I'm sure it's no quite this dramatic, but that's what I envision. 

He told me that I might also be run off, by association.  I was kinda hoping that it would happen.  I think it would be rather funny. 

Now, a couple weeks ago I probably would not have thought so, but since this was really nobody's fault and I would not get blamed, I wanted to see what it was like. 

Sadly, we figured out what was wrong: a glitch in the software.  But don't tell the Company Man.  What he doesn't know can't hurt us!