38 inches Red Drum

My life is almost complete with this baby

Oh the uncertainty of it all.

"7 Years of College down the drain"  Bluto, from Animal House

I couldn't help myself from putting down this quote from a Big and Tall T shirt I just purchased in Corpus Christi,  as Lisa and I debate who of the two of us is smarter.  Her with her BS in Criminal Justice or me with my BA in Criminal Justice.  Therefore might seem germaine to us.  To the untrained eye though, us snowbirds might just appear as any old white trailer trash.  Just kidding.  My GPA could be divided into hers by at least three.  Don't tell her or I will lose my advantage.  But anywhooo

                        Foggy morning

               


      The Road less traveled.   Texas Countryside outside of Runge

                              That's right Glenn, I know how to sport a bald head and double chin with dignity.


“Healthy is merely the slowest possible rate at which one can die.”  

OK, I stole it but hell, I steal all my stuff.

We were laid off one nine days ago and of course drove the one hundred forty some odd miles to our favorite Port Aransas.  Better to wait on the beach than near San Antonio. We were told that we are at the top of the list for the next gate that opens.  But, there is never any indication when that might be.    Alas, yes alas, we have not even been to the Alamo yet.  One is lucky if one has at least two days notice but more often it is just one. We have really enjoyed working for this company however and are looking fw to hopefully working for them over the Winter if that be the case.    Of the nine days here, about three have been tolerable, the rest, alas again, pretty darn crappy.  Rather than play outdoors in the 40 degree 40 mile per hour wind, I decided to stay indoors, enjoy the smell of a crock pot roast and to catch up on the blog, whatever that might mean.  I noticed this is the 71st post.  I tend to keep up on other folks blogs and decided I'm no more non sensical than many I enjoy reading.

               When it is nice, it is really nice.  My Sand Castle Princess

                                         Silly Selfie

For a little while we added a new member to the family.

Just kidding.  His name was Dinner.   He really fit in by the way

                             Of the many fish that I have caught, most were good for only catching other fish.  Starting to  become a familiar pattern.  Then this Pompano happened to latch on to a Shrimp and the fight was on.   I really thought it would be bigger.  But he baked up just fine with a little Olive oil and Lemon.  Very few small bones.  Will remember that about Pompano.  White meat very tasty.

I have been to Hawaii five times and seen dolphins rarely, a whale once and no sea turtles.  On the beach in Texas, I might see fifty dolphins, twenty five or thirty sea turtles and though I have yet to catch one, I have seen several Bull reds landed that I would guess to be in the forty pound range.  My turn is coming. Just sayin....

 But not today.
  This is cold weather fishing and not very productive.  So my interests have turned elsewhere

          One of the many Tanker ships that glides by us day and night, about a quarter mile away.

                                 
                                     So I swiped a picture of this pier and....

                                                   Took a few of my own.  It is also this pier.....

                                        And this Pier....

                                                   And this Pier in the day when it is forty degrees and windy.

So last night Lisa was browsing Facebook(this has nothing to do with the picture by the way) and was diverted to one of the thousands of cute videos hosted by Youtube.  After the video was complete she nonchalantly clicked on another.  This simple act thus began my several hour torture of overhearing various weirdo savants, I guess I'll call them, forecasting endless Doomsday bullshit.  Out of curiosity, Lisa continued clicking down this rabbit hole through several more. Her politics generally mirror mine but she does have an interest in the bizarre and the not really occult, just call it the unusual.  Since the weather is so crappy anything to pass the time.   I've more or less kept out of this realm until recently while driving to Corpus Christi, for RV parts, my ears perked up when the announcer, (a religious channel  I was just surfing) quipped that a direct link existed between the Colombine tragedy and the alleged atheism of Carl Sagan.  I really have no idea whether Carl Sagan was an atheist or not, nor have I cared to know.  But this random association to be linked to such a tragic act caused me to wonder, one who would give this clown airspace to talk about this and two: are we back in the Stone Age?   One "Seer" after the other talked about the coming end in one scenario or another.  Some picking random dates the world would end.  Each had his own idea where the safest location might be in the event of such tragedy, mostly located in the US.  Me, I prefer Tahiti or Hawaii.  Anyhow, before I get too caught up in this there seemed to be a common theme.  One, that the doomsday slinger, though warning that money would be worthless in the future, seems to want yours to buy something he is hawking and the second common theme is that the guy is all knowing.  Seemingly easily answering any question concerning the future with sentences starting with "They "  "They" are seldom identified and "They" be it some unidentified government official, or a member of an ancient religious sect have a hidden agenda to destroy the world.  Now I am not so naive to think that we are immune from disasters, like hurricanes earthquakes and recessions (or even asteroids and bird flu) from financial tomfoolery, and one would be wise to make some preparations in the event.  I think a lot of these guys more than in the past are thriving with their line of crap.  It just seems to be everywhere these days.  Oh well, just my rant.


I'll exit with this thought... " I used to eat a lot of natural foods until I learned that most people die of natural causes.”

Yeah, you're right.  I stole it.  And on that note, I pushed the Publish Button.

Third Chapter part xx

1. Everybody is a genius. But if you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will live its whole life believing that it is stupid". ― Albert Einstein

Tonight on the coldest day of the year so far in Texas. It is  in the thirties, still chilly but pretty tame by Idaho standards.  Yet still a big thing here as the local newscasters have been warning nonstop about the coming "Big Chill", like it was some biblical event. Actually I view it as a nice break from the often uncomfortable too humid and too hot weather.  Naturally it is also the busiest day of the fracking operation with a lot of activity and vehicles in and out of our gate every few minutes.  We have not been stationed this close before and not completely unaware of the hazards here.  I have been eyeing a  large cloud of dust arising from the site  that has been thankfully blowing the other direction.  We are however downwind of the numerous Diesel rigs and live with that acrid smell more than I would like.    

This same scenario is occurring all over Texas all of the time.  In a recent drive to San Antonio I observed a lot of other RV's occupied by Gate Guards parked similarly.  Still, this is a gig not for everyone.  Myself and other folks we have met in Texas had not even heard of this independent contractor gate guard thing.  But for those who are interested, this is an opportunity.  I haven't talked about it, guess were not supposed to but it's possible to make pretty good money  here.  With amazing flexibility. One can almost work when he wants. The only requirement is to own an RV and acquire a low level Texas Security certification. Not mind being perched at the end of a Caliche road and being around sometimes two Diesel generators running round the clock. Also the gate needs to be manned 24/7.  Shoot, the rent, power and water are free.  But, like I said it is not without risks.  H2S gas, something I had never known before is something feared by Oilmen and a byproduct hazard of Fracking. Depends where you are but the corpse found by our recent location near the Mexican border, death by unusual circumstances, more than I had heard before.  And of course the never ending number of illegals that were sneaking by our location and occasionally making contact could be a little unnerving. Not all illegals are bad, but then not all are good either.  Of course everyone you meet has their own story of random hazards and dangerous border encounters.  Anybody who doesn't think life isn't different here than in the midwest is delusional.  There is considerable violence that spills over into the US from Mexico. One has only to peruse the YouTube  Narco Traffiking videos that were likely shot scant miles away to cap it off. We documented some of our adventures last July.  Like I said, it's not for everyone. 

Lisa works the day shift and a couple of weeks ago while checking in a crew truck something about the young driver struck her.   He was roughly the same age as our kids. Out of all the workers that came in, she talked about this young man. She said he was a nice good looking kid with long eyelashes.  The next morning he didn't show up.  By mid morning we learned that he had fallen asleep while driving to work and had a head on with one of the numerous 18 wheelers that drive nonstop here.  Tough enough working non stop 12 hour shifts.  She still talks about him some. No lesson here.  Just anonymous grief for a young man who left a wife and baby. 

I recently attached my blog to my FB account.  I thought about it for awhile beforehand but concluded that one, it's for documenting  Lisa and my new life.  Yeah this past year a lot of it has been tooling around Texas gate guarding, but there are larger plans on the shelf. And two, it is an outlet for myself written for family and others who might be interested.

On a lighter note.....




Just kidding. It is Hurricane season and my heart goes out to the displaced victims in the Phillipines.    We on the other hand have been exceptionally lucky dodging the extreme weather as I have mentioned before.  The closest being weathering fifty mile an hour winds (verified by records) in our small popup trailer on the beach at Port Lavaca last year. (See the December entry. I tried unsuccessfully to import the video) The info we have is sixty to seventy will destroy a mobile home. Yet there have been several tornado watches this past year.  Way of life down here. Also really weird going to sleep when you haven't had to worry about that most of your life.  Sooo I tried to look up what to do in the event of a Tornado and it seems to be about the same as being in a plane crash.  Ur kinda screwed.  Our best defense is our emergency NOAA radio.  I thought it best to hop in the truck and drive, then I read the stats that said in one instance, over half the deaths occurred with people trying to escape in cars.  Best bet find a stinky muddy ditch, probably in the middle of the night and lay down in it.  And try not to think of Copperheads, Scorpions, Black Widows etc.  Happy place, Happy place....


Texas is a unique place. In the South we have traveled through too numerous to count, small dead or dying towns.  In some instances it felt like we were driving through a ghost town.  Most prevelant I believe in Arkansas and North Texas.   But Texas also has a tremendously rich history reflected in the old churches and buildings in these towns.  I promise to include a lot more pictures of these places in future posts.

 Exceptionalism is a word that struck me recently on a visit to the Bob Bullock Museum in Austin and seeing Neil Armstrong's space suit displayed there.  The one he walked on the Moon with and I am guessing, developed before 8 tracks.  It simply looked like a jazzed up pair of garage coveralls and amazingly simple.  Certainly not something I would feel safe in going to the place they went.  But the technology for the day was amazing.  And we sent men so equipped to the most hostile environment with  tools primitive by today's standards and they returned. Talk about the Greatest Generation,  The rest of the museum is dedicated to the state's war for independence. Think Alamo.  I for one believe Texas politics somewhat cockeyed but I came away with the feeling that unlike all of the other states, when judging these people, one should bear in mind where these folks come from.  Til next time.

This is simply a test

Sunrise

I wish I could convey how magnificent this really appeared.  Oh well.

Trucks come, Trucks go

So after a couple of weeks, we are ending this Frac Job and have just been notified by the "Company Man" that we will be retained for the next job.  I am finishing a long night of countless sand trucks in and out.  Really this has not been all that unpleasant and is the rythm that Lisa and I set up.  She functions best during the day, and myself, well I am a night owl. Tonight the temperature is in the low forties with a brisk North wind and I am very grateful for the Catalytic heater this trailer came equipped with since we tend to leave the door open for access purposes Even though there are several trucks an hour to check in, there is also quite of bit of time for reflection.  Tonight I am thinking how we have dodged the bullet so to speak on the serious weather that has come through here lately.  I talked about Corrizzo Springs last week receiving a foot of rain.  Had we been paid in a more timely manner we probably would have been there instead of here.

But it was this monster that we got lucky with


I took a picture of the television screen in our trailer fully expecting that we would receive some of the storm, if not all of it.  My expectation was not what it turned out to be.  This storm flooded out many people in both Austin and San Antonio  and caused several deaths. We were fortunate in that I wound up watching from some twenty to thirty miles away.  Unbelievably we did not get a drop that night. 

Something else I did not realize about this business is the transient nature.  We have been here only a week.  Apparently enough time to complete a twenty stage Frac.  Tack a day or two on each end to bring in and set up equipment and then take it down and done.  We are either released or moved to another location.  I am also amazed that almost to a man, folks that work in this business can be found working at any hour day or night.  Certainly not unusual to be talking to someone at 3:30 AM, when the last time you saw him was sometime yesterday afternoon.   Then I realized the same could be said about me.

Of course if I had my druthers!

I have discovered a few filters and if the cars were not so noticeably modern, this pic could have been out of the fifties.  Speaking of, though I would be considerably older, I suspect Port Aransas would have been a great place back then.

I have to confess I do not know what kind of birds these are.  I think some kind of Crane.  The reason I am including this pic is because when I first seen them this morning, I was convinced because of their size that they were some kind of large flightless bird.  like an Ostrich.  They really look that big.  This is telephoto from about a third, to half mile away.

For much of my life, I have realized that there exist those whose artistic talents far exceed even what I could appreciate.  However, I have always been one who could appreciate someone else's.  Chris Hopkins, a one time drinking buddy, and excellent human being along with his lovely wife Jan long before he became famous used to show me his stuff.  Course back in the day he was way in to Hobbits and stuff. (I figure he also owes me for a dislocated shoulder for failing to tell me how good a wrestler he was). This is a copyright problem so nobody tell him Okay.  But wow.  Though I haven't seen him in over thirty years he is one of those guys I feel privileged to have known. Would have been interesting to go back in time and share an Absinthe with Van Gogh right? My buddy Jeff who claims to read this blog will know what I am talking about right bud?






And



My final thought tonight in between darting in and out of the cold letting the tanker trucks through the gate,  is that in 7 more months I will have the good fortune to turn sixty.  Pretty big milestone right?  And I realized these past few months that in all of those years most of the way I made my living was by working at night (remember "Night Owl" )getting home at two or three in the morning.  Consequently, I rarely watched a Sunrise.  A Sunrise is different by far from a Sunset.  Though I appreciate every one of either I am around for, it has been the Sunrise that has fascinated me of late. It is the expectation of the day. The clear crisp air, dew or frost, birdsong, coffee taste and smell and a hundred other things realized through the senses that I have not been familiar with most of my life that thoroughly enhance the beauty of the rising sun.  Leastways since I was sixteen and getting up early to move sprinkler pipe.  And finally I am thankful that every day I get to experience these things with Lisa, the love of my life.  Yup. Life at times has it's drawbacks.  But for now, It'll do.