I am writing this hoping that the HTML code of the pic of the Tarantula that was hiding underneath the hose Lisa picked up will work on this post.
For the past several years, I, and now Lisa have for the most part been sufficiently secure as to enjoy control of our our own fortunes in that we are not usually subject to influences that place us in dumb situations. Like when I was twenty years old and working for the railroad in Wyoming. A huge fire broke out due to some random sparks caused by a Welder. The foreman, willing to sacrifice us for his job, ordered us to get in front of the fire to try and put it out. Myself and the other "gandy dancers", what they called guys who worked on the rails took one look at the advancing flames and refused. It turned out that fire got pretty big and that decision averted suicide. I had really started to take the status quo for granted until karmaic (that a word?) forces prevailed. See our next duty station was determined by the collaboration of two interesting Darwin experiments. (Actually two dudes of dubious mental capacity) In short our equipment was placed not twenty feet from a very busy 70mph road. I won't go into all the frustrating details but when I complained, one of the guys told me wouldn't "do no good" these orders were right from the top. This surprised me because Conoco generally prides themselves for their emphasis on safety.
I told Lisa one night and then we were moving or quitting. I figured the odds would be with us that we would survive at least one night. Though earlier I had cringed seeing a tractor trailer rig stray into the barrow pit farther up the road. That guy would not have missed us by much. Truck drivers here work around the clock and I get the feeling about some, not all, but drug tests are few and far between. Then, while we were there scratching our chins, a worker rolled up, took notice of our situation and said he was shutting the whole operation down if he had to in order to get us moved because our positioning was ridiculous. Uh huh I was nodding my head getting excited. I was still a little PO'd at myself for allowing us to get in to this pickle, again. Anyway Conoco has this neat rule that if any man on the rig of any company or position sees anything unsafe, they have the authority to shut down the entire operation without fear of reprisal. Although I don't think that extends to us. Check out pics of our insane spot.
Our new ally meanwhile told us that he would make a few phone calls. In the meantime, in reference to the guys who had placed us here, he imparted such intellectual properties such as "Dumb as an Owl Trap" and other tasty tidbits that I was mentally noting for future use. Texans are so creative and in my finest road rage episodes "dumbass" just gets too overused.
Turns out he was the "Company Man" . Calls were made and we were moved the next morning. We gets our ironies where we finds them
"We can't stop here, this is Bat country"
Hunter S. Thompson
Watched another 48 hours, Sixty Minutes, Dateline etc. Ok, it doesn't happen every time or in any predictable pattern, but. All I can say is that in memory, there have been too many times when an element of the story is that a sensational case (to the locals anyway) is resurrected in some fashion after somebody else gets involved. New prosecutor or Police Chief whatever. Suggesting an election year. Hmmm. Wonder if anybody else sees this. Do sensational cases only get solved during election years?
Anybody watching the news and seeing all the posturing going on would have thought that the problems of the Veteran's Administration were just discovered. But some are reporting that Congress has been aware falsified reports since 2010. Facebook postings of the mistreatment of veterans has been going on longer than I can remember. But now politicians are in lock step walking up to the podium to voice their outrage. Maybe I'm just being cynical but it seems suspicious to me being that this is an election year. Certainly I'm sure some could have been working behind the scenes, maybe working for the betterment of the veterans rather than the publicity. I guess I could hope. But could they have picked a more vulnerable population? It seems a politician sees his job different than the rest of us. That being to facilitate his or her reelection at any cost.
"Yesterday's weirdness is tomorrow's reason why"
Getting updates from my Daughter on the kitchen floor project that she and the new renters are doing. Our renters damn it. Everybody stay away. Anyway, the kids have an awesome adventure ahead of them this summer. More on that later.
Job ends in a couple of days. Though it is summer and hot, we are probably heading to the Coast in the hopes of doing some fishing. Like most middle age guys, yes I'm still middle age damn it, I mentally go over the status of my little sphere of this planet. Not my kingdom as I am often reminded. But my peeps. those I feel responsibility to. And I look over the short term weather forecast. And everything looks good for a couple of days. And for now folks that is as good as it gets.
"Good people drink good Beer"
For El you ol Dawg
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