Craaaaaaaaaaaapppppp

 I know I have said it before, but judging that we have not been paid for the last week of work, it seems that finally the manner in which we have made our living the past few years has finally come to an end.

These last few years working in the Oil Patch have definitely created many life time memories.  Often Lisa and I have spoke while making the night time hundred mile drive through central Texas to some god forsaken nowhere location on some dirt road setting up the trailer in the middle of the night with the sounds of feral pigs and Coyotes sometimes sounding only yards away, "did we in ever in our wildest dreams believe that we would ever be doing this a few years ago in the cloistered office environment we'd grown up in?"  Best answer is no.  Will I miss it? yes and no.  The very first day not a hundred and fifty yards away I saw my first cougar in the wild.  Thereafter, used to Border Patrol showing up in force in the middle of the night pursuing illegals who'd passed by me in the middle of the night and I hadn't seen or heard a thing.  Waking up to the sounds of a government helicopter not twenty feet over our rv.  Or the time I was awakened by Lisa not to get too excited, but there was an exodus of workers from the several or so rigs we were guarding that one had been taken over by armed illegals.  Turned out to be much less but I'll always remember waking up to the mass of vehicles speeding out and helicopters heading in overhead and circling the suspect rig. My calm and cool wife confidently directing traffic. But, well there it is.

Mornings usually started around three thirty AM with large numbers of guys showing up.  You got to know them pretty well over the weeks of continuous days and nights.  No longer needing to inquire their names and just a wave as they passed by.  Lots of free lunches, Breakfasts and original Texas BBQ.

The expression on my face when I realized ten miles South of Catarina meant we were only a mile or so from the Rio Grande but more or less isolated.  

During move days Lisa and I getting more and more efficient each time. Going through the routine of discovering the new location, wrapping our place up and  hurriedly driving through the region to arrive at the new location in the time allotted us.  But then the time Lisa tearfully informed me a young man, one of our regulars was killed that morning in a traffic accident.  Nice kid about the age of ours.  That one hit a little hard.

Driving to town for groceries and the inside thermometer registering 121 degrees outside.

Or the time she told me a bulldozer started slipping our way in the mud during a downpour while I dozed away.  Darn, maybe a week later when a wheel came loose from a speeding semi coming to rest about fifty yards away from us.

  When we learned that illegals had spent the day scant yards from us in a porta potty, only figuring it out when we discovered the hole cut out in order to see outside.

The time we watched a rig burn from a distance of about five miles.  Nary a word of it on the news.  Though rumor had it there had been some deaths.  And on one occasion workers arriving conveying the news that a dead guy was just down the road.  Turns out,  he remained there awhile as the state, feds and the locals feuded over who was responsible for him.  We even were told the rumor was false until some oddball folks showed up with morbid pictures.  

Did I mention my roadrunner pet Fred?

Being presented with an official doo rag of a bunch of non english speaking guys sporting Oilfield Mafia decals on their trucks the day we left

So I was trying to find the youtube video of crazy surreal mix of the oil boom insane traffic contrasted with the incredible poverty one drove past found in some of the central towns in Texas.  Appears to be plenty of them. Just type Eagleford traffic.

And all the grand mornings, beautiful sunrises and waking my wife with the smell of fried Texas sausage and eggs and coffee.   Definately some awesome together time.

So, anyway, I don't think it likely that the EagleFord will ever be that lively "hair on fire" again.  And yeah, years from now, grand kids ask, we'll have the stories. We were there.

Fridge

I really really try to head off problems before they occur. So explains that I have been in search of a replacement two way refrigerator to replace the twenty year old antique we'd been using.  Luck would have it, I located one barely five years old and acquired it not seven days before ours took a long and elongated dump.  For some reason I didn't have the fifteen hundred bucks, (two thousand installed) for a new one.

Truth be told, I messed up on the measurements just a little bit......k a lotta bit.  Anyway, took about a week but we finally got it in....after taking the door, furnace and other misc stuff.  Seems to work.  Biggest plus, saved literally hundreds of dollars...so far.

Kinda looks Ok.... eh?

So in the meantime I guess I'll just enjoy these mix of summer and fall like days that make South Texas so enjoyable in February.   For Super Bowl the neighbor is going to provide the TV and steaks and we'll provide the fire pit for an outside party.  Found this on youtube.  Thought I'd share.  Course you'll have to turn off the overhead music to hear.