The quintessence of manliness is fearlessness, readiness to defend one’s own pride and that of one’s family.” –Julian Pitt-Rivers, The People of the Sierra

Because of my ability to NOT generate an original thought.  the following are random ramblings of occurrences in our lives the past couple of weeks.

He said "Im the pretty one" and I said "you're right, you're a damn handsome man" In a joking comment how I was to discern him from the previous driver.


My last jest with maybe the last truck driver I checked in the last  night of work.


0530, after about five weeks of repetitive trying to sleep during the day through the sound of not one, but several diesel engines, chemical and diesel fumes,  various men yelling greetings ten feet from where I am trying to sleep,  the sound of gas station bells going off nonstop throughout the day, all day, and several nights of hard decision making.  Skinny armed Rob Lowe or peaked in high school Rob Lowe, our time came to an end as the Company Man drove to the end of the road and said "Hate to be the asshole, but you guys are released".  One of my favorite guys he said, "it wasn't up to me.   Sorry".  "Your company lost the bid"

Accumulated sleep deprivation has virtually "kicked my ass".  At first, with the help of Nyquil's  Zzzquil  I might get somewhere's of six hours sleep during the day.  I may be fooling myself on that one.  It's like "when did sleep become so hard?"  Am I going to be able to stay awake, this fortieth consecutive night?  At the end, I seem to be tired all of the time.  Eventually, I guess a cumulative effect, I'll sleep a straight eight hours and feel more or less refreshed.   But that is only one in every seven or eight days.

Driving the 120 miles or so home, I literally poured water on my face and then leaned out the window for the cold shock of wind on my face to revive me.

Sleep deprivation is not a new phenomenon to the Oilfields.  There have been a number of high profile accidents involving several fatalities in the last few months.  Most recently a rather grisly accident in Dimmit County involving several oil workers.  The Eagle Ford  counties boasts the highest number of driving mishaps in the state of Texas. But.  Last night with the expectation that we would be on the same job another ten days, I drove the twenty plus miles to Kenedy for groceries.  A small town that seems to have more or less had a construction boon to accommodate the massive rise of temporary workers.

For the very first time I drove without the proverbial numerous trucks full of workers, heading somewhere, with the most leadfoot of the bunch driving "Up my Ass'.  In fact I was alone the entire trip.  Probably much like someone who drove that route twenty years ago might experience.  In the HEB, I could count the number of other customers on one hand.  Something also unusual.

Newspapers on sale at the HEB headlines read "QUAKES ROCK KARNES".  The county we are in.  Hmmm.  Didn't notice.

Saddest of all.  I have met guys I know to be at least (you know, the "New Forty" ) in their sixties and who have been working non stop the past many many years but who are now going to be unfamiliarly unemployed.  Yeah, they have made good money, but they earned it.  One really needs to experience this world down here.  The extremes in climate and demands of the job these folks were doing. Twelve to twenty four hour shifts.    A hilarious local commercial coined it spot on,  "Yeah, you, Chicken Mcnuggets, who lives with twenty other smelly dudes.  You! are the backbone of  America's Energy".  These guys have survived in a world where mishaps ruin careers. More likely at times to get yelled at than complimented.   Wearing full protective gear when the temp is in the three digits and humidity nearly the same. I mean full protective gear.  Overalls, hard hats, heavy gloves and boots and safety glasses.  And not just men but women as well. Well, the past two weeks we have talked with many, many extremely nice folks who have lost their jobs cause of the downturn.  Numbers in the thousands around here I suspect.  Lisa, well what can I say.  A stickler for detail she has become extremely popular with the higher ups.  I was told in confidence. While decisions are made concerning contracts in other places.  Consensus is that she should run winning bid's company.  Yeah, she's that good.

So anyway, pulled up to the beach.  Temp is in the lower 80's No telling when or if we'll go back to work.  Did I say the sky is gorgeous with just a mild breeze coming from the Ocean.  Course the campground is crowded with other winter texans. and I guess that's kind of a hardship.  Didn't want to paint a picture rosier than it is.  Somebody has to hold the fort down.

Wellllll, that was all written two weeks ago.  This is what she looks like now.

So I snuck down to the beach to take a few "Angry Ocean" Pics

Waves have eroded nearly half the Beach.  County is gonna be busy next week.

 




Oh yeah and this whatever it is.  Reminded me of Star Wars.

It was really motating through the channel

The past two weeks have been filled with preparations for the two year old grand daughter to turn three.  K. this consisted of a rehearsal or "practice birthday party" over a two day period and then the real thing.  Think we need more grandkids huh?

And........ wait for it....... Lisa turns fifty this week!!!!!!!!!   My joke about looking for an "Old Lady Store" have not received the positive reception proof of my "wit" I thought they would.  Anyway, I had to search around Amazon to locate her favorite perfume, Jean Nate stuff.  I'm so comfortable that she won't read this that I can tell it here.  Although she felt extremely comfortable dictating her birthday requirements.  Sleepover with the aforedescribed now three year old.  Spicy chicken and shrimp and coconut frosting that is on double fudge cake.  Not German Chocolate.

And still providing stuff to the Bank trying to get their approval to buy stuff.  Property stuff.  And so while we wait.......and wait.  I thought I would toss in a few links of some of the most interesting stuff I have read this week.

The first, provided by James about what our personal microbes say about us.  TED talk.  And my personal two cents,  it's this kind of knowledge that I find comforting, a sense of community and immortality.  Listen...

How our Microbes make us who we are


AND

TRAILER FOR CITIZENFOUR

The second, after watching Citizenfour which was shown on HBO last night.  (The above is a Trailer)  I followed up with this. Also a TED talk.  Which delves a bit deeper into the subject matter.   If folks like myself, previously thought privacy only matters if you are doing something wrong,  there is a lot more to it

Why Privacy Matters

And the last being the 3P's of Manliness, for which the last paragraph best suits me.  "Not a clickable link) http://www.artofmanliness.com/2014/02/24/the-3-ps-of-manhood-protect/

As Gilmore points out, the imperatives themselves aren’t really bad or good as far as being categories of encouraged behavior. It’s how they’re applied, enforced, and segregated exclusively to the male sex that people take issue with. Some who are very traditional will say we should carry these charges forward pretty much untouched. Some will say they are offensive, sexist, and wholly outdated and should be dropped as markers of manhood altogether. And some (and this includes us) will say that they do still have value, and that you should retain the best parts of these manly duties, discard what doesn’t work, and not throw out the baby with the bathwater.

I actually respect someone who will take any of those particular sides more than someone who doesn’t want to have the discussion at all because “manhood is meaningless.” At least have the discussion. And when you do, now you know where to start.

And this final quote about sums it up best on this cold, rainy, wet day.

The one thing that does not abide by majority rule is a person's conscience."

-- Harper Lee

Mike n' Lisa's quest blog UA-20271220-1 ga(‘set’, ‘&uid’, {{USER_ID}}); // Set the user ID using signed-in user_id.

All things must change

Been thinking alot about how we got to here.

Two years and roughly five months ago Lisa and I set off in a popup trailer from Twin Falls with a couple of bicycles with no destination and no real intent of ever coming back to Idaho in any substantial manner other than to visit.  We had just survived a short sale of our house and had come through an extremely hard time in our relationship.  I think at the time the plan was just to travel endlessly.  Healing was needed and though it was unrealistic, I thought to myself when we were living in the Rockies 75 miles outside of Denver that yeah, if we were still in the popup in five years living in just such free a manner as we were, hell why not. Was there a life better than to amble through a beautiful forest each morning to buy a paper. Leisurely mornings next to a lake or stream.   Explore by bicycle in the afternoon and visit with the other residents of the campground.  Many memorable people and conversations.  There was also the East Coast, Canada and Alaska to visit.  There was also overseas trips to be made on the cheap.  By thanksgiving we'd already traveled to Mexico and Costa Rica for two weeks to stay with relatives.  This was after long stays in both Missouri and Arkansas.  Then after a six week stint with an odd assortment of folks, we stopped at Port Aransas and loved it.  It and the area.  Shortly thereafter we learned of the possibility of fairly good money in oil field security.  Basicly a second career was born because the last seventeen months we have been working a whole lot more than we haven't  And maybe we should have worked on some financial goals beyond that month long trip to Europe last year.

I may look back at these pictures some day with nostalgia.  With but a few breaks, the austere gate guard life has pretty much dominated our life the past couple of years.  Kind of like a career only more of a lifestyle.  Living full time in the oil patch described as somewhere in North, South or East Texas.  To be honest we have not worked in North Texas yet.  But we have been here through two summers and two winters.   Although Winters tend to me much muddier and nastier they are my preference given the brutal nature of the South Texas summer.  I used to list our locations, but now I suspect the number is approaching three digits. A whole lot of other folks are in a tailspin over the current events.  Lisa is a bit more bummed than I.  Myself, meh.  Kind of like I reminded my late old buddy who would relate ambitious plans he had in his after career career.   Did he think he was going to live forever?

Over the past couple of years after countless visits with Oil men, young, old, executive and grunt, we have a better than passing understanding of what is going on down here.  And a whole lot of innovations like horizontal drilling.  Lisa and I pretty much recognize the different vehicles and equipment and know how they are used.  What "Gel", "Mudd" and "Flowback" terms mean.  The difference between "Workovers", "Fracs" and "Rigs".  What "Wireline" and "Coil Tubing" are. We've been through some training and even recieved our H2S certification. These guys have to communicate these days in order to not collide with another well located a mile away.  Folks my age remember the old JR Ewing and Dallas television series.  That old program was based on the oil boom that went on in Texas for many years but busted out in the early eighties.  Those old rusted relics are all over texas sitting idle in fields so overgrown with weeds there is not even a semblance of a road to them anymore.  Like a whole lot of things that are built in Texas, stuff is put up but rarely taken down.  That's why there are old vacant buildings everywhere.  Unchanged from for instance a gas station from the fifties. Watch the 1971 last Picture Show to get a sense of this.  So anyway, when Oil crossed the sixty something dollar threshold, then fracking, or hydraulic fracturing, a process of extracting petroleum from rock now became economical.  And so began the hair on fire time in Texas.  Well, like JR Ewing, that period of time seems to have come to an end.  Although to us, there seems to be the same level of activity, the reality from conversations and sense of foreboding from everyone we meet, well is just a bit of a bummer. Some of these guys we have known the better part of two years. Like one guy said "it's kind of hard to pick another career out of thin air when I have so much invested here". For us anyway as the companies are rethinking how this job will be done in the future.  Sitting in a shack twelve hours a day next to an outhouse with a hundred mile round trip is not something we are up for.  And also, while we have been hearing of Frac related earthquakes in other areas, we got hit by a #3 earthquake the other day.  Lisa and I some fifty miles away did not feel a thing.

We are working a Frac right now, likely the last for awhile.  Even overnight one can expect to be writing in trucks about every half hour or so.  Peppering the drivers with questions, H2S Certification up to date?  Arrived with and in possession of all protective equipment.  A reminder of prohibited items and behavior on site followed by the instruction to sign in at the safety trailer and check with the "Company Man" , or the onsite manager.  

For the most part, with power, water and sewer dump, your RV is pretty much self sustained.  Last night in the middle of a rainstorm the Diesel generator decided to die.  Damn, forced to forgo TV and I had to light the propane refrigerator manually.   It's difficult to get a sense of how much dust really gets into your rig, all I know is it is unlikely that we will ever sell this rig or purchase one that has been used in this fashion.  That being said. I am in a little awe how trouble free our equipment has functioned, particularly when we have learned how many equipment difficulties others have experienced with stuff much newer than ours.  

One of us, usually me heads to town once or twice a week for a grocery or laundry run.  Usually meaning one of us after our 12 hour shift gets to lose sleep to get this done.

In Texas, as I have explained to Lisa while driving, there is never a shortage of trucks "Up my Ass" everywhere I go more dumbass speeding drivers here than anywhere I have seen.  Folks run fifty in School zones for chrissakes.  Seriously though, the influence of Oil production is everywhere.  Somewhat immuned to it I had an eye awakening experience watching a fifty some foot flume over some trees the other day. One also becomes accustomed to the never ending structures and facilities everywhere.  Including huge drilling rigs set near and in some towns.  At least fifteen big drillers from Karnes City to where I am sitting. 

This is a great bird watching area though.  I did manage to take a pic of these beauties.

OK they're Buzzards.  Pretty day though huh?


For the life of me, how kids are raised today, contrasted from mine, and others of my ilk.  I suspect in some ways it is better, but I don't think I would trade.  In this day and age I think, truthfully that most of our parents would be jailed or tied up in some Child Protection thang.  Truth be known, as a Tadpole, I don't think I woulda missed any of those things on a bet.  Eh Glenn? Sad.  Remember this from the day when things, well, were just a little simpler?