Until now Lisa and I have toiled on in this little post career career working as Oilfield Gate Guards blissfully ignorant of it's darker side. Till now it has simply been mostly a social affair, OK maybe a little like a Walmart greeter who writes down license plate information. This week however we have been assigned to a Well categorized as "high risk" for H2S gas which requires our painstakingly checking credentials, equipment, state of their beards (clean shaven) and issuing specific directives to the workers instead of the friendly back and forth banter which usually takes place at the gate. These guys are actually working with respirators on in the hundred degree heat. Communicating several times a day with the "Company Man" ensuring pretty strict compliance. The last part also stressful in itself although I have not had a complaint in the world about the quality of these folks. Some of the most decent human beings I have known. Some folks don't realize my wife Lisa's devotion to any task assigned to her. And after the tenth or so phone call to the Head guy, he says "You're killing me Lisa".
The H2S trainer had my undivided attention when he told me that one "whiff" of 200 PPM of the stuff could mean good night Sally or internal injuries not worth recovering from in terms of "quality of life". And that there exist Wells that have as high as 60000 PPM. Well now, no pun intended.
Forecast for the next week to be triple digit with humidity levels like the bottom of the Ocean making the Heat Index like a hundred million degrees. First week of September so relief is due soon. But with the humidity so high our little trailer is always dripping condensation from somewhere.
OMG a huge pain in the Ass. A dude demanding hyper enforcement of the "rules", which I could see if they were somehow safety related. But now I am learning are more related to economics than anything else. More on that later.
"If you pick up a dog and make him prosperous,
he will not bite you. This is the Principal difference between a dog and man."
Mark Twain
Current events?
The news and internet chatter, (by that I mean the first three pages of Google) is currently going on about the "imminent" attack from ISIS on Texas's most southern border. This has also been on the News. Reading some of these internet rags claiming information "confirmed" about an army being formed in collusion with the Cartels in Ciudad Juarez. Now I am not so naive to believe this is completely impossible but am I the only one that think these two organizations might be at cross purposes. Hard to see how the Cartels would benefit financially from any kind of epic battle at the border. We spent a couple of months on the Border last year and were privilege to information that many OTM (Other than Mexican) folks were showing up causing consternation. And frankly, that place is dangerous no bones about it. And it's kind of nice not to be there anymore. We're about 130 miles away now. But we also just recently visited Mexico near Arizona and when people complain there is no border security It's a little hard to believe. There seems to be a substantial bunch of folks around responsible for security on both sides. Guess we'll see.
"A lie can travel half way around the world while the Truth is putting it's shoes on."
Mark Twain (also)
Chirrr, Chirr, Chirr, (Sound of Crickets or Cicadas)
Sooo, my next point.....
Periodically in my life I have dealt with ummm for lack of a better expression is: Seeing shit that ain't there. In my usual manner I have just for the most part ignored it . Denial I guess. Kind of in the back of my mind thinking, hell this is just an aging kind of thang. If it had been voices in my head, I just wouldn't have been lonely on the night shift. But nooo, I get to see stuff . Like just a few minutes ago when I again, out of the corner of my eye, watched the same large spider dart under a pillow that I have previously seen about a dozen times. Leggy hairy stripy kind of thing. And once again I lift the pillow and nothing's there. (Not that there is a lack of real spiders around) The other evening I could have sworn that I'd seen a fairly large animal run right by the front door, ( the only door). I was sufficiently convinced to get all buck fevered and grab the camera expecting to see a large dog, Mountain Lion or Coyote. . Busted out the door. Nope, nothing there "Do not adjust your sets" popped up in my head. I'm kind of bemused more than alarmed about this. And maybe it's this kind of phenomena that is creating all the fuss.
Two Martinis Please?
Y'all have a good week.
Mike n' Lisa's quest blog UA-20271220-1 ga(‘set’, ‘&uid’, {{USER_ID}}); // Set the user ID using signed-in user_id.
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