Remembering the Hillbillies

Countdown:  58 Days.

I. Love. My. Job.  In a demented, angry sort of way.

Today’s Exploit:

Today I was remembering some of the people I know from Louisiana.  Lots of them are called Coon Asses.  I’m not sure why, and I’m not sure what region contains them.  But they’re funny.

I remembered Mr. Doyle’s story about beating his brother with a dead raccoon, er possum.

And the time everyone on the rig floor danced a jig when I brought food.

Also, that there are people who still name their kids things like Billy Joe.  And those kids are both very sweet and a bit loco.

January Favorites

Countdown:  59 Days.

I ran maybe 5 miles yesterday.  It made my lungs hurt.  

Being sick ruins everything.

Today’s Exploit:

Love You Much Better - The Hush Sound

Nothing Compares 2 U - Sinead O’Connor

Everything Good Goes Away - Ruby James

You Lie - The Band Perry

Count On Me - Lucy Schwartz

You’re Only Lonely - Schuyler Fisk

All I Want Is You - Barry Louis Polisar

Little Talks - Of Monsters and Men

Charlie Chaplin - Katie Herzig

Quiero Que Me Quieras - Jesse & Joy

January Wedding - The Avett Brothers

You’re the One That I Want - Angus & Julia Stone

Wonderful - Annie Lennox

Rich Girl - Hall & Oats

Plainsong - The Patti Fiasco

Bedroom Eyes - Dum Dum Girls

You Really Got a Hold On Me - She & Him

Beautiful - Lucy Schwartz

Summer Fling, Don’t Mean a Thing - New Found Glory

Honey - The Hush Sound

Strangers - Norah Jones

You and Tequila - Kenny Chesney & Grace Potter

From Where I’m Standing - Schuyler Fisk

Hold the Line - Toto

Sentimental Heart - She & Him

Hell on Heels - Pistol Annies

Jack and Jill - Katie Herzig

I Should Know - The Patti Fiasco

Deer In the Headlights - Owl City

No Strings - Mayer Hawthorne

Little Martha - Leo Kottke

New Romantic - Laura Marling

Fools Gold - Katie Herzig

Well, Well, Well - Duffy

Big Jet Plane - Angus & Julia Stone

I Was Made for Sunny Days - The Weepies

Fake Post

Countdown:  60 Days

Today’s Exploit:

I’m too busy making new playlists for Starla to write a real post.  I’m a terrible blogger.

This Week: In Review

Countdown:  62 Days.  

Have you read Clockwork Angel yet?  I like it.  

Today’s Exploit:

This week was the week from hell.

Monday:  Start new run.  This should be smooth sailing because we’re using fancy-schmancy tools.

Tuesday: Tool fails, but the help desk and manager are desperate to make it work.  Try random, pointless modifications for 3.16 hours. Aand we have no backup tools. 

Tuesday Night:  Backup arrives 5.3 hours after they told us it should 11pm.  Race to program and pick up new arrival.

Wednesday:  Yay, the tool is working, and I’m giddy from lack of sleep.  Just for good measure I get an infection that makes doing anything and nothing hurt.  Spend 3 hours in the emergency room because the doctor is busy.  Then he prescribes pain pills I said I didn’t want and some antibiotic after beating me up.

Wednesday Night:  Arrive back at the rig to discover tool problems again.  The DD thinks he’s the king of the world, and the manager tells me to change the sensor again.  You know how that story ends.

Thursday:  Things are working, but loopy from lack of sleep.

Friday:  Hospital calls and says that antibiotic isn’t going to work, you have to get a new one.

Friday Night/Early Saturday:  We finished drilling!  PS You get to stay up late changing the tool again.  And that gunk in your eye?  It’s not just sleep, or lack thereof.  It’s probably pinkeye.  Hehe.

Saturday:   Also, the pharmacy’s closed so no one can tell you what kind of eyedrops you should get.  And your eye is going to insist on feeling like a gargoyle is using it as a stress ball.

On the plus side, I did get to sleep for a few hours while they tripping back in.

Mud Bath, er Shower

Countdown:  63 days.  

Doctors: They give you pain meds you don’t want, then the antibiotic they prescribed doesn’t actually do anything and you have to go get a new one.

Today’s Exploit:

Yesterday the tool almost died again.  

After we tried fussing with the pumps and making 480,925 changes to the computers they made me change the pressure sensor again.

I checked with the driller, and he said he’d turn off the pumps and drain pressure from the pipe.  I went and got my coveralls, to avoid getting mud on my town clothes (aka the shirt Cupcake let me borrow) and got my tools.  

I took off the cable and the protector and checked once more with the driller that I could remove the sensor.  

He said it was ok, to go ahead.

I started turning the sensor very slowly, because I knew it would still have some pressure behind it.  Gradually it started leaking, so I knew it was almost free.  I made one more small turn, and BAM!

The sensor was gone and I was covered in mud and I had a 30.84 foot arc of mud shooting over my head.  

I took off my safety glasses and wiped them off. 

When I tried to put them back on I realized that the insides were coated with mud, not just the outsides.  

I didn’t have enough clean material on my coveralls to get it all off because I’d used it to wipe off my face.

When the arc didn’t decrease I ran upstairs to ask the driller if the valves were really closed.  He said that they were, and the flow would abate in a minute.  

So I went back down and watched for a while, until it was low enough that I could force a new sensor on.  I sprayed everything really well with ether-cleaner stuff and put my cable back on.  

Then I went and got a rag and went inside to see if it had helped.  That was when I discovered that I had black hair and a mustache.  

Once I was sure everything was back in working order, and had informed the Directional Drillers and the company man, I went to take a shower.  I spent the next hour and all the hot water dousing my head with dish soap and scraping at the mud on my arms with my nails.  

The Drive Takes Forever

Countdown:  64 Days.  

I’m reading Great Expectations.  It’s surprisingly easy to follow, usually I have a hard time with the language in the classics.

Today’s Exploit:

Now that I have my home 1-2 hours from where I’ve been working for most of the last 1.783 years they’ve decided to send me back to East Texas.

So I’m back to the 5-6 hour drives to get home.

Stupid oilfield.  

I caved and moved to the hottest place on earth so that I could actually get home in a reasonable amount of time.  I think they sent me out here just to spite me.  

Or it could be that I’m terrible at saying NO.  

Maybe they’ll let me go home if I beg really pitifully.  

The Little One

Today is the start of my new countdown.

65 Days to go until St. Patrick’s day, which also happens to be the day of the Seabrook Lucky Trail Half Marathon.

Today’s Exploit:

My little entourage still runs with me.  It’s not always the same three dogs, but it has always been three in the group.

The little one is the only one that is consistent.  

This dog follows me for just over half a mile, gradually getting further and further behind.  Then it sits in the middle of the road and waits until I start back.  

When I come back into view it stands up and takes a few more steps toward me, then it prances in place until I get there.  

I greet it and we continue back down the road to the rig with the little one slowly falling behind.  

We’ve repeated this process 4 times so far.

Speed Bump

I’m having a soup craving.  

Today’s Exploit:

The road to this rig is the worst I’ve ever encountered.

It is paved.

It doesn’t have many potholes.

It isn’t flooded.

It is relatively level, though not very wide.

It does, however, have 3.5 of the largest speed bumps I’ve ever encountered.  

Poor Starla hates me every time I decide to go to town.  I hate me too.

One only spans half the road, so I can go around it.  One is 4 feet across, so going over it is not exceedingly painful.  One is semi-tolerable if I take it at an angle.  

The last one is a doozy.

The last one gets me every time, no matter how fast or what angle I attempt to cross it.  

Starla cries, and I curse and cringe.  

It is a good thing I don’t “need to” go to town often.  Because that bump sure puts a damper on things.  I have been trying to only go when I’m starving because I have nothing else in the fridge.

Cupcake’s Birthday

It is January already.  Pretty soon it will be February.  Then what will we do?

Today’s Exploit:

Today is Cupcake’s birthday.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY, CUPCAKE!!!!!

I don’t get to see her today.  Because she’s in Wonderful Wyoming and I’m in Terrible Texas.  But I’ll call to wake her up this morning and she’ll be grumpy at me.  

I haven’t had a chance to get her gift yet because I’ve been working since Thanksmas.  But it’ll be a good one.  One that will make her run fast in March.  She has to start practicing now because I’m making her run a half marathon with me.