The Green Thumb of Cooking

Today’s Exploit:

I got two small days off, when they sent someone to the other rig to take my place and before they sent me back to my rig. It was lovely and horrible. I loved that I got time off, I’m getting used to this schedule thing and going to another rig disrupted it. And it was horrible because I only had 2 days, gah.

But now I am back on my rig and dying from heat and lack of sleep. George basically forced me to go to bed, telling me that he’d make absolutely certain that my depth was right before they started drilling, and my night hand, Harley, said I could sleep late this morning if I needed. 

I like working with nice people.

Today, after checking on the computers and making sure everything was working properly, I went back to the trailer to make breakfast. I stuck a frozen waffle in the toaster, a store bought one because I never remember to make enough right before I go to work to have fresh ones. While it was toasting I was washing and slicing some strawberries to put on top of said waffle. Suddenly George was leaning over my shoulder sniffing like he’d just found the prize apple pie at the county fair. 

Me: It’s a waffle, do you want one?

George: No, but you have a way of making everything smell good.

Me: It’s a frozen waffle, I didn’t do anything to it.

George: I know! But everything you cook smells amazing. You have a talent!

So, evidently I have a talent for making frozen store waffles smell good. It’s, like, the green thumb of cooking. The Cinnamon Nose, or something. But it’s my magical talent, so I’ll take it.

Bud, the Grasshopper Dog and King of the Table

Texas is hot and humid and gross. I want to go to the cabin.

Today’s Exploit:

Today I went to the trailer to get some breakfast, because I decided that a few drinks of chocolate milk were probably not enough to be considered food. When I got there Bud the dog was sprawled out on the coffee table. 

That was new. Usually he sprawls under it, or under the desk or on the couch. But today he was king of the coffee table. He stood up when I walked in, so I patted him on the head and he sprawled out again.

He got kinda interested when I went into the kitchen, but only kinda because he wasn’t too impressed with the grape I shared with him the other day. He really was more interested in the ham sandwich I was making. But when I stayed in the kitchen with yogurt and blackberries and strawberries and raspberries he got a little more interested.

He stood up on the table and started to act like he wanted to jump down. But it was a little on the tall side. I guess he forgot how he got up there. My guess is he jumped on the couch and then hopped over to the table. But he evidently didn’t think that would be a good way to get down, so he paced along the other three sides of the table for a good while before braving it and diving off. 

Once safely down he had to investigate the kitchen to see if I dropped any tasty crumbs on the floor, one that the cloud of flies hadn’t carried away. On his investigation he found a grasshopper. This was interesting. 

He pounced. I’m pretty sure he pinned the grasshopper to the floor with his face. 

When that got boring he whipped his head around to make the hopper jump. And he scrabbled around and pounced again. This time he swiped with his paw to make the poor grasshopper flee. He spent the next 15 minutes wiggling and bouncing and swiping and whipping and pinning the grasshopper with his face, and was still at it when I left. 

By this time the grasshopper was missing a hopping leg, and the other one wasn’t getting much traction on the floor as he fled. The only way he got into the air was when Bud whipped his head around and threw it across the kitchen, and then it could almost make a graceful landing by flapping its wings. 

I’m told Bud is an English bulldog, so he’s all squat and square and sausage-y with a giant, heavy head (he has to rest it on the table or on your knee for a pet so that he doesn’t fall over sometimes). The grasshopper probably thought it was being smashed by a furry boulder. Anyway, Bud is not particularly graceful and made quite a spectacle bouncing around the kitchen. 

A Long Job

Today’s Exploit:

We drilled 7 feet last night. It was a winner of a 12-hour cycle. 

This job is supposed to be done in 4 days, according to the report I received from my manager at the beginning. We have 2 wells to drill and are still working on the first 500 feet of the first one. That means that we still have over 9000 feet to drill. 

At 1.02 feet per hour. 

This is going to be a long job.

Myrtle Has a Friend, And a Baby!

Today’s Exploit:

Myrtle has a friend, or step-sister, or something. I was wondering around Home Depot one day, working up the courage to talk to one of the “associates” about getting a washer/dryer. Not a washer and dryer, but a washer in a dryer, or dryer-in-a-washer. Something. 

Anyway, I was wandering through the plant section when I found Alison. Miss Alison (Aly) Aloe shouted at me that she needed to go home with me. And I was so shocked that I acquiesced. So now Myrtle has company.

Also, I took a cutting or two or three from Myrtle a few months ago. Probably March. Anyway, I put them in a glass with some water and promptly went to work. When I got back the cuttings had roots and were looking rather pale. 

I changed the water and put them outside for a while, since I was home to monitor water levels. They perked up and turned green again just in time for me to go back to work. When my parents and Cupcake arrived in May they were stringy and nearly white with lack of sunlight. My dad took care of them and I ignored them for another month or so.

On my last days off I finally opened the potting soil, since I needed to re-pot Ally into a pot that wouldn’t fall over from a nasty look. And I potted the babies and gave Myrtle some more dirt, since I keep dumping hers in the floor of my car on trips. I also planted some seeds in my big pots, but that’s another story. 

To complete my ramblings: Baby Maya perked up and turned green and sturdy in about 2.6 seconds. She withstands the heat better than Myrtle and doesn’t seem daunted by the wind. Also, she’s safe from the company man, David, because Myrtle offers a larger selection of leaves to eat.

Holiday Post

Happy Fourth of July. Be patriotic, have a barbecue and watch the fireworks (if fireworks aren’t banned due to fire restrictions). I’ll be wishing I was with you, and not staring at some boring computers.

My Abnormalities

Today’s Exploit:

According to George I seem to be the abnormal as an MWD. 

The first time he told me this was when we were picking up our tools to get ready to drill. All of the roughnecks were off doing other things when it came time to pull the slips (move the fancy wedge-thingy so that the drill string could move up and down) on one of the sections. George was going to pull them himself, so I went over to help and my night hand decided he’d help too. 

I didn’t think it was a big deal, but evidently I am the only female that he’s ever seen pull slips. But really, it’s not like they give us much of a chance. The last time I did it was when we were almost finished with a well and it was the middle of the night when the big boss-types were in bed, and not out making sure that all rules were adhered to.

My other instance of MWD abnormality was the last time I carried water into the trailer. I do this on a regular basis, we keep at least 2 bottles inside so that they’re not quite so hot when we need to use them. 

George: PJ, I think you’re the only MWD that carries water. I’m pretty sure that most of them would die of thirst before they’d carry water.